Financial independence isn't about having enough money to spend freely. It's about controlling your money instead of letting it control you. That starts with cash control: knowing exactly how much you have and deliberately allocating it toward your goals, even on a modest salary.
I feel like the dream outcome is to have something you call cash confidence. What is cash confidence to you?
I think most people are pursuing financial freedom, and I think that's a great aspiration, but I think there's a step before it. So financial freedom is where I don't worry about money. I decide, you know, I want to go to the Caribbean. It's getting a little cold here in the winter. Let me hop on a jet, maybe my own jet, and go to the Caribbean and not have to worry about a single dime. That's what financial freedom is. I can do what I want at the whim of. Of a thought, and I don't have to worry about the cost. That's a great aspiration. I think there's a step before that. I call it financial independence. Financial independence is where I'm not beholden to my money, that I have control over it. It doesn't have control over me. And I know we can achieve financial independence at any level of income. What you need to do is have cash control. What cash control is, is an awareness of what money is available for what purpose. I believe even at $50,000 a year, you can go to the Caribbean on a private jet if you're willing to wait about 200,000 years. But we can start allocating, you know, a dollar a week or whatever it is to ultimately get there, and at least you'll have an understanding that you can't do it now. But if you keep saving, keep saving, maybe you can do it in a long period of time. And maybe you say, that's such a long wait, 200,000 years, it's not worth it. But that is cash control, because now you see what money is available for what purpose, and you can make controlling decisions around that.
