3. WHY FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE IS IMPORTANT?
“Financial independence, also commonly known as financial freedom, is the status of having enough income to pay one's living expenses for the rest of one's life without having to be employed or dependent on others.”
Is working in a nine-to-five job killing you?
Do you ever have "Monday blues" at the start of your workweek on Monday with an overwhelming feeling of sadness, anxiety and stress?
Do you feel depressed, tired, hopeless and a sense that work is unpleasant but unavoidable?
To some people, the "Monday blues" carry on for the whole workweek until Friday.
The routine is pretty robotic.
You get up in the morning and go to work. Then you come home late, take dinner, watch a bit of television, finger-browse through your social media, and sleep.
You wake up the next morning and repeat the same routine all over again.
Work is killing you.
Work is wearing you down.
Work makes you live life like a zombie.
In my 27 years of corporate life, I have heard much too often about people being unhappy about their jobs.
Some dread to go to office to face a demanding boss.
Some want to quit their jobs because of work pressure.
Some feel that they have lost their souls because they give close to 15 hours in a day to their jobs.
Some want to pursue their passion outside of work but they simply don't have the time.
Some want to take the leap of faith to follow their passion but they can't let go of the stable monthly pay cheques that pay the bills.
Some want to spend more time with their children, family and loved ones but they simply can't squeeze out enough time.
Some want to have their personal “me” time but their times belong to work and others.
Work takes all of their time away from living a life.
They reluctantly stay on at their jobs and drag on for years.
Some stay at same jobs unhappily until their official retirement age at 60, or even 70.
What's the real reason why they can't retire early or choose to live the life they want?
Reason is simple.
They don't have enough money to pay for their living expenses for the rest of their lives.
Hence, they have no choice but to become the slaves of monthly pay cheques at the mercy of their bosses.
I, too, was a slave to monthly pay cheques.
Don’t get me wrong here.
I thoroughly enjoyed most of my 27 years of working life at nine-to-five jobs.
But I still can’t change the fact that I was a slave to monthly pay cheques.
But now, I'm not.
I’ve bought back my time to live the life I want.
Work has become optional since July 2017.
When work becomes optional
So how can you make work optional and live the life you want, too?
You need to achieve financial independence.
According to Wikipedia, “financial independence, also commonly known as financial freedom, is the status of having enough income to pay one's living expenses for the rest of one's life without having to be employed or dependent on others.”
In short, once you achieve financial independence, you have more time.
With more time, you have freedom.
Work then becomes optional.
You can then choose not to work if you wish.
Therefore, the goal is to have enough money as soon as possible so that you don't need to work for it.
It also means that you can now wake up in the morning and decide what you want to do for the rest of the day.
You don't need to squeeze with others in the public transport or get stuck in the traffic jam rushing to office.
You don't need to take in all the craps from your bosses, colleagues and customers.
You don't need to be dragged into office politics.
You don't need to get frustrated and unhappy with unnecessary stress affecting your health in office.
You can now go for your morning run or workout exercises for as many hours as you wish.
You can spend quality time having breakfast, lunch and dinner with your loved ones at home.
You can wake up somewhere beautiful and exotic in a foreign country and have a nice breakfast buffet, then explore the local culture, food and people as and when you want, as long as you want.
You can spend more time with friends, catch up on more important things in life.
You can get involved in exciting projects that you are passionate about.
You can truly take care of your health and wellbeing with good nutrition and plenty of exercises.
You can learn photography, cooking, singing or any other hobbies that you haven't had time to pursue before.
You can go and pursue your unfulfilled dreams from your childhood days - one by one - and cross out from your bucket list.
You now have time to live in the present.
You now have time to breathe life.
It's true.
Being rich is having time; but being wealthy is having freedom.
Time is equal to freedom.
How can you make enough money so that work becomes optional?
So, you may be wondering, “How can I make enough money so that work becomes optional?”
If you are great entrepreneurs like Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg or Alibaba's Jack Ma or Microsoft’s Bill Gates running successful business empires, you don’t need to read this book.You probably have found your great wealth.
However, if you are like me, who used to be employed working in a nine-to-five job, then there are still tested and true principles that will give you a very good chance at having enough money so that work becomes options.
You can then choose to retire early, do whatever you want, and live the good life true to yourself.
What you need is just a solid plan.
This involves:
- career growth maximise your potential income;
- frugal living to reduce your living expenses and maximise your savings,
- investing to make your money work for you, and
- wealth management to minimise your risks.
SECTION 1
ABOUT FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE
“When we allow our finances to control us, we give up many freedoms we value. The only way to gain those freedoms back is by taking control of our money.”
Darron Rowley
F I L L
Financial Independence, Live Life
achieving financial independence from 9-to-5 job before 50
Book manuscript written in 2020 & blog articles published in 2021 by Vincent Khor
