1. Retirement
2. Entrepreneurship
3. Fitness

I’ll define freedom as having enough time and money to do what you want when you want and the freedom to make choices.

Retirement

Close to 80-90% of the world by my best estimate, chooses to work for someone else until retirement. It may be a safer and more clear path to take, but the downside may be less fulfillment, limits on earning potential, and less control over choices and decisions. It’s not a bad path, but it is the slowest path, with the average retirement age in the U.S. being over 60. Personally, I don’t imagine myself retiring from the work I enjoy, but I definitely want the option to choose.

Entrepreneurship

Risky but rewarding. It’s full of failures and setbacks, but those who persist can end up with more money, more time, and more fulfillment from their work. The tricky part is having no one to be accountable to can make you abuse your time and money. Not to downplay the challenges of entrepreneurship, but the upsides are worth it for those with the courage and work ethic to be entrepreneurs. And it has a less to do with being smart than some may think. At least try. You have something valuable to offer that someone will pay more money for. To be clear, being an entrepreneur doesn’t mean you have to give up your safe job or a successful career you’ve spent your whole life building. To be an entrepreneur means to be someone who undertakes a project or venture, which you can charge more money for. There are plenty of success stories of side gigs turning into full-blown empires.

Fitness

All that time and money means nothing if your health suffers. Not having the freedom to move or engage in activities because of your health would not be worth any amount of financial success. The beauty of fitness is that it’s affordable and available to everyone, and unlike work, your efforts are always rewarded. The downside of fitness is that you have to do it forever. Not just one time in your life, or a few times a year, or when you have the time and money. It has to be now and forever, almost every week of your life. You can do it in only a couple of hours a week if you know what to do. One of the world's cruel outcomes is for those who work hard until retirement, neglecting their health for money, then don’t have the fitness to enjoy their retirement. The good news is it is never too late to improve your health, but the sooner you get started, the easier it will be.

If you haven’t picked up on my hints, the path I encourage for all is fitness first, entrepreneurship, and then retirement, if you wish.