My Journey to Financial Freedom
What Worked and What Didn’t
I’ve been in the “make money online” and “passive income” business for a few years now.
- I started with Print on Demand in 2017, via Displate, Redbubble, TeePublic and Etsy.
- I have done YouTube Automation
- I have done Personal Training & promoted online courses via Social Media
- I have rented out via Airbnb
- I have experimented with stocks, commodities & crypto
- I have done Affiliate marketing
- I have been blogging
- And much more.
Some things worked like a charm, others have been a real challenge, sometimes even a pain in the a$$…
My path to financial freedom has been anything but straight.
So.. what worked and what didn’t?
In this post, I want to share an honest reflection on my journey — highlighting which strategies truly helped me to move forward and which ones ended up being mistakes.
Please take away some insights, double down on the good stuff and avoiding the errors as you work toward your own version of financial freedom.
Things that didn’t work for me
1. “Get Rich Quick” Schemes — didn’t work
Who hasn’t seen these?
Claims that you can easily make 10k / month extra by starting a YouTube channel, an Instagram channel, a drop shipping Shopify store, some cryptocurrency investment,…
When I first started my online ventures, I was lured by schemes that promised fast, easy money. Think of sketchy MLM organizations, or shady online programs.
I’ll recount how those went wrong — wasting money and time — and why anything that sounds too good to be true probably is. This taught me to be wary of shortcuts and to focus on building real, sustainable income streams.
2. Taking “too many risks” (cracking under FOMO) — didn’t work
Recognize how social media is always (sometimes subconsciously) pressuring you to do certain things?
- You NEED to invest money or you’ll always be poor
- You NEED to do X with your money or funds or you’re missing out
- You NEED a secondary source of income or you won’t make it
- You NEED to take a change on opportunity X before it’s too late
- etc…
While some of these are true, they also bring a lot of pressure — and often not the right pressure. You have FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). And you crack.
Let me give you an example:
There was a time where I owned a considerable amount of cryptocurrency. But this crypto was just chilling somewhere on an offline wallet.
Until someone told me “Bro, you can earn SO MUCH MORE if you move your crypto to platform X (in this case Celsius), and STAKE it there.”
He showed me his account, and how he was earning weekly staking rewards, worth a couple hundres of dollars every week.
“Damn, that’s nice”, I said. So I moved my money.
The first 3 months I was getting nice profits indeed, but then all of a sudden… BAM! Everything locked. Couldn’t access or withdraw my crypto anymore.
Celsius went bankrupt.
Result? I lost around 80% of my crypto.
If I only would have safely kept everything on my offline wallet…
3. Lack of Budgeting and Overspending — didn’t work
In my twenties, I wasn’t very great at managing money. I didn’t track my spending and ended up living paycheck to paycheck despite earning a really decent salary.
Instead of wasting money on paying rent, partying, expensive restaurants, fancy toys & gadgets, games… I should have created myself a budget plan (like I have now).
A few years ago, I created myself a “money tracker” excel file:
Pretty proud of this myself.
Ever since I’ve been using this, I have started to gain better insights into my income & expenses, allowing me to keep visual track of where my money goes.
Based on this, I created myself a budget every month, for example:
- 1000 EUR goes to rent
- 500 EUR goes to costs like electricity, water, heating,…
- 500 EUR goes to groceries
- 500 EUR goes to investments like stocks, crypto, silver
- … etc
Thanks to these insights, I was able to create a clear financial plan for myself.
Where am I at now, where do I want to be, and what do I need to do — to get there?
You can’t imagine how quickly things improved after that.
4. Trying to Do Everything Myself
At one point, I had a habit of doing everything alone.
Every project or business idea, I wanted to do it by myself.
I thought I’d save money by not hiring help or asking for advice.
The result: I was THIS close to a burnout and most of my projects failed.
Examples:
- I tried to build my own website from scratch instead of getting a pro’s help, and how that lost me time (and potential earnings). The lesson learned was the power of delegation and mentorship.
- I tried to start an extensive online webshop business by myself, instead of sharing workloads with my friend so we can be twice as effective
- I tried creating my own YouTube videos — I COULD do it, but it took me several hours, sometimes even days, to finish 1 video. Experts can do it in a much shorter time.
- …
If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.
Things that DID work:
1. Building Multiple Income Streams
One of the smartest things I ever did?
I stopped relying on just one income stream.
- At first, I only had my job. That was fine… until it wasn’t. One month I had a car repair. The next, unexpected costs. Stress.
- Then I tried freelancing. A few hundred extra euros a month. It helped.
- Later I started an online business. Didn’t explode overnight, but slowly added up.
- I started print on demand shops with myDesigns, Prinful, Etsy, Everbee…
- I got a few YouTube channels, optimized thanks to vidIQ
- Then I got into dividend stocks. Small payments, but every month — without doing anything.
- Eventually: rental income. Not passive at first. But now it runs on autopilot.
Each stream took time.
I didn’t build them all at once.
But now? When one is slow, another covers it.
And that’s the key:
More income streams = less stress.
If I could give one piece of advice:
Start small. But just start.
Add one income stream. Then another. Then another.
It compounds. And it works.
2. Consistent Saving and Investing Habits
I used to save what was left at the end of the month.
One problem: There was never anything left.
So I flipped it.
I paid myself first.
Automatic transfer. Every month.
Like a bill — but for my future.
I Started small: €100 here, €250 there.
Mostly into index funds, some Bitcoin…
Nothing flashy. Just consistent.
Sticking to this habit, through good months and bad, steadily pushed me toward financial freedom.
Not trying to time the market.
Just showing up — every month.
Now those investments work for me.
And that’s how real wealth grows.
3. Investing in Self-Education
Books. Courses. Podcasts. I started soaking it all in.
A while ago I wrote an article about some of my favorite podcasts:
A €20 book on SEO? Doubled my blog traffic.
An online finance course? Helped me save hundreds in taxes.
Every time I learned something new, I earned more.
Or lost less.
Knowledge turns into income.
There are SO many ways of investing money, saving money, managing money… you just need to know them.
4. Patience and Persistence
If you’re looking for a get-rich-quick scheme… this isn’t it (like I mentioned above).
This stuff took years. Not months.
No quick wins. No magic.
Some investments flopped. Others were slow.
But I stayed in the game.
I focused on the long-term.
Adjusted when needed. Kept showing up.
Eventually, things clicked.
And started to compound.
If there’s one truth?
The stuff that works takes time.
My Current Situation and Key Takeaways
Right now, I make enough money per month in passive income.
From different sources: print on demand, freelancing, investments, rentals, digital products…
It’s enough to:
- To live stress-free.
- To do what I want.
- To have the freedom I worked for.
And:
- No more paycheck-to-paycheck stress.
- No more panic when an invoice is late.
- Just peace of mind — and the freedom to build even more.
Key Takeaways
- Build multiple income streams. Don’t rely on one.
- Pay yourself first. Save. Invest. Repeat.
- Keep learning. One small tip can change everything.
- Play the long game. Real results take time.
- Don’t fall for quick wins. They rarely work.
- And don’t try to do it all alone. Ask, share, grow.
Every step forward excites me more and more. I love it.
I’m still learning. Still building. Still growing.
And so will you.
Thanks for reading!
If you’ve got questions or thoughts, drop them in the comments and I’ll get back to you! Follow or 👏 if you’d like to see more content like this. Or buy me a coffee, this stuff is magical ;)
Did you know? I also write about different passive income streams like Print on Demand, YouTube Automation, investing tips, healthy habits and just keeping yourself motivated to keep going every day!
P.S. did you claim your copy of my Income/Expense Tracker or FREE E-Book yet?
