I started Project Financially Free as a way to track my progress and share my ups and inevitable downs on my journey from being in debt to growing my net worth and eventually being completely financially free.
How Did I Get Here?
You know the story, it’s a very familiar one. The same one a lot of people have: You get a job, rent a place, get married, buy a house with a mortgage, get a car on finance, have a kid. There’s nothing wrong with that and I’m very happy with those life choices. However it has left me with consumer debt to the tune of around £200,000 including the mortgage, car and small credit card balance. Up to now I hadn’t really paid all that much attention to my financial situation. I just thought, well, you get a mortgage, you work and you pay it monthly until you have paid it off 30 years down the line. However the truth is I don’t want to still be working 30 years down the line (certainly not working for someone else anyway) just so I can pay off debt.
Confront the Beast
I’ve recently started taking a real interest in self development and financial education. This has really hammered home my current situation and made me finally sit up and take notice. The problem with just continuing to work in a similar way and to pay off the mortgage minimum payment every month is that I’m never going to be truly free. I’m going to have to continue exchanging my time for money, day after day, month after month, year after year. Working to pay off debt. There must be a better way right? A way to be financially free.
This is the beginning of my journey and the purpose of this blog is to not only document my journey but to also share information I discover along the way. Hopefully this will end up providing a learning platform for myself and others. I’m also hopeful that committing to sharing my progress will help to make sure I continue to focus on my goals.
What Does Financially Free Look Like?
Being financially free will mean different things to different people. To me it means being in a position where you never have to worry about money, where you are free to make choices on how you live your life, you are able to provide and protect your family and loved ones, you have money working for you rather than working for money.
What’s the Plan?
I’ve already started my financial education by consuming various advice from well known financially successful people (I will share details of what I’m reading and who I’m following in future posts) and throughout the next few years I’m going to carry on consuming and learning as much as I can. I’m starting to understand that if I want to be financially free I need to start putting money to work FOR ME rather than against me. However for now the main focus is paying down debt and putting money to work for me through investing.
Who Am I?
My name is Jon and as you have probably already figured out I’m based in the UK. I would like to be completely transparent here and share my full identity as well as the financial information I have already shared (and I some point I probably will) however, for a number of reasons I have decided not to at this stage. This may change in the future. Regardless of that I can assure you that I am indeed a real person and the information shared is very real.
I think that’s all that needs said for now. If you are in a similar position yourself and trying to become financially free then please follow along on my journey by signing up to my mailing list to receive notifications on new posts. Any feedback / advice / comments are also most welcome. Visit my contact page to get in touch or drop me an email!