Hello, I’m Freedom I made this blog to be a place we can learn and grow together on our paths to financial independence. Our journeys may be very different but that’s also a great opportunity to to gain insights from alternative points of view and to form an encouraging community along the way.
Knowing your reason for pursuing financial independence is a core part of the journey’s foundation—a reminder and a compass to guide you when you feel like you’re losing sight of the goal.
For me, the goal has always been to create a simple, peaceful life with the freedom to choose how I spend my time. Retiring isn’t my focus—I’ve always felt an entrepreneurial drive and enjoy challenges. I love creating and helping others.
About a decade ago, I began my creative career in a corporate setting and immediately felt both the security it provided and the golden cuffs being placed on me—just tight enough. At that time, I was fortunate to work with a few people who talked openly about investing and shared concepts that were new to me: compound interest and financial independence. This was exactly what I had been unknowingly searching for. Eager to learn more, one colleague suggested I read JL Collins’ Simple Path to Wealth. That was a true pivot point—I began to see alternative pathways beyond the typical 30+ year grind, and realized that someone like me could successfully enter the stock market (without feeling like I was blindly gambling) and create a stream of passive income.
At the start of my journey, I was newly married, and we hadn’t discussed finances much since we were both earning enough to cover the basics plus a little extra. We had done pre-marital counseling, which recommended Dave Ramsey’s Baby Steps method. At first, we were both on board and decided to focus on eliminating our car payments and avoid upgrading any major lifestyles. During this time, I learned a lot about my spending habits and took extra steps to save money, like meal prepping instead of dining out, DIYing around the house, avoiding impulse buys, and picking up overtime. All the money we saved went toward paying off debt. Two years later, we were debt-free except for our mortgage, and I began focusing on maxing out my retirement accounts at work.
Fast-forward to 2020, when our sweet baby girl was born. Shortly after, I found myself starting over as a single mom. Dreams of financial independence and the life I had imagined suddenly vanished. It took two years for life to settle before I revisited what I truly wanted—precious, quality time with my daughter and the freedom to choose flexible, meaningful work. Financial independence is the tool I need to help me achieve exactly that.