Imagine I waved a magic wand and zap you are financially free, what does that mean to you?
What choices does it mean you can now make?
I think of money as a facilitator of our life choices with the intent to live lives in which we’re flourishing.
My shorthand for that is affording a life that lights us up.
Following that through, financial freedom, therefore, gives us life freedom, specifically freedom to choose how we spend our time.
James Clear, best selling author of “Atomic Habits” wrote in his newsletter:
“The most satisfying form of freedom is not a life without responsibilities, but a life where you are free to choose your responsibilities.”
James clear
Destination or Continuum?
In my experience, a lot of people think about and talk about financial freedom as if it’s this very large sum of money that enables them to do whatever they want and buy whatever they want.
That’s such a large sum of money that it can be quite overwhelming and feel so out of reach as to be not even worth trying.
Rather than being a destination financial freedom is more of a continuum, from dependence through security to independence and beyond.
The more savings and wealth you have the longer the duration of time freedom you have. From a day, to a week, to months and eventually years.
In “The Psychology of Money”, Morgan Housel wrote:
“The ability to do what you want, when you want, with who you want, for as long as you want, is priceless. It is the highest dividend money pays.”
Morgan Housel
You probably already have some financial freedom, and more is well within your reach if you contain your expenses and grow your savings.
The journey of financial freedom
Delve deeper into the journey to becoming more financially free in this episode of Money for Life.