My version of financial success is the ability to say ‘Yes’ to experiences with friends without sharp anxiety about money.  I felt utterly poor in college; daily anxiety poor. A friend invited a bunch of us to a weekend in East Hampton to relax at his dad’s place on the beach.  I was so excited, yet I knew that it would be a hard weekend for me to mange. I wanted to say yes for so many reasons 1) free lodging in a beautiful place, 2) hanging out with a bunch of friends on a beach for the weekend out of the city sounded like bliss and 3) belonging (#needtobelong).
 
I said yes, but I had to do a week of the free food diet prior to that weekend. I lived on $400/month at the time – after rent. It came in $86 paychecks from my work-study, so planning was necessary. The train ticket from Penn Station to East Hampton was $20, one way. At the end of what had been a weekend affair – rival to the Jazz age parties the Fitzgerald’s knew – I was scared to ask the inevitable question, “what do I owe for provisions?” A #free weekend, is never the case. My need to belong made it so hard to say, “No – I cannot afford this weekend.”
 
It seems like these weekends or events become even more common. I had to say no to a birthday dinner the week after the East Hampton trip because I couldn’t split another bill out of obligation. I took her for $4 cupcakes ‘just the two of us’ to celebrate instead. Real quality time at 1/10th the price #win.
 
This experience made the desire for financial freedom so much more tangible. I want to say ‘Yes’ without crushing anxiety or making a poor financial decision. I want to be able to spend time with my friends – wherever they go. When they get married too far away, when their birthdays turn into month long celebrations. When invited to join a friend in Japan or Jordan, I want to say ‘Yes’.
 
That is my version of financial freedom. The freedom to say ‘Yes’ to experiences and time with the people I love. This weekend, I am saying ‘Yes’ to a weekend trip to Japan with two of my best friends. We will spend 48 hours touring fish markets and eating at Tokyo’s best restaurants and drinking a top the city. Some bills will be painful, but I’ll happily give up several months of shopping to spend 48 hours saying YES.