How to Become Independently Wealthy
Issue #58: Sugar daddies need not apply.
I’ve decided that I’m going to become independently wealthy.
Yes, this is something that you can simply decide — wealthy is a subjective term, after all.
Hear me out: Pocket change to one person might be a small fortune to another, and while we’d all like to be popping champagne on a superyacht, most of us would probably be just as happy with the luxury of a few extra vacation days — or better yet, never needing to ask permission for time off in the first place.
I mean, how many times have you heard the same cliché story? The guy who spends his life ticking off every box on the successful adult checklist: the promotion, the square footage, the fancy toy parked in the driveway — only to find himself dreading his morning alarm, wondering why he’s *still* not happy.
Feel free to disagree, but I believe his unhappiness stems from being hostage to a calendar that he doesn’t get to choose. Sure, plenty of people thrive in the corporate machine, usually those who are far better at mentally compartmentalizing work vs. life than I am.
But a traditional career isn’t the only path to success, and for the rest of us who can’t fake enthusiasm for a Monday morning standup, spending our lives climbing a ladder that leads to a place we don’t even care about is a tragic waste of potential — particularly for creative folks with a million ideas of what they’d actually like to be doing.
This is why when it comes to being independently wealthy, I think the emphasis should be on the independent part.
To be fair, I’ve already escaped the corporate grind. Eight years of freelancing full-time has given me the flexibility and freedom that a younger Emily who commuted to a cubicle could never have imagined. I’ve gotten to choose who I work with and when, I’ve eliminated every unnecessary meeting from my calendar, and I’ve worked remotely from some of the most beautiful, far-flung corners of the earth while my toes play in the sand.
But in terms of independence, it’s still not enough.
As someone who recently entered her — gasp! — late 30s, the years are flying by faster than ever before, and I’m officially out of runway and patience for helping other people build their businesses while my own ambitions sit idle.
I want full autonomy: No bosses, no clients, no time wasted on pitching or interviewing, no useless weekly meetings, and definitely no more uninteresting work that only keeps me running on the billable hours hamster wheel for even longer.
Perhaps this sounds idealistic and you think that I need a reality check? Maybe. But I’ll counter that by reminding you that we only get one shot at this “life” thing, so it’d be a real shame to have identified the ideal scenario, yet never pursue it.
Which brings me to my grand plan: For the rest of 2026, instead of taking on any new client projects, I’m going all-in on what I like to call my Tiny Business Empire.
It’s a portfolio of creative projects and niche online shops — ideas that I’ve been tinkering with on the side for a few years now, and that have finally begun to show enough potential that I’m ready to give them more than just my leftover scraps of time and creativity. So now, for the first time ever, I’m pouring my heart and soul into my work because it genuinely excites me, not because someone else is paying me to pretend that it does.
Thanks to the fact that I no longer live out of a suitcase and have finally put down roots in Spain, earlier this year, I started taking these creative projects more seriously. Two of my three online shops are already turning a (modest) profit, and the list of ideas for future Tiny Business Empire projects has only gotten longer.
To be transparent, I still have a long way to go: My goal for the second half of 2026 is to earn $15,000 in profit — just enough to reach “ramen profitability” (a.k.a. enough to pay my rent). But with July already behind us, I’m already way off track.
But all good leaps of faith require some degree of reckless conviction, so rather than getting discouraged and running back to safe client work, I’m doubling down on the ‘independent’ part until the ‘wealthy’ part catches up.
And if January arrives and my Tiny Business Empire still hasn’t taken off like I intend, I’ll deal with figuring out a Plan B then. But for now, I’m giving this a real shot, and will be dedicating my days (and nights, and weekends) to launching and scaling these micro-businesses until they aren’t so micro anymore.
Thanks for following along!
Going forwards, I’ll be sharing much more about my creative projects here in Extracurricular Pursuits, and if this sort of thing interests you (design, entrepreneurship, passion projects, etc.), I’ve been posting tons of behind-the-scenes + juicy deets about my Tiny Business Empire on Instagram, too:
