I believe that quite a bit of life is determined for you because society has bought into the monetary system and it limits the choices we have based on what we can afford. Finding the loopholes in this system to gain an advantage is how you gain more freedom.

Neither. The only thing an individual has control over is how they react to the consequences of their own and other’s decisions.

I somewhat think of life and our will as like needing to row a boat on a stream.

We can, on occasions, choose one stream or the other as it splits. Or at least we can choose sides of the stream such that we go down one fork or the other when it splits. But aside from that, we are stuck mostly within a narrow stream. The reality of life guides, or even makes, us go in very specific directions most of the time. But I do think we have a very real kind of choice sometimes.

Neither
Chaos theory presents a far more likely explanation for the variants of how life systems actual work

For something to be [pre]ordained, there has to be an ordainer -- an active agent making decisions somehow about the destiny of others. Is that what you are suggesting? If so, please both identify and substantiate the identify of this agent.

Yes.

Preordination & predestination are religious constructs to pigeonhole the masses in believing they have no direct impact over their own life & what ever happens, good or ill, god did it & anyone who abuses them or is a despot, etc, has been preordained by god to test the faithful to see if they are truly subservient to god's will.

Preordination & predestination are religous constructs to pigeonhole the masses in believing they have no direct impact over their own life & what ever happens, good or ill, god did it & amyone who abuses them or is a despot, etc, has been preordained by god to test the faithful to see if they are truly subservient to god's will.

Stop taking shortcuts and just fucking live... it will be revealed to you when you are experienced enough!

I don’t believe it is one or the other. Some things we cannot control, our genetic make-up for instance, others we can by the choices we make, and probably the one that influences the outcome of our lives most is serendipity. Chance happenings or interaction with others which can take our lives on completely different paths. I often think of this when I wonder what direction my life would have taken if my husband had not come to Edinburgh and we had never met.