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The Tuesday Tune-Up
The Three Paths to Financial Freedom
Hey fam,
Imagine waking up tomorrow with no alarm. No boss to report to. No financial stress. Just the freedom to spend your day exactly as you choose. This is what financial experts call “F-U Money” (well, maybe not all the experts…) – the amount that gives you the freedom to say “no.” And according to research from Princeton University…
Find Your Freedom #
The beauty of knowing your Freedom Number is that it transforms vague financial goals into concrete actions. Here’s how to find yours:
- Calculate your basic monthly expenses (housing, food, transportation, etc.)
- Add discretionary spending that brings you joy (travel, hobbies, etc.)
- Include a buffer for savings and unexpected costs (I use 20%)
- That total is your monthly Freedom Number
Action item: Calculate your personal Freedom Number tonight. Write it down and place it somewhere you’ll see daily. Then identify ONE specific action you can take this week toward reaching that number – whether it’s starting a side project, learning a marketable skill, or setting up automatic transfers to your investment account.
Three Paths to Your Freedom Number
In my experience, there are three paths to financial freedom:
- The Classical Path: Work a traditional job, save aggressively, and invest until your investments generate your Freedom Number (typically using the 4% rule – where you can withdraw 4% of your investments annually without depleting your principal).
- The Entrepreneurial Path: Create something valuable enough that people pay you for it repeatedly. This could be digital products, services, software, or content creation. Full-time.
- The Mixed Path: My personal choice – keep your day job while building something on the side until your side project generates your Freedom Number (now I am fully Entrepreneurial but might change in the future as I have hit my freedom number with The Mixed Path).
The mixed path is what I did with YouTube. For four years, I woke up at 5 AM to work on videos before heading to the hospital or school and gave up partying on the weekends to edit videos. Was it easy? No. Was it worth it? Absolutely.
How to Execute the Mixed Path: My Real-World Strategy
Let me break down exactly how I implemented the mixed path strategy that ultimately led to my freedom:
- Time Blocking Was Essential: I dedicated 90 minutes each morning (5-6:30 AM) and 5-10 hours on weekends to my YouTube channel. This consistency was non-negotiable in my calendar.
- Focus on Input, Not Output: Instead of obsessing over subscriber counts or revenue, I committed to creating one high-quality video per week for a full year. This shifted my mindset from results to process.
- The 80/20 Principle: I identified which 20% of my content generated 80% of my growth and revenue, then doubled down on those topics. For me, evidence-based productivity videos, “I tried” videos, and courses outperformed everything else.
- Quarterly Planning: I used a 12-week planning system where I’d set one personal and one professional goal, then break them into weekly mini-goals. This prevented overwhelm while maintaining momentum.
- Minimum Viable Testing: Before creating full courses, I tested concepts with free PDF guides and mini-videos to gauge audience interest, saving countless hours on products people didn’t want.
What I’m Enjoying This Week
📚 Read: Paul Graham’s “How to Make Wealth” – This essay fundamentally changed how I think about wealth creation. Paul explains why startups create wealth so efficiently and why employment isn’t the only path to financial freedom.
🎧 Listened: Chris Williams and Naval Ravikant’s Podcast – Their recent conversation on wealth creation, happiness, and leveraging specific knowledge is just amazing. I love Naval.
📷 Dream Camera Upgrade: Leica Q3 43 – This compact full-frame camera has rekindled my love for photography. It’s simple, fun, and damn crisp. It brings me back to when I had my first Sony Alpha 6000 camera and the joy I had when traveling and taking photos.
🧠 Mind Upgrade: Stanford’s “Designing Your Life” framework – This methodology from Stanford professors Bill Burnett and Dave Evans has been helping me align my work with what truly matters. It’s like productivity meets purpose.
🎬 Watched: Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford Commencement Address – I rewatch this annually. “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life” hits differently when you’re building toward your freedom number.
What Readers Say
I don't ask for "reviews" of my newsletter so I just pasted a few anonymized thank you emails from my readers:
FAQ
When does the Tuesday Tune-Up arrive?
Every Tuesday at 6:00 AM EST, right in your inbox. Perfect timing for your morning coffee or commute.
What's inside each email?
- One Big Idea: A 3-5 minute deep dive into health, wealth, or productivity backed by research and personal experience
- Real-World Strategy: Actionable steps you can implement immediately (not just theory)
- This Week’s Challenge: A specific action item to move you closer to your goals
- What I’m Enjoying: 5 curated recommendations—books, podcasts, tools, and insights I’m personally using
- Zero fluff: Every word earns its place. I respect your time.
Will there be ads or promotions?
I occasionally include affiliate links (marked with *) and sponsorships (clearly labeled “Sponsored by”). But here’s my rule: I only recommend products I’ve personally used and loved for at least 3 months. No exceptions. Your trust >>>> quick commissions.
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How can I support you?
The best way to help? Simply share the newsletter or my YouTube channel with someone who’d benefit from it. Word-of-mouth from readers like you is how we’ve grown to 5,000+ subscribers.
I’m also always experimenting with new tools, tech, and ideas—so if you discover something cool or have suggestions for content you’d like to see, hit reply and let me know. Some of my best videos and articles come from reader recommendations.
And yes, to keep the lights on as a full-time creator, I do sell a few things:
- My book SoloTuber – the YouTube playbook I wish I had 5 years ago
- Courses – deeper dives into productivity, studying, and YouTube systems
- Random projects – experimental stuff I’m testing
But honestly? Sharing the newsletter is the single most helpful thing you can do. Simply knowing you are reading this gives me a warm fuzzy feeling inside (no sarcasm, isn’t it cool that I started posting my thoughts on the internet and now people follow and connect with me? Seriously, this has changed my life. Everything else is just a bonus.)