In this post, you are going to learn my philosophy that has been driving my actions for 20+ years that led to me achieving ultimate freedom.
The goal?
To help you clearly identify WHY most people don't have freedom...
And what you need to do in order to achieve true lifestyle freedom.
Ready?
Great... Let's jump in because this changed everything for me!
You see, I've been striving for personal freedom like my life depended on it from day one.
Now, I don't know your starting point in life...
I don't know much about you, your background, your family, where you are from, the challenges you faced in your life...
But I know some great people who came from terrible circumstances with horrific life experiences and the entire deck stacked against them...
Who've created amazing things.
Oprah Winfrey comes to mind...
And, in this world...
If one person can rise up and climb the ladder from poverty and trauma to wealth and success with the odds stacked against them...
You can to.
The first thing to acknowledge is this:
There are systems of control at every level here designed to keep you stuck in the cycles of debt, consumerism and dependency.
Now I'm going beyond gender inequality and systemic racism here, but those absolutely play a part, too.
You see, I am completely blessed and in many senses I did very well in the genetic lottery.
I acknowledge this.
Even though I grew up working class poor… Even though my parents had to pawn their valuables to pay rent growing up...
I was born a white kid in the suburbs of the San Francisco Bay Area in the United States of America in the 1980s.
My parents raised me with love and they are still together to this day.
I say this with gratitude and to acknowledge that I was born into very good odds compared to many.
Here's the REAL point:
The system was still designed to turn me into a factory worker who gets buried under debt and consumes more than he earns...
From my public education that taught me to sit in an orderly row and show up on time (or else), to do pointless busy work until I get permission to go home...
The system was training me to be a factory worker in the world with no more factory jobs.
The lack of financial education offered from K - 12 (and even into college) is designed to turn people into debt accumulating lemmings vs. freedom seeking sovereign individuals.
It all stems from the lack of understanding about the differences between:
- Money vs. currency
- Good debt vs. bad debt
- Assets vs. liabilities...
I watched my closest family members work their entire lives for "not enough." Busting their asses 40+ hours per week and still "too much month at the end of the money."
My dad even got laid off a few years before retirement just so the corporation could save money and skimp on his pension...
I learned early that the system was stacked against me... And started working on solutions at a young age.
I got my first job at the age of 14 at a local pizza parlor.
I felt like I needed to contribute.
I bought my first get rich quick scam at the age of 12 because I thought I could make money stuffing envelopes.
I'll tell you that story later...
At one point I thought college held the key, so I racked up $50,000 in debt for a piece of paper that didn't teach me how to achieve freedom.
The key at this point:
It wasn't until my 20s that I realized working a traditional job or selling professional services where I traded dollars for hours and spent my paychecks on liabilities was the big trap.
I also realized that "Keeping up with the Jones" and always having a new car, new wardrobe, new cell phone, new watch, new laptop…
Actually made me less free than building and collecting assets.
Now, if you don't fully understand the difference between assets and liabilities, I explain everything you need to know in this quick video here.
The path to wealth is surprisingly simple as explained in that video above...
But the big picture here is about freedom not just wealth.
To me, freedom is having all three of these things:
- There is a financial component, obviously: "Financial Freedom"
- There is a time component: "Time Freedom"
- There is a location component: "Freedom of Location"
When you tie all three of these things together you unlock true freedom in your life...
If you are missing just one of those, you aren't truly free.
If I were to sum up freedom in one sentence it is:
Freedom is the ability to be where you want, when you want,
and the freedom to do what you want, every single day.
As someone who has lived in over 20 countries and spent 4+ years outside of my home country wandering the beaches of the world...
I've tasted this freedom.
But you don't have to nomad around the world to be free.
- Maybe you simply want to relocate to another part of the country...
- Possibly moving back to where you grew up to care for your elderly family members is your 'freedom'...
- Or maybe you want to escape the city and get a couple acres away from the masses...
- Or it's possible that you want to skip down to Costa Rica (or New Zealand) and live at the beach...
And what you're learning here is the path that leads you to all of these potential outcomes.
Truthfully it takes cash flow, savings + investments and the lack of debt...
So how does it work?
How do you actually achieve this 'freedom'?
The first step is to build cash flow systems that do not require your physical presence.
For me, building an online business gave me the freedom to bounce around the globe and continue increasing my cash flow.
Building a niche authority site is the #1 way I've found to do this, personally...
A website where you commit your creative energy to creating answers and solutions for a specific audience who are seeking to achieve a specific transformation in their life.
- They might want to learn how to write in calligraphy, they might want to learn how to sketch to art…
- They might want to learn how to lose weight or they might want to learn how to gain muscles at home from their personal garage gym...
- From crochet to chess and gardening to photography the niches are endless.
The key that you need to keep in mind revolves around helping your audience getting the answers and solutions they are searching for.
As Zig Ziglar so eloquently said:
"You can have anything you want in this life as long as you help enough other people get what they want"
Some try to pigeon hole this business model into affiliate marketing but it can go way beyond that...
Again, it is more about being of service to an audience at scale through website than anything....
Whether that means creating physical products for them, offering coaching, consulting, recommending affiliate products, etc.
For an example:
I go deeper into a real world example of how I would start and grow this kind of a business in a new niche today, in this video here:
The first step on his path is to find your niche.
And if you haven't found your niche yet, go here and read this post, next.
Once you've committed to a niche and an audience, you can grow a successful business that opens you to location independence and offers the funds needed to achieve financial independence.
Again, the video in the link for lines above explains this process in the fastest and most concise way possible if this idea is new to you.
The second step is to eliminate debt and the habits that increase your debt.
Think of it this way...
You are a sailboat and that island over there in the distance, is freedom.
Having personal debt is like having your anchor in the water.
It is the number one guaranteed thing that will keep you from getting to your destination of freedom.
No matter how much energy you put towards cash flow... The debt will always keep you dependent on a job, a location, and someone else's requirements on your time.
The habits that increase your debt are things like needing the newest cell phone, tablets, cars and accessories...
With no debt and without a garage/closets/storage units full of expensive STUFF, you inch yourself closer to freedom.
You start to pull the anchor out of the water and the slight breeze fills your sales beginning to drive you towards freedom.
This also puts you in a position to build up your savings which starts with an emergency fund and eventually funds your investments.
Maybe reinvesting in your niche authority site is the smart move...
Maybe investing in assets that are outside of "the system" like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Gold, etc. is the move.
We can talk about specific investing strategies later.
Right now, here's the key.
If you are weighed down with debt and don't have a surplus of cash flow, you can't save and there's none left over for investing.
But growing your niche authority site and eliminating debt, you can focus your surplus of funds on savings and investing...
This is the path that leads to freedom!
Stick with it long enough and finally you get to the point where you have full control of your time.
Your niche business is able to give you all of the cash flow that you need to live a comfortable life without debt.
Then...
Your savings and your investments offer you the freedom to ask bigger questions.
"Do I want to remain here in this city/state/country?"
"Would I enjoy life more if I was living in ______"
And then you have the Time/Location/Financial FREEDOM to try those ideas on...
Maybe you just book an AirB&B for a month and bring your digital business with you while you try on that new life.
Maybe you wrap it all up and buy a sailboat to bounce around the Caribbean.
Maybe you want to buy the family farm and take care of your family while raising livestock and growing a garden...
I don't know what your dreams are.
But here's the most important truth that I have learned on my path to building true freedom in my life.
We humans ALWAYS think the grass is always greener on the other side.
But it's not.
Everywhere has problems. (Trust me, 20 countries in 4 years proved this to be true)
Everywhere has challenges and everywhere has contrast.
But knowing deep down that I could book a ticket, lock the doors and catch a flight out of this country...
To begin a journey around the beaches of the world that could perpetuate for decades if I so wanted.
To return to that little beach town and live a simpler life if I wanted.
That's True Freedom! ...For me.
Your 'true freedom' is going to be different!
But whatever that is for you, that's what I want to help you achieve.
And the first key is to realize that everything in our society attempts to push us in the other direction.
The advertisements lead you to believe:
Get the new iPhone, the new iWatch, the Tesla (Model S P100D of course) and then you'll be happy.
Truth is, that's not how the world works.
Things don't make us happy.
Experiences and quality time with friends and family is what makes us deeply happy.
It doesn't matter who's living in "that house" in D.C.
It doesn't matter if there is a blue wave or a red wave washing over politics.
Your ability to have control over your time, your finances and your location is what truly matters!
You can create this by building systems that deliver enough value to enough people and the cash flow you need will flow in.
And then...
Having the smarts required to lift that boat anchor out of the water...
So you can leave the tumultuous tides of debt behind.
So you can exit the rat race confidently knowing your assets, savings and investments will support you...
So you can live the life you want to live, when, where and how you want to live it!
I know that it's all possible for you.
And as long as you go all in on being of service to your audience...
You help your audience solve their problems and answer their questions...
And you keep showing up to grow your audience while you help them with bigger and bigger challenges.
You'll have the cash flow needed to pay off your debts, save up and invest so you can buy back your freedom, too.
I truly hope this is helpful.
If you've got questions or feedback from me, follow me on Twitter @milesbeckler and let's chat!