I believe that everyone deserves to live a life of choice and freedom. 

 

But what does that mean? 

 

I can tell you what it means for me. 

 

For me a freedom based lifestyle is one where I can choose what I want to use my precious time and energy (life force) on. Financial independence is a big part of creating a freedom based lifestyle because when you are financially independent it means that you don’t have to go and work at a job (unless you want to), so therefore you have the time and energy available to focus on the things you really want to do. 

 

The second part for me is the ability to be location independent. While I’m still working towards financial freedom this may look like having an online business where the business is not tied to one location. An example of this is what I currently do – working as a Virtual Assistant for clients across the globe. 

 

The third part has to do with being able to select the projects I want to work on (outside of my main earned income) and this is tied in with my purpose. So what do I want to contribute to our world? What do I care about? Some people may refer to this in terms of ‘what legacy would I like to leave’? 

 

I quickly learned that living a freedom based lifestyle is not all about simply indulging my personal desires, although of course there is some of that, but for me is also about making a difference in a bigger way. 

 

Some of the things I care about are:

 

1. Demonstrating that a different way of life is possible – That we don’t have to spend our lives doing jobs we don’t really like in exchange for money and that we can in fact create money by doing things we love that also make a difference in the world. 
2. Helping to find solutions for saving our environment. 
3. Helping women to create amazing online business that afford them a freedom based lifestyle. 
4. Experiencing travel and allowing others to experience travel too. 

 

My goals are simple: 

 

1. Get financially independent. 
2. Create a freedom based lifestyle (see above).
3. Contribute to our world. 

 

Having now paid off my consumer debts, the question I had for myself was ‘what’s next in this journey?’

 

This is the answer (AKA plan) I got is as follows: 

 

This summer, live in the van. Keep working. Travel a bit (short trips). Save a deposit to buy a place, not to live in per se, but to be a money generating asset. My plan is to buy a place in the Highlands of Scotland, which I love and is so much cheaper than here in the south (I would say the cost of houses up there are about a third of the price of down here). 

 

Once I’ve bought a place in the Highlands I will do it up and rent some of the rooms out on Air BnB to create an income. This will pay my mortgage. I’ll aim to pay the mortgage down much faster than the usual ’25 years’, because really, who wants that debt hanging over them? It makes no sense. 

 

I’ll also turn my camper conversion into an asset by renting that out too. 

 

In the meantime I will continue creating a brand around ‘freedom based lifestyle’ and blog about my experiences. I will aim to support other women who also want to create this for themselves, specifically through showing them how to set up a profitable online business (one of the main components of a freedom based lifestyle, if you follow my formula). 

 

I’ll continue contributing to my portfolio, which also helps towards my goal of financial independence. 

 

For now this has enough elements of my freedom based lifestyle to feel very on purpose for me.

 

Of course, once I am ‘financially free’ then I will be able to get stuck into working more with charities to help save our environment. I’ve also been thinking about what I can do personally in the meantime, but I haven’t quite got this piece fully figured out yet beyond the normal ‘recycling, use the car less’ etc… 

 

I’d love to explore ways to minimise using a car, and also this doesn’t quite fit with my plans of living in rural Scotland. 

 

So… this part remains to be seen. Perhaps I can look into living off grid or something. I don’t know yet but I am asking the questions. 

 

Finally, much later on, I’d like to start or support a charity that helps the families of addicts. That’s a future goal. 

 

I have a plan… Now, let’s get stuck in. 

 

Over to you. What does a ‘freedom based lifestyle’ mean to you? 

 

What are your goals?

 

Comment below. 

 

With Love

Julie.