Achieving financial freedom is a journey I am on, not complete, but I am sharing along the way because I think there are more takeaways during the partial financial freedom phase than there might be further down the road. Balancing the books and doing accounts to understand your basic expenses, living costs, and expenses that could be removed by taking aggressive hold over your incoming and outgoing monies is necessary while still figuring out how to achieve financial freedom.

In this post, I will describe some of that process and challenges for me and you can do your due diligence. In general, when discussing with family or friends, or when reading or consuming content on the internet, always do your homework on these topics. It is like studying, like doing a “candidacy” (in academic terms) on finance topics and then applying that “in the lab” of your real life. You never want to hear something and do it without researching it yourself.

Personal finance is personal

You should never blindly take anyone’s advice regarding personal finance. It is individual to you. Only you know your exact situation so if someone says to buy a home, or sell a home, that might not apply to you now. You can hear the inner or more layered meaning of what they might be trying to say, take from it what you can or will, and leave the rest. Do not dwell on anything or spend too much time on stuff that might not apply to you because that is a waste of time, and time is money. Don’t waste time.

In my other posts, I talk about how to get started with investing and how I have capitalized on a particular type of asset class: dividend stocks. I am not saying you should buy dividend stocks or not, I am saying I like them. They have been an important pillar in my financial freedom journey. The idea is that while making money from your active income, you save whatever you can save and invest it in dividend stocks that pay you dividends either monthly or quarterly, and at some point, you have enough coming in through these channels where you might not have to work an active job, or at least, you would have the option to take a break, figure out life, etc.

It would mean less dependence on only the active income. But it all starts from the active income, so don’t feel discouraged if you currently depend on an active income like a job because that is normal and okay. If you take steps towards more financial freedom, it does not matter when you start, you will get there. You will, at least, get closer to it as you start paying attention to the topic and your accounts.

How to achieve partial financial freedom

Identified Roadblock = Luxury Car

With thanks to the universe, I have a nice, used car that I bought with a 60 – 70% discount off its original price. It is a Mercedes Benz E350 from the year 2013. The car has been my second shelter as well as my automobile through thick and thin, rain and shine. It never gave me problems until this year (2024). I have been using the vehicle a lot to go to and from work. I have an onsite job and this year has been extremely high-demand and high-pressure in this role. Earlier this year, I got hit with a $2527 repair for the car. It was the first time I needed anything more than an oil change on the car.

Since then, I have been having some additional car problems that I am now closer to hopefully solving but they did lead to a whole spiral where I thought I should sell the car to simplify my life. Not having a car in the USA also makes life hard, so I have been in a conundrum. I don’t want to sell this car and then later on have to buy another car with more money than simply repair this one. I have had this car for a while and was not planning to get a different one.

Ultimately, I realized that financial freedom is a feeling. If I don’t feel so good about my life then that is not financial freedom. This is mostly a reminder for myself as I can be very aggressive with my savings and investments. Sometimes, we have to deal with this because the thing we would give up to accelerate financial freedom might make us otherwise sad. But it is good to be cognizant of the choices we make and what they mean.

Boston traffic and roads gave me a few flat tires and I started having to do some rounds of Mercedes service centers this year. At a service center recently, I wrote this as part of my journaling process for achieving financial freedom at the Mercedes dealership in a Massachusetts town.

Journaling about achieving financial freedom (at Mercedes)

The money works for me

The house works for me (because of eventual appreciation, with thanks to the universe)

The car… I work for the car

I spend so much time at these service centers

Doing the rounds

And the issues stress me out

It would be better for me to not work for a car and have cars and drivers work for me instead when the time comes

It’s better to work for myself rather than a car like today I am over here all day getting the services done but I could be at home working content or resting or getting stuff done I mean I guess this is fine too because I am getting this done and meeting people and learning how all this works with a luxury car dealership life…

I guess this is good for content.

At this Mercedes Benz dealership, there is a sparkling kitchen with coffee and snacks, a friendly lady serving at the kitchen who will make you the coffee and bring you snacks, and a nail salon. I can see all the nail polish bottles on display for customers who might want to get their nails done during servicing.

I think the nail lady left at 3 pm though, while the dealership is open till 7 pm. Just so you know…

The young lady is working the coffee machine and trying to stay on top of demanding customer needs.

She is busy but people are being kind of like people… needy and asking a ton of questions. I wish the kitchen were just self-service.

These luxury car places and their niceties are so inauthentic.

There is this undercurrent at this place…I can feel it.

Of “I can’t afford this but here I am… “

Everyone here for servicing looks stressed and worried about the bill they might be getting soon. The engineers look happy honestly. They are working on cars they love and charging over $100 per hour for labor.

The salespeople, not so much…they look bored or fake-happy.

The service staff are stressed because they have to cater to people who own luxury cars. They are understaffed because everyone is. No one can afford anything but here we are at a luxury car dealership, doing life.

Is this how I want to spend my time…

It’s basically like… at some point you realize the luxury is in the simplicity

Simplicity is luxury

If the luxury is making you work extra hard and not be able to have a good life and live and do what you want then that’s not very luxurious

The Luxury is in being home and recovering and going for a walk and going to the park and going for a hike nearby and taking the train and being driven around.

On the flip side, the car helps to go to the place for the hike. In America, to take a walk, we drive first. The car would also help to go to the train station and park and then take the train. In America, we drive first to take the train.

Ultimately, we all have some kind of money pit.

How do people afford a Mercedes Benz?

But I love the car. I did further homework and figured out that the dealerships are where you go for the bare minimum type of servicing (like routine or B-service) and to get the list of things that need to be done on the car with their cost estimates because Mercedes will do a “multi-point check” on your car whenever you bring it in for any servicing. They also wash the car and vacuum the front interior as a complimentary service. Take the best, and leave the rest! No need to get other things done there that cost more.

Don’t go to dealerships for big repairs

Then, apparently, according to Reddit, you are supposed to find a local mechanic who will do the repairs with proper care without charging an arm and a leg for it. So instead of agonizing, I got to work to understand further how to maintain this car. Reddit was very insightful. Nowadays, you cannot do anything without proper research. Buying a new, used car, all options are more expensive than my current option of maintaining the same car.

I KNOW finance experts say to buy a Toyota for this exact reason of repair cost, but I low-key already have a Mercedes so too late for that advice. Now I want to either have my Mercedes or have no car. I don’t want another Mercedes, a Honda, a BMW, a Ferrari, a new car (with potentially higher insurance cost), a new Kia, nothing. I want MY Mercedes. And that local shop I found with over 700 reviews and 60 years of experience had better help me address the problems of my baby car this week.

I also realized another trick to owning a Mercedes. Prepare to walk and take public transport! Because if you don’t have the time or money (right now) to address its issues it’s better to use a different option for transport, and delay to find more TIME to research, collect quotes on the repairs, and go from there, than make a rushed decision. I am now avoiding all rushed or rash decisions and giving myself the luxury of time.

Capitalism makes you go-go, and rush-rush for a reason… it costs you more money and makes other people more money. Conveniences and rushed decisions cost money.

To own a luxury car, you must have the luxury of time… more than money. Although money helps, it can only go so far. It is important to boost the stretch of the dollar by giving it more time. More to grow, and less spent on quick decisions.

The luxury of time… is integral to achieving financial freedom

Time to walk, time to look up the bus schedule, time to figure out local mechanic options, time to say No to the dealership that will charge at least a couple thousand more to do the same repair and time to find your center. Time to be mindful.

Financial freedom should provide a luxury of time… more time to do the things that are important to you. I realized the car is important to me. So I am taking more time to take care of it. Not rushing through any choices about its repair, but taking time to take the steps necessary. Spreading it out over time. More time. Prioritizing the repair that is most urgent and going from there. Letting my money keep growing rather than drop it here and there and everywhere.

How do people afford a Mercedes Benz?
byu/cirrostr inmercedes_benz

I am a step closer to financial freedom if I can identify the choices that are leading to less or more financial freedom. You can do the same. Figure out what one, two, or three choices are keeping you from your financial freedom. The apartment, the car, what is it? No judgment but we are here to think and discuss…

Now, if that is kids, then that would be a lot harder than, say, the choice to keep a car. I understand. Cheers!

Do your due diligence when it comes to achieving financial freedom

The author of this blog is not offering financial advice. This content is for educational and entertainment purposes only. We encourage doing your due diligence and researching any type of investment. The author has positions in some of the example stocks mentioned in various blog posts, such as but not limited to, SPYI, JEPI, and SPHIX. Whatever discussion is presented here does not represent the current value or news about any stock. You have to look up the current news yourself. The author is not sponsored by Mercedes Benz and discussions presented here are not to be considered official news about any brands or companies. Thank you for reading!