Why FI?

Close your eyes and picture yourself twenty years ago.

Think of where you lived, your old hobbies, how you used to dress. I bet it’s all pretty different than today.

Reminisce about all the experiences you’ve been a part of since then. All the places you’ve been, the sights you’ve seen, the people you’ve met, and the achievements you’ve accomplished. Think of all the things that have been created and the people that have been born in that time.

A lot happens in twenty years. So imagine everything that you could do by funding your freedom twenty years earlier than you’d ever thought possible.

You could retire and stay home to raise your children, or travel the world for months or years at a time. You could pursue a new career or start your own business with practically no risk. Maybe you’d prefer to change nothing and continue working your current job. Everything would be on your terms.

This is the power of financial independence. By gaining a new perspective and making a few small optimizations now, you can buy yourself years of freedom later.

No way. I’m too old to reach financial independence twenty years earlier than a normal retirement age.

Maybe, maybe not. But let’s consider the worst case scenario of pursuing financial freedom and compare it to a “normal” life of consumerism. Regardless of your age, if you follow the path to FI, your worst case scenario is that you’ll have more money (sometimes a lot more) by the normal retirement age than you would have had otherwise. Best case, you’ll have a lot more, and you’ll have it at a younger age.

But I love my job; I don’t ever plan to retire!

Plenty of people love the work they do and the company for which they work. And maybe it will always stay as great as it is now.

But that’s no reason to dismiss the idea of financial freedom. What if layoffs affect your career, or your company goes bankrupt? Or your work-life balance changes for the worse? Or a reorganization of your team/department forces you to do work that you no longer enjoy? What if an injury or disability prevents you from being able to work? There are plenty of changes that could make any workplace less desirable than it is today.

Maybe none of those things ever happen and you’re able to enjoy your work for your entire career. But financial independence insulates you from the negative impacts of those events. Suddenly, you’ll no longer fear layoffs or bad workplaces, because you’ll no longer need a paycheck. If you still enjoy working at your job when you reach financial independence, you don’t have to retire; you just have the option to do so.

And perhaps most importantly: it doesn’t take sacrifice to get there. The road to financial independence is no rougher than the road most people follow today. But the destination it leads to is much more desirable. All it takes is more efficient use of the money you’re already making.

The best time to begin the journey to financial independence was twenty years ago. The second best time is now. So let’s get started.