I Was Financially Free Before I Was a Millionaire (Here’s How)

Over the last few weeks, I’ve gone deep on the first two shifts reshaping how wealth is built:

The shift from public markets to private markets.
The shift from investment advisor to family office paradigm.

Today, I want to tackle the third shift, and honestly, this is the one that changed my life.

The shift from Net Worth to Cash Flow.

This might be the most counterintuitive of the three, because everything we’ve been taught says to focus on net worth. Grow the pile. Make the number bigger.

But I’m here to tell you: That’s the wrong target.

Financial Freedom Before Millionaire Status

Here’s something most people don’t know about me:

I had financial freedom before I was ever a millionaire.

Before I ever had a million dollars in net worth, I had achieved financial freedom. Which means I didn’t actually ever have to become a millionaire.

But here’s what happened: As I continued to invest, as I stayed disciplined, net worth grew as a natural byproduct of passive income growth.

Read that again.

Net worth grew as a natural byproduct of passive income growth. Not the other way around.

This is the mindset shift I’m trying to help people make: From a net worth mindset to a financial freedom mindset.

Why Net Worth Is the Wrong Target

Here’s the thing about net worth: Whenever someone tells me their number, I always think… it’s probably half that.

Why?

Most people inflate the value of their business. They think they’re more important than they are. They think their business is worth more than it is.

If they ever go to sell, they’re going to make way less because part of the value of the business is the person. That’s why earnouts exist. You sell your business, you get locked in, and you have to work for whoever bought you as an employee or contractor.

They don’t consider taxes. That big number assumes you can access it all but when you sell, you pay capital gains. You lose the write-offs you had as a business owner. That million-dollar exit? After taxes, it’s something else entirely.

They don’t consider loss of write-offs in retirement. All those deductions you’re using right now? Gone. Your effective tax rate in retirement might be higher than you think.

That big number on paper? It’s not what you think it is.

The Accumulate-Then-Deplete Model

The old wealth model, the one passed down from baby boomers to Gen X to millennials,  goes like this:

Accumulate, then deplete.

Save your whole life. Build a big pile. Hope it’s enough. Then, at some point, start spending it down in retirement.

The problem? There’s a lot of hope in that model. And not a lot of certainty.

Will the pile be big enough? What if you live longer than expected? What about inflation eating away at your purchasing power? What if there’s a market crash right when you need the money?

That’s the anxiety that haunts the accumulate-then-deplete model. No matter how big the pile gets, it never quite feels like enough.

The Freedom Number: A Different Approach

Here’s how I think about it instead.

There are actually two numbers you need to know:

1. Your Survival Number. What does it cost you to survive? Cover the mortgage, car payments, groceries, utilities – all the bare minimums just to get by. Not getting ahead in life, but stable. What’s that number on a monthly basis?
2. Your Lifestyle Number. What does it actually cost you to live the life you want? Not just survive, but thrive. What’s that number on a monthly basis?

Once you know those numbers, you have a target. And once you have a target, you can figure out the passive income to assign to it.

That’s your Freedom Number.

How It Played Out for Me

Let me give you a real example from my own life.

I got started investing in mobile home parks. That’s where our family built the foundation of our wealth.

I bought my first park and the cash flow from that park covered my wife’s income. She was able to retire as a teacher. We started our family.

I bought a second park that replaced our survival income. We could now cover all the basics without working.

I bought a third park that replaced our lifestyle income. Now we were living the life we actually wanted, funded entirely by passive income.

And then? Every park after that was surplus income.

Surplus income is really fun. Because 100% of those dollars can go towards growing your wealth or towards impact, or both.

Think about this: As a responsible person, you’ve probably tried to save 15-20% of what you make every year. That’s discipline.

But imagine how much faster your wealth can compound when you get to use 100% of your surplus instead of scraping together 15-20%.

That’s the mindset shift. That’s why you want to get to surplus income as fast as possible.

It Starts Small

One of the members in our community did a podcast with me. He had never had any passive income before joining.

He told me the thing he was most excited about was his first deal – the first investment that ever gave him passive income.

And he said: “That deal covered my Netflix subscription. And it was the coolest feeling in the world.”

Netflix. That’s where he started.

Fast forward to 2025, he just hit $1M in passive income! 

And here’s the truth: You have to start somewhere. It doesn’t happen overnight. But if you have a target, you’re more likely to get there. If you have no target, how are you going to get anywhere?

You’ve got to know your numbers.

Why This Changes Everything

Here’s why I believe this shift matters so much:

When you’re financially free, you make better decisions for your business and your family.

Most people make business decisions based on “Is this a good financial decision for me?” They might not make hires they should make because it would mean less money in salary or distributions. They don’t want to advertise. They don’t invest in R&D.

But if you’re financially free – if you don’t need your business to make you money – I guarantee you’ll make better decisions for your business.

“Can I afford it?” is not the best quality question. The better questions are: Is it best for my business? Is it best for my employees? Is it best for my customers? Am I being innovative?

When your lifestyle is covered by passive income, those become the questions you’re asking. And that changes everything.

The Takeaway

Stop chasing net worth. Start chasing cash flow.

Know your survival number. Know your lifestyle number. Know your freedom number.

And then build investments that produce cash flow to cover those numbers, not in 30 years, but now.

That’s the shift from Net Worth to Cash Flow. That’s what I mean when I say I want to help people experience the utility of financial freedom today. Not someday. Today.

I hope these last few emails have given you a new lens to look through. The three shifts: public to private, advisor to family office, net worth to cash flow – are reshaping how wealth is built. And I’m excited to keep exploring these ideas with you each week.

Until next time,

— Justin

P.S. One question I get almost every time I tell the mobile home park story: “What if that’s not the right vehicle for me? How do I find deals that actually cash flow?”

I’ll be covering that soon because there are more options than most people realize, and most of them never show up on any platform you’re already using.

In the meantime, I’d love to hear from you, hit reply and tell me: What’s your biggest takeaway so far? And if you want to learn more about how our community can help you make these shifts, just let me know that too.