I've always admired the concept of self-sufficiency. I began looking for methods to save money from the small amount of change my parents provided me when I was 10 years old or to start a small company, such as selling candies to my classmates to earn a few cents for myself. I knew that if I had a little money saved up, I could purchase that comic book I wanted on my own, or that other video game I wanted, or some new strings for my guitar, and my parents wouldn't be able to say "no." They didn't say "no" too often, but the option was mine if I had the money, and that was motivation enough for me to find ways to get additional money here and there.
After all these years — I am now 37 – I haven't changed much. I've never been successful at retaining employment, and I've largely been launching businesses and doing freelance work since I was 20. Regardless of my sentiments about money, I believe that, in these times, the ultimate objective is financial independence, maybe more than any other type of freedom. I feel that as a generation, we have already realized that the globe is too wide to be confined to one profession, one career, one nation, much alone one place. We are free, we own our time, and we can choose what to do with it if we control our supply of money.
We've learned that earlier notions of the "ideal" existence are no longer applicable, maybe as a result of the housing crisis, the Internet era, social networks, higher rates of unemployment worldwide, or everything that is happening at the same time. This has opened new doors and eyes for us to see our future in new ways.
