One Fundamental Question

One Fundamental Question

Can everyone become financially independent? I believe it comes down to one fundamental question. Simple and yet complicated. I feel like the whole financial independence story can be boiled down to one basic idea. Will you get there? Will you not? It is less about where you started. It might even have nothing to do with education or even opportunity. The actual road you take probably doesn’t make a lick of difference. There are so many different paths available. We have to let go of the idea that we are a product of what has happened to us.

One straight forward question.

Can I Effect Change?

That’s it. The one fundamental question. Can I effect change? Your answer to this question will likely determine the viability of you financial independent aspirations.

Let me explain. My neck has been hurting for months. Maybe years. When it got bad enough, I made an appointment to see a physical therapist. Why? Because I held the belief that with the right coaching and exercise I could make the pain go away.

This has been my experience in life. Whether it be searching for a job or buying investment grade real estate. I believe with the right mix of knowledge and luck, I can effect change. I can turn a profit. Make a buck. Build a career. Whatever the task may be.

Of course, I fail from time to time. Or even often. But behind that failure, is the belief that I can pivot, try again, and succeed. This optimism is almost a part of my genetic make up.

Is it a decision I have made? A mindset I have adapted? I have no clue. it is just what I believe.

The Hopeless

It has only dawned on me recently that a majority of people walk around hopeless. They have asked the one fundamental question. Can I effect change? And their answer is a resounding no.

They feel that every time they try, they fall on their face. They approach real estate, businesses, and investments as a trap that will ensnare them instead of set them free. No matter how hard they work, the result will always be the same. They will fail to move the needle.

This idea of aggregation of incremental gains is unknown to them. Thus they adapt a limiting mindset. The argument going on in their brains convinces them of imminent failure before even trying. The battle is lost in their minds before the first volley of bullets is even shot.

Dead in the water.

Nature vs Nurture

The one fundamental question is obvious to me. Those who think they can effect change will eventually make it to financial independence if they so choose. Those who feel that they are helpless to what life brings to them will not.

But the deeper issue is whether outlook is changeable. Was I born with this mindset? Or did I develop it? Is there personal responsibility or are we just who we are?

Try arguing with someone with a limited mindset about becoming financially independent. You can expand on the most logical of debates and speak till your face is blue, they will always have a reason why you are wrong.

Maybe it is just foundationally out of their control. Maybe it is not a choice but a way they were programmed from birth and childhood. I cannot turn iron into gold. No matter how hard I try.

Final Thoughts

Can everyone become financially independent. I think it all comes down to one fundamental question.

Can I effect change?

If the answer is yes, than the world will be my oyster. If the answer is no, I will be ruled by limiting beliefs.

The more intriguing question, however, is can I change mid stream?

Doc G

A doctor who discovered the FI community but still struggling with RE.

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5 Responses

  1. Gasem says:

    Seems to me financial independence is a decision. But like most decisions, it’s not a point of morosity, it’s a point of inaction due to risk avoidance. You must admit when it comes to finances there is a panoply of fraud, theft and delusion out there. Just sit down with an insurance salesman, attend an Amway presentation or even a FIRE event. It’s like Lake Woebegon, no one ever fails. When you do apologetics you do NOT try to persuade. You merely stand up say a rational defense of the the truth and sit down and shut up. The second you try to win you loose, and the point you were trying to make is lost forever to the person whose ears you were bashing. People don’t respond to violence they respond to kindness. Too much of FIRE is about zealotry and winning. Not enough about actually becoming.

    Nothing in FIRE is about the investment. It’s not about YOUR stocks, bonds or real estate and looking smarter than the next guy. It’s about sticking a dollar in the market. That’s the decision. That and only that. It doesn’t make any difference if it’s at 40/60 or 60/40 compared to not being invested. When you invest you become like a flea on a dog’s ass. You go where the dog goes and getting all haughty about your financial prowess regarding your mobility is self deceit. It’s not you that’s hauling the water it’s the economy, and if you want the economy to haul your water you better tend to it and not let stupid stuff like MEDICARE FOR ALL or FREE COLLEGE kill it.

    The “Truth” is the market goes down significantly about 20% of the time and sometimes it goes WAY DOWN. That means it goes up 80% of the time, sometimes WAY UP. Over decades the dog climbs the hill and if you don’t kill it or jump off his ass you go too. If you put in 2 dolla’ you go twice as high. The proof is simple and obvious. You merely ask how do you think people get rich? If you happen to be rich and this is how you got rich share the wealth of the knowledge. All of this scheming in FIRE turns it from the sound economics of buy low and a few decades later sell little bits high, into a MLM scheme. Admit there is failure. You never read about failure but damn well be assured there is failure. When Suzie O brought up the prospect of failure because she’d received thousands of letters from people who have failed over the years she was roundly shouted down as a kook and heretic. If you listen to the Paula Pound interview, Paula is obviously shaken by the direct affront on the narrative, and immediately starts repeating her narrative to herself trying to repair the breach in her system. Failure! Failure! Can’t possibly be True!

    Since there are no people who admit failure,read a book called Nomadland by Bruder (10 bux on Amazon) about middle class people with 401K’s and investments and relative wealth and great jobs who are now living in their cars, pooping at Walmart, getting odd jobs since the 2008 debacle. That’s the face of financial failure. It’s not a perfect FIRE analogy but it’s damn well worth while to stare at least some failure in the face. A cancer diagnosis may just put you right there. and kick you off the dog’s ass. If you want cred, you have to be credible. So much of FIRE is not credible. Retire by 30 is not credible. I’ve read MMM makes half a mil a year, a far cry from 1,000,000 and 4%. Don’t know what he makes and don’t care except it turns his “truth” into shtick. Vicki Robbin lives on an island estate in WA and claims to have retired at 26! Is it really any wonder why no one believes?

  2. Joe says:

    I think most people just don’t have the right goals. They prioritize other things over financial independence. It usually takes a catalyst to make someone to make FIRE their goal. Once they have that goal, it’s not that difficult. They just need to find the right way to do it.
    Gasem’s comment above has a lot of good points.

  3. So you are saying that the difference is in having an optimistic outlook rather than a pessimistic outlook? It does seem to me that on days where I’m pessimistic (and pretty much just grumpy all around), things tend to go wrong more than when I’m optimistic. It also could be a bad case of confirmation bias. Regardless, then, the secret to FI must be to be optimistic (with a dash of realist)!

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