Saving vs Earning: Why You Can't Save Your Way to Freedom
- Akash Damodaran
- Jun 26
- 2 min read
For years, I thought financial freedom meant being smart with the money I already had.
Budgeting. Cutting back. Tracking every coffee.
At least, that’s what I was getting from watching all these YouTube gurus!
I built elaborate spreadsheets, color-coded expense trackers, came up with unnecessary Notion templates, all of which I took great pride in, btw, and told myself, “This is how I’ll get ahead.”
But no matter how hard I tried to save, everything around me kept getting more expensive.
Groceries. Rent. Life.
That’s when it hit me right in the face:
I wasn’t building freedom. I was building anxiety.
And I’m certain this is something you’re going through right now.
No matter how much you save, you realize that it’s not the amount that aligns with your goals & expectations.
There’s a reason for that. And it requires a big mindset shift:
You can’t out-save inflation. You have to outgrow it.
Saving helps you survive. Earning helps you thrive.
Once I stopped obsessing over every dollar and started thinking about creating more of them, everything changed.
That shift in mindset built & scaled UNI Media.
It helped me start Mané Coffee.
It made me play offense instead of defense.
Abundance isn’t reckless spending.
It’s focusing on creating more, not cutting more.
So here’s your challenge this week:
Look at one expense that stresses you out.
Ask, “How can I earn enough so this feels irrelevant?” [Not from your job]
Then take one small step toward that answer.
I’m not saying that you don’t need to save money.
It’s imperative that you save!
But you can’t save your way to freedom. Real financial freedom.
You build it by growing beyond your limits i.e. earning more than you thought possible.
PS: I talk more about this shift in my video “Why I Stopped Complaining About Toronto Being Expensive.”