Journey to Be Financially Independent

Me riding my bike in the beautiful Edmonton river valley

Thanks for visiting!  Jonathan Braams founded JBFI Inc. with a mission to inspire, educate, empower, and support individuals on their Journey to Be Financially Independent – so that they can take control of their lives and focus their time and money on what they value most.

The problem (the “why” of JBFI)

Every business starts with a problem.  What do I think the problem is?  People are wasting their lives.  Most people work 8+ hours a day for 5 days a week for 48+ weeks a year during their best years (20’s-60’s).  What is it all for?  To buy STUFF and stay afloat.  That’s the rat race and it is well known.  But what are people doing about it?  For most people, nothing.  Conventional wisdom has failed them, they are doing what everyone else does and getting what everybody else gets. What they don’t know is that another path exists – a path that avoids the rat race!

Root causes of the problem: 

  • Lack of financial education has led people to make sub-optimal financial decisions
    • The sources that we count on for basic personal finance knowledge (e.g. schools, financial advisors) are not necessarily delivering and in some cases suffer from a conflict of interest
  • Personal finance has never been made a priority – most people spend more time getting ready every single day than they do thinking about their finances in a whole month 
  • People are living beyond their means by spending unconsciously, seeking short term gratification rather than considering their long term values.  Rather than increasing happiness, these decisions are actually increasing stress
  • Lack of savings transforms people into wage-slaves that are completely dependent on their job for money.

The solution: Financial coaching.

How does financial coaching solve the problem?

  • Changes your mindset about money – gets you thinking and talking about money more frequently (in an informed way).  Money should not be taboo!  
  • Provides visibility and consciousness into your finances – gets you tracking your money like a business
  • Helps align your earning and spending with your long term values and understand the time for money trade off  
  • Holds you accountable to your goals
  • Allows you to truly take control of your life and not have to be beholden to others (employers, creditors)  

Why do I care?

I genuinely think that quality financial education can transform one’s views about money and significantly increase quality of life.  Having your financial house in order sets you up well to focus your time and energy on things that truly matter to you (e.g. friends and family, passion projects, hobbies, giving back, sports, travel, healthy eating, exercise, etc.), all the while creating a more balanced, fulfilling, and happy life.  Financial education also generates an incredible follow-on impact to society – imagine how the world would look like if everyone had complete control of their finances and are able to pursue things that truly matter to them?  The lasting benefits of financial coaching far exceed the temporary cost of devoting time to learning and making some mindset and lifestyle adjustments to get on the financial independence path.  

If you are interested in learning more about Financial Coaching, click here.

JBFI Inc. Core values:

  • Client value – I want every single client of JBFI Inc. to get more out than what they put in, guaranteed!
  • Dare to be different (my high school graduation motto) – If you do what everyone else does, you get what everyone else gets.  The JBFI program often questions conventional wisdom and explores other alternatives.
  • Accountability – I can be your accountability partner on your journey to financial independence.
  • Keep it simple! – personal finance doesn’t have to be complicated!
  • Pay it forward / Giving – I realize that some of the people who need financial coaching the most may not have the current means to pay for it.  I plan to roll out free content through my website to do my part to help everyone on their path to financial independence.

Check out my content!

To give readers a deeper insight into what I’ve discussed so far, I will be releasing some of my own content on the Blog page.  Here I will attempt to post simple and action-oriented articles to start you off on your Journey to Be Financially Independent.  I’ll do my best to post regularly and strive to consistently improve the content.  To receive an e-mail notification whenever I post new content, please fill out the form below: