Earlier this summer, I went to hang out with two of my fraternity chapter alumni for a kind of impromptu BBQ. It was a nice change of scenery from Central Jersey, and we were having fun catching up. We moved inside once the grilling was done, and somehow got onto the topic of money; namely how to make money without working, or financial freedom, as it is often called.

I can't for the life of me recall how the conversation led up to this, but I ended up making a bet with my frat brother that I could acheieve complete financial freedom in a year's time from the date of the wager, which was June 6th. The stakes were a $300 leather jacket for the winner, that the loser had to pay for. I didn't hesitate to jump in head first, but it wasn't so much of a bet as it was a catalyst to get the ball rolling for me to start working towards financial freedom.

I stumbled upon the concept of financial freedom even before that fateful day at my frat brothers' cookout. I was working on campus, and trying to look for ways to make money without having to get another job. That semester was running my bank account ragged, and I wanted to see what my options were. I was directed to a blog entry on Steve Pavlina's website that more or less said "getting a job is the worst way to make money." It blew my mind, because I figured that was the only way to do so. And from then on, I started researching more and more about this phenomenom called "financial freedom".

The key component of reaching financial freedom is to build systems that generate reoccuring income with little to no additional work required to sustain them. The reason it took me so long to get started down the road to financial freedom is because, quite frankly, I didn't know where to begin. Reading that blog entry was what motivated me initially, and that's all I needed.

After spelunking about on the Internet, devouring every bit of financial freedom advice I could find, I recently was able to develop a plan of attack. I came up with 7 different potential income streams that could help me reach my finacial freedom goal of $2000 / month. They are:

1. eHow
2. HubPages
3. Squidoo
4. Affiliate Marketing
5. Blogging
6. eBook Sales
7. Stock Investment 

Between these 7 streams, I would have to average about $286 a month to reach my personal financial freedom goal. What interesting is that all 7 can be built, maintained and monitored over the Internet. That was a huge deciding factor in which streams I would use.

Another interesting note is that all of the options listed (with the exception of stock investment) don't require any money to setup! I personally didn't like the idea of paying for the chance at financial freedom. Once I start reeling in some money, then I'll add more options that require upfront financial investment. But for now, these are the 7 ways I plan to make financial freedom a reality for me.

As of today, September 11th, 2009, I average about $28 a month between 2 of the 7 income streams up and running. I have, however, proven to myself that financial freedom is indeed a feasbile oppurtunity. I just need two more zeros on the end of my monthly income, and I'll be good to go!

The two streams that are currently assiting in my quest for financial freedom are eHow and HubPages, with eHow being the most profitable. That's probably because I spent two whole months churning out articles for that site, but it did pay off. That one is what I would call an automated income stream, because I make about $1 a day from it. HubPages is a little more erratic in putting up numbers, but I only have 28 Hubs (29 including this one), and I have 89 articles on eHow.

Once I get to the point where HubPages is pulling in profits every day, then I'll turn to building my presence on Squidoo. I haven't written anything there yet, but I plan to start soon, because with my financial freedom deadline, the sooner I start, the better it will be in the long run.

I've tried my hands at affiliate marketing and blogging, but haven't made a dime since. However, this was before I knew what I know now about SEO and Page Ranking and Keywords. In due time, I will tackle these two beasts, and put them to work towards my financial freedom.

It was only a few weeks ago that I added eBook sales to my fiancial freedom blueprint. I got inspired by a comment in one of my other Hubs to try to sell creative writing via eBooks online. I have one killer idea for a novel that I plan on penning and releasing digitally, and another that needs a bit more development. I just need to find out more about publishing, hosting and marketing eBooks, and I am confident that these two ideas (and others) will help me reach my goal.

Finally, I added stock investment to the list last. I know virtually nothing about the Stock Market and investing, but I got wind of something called dividend paying stocks that I will pursue intently. I figured, I'd invest in a market that I myself am a consumer of. This would help me predict how the market will react, because it's something that I'm already interested in. 

Well, that was certainly a lot longer than I intended it to be. If you're still with me, I plan on chronicling my progress towards financial freedom in Hub intervals from time to time. If you too, are pursuing financial freedom, I hope this look into my strategy will inspire you to hold fast to your own personal goals.

If you have any sugguestions, advice or comments, I would greatly appreciate them. I need all the help I can get if I'm gonna get that leather jacket!