Yes, You CAN Reach Financial Freedom!

My belief: You can reach financial freedom.

It doesn’t matter what your bills are like. It doesn’t matter how much (or little) money you make.

You can truly achieve financial freedom if you REALLY want to. All it takes is the right amount of knowledge, discipline, and (most important) “a plan”.

These are exactly the things I want to give you with this blog. I started My Money Design not just as way to improve the lives of my family, but also as a means to help others who wanted to accomplish the same incredible goal.

For as long as I’ve been a student of money, one thing I’ve learned is that even though everybody’s financial situation is different, there are a few core, fundamental strategies that simply just “work”. Though there are times you may have to find creative solutions to solve real-world problems, I’ve found that if you truly practice these underlying techniques when it comes to handling your money, I promise you: You’re going to see a BIG difference!

My hope is that the information I share with you impacts your life in some meaningful way. Whether its realizing that you might be able to retire 10 or 20 earlier than you originally thought, or even a simple trick that will help you save a few more dollars per month, I really do wish that everyone who stops by this site learns something that will improve their life.

Sound good so far? Then read on to see my most helpful articles below. And while you’re at it, please sign up to get free updates every time we have a new post or something cool to share. (I promise not to spam you!)

Who Am I?

My name is DJ, and I’ve been on the path to financial freedom for quite some time.

Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve been fascinated with money and the ways people become rich!

Starting in my early 20’s, I began studying everything I could find that had to do with money. I read through dozens of books and thousands of websites looking for all the best secrets in budgeting, investing, and early retirement. More importantly, I’ve tried most of the things I learned about to better understand what really works and what doesn’t.

While I’m not a trained financial professional, I have spent most of my adult life optimizing every aspect of my financial well-being. This includes everything from finding ways to max out our retirement accounts to taking dream vacations for pennies on the dollar. In total, this effort has created an ideal frame-work for my wife and I to be able to retire in our 40’s (if we choose) and live comfortably for the rest of our lives.

If you’d like to know more about this site (like why its called “My Money Design”), please feel free to check out our About page.

All-Time Favorite Posts

I’ve published A LOT of material over the years! There are literally hundreds of articles on this site. So if I could convince you to read just a handful of them, these are the ones I would tell you to check out:

Gaining Control Over Your Finances

Before you can improve your financial situation, there’s one thing you need to do first: Gain control over what’s coming and and what’s going out.

Why is this important? Because when it comes to money, we all must follow one simple golden rule:

Income > Expenses

It doesn’t matter how much money you earn or what your reasons you have for spending the way you do. To really gain control over you finances, you’re going to need to create a budget that works, stick to it, and always be working on ways to improve it.

To get you started, please check out the following:

The 10 Best Practical Ways to Budget Your Money and Save More
Monthly Budget Not Working? Why An Annual Budget Is Better
1,000 Ways to Save More Money!
How Should I Set Up My Financial Plan?
Free software for tracking your money: Personal Capital

Your Path to Financial Independence and Early Retirement

Why is it so important to achieve financial freedom?

Financial freedom is the point where you have enough assets to cover your living expenses for the rest of your life.

Think about that for a minute … you have enough savings or income from your investments that you never have to work again for money if you don’t want. That’s a huge accomplishment! Think of all the time you could spend and things you could do with your life if money wasn’t the primary concern or motivator.

Sound good to you? Then let’s get you started.

Learning the Basics:

More Advanced Techniques:

How to Unlock Your Retirement Savings Before Age 59-1/2 to Retire Early
Saving beyond a 401(k) or IRA with a SEP IRA
Traditional vs Roth 401(k)
Your ideal portfolio asset allocation
Why you need to get your full 401(k) employer match
Tax-Deferred vs Taxable Savings
The smart way to double your money
How to read stock metrics; in particular these important ones: Dividend Payout Ratio, Dividend Yield, PE Ratio
How to use a 72T
A Backdoor Roth IRA Ladder
Using long term capital gains and dividends

Creating Additional Income Streams:

Who says you’ve got to be limited to just how much money you get from your paycheck?

In addition to planning for retirement, you can really take your finances to the next level by adding additional, multiple streams of income. Not only can these extra sources of money reduce how much you’ll need to save for retirement, but then can also help you to add stability to your income as well as achieve financial freedom more quickly.

Plus, who doesn’t want more money?

Passive Income:

Have you ever heard of the concept of passive income? If not, read this post here. Then check out our extensive list of passive income ideas you can start trying.

Blogging:

I’ve made tens of thousands of dollars since I’ve started blogging. Its a ton of fun and easy to do because it doesn’t feel like work.

Plus it costs hardly anything to get started. Just go to a reputable site like Bluehost, sign-up, and you’ll be the owner of your own blog in minutes!

Find out everything you need to know about blogging by checking out this extensive, 4,000+ word guide I’ve put together.

Dividend Income:

Receiving dividend payments from the stocks you own is the ultimate form of passive income. You don’t have to lift a finger and the payments come rolling in!

To help you get started:

Read this book: The Little Book of Big Dividends
Check out this post on a strategy I personally use called the Dogs of the Dow

Real Estate:

Thinking about becoming a landlord? Read:

Reducing Your Lifestyle Costs:

Want to really optimize your finances? Try the following:

Mortgage:

Insurance:

Which is Better – Term or Permanent Life Insurance?

College Savings for Your Kids:

Adding Your Children’s College Savings to the Budget

Motivation and Guidance:

Sometimes personal finance is more “mental” than it is “technical”. We all get lost along the way and need some help getting our priorities straight. Please enjoy these posts as they help you reflect on your goals and needs.