Losing Financial Freedom SUCKS! What It Felt Life For Me

What does it feel like to have financial freedom and then all of a sudden lose it, be in debt and have to work your way out of it?

0:00 – Introduction
0:43 – How I got my financial freedom
2:30 – Financial freedom didn’t make me happy
3:20 – We bought a van and moved to Noosa
4:25 – What I did with my financial freedom
6:08 – How I lost my financial freedom
7:33 – What happened when I lost my financial freedom
8:15 – What did it feel like to lose financial freedom
9:07 – Struggling to pay my bills
11:30 – Building up my income again
14:16 – How does it feel now?
15:28 – What did I learn from losing financial freedom
16:30 – My goals now
19:05 – Do I regret losing financial freedom?

Recommended Videos:

Exploring Financial Freedom (at 28)

What it Feels Like To be Financially Free (at 30)

The 2 Year Strategy

Transcription:

Ryan 0:00
what does it feel like to lose financial freedom so to have financial freedom where you don’t have to work anymore you can do what you want with your time and then to all of a sudden lose that be in debt and have to work your way out of it again that’s my story and that’s exactly what happened to me and what it feels like to lose financial freedom is not a story that you hear from many people

so i’m excited to share with you a bit of that today hi i’m ryan from onproperty helping you and your journey to financial freedom and i think with this story we need to start with how i became financially free how i lost my financial freedom what it felt like to lose it and where i am now so let’s start with how i got my financial freedom in the first place my financial freedom i always call it pseudo financial freedom because i was ever financially free in the way that property gives you where you’re financially free basically for the rest of your life barring unforeseen circumstances i got my financial freedom through online passive income or through my online businesses so i had websites set up that were had content on them that were generating traffic and revenue and generating enough revenue that i didn’t really need to work anymore and i actually made a video when i first realized that i’m kind of financially free and i don’t know how that feels and in that video i actually said i’m in the position where if i don’t work for a couple of years then the businesses will decline and i won’t be financially free anymore and it’s funny because i watched it yesterday or the day before and i was like that is actually a prediction of the next couple of years of my life so that was me at 28 we then bought this van which i’m sitting in now as you can see it’s a bit like it’s not really set up to be used at the moment it’s kind of just got storage stuff in it but i came down here because of this story and because i thought what better place to tell it than here and also just being in here is inspiring me to do this app and to transform this into something that i can use again we achieved financial freedom through online businesses took me five years of full time work in order to get to that point and then it took me another seven years of part time work before that to get to that point so i started at 1828 okay so maybe i got my years wrong then but yeah sorry 18 and by 28 i was financially free through my online business realize at that time that i wasn’t happy i actually entered a phase of a pretty deep and dark depression now i’ve struggled with depression on and off throughout my life but when i hit financial freedom and i’d achieved this goal that was driving my life forward this is a goal that i set when i was a teenager that i wanted to be financially free i wanted to be rich by the time that i was 30 and so i’d set this goal i’ve been working towards this goal i’d quit a high paying pharmaceutical job to grow my business to pursue this goal and obviously life happens in the time you know i had a great relationship with my wife at the time we had beautiful children we were doing our thing had a pretty good life but yet i achieved this goal and i now had no reason to work anymore and i just went into this deep dark depression and my wife wasn’t happy where we were and what we’re doing at the time either so we’re like let’s let’s let’s buy a van so we bought this van which originally was a school bus and old school bus and we stripped out all the seats we renovated the van so everything that you see in here we did so we did or we insulated all did all the roofing did all the flooring kills dad helped build this raised platform bed underneath is where the kids sleep rigged it up with solar and everything moved into the van and started traveling did that for two months found out that it wasn’t for us settled in noosa up in queensland north of brisbane up there beautiful spot and lived there for two years and as i predicted in my video i basically spent the next two years not working i did a bit to maintain my business i made videos when i was inspired or when ben called me and he’s like ryan we need to make some videos on like yeah all right

let’s get him on a skype call filming person that’s fun but other than that i didn’t really do anything on my business i use that time to explore who i was and what’s going to make me happy and i’m really proud of what i did at that time because i think what most people would do is they reach a level of financial freedom and i wasn’t rich by any stretch of the imagination i wasn’t rolling in it i didn’t have a mercedes i didn’t own my own house or anything like that i just had a decent level of income coming in where we didn’t really need to worry about money we who got to cafes if we wanted to so wasn’t rich but decent level of income i feel like what most people would do at that point is say, Okay, I’m not happy. And in the mansion, I need the cars, I need, you know, to be extremely affluent. And I’m really proud that at that time, I thought, I’m not happy. And I can see progressing down this journey towards more wealth is not going to be motivating for me. And it’s not going to lead to happiness. So I just put the brakes on everything, and spend that time working out who the EFF am I, what the heck makes me happy. Because if I’m financially free, and I’m not happy, something’s wrong. And so I spent that time exploring so many different things. And I guess eventually came to an awareness probably 18 months in, of what can make me sustainably happy. And I’ve been so fortunate that I have not experienced depression for probably 12 to 18 months now. Because of that time that I spent, so did that financial freedom, exploring yourself not working, also spent heaps of time with my kids heaps of time taking them to school, a lot of time with my wife went to the beach, a lot had a great time in those two years. So it was great up there. But yeah, it didn’t work for two years. And then what happened was got to a point, how did I lose my financial freedom. And that’s where we’re at now, got to the point where hadn’t really been working on the business for a couple of years, the market shifted in my business in my major income source. And my also secondary income stream started to decline quite significantly, as well. And so in a period of just a couple of months, my business went from being super stable and earning good money to now super inconsistent and earning a lot less money. At the same time that happened, me and Kelly had decided to separate and to split up and go our own ways. And so there was a lot of expenses associated with that, and living with multiple different places, and then relocating down to Sydney. So my expenses jumped significantly throwing through that short period of time, and my income dropped dramatically. So I realized that I didn’t have any buffers in place or anything like that. I was financially free, but I was spending every dollar that I earned, and maybe even a little bit more. So getting slowly and slowly into a little bit of debt. And then this situation happened, where it’s like, oh, my gosh, I can’t afford all of this. And so I got into debt, my debt escalated, because my income was on there to support the rise in expenses. And I thought that I can get myself out of this really quickly, but I couldn’t. And so then we kind of realization struck, we moved back to Sydney, and I moved back in with my family. And I thought at the time, I’ll move back in with them just for like a month to kind of work out where I want to live and move back out. And it became apparent that I can’t actually afford to do that. Because I’m not financially free anymore. You Ryan, you lost your financial freedom. You don’t have you don’t have that you’re actually in debt, you’re actually struggling to pay your bills. I. So that was a big shock to go through the separation, the relocation and then to realize you’re not financially free anymore. And what does that feel like? To have that?

funnily,

it wasn’t as depressing as I thought it would be, it was actually more depressing to achieve financial freedom than to lose it. And that speaks way more about my mindset at the time when I was 28, versus when I was 30, or 31. And the growth that I’ve gone through as a person in that time, so it’s not necessarily a situation, it’s definitely better to be financially free. God, it was so good. It was so good to just work when I was super inspired. Sometimes I get inspired, I work really hard. Other times I wasn’t. And I would spend weeks of just surfing coffees, kids hanging out, go on the beach, going to the federal farm, there was this farm up in Noosa, with this lovely couple who opened it up on weekends. And that was just one of our favorite places to go. So financially free was great. It was definitely better than not being financially free. But came back to Sydney and then wasn’t financially free anymore. And thought, Okay, I’m going to work my way out of this. And I worked really hard for a couple of months to build up my major source of income again, and build that up to the point where I’m like, Okay, I’m not financially free. But I’m still sustaining now. And I can move out of home, moved out of home, and then my primary source of income again, dropped due to unforeseen circumstances, something that was completely out of my control. And so now I’ve just committed to a six month lease on this place. I’ve got my kids in private school and like struggling to afford this. I get to a position where I feel like I don’t know how I’m going to pay my bills. I don’t know how I’m going to pay my rent or pay my school fees or pay for my debt. Like, am I going to need to go bankrupt, like what is going to happen? And I had a period where I was really Stress, I didn’t know how I was going to get through that. I got really fortunate at that time, I’d been working hard. But a few things came through in the business that kind of tide me over. And I remember during that period, I would often call my mom up and be like, Mom, I might need to borrow some money from you, for some bills that are coming up, just want to give you a heads up, I might need to borrow some money. And the amount of times I made those calls to my mom, but then what would happen is I’d be like, okay, in two weeks, I might need to borrow some money. But then in two weeks, I get a sale, or I get some income coming in from the business or something happens. And then I’ll be like, Don’t worry, man, I don’t need the money. And so many times that happens around like, I might need to borrow more. Don’t worry, I don’t, I might need to borrow more, don’t worry, I don’t. It was just so many situations where that happened. And so I went through a real tough period there. And sometimes I say, what does it feel like? Because I was dealing with so much at the time, my wife had separated. So I was learning how to be a single dad having my kids half the time, how do I be a single dad, helping them through the emotions of their changing life, trying to give them stability, having a new partner in my life as well. Kelly also finding a new partner too, and then the kids adjusting to all of that sort of stuff. So trying to learn to be a single dad. And when I got the apartment and realize the business wasn’t sustainable, I then got a part time job at a cafe for some short term cash, because I’m going to build up my business, but it’s going to take me some time to get it back to the income level that I want. So I was working at get up at 530 in the morning, work in this cafe, get home at 12. lunchtime sort of thing. And then would work until sometimes six or seven at night, sometimes 11pm at night, and then get up at 530. And repeat it when I’ve got the kids get them ready for school when they’re at school, working, taking care of them when they get home and then working late into the night. So this season of probably six months of my life that was just all consumed by family and by work and I just didn’t have much in it. So if you’re looking at how does it feel to be financially free, when I first lost it, it was okay because I’m still just working in my business. Still juggling everything living at home, then I had a six month period where it sucked. I really struggled with finances, I struggled with cash flow, I was on the brink of destruction, super stressed about it working really hard, not really present in other areas of my life. And that really soft, I couldn’t bring my best self to my kids my best self to my relationships, my best self to my family, or even to my work. But I was pouring everything into work. So that that was really hard. And then the lease ended I decided to move back in with family again to get my cash flow under control. And then it’s like okay, things start coming back to normal. Okay, I can see some stability here. And then BAM Coronavirus, hits, no, oh, my gosh,

I have not prepared for this. I’m not ready for this. And I’m freaked out about that. And it looks like I’d be in a really bad situation again. And luckily, my businesses have been okay, through Corona. And I’ve actually been able to grow them through Corona, I just stopped working at the cafe. But my businesses were able to pick up the slack. And it’s been a blessing in disguise. And so what did it feel like to lose financial freedom, it sucked because I went through that period of having to work really hard to basically sacrifice all other areas of my life, because I didn’t have the income coming in anymore. And also, I guess part of it is being me, and that I didn’t want to go and get a job because I can see the long term benefit of the types of businesses that I create. And that what might be tough for 12 months, two years, three years, I can see that five years down the track, I can potentially be financially free again, if I focus on my businesses, but if I get a job, I’m going to be back in the rat race, it’s going to take me longer to achieve financial freedom. So kind of created some of those difficulties for myself by not going and getting a high paying job in marketing or something like that. And so yeah, back in a position where I guess things are more stable, and back in a position where I can work on my business full time. And so now what does it feel like to be financially free? It’s actually completely different because I’ve got a more regular schedule now. I’m loving the work that I’m doing. I’m loving pushing myself I’m loving growing my business and the challenge of that. I’m loving the relationships in my life. The people that I have around me the friends I have, my kids are doing really well. They’re really happy. You know, I’m kind of on living a good life now. And I think if you were to say to me, Ryan, you businesses are at the point you actually financially free now. I’d be like okay, cool. That’s That’s good. To know, but it wouldn’t be like last time where I got depressed, or be like, I know what I’m doing. And I know what I’m striving for now. And if I was already financially free through my businesses, or even if I was completely financially free through properties and had the long term financial freedom, I think I’d be doing something extremely similar to what I’m doing now, maybe a different scale, maybe do it in a slightly different way with a different work schedule. But it’d be doing pretty much the same thing I’m doing now. I think that was the biggest lesson that I learned through that whole process of gaining financial freedom and losing financial freedom and working my way through debt and through cashflow issues, is that it’s all about creating the life that you want. Now, I think the biggest mistake I made trying to get financial freedom last time, was that I didn’t, I still enjoyed my life, but I wasn’t completely fulfilled or happy in my life at the time. And I thought that financial freedom would give that to me, and I really didn’t. Whereas now, having had a taste of financial freedom, and having lost it, understanding that financial freedom doesn’t give you happiness, it just gives you choices to pursue your happiness, I realized that I have those choices now anyway, not in the same way. Financial Freedom is obviously better. But I have those choices now of exploring what I want in my life, what’s going to bring me complete and utter fulfillment in my life. And so I’m exploring that now. And so in a way, I have more now than I had when I was financially free. And my long term goal is to continue to build up the business and to achieve financial freedom. Again, optimistically, if things go well, that could be within 12 to 24 months. So one to two years, I could be back in a position where I’ve got that pseudo financial freedom. But this time around, I’m not going to stop there. And I don’t need to take two years off to work out who I am, because I’m happy with my life and where I am now. So for me, that’ll mean continuing to work continuing to put out the absolute best content that I can to connect with people like yourself or other people through the other websites that I have. But to bring my best self to my work, to bring my conscious self to my work to be conscious and present in this moment to know what I’m doing, why I’m doing it. And to feel fulfillment in that tab, fulfilling work to have fulfilling relationships and romantic relationships in my life. To have a fulfilling family life and relationship with my kids. I’ve been taking them surfing, teaching them how to surf, taking them for walks in the National Park, exploring waterfalls, and just living this fulfilling life at the moment. It’s not lavish, by any stretch of the imagination, I don’t have a match, I still live with family at the moment because I’m still paying off debt.

But I think being conscious in that has just changed the perspective for everything. And moving forward, I’m going to continue with that. And going to continue with that perspective. And I’ll I long term goal, build the business to that point. But then continue working in the business continue growing the income, and taking the extra income from that to invest in property using the two year strategy that I told you about with Ben Everingham. I’ll link up to the video talking about the two year strategy down below. But really simply Is that you, you spend a fixed period of time, we are actively acquiring properties and building granny flats, he and Julian Come on those properties, and building up that foundation for financial freedom. And then once that’s built up, you can then just focus on living your life and focus on paying down the debt. On those properties. I think I’ll be in an interesting and unique position in that I don’t need the financial freedom from the properties because I’ll have it through my businesses. And so I may just continually be buying properties, building granny flats, and then just letting them pay themselves off, continually building up my asset base and letting them pay themselves off. I don’t know how their journey is going to go. I’m not sure. But I definitely want that long term financial freedom through properties. So that if my business was to go to dust and to go into the ground, that I know, I’d had that long term financial freedom, that I never had to worry about being in this really difficult financial position again. So what does it feel like in summary, to lose financial freedom really depends on who you are in your experience for it, for me losing financial freedom, soft, because of the amount of work I had to do to bring my businesses back up to stay afloat, because of the stress that I had and the anxiety that I had to experience not having enough money to pay my bills, that sucked. But in the broader aspect of things and in the larger mindset of things, losing financial freedoms, not such a big deal. Financial Freedom gave me the opportunity. And it gave me the time to explore myself explore who I am, and what’s going to make me happy in this life or as who I am right now. And I feel like he gave me that opportunity. And I found that and I’m so grateful for that. And I’m so grateful for all the support that I had from Kelly at that time to be able to do do that and so financial freedom gave me that it’s like this massive gift that i got of my life that i’m also waiting to 67 to retire and try and do it that’s how much of my life that i would have missed out on so i got this massive gift in financial freedom and i use that gift and by using that gift it means i lost financial freedom but i don’t regret that in any way shape or form it’s like i needed that for me and for the mental state that i can get in and how deep and dark my depression can be that is a gift of a lifetime for me and for my mental health and so it’s like to have that gift of financial freedom for two years and then to be thrown back into the deep end yes it sucks because your life is not as good but the perspective that i gained and that i’m bringing into my life now is just so powerful and it’s going to be so good moving forward and i’m really excited for the future probably not the answer you’re expecting for what it feels like to be financially free or to lose financial freedom sorry but that’s my answer and that’s my journey and i hope that you will join me on this journey towards financial freedom again but also towards that long term financial freedom and financial freedom is your goal then hopefully i can help you with some ideas along the way and the biggest idea i’m focusing on the moment is that financial freedoms it’s not a destination where you’re instantly happy it gives you choices in your life so you can explore your happiness but really those choices exist for you right now and so i kind of learned that along the way and that was my biggest lesson from losing financial freedom and so i’m looking forward to getting it again i’m looking forward to being in that position again i’m definitely not there yet but i’m working hard to get there i’m excited to get there in the future and i hope that you’ll join me on this journey so while you’re here please subscribe to the channel for more videos like this and property related content i’m also going to link up to the two videos that i did previously on financial freedom one when i was 28 just kind of realized i was financially free and bit disillusioned what am i going to do and when i make that prediction where if i don’t work for two years i won’t have it anymore and then also the video i did probably six or 12 months into my financial freedom where i was starting to discover myself and i talked about what it feels like to be financially free so i’ll link up to those two videos go ahead check them out otherwise until next time stay positive