So what is the true meaning of financial freedom? If you want to achieve it, you must know and understand it first. This is to assure that you are heading to a real financial independence that can make you truly happy in life, and not to a false freedom that will put you into another trap. Most people think that being financially free is having more than enough money to cover a person’s living costs and expenses without having to work actively. Most young people also claim that financial independence is the ability to earn sufficient funds without the need for financial aids coming from their parents. Aren’t these the real definitions of financial liberty? Let’s discuss further…
It coexists with personal freedom
Financial freedom is not all about our finances, but also about our personalities towards our finances. It includes our principles, values, attitudes and habits towards money and finance. Even though a person has wealth abundance, if that is earned while destroying his honesty, integrity and honor, that person is still a slave of money, and therefore is still under financial slavery. Real financial freedom is having the ability to make good and righteous decisions regardless of whether he will earn or lose money. Thus, if you cannot choose the true decisions that you really want because you’re worrying about your money, then you are still a financial slave. Financial freedom is not about the ability to buy everything, but it is more on the ability to resist and control certain things.
It doesn’t mean you need to be rich
Financial independence doesn’t necessarily mean you have a lot of money, but it simply means you have enough income to cover your expenses. So even if you earn a million dollar a month, if your expenses amount to a million and one dollar per month, you will still be trapped in financial woes. On the other hand, if you only earn a hundred dollar a month, but only spend ninety dollar per month, you can be considered to have achieved your financial freedom. If we can go deeper, we will realize that it’s not even about passive income or expenses. Financial freedom is truly about the hard work, patience, diligence and other qualities you have earned while maximizing your income. Moreover, it’s also about the self-control, humility, honesty and other great virtues you have produced while minimizing your expenses.
It doesn’t mean you owe nothing
Some people say that financial independence is the state of having no debts or no loans payable at all. Well, that’s not true. Financial independence doesn’t matter if you have creditors or not. What matters is you liquidity and solvency, which are your abilities to pay in the short-term and long-term maturing financial obligations. Thus, even though you are a borrower who incurred debts, as long as your creditors cannot dictate you because you can pay them on time or upon their due demands… you can still enjoy and celebrate a life with financial freedom.
It does not all about freedom at all
Well, if you’re thinking that financial freedom is all about being free from everything, then you are wrong. There is no such thing as absolute freedom. Furthermore, not all freedom will make us happy, and not all of them will make us miserable. We must always remember that to be free from a particular thing is to be a slave of another thing. Thus, if anyone wants to achieve the real financial freedom and abundance of wealth, he should escape from greed, abuse, pride, envy, deceit and indolence. He can escape those things by becoming a disciple of discipline and a slave of diligence, humility, honesty and patience. Don’t attempt to be free from everything… you won’t like the feeling of being a slave of nothingness – it’s lonely and dark out there.
Victorino Q. Abrugar is a marketing strategist and business consultant from Tacloban City, Philippines. Vic has been in the online marketing industry for more than 7 years, practicing problogging, web development, content marketing, SEO, social media marketing, and consulting.
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Your post reminds me of an article I came across few days ago.It also talks about financial management. You made a very good point here, hopefully your readers (including me, well I do), will internalized the true meaning of financial freedom. Well, for me it is indeed a challenge to balance my expenses and I love reading and discussing about proper saving. True! money is really tempting, it can make or break you, that is why it is important to have that certain control within you.