Ep 270: 4 Financial Freedoms on America's 250th Birthday

Hi, everybody.

This episode is being released during 4th of July week of 2026.

And as you've probably been hearing, this is United states of America's 250th birthday.

And if you're like most Americans, that means growing out fireworks, maybe a cold drink in your hands, and watching something blow up in the sky.

But I want to take a few moments this episode to talk about freedom.

Okay, so our country was founded on freedom, and we're going to talk about four financial freedoms today.

So I hope that you enjoy this episode.

Welcome to the weekly wealth podcast.

I am certified financial planner David Chudick.

This podcast and my wealth management practice are both designed to help the mass affluent to live better lives by how they handle their money.

We talk about financial strategies, prosperous mindsets, and simply how to build true wealth.

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All right, so now that we have that out of the way, let's talk a little bit about freedom.

On January 6, 1941, over 80 years ago, pretty president Franklin Delano Roosevelt stood before Congress and outlined what he called the four freedoms, the four essential freedoms that every human being deserves.

Now, he was talking about freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.

He wasn't talking about money.

He was talking about human dignity.

But here's what I've noticed after working with business owners and high earners for years.

The people who are truly, genuinely free, they've built their version of all four.

So on today during Independence Day season, I want to walk you through the four freedoms of being financially free.

This isn't a debt payoff episode.

This isn't a cut your lattes and don't eat avocado toast episode.

This is for people who are building something real and want to understand what financial freedom actually looks like when you get there.

So.

So let's reframe financial freedom.

Before we get into the four freedoms, I need to say something that might ruffle a few feathers.

So most of what you've heard about financial freedom is wrong.

Or at least it's maybe incomplete.

Not totally wrong.

The popular version of Freedom looks like this.

You eliminate all debt.

You live on less than you make, you build up a nest egg, and eventually, maybe someday, you might be able to stop working.

Working.

Now that's fine for some people, but it's not the whole picture.

And it's especially not the whole picture for the achievers and the listeners of the weekly wealth podcast.

Because the business owner sitting on a company worth $3 million doesn't typically have a debt problem.

The executive earning 400,000 per year doesn't need to clip coupons.

And honestly, that might take freedom away.

Right when you're spending your Saturday morning looking up sales, I don't know, maybe you're not free to do the things that you like.

And the entrepreneur who built something real isn't looking for permission to buy a coffee.

I, quite frankly, every once in a while I like going and spending $6 on a coffee.

Now, if you have enough money to do that, then it is fine.

But what they are looking to do is something deeper, something that no amount of spreadsheet optimization gets you to.

They're looking for optionality.

How do you like that as a word?

They're looking for certainty.

They're looking for a life where the next decision they make is driven by what they want and not what they are afraid of.

So let me say that again and think about what your life would be like if your next decision was driven by what you want, not by what you're afraid of.

That's what we're building towards today.

The four freedoms, each one a layer.

And when you stack all four, you're actually free.

So one of FDR's freedom was freedom from fear.

And for him that meant freedom from the threat of war, from aggression, and the feeling that at any moment your world could be torn apart.

For the financially free, it means something similar, but in dollars and cents.

Now, this does not only apply to the low earning and the low net worth, this applies to the high earning and high net worth.

Because I know that a lot of the high net worth, they kind of live on the edge with not much margin.

Freedom from fear is the floor.

It's the foundation.

It answers the question, what's the worst that can happen?

And am I protected if it does?

Let me give you two versions of what this looks like.

For the business owner, freedom from fear means you've stopped having 100% of your net worth tied up in one illiquid uninsured asset, which is your company.

You've started to de risk, maybe have some exit planning, maybe have some Buy, sell agreements in place.

Maybe you've begun moving money off the table.

So if something happens, maybe a health event, I'll tell you about my health event.

At some point, maybe a market downturn, maybe a key employee walking out.

You don't lose everything.

That's freedom from fear.

That's not paranoia, that's preparation.

For the high earner or the accumulator, freedom of fear looks different.

It looks like having a guaranteed income floor, maybe a stream of income that shows up whether the market is down or sideways.

An amount that covers your non negotiables, your mortgage, your insurance, your groceries.

No matter what, think of it as building your own pension.

Whether it's through Social Security optimization, maybe annuities, maybe structured bonds, maybe rental income or some combination, the goal is the same.

A floor that you cannot fall through.

And here's the thing about fear in financial planning.

Most people make their worst financial decisions when they are afraid.

They sell at the bottom.

They don't take the risk they should take.

They stay at a job that they ha because the paycheck feels safe.

When you build the floor, you eliminate the nightmare scenarios.

Something changes.

You stop making fear based decisions.

And that alone is worth more than almost any investment return that you can chase.

So freedom from fear is not about eliminating risk.

It's actually kind of the opposite.

It's about eliminating the risks that would be catastrophic.

So you can choose to take on the risks that are worth taking on.

Now I asked my client and I asked my prospects a very important question and that's what are two or three things that if they happened or maybe if they didn't happen could cripple you financially?

And sometimes you'll get answers like, well if one of the parents passed away.

But other times you'll get answers like I have a business partner and we don't have a really good contract and I don't trust this person.

So maybe going to an attorney and nailing that down legally is something that you need to do.

Sometimes you'll hear that somebody knows that long term care expenses can cripple a family financially.

And maybe there are some ways to handle that.

So we can't eliminate all risk, but we can mitigate the risks that give us large chances of financial loss.

So ask yourself that what are two or three things that if they happened or maybe if they didn't happen, it would cripple us financially and work with your financial advisor to lower those risks.

Now another one of FDR's freedom was the freedom from want.

And the idea was that no one should go without the basic necessities of a dignified life.

So housing, food, things like that.

But for the financially free.

For the listeners of the weekly wealth podcast, this one gets flipped on its head in an interesting way.

Freedom from want isn't just about having enough.

It's about knowing what enough actually is.

And I'll tell you, this is one of the most underrated problems in high net worth financial planning.

I can sit across the table from people with seven figure portfolios who are still afraid, they're still anxious, they're still convinced that one bad year could take it away.

They have more than enough by any objective measure, and they feel like they have nothing.

That's not a math problem, that's a clarity problem.

Freedom from want means you've done the work to define what your life actually costs, not what you're afraid it might cost someday.

What it actually costs now.

Your real number, your real lifestyle.

Then you've built a plan.

Did you notice I said the word plan?

Because that's really important to fund that with margin, with buffer, with confidence for the business owner.

It's critical as you think about an exit because a lot of owners walk away from great deals because they haven't answered this question.

One question.

How much do I actually need to never work again?

Once you know that number, once you've stress tested it, once you've put it into the simulations, a lot of anxiety about selling dissolves for the accumulator.

This one is about running real projections, not the scary ones where everything goes wrong.

The honest ones, the ones that show you if you keep doing what you're doing, you're going to be fine.

Freedom from want is about replacing anxiety with clarity.

Let me say that again.

Freedom from want is about replacing anxiety with clarity and clarity.

Real, honest, math backed clarity is one of the most important financial assets that you can own.

I often tell my clients that a really good financial plan, a financial plan that's sound, that's based on facts, it gives you actually oftentimes permission to spend more money to enjoy more of your life, because we can prove on paper that you can afford it.

So I have some clients that they, they're a little bit afraid to spend money.

But once we look at the projections, once we plug in cash flows and do a Monte Carlo simulation and stress tested, they find out that, yes, there's still a very small chance that they'll ever run out of money.

Even if they do take that big vacation every year, even if they do spend a little bit of Extra money on the grandkids, even if they do buy the be house.

Okay?

So know your numbers.

And that gives you freedom of want.

Now let's get into a freedom that is one that we don't talk about enough.

And FDR's freedom was freedom of speech.

And that's the freedom to express yourself, to live your truth and not be silenced.

Now, I'm going to translate this into something I think the modern equivalent for high earners and business owners is, and that would be freedom of time.

Because something that I see constantly.

People are financially successful on paper, but they become completely enslaved to their schedule.

Their business owns them, their calendar owns them.

They've built a golden cage and they're living in it.

Think about a lot of doctors.

Yeah, they have great incomes, but they work a lot and they miss weekends and they miss time with kids.

That may not be true freedom.

Real freedom means your money is working hard enough that your time becomes your choice.

You, you work because you want to.

You show up because you love it, not because the machine stops if you step away.

I talked about this a few weeks ago when we covered the concept of the freedom point.

The moment in a business owner's journey when the value they've built is enough, that work becomes optional.

They've crossed that threshold.

And that is a beautiful point to be on.

But here's what I want to add today.

You don't have to be a business owner to reach the freedom point on your calendar.

The executive who built a portfolio large enough to generate passive income is getting there.

The professional who's stacked enough in their retirement accounts to know they could retire a decade early if they wanted to, they are getting there too.

Now, notice the words that I said retire if they wanted to.

My goal is not necessarily to help my clients to retire.

My goal is to help them to retire and if they want to, when the time gets there.

So freedom of time isn't about working.

Some of the wealthiest, most financially free people I know work incredibly hard.

The difference is they choose to every single day.

Nobody's forcing them.

Nothing bad happens if they stop.

That's the goal.

It's not retirement, it's optionality.

Most people really don't want to retire, especially if they're still healthy.

They want to be in a position where work is optional.

Remember the old country song, Take this Job and Shove It?

Don't we all want to be in that position?

When FDR was speaking, he spoke about another freedom, and that was freedom of worship.

And that's the freedom to Live according to your values, your beliefs, your convictions.

Not my values, but your values.

And I'm going to translate that into a fourth and final financial freedom.

And that's freedom for legacy.

Because ultimately, and this is one most financial plan skip entirely.

Freedom isn't just about what you get to do with your money while you're here.

It's about what your money says about you after you're gone.

So what does your wealth do when you're not here to direct it?

Who benefits from it?

What gets built?

What gets protected?

For some people, legacy is family.

It's making sure their kids and grandkids have a foundation that took a lifetime to build.

And it's passing values along with assets and making sure that the wealth does create opportunity, not dependency for other people.

Legacy is philanthropy, right?

It's causes that matter.

Faith communities, local institutions, organizations doing work they believe in.

I'm actually on the board of a community foundation.

For the business owner, legacy often starts before the estate plan.

It starts with how you exit.

Do you sell to the highest bidder?

Do you find the buyer who shares your vision for what the company becomes?

Do your employees have a path forward?

Does your name stay on the door?

Freedom for legacy means you've thought about this.

You haven't left it to chance to default beneficiary designations to a boilerplate will you signed 15 years ago and never looked at again.

Your wealth is a form of speech.

It says something.

The question is, do you know what you want it to say?

So I say it every episode.

I say it all the time.

I believe that how we handle our money should positively impact our life and the lives of those around us.

So how can you increase the quality of your life, of the lives of those you love, by how you handle your money?

That's really what we're talking about, isn't it?

So give that a lot of thought.

And if we stack all four, if we stack freedom from fear, you've built a floor.

You've eliminated catastrophic risks the nightmare scenarios are protected against.

So that reduces fear.

Does that mean bad things will never happen?

No, but what it does is it eliminates the major chances of catastrophic risks.

Freedom from want, right?

You need to know your number.

Work with your financial advisor.

You need clarity, not just assets.

The anxiety can be replaced by honest math.

I have a client, he has a seven figure net worth, he lives in a small house and he is really afraid of losing money.

And we've had some conversations that are saying I can mathematically prove to you that you can spend More money, you can enjoy life, whatever that means to you.

And there's still a very low chance that you'll ever run out of money.

So that should give him some freedom now, freedom of time.

Your calendar belongs to you.

Work is a choice.

The machine doesn't stop if you step away.

Now.

Wouldn't it be great if we worked when we wanted to?

If we wanted to, Wouldn't it be great if we could spend other time doing the things that gives us purpose?

That could just be things like sports, it could be exercising, it could be spending time with family, it could be volunteering.

But whatever it is for you, when you have that freedom, you are able to realize your values through how you handle your money.

And finally, freedom for legacy.

You need to decide what your wealth says.

That story needs to be written by you and the impact needs to be intentional.

That's financial freedom.

It's not a number, it's not a net worth threshold, it's not a date on the retirement.

Because I bet you know someone and I know quite a few of them, some people that have high net worths, but they are so tied to their businesses that they can't take a day off.

Remember the Cat's in the Cradle and the Silver Spoon song where the dad spent all of his time building his business and accumulating, but he didn't have that freedom of time.

And then the boy grew up just like him.

Very sad story.

And we don't want that to be our stories.

So freedom is a feeling.

It's a structure.

It's a set of decisions made on purpose that put you in control of your life.

So here's the truth.

Most people have one or two of these.

Maybe they've got the floor, they've got some savings, some insurance, some protection, but they haven't thought about their legacy.

Or they know exactly what they want to leave behind, but they're afraid to check the account balance.

The work, the real work, is building all four.

Intentionality with a plan.

And that is exactly what I help people do.

So if today's episode hits home and if you're thinking about which of the four freedoms you're still building, I want to talk to you.

I have a 20 minute strategy call that I call the vision call.

It costs nothing.

There's no pitch, no pressure.

Just 20 minutes to figure out where you are, where you want to go, and whether there's a path that I can help you with.

So head to www.weeklywealthpodcast.com to grab yourself, spot the link is also in the show notes.

And if you're a business owner and you're thinking specifically about freedom of timepiece, what does that look like for you?

Do you have a choice on whether to keep working?

I'd also point you to www.weeklywealthpodcast.com.

It's a free assessment that gives you an indication of how far that you are from your freedom point.

So have a great 4th of July, enjoy the fireworks.

Go build your freedom.

I'll talk to you next week.

My name is David Chudick.

This is the Weekly Wealth Podcast.

The information presented on this podcast is for general educational purposes only and does not constitute financial investment, legal or tax advice.

Parallel Financial is registered with the U.S. securities and Exchange Commission as a registered investment advisor.

Registration does not imply a certain level of skill or training, nor does it constitute an endorsement by the sec.

All investing involves risk, including the potential loss of principal.

Please consult a qualified financial professional before making any financial decisions.

Is your bonus content for this episode?

When we're talking about financial freedom, make sure to build in some luxuries.

Make sure to build in some splurges, right?

Because I don't think freedom is Hey, I only can eat beans and rice.

I don't think freedom is we have to watch every dollar that we spend, so we don't want to be overly excessive.

But to me, freedom is once in a while you go to a nice restaurant.

Once in a while you take a really nice vacation that may end up costing more than more than reasonable.

So give that some thought.

Build in some luxuries.

Build in some extravagance into your financial plan and into your financial freedom.

Have a great weekend.

I'm honored that you listen to the Weekly Wealth Podcast and we'll see you next week.

Thanks everybody.