The Financial Freedom Project

Master Your Money. Expand Your Horizons. Pursue Your Dreams. Those words serve as both the tagline of this site and the epitome of financial freedom.

That term invariably means different things to different people. Some simply desire more breathing room in their monthly budget. Others long to become debt-free. Yet others won’t be satisfied until they no longer need to trade their time for money at a job they despise.

But no matter what your personal definition of financial freedom, the path leading to it remains the same. Are you ready to take the next leg further up and further in?

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The hotel breakfast room was quiet and empty at this early hour. The only sound was the local early-bird news playing on a lone TV in the corner.

Bleary-eyed from a long day spent hiking Wyoming’s Devil’s Tower the day before, Mrs. FFP and I silently shuffled along the buffet and filled our plates with continental fare.

As we later packed our bags and loaded up the car for the 5th time in as many days, the first rays of the sun were just peeking over the horizon. And while the first birds started to chirp cheerfully, my wife was noticeably quiet.

I could tell she was nervous. Over the next two days, our itinerary involved traversing two different mountain ranges – and she had a serious fear of heights. Continue Reading

This is the fifth and final installment of a series on compound interest and the impact it can have to both speed and sabotage your journey to financial freedom.

In part four of this series, we reviewed how the power of compound interest creates a hidden, deadly cost of debt in the form of opportunity cost, which can effectively double the interest you pay on your credit card and easily triple the original cost of a mortgage. Continue Reading

This is the fourth installment of a 5-part series examining the massive impact compound interest can have on your journey to financial freedom.

Previously in the series we introduced the phenomenon of compound interest, explored how it can serve as a rocket to riches capable of powering us through the millionaire barrier, and discovered how it can serve as the best double agent the world has ever seen.

By now you should be familiar with how to calculate the total amount of interest incurred over the life of a loan when you purchase something on credit, whether that be in the form of a credit card, auto loan, student loan, or a mortgage. Continue Reading

This is the third installment of a 5-part series examining the massive impact compound interest can have on your journey to financial freedom.

In part two of this series we reviewed how the power of compounding accelerates over time and can serve as your rocket to riches, making it possible to break the sound millionaire barrier by simply saving and investing $46.00/week over a period of 50 years.

In today’s article we’ll be detailing how compound interest can actually work AGAINST you by going undercover and acting as a double agent to thwart your financial goals.

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You may view the concept of compound interest as simply a boring financial term that you (fortunately) only have to deal with a few times in your life, such as while applying for a credit card or slogging through mortgage origination paperwork.

But if you’re reading this article, it’s probably safe to assume that you’re interested in either ending the stranglehold your finances have you in, increasing your bottom line, or becoming independent of a paycheck. Maybe even all three.

If that’s the case, we need to revisit this concept of compound interest. It is one of the most powerful forces in the universe, and it has the potential to change your life. Continue Reading

In the last article, we took a look at the surprising fact that an annual income of just $32,400 ($15.58/hour on a full-time basis) is all it takes to rank within the world’s top 1% of earners.

We also learned that nearly half of all Americans already meet this criteria and that the average adult is only $1,301/year ($.63/hour at 40 hours/wk, for those counting) from doing the same. Lastly, we reviewed some troublesome statistics regarding the money situation of everyday Americans:

1. Up to 78% report living paycheck-to-paycheck
2. As many as 72% identify as being stressed by money
3. 57% have less than $1,000 in savings
4. 39% have no savings at all

The obvious question remains: why this stark discrepancy between high average income and extremely low levels of personal prosperity? Continue Reading