The Freedom Test 99% of Millionaires Fail

The Freedom Test 99% of Millionaires Fail

There's a test most millionaires fail.

I can say that because I've spent almost twenty years around them. I've built over thirteen thousand rental units with twenty-five hundred investor partners, and I sit in mastermind rooms full of wealthy people all year long.

So when I tell you most of them would fail this test, I'm not guessing. I've watched them fail it.

And here's the twist. It's not a test about money. Money is only worth ten of the fifty points.

It's a test about freedom.

Because getting rich and getting free are two different games, and almost everybody... including the millionaires... is playing the wrong one.

So grab a pen. Five questions, ten points each.

By the end of this article you'll have a score out of fifty. And you'll know the thing most millionaires never figure out: which piece of your life somebody else still owns.

Why millionaires fail it

Here's why the rich fail a freedom test. It's not because the money isn't real.

It's because they maxed out one bar and ignored the other four.

You know somebody like this. Plenty of money, and his phone owns him. Her calendar is booked by people she doesn't even like. Three years without a real day off.

That's not freedom with a good salary. That's a nicer cage.

So let's define the word properly. Freedom means nobody owns you. And the real question isn't "am I free?" It's this: how many pieces of my life does somebody else currently own?

There are five pieces. Somebody can own your calendar. Your purchases. Your address. Your people. Or your purpose.

Five freedoms. Let's walk through them, and you score yourself as we go. One to ten on each. Be honest! Nobody's watching, and lying to yourself on this test costs you years.

Freedom #1: Time

Time freedom means you own your calendar.

Not all of it. If you've got kids, your kids own a big chunk, and that's a trade you made on purpose. It's a good trade.

But a boss doesn't own it.

There's a meme that goes around every few months, and I love it. It says: I'm an entrepreneur because I'm not going to let a fifty-five-year-old man tell me when I can eat lunch.

That's time freedom. Nobody tells you when you're allowed to stop. Nobody tells you when you're allowed to eat.

And almost nobody on this planet has it. More than ninety percent of people will never get time freedom until they retire.

And here's the cruel part about that. By the time most people finally get the calendar back, the body doesn't cooperate anymore. The knees are gone. The energy's gone.

They spent forty years buying a freedom they can barely use.

Don't wait for the version of time freedom that comes with a walker.

So score it. One to ten. Who owns your calendar on a normal weekday?

Write the number down.

Freedom #2: Money

This one gets misunderstood constantly, so let me kill the myth first.

Money freedom is not a jet. It's not a Lamborghini. It's not the stuff.

Money freedom means nobody owns your purchases.

You know the parking lot math?

You're sitting outside the restaurant, and before you even walk in, you're running numbers. Appetizer or entree, not both. Water's fine.

Or your kid asks for something. Something small. Cleats, a field trip, whatever. And you feel that little drop in your stomach before you answer.

That stomach drop is somebody owning your purchases. That's what a lack of money freedom actually feels like. It's not about yachts. It's about the parking lot.

And there's a second half people miss. Money freedom also means you can go get more when you want to.

Most jobs have a ceiling you didn't vote on. You can't wake up Monday and decide to earn more this month. You're not on commission. The number is the number.

Real estate took that ceiling off for me. Put in more work, more thinking, more offers... the number moves.

That was never about the stuff. It was about not being stuck.

Score it. Can you say yes to the small stuff without the stomach drop? One to ten.

Freedom #3: Location

I built my early real estate portfolio in a town called Aberdeen, Washington.

Beautiful place. It also rains about three hundred days a year. The county is literally named Grays Harbor. Different spelling. Same energy.

I liked it there! But the minute I had enough passive income that nobody owned my calendar and nobody owned my purchases, I did the thing I'd been quietly thinking about for ten years.

I got on a plane and moved to Maui.

That's location freedom. And notice it's not a vacation. A vacation is what you do when somebody gives you permission to leave. Location freedom is when you don't need the permission.

So ask yourself: where would you live if your income didn't care where you stood?

Now ask what's actually stopping you.

And since that sounded like bragging, let me even the scales, because I've fumbled this freedom too.

I bought a vacation rental in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Gorgeous house. Great little town. Whole business plan mapped out.

Then I found out the HOA doesn't allow short-term rentals.

So I own a very nice vacation rental that is legally not allowed to be a vacation rental. Which makes it... a house. That I own. In Idaho.

We visit twice a year. It's lovely. It cost me a business plan.

Here's your free tip, and it's worth more than most paid ones. Read the HOA docs before you buy. Not during the inspection period when you're already emotionally married to the place. Before.

Twenty years in, thirteen thousand units, and I got beat by four pages of homeowners association rules.

Score your location freedom. Could you leave? One to ten.

Freedom #4: Relationships

There's a line I heard years ago that I've never shaken. Kids spell love T-I-M-E. I don't know who said it first. I know it's true.

When you don't have time freedom or money freedom, guess who pays for it? Your spouse pays. Your kids pay. Your friendships get thin because you're always tired.

But there's a piece of relationship freedom nobody talks about, and it's my favorite one.

The coworker.

How many people are you contractually required to spend forty hours a week with right now? People you did not pick.

You know the one. The guy who takes your stapler. The one who makes every meeting eleven minutes longer than it needs to be.

You can't fire him. He's not your employee. He's the company's employee, and you just have to sit there. For years!

Relationship freedom means you choose every single person in your working life. Who, when, and how much. If somebody's not a good partner for me, I don't work with them. Sometimes that means ending a relationship, and that's uncomfortable, and I do it anyway.

Most people have never had that freedom for one single day of their working lives.

Score it. How much of your daily people-time do you actually choose? One to ten.

Freedom #5: Purpose

This is the one that matters most. It's also the one almost nobody puts on the list.

Let me guess something about you, and I'm probably right.

Your purpose in life was not to make your boss rich.

I don't know what your purpose is. Might be raising your kids. Might be a ministry, a charity, your art. Might just be having enough quiet in your head to be a decent person to the people around you.

But I'm confident it wasn't this: make a person who's already wealthy slightly more wealthy, using the best hours of your day, the best days of your week, and the best years of your life.

And that's what a job takes. Not your leftover hours. Your best ones.

Here's what gets me. The forty-hour week, the two-week vacation, the whole shape of it... humans made that up. Recently! And not always for good reasons.

You're allowed to build a different shape.

And one more myth while we're here. You probably think financial freedom means you stop working.

Almost nobody who gets there stops. I'll work until the day I die, and I want to. The difference was never working versus not working. It's whether the work is yours.

Score it. How much of your week goes toward the thing you're actually here for? One to ten.

Add it up

Five numbers. Add them.

A fifty means you own your calendar, you never do parking lot math, you live exactly where you want, you picked every person you work with, and your days go toward the thing you're here for.

A ten or below means somebody else owns almost all of you. And they will keep every piece you don't take back.

Me? I'm around a forty. Maybe forty-four on a good week.

Not fifty. And I'll tell you the short version of why: somewhere along the way I traded some of my freedom back to chase more. On purpose. That's a story for another video, but I want you to hear it from me now, because this test isn't something you pass once.

You can earn freedom and hand it right back. It doesn't even feel like losing at the time. It feels like winning.

The turn

Now look at your five numbers. Find the lowest one.

That's your real project. And I'd bet money it's not the one you assumed.

Because almost everybody chases the money score. That's the one with an industry built around it! But when I have people actually take this test, money is usually not the zero.

The zero is time. Or purpose. Or they've got a seven in money and a two in relationships, and they're about to spend five more years making the seven an eight.

Raising your highest score is a hobby. Raising your lowest score changes your life.

And one more thing, for a specific person watching this.

Some of you are already free. You hit your number a while ago. You just never stopped to notice, because you moved the goalpost the same week you crossed it.

So before you build the next thing... check whether you already have the thing.

Homework

One assignment. Takes five minutes.

Write the five numbers down somewhere you'll see them. Phone note, sticky on the monitor, I don't care. Five numbers and a total.

Because you can't fix a score you won't look at, and most people have never once measured their freedom. They've measured their income their whole lives and wondered why the raises never made them free.

Nobody owns you. That's the goal. Five scores tell you how close you are.

Put your total out of fifty in the comments. I read them.

And hey - as always, if you’ve read this far, can you just hit the REPLY button on your email and send me a 1-3 sentence email on what stood out to you. I actually read these, and it helps me know what to create in the future for you.

To your Better Life.

Brandon Turner

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