Most individuals drift alongside life’s present. They work 9-5 jobs, stay inside 30 miles of the place they grew up, and don’t change careers usually, if ever. 

There’s nothing inherently incorrect with any of that—if you happen to’ve thought-about all of your choices and then deliberately selected that way of life. The issue, in fact, is that most individuals dwelling that way of life simply fell into it. 

I like the notion of way of life design, however it suffers from a foul “model” picture. Individuals both discover it pretentious or they don’t perceive what it means. However it merely means selecting each side of your life proactively and deliberately. 

So let’s scrap that time period for in the present day and as a substitute dig into 4 varieties of freedom that almost all of us need and learn how to obtain them. 

1. Monetary Freedom

This is the large one. It’s so large, the truth is, that we now have to deal with it first, though it actually belongs final. 

There are just a few methods to consider monetary freedom. You possibly can consider it synonymously with monetary independence (FI): the flexibility to cowl your dwelling bills with passive earnings from investments. Everybody on Earth shares this objective—it’s how we fund our lives in retirement, in spite of everything. 

However that’s too large of a objective for many of us to wrap our heads round in our day-to-day lives, which is why so few folks pursue FI at a younger age. It takes a excessive financial savings charge for the common particular person to realize inside a decade or two. 

Contemplate one other, shorter-term approach to consider monetary freedom: the flexibility to cowl your dwelling bills free from monetary stress. That goes past clocking right into a 9-5 and dwelling on a price range. 

It means having a number of streams of earnings that you simply management. For me, that features my enterprise, SparkRental, and passive actual property investments that generate earnings. Our funding membership will get collectively each month and goes in collectively on new passive actual property investments. That lets us every make investments small quantities in lots of initiatives for various passive earnings streams.

Quick-term monetary freedom additionally means with the ability to change jobs or careers at any time. It means not dwelling paycheck to paycheck. And ideally, it means with the ability to take full benefit of the opposite three varieties of freedom.

2. Location Freedom

When you may earn cash remotely, you may stay wherever on this planet. I ought to know—I’ve been doing it since 2008 and have lived on 4 continents. I at present spend many of the yr in Lima, Peru. 

When you may earn cash from wherever on this planet, it frees you as much as journey, in fact. However it additionally frees you to deliberately select your ideally suited residence metropolis. 

Maybe you’d select to stay in one other state or nation the place every greenback stretches additional. I stay a cushty, even luxurious way of life on a modest price range (below $50,000/yr) in South America. 

Maybe you’d ditch the excessive taxes in your present state in favor of a lower-cost state. Or skip most earnings taxes altogether by transferring abroad and profiting from the foreign-earned earnings exclusion. Or you would transfer to stay nearer to family members. 

The purpose: You make an intentional selection the place you need to stay out of all 200 international locations on this planet. 

3. Time Freedom

Whoever mentioned that 9-5 was the best work schedule? Possibly you’d somewhat work 7-3 or 11-7 or work just a few hours earlier than your children get up after which one other few hours after they’re napping or have gone to mattress.

For that matter, possibly you’d somewhat work 55 hours one week and 25 the subsequent. 

Or think about taking a “pink month,” the place you cross by way of that web page within the calendar with a large pink marker and say, “I’m not obtainable this month; schedule all my requires the next month.” 

I took a pink month in December 2022, touring round Patagonia with my spouse and daughter. We hiked round Fitz Roy in El Chaltén, noticed the Perito Moreno glacier in El Calafate, tasted wines in Mendoza, and ate at wonderful steakhouses in Buenos Aires. 

Time freedom entails with the ability to earn cash by yourself schedule. That would imply proudly owning your individual enterprise, or it might imply doing freelance or different self-employed work. Or it might simply as simply be negotiated with an employer. 

4. Work Freedom

If cash didn’t matter, what sort of work would you do? In different phrases, what’s your ideally suited work? 

Certain, for some, that may imply taking a $40,000 pay reduce. However for others, it’d solely imply taking a $5,000 to $10,000 pay reduce. You can bridge that hole by way of higher budgeting, taking over a enjoyable facet gig, or including some passive earnings from investments. Extra possible, it might be a mix of two and even all three of these methods. 

Too many individuals within the FIRE motion slave away making an attempt to succeed in full monetary independence, dreaming of a life on the seashore. However right here’s the truth: Everybody who retires younger goes again to work. There’s solely so lengthy you may sit on a seashore sipping daiquiris. 

Sure, everybody goes again to work—however they achieve this on their personal phrases. That’s nice information for you, as a result of it means you may skip all these years of slaving and scrimping, and you may simply make the profession shift now. 

After interviewing dozens of people that reached monetary independence, I’ve seen a sample. Sure, they return to work, however they incorporate all 4 of those freedoms. 

Combining the 4 Freedoms for Your Dream Life

I don’t take into account myself financially impartial. I couldn’t afford to sit down on a seashore for the remainder of my life doing nothing in any respect. And that doesn’t matter one bit as a result of I’m dwelling the very same way of life that I’d be dwelling if I have been already FI. 

I do work I like, on my personal schedule, from wherever on this planet, and I don’t fear about payments or my subsequent paycheck. I’ve all 4 freedoms, which implies I’ve full management over my life. 

Begin with brainstorming your ideally suited work. Then begin researching how you would begin doing that work, with time and placement freedom. Solely after writing out this ideally suited way of life must you permit your self to have a look at the monetary facet of the equation. How a lot might you earn? Is that sufficient to cowl minimal dwelling bills in your dream metropolis, state, and nation? 

If not, begin concepts to complement your earnings. Analysis enjoyable facet hustles that permit location and time freedom. Make investments for passive earnings streams. We purpose for prime returns on passive actual property investments in our Co-Investing Membership, usually 15% or increased. And we go in on them collectively, so every member can make investments small quantities. I personal fractional shares in dozens of properties throughout the nation. 

There’s no proper or incorrect ideally suited way of life—it’s distinctive to you. However likelihood is, it entails all 4 freedoms, and a wholesome dose of passive earnings from investments.

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Word By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the writer and don’t essentially signify the opinions of BiggerPockets.