Preparations for the Future: Starting My Journey to Financial Freedom

Whether you subscribe to it or not, the fact still remains... money makes the world go round. This is why most that belong to the middle class work diligently. The ultimate objective should be financial freedom. No, not should but that "MUST" be our the ultimate goal right. Unfortunately, not everyone (at first that is) seems to realize that this should be their goal in a financial standpoint. When they do realize it, regret is one of the initial emotions that comes up, but on the brighter side of it, it is never too late. This is what I want to impart with you on this little personal development blog post about starting my journey to financial freedom.

I made this post this 6th of July, 2012 and plans to make this blog post as a starting point in my journey to financial freedom. Basing on its two keyword "finance" and "freedom", financial freedom is not entirely about being wealthy (although it is under it), but more on being able to enjoy life without being affected with financial complications and uncertainties that may rise in the future. So how do we become "financially free"? Well, I am no expert, I did say that I was just starting. The best way to learn about it is with research, that's what I did and that is why we have books and the internet, right? At the age of 26, I regret some financial decisions I did in my life. If only I saved my money before. If only I invest it on interest-yielding financial mechanisms. If only I did or didn't do this. In the end, rather than sulking up on the mistakes of the past, we should move forward. What truly matter is that we learned from these mistakes, that in some weird way that it helped us get to this point of realization. Although it is good to reward yourself every once in a while, we should never loose track of the future, of the goal to be financially free. A luxurious and spendthrift lifestyle only belongs to those who can afford wasting their own or their family's wealth. Well we can even say that they are having this sort of lifestyle because they have reach that point of financial freedom. So while we haven't reach the point of financial freedom nor have resources to waste we should learn to change. One shouldn't live beyond his means but under it, and find other ways to increase his income.

What I leaned from researching is to SAVE MONEY. That is my biggest mistake in life. It always come to my mind, but never actually acted on it. But now, there is no time to waste. If I want to get started with the new knowledge I gained, I need to take up action.

Here are some great tips:

• Save Money. The bank is a good place to start.
• Pay up and be free from your debts. Completely avoid credit cards
  Have a separate emergency savings. A 3-6 months worth of emergency funds is essential to serve as a cushion to protect you from various unfortunate financial situations like losing a job or medical concerns.
• Set money for investments. This is the money generating machinery that would help you gain financial freedom. This is worth researching for.

This past few days, I have talked with colleagues in my new career about finance and the future. The new career I have isn't that rewarding and I need to maximize my income stream and total earnings. This is why I have been researching about the stock market.


Here is a good informative animation about how stock works I stumbled on my research:



I now plan to invest on stocks. A year ago, I did plan to start with time deposits and buying bonds through banks, but I wasn't that serious to actually act on it. I am thankful for maturity finally catching up on me. If I want to give my future self and family a good life, then I have to change and compromise some things in life.

Ask yourself this, what are you willing to do to achieve the things you want in life?

A Look Back at My Freelance Writing Career Online of Three Years

For almost three years I have provided my expertise in writing articles and maintaining the company's forums. My freelance writing career is the reason why I haven't been active in blogging this past few years, and I have no regrets in doing so. Here is a look back in that three years as a writer for their online company.



I've tried out one freelance work after I finished my Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science (teaching English to Korean Kids) when my friend offered a freelance writing career for me. He was already earning money through it so I immediately accepted it. I found myself already making money in my first week. Don't expect this to be like a testimonial for some suspicious money making scheme online though. There won't be any links going to my company's website because I already lost that job, so why bother? duh! hahaha. Going back to the topic, all I need to do was maintain a forum ("creating and engaging forum discussions") and do some short summaries/reviews of existing articles. It was my early introduction to SEO which I later find out to help with my blogs. Each job done yields a dollar or two but put them all together and all for one week and we already have our salary. It was what most would dream of, a job where you can do right in the comforts of your own home on your own phase/time. Well, it doesn't come with its cons though, since we are being outsourced to write we don't have any employee's benefits like salary bonuses, and security and health benefits. It didn't stopped us from enjoying the good life. Thanks to this opportunity I was able to provide for my family, buy some personal stuff like original xbox 360 titles which usually cost at around $40-$50, and attend local blogging events which you might have seen in this blog in the past. It was all great, the best working opportunity that introduced itself to me.

It was a dream job for a happy go lucky person like me, but as they say all good things must come to an end. We (three friends who worked as writers for the company) have been talking about this impending employment uncertainty for quite some time now. We knew that one day, we might no longer be needed and guess what it did came! Talk about law of attraction. Unfortunately it came four weeks ago as we three (me, a friend who introduced us to the work, and another friend who already has his own family) were shocked when we received the news that our services were no longer needed. Let me jus say hat in that three years I only got to save nothing haha, which taught me a good lesson to never be too confident of what you have right now and that there is a need to save for the future. Now it starts once again, but now more wiser.