What’s your vision of financial freedom? Is it waking up every morning in your dream home? Or knowing you’ll have the freedom in your retirement to do what you want to do?

No matter what your personal definition of financial freedom might be, Quicken’s comprehensive set of tools and features can help you reach that goal with confidence.

4 Visions of Financial Freedom (And How to Get There)

1. Live in your dream home

Do you have a vision of a perfect dream home? For some people, it might be an off-the-grid hideaway in the Hawaiian jungle. For others, it could be a ski-in, ski-out chalet in Aspen. Or a lakefront cabin in Minnesota.

Whatever your dream home looks like, planning for it is the key to getting there.

Quicken member C.J. is retired and building that dream home today. A dedicated investor, C.J.’s biggest challenge has been staying the course, focusing on long-term goals in the face of market fluctuations.

“The market can have its challenges,” C.J. told us. “I have to remember to be diversified and not react to the swings in the market.”

Thanks to Quicken, C.J. has been able to track those investments in one place, watching them grow over time. “I can review my investment performance monthly and adjust as needed.”

What’s C.J.’s best advice for buying or building a dream home of your own? “Don’t get discouraged. Saving and investing are a long-term journey.”

Working toward your dream home:

  • Create a plan. Figure out how much you’ll need and set a target date to have that amount saved up, so you can create a savings plan with a specific monthly goal.
  • Save on a schedule. Include your monthly savings goal in your budget to hold yourself accountable today for the future you want tomorrow.
  • Manage your debt. Keeping your debt-to-income ratio low can help you get a better interest rate on both the home you have today and the home of your dreams.

2. Build a solid financial cushion

Does your vision of freedom mean having a financial cushion that can weather any storm? The key to that freedom is building an emergency fund—one that could support you by covering your expenses for 3–6 months if you needed it.

Quicken member Dathan is keenly aware of the need for an emergency fund. “Create a plan for your long-term financial well-being and goals,” says Dathan, “but make sure you provide a cushion for life’s unexpected surprises.”

Dathan points to things like car accidents and unforeseen medical bills that can derail your personal finances if you haven’t built up a buffer to cover them.

Quicken helps Dathan plan for both the short term and the long term in one comprehensive place. “Quicken provides an easy way to take a broad look at our finances, then narrow our focus to specific details such as bills, expense categories, and yearly trends.”

What’s Dathan’s best advice for building your own financial cushion? “Do all you can to create an emergency fund, and don’t touch it until there’s an actual emergency. Build that cushion into your monthly income-to-expenses ratio so you can add to those savings.”

Working toward a solid financial cushion:

  • Build an emergency fund. Create and track your emergency fund in a separate account that you can access easily in case you need it.
  • Make a budget. Create a budget that includes a monthly savings goal, and track your savings contributions to build that emergency fund quickly.
  • Track your expenses. Watch your spending to make sure you’re staying within your budget, and check in on that budget regularly to find new places to save.

3. Free yourself from debt

Does your vision of financial freedom include paying off your debt? If it does, the best place to start is by paying your minimums and attacking one debt at a time with extra monthly payments.

Quicken member Krystin was struggling under medical bills and loans about ten years ago. Fortunately, Quicken provided the tools to create a solid financial plan.

“I’ve paid off all my loans with the exception of one,” says Krystin, who used Quicken to track them all together. “The ability to see how things changed by paying more each month or a lump sum helped a lot.”

What’s Krystin’s advice for achieving a debt-free life? “Just stick with it. Quicken rocks.”

Freeing yourself from debt:

  • Track your debt in one place. Create a comprehensive list of all your loans and credit card accounts so you can see everything together.
  • Include all your loan information. Keep track of the interest rate and monthly payment for each loan to help you create a solid debt-reduction plan.
  • Plan and schedule your extra payments. Pay extra on the loan with the highest interest rate until that one is paid off, then roll those payments into the next loan to pay that off even faster.

4. Enjoy a worry-free retirement

Does your vision of financial freedom revolve around a stress-free retirement? One in which you can do the things you enjoy in life without worrying about money?

For long-term goals like retirement, Quicken’s built-in Lifetime Planner is designed to help you stay on track no matter what comes your way.

Quicken member Ron understands the difficulty of keeping a retirement plan on track despite unforeseen challenges.

“Keeping track of my bills and investments all in one place was helpful in keeping the stress level down,” Ron says. “I was able to make better decisions having all the information at my fingertips. No guessing needed.”

What’s Ron’s best advice for building a worry-free retirement? “Keep an eye on the big picture. Don’t get sidetracked by short-term events. Have a realistic goal set early on, to keep working toward it no matter what happens. You can do anything you put your mind to if you stay the course.”

Planning for a worry-free retirement:

  • Track your KPIs. Tracking your net worth and other key KPIs can help you stay focused on your long-term objectives, reducing stress by giving you the information you need along with concrete goals to strive for.
  • Consider your options. As you face decisions along the way, experiment with various scenarios to see how those decisions could affect your retirement.
  • Make tracking your finances a habit. By checking in regularly with your long-term financial plan, you’ll have the information you need to keep that plan on track—no guessing needed.