the true road to freedom

It seems that every week or so, there is a new best selling book about freedom, wealth, and prosperity. Everybody wants to sell you their "secret" road to happiness and success. I'm actually no different, except that I'm going to sum it up in a quick blog post, and give it away for free.

Now you can spend your time trying to figure out how to make more money, and you can follow the advice of all of these get rich quick guys (whose real way of getting rich quick is telling others how to do it - at a cost). But the way that I see it, the best way to go about achieving financial independence (an therefore freedom) is to rid ourselves of our dependence on money. At least as much as possible.

Sure, there are certain things that we just can't seem to live without - food and shelter, for example. And then there are things like medical and life insurance, which are arguably necessary. (After all, if millions of people can live without them, are they truly necessary?) But how do we go about doing this?

The fist thing I would do is to get rid of your television. It's the quickest way that you can start to sever your ties with material obsessions. Radio can go, too. Next, put some money away, quit your big city job and move someplace with a low cost of living. Read some books and figure out how to build yourself a small home - something tiny and efficient, but perfect for your lifestyle. If you can figure out how to be off the grid, you can rid yourself of utility bills, too. Make sure that your new home is in an area where the climate isn't too extreme, so that you can grow your own vegetables. Or...spend some extra cash and build a decent sized greenhouse. When you do go to the grocery store, pick up the generic stuff. Tens years ago, it tasted bad, but most of it is just as good as the name brand stuff today. (In fact, I suspect that much of it is made in the same factories and simply shipped to different plants for packaging.)

Also, try and position yourself within walking distance to most of the places that you visit frequently - the grocery stores, the library, the post office, bank, etc. This way, you can rid yourself of much of your gas and automobile maintenance costs. If you can make most of these changes in your life, you'll be able to survive comfortably by only working a part time job. That's about as financially free as anyone can get in my book.