Financial Freedom

A Proven Path to All the Money You Will Ever Need

By: Grant Sabatier, Vicki Robin - foreword

Narrated by: Grant Sabatier, Vicki Robin

Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

The International Best Seller

"This book blew my mind. More importantly, it made financial independence seem achievable. I read Financial Freedom three times, cover-to-cover." (Lifehacker) 

Money is unlimited. Time is not. Become financially independent as fast as possible.

In 2010, 24-year-old Grant Sabatier woke up to find he had $2.26 in his bank account. Five years later, he had a net worth of over $1.25 million, and CNBC began calling him "the Millennial Millionaire". By age 30, he had reached financial independence. Along the way, he uncovered that most of the accepted wisdom about money, work, and retirement is either incorrect, incomplete, or so old-school it's obsolete. 

Financial Freedom is a step-by-step path to make more money in less time, so you have more time for the things you love. It challenges the accepted narrative of spending decades working a traditional nine-to-five job, pinching pennies, and finally earning the right to retirement at age 65, and instead offers listeners an alternative: Forget everything you've ever learned about money so you can actually live the life you want.

Sabatier offers surprising, counterintuitive advice on topics such as how to:

• Create profitable side hustles that you can turn into passive-income streams or full-time businesses
• Save money without giving up what makes you happy
• Negotiate more out of your employer than you thought possible
• Travel the world for less
• Live for free - or better yet, make money on your living situation
• Create a simple, moneymaking portfolio that only needs minor adjustments
• Think creatively - there are so many ways to make money, but we don't see them.

But most importantly, Sabatier highlights that while one's ability to make money is limitless, one's time is not. There's also a limit to how much you can save, but not to how much money you can make. No one should spend precious years working at a job they dislike or worrying about how to make ends meet. Perhaps the biggest surprise: You need less money to "retire" at age 30 than you do at age 65.

Financial Freedom is not merely a laundry list of advice to follow to get rich quick - it's a practical road map to living life on one's own terms, as soon as possible.

©2019 Grant Sabatier (P)2019 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"Financial Freedom is about a lot more than money, it’s about living a richer life." (David Bach, number one New York Times best-selling author of The Automatic Millionaire and The Latte Factor)

"Grant's genius is on full display in the entrepreneurial attitudes and strategies in this practical, fiercely focused book. Financial Freedom fills a major gap in Your Money or Your Life that I didn't even realize was there. Thank you!" (from the foreword by Vicki Robin, New York Times best-selling coauthor of Your Money or Your Life)

"Simply put, this book will help you make money. You'll also learn to save, invest, and better manage your money - all good things! I hope you have the foresight to read and apply its many lessons." (Chris Guillebeau, New York Times best-selling author of Side Hustle and The $100 Startup) 

Meh...

Nothing new here. If you've read JL Collins, "A simple path to wealth", "Playing with FIRE" or the Mad Fientist's blog then you've already heard all of this.

I've been to the site as well and, maybe it's just me, but there are many things noted in the book that are not on the website.

This book feels like a side hustle to get speaking engagements.

Inconsistent and Needs Polish

I've been reading/listening through books in the FIRE and Financial Independence field for a couple of months now and some stick out as on point and others as scattered ideas. This book is somewhere in between.

I liked the fact that this book emphasised increasing cashflow and money-making to reach your financial goals quicker. Most other books have you look at a trajectory that doesn't include increasing your inflow of money. This was a refreshing take and I learned a lot.

What I felt was confusing is the inconsistencies with how much little things add up when saving. The author spends a bit justifying his high (relative) coffee costs and then in a few paragraphs talks about how much small expenses, if invested, would return if saved and invested and not spent. I felt the author came across as "this rule doesn't apply to me because I NEED my fancy coffee". It's a habit, a habit you can kick and be better for it IMO.

The narration was somewhere above amateur and well below professional. The author did a fantastic job for someone who doesn't narrate for a living! But, the wierd long pauses between parts of sentences, and the laugh-through-a-sentence thing he does weakens the experience.

My major nit-pick is the chapter on real estate. How do you spend almost an hour talking about buying and investing in houses and barely cover HOA fees, Property Taxes, and maintenance and not even mention Realtor Fees and Closing costs? This chapter sounded more like an ad on the radio for "put 3% down and get rich with real estate (but shhhh, don't worry all the other costs which will eat any profits you think you might make)". This chapter needs a lot more information to be useful in my opinion. Like how do you ride out a market downturn? What do you do when you have no tenants?

Overall an interesting listen and a decent bit of information about passive income and side hustles.

Doesn't live up to the hype

There may be some useful information here, however Grant's reading performance is very poor to say the least. He finishes each sentence with an odd inflection in his voice as though he were asking a question? Very distracting. I will be returning the book.

The overall message is motivating

Grants story is not believable. $0 to over $1 million in 5 years. Especially since he was not making significant money on day one.

Some of his tax advice is wrong.

In the beginning if the audio book Grant’s vocal tone did not match the content of what he was saying. This was distracting.

good book

This is a solid read for anyone aspiring to FI. It gets a little boring when he goes on about retirement accounts for a chapter or two but it's important for alot of people. Lots of good info for people interested in personal finance.

Great advice for millenials

I’m 35, and am pretty floored to do better of saving after reading this. I have a nephew and a sister, both millenials, who are struggling financially. I plan on handing over this book to both of them. You don’t have to do 100% of his suggestions, but this book is great motivation to implement small changes in your life to reach financial freedom.

The reading is slow though. I had to speed up the reading speed. It’s slightly annoying that he pauses when there’s no comma, like he loses his place while reading, BUT, I’ll give him a pass because he’s practicing what he’s preaching by narrating this book himself instead of spending money he doesn’t need to spend on a professional narrator/voice actor. I’m guessing he invested that saved money.

This book mimics a lot of other financial books, but it’s brought up to speed with the current tax laws and the state of our current economy. The only thing I wished it would have touched more on in testimonials from people who became millionaires at 30 with kids. That’s a detail that was either omitted or they all don’t have kids. That makes the financial game so much different (or does it? I’d like to know!)

Overall, it’s a really great, quick read for any financial book junkie under 40.

I couldn’t finish this - after about 3-4 hours I wasn’t getting anything new

Took over 10 hours to say the same thing over and over again. Start saving as much as you can as soon as you can.

This one is different- practical presentation of how wealth building works

Just like maintaining your weight requires attention to your diet and exercise, Grant presents what has to occur to reach financial health. Where he goes a different direction from other writers of wealth accumulation- and this is it’s strength- is it moves from the question ‘what do you want?’ So much of what I’ve read and heard screams ‘you should be very afraid’ and paints pictures of retirement eked out on a diet of crackers and ketchup. Grant has supplanted that fear focus with vision.

‘What do you want?’ moves on to a practical determination of ‘what will it take?’ He goes beyond just the calculations. There are already abundant sources available elsewhere for computing the impossibility of a satisfactory retirement. Yes, he has you do the math. His purpose is to give the outcome workable boundaries. Unlike other guides, Grant doesn’t stop there.

In giving practical actions you can do to close the gap from where you are to where you see yourself, Grant deviates from the mainstream. The reassurance that you can do this comes from the realistic actions he shares. You read/hear them and realize ‘I can do that’. This goes way beyond other literature which peppers you with examples of individuals (ex: Susie Q. in Denver) who accomplished independence through applying the principles (although Grant gives some of those examples too). I never related to those exceptional cases, other than a vague feeling that maybe I could do it. Thinking about the steps Grant provides makes me feel this is doable.

I wish I had this 30 years ago. I think I can apply what I’ve learned to have the retirement I want, albeit at a conventional retirement age. Better late than not at all. Thanks, Grant!

Good Book

This book helps you organize your thoughts on money. Helps you create a path toward freedom.

Amazing

Without a doubt this is one of the best financial books I've ever lisned to.

Don’t buy this book if you’re not American! It’s all about how to make it in America..Useless!!

I say this because the author talks about IRAs all the time which is irrelevant to me as an African...I don’t care about the US system, to me it’s a waste of time.
But the message is simple and everyone will tell you.
- Live on less than you earn, save and invest the remaining to grow your wealth.

Enjoyable and Interesting

Only put this as 4 stars as a lot of the content is tailored towards an American audience. Which is great if you live in America but not if you live elsewhere. Apart from that the book is really insightful and I’d recommend.

last few chapters worth listening to.

found it incredibly repetitive. They repeat mathematical sums for compounding etc so many times I had to skip over.

Nothing new

From someone that retired in 5 years I expected more than just earn, save, invest and repeat. This could be specific tools for building passive income or a guide to how to deserve and ask for a raise. A missed opportunity to empower others.

Interesting book

Very interesting book with a different ways on managing your money in the way it fits you

Many great nuggets

Someone left a review here making the point that it's useless if you're not American, however I found that although there was a lot to disregard for us UK folk, the principles were universal and I found a lot of value In this book. Clearly a lot of work went into it and I think I may have another listen at some point, with a pen and paper to hand.

It's a solid format for you to follow.

Although some will say that there is nothing new here if you have listened to Dave Ramsey, David Bach etc, Grant does give you great advice about how he did it and I found it refreshing with the few twists he adds.
The main thing is he really pushes your sideline income as a must to invest and this is a great tip as many people will always spend side income. Don't do this and invest it and you get closer to the end goal quickly. Also, all the tools he gives are really excellent on his website. Ignore the mostly American bias....we have IRA's and 401ks in the UK... they are just called something different. The basis is the same or similar. A good book and Grant is a good guy.

great book

would have been 5 stars, but large sections are very US centric, retirement accounts etc

Great book, triggers instant change in your life

Great audiobook! Managed to finish in a week whilst commuting to and from work and thoroughly enjoyed it. whilst the tips and tricks throughout are very valuable, there are certain areas that lean towards Americans only (I live in the UK), but that shouldnt stop you from giving it a go wherever you are from.
My journey to financial freedom began after the first chapter and having listened through to the end I can now forsee what I need to do and how long it will take to get to my journeys end.