Financial Independence is Sorta Irrelevant
Financial Independence is Sorta Irrelevant
I have said many times in the past that financial independence is Plan B. An escape hatch when Plan A runs awry. Plan A is life. It’s the purpose, identity, and connections that we build around our existence. There are no short cuts here. No matter how hard you try, you can’t buy your way to contentedness. Money brings wealth. Not health or meaning. Not happiness. The first step to avoiding the money mind meld is to realize that financial independence is sorta irrelevant. If your future plans all predicate on the once I have syndrome you are doomed to be miserable.
That doesn’t mean money is not important. I won’t throw the baby out with the bath water. Saving, frugality, and investing all play an important role in our lives. But they do not build a life unto themselves.
Purpose
Behind any successful well-adjusted person is hiding a deep sense of purpose and conviction. Ultimately, there needs to be a reason to wake up every morning and face the world running. There are no tricks here. No hidden agendas. We all need to have some underlying why to our daily activities.
Your life’s purpose doesn’t need to be profound. It doesn’t need to be thoughtful. And there may even be multiple small threads that you weave through your loom. The details are less important than the innate drive.
Without purpose we flail. We run head first towards accomplishments that rarely feed our souls. Financial independence is sorta irrelevant as a goal. A false sanctuary.
You must understand your why of FI.
Identity
What do you see when you look in the mirror? What words do you use to describe yourself when asked? This is your identity. It is the shelf in which you arrange your most precious belongings. It is the skeleton which holds up your hopes and dreams.
Until you build a sense of identity, it is hard to anchor your purpose. You do what you do in life because of who you are. They are intimately tied to each other.
Identity too can be multi-pronged. I am a father and husband. A doctor and writer.
What you are not is solely a maker of money. Financial independence is sorta irrelevant. It is a tool to strengthen that skeleton of identity. It is not scaffolding itself.
Connection
You are the sum total of the people you surround yourself with. Whether it be family or friends, spouse or children. A large part of purpose is to connect with those who migrate through your sphere of existence. These passing souls will both add and take away. They will mold your core. If you are lucky your identity will even fluctuate.
Love changes people. it creates new purpose and strengthens old.
You can’t buy connection. There is no bid that is high enough.
Financial independence is sorta irrelevant.
Sorta?
Well, money does matter. Financial independence is indeed a tool that we can wield to strengthen our purpose, identity, and connections. The power of self-determining your time cannot be underestimated.
The super power of financial freedom is that it allows you the time and mind space to delve deeper into these other important aspects of your life.
It let’s you fly unhindered.
Final Thoughts
Although we spend a lot of time talking about it, financial independence is sorta irrelevant. The best things in life don’t have a price tag. Contentedness comes from a strong sense of purpose, identity, and connection.
Pursue these things, and you will live a life of riches.
Save a bundle, invest, and be frugal and your riches will multiply even further.
I think that financial independence is irrelevant if you don’t have a self-identity or purpose. But often times having a lack of self-identity and purpose is exactly why you need financial independence – to escape the rut and routine of burnout that causes these problems. Far too often people lose their identity in a job that they care little about or have become apathetic towards because of a failure in autonomy, support, or beurocratic missteps.
The great irony of course is that financial independence and realizing there is a world outside of your primary job often helps provide clarity towards what your true self-identity is, what your passions are, and what your purpose just might be someday!
They are intrinsically linked in my mind.
TPP
I think it is a mistake to find purpose, identity, and connection if financial independence only. i think you have to build those things outside of it.
Don’t waste today yearning for tomorrow. Live the best life you can right now, not after you retire. Some of us will not live to see retirement.
Dr. Cory S. Fawcett
Prescription for Financial Success
An important point. We never know when our number is going to come up. A good reason to invest in yourself now.
I agree with Cory. Need to enjoy the journey to FI and not have blinders only for the goal post which may or may never come (and who knows what kind of physical shape you will be in if you do make it). FI may be irrelevant but I will take it over not having it any day. What you make of it is what makes it relevant or not.
Well said. my theory is that if you live a good life and are relatively careful, FI will come eventually.
I like this post. Financial independence is something best made mechanical. From my perspective it is something to fund not something to covet. You fund college. It’s your responsibility at some level to fund college. You don’t need to fund Harvard. You do what you can. You fund normal retirement at say age 60 or 65. You have a responsibility to yourself to fund retirement. You start early and honestly do what you can. You can make some changes that will improve the efficiency of funding but the cost of ridiculous austerity or crushing debt is an inferior life. The cost of that ultimately leads to coveting your money or failure on some other level. I consider coveting your money a lifestyle failure. If you live in balance and have some systematic approach and discipline built into your life, funding and life will co-exist and some level of harmony will be achieved and so will wealth in both the funding stream and the living stream. So the real control variable is not financial independence but financial discipline, and discipline in general. Financial independence is just one dependent variable that grows with proper discipline. Financial independence is in fact is at some level a measure of proper discipline. So are proper personal relationships and adherence to personal responsibility.
I like the dichotomy you have drawn between funding and life. Coveting one too much over the other leads to failure.
Well Said!
Money has it’s place. There is no denying that we do need it. But, all the other stuff – life, family, love, connections, friends, joys, purpose….has even greater value. Priceless!
Separating that which can be bought from that which is priceless. i like it!