Do you work for your money?

What does it mean to be financially independent?

Many would consider it to be a state in which you can afford to pay your rent, expenses and have a constant flow of money.

Others would suggest it to be the amount of time you can live off without working, living off the passive income you generate by intelligently managing your money.

For me it’s both of the above mentioned plus the possibility to move around and live wherever I wish to be at that moment, having enough time to pursue my hobbies and to spend with my family.

How to achieve it?

Seems like an impossible task at first.

Since very young, we are taught to act in a specific pattern, going to school, follow orders, memorize information. We don’t actually get taught to think and be individuals with our own strengths and weaknesses. Obviously, I cannot talk about everyone but it is definitely how it happened to me and many people I know.

School gave me some basic knowledge, but it definitely didn’t prepare me for life. Most of the things I know, I learned outside of school.

Our mindset is programmed from early one to follow orders, execute and all in one be a great employee.

So how do we reach that financial independence?

Definitely not by following orders or working 40+ years for someone else’s dreams to expect to have enough by then to live comfortably through your retirement until you finally die. Maybe it sounds a bit dramatic, but the overall I would say it is how many of us live their whole lives.

I won’t argue with the fact, that people are quite different and might have different desires and expectations from life — but over years two facts crystallized over the years:

The educational institutions won’t grant me a sufficient education to live a fulfilling life and I can’t rely on the government to receive a good retirement. It’s all in my hands: my future, my mother’s retirement, my kids, should I have them.

The first step is the change of mindset.

For the start, it is sufficient to simply open your eyes to all the senseless consumption forced upon us by ads, tv, society.

We get raises and earn more money to spend it on stuff that won’t make us happy, just to stand up to the standards and expectations set by other people. Those new brand sunglasses, this new bag although we have around 5 dusting in the closet, or maybe again another night of fiesta to compensate for all the unsatisfying work we do during the week, spending € on overpriced Gin Tonics?

I am not saying, we are supposed to live a frugal life without any spending. The problem is the number of things we buy, that we don’t actually need.

I have to admit, I also fall into this category often. Just recently I bought three pairs of shirts on Zalando on automatic mode, while actually, the only reasz I opened the website and also the only thing useful would be a new pair of winter shoes which don’t leak.

This is all money, which could be put apart. Yes, we are talking about plain and simple savings here. Savings, which eventually can be invested or used to buy assets, which in return can generate more money.

Assets in form of properties, shares, crypto if you like or some kind of business or money generating structure.

If we would invest half of the energy we do in getting a raise into thinking and educating about finances, life could look so much different for so many of us.

What do you think? I would love to hear your comments.