if you are a frequent reader of this blog, you will know I am on a journey towards financial independence in six years from now at age 33.
I know so many people who are unaware of the possibility of becoming financially independent. They might know about being financially independent, but they do not know what the benefits of being financially independent are.
A year ago, I told a few of my creative friends about FIRE – and they weren’t impressed. Can you believe it?!
So I started thinking: what are the key reasons everyone should strive for financial independence? What are the universal truths that nobody can disagree with?
Reason #1: Sometimes you just want to say FU
Being financially independent gives you FU money. FU money means that you can say “f*** you” to anyone/anything at any given point in time if you don’t want to do it anymore.
Is your boss treating you unfairly? Say FU and leave.
Are you stressed and unhappy? Say FU and leave.
Do you want to go back to school and change career paths? Say FU and leave.
You get the point. Sometimes you just want to say FU and being financially independent just makes it much more feasible and safer for you to do.
Freedom is the biggest reason why everyone should strive for financial independence.
Reason #2: You will save the planet
This is an indirect effect of being financially independent for most people.
If you get an average salary, chances are you will have to save and spend less on things to become financially independent.
Guess what else will benefit from this other than your FU money savings account?
You guessed it: Mother Earth!
Our mindless consumption is ruining our planet, but if everybody focused on becoming FI by saving and being frugal, it would have a positive impact on our planet.
Reason #3: You will become a better person
Ok, I don’t know if this is true, but try to follow my logic.
There are two reasons why I believe financial independence might make you a better person.
First, I believe having freedom to choose what you want to do when you want to do it gives you a peace of mind. When you have peace of mind, you relax more, you have an energy surplus and you become more pleasant to be around.
When you are more pleasant to be around, other people like you more. When other people like you more, you become an even better person 🙂
Second, by having freedom you reflect more on what you really want to achieve in life (not only how to optimize your two hard-earned weekend days).
Reflection is important and exploring your inner desires is an exercise most people don’t pay much attention to. If you expected to work for the next 50 years in the same job, would you?
I’m not talking about reflection as in thinking about your next career opportunity. I’m talking about the real serious stuff that takes long time and a huge energy surplus to dig out. Once you find that, you will at least know how you could become more happy.
Did that make any sense or was that just nonsense to you? I believe striving for FI (and achieving FI) opens up for new thoughts and possibilities for people that make them better versions of themselves.
On the contrary, you could argue being financially independent might also make you more arrogant but looking at the FI bloggers in the personal finance community this doesn’t seem to be the case.
FI doesn’t solve everything
While I believe financial independence should be a goal for everyone, I cannot say that financial independence is a silver bullet that will solve all our problems.
I like Steve’s posts on what financial independence doesn’t solve as a good example of this. https://thinksaveretire.com/early-retirement-different-person/
However, should financial independence’s shortcomings keep us from striving for something as great as being able to say FU, saving the planet and becoming a better person?
That’s a clear “no!” if you ask me 🙂