The Magic and Wonders of Financial Freedom
Once upon a time, during my much younger days when I first graduated, my aim was to get a head start by landing a good job.
As the saying goes,
“Study hard, get good grades and get a good job”.
Almost Every Parent
That time I was in Melbourne (Australia), and I managed to get a decently paid job offer back in Malaysia in a field that I was pretty interested in – Business Valuations – by sheer luck. The interviewer wasn’t even from my *future* department! Shout out to those studying in Australia who wants to head back to Malaysia for work, GRADUAN fair is quite decent.
With that, I kick started my career with the aim of working hard so that I reach the upper echelon (i.e. rich) to enjoy the kind of lifestyle of the BIGs (BIG house, BIG car, BIG life).
That mindset have changed dramatically by now. A story for another day, perhaps?
Day in, night out, I put the blinders on and set off to work, work, work… for my month end salary, then hopefully a good bonus by the end of the year, PLUS hopefully an increment + promotion on top of that. Does this sound familiar?
That, my friend, is the eternal cycle of the everyday salary-man/woman.
The Transition: Beyond just a salaryman
At some point, I started to hear people whisper, talk and discuss about this very mysterious concept, which piqued my interest a lot and started to change the way I see things:
The promised land of Financial Freedom
What is this… Financial Freedom?
There are a multitude of ways I’ve heard it being described and talked about. Picking some of those I’ve heard:
- When you can do and decide on things without having to worry about money anymore
- Time freedom… aka can do whatever you want, whenever you want, where you want
- “It generally means having enough savings, investments, and cash on hand to afford the lifestyle we want for ourselves and our families—and a growing nest egg that will allow us to retire or pursue the career we want without being driven by earning a certain amount each year.” – as written by Investopedia
- “What then is freedom? The power to live as one wishes” – Marcus Tullius Cicero
- The Rich Dad company (aka Robert Kiyosaki) went a step further to explain in an article about how financial freedom ain’t just about money, and is about the abundance mindset towards life
All of them share some commonalities as they speak of the freedom of choice and to be able to embrace life fully.
My Take on Financial Freedom
The best way that I have pictured financial freedom is by doing this small little game of visualization (and I urge you to indulge in this every once in a while):
- Find some place quiet
- Close your eyes
- Draw a blank and throw out all current thoughts
- Then, visualize a world in the future where money is plentiful for you
- What kind of a house would you have? Wake up in your comfortable bed, and take a stroll around your house
- What kind of vehicles do you own? In a garage or in the open? Take a drive down your neighbourhood
- Where would you be staying? Beachfront? Tropical? City? Same place?
- Who will you be spending your days with – alone or family or friends?
- What do you have planned for your day or week? More meet ups? Fishing? Gaming? Shopping? Shows?
- What kind of work will you be doing that gives serves your passion? Community service? Teaching? Writing?
- Let yourself feel and embrace this future you
- When you are ready, you can slowly phase it out and open your eyes
If you smile and feel the happiness/fulfilment from the bottom of your heart, then you know how I felt when I first did this visualization exercise.
Since I’m a numbers guy, so I had no choice decided to break this down to a simple formula for financial freedom.
The magic happens when:
Passive Income > Living Expenses
By adhering to this simple formula, there is a goal that we can aim for on both ends of the equations to achieve financial freedom.
I will dive deeper into both of these elements in another post.
“Being rich is having money; Being wealthy is having time”
Margaret Bonnano
