Financial freedom in our career??

I have heard this phrase lot of times "Financial freedom" but never tried to understand what it means to me,you or any common people.So before asking myself whether i am financially free or not i thought its worthwhile to understand what it means to be financially free.

We all work for money so that we can fulfill our dreams and have comfortable life. So as long as we are working, we will be earning money. But how much can we earn is limited by how much we can work. If we work for x hours then we get paid for x hours. So i have to increase my income to 3x then i need to work for 3x hours. But we have only 24 hrs in day, so there is limitation on how much we can earn.

What if on one fine day you go to office and your boss tells you that you are laid off due to some bussiness issues (as a matter of fact getting laid off in US is pretty common). Suddenly your income becomes zero. So what do you do now? Are you financially free? No i am not and i am sure most of you would agree me on the same.

So i thought there is always a limitation on how you can earn and that can vanish any time. So is there a way to have residual income. I mean an income which keeps on coming even if you dont work?? My mind said are you kidding.Its not possible to have income without going to work.

My mind started to wander here and there to find the answer. Today only i was browsing through some articles when i came across this article "On Dhiru Bhai Ambani" and tells how he created this empire Reliance Industries. Even though he is dead long back but still empire is running and growing and there is a source of income for ever. This is what is called as residual income.

Similarly i read about Ray Kroc founder of McDonanld who started McDonald. I was amazed to know that every monrning he woke up with 30 Million Dollars without even going to work.Because he has opened 30000 McDonalds around the world and created a source of residual income. Even though Ray Kroc died long back but still McDonald Corp earns around 30 Million Dollars daily. Wow thats amazing and this is what i mean by residual income source.

But again the same question how do i fit in all these? I really dont know but its worth giving a second thought............................................................