The Inherent Dreams – and Possibilities – Fueling Financial Freedom

Critical thinking means differentiating between the absurd and the not-absurd. It’s what gives you understanding on how you work, how the world works, and how you best work within that world. Sometimes, you need to think critically in order to pinpoint what it is you’re supposed to be doing here. Some people call that “knowing your calling”. For me, my callings are inherently tied with financial freedom.

Yes, plural. I have two callings, pretty much the two overarching goals and reasons for my existence: to tell stories, and to help humanity.

That’s the bare-bones summary of them, at least. Critical thought over these two callings made them much more specific and measurable; in fact, offering me a blueprint to actually achieving both within my lifetime. We Want Guac is a fantastic way to tie these two together, using my story of personal finance to help others to financial freedom.

But financial freedom isn’t the be-all, end-all. All that is is a means to an end. And that end contains an infinite number of potential options. It has to, because the people pursuing that end contain an infinite number of dreams and callings.

What is Financial Freedom?

Personal finance – and financial freedom – is subjective. I’d get a “duh, Darcy” if I describe the concept as “having enough finances to earn your workplace freedom”. That’s only describing the means, not the end. A better one-size-fits-all (or fits-at-least-most-Americans) definition is this: financial freedom is granting you the means to effectively fulfill your dreams.

Those dreams are your calling. Both of my callings deal with financial freedom: telling stories is my means of attaining financial freedom, while helping humanity is what I do once I have it. In fact, that’s what pushed me into my current marketing career. As a marketer I’m basically telling the stories of the companies I work for, helping further both them and myself.

With a net worth of $100,000 at 25 years old, the investment math is wholeheartedly in my favor. Without contributing another penny, I’d get my financial freedom in my old age without having another care in the world. But the skills I’ve picked up can get me there even sooner.

As in, thirty years sooner.

If I continue my current savings rate, I’ll become a millionaire in my thirties. I can then pursue these dreams full-throttle without thinking about things like, where my next meal is coming from. If I’ll have a safe place to sleep for the night. How I’m going to afford basic necessities. With financial freedom, I already know where all of this will come from: my pantry full of good food, in my dream home in the mountains, paid for with the money I’ve saved and invested instead of spending years ago.

Financial Freedom Offers Me My Dreams

The blog helps scratch the itch of pursuing my dreams, but it’s not enough. I need more time, and I only have so long to live. The clock is ticking.

The clock is ticking on several other things too, like the issues I’m intent on helping eradicate. Environmental degradation, wealth inequality, and eroding public education initiatives are challenges that we know loom over us, but probably can’t dedicate time, energy, or resources to. We’re too busy just trying to keep up. We don’t have the means to focus exclusively on these matters.

But those with financial freedom can.

I see so much that I want to do to alleviate these problems. I want to instigate sweeping reforms to educational policies at the primary and secondary levels; where children are better prepared to enter adulthood with effective discipline, problem-solving, and financial skill, regardless of how much money their family might have. In at least my local community, I want to make sweeping reforms to energy and water consumption; getting solar panels on 30% of the houses around here would be a good start.

Without needing to work for my own comfort and survival, I can then work for the fulfillment of my dreams, my callings. And funny enough, this is the first time in history I could do it in this way.

Finally, Financial Freedom is Possible

Besides international relations, I’m also a student of history. No degree, but I did get my minor in it. At no other point in history have I ever seen so much access to wealth. The wealth gap is ever-gaping, yes, but at least it’s no longer impossible to be upwardly mobile. The upper echelons of influence and effect are now open to people who weren’t born with blue blood or silver spoons. Best of all, they’re actively recruiting.

I live in the United States, and in this country we live or die by wealth. This encompasses the extremes of both gluttonous billions and soul-shattering poverty. The idea of social safety nets is a very recent one in human history, and one that’s constantly under attack. Yet the existence of these safety nets is thanks to the financial freedom of a government who can dedicate resources to them. This saves lives, and thus saves dreams. Financial freedom on a mass scale makes it possible for those in the lowest classes of society to reach at least some part of that path for themselves.

The Impact

My heart sings when I see so many people on the path to financial freedom. Even an arguably small amount of money makes a massive difference in achieving your goals and dreams. I see people from every walk of life attacking this challenge and winning. People of color, people with disabilities, and people of all genders and sexualities put their names up in shining lights online, with instructions for how to follow in their footsteps. Some are still on the path, yet illuminate their way anyways for those that are still behind them. Financial freedom is not just a path to your dreams, but, in a way, to historic reclamation of the pursuit of happiness.

It doesn’t matter how big or small your dreams are, whether you’re intent on a quiet life or aiming for the (literal) stars. Financial freedom is an expanding class of people who can make eye contact with destiny and then write their own fates. It’s shrugging off the vestiges of long-dead oppressors, whose descendants still cry for stricter inequality, to clothe yourself instead in cloaks that keep you warm on the coldest nights. This type of freedom means unlocking human potential, no longer bound to scraping for its next meal in the mealy fields. If you’re guaranteed a life of enough food, safe housing, and joyful experiences, the world is suddenly yours.

That’s got a beautiful ring to it. The world is yours, thanks to financial freedom.