The Road to Financial Freedom, Setting Goals & Finding a Starting Point

Today is the one-year anniversary of the day, for me, when the COVID-19 global pandemic got real. On March 18th, a year ago, I sat at my dining room table, glued to my laptop, watching a wave of cancellations and shutdowns rippling out across my community. Looking on while life as we knew it ended all around me, a sinking sense of somber realization settled deep in my guts. On this day, I knew, in the core of my spirit, that everything we thought we knew was about to change.

Eerily, I'd headed into the New Year determined to define a clear "2020 Vision" for my life. I had no idea how events were about to unfold over the next 12 months, bringing an unimagined clarity to my values, ambitions, priorities, and aspirations. I only knew I already sensed the beginning of a “stripping away” process, which would open up a whole new world of possibility. This was the start of a season of self-examination, questioning everything... leading to a countercultural, revolutionary, life-changing sense of freedom from expectations, both my own and those of others.

It took all of this past year to get here, to this point, looking back where I came from and how far I've come… and to where I now see myself going from here. It took a global pandemic and my whole world literally coming to a full and complete stop for me to finally, at age 36, throw off a lifetime of voices telling me what I "should" do and what I'm "supposed" to do, so I could start to dream again about what I can do and choose to do.

And you know what? The sky's the limit.

Of course, you don’t have time to read about all of the realities dawning, dots connecting, eyes opening, or ah-ha! moments that added up for me through the whole year 2020, so let’s just get to the point. Here’s how life is different so far, in these first two and a half months of 2021—and how, building on this past year of “2020 Vision,” I’m seeing a whole new trajectory for life from now on.

The following post contains referral/affiliate links which may save/earn both you and me some money on products/services, or provide me with a small commission that doesn’t cost you anything, as we’re supporting one another in winning the wealth-building game together. Deal?

On January 1st, 2021, I learned about the Stash app for beginner investors, and my life began to change. (You can read “Why I’m Using the Stash App to Begin Investing in the Stock Market in 2021” Part I and Part II, plus my “Top 5 Faves About Using the Stash App to Invest” here and here.) It had to be a God thing. I never imagined I’d be setting out this year to learn everything I can get my hands on about stocks, ETFs, REITs, diversification, allocations, portfolio management… who am I kidding? I’m just some small-town South Dakota gal who grew up below the poverty line, living paycheck to paycheck all my life and struggling to make ends meet. I had zero interest in hearing about the stock market. I rolled my eyes any time the topic of investing came up. That stuff’s just for rich people. Right?

Well... what if it’s not? What if I can teach myself everything I need to know to do anything I want, with nothing more than a smartphone and decent internet access? And if I can do it, can’t you do it, too?

That brings us to The Serenity Project—an experiment in winning the wealth-building game. What began as an idle curiosity about an investing app has since become a total outlook transformation. In the two and a half months I’ve been stumbling and praying my way down this path so far, here are some of the pieces that have fallen into place.

Vision (Where do I see myself in the future?): A #whitetrash kid winning the #wealthbuilding game.

Now, I’m not usually one to get too keen on following lifestyle proponents, but I’ve occasionally been intrigued by the idea of people living off of their investments. Since embarking on The Serenity Project this year, I’ve discovered the F.I.R.E. movement: code for Financial Independence, Retire Early. Like really early—in one’s 30s or 40s, for instance, rather than mid- to later 60s.

Of course, as a 36-year-old on the oldest possible end of the Millennial spectrum, I’m a bit late to the game… but if the young’ns can see this happen in 10-15 years, why can’t I see it in 10-15 years, too? Can I be financially independent, retiring early, by age 50 or so? Suddenly, the more I learn, the more questions open up for me...

• What if becoming a millionnaire isn’t actually that impossible?
• What if I can get to a point of living off my investments, so I can focus on blessing the people around me with my presence, attention, and care, no strings attached?
• What if I can even just reduce my working hours to a flexible part-time schedule that allows me to spend more time in my relationships with others, while embracing a creative, non-competitive, life-giving way of being in my everyday interactions, where work is a “want to” instead of a “have to”?
• What if I can leave a legacy of generational wealth, empowerment, and generosity, instead of continuing the curse of poverty and learned helplessness I inherited from my family tree?

Well… for every one of those “what-ifs,” there’s a corresponding objective to turn it from a matter of speculating into a matter of goal-setting.

Goal (What am I aiming for?): Financial freedom by age 50.

Objectives (What will it take to hit the mark?):

1. Invest for future growth and ongoing income
2. Increase income for investing and saving
3. Aggressively pay off debt to free up cash flow
4. Cut expenses while prioritizing quality of life

Okay, so now what? Well, each of these objectives means a change process, which lends itself to an action plan. Meaningful action is made up of steps (or sub-steps) leading toward a desired outcome. Here, we’re setting minor goals that build on each other to accomplish the major goal. It takes small details to create the big picture. For example, here’s what I’ve got put together so far...

Visualize Cash Flow (Where is my money coming from and where is it going?)

As a starting point, it’s helpful to get a clear look at the current state, in order to see where you want to go from here. Eyeing the gap between here and financial freedom, this involves listing out...

• Regular income
• Mortgage/rent
• Auto loan(s)
• Personal loan(s)
• Credit card debt
• Student loan(s)
• Utilities/insurance/other bills
• Living expenses

Yes, you want to put this stuff in writing, so you can see it all in plain old black and white—every ugly little detail! Then you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. The best tool for the job? Creating a “zero-based budget,” which lets you visualize where every dollar is going each month. I learned how to do this from Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University program, and I gotta tell ya, implementing this skill alone is worth the cost of his Complete Guide to Money book.

In a nut shell, to create a zero-based budget, you start with your expected income for the month, then you subtract every payment, every bill, every obligation, and every possible living expense for that month, setting a predetermined, budgeted amount to cover each item.

Next, you take what’s left and subtract an amount for savings, an amount for extra payments on debt, an amount for investing, an amount for education, an amount for charitable giving, an amount for whatever your financial goals are at the moment... like a big purchase of a car or an appliance or a new puppy… the point being, basically, that you intentionally assign a job for every dollar you expect to earn throughout the month, budgeting all of your income til you get to zero.

Then, when that money comes in as expected, you direct that money to go out as planned. This way, every dollar has a place to be, serving a purpose in your progress toward accomplishing your goals. It might sound tedious at first, but for me, this has been an immensely satisfying and empowering way to get hold of my spending, all in one spot. Instead of wondering where it all went, I can look at my month and see exactly where it’s all going.

Even though I’ve ditched pretty much everything else I learned from Dave Ramsey (ever since I realized that quality of life in the present is more valuable to me than working myself to death for some possible quality of life in the future), I have continued to sit down and write out a zero-based budget every month, for every dollar and every expense, since October of 2014. This process, as simple as it sounds, allows me to visualize the month to come. And when I take this time to be intentional about where my money is going, I can work around my known expenses and see what I’ve got left to work with, as far as saving, investing, and eliminating debt.

That’s just a starting point… stay tuned for my next post, where I’ll share about processes that have helped me put my money to work for me, strategies for aggressively tackling debt, and places where I’ve found the most useful information to get me inspired and started on the road to financial freedom.

In the year ahead, I plan to continue writing about my experiences as a beginner investor, using the Stash app to build a portfolio in the stock market. I’m not saying you should do it, too—I’m just gonna try it myself and let you know what happens. I’m learning as I go, so if you’d like to come along for the ride, we’ll be learning together, hopefully doing our small part to turn the tables and win the wealth-building game, for the good of greater society.

Does that sound overly ambitious to you? Maybe we just haven't allowed ourselves to think big enough before.

If you like anything you read here, please share this article with your social media networks to get more people thinking about how we can all start winning the wealth-building game. Like to connect? Drop me a line: jeanmillersays {at} gmail.com.