Net Worth And The Alarm Clock
Net Worth And The Alarm Clock
A side effect of being open with my net worth and posting income reports is that many readers wonder why I keep working. Doc G, you have enough money to retire and then some, what gives? Although I can talk till my face is blue about one more year syndrome, I think this type of reasoning falls flat with your average FIRE blog reader. If the end game is retirement, why keep going? I have pondered this question often and I can’t help but coming back to the story of net worth and the alarm clock.
Now, I say alarm clock, but does anyone still use those clock radios anymore? I actually did when I started my career in 1999. There is nothing like the joy of waking up to the blare of an annoying morning talk show personality. We all have experienced it in the past. Fortunately, we no longer have to count on such antiquated machines.
I wake up every morning to the incessant ringing of my iPhone instead. I’m sure most of us do. But that doesn’t change the point of the story.
Another Silly Metaphor?
Sometimes I think that my net worth and the alarm clock are one and the same. Bare with me for a moment here. Every morning the alarm clock goes off and pushes me to get out of bed and go to work. It’s tone reminds me that there is money to be made, things to do, a career to build. It wakes me up every morning. If the alarm fails or I forget to set it, I may get to work late. I may see less patients and my billings will go down. It is that important!
The alarm becomes more than an monotonous tone. It eventually holds emotional value. Some days I look forward to it. Others I dread.
When you walk the path of financial independence and early retirement, the great symbol of freedom is the act of throwing it out the window. You know you have made it when you can role out of bed at any old time without being harried by this relentless taskmaster.
Net Worth Is Similar
The similarities between net worth and the alarm clock are striking.
For most of my career, net worth has woken me up every morning ringing in my ear. It has pushed me to get out of bed and jump in the shower.
I religiously check it every evening before going to bed. Making sure that all the figures are in the right place. If I become lazy and stop paying attention, my bottom line decreases and my path to freedom lengthens.
Net worth is the financial alarm. It motivates me to relentlessly pursue the right path.
One More Year
A funny thing happened a few years ago. My net worth exceeded my needs. I became financially free. My joy turned quickly to thoughts of my alarm clock. I ran to the bedroom, yanked it from the wall, and threw it out the window. Free. I could sleep in every morning and watch cartoons in my pajamas.
I went to bed that night with joy in my heart and a newfound feeling of lightness. My mind a blur, I fell asleep instantly.
AT 4:45am the next morning, I woke up promptly, took a shower, and went back to work. The fact that there was no longer an alarm had absolutely no effect. My body, trained over all these years, awoke and subconsciously carried itself through the motions.
No matter how hard I try, the alarm has ceased to be a separate thing. It has become internalized. It is now a part of who I am.
I no longer have my net worth buzzing in my ear either. It stopped being a driver years ago. We talk about the one year phenomena as if it is a thing. As if it is a switch that can be turned on and off.
For some of us, making money is in our bones. This idea of net worth, this alarm, was nothing more than a false prophet.
A remnant of once important, long forgotten need.
I love checking my net worth, calculating expenses over time, and watching my investments grow. I feel it really is an enjoyable thing to do when you work so hard to watch it increase!
So what happens when you are comfortably FI? Do you keep tracking, keep working?
You are still in the accumulation stage. Once that stage is completed, net worth just changes randomly on a daily basis. It is no longer enjoyable to watch, it may even give you ulcers if you watch because it’s out of your control.
So how do you know when you’re done with the accumulation phase?
Hello DocG,
I have been so called FI for years as well. The tracking of networth and expenses have long become an ingrained habit. I have always focused on what I require to live a happy life and that one continues no matter the totals on my spreadsheet.
Do you think the tabulating adds or takes away from your happiness?
My last few years of work, I was already FI. I remember telling people I was just doing it as a hobby. They thought I was joking. There is a difference and joy to your work when you free to go, but choose to stay. It’s your choice. And that is where the real value is.
The real value for sure. But sometimes, I wonder, if I just keep going because it is habit.
When you get to FI it is often different than you imagined. No fireworks went off. Nothing seems different. Many long for the day they don’t have to work but don’t realize they still need something to do that’s of value.
I spent the first half of my life making a living. I want to spend the second half making a difference. Working is an important part of life.
Dr. Cory S. Fawcett
Prescription for Financial Success
As your books mention, there is nothing inherently bad about employment. I guess the key is to turn what you are spending your time doing from a “job” to your “life’s work”.
I suspect that when I finally throw the proverbial “alarm clock out the window”, I will also wake up early and try to be as productive as I can be in the morning purely out of habit. This already occurs on my off days and when I am on vacation. Old habits die hard.
They certainly do. I can’t sleep past 5am most days!
If your net worth is no longer “buzzing in your ear”, do you still track it? Check-in even if less regularly? I suspect that’s the part I won’t be able to turn off – watching it grow is so addictive, having it decline is a scary prospect.
I do out of habit, but much less than before. My actions based on net worth, however, like working, haven’t slowed down at all. I still charge forward even though I am starting to wonder why. The alarm (net worth/earning) have been internalized.
Agree how our habits are ingrained into our DNA. I’ll never stop working. If I cut back at my day job, I’ll find some other “work” to fill the time. It might be finding new investments or a ramping up a side hustle. And certain milestones don’t change my life that much anyway. I remember getting to zero net worth, $500k, $1 mil. Woo hoo effect lasted about 10 min. Then I went back to work the next day.
“And then I went back to work”. True, true!
I have an internal clock in my head that can literally wake me up to a specific minute. It’s creepy. If my alarm is set for 5:00, I just wake up at 4:58 or 4:59. Almost every morning. Even now that I’m FI and off 5 days a week I wake up either right before the alarm, or at 5:15 latest. The brain is an amazing thing and mine has Swiss Timing.
Do you still set your alarm?
Am I reading it right that you check NW every day? Wow, that’s dedication.
I can’t wait to the day when the alarm clock wakes me up to do fun things every day, instead of working 🙂
I used to. Less so now!
I’ll probably be the same exact way. It’s going to be hard for me to talk away. Particularly if I ever get to the point where I can wittle my job down to only the things I enjoy.
Good post, Doc G!
Hey TPP, you’ll get there faster than you think! If I recall, I’ve got a few years on you.
Good post as usual DocG. I also wake up at 5AM even if no alarm is set. I frequently check my net worth too. Old habits die hard. After all it is these habits that got you to FI. Early morning is my most productive thinking and learning time so I treasure it.
Hands down, morning is my most productive time! Old habits do die hard.
My epiphany revolved around going to SSA.gov and checking my wage statement. I added up all of my Medicare wages for my lifetime. I realized I had about $2M more in the bank than I had spent on the first 65 years of my life. That “of my life” money had bought and sold property, started a couple businesses, sent my kids to college, bought vacations, flown me around the world a couple times, purchased me the portfolio, funded my charitable endeavors, bought my wife’s mom a Florida retirement at a continuity of care facility, and so on and so on and scooby dooby dooby. I realized on that day all I was buying with continued work was liability. The little dab more I would add to my NW would make no difference because I already had made all the money and I had enough, living the same lifestyle, to carry me through to about age 150. I figured out how to manage health care for my family and 2 months later I actually did throw out my alarm clock. I dug the hell out of that! (but I replaced it with an old cell phone so I can wake up and say OK Google: temperature, and if the market is open OK Google: S&P 500 and I know whether to get out of bed or not)
My ex partner had about the same epiphany. After I quit, he was working locums at our old shop, one more yearin’ it. One day he looked at his calendar and realized he didn’t have anything booked so he sold his house and 2 weeks later moved from FL to VA to be closer to his kids and grand kids. We had already done succession planning for the center we were working at, so there was no exit guilt. One by one we had just kicked out the jamz…
Lookit them yoyo’s that’s the way ya do it, play the guitar on MTV…
Yep! Mic Drop! Nothing to see here.