Adam

Throughout my life I have always loved everything about summer. The season, the concept, and the mindset that comes with it. I began to really educate myself and have been lucky to come across inspirational and truthful resources (like this one) that have continued to motivate and spark my desire to become financially free. I always knew I wanted how I felt with summer and financial freedom was the term that put my feelings into words. Financial independence plays a huge role in what drives me. My wife and I have built something special together and we understand that we have been the best investment either of us have ever made. We have made our health, vitality, and family our top priorities. By doing this, we also have naturally strengthened our finances and because of that we have more options, more power, and more respect for our time.

Ten years ago, my wife and I were married in Jamaica with not a worry in the world living as high school sweethearts. We were both very smart with our money and we have cleaned up a lot of small mistakes we have made with money earlier in our lives. Through self-education and experience we have really accelerated our pace to financial freedom, but more importantly to living a life we designed. Each year is a blessing with our health and even more wealth! I feel like each year, I gain new tools, new perspectives, and new challenges that mold me into a better me. I have gained life experience through trials and tribulations in all areas of my life and continue to live, learn and grow as best I can.

We have changed the way we look at money and our money has changed because of it. I always made my health and fitness a top priority and I understood from an early age that your true wealth is your health. With that being said, we have really attacked our finances like we attack our own personal health. We have made our financial freedom a priority in our life and continued to educate ourselves as we work on building and maintaining positive habits that lead our bodies, minds, and wallets in the right direction.

It would definitely be to be more patient and easier on myself. Being a Type-A person I expect things to be a certain way and sometimes I get fired up when they don’t pan out how I would like them, however I have learned that I can’t control everything, or the majority of things for that matter. I would tell myself to relax and trust the process of things and as long as I put the time and work in good things are going to happen. Even when I run in the mornings, I have learned to appreciate the actual journey instead of fixating on the finish. I would tell my younger self to do the same with life. I would definitely show myself some love for taking care of my health/fitness, my relationships, and our personal finances in my life at an early age. I would also tell make sure to whisper to myself all the opportunities that I might have missed in the stock market, real estate and even with the volatile bitcoin in the hopes I could somehow seize them!

Know yourself! The more you know yourself the more you know what drives you on your own path of living your best life. You can read all the books, websites, and blogs in the world, but those are someone else’s journey through their eyes. Learn, understand and begin to create your own adventure. Challenge yourself to learn and grow as often as you can. Really work on not comparing yourself to others, but rather compare yourself to what your best self looks like. We all start on different places of this board game called life. The fact that we get to be on the board game is a win within itself that is easily forgotten. Living a great life is often times about having less and not more. It is about slowing things down instead of speeding them up. It is about appreciating the small things like your health, relationships, and your impact on others. Make yourself a top priority and pay yourself first when it comes to your life, just like we should with money.