Freedom Files: Richard Moore Is Building CashMap While Still Working Full Time

Richard Moore has not quit his job. He is not counting down to a resignation date, and he is not pretending the 9 to 5 is the enemy. He is doing something less dramatic and, honestly, more useful: building the thing he actually cares about in the hours everyone else spends recovering from work.

Moore is the latest guest on Freedom Files, our ongoing series with people who are building a life on their own terms, whether that means leaving the traditional job entirely or reshaping what fits around it. His story is a reminder that the series was never only about the people who have already left. He is a Triad native, born and raised in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, now living in High Point with his family. His company, CashMap, is what he spends his off hours building.

What Is CashMap?

CashMap is community intelligence infrastructure. That is Moore's own phrase for it, and once he explains it, the term makes sense. On one side, there is a mobile app that teaches personal finance the way Duolingo teaches a language: streaks, XP, levels, arcade style games, and interactive simulators instead of a stack of quizzes. Someone can practice a real financial decision, like choosing between the avalanche method and the snowball method for paying down debt, before they have to live with the consequences of getting it wrong.

On the other side is a hub platform that connects nonprofits, foundations, and banks to the residents in their communities, so organizations can see in real time what support is actually reaching people and where the gaps are. Moore built the calculator first, because he likes calculators. Everything else grew out of that.

CashMap incorporated this past December, though development had already been underway for close to a year by then. The mobile app beta is launching next month. The hub side is still being shaped by feedback from the institutions piloting it now.

The Problem He Is Actually Solving

Ask most people about money and watch what happens to the conversation. Moore put it plainly: a lot of people do not learn about a particular part of their finances until they are already standing inside the problem, with no backstory and no context for what is happening to them. They live through the consequences first, and only afterward do they get a grip on what they actually needed to know. That gap, between the moment someone needs financial knowledge and the moment they are finally handed it, is what CashMap is built to close.

That is also why the hub side of CashMap is not aimed only at individuals. Nonprofits and foundations can plug in to reach the residents they already serve, and banks can sign up too, offering resources based on what a community is actually asking to learn more about. Moore is starting local, focused on building a strong base across the Triad and working out the rough edges before expanding across North Carolina, then beyond.

Why Build It Before Quitting?

This is the part of Moore's story that does not follow the usual entrepreneur script. He told us directly that he still loves his day job. He is not building CashMap because he hates where he currently clocks in. He is building it because the community matters to him more, and every hour he spends at his job is an hour he is not spending on the platforms, calculators, and resources he wants to put into people's hands.

That is a different kind of freedom lifestyle than the one usually pictured. It is not a beach and a laptop. It is a plan, worked on consistently, alongside a full time job, until the thing is real enough to stand on its own. Moore described it simply: a freedom lifestyle is having the time to do what he is passionate about. For him right now, that is volunteering on the board of a small nonprofit in Winston, spending more time with his community and his family, and building something that lets him put back what was poured into him.

His Advice for Anyone Starting From Scratch

Moore's advice for someone who wants to go into business for themselves is not complicated, and that is exactly why it holds up. Start with a plan built on goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time bound. Take notes on what worked and what did not. Do not skip the free resources sitting in your own city, community colleges and small business centers exist for exactly this, and a five minute conversation with the right person can change the direction of a business. He credits several mentors across North Carolina for helping him get CashMap to where it is now, and he is candid that he could not have gotten there working alone.

None of this required him to burn a bridge or bet the rent on an unproven idea. It required a plan he could actually follow, in the hours he had, with people who had already walked the road ahead of him.

It is worth sitting with that for a second, because it cuts against the usual founder story. Moore is not selling a leap of faith. He is describing a method: identify the thing you actually enjoy, write down goals specific enough to act on, track what works, and lean on the people and institutions already built to help small businesses get off the ground. A local community college and a small business center cost nothing to walk into. A five minute conversation there, he said, can change where a business ends up.

Where to Find CashMap

If you want to follow what Moore is building, the mobile app beta signup is live now at getcashmap.com. Nonprofits and foundations can sign up for the hub platform for free at the same site. Moore will also be pitching and exhibiting CashMap at Convert South, an innovation event in downtown Winston-Salem, this week.

Freedom does not always look like walking away. Sometimes it looks like Richard Moore: still showing up to a job he actually likes, and still finding the hours to build something for the people around him. That is the version of intentional living NO.925 was built to speak to, whatever your own timeline for it looks like.

There is no single correct order of operations for building a life on your own terms. Some people quit first and figure out the rest after. Others, like Moore, keep the paycheck running while they build the thing that actually matters to them, one evening and one weekend at a time, until it can stand on its own. Both are versions of the same choice: deciding that your hours belong to something you picked, not something you fell into.

What Moore is building will not look finished for a while yet. The beta has not launched. The hub platform is still taking shape based on what real institutions tell him they need. But the direction is already set, and it was set by him, on his own schedule, without a job title or a funding round telling him it was allowed.

Catch the full conversation with Richard Moore on our Freedom Lifestyle collection page, and watch for the next Freedom Files interview soon.