Developing the Core Financial Habits Series
The Importance of Setting Goals and Tracking Progress
You would never step onto the field without a game plan. You would not start a long road trip without a map or at least a destination. The same is true for your financial journey. If you do not measure your progress, you will lose motivation, lose focus, and eventually lose direction. Tracking gives you clarity. Seeing progress gives you fuel to keep going.
There are four simple metrics that keep you on track throughout your journey.
Metric 1: Create Your Financial Roadmap
The first step is knowing where you are going. Coach Holdren’s S.E.M. Calculator can help you map out how long it will take to reach Financial Freedom or Financial Independence based on your current savings rate. It also lets you download a spreadsheet (.csv file) that shows your expected progress year by year.
You can also build your own spreadsheet if you prefer. The point is to have a plan—a projection of how your investments will grow over time. This gives you a yearly target to aim for, like a season schedule with clear goals.
Metric 2: Total Value of Your Long-Term Investment Accounts
Once you have your roadmap, you need to track where you are right now. This means adding the total value of your 401(k), IRA, and long-term taxable brokerage accounts. These are the accounts you are using to build your Freedom Fund—the investments you do not plan to touch until you reach your financial milestones.
Compare this total to the roadmap you built. Are you ahead of schedule? Behind? Right on track? You don’t need to do this every day or even every month. Quarterly or twice a year is enough for most people.
Metric 3: Track Your Net Worth
Your net worth is simply:
Total Assets – Total Liabilities
Assets include things like retirement accounts, brokerage accounts, cash savings, and home equity. Liabilities are debts: mortgage, student loans, car loans, and credit cards.
Tracking your net worth gives you the bigger picture of your financial health. You can do this quarterly, twice a year, or at least once annually. During market downturns, your net worth might drop temporarily, but this is not a reason to panic. It is part of the journey. In sports terms, it’s like losing a match during a long season. The key is staying in the league race.
Metric 4: Calculate Your Current Safe Withdrawal Rate
This is a great way to measure your progress toward Financial Freedom. Take the total value of your long-term investments and multiply it by 0.04 (or 4 percent). This tells you how much your investments could safely provide each year without shrinking the principal.
Example:
- Total investments: $1,000,000
- $1,000,000 × 0.04 = $40,000 per year
If your annual living expenses are $80,000, then you are halfway to Financial Freedom. If your investments can cover your full expenses, you are at Financial Freedom. If they can cover your gross income, you are at Financial Independence.
Why This Matters
Tracking these metrics keeps you motivated. It shows you real progress. It reminds you that even if the journey takes years or decades, the system is working. These measurements help you make small adjustments, stay disciplined, and keep your eyes on the goal.
Living With Intention and Purpose
Why do we chase Financial Freedom or Financial Independence in the first place? It is not just about money. It is about agency, the freedom to decide how you spend your time, who you spend it with, what work you choose to do, and what life you choose to build. The Simpli-FI.money Formula is not a life of restriction. It is a life of intention.
You are not trying to save just for the sake of saving. You are building a system that gives you choices. Every year you practice the core habits: spend less than you earn, invest the difference in low-cost index funds, avoid debt, give it time to grow. By following this approach, you are earning degrees of freedom.
Think of it this way:
- When you can cover a $1,000 emergency without debt, you gain a degree of freedom.
- When you can go three months without a paycheck because you have savings, you gain another degree of freedom.
- When your Freedom Fund grows enough to cover one year of living expenses, you gain even more independence from fear, stress, or toxic workplaces.
As your investments compound, your freedom compounds with it.
The Purpose Behind the Formula
The goal is not to stop working. The goal is to reach a place where work becomes optional. Where you can walk into the office and know you are there by choice, not because you have to be.
Financial Freedom is when your investments can cover your annual living expenses. This is where agency begins. You are no longer dependent on your next paycheck to survive. You could step away for a while, take a sabbatical, change careers, or start something new.
Financial Independence is the next level. This is when your investments can replace your gross annual income. This is your perpetual garden, producing enough fruit year after year to cover your life without you having to plant another seed. You have full agency over your time, your work, your life.
Spending With Purpose
Avoiding debt and building wealth is not about deprivation. It is about alignment, making sure your spending reflects your values. When you practice these habits, you are not cutting joy out of your life. You are removing the things that do not matter so you can make more room for the things that do.
Freedom is not built by accident. It is built with purpose and patience.
You Now Have the Full Playbook – TAKE ACTION!
You now have the full Simpli-FI.money playbook. Four core habits, one system, and a clear path to Financial Freedom or Independence. This is not theory. This is a proven framework; simple, repeatable, and available to anyone willing to be disciplined over time.
The formula is made of four habits:
• Spend less than you earn.
• Invest the difference.
• Avoid debt.
• Give it time to grow.
These are not one-time actions. They are habits you repeat over seasons, just like a championship team repeats the fundamentals every year. Becoming financially free is not about luck, some secret stock tip, or sudden income. It is about doing the right things consistently until the system you built begins working for you.
Think of a great sports dynasty. They do not win just once. They build a culture. They master the basics. They play disciplined offense and defense. They trust their system even when things get tough. Wealth works the same way. You are not trying to win one financial game. You are building a winning system that works across decades.
Once you set up your investment accounts, invest in low-cost index funds, automate your contributions, and step back. Let time and compounding work their magic. At first, it does not look like much. But if you stay patient, if you keep the system running, something powerful happens. Your money begins earning more than you do. Your investments become your most reliable teammate.
This is not about perfection. You will make mistakes. Markets will dip. Life will throw curveballs. But if you stick to the habits, if you do not panic, if you refuse to take the financial red card, you will keep moving forward. Every month you stay in the game, you are buying more freedom for your future self.
You do not need to become wealthy overnight. You just need to start today. Open the accounts. Cut the unnecessary expenses. Invest what you can. Avoid debt. Give it time. That is how every financially free person starts; right where you are now.
Your future is not determined by what you earn today, but by what you do consistently from this point forward. The habits are simple. The discipline is rare. But for those who stay the course, the reward is freedom, real freedom.
The time to start is now, Take action, and never look back. Your future self will thank you.