The Freedom Fighter

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Who am I writing for?

Over the course of the last six months I have spent countless hours trying to figure out exactly who it is that I’m writing for. It has taken about 40 posts, 50K words, 120 hours, and reading over 100+ personal finance blogs in order to finally answer this burning question.

[Update: This was written at the six month mark of GYFG. As of 05/2018, I’m up to 266 posts, 486,573 words, and 1,000+ hours. Most importantly, I am still learning, both about the GYFG readers, the world of personal finance, and about myself. I’m honored to be a part of the journey of each and every one of the GYFG readers.]

At the end of the day, I’ve concluded that this little space I’ve carved out on the web is really a lifestyle design blog wearing a personal finance disguise. And no, I don’t mean “lifestyle design” as in a particular “in” shoe brand to wear, type of car you should drive, or couch brand you should buy. I mean lifestyle design as in a life lived by design – YOUR DESIGN. Without addressing the topic of money, the concept of designing your life is just wishful thinking and advertising porn.

Most of all it is giving up the design of your life to people who want to sell you stuff, basically, and tell you what version of yourself is possible. How pathetic is that! Personal finance has to be harnessed, because it is the vehicle that you will drive to give you the power to design and set up the lifestyle you desire to live, and write the story of your life as you want it to read. Your story.

I started this blog because I believed and continue to believe that I can add a unique perspective and approach to the personal finance space. I believe that I have a point of view that goes against the conventional wisdom and many of the long-held beliefs of society in general, and even the personal finance blogosphere in specific.

I write for the Freedom Fighter!

Are you a Freedom Fighter?

You might be a Freedom Fighter if…

You consider yourself to be a rebel.

You’re someone who wants to ditch the conventional path.

You’re contrarian by nature.

You might be a Freedom Fighter if…

In the deepest depths of your soul you know there is a better way to live your life than what you’ve been told your entire life.

You desire to break away from Corporate America and its golden handcuffs.

You’re interested in early retirement.

You might be a Freedom Fighter if…

You are willing to live a few years like most won’t in order to live the rest of your life like most can’t.

You have no interest working a job you hate for 40-50 years.

You desire complete autonomy over your time and thus your life.

You might be a Freedom Fighter if…

You would rather build your dream than build someone else’s.

You don’t want to work towards retirement – you want to work towards what you’re passionate about.

You’re ready to choose yourself.

You might be a Freedom Fighter if…

You realize that time is the most valuable currency there is.

You might be a Freedom Fighter if…

You desire time freedom.

You desire location freedom.

You desire financial freedom.

You’re definitely a Freedom Fighter if you are willing to make it your job to live life by design.

If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.” – Jim Rohn

On this blog I am the CFO.

Let it be known that I don’t take my position lightly. As the Chief Freedom Officer I believe I have a duty to my fellow Freedom Fighters. In true Freedom Fighter fashion, I choose myself to lead a tribe of like-minded passionate individuals. We talk a lot about money…but it’s not about the money. It’s not about building the biggest bank account or the largest investment portfolio. Money is just the tool we use to claim our freedom.

Psst: it’s not about the money. It’s about the freedom.

It’s about building a Freedom Fund that’s big enough… 

To live well.

To give well.

To have absolute time freedom  full autonomy over your life.

To be location independent. This is location freedom.

To achieve the status of Financial Freedom. This will be different for everyone, but it’s the number that allows you to have all the options you desire.

And most importantly, it’s about building a big enough Freedom Fund to live life by design.

I’m a Freedom Fighter, standing proud. Are you? What does freedom look like for you? Did I miss anything on your own list of Freedom Fighter characteristics? I would love to hear from other Freedom Fighters in the comments below.

Onward and Upward!

– Gen Y Finance Guy (Your Chief Freedom Officer)


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Gen Y Finance Guy

Hey, I’m Dom - the man behind the cartoon. You’ll notice that I sign off as "Gen Y Finance Guy" on all my posts, due to the fact that I write this blog anonymously (at least for now). I like to think of myself as the Chief Freedom Officer here of my little corner of the internet. In the real world, I’m a former 30-something C-Suite executive turned entrepreneur turned capital allocator. I am trying to humanize finance by sharing my own journey to Financial Freedom. I believe in total honesty and transparency. That is why before I ever started blogging, I decided that I would share all of my own financial stats. I do this not to brag, but instead to inspire motivate, and also to hold myself accountable. My goal is to be a beacon of hope, motivation, and inspiration, for you, the reader, by living life by example and sharing it all here on the blog. My sincere hope is that you will be able to learn from me - both from my successes and my failures! Read More

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32 Responses

  1. GYFG,

    There are certainly a lot of different paths to get to financial freedom and none of them are wrong. I personally like the model where you get on the Autobahn and haul ass for as long as possible.

    Scenic country roads are awesome, but I am going to avoid those until I am both financially independent and location independent. At that point I not only will travel on these slow peaceful roads, but I will stop at every Ice House and have a few cold ones along the way.

    I guess I see my journey similar to Andy Dufresne from the Shawshank redemption. I work on my escape tunnel a few handfuls of dirt a day for many years (great Slight Edge analogy) and then eventually I will reach freedom. Everyone in the prison could have done the same thing, but none did. It is amazing how everyone has the same opportunities, but few see them or take advantage of them.

    Keep up the inspiration!

    MDP

    1. Thanks MDP!

      It’s actually pretty amazing how diverse the paths are. Yet, they all lead to the promise land.

      Love the Shawshank redemption reference.

      You promise to keep stuffing that pipeline, and I promise to keep writing 🙂

      Cheers!

  2. It’s barely been a month since I started my own blog, so I’ve been having some of the thoughts you shared myself. I have a general idea of who I’m writing for, but I haven’t been able to get that “a-ha” moment yet. Even though I started my personal finance blog to offer a unique perspective, I still find myself wondering sometimes whether my views are even worth sharing. But like you said, I really do want to “choose myself.” Thanks for such an empowering post that is both so encouraging and inspirational, Mr.CFO! Onward and Upward!!

    1. Hi Anum,

      Everyone suffers with the impostor syndrome you describe. It’s what holds most people back from ever leaping into action. Your views are definitely worth sharing. Will they resonate with everyone? No, but there is an audience out there that is looking for someone just like you. They need you to stand up and lead the way. They need you to show them that you are human just like them. You had doubts just like them. But most of all you need to show them that if you can do it so can they.

      Kudo’s for jumping outside your comfort zone (which is where all the magic happens).

      I am glad you enjoyed the post.

      Thanks for stopping by!

  3. That is exactly what is great about this community. For the most part everyone has the same broad goals, but then everyone has their own path that they will plot to get to their specific goals in that larger genome of financial freedom. It’s great to be able to sift through the many, many other freedom fighters to pull what works best for you, personally. Also there is nothing wrong with changing your course, because we all know things change and maybe sometime more interesting has presented itself, or your interests have changed. Keep on keepin’ on GYFG!

    1. Totally agree FF!

      Our lives are filled with seasons. What interest us today may be of no interest to us in 10 years. Life is also filled with serendipity and we must be nimble and open minded enough to pivot when our inner voice commands a new direction. I think it is more about developing the right framework then choosing the ONE path that will lead to financial freedom. With the right framework there are many roads that lead to the same destination.

      Cheers!

  4. Definitely with you in this. Our society is filled with people fatalistic towards their tight financial situation yet who choose to stay in jobs they hate to pay for a standard of living above what their income allows.

    All hail the Freedom Fighters.

    1. Preach Simon!

      If you don’t like your job then QUIT!

      If you can’t quit, then take steps so you can.

  5. I love everything on the list, I don’t know what more I could add. I am a Freedom Fighter, I want to live life by design and not be stuck in a job I hate. I am constantly trying to figure myself out and realize what it is that makes me happy. I don’t think it’s money, but freedom from it. Like somebody else mentioned, it’s nice that everybody in this community has about the same goals, but their own path in reaching FI, which shows really how you can get there with all different levels of income, education, etc. Somebody should take each of our individual stories and write a book 🙂

    1. Or we can all write our individual stories and aggregate them into a book of short stories and self publish them together on Amazon. Either as one big book or as a series of small books.

      “Stories of the Freedom Fighter: Successes, Failures, and Ah-Ha Moments”

      Have a good weekend Felix!

  6. There definitely was a time when I didn’t think I was a freedom fighter. But I do feel like one now. It took time to get here, but my journey has been great so far and it continues on!

    1. Sydney,

      I would consider you a leader in the Freedom Fighter movement. Keep fighting on 🙂

      Cheers!

  7. That’s spot on GYFG. I think it takes an equal balance of awareness, hunger and rebellion to be a committed freedom fighter. It’s always about swimming towards our goals, even if it means having to swim against the current.

    Because at the end of the day, if we don’t do that, we’ll drift downhill with the herd. Another great post!

  8. Man I feel pumped after reading this :).. I’m definitely a freedom fighter & am keen to see / help others to achieve the same thing whatever that means to them!

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