84 Money Tips That Will Help You Achieve Financial Freedom

Most people use about five in their entire life. 84 is a little crazy, but you never know which one tip is going to literally change your life.

Try to take a couple and actually put them into practice. I broke it down into sections too, so if there’s one area you really want to work on, jump there. But honestly, just one of these could change everything.

Mindset and Philosophy

1. Believe financial freedom is actually possible

If you don’t believe it, you’re never going to change your behaviors or habits. You’re never going to invest in yourself if you think it’s a pipe dream — it just won’t happen.

2. Define your why

If you don’t have a strong reason behind the goal — freedom to travel, spend time with family, whatever it is — you probably won’t make it through the hard parts.

3. Calculate your freedom number

It’s not “a million dollars so you can live on $40k a year.” It’s calculating your actual living expenses, lowering them as much as possible, and then figuring out how to earn that amount monthly. That’s it.

4. Frontload the pain

We generally get paid for the value we give to society. If you can frontload a couple of years of extreme effort and real value, you can earn five years’ worth of money in one year’s worth of time. Do the hard work now.

5. Never follow the crowd

The average American is overweight, depressed, broke, and retires at 65 with just a few years left to enjoy it.
In your finances, assume everything popular is probably wrong if your goal is different results than everybody else.

6. Embrace being different

Thrift store clothes, cheap car, different diet, different schedule. Don’t aim to fit in — that’s the whole point.

Systems and Learning

7. Build systems instead of goals

If you want to save $10,000 in a year, that’s totally possible — but without systems, you’re probably not going to make long-term changes.

8. Learn consistently

Nobody just inherently knows how to budget or invest. Reading one or two books generally isn’t enough. Make learning a staple in your life.

Saving Money (Start with the Basics)

9. Take the low-hanging fruit first

Compare car insurance, switch grocery stores, cut your phone bill. Small switches made once save money every single month without you ever having to do anything else.

10. Tomorrow never comes — life is always now

If you’re the type who says “I’ll start budgeting next week,” science says you’re not going to do that. If you want to make changes, start right now. Don’t wait.

Extreme Saving & The Big Three

11. Target a 75% savings rate

If that sounds ridiculous, it kind of is.

We’re not shooting for normal. It can take years and huge life changes to get there, but it can completely change your life.

12. Focus on the Big Three expenses

Housing
Transportation
Food

That’s where most of your money goes. Fix those before you worry about cutting out lattes.

13. House hack

Buy a 2–4 unit property with a first-time homebuyer loan, live in one unit, rent the others out, rinse and repeat.

14. Get a cheap car and treat it like a strategy

Get a 10-year-old car, buy it used in cash, drive it 1–3 years, sell it for roughly what you paid.

15. Meal plan like your freedom depends on it

Food is one of your biggest expenses. If you’re throwing stuff away, you’re literally burning money.

Lifestyle Adjustments

16. Cancel subscriptions

If you’re serious about reaching freedom, maybe you should be watching less TV anyway.

17. Buy generic everything

A lot of name brands are made in the same factory. It’s a marketing scheme — don’t fall for it.

18. Use credit card rewards

You can even get free flights by gaming the system: sign up for a bonus, hit the minimum spend, cancel down the road. Pretty sweet.

19. Don’t pay bank fees

Americans pay on average $329 a year on them. Total waste.

20. Use credit cards the right way

If you can’t pay it off every month, cut it up. The best you can hope for in the stock market is around 10% on average — if you’re losing 30% to interest, take drastic measures.

21. Switch to black coffee

It’s healthier, and if you’re spending $5 a day on lattes, that’s $1,800 a year. You’re literally paying money to hurt yourself. Get good coffee, get a Chemex, become a snob — totally worth it.

22. Pack your own lunch

Eating out costs 2–3x more. Meal prep once a week and be prepared.

23. Don’t buy sale items — buy things you love

If everything you own is your favorite, you don’t need to keep buying stuff. Unless something’s a 90-plus for you, don’t buy it.

24. Think in cost per use

A $50 shirt worn 50 times costs $1 per use. A $10 shirt you wear once costs $10 per use. The “cheap” thing is often more expensive.

25. Skip extended warranties

Retailers make about 80% margin on them. It’s a scam.

26. Stop buying bottled water

It’s roughly 2,000x more expensive than filtered tap. Get a filter.

27. Negotiate everything

Call your internet provider and try to cancel. They’ll offer you better service at half price just to keep you.

28. Use the 30-day rule

Want something non-essential? Leave it in your cart for 30 days. If you still want it, buy it. Most of the time you’ll forget it exists.

29. Invest in quality where it counts

Mattress, shoes, gym membership — things between you and the ground that impact your health and are worth spending on.

30. Automate your savings

If you’re not robbing yourself every paycheck, you’re probably not saving enough. If you have bad self-control, just steal from yourself first.

Debt Management

31. Understand good debt vs. bad debt.

People who use good debt build large amounts of wealth. People who get taken advantage of by bad debt are most Americans.

32. Pay off the highest interest first

If you have a car loan at 16% and a mortgage at 5%, always pay the highest interest rate first. The math is clear.

33. Sometimes it makes sense not to pay off your mortgage

If you have a 3–4% rate and can earn 10%+ in the stock market, mathematically it makes no sense to pay it off early.

34. But don’t always follow the math

Debt stress is real. Know your risk tolerance and what kind of person you are.

35. Don’t consolidate debt without changing your behavior

Most people consolidate, then just build the debt back up again. Fix the root cause first, which is you.

36. Be really careful about student loans

If you don’t know what you want to study, don’t borrow tens of thousands to figure it out.

A huge percentage of people never even use their degree — it can destroy your life before you get started.

37. Never use payday loans

400% interest. A financial trap that cycles and cycles. Avoid them like the plague.

38. Build a 3–6 month emergency fund

With that in place, you should pretty much never have to use bad debt again.

Making Money and Career

39. Avoid unscalable side hustles long-term

Cleaning offices or doing DoorDash has a ceiling. A scalable side hustle makes nothing at first but has real upside later.

40. Try random stuff

My friend told me he started posting text posts on YouTube, and one post made him over $150 in a week. He said it’s one of the more random things he tried, but literally anything can work if you actually do it.

41. Work to learn, not just to earn

Learn valuable skills now — long-term you’ll make way more money than if you just chased the paycheck.

42. Build multiple income streams

If you have your W2, plus rental income, plus investment income, plus a side hustle — if you lose your job, the world doesn’t end. Makes life way easier.

43. Negotiate your salary annually

Most people leave thousands on the table every year just because they don’t ask.

44. Budget your time, not just your money

Track where your time goes. Figure out what’s generating income and what’s draining your life.

45. Give yourself a higher hourly value

Somewhere between $100 and $1,000 an hour, that’s the goal. If you really believe you’re worth that, you’ll stop watching TV, start working harder, and start actually enjoying your life more.

46. Lean into your strengths and outsource your weaknesses

School taught us to fix weaknesses, but in business that’s backwards. The successful kids from school often end up working for the “bad” students — because school has nothing to do with real life.

47. Create content around your expertise

YouTube, blog, course, Instagram — even if you fail, you learn a ton about yourself.

48. Network with purpose

You’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with. Be really intentional about that.

49. Take risks

Not reckless risks, but if you’re always playing it maximally safe, you’ll probably never succeed. You have to actually take chances.

50. Learn sales and marketing

Pretty much everything in the world is a funnel. Read a couple books on it — it’s fun and that’s where a lot of money lives.

51. Try to go remote

It might take years, but if you figure out ways that allow you to work remotely, you get back massive amounts of time and unlock location freedom.

52. Build a 3–6 month freedom fund

On top of your emergency fund. That buffer lets you take career risks — move cities, join a startup, negotiate without fear.

53. Maximize your employer match

I’m not a huge fan of retirement accounts personally, but if a company is offering a match on your 401k, that’s literally free money. Take it.

54. Learn AI

It’s here, it’s not going anywhere, and it’s a complete game-changer. The people taking advantage of it now are going to be miles ahead in just a few years.

55. Develop a personal brand

Whether you become a creator or not, your future employer is going to look at your Instagram and Facebook. Make it count.

56. Start before you’re ready

You are never, ever going to be ready. Do it anyway.

Investing

57. Invest in low-cost index funds

The S&P 500 has an expense ratio under 0.1% and beats most actively managed funds long-term. Keep it simple.

58. Automate your investing

Investing weekly or monthly forces you to build wealth without relying on willpower.

59. Don’t try to time the market

If you could reliably buy low and sell high, you’d be a billionaire. You can’t, and neither can most professionals.

60. Look into real estate

There is a lot of money in real estate. Learn it, your first rental can make a huge impact on your finances.

61. Try the three-step house hack

House hack two to three properties, live in each one temporarily, fix them up. After 3–5 years of sacrifice, those rentals pay for your dream home for the rest of your life.

62. Dollar cost average

Invest the same amount consistently instead of chasing dips. Over time — it just averages out.

63. Avoid emotional investing

Most people who actively trade lose money. If checking the market stresses you out, just stop checking it.

64. Invest based on your stage of life

Real estate, index funds, crypto, starting businesses — they all work. Figure out which one fits your situation.

65. Learn about taxes and how to pay less of them

Especially as a business owner with investment income, there are legal ways to keep a lot more. The government doesn’t need extra from you — they really don’t know how to use it anyway.

66. Don’t chase performance

If you’re hearing about a hot stock, you’re probably too late. The smart money already got in. You end up holding the bag.

67. Understand inflation

A $100,000 salary in January 2020 had the same buying power as $124,000 in April 2025. If your money is just sitting there doing nothing, you’re losing purchasing power every single year.

68. Invest in yourself first

A $1,000 investment in the stock market earns maybe $100. A $1,000 investment in a skill that earns you $100/month pays itself back in a year.

Advanced Strategies

69. Use OPM — Other People’s Money

Not to rob people. But you can buy a $100,000 property while you pay maybe $5,000 or not at all. The bank can fund that.

70. Optimize for cash flow, not net worth

Monthly income matters so much more than paper wealth.

71. Create systems for everything

Savings, investing, workouts — once you set up the system, you don’t have to maintain the habit. Your wealth just grows automatically.

72. Use the right business structure

Switching from an LLC to an S-Corp can save you tens of thousands of dollars a year for just changing the structure. Worth looking into.

73. Use geo-arbitrage

If you need $10,000 a month to live where you live now, but you could move somewhere tropical and need only a third of that — you might already be financially free. You just haven’t moved yet.

74. Plan your estate

It’s worth doing once and not thinking about again.

75. Consider alternative investments carefully

The most popular options generally have the lowest returns. Higher upside usually means higher risk. Know your tolerance.

76. Outsource whatever you can

If AI or a VA can do part of your job for $5–$10 an hour, it’s almost always worth figuring out. Once you crack it, you get time back, make more money, and life genuinely changes.

Lifestyle

77. Define your “enough”

When you know what enough is, you stop chasing. If you never define it, no amount of money will ever feel like enough — and you’ll stress forever.

78. Avoid lifestyle inflation

Just because you earn more doesn’t mean you have to spend more.

79. Focus on experiences over things

Travel and time with family over stuff. Figure out what actually matters to you and spend there.

80. Stop trying to impress other people

78% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, and most of them got there trying to look wealthy. Don’t do that.

81. Be grateful

If you made it this far, you probably know more about finances than most people ever will — which is part of why 78% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck.

82. Protect your relationships

Money is the leading cause of divorce. Wealth without people isn’t rewarding long-term.

83. Protect your health

Most people sacrifice health to build wealth, then spend the wealth trying to get their health back. Just maintain both along the way. It’s okay to get there a little slower and actually feel good doing it.

84. Remember: money is a tool

It can be a good one or a bad one, but it’s a tool.

It can buy freedom, and freedom makes life more enjoyable — so yes, money does matter. Learn it, master it, get really good with it. Not so you can stress about it, but so you never have to again.