Why pursue financial freedom?
Time!
Time is the most precious commodity in our life the moment after we are born. Everyone of us, rich or poor, only has 24 hours a day. No more and no less of it. Not even the richest man or the greatest Emperor on Earth can get more of it.
Once we start working for a living, we will divide our precious time into 3 parts:
- Working time - Work for money.
- Sleeping time - It is time to let our mind and body rest and repair so it can recover and continue to maintain healthy body and mind.
- Free time - It is our own free time. We can choose to spend it anyhow and whatever ways or forms as we like.
How much time am I spending on working for money?
Here is the Maths:
I work on 42 hours per week on 5 weekdays and spend another 1.5 hrs a day travelling to and from work.
Total time spent on working for money per week = 49.5 hours or 29.5%
70% of my time is spent on sleeping or having the free time to do whatever I like. E.g. at the very moment I am blogging. Wah, so free ah???
So what is the truth of pursing financial freedom?
Basically, we all like to free up more of our working time for money for more free time. When we have more free time and more free money, then only we can have more options for the rest of our time to choose freely. Isn't that a wonderful thought?
However, we must not forget that we only die once. During the journey of pursuing financial freedom we must not forget to have frequent stops to see, hear, touch and smell the only personal life that we have. Our spouse and kids are part of our life but they can never be our personal life. There will always be some things and some foods that we personally love but our family may not actually love them.
Loving our family come naturally as we are the very ones who choose them. Loving ourselves more especially true for men after marriage doesn't come so naturally as our financial resources are often limited. Women folks tend to know how to take good care of themselve especially on things that make them look nice.
So we may have to consciously re-learn to love ourselves too by spending some personal time and some money to make ourselves smile again.
How many time did you observe your wife and kids smile when they get their hands on things they like?
Why can't you smile again when you spend on yourself?
Is there something seriously wrong?
Posts
Hi CW88
ReplyDeleteI think you would be able to retire soon :) as your children are already in their independent state of the stages in their lives.
thats a post that set me thinking.
ReplyDeletefor a long while, my state of mind all evolve people and things around me. especially my family. all except managing our money. no, they are not allow to participate.
yes, it all comes naturally. when they smile i smile, when they happy, i happy. thats is all i need. fortunately for all of us, we don't have big appitite for money and things.
yes, we have to love our self, but that not necessary translet into spending more than we need to.
Actually hoh, when i spend on my wife or only child, it seems i am happier than spending on myself. i have no wish to wear a watch or ring. but when my wife can afford to wear an expensive one i am already happy. In short, it looks like i am happier showing off through my wife. But my son has caught my habit. He doesn't wants to show off anything, even though he has inherited some jeweleries from my wife's mother. Sorli for being a show off through my wife.
ReplyDeleteMe? As long as i know i always have some lose change in my pockets to spare is more than enough for me. It really doesn't matters if you think you are better off than me. In fact it suits me fine. That's what i like you to think whether you are correct or not. Anyway i always like to support the "underdog".
Cheers!
wow temperament, we are on the same side this time haha.
ReplyDeletei'm so lazy to buy things for myself that some time my wife had to do it for me. ofcos i say thanks and please no thanks. i'll do it myself and never will.
when they spend money i feel very happy as long it is no big items. many times i encourage them to do it. but i feel ashame if i do the same. there is a division of labor clear cut. i'll do the earnings and they do the spending. otherwise, i'll end up with no will and lost the purpose of making any more money if it comes.
Wow Coconut,
DeleteIs your wife Home Minster or Foreign Minster? If your wife is all along Home Minster, you are really a Great Family Minster.
Me, nothing lah, though i made and is trying to make more money for her capitals beside mine. She not "interested" in moving money around. Anyway we combine "everything" not long after our marriage as we belong to the "older generation" of thinking.
NB:
i purposely make all our investments/assets transparent to her at all time; though she is not interested in moving money around. i think this is very important in case i go and meet HIS GRACE first. Besides, i like and want her to feel at "ease at all time".
Shalom.