NewsBreak Original

I’m on the way to creating wealth because I know the formula to financial independence will work out for me. A close-up image of a woman leaning on a monitor.Photo by cottonbro from Pexels.

September 10th, 2021. That was my last day at my stable and lucrative job in tech. It was 3 years to the day since joining the company and 13 years since starting my career in the modern-day gold rush of San Francisco’s Financial District. I had just completed my paternity leave after the birth of my second child and decided that this chapter of work, which had become my identity for so long, had run its course.

Are you looking to become financially free in 2022? Who wouldn’t? This article covers the steps you can take to reach financial freedom. Achieving financial freedom is many peoples’ goal. Everyone wants to live the American dream with enough savings, investments, and cash on hand to afford the lifestyle they want to have.

You can get there without building the next great app. The math behind financial independence is not particularly complicated. There have been countless articles on the 4% safe withdrawal rate, the power of compound returns, investing in index funds, and so on. Perhaps the most notable piece on this concept is The Shockingly Simple Math Behind Early Retirement by blogger and personal finance influencer, Mr. Money Mustache. For many readers, this piece was the content that rewired their thinking to make financial freedom a realistic goal. However, one key concept in making the math work is minimizing housing cost. Therefore, people tethered to their jobs in high cost of living (HCOL) areas like Northern California may still view financial independence as a largely unattainable ambition.