Why do I want financial independence?

“When most organizations or people think, act or communicate they do so from the outside in, from WHAT to WHY. And for good reason — they go from clearest thing to the fuzziest thing. We say WHAT we do, we sometimes say HOW we do it, but we rarely say WHY we do WHAT we do.” – Simon Sinek

We want to be financially independent because we want to stop trading time for money. In other words, it creates free time for us to spend it the way we WANT. Usually that is where the questioning stops and we embark on Financial Independence(FI) journey. My sincere suggestion to you is go 1 step further:

Why do you want free time?

To understand this better lets first understand how you spend it now. Are you spending it on one or all of the following?

  1. TV – Makes you sit for longer hours, which is unhealthy
  2. Smartphones – Am I using it or it is using me?
  3. Mindless surfing – After a hours or two I have a lot of information, but no knowledge.
  4. Buying something out of the blue – The joy lasted only for a few days and sometimes just 1 day
  5. Eating Unhealthy –  Free time produces cravings and they make you eat unhealthy.

Free time leads to boredom; boredom leads to shiny toys

We keep wondering – I don’t know where my time and money is going.

Those are the most common five activities that fill the gap. Is this what you want to do more of?

This contemplation might lead you to do some soul searching and that is what the goal of this blog is. How can we better utilize that free time that helps you both in the future and in the NOW?

WARNING – The side effect of this is reduced time to become FI.

I personally found following things make me very joyful and they are mostly free – also I want to be able to do more of them in my free time and hence I need to create the free time and hence I want to be financially independent.

  1. Read Books
  2. Daily meditation
  3. Walking
  4. Face to face talks with my wife and son
  5. Create something like this blog

I basically want my day to be bouts of deep productivity and relaxation and that excites me to keep living and growing. These are all external sources of happiness, but it is what it is.

Have you found what makes you more joyful and how you can fill more of those in the available time?

Essentially it comes to down to the most important thing: How do I manage boredom?

The HOW is up to individual and everyone needs to figure it out , but let’s understand WHY it is important.

  1. If you are able to manage boredom – this increases your ability to perform DEEP work – makes you more valuable in your profession – Increased Income
  2. If you are able to manage boredom – You won’t spend money on shiny toys and mindless spending or at least reduce it significantly – Increased saving

We all know what those two can do to the time it will take to become FI.

We are a different person when money is not an issue – like when we were a child. We are embarking on a FI journey to be able to create free time earlier than traditional retirement. The introspection above is not any different then, but due to rising digital distractions disease; we need to be prepared in the right way.

We also need to ask this hard question – Are we better off to continue the job and slack at work ?? At least you are being forced by someone to do something worthwhile.

You cannot FAKE the money, so it is important to have enough clarity to serve your WHY. I am asking and finding answers to following questions to make it a strong conviction.

  • Will I be happy only when I am financially independent? 
  • What about the journey? Is that not enjoyable?
  • Can happiness be not found during the process? What if you do not achieve financial independence as planned?

You can see that it needs a burning desire to sustain through this journey. Here is my “ABC” framework to help with WHY”.

Availability

The world has become so connected that you can contact anyone any time (of course you don’t want to 🙂 ), but that also means this expands to work life as well.

I remember those days in 1980s and 1990s when holidays, vacations and weekends used to be real breaks from a daily grind. It used to be a time to connect personally, revive family and friend relationships and just come out recharged after the break. No one could disturb because there were no phones and internet.

Contrast that with 24*7 world now – long working hours, I could get called any time of the day for any production issues. Weekends are also not spared because customers can’t wait.

  • Are you putting more hours because you want to?
  • Are you excited to wake up or slog a night out because you want to?
  • Are you free to pursue an idea or thought because you want to?

Bucket List

I hope you don’t need an introduction to what this means. Are you putting off your heart’s desires until someday in the future?

I am not saying that you absolutely can’t complete items from your bucket list while you are working, but there are limitations. It needs a lot of time or freedom that cannot be possible, while you are working. Even if you are ready to be creative or to take a risk; it is not everyone’s cup of tea.

Career Growth

Career growth is important to be able to save and invest more, but which one would make you more fulfilled and entrepreneurial. Following are the main types of careers that we pursue to build wealth and being FI will make one more joyful to contribute, be creative to find opportunities and willing to take risks – is not that fun and not just maybe someday goal?

  1. Job –
    1. Ambitious – As you grow you career; 10-15 years down the line the only opportunity to grow further for some of us comes from just taking more responsibilities. Companies like people doing more for same or less money.
    2. Experts/SME/Niche – there are some who are able to build Niche for themselves and keep the company dependent on them for years, but we all know how low that % is and ask yourself do you fall into that category?
    3. There are some people who just want to survive somehow and keep getting paid as long as they can. We all know how risky that strategy is. What makes you think that it will be all OK?
  2. Business – Any business ultimately becomes a numbers game unless you are very careful to not let one.
    1. How are you avoiding yourself from becoming one?
    2. Are you able to keep the fun part going without countless hours and pressure?
    3. The competition is so hard and fast moving that you can’t continue with yesterday’s model.
  3. Self Employed  –
    1. Are you someone who has an edge to outdo competition for years?
    2. Being part of this community you mostly control your hours, but do you really want to work for 30-40 years for money?
    3. Is there any other cause than money that is driving you for years to come?

I hope I have made you think and find your WHY. It will fuel the fire to start FI journey with the right intention and stick with it through highs and lows. It has done so for me and this blog is one of the outcomes of that search.

Here is wishing you well on your FI journey and beyond!