Stealthy, Wealthy, and Wise

Although you may not believe it my dear reader, I have great hopes for you.  As with any group of close intimates, I wish for you only the best.  Everyday as I sit down to write my blog post, it is you who I have in mind.  Will you reach your goals?  Is FI any closer on the timeline?  Will early retirement be for you all that you were hoping for?  In many ways, your success is also my success.  I bask in the glow of the prosperity that we can share.  In all things, may you be stealthy, wealthy, and wise.

Stealthy

I will be the first to admit my own Stealth wealth fails.  Expensive purchases like cars and homes can bring some modicum of happiness, but also are laden with unintended consequences.  Driving around to my nursing homes in a Tesla may in fact have led to me losing a number of opportunities.  No one wants to see another get too “high on the hog”.

But stealth is not just for wealth anymore. We certainly know of many who have a high income but are broke anyway.  They whittle away their cash reserves and stretch to meet the bills every month.   I would call this stealth poverty.

There is also the concept of stealth work.  Some of us in the financial independence community are lucky enough to use techniques like front-loading and bursting to create a work environment with huge amounts of downtime.  Often our neighbors scratch their heads and wonder if we are unemployed.

Whether behind closed doors or out in the open, may you be stealthy, wealthy, and wise.

Wealthy

There is no doubt that I feel that net worth ain’t nothin but a number.  At some point, the farther you go down this FI pathway, you realize that it was never about the number but more so the control over how you spend your time.  When you realize this, you find other ways to flaunt your wealth.  True riches involve controlling your time, having the ability to say no, and sitting back with your feet up and a good book in hand.

True wealth will always be more a state of mind, and less some number in a bank ledger.

No matter what shape your accounts may be in, I wish you a future that is stealthy, wealthy, and wise.

Wise

Maybe one of the hardest goals to accomplish.  So many of us have been blinded by the money mind meld for so long we have trouble getting down to our real life goals.  Financial independence is nice, but it is a more a plan B or side effect of a life well lived.

If you learn how to be stealthy, wealthy, and wise, then you will see that financial independence is a goal post instead of a goal.  You will know that money is just an intermediary.  A way to exchange goods and services.  You either have to find your life’s passion and use it to create these good and services, or you have to grind away early in your career and build a perpetual money machine.

Wisdom comes with sacrifice.  Anything hard or worthwhile in life requires at least a modicum of sacrifice.  Especially when you are young.

Final thoughts

We have just begun traveling this road together.  I hope to continue on this pathway.  There are no big secrets.  Just a bunch of little tips and ways of thinking about things.  Every post I write comes from deep thinking spurred by comments and social media interactions.

Let’s see where this things goes.

Let’s continue to be stealthy, wealthy, and wise together.