What is financial freedom?

Financial Freedom… What is it? How can it be defined? Defining financial freedom can depend on who you are asking. Some people claim financial freedom is not having to work for money. While others will say financial freedom is a mindset. When thinking of freedom, my mind first considers captivity. It’s challenging to feel “free” of something if you were never truly bound by it. 

What does it mean to be financially free?

If you find yourself asking this question, you may find yourself in one of several situations.

Are you drowning in debt trying to find a way out? Did you just finished paying off all your debt & find yourself wondering what is next? Maybe you’re here because money brings you anxiety & you are ready for something else.

Regardless of where you are right now, you are ready to move forward. American culture has embedded some deep roots of greed, power, overindulgence, & frivolousness. Most Americans wake up with tens of thousands of dollars of debt that seems to be growing faster than they can pay it off. With student loans, credit cards, & car loans getting more and more popular, it is becoming more difficult than ever to find financial freedom. 

Bringing Debt into Your Marriage

Being crippled by debt can feel victimizing. When my husband & I were at the bottom of the pit in our journey to paying off debt, it felt impossible to get out of. There were a couple of weeks where all I did was pout and whine. Technically, he brought all the debt into our marriage. We had to work diligently in premarital counseling. Most of the work was on my side. I had to accept it was no longer “his debt” but after we said “I do” it was “our debt.” I struggled with that so much.

Being raised in a home that refused to be lured into debt was my reality. Though that was a choice my family consciously made, it was also a privilege to have such choice. Not everyone is afforded the privilege of growing up in a home where debt is not an option. Throughout this entire process I was humbled. Early in my marriage I began to realize that this was our problem to tackle together. I discovered the invitation to blaze a new paradigm for our new little family we had just created.

If this is you and you are struggling to accept a debt your partner has brought into your marriage, I want you to know that I see you. I understand that feeling well. Although that feeling did not serve me for very long. What I was experiencing a victim mentality. I had thoughts like…

I cannot believe this is happening to me. It’s all his fault for getting us here. Nobody understands what I am going through. I am totally out of control in this situation.

Victim Mindset vs. Warrior Mindset

When if comes to finances, what is your perspective?

On the outside, I was overjoyed to finally be married. I had waited my entire life for a love like this. In my heart, I was being suffocated by my own thoughts and feelings. I was walking around with what felt like “poor me” sign on my forehead. 

My thoughts were not moving us forward towards our goals but rather moving us backwards. Lots of resentment was building up & we argued constantly for weeks. It wasn’t until I decided to take responsibility that true breakthrough occurred. At that moment everything changed for us. Technically I did not bring the debt into our marriage. However, I had just pledged myself to this man for the entirety of our lives. We were no longer separate. We had become a team. I took responsibility for my victim mindset, my triggers, my disappointments, my expectations, and my reality. Everything began to change. We began to move forward. 

There is a way out of your financial situation. You will prevail. You are responsible. 

Once you have begun with responsibility and full awareness of yourself begin to ask yourself:

How do I get unstuck financially? 

What should I be moving towards financially? 

How do I get out of this financial situation?

What is financial bondage? How did I get here? 

What am I willing to give up in order to get out of this situation?

Moving towards Financial Freedom

Uncover what you believe about financial freedom.

There are many people who relatively do not have a lot of money who would consider themselves “financially free.” Start digging to uncover what you truly believe about financial freedom. Do you have some significant limiting beliefs surrounding money? Learning to take our thoughts back to their origin can be helpful way to move us forward. Shoving down our difficult feelings of money will only stall us. Think about how money was handled in your home growing up & in your spouses childhood home. Does money represent uncomfortable memories for you? Give yourself space to ask yourself these questions.

Financial freedom is being able to hold money loosely – accepting when it comes & allowing it to go. Scripture speaks of money as not being evil in itself but rather the love of money being evil. Imagine your life where you are free to accept, use, or lose your money. Imagine feeling peace as money comes in & out of your life. Can you imagine having peace when emergencies come & you have what you need to handle it? Imagine blessing someone else with your money. Could that bring you more joy than having the money for yourself?

Money as an Exchange

Think about all the other mediums that were exchanged long ago before the construct of money came to be. It even seems like our currency today is changing quite rapidly. If money is just an exchange, then it can tell us a lot about the way we move about in the world. Do you tend to hold people or things loosely in your life or do you clutch on tight to them? Depending on your answer, consider how that might be related to the way you handle money.

What if you saw your money as a tool to get you to where you want to go rather than seeing it as your livelihood?

How much money is financially stable?

Financial freedom begins when you are no longer indebted to anyone or anything.

Do you have a specific number in mind? If I could just have X amount in my bank account, then I would feel peace. Unfortunately, financial freedom is not a set net worth or number. I believe financial freedom is more about your thought patterns & habits around money. Financial Freedom is less about how much you actually have. It is about being able to stay open when money is abundant or when it’s scarce. 

Working towards financial freedom can look like setting a specific monetary goal. For us, it was paying off $50,000 of student loan debt. Subsequently, we worked towards having 3-6 months worth of expenses in our savings account. Now we are working towards building up our savings & utilizing our budget to be able to travel more! When we first began our financial freedom journey, we were working towards specific numbers. Now we are moving towards how we want to feel in our bodies when we deal with money or talk about money. I want to feel peace when we have an abundance and peace when we have only a little. We wrestled with a scarcity mindset regarding money. I believe that financial freedom is being able to live with an abundance mindset no matter what your bottom line says. 

Your True Worth

Where you have assigned your true value?

Financial freedom is the ability to detach your worth from your money & use it as a tool rather than a measure of your worth. Evidently, when we die we cannot take anything of this world with us. The things of this world will all pass away. Living with more freedom could allow us more space to consider the more eternal things that surround us… like love.

The people I admire the most use their money to bless & honor others. I once believed we had to be out of debt to bless other people. Later I discovered that blessing others can bring joy and fulfillment no matter what your bank account says.

Learning to be generous is a matter of the heart. Don’t wait until you have a certain amount of money or are in a specific financial status to bless someone else. Bless someone now & see how you’ll be blessed in return.

How can you tell if you are financially free?

• Evaluate all your debts & create a plan to settle them. Paying off debt happens one step at a time. 
• Work to create actionable steps to achieve your financial goals. Small victories compound into massive victories over time!
• Reflect on your true feelings about money. Does it define your worth? Are your beliefs surrounding money moving you forward or backwards?
• Be clear about the goals/dreams you are moving towards. It can be more clear to move towards what we want rather than move away from what we do not want.
• Surrender the idea that your money is your own. Everything you have been given has been given to you by God. Money (along with all other material things on earth) is for us to steward. You cannot take money with you after you pass from this earth. Use this time you’ve been given to steward it well. Pray & ask God what it would look like for you specifically to steward the money you’ve been given well.

Photography by Sarah Lawrence Photography