How to Get Financial Freedom in 2025: Best 8 Ways

Almost every human on this planet wants to make money. Not just make money, they all want plenty of it. Most of us wish we could become millionaires if not billionaires. And for the better part of our life, say from our age of 18 years onwards, we’re all locked in that fierce, singular onerous pursuit of making as much money as possible.

All of us chase money because of the common belief that it could help prevent countless hassles of our frail life on this planet. That’s true to a very great extent. However, it’s not necessary to become a millionaire to avoid issues that generally arise with having little to spend and low or zero savings.

How’s that possible, you might wonder.

Actually, it’s possible to live a life free from worries about money. To do so, you’ll first have to create total financial freedom. Millions of folks around the world already enjoy financial freedom and are living lives free from stress and worries about money.

Should you wish to attain financial freedom too, continue reading. I will be guiding you on steps to take for achieving total financial freedom in 2025 and beyond.

Let’s begin by comprehending the meaning of financial freedom.

Understanding Financial Freedom

In simplest words, financial freedom means living the life you want without having to worry about money or depend on a pay check, allowances, dole or money from any person.

It means having all the financial resources to cover every need for money from leisure and travel to investing, covering living expenses, engaging in hobbies and investing on own business without any worries about money.

Financial freedom is having the flexibility to make money-related decisions that syncs with your personal beliefs and needs in life, without worrying about sources of money or the impact of spending.

Understandably, in our era, financial freedom has a different connotation. It could mean having a job or freelance business but at the same time, not being dependent on its income for any purpose. In such cases, its irrelevant whether or not we’ve an income because we can manage and enjoy life to its fullest even without a job or occupation.

This might sound Utopic or even unattainable to you. Trust me, it’s quite easy to achieve total financial freedom with some discipline in spending habits and effective money management.

Furthermore, financial freedom also means you’re free from all sorts of debt. The exception would be credit cards because Americans tend to use them for all sorts of spending. However, as long as you’re able to pay off credit card dues without missing the money, you can get financial freedom.

Steps to Get Financial Freedom in 2025

Actually, financial freedom is also a lifestyle of sorts with superb rewards or returns.

Since the rewards are very tempting, surely you would wish to get financial freedom in 2025 and beyond. Actually, it’s fairly simple if you’re able to manage your money astutely. I’m not implying life on thrift. Instead, getting financial freedom simply involves superb financial discipline meaning total control over spending patterns and proper money handling. It also involves superb investing to get high returns over a period of time, with or without help and advice from a personal finance consultant.

These are fairly easy and simple if you follow the steps I’ll enumerate now.

1. Create a Household Budget

The first step towards financial freedom begins by creating a superb household budget. It means understanding your income and its sources, needs and wants as well as expenses for each individual person in the family. At the same time, identify areas where you’re overspending or places the money goes waste because your family and you can’t fully benefit from the expense. One of the places where Americans waste most money is food. Households in the US waste nearly 35 percent of the food they buy.

Start by trimming your food budget or those expenses where there’s high degree of wastage. Also, write your budget and expense under each head. Here, I would also suggest you use a superb budgeting and money tracker app such as You Need a Budget (YNAB). The app is available for free trial and paid use. Budgeting apps help you control spending, track payments made from mobiles and also sound alerts should expenses under any head be crossing the set limits. There’re a few free apps too and you could try those.

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2. Use Kakeibo System

The Japanese people have a superb way to track expenses and save their money. It’s called Kakeibo. Translated, it simply means ‘household financial record.’ It starts by using a physical ledger from any stationery shop or if you wish, the real Kakeibo from any Japanese store or online. Actually, Kakeibo is a Japanese financial philosophy and not merely an expense tracking exercise. Write down your income and subtract all fixed expenses such as mortgage, utilities, food, education and transport or fuel.

The next step is to write down your savings goal and break down your expenses into ‘essential’ that you need for survival and ‘non-essential’ such as optional expenses on entertainment or luxuries. At the end of each month, reflect on the expenses and savings and find whether some of the spending from your income was truly justified. If not, eliminate it the next month. Writing physically in a ledger has a psychological effect that helps you to save money. Find out actual savings and ways and means to step them up in coming months.

3. Build a Corpus Fund

A corpus fund is commonly called as an emergency fund. This fund is extremely important to counter exigencies that could arise due to job loss, sudden illness requiring out-of-the-pocket expenses or other scenarios that could take toll of your personal finances. In such situations, the emergency fund provides a superb buffer against loans and borrowings as well as debt default that could end in expensive litigations or life in penury due to cash crunch.

Generally, a good emergency fund should have enough money to afford your current lifestyle for at least six months, if not more. You can build it gradually by keeping away some money in a different savings account at a bank or credit union or if possible, a high interest plan. However, it’s essential that the money is accessible immediately, should the situation merit. Building an emergency fund is fairly easy: stash away some money each month and don’t touch it till the fund reaches the desired amount.

4. Eliminate Debt

American households accounted for a combined $17.943 trillion of debt, with an average $104,215 per household. Total debt was at an all-time high as of the third quarter of 2024, according to the Federal Reserve. These included mortgages, credit card dues, vehicle finance, student debt and personal loans, to name a few. Therefore, to attain financial freedom, it’s imperative to eliminate as much debt as possible, except maybe credit card outstandings.

Debt comes with interest rates and a lot of your money therefore goes in servicing such loans and borrowings. Therefore, identify high-value, high-interest debt and focus towards eliminating them gradually. There’re different ways to tackle debt including restructuring by taking low-cost loans, Snowball and Avalanche methods. Since credit cards are needed for various transactions, you can reduce the dues and therefore, pay zero or very low Annual Purchase Rate and interest.

5. Invest Wisely

The next and also one of the key steps to get financial freedom in 2025 is by investing wisely. It’s a myth that you need a sack load of money to invest in USA. There’re several apps and plans available online from banks and financial institutions that enable you to embark on an investment journey with as low as $5 to $10. Apps such as Robinhood and Acorns allow you to invest as less as $5 on stocks, cryptocurrencies, Mutual Funds and Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) and Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs).

With due honestly, I aver that enlisting the services of a superb personal finance advisor or consultant is the best way to invest your money wisely. Returns would justify the expense. Investing also involves creating a superb portfolio of various financial instruments that gains value over a span of time. A superb portfolio crafted over some time with enough funds and care can offer you adequate returns to eliminate dependence on any other source of income including a job. However, building one takes time.

6. Increase Your Income

You might balk at the suggestion of increasing income. Obviously, employers don’t hike salaries and perks overnight merely to fit into your plans to get financial freedom. Therefore, the best way to step up income is by taking side-gigs and freelancing or even setting up own business from home. Millions of Americans earn extra income simply by working for two to four hours daily, outside their main jobs. There’re plenty of freelance and side-gig opportunities to match each skill as well as online, home business ideas.

Just in case you’re unaware, an estimated 51 percent of the total US workforce engages in freelancing to earn an extra income. Unless explicitly forbidden by an employer, freelancing is a legit means to utilize after-office hours gainfully. The extra income would prove useful to step up repayments to end high-value debts, contribute towards the emergency fund and invest on stocks or other financial instruments to build a portfolio. There’re several superb freelancing platforms where you can enrol and bid for work that matches skills.

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7. Plan for Retirement

Are you aware that nearly half of all American households aren’t yet retirement ready? Meaning, they don’t have enough money for those golden years when there would be no more active income such as salaries and wages coming each month. As a result, American women and men are forced to continue working well past their retirement age to earn their living expenses. Such a situation can simply be avoided if you plan for retirement from now. This involves extremely superb planning and making right financial decisions.

Contribute to retirement accounts such as a 401(k) and Individual Retirement Account while taking advantage of employer matching contributions where available. You can also invest on annuities and other retirement plans offered by Asset Management Companies and other financial organizations. Ensure that you take these from reputed organizations only that offer high returns on your investments. Also consider that the buying power of your money would drop over time and hence, make sure that your returns are higher than inflation.

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8. Automate Savings & Investments

Try and automate as many savings and investment plans as possible. This means, the bank or credit union will automatically debit a fixed amount and pay for servicing the savings plan and investments. Several banks and topmost financial institutions offer such plans that allow you to pay monthly to make money grow. Automated savings and investments work wonders. They actually leave you with lesser money for expenses which forces you to spend within the balance only while the rest of it grows over a span of time.

Consult your banker or financial advisor on ways and means to automate savings and investments. As a matter of fact, you will find it’s possible to step up savings and investments soon upon getting started. Automated savings and investments force us to live within means and therefore, reduces chances of wealth squandering. Millions of Americans are benefitting from automated or forced savings and investments and you could join their ranks easily. It’s a voluntary technique of caring for your money and using it wisely.

More Ways to Get Financial Freedom

Additionally, there’re a few more ways you could include to get financial freedom in 2025 and beyond. These too are simple and hence can be practiced by your family and you easily. The first is to begin living frugally. That means, trying to reduce expenses by buying in bulk, eliminating useless or low-use subscriptions such as cable TV and using rideshare for commutes.

The money you save and invest today can help tide over any emergencies and would also give you financial freedom after a few months or years. Total financial freedom hinges on eliminating dependencies for money on any third party such as employment. To attain it, you will have to take these steps from now.

Wrap Up

Before concluding, I’ll emphasize that financial freedom gives you the unimaginable flexibility in choosing and creating a desired lifestyle. Similar to other such endeavors, achieving total financial freedom doesn’t occur instantly. Instead, it takes months and sometimes years of concerted efforts by family to achieve. Yet, the efforts would prove worthwhile considering the freedom that you would enjoy later.

Ashwin Honawar

Ashwin (Win) Honawar is an accomplished journalist and poignant author with 33 years of experience. He is renowned for his daredevil journalism and engaging narratives that explore various facts of human life and the resilience of the human spirit.