<prompt> Human: WARNING: Very long and detailed but will provide you with instructions to accurately estimate your financial freedom.First Im going to tell you my financial situation to give you some perspective. At the end Ill explain some math just basic taking proportions so you can accurately estimate your financial freedom based off of how much you make, have in debt, want to spend, where you live, etc.My situation: My undergraduate was in electrical and computer engineering I graduated in May. I make 70kyr, which equates to like 1800 biweekly after tax. I have 90,000 in student loans. I live in Baltimore, MD. With my 991month loan payments I am by no means burdened by my debt. Thinking about it pisses me off, but I can live very comfortably and still make the minimum payment. I can essentially do anything reasonable I want to do with my leisure time and afford it. I also dont have a car payment though. If I had a car payment, I would definitely feel some pressure. I understand I am lucky and have a high-paying job, but hey, its because of the major I chose.To put some perspective into my lifestyle: I pay 635month very cheap for Baltimore in rent, lets say with utilities 700month. Id say 250 a week is needed for minimal spending without serious lifestyle changes and cutting corners. This includes food, gas, misc, etc. My actually spending on average is closer to 500-550. This extra spending includes alcohol, restaurants, various things for entertainment, but mainly alcohol. Id say if I averaged spending somewhere around 550-600 then Id make exactly enough to afford my loan payments and wouldnt be able to pay extra. At the end of every paycheck how ever much more money I have than 5000 my personal cushion I put towards student loans. At my rate Im currently putting about 200 a month extra.Pretty much after you can afford to pay your minimal living expense you start thinking about financial freedoms. Id like to break them into 4 major categories that I think are popular financial freedom choices. They include: 1 Making additional student loan payments or savings contributions which wouldnt be wise if you do have debt, 2 Quality of your apartment 3 Quality of your car, Ill use the very broad term for 4Entertainment. For me, based off of my income per debt, I was able to afford 24 of these decisions. I chose entertainment and additional student loan payments. My apartment is very cheap and I didnt buy a new car I drive a 98 Lumina. I think I would still be very happy if I could only afford 1 financial freedom. If your projected number of financial freedoms hits 0 and all your money is going toward essential living expenses I believe you would then feel financial stress and start drifting from middle class to lower class.Now time for some math! Lets quantify these 4 categories and use proportions to see how much financial freedom you will have. To help yourself come up with some estimates on expense ratios you might want to google cnn cost of living calculator to compare Baltimore to where you live.1 Lets find out how much youll make. After my taxes, 401k 4 contribution, cheapest health insurance, etc, my 70kyr translates to 1800 biweekly.180070000 xyour salary Solve for x:So if you will make 50k:50000 180070000 equals the amount you make biweekly. 1285 every 2 weeks. Feel free to calculate your take home pay some other way.2 How much will your student loans be? Ive noticed monthly payments are about 100 for every 10,000 you have in debt. If you have 50,000 in student loans, expect 500monthly loan payments. Now, your biweekly income is:1285 loan payment 1226 The math I did above translates loan payments from monthly, to biweekly. So for our example:1285-500 2612 1285-230 1055 every 2 weeks.3 Minimal Cost of living. This varies from person to person depending where you live, how much you drive, how you spend on groceries, etc. My groceries, occasional takeout at work, gas, misc expenses I declare without too many corners being cut is about 250 per week. If you came up with an estimate of 150 by only accounting for food and gas I ask you to rethink. Consider household products, parking tickets, holidaysgifts, misc, etc. It adds up. I dont think this number will vary too much from city to city. Lets say for this example this person doesnt order out for lunch and saves some additional money and spends 200 a week.1055-2 200 655 biweekly income.4 Now based off how much is left we can figure out your financial freedom. Lets start with your apartment. How nice do you want your apartment to be on a scale of 15? Say you choose a 35. You want a decent neighborhood, decent sized room, but nothing special. But. You live in NYC. In NYC the cheapest you can find to live is 1000month and the most expensive a normal person your age would spend is 2500month I dont know if these numbers make sense, but you will have to determine them for where you live with some research. To determine the scale of apartment quality:2500-10004 375. So in NYC a 151000month, a 251375month, a 351750month, a 452125month, and 552500month. I chose the 1750 options. Lets convert that to biweekly:17501226 807month.655-807-152. Woops! I cant afford that! Guess Ill downgrade to a 15 apartment or move out the city. 1000 1226 461Biweekly income 655-461 1945 If you wanted to buy a car youd have to convert the monthly payment to a biweekly payment. Dont forget that newer cars come with higher insurance, registration fees, and monthly maintenance that you should factor into the monthly payment! In our example we realize we cant afford a new car right now and drive our old hoop-d. We should probably use some of our financial freedom points on saving up for a replacement. I think this car has at least 3 years left in her. Lets save up to buy a car in 3 years. Ill be cheap and plan for a 5000 used car as a replacement.50003yrs 26weeks 64 I need to save every paycheck to be able to afford a new car in 3 years. Ill set up my direct deposit to automatically put that amount in a savings account. Now my biweekly income is:194-64 130 biweekly. 6 You can continue to think about the financial freedoms youll want and adjust your biweekly income accordingly. I think scaling things from 1-5 is a good approach. Lets assume in this example this person doesnt want to spend his remaining 130 biweekly income on paying down student loans early. Besides, if he did he would probably be financially stressed because hes living in a 15 apartment, didnt buy a new car, so is not feeling any financial freedom. To relieve some mental pressure Im going to go out to restaurants and bars, increasing my weekly spending by 65 a week. Early I mentioned my entertainment is about 250 a week. Id like to emphasize that that would definitely be a 55 and is a very high number for a satisfying entertainment budget. Thats it for this personal finance analysis. Ive been posting recently in this subreddit and really enjoy it. Im thinking of maybe starting a blog. If you guys actually read through this whole post and think that it was good let me know and Ill discuss some other topics! Feedback appreciated!  <response>: Pretty much after you can afford to pay your minimal living expense you start thinking about financial freedoms. Id like to break them into 4 major categories that I think are popular financial freedom choices. They include: 1 Making additional student loan payments or savings contributions which wouldnt be wise if you do have debt, 2 Quality of your apartment 3 Quality of your car, Ill use the very broad term for 4Entertainment. I like this way of thinking about it, although your math is going to vary a lot based on where you live, your field, and other stuff. Personally, right now Im limiting 1 to just extra student loan payments rather than a little student loans and some savings. I apparently chose high in 2, although I live in DC and its expensive. But I do choose not to have roommates, so I probably could spend less. I dont have 3, I drive a 2004 Focus that I bought new and paid off in 2008. And I spend a lot on 4, but its what gets me through my long work hours!So I would say I have 34 financial freedoms, and Im pretty happy with that! Thanks for posting! 