Begin with with the end in mind.
Stephen Covey – The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
Achieving Financial Independence in the shortest amount of time possible requires many subtle and not-so-subtle lifestyle changes over several years. If you’re just starting down the path to FI and depending on many personal factors this time could range from four to 15 years.
Given the effort and time required to achieve FI, it’s super important to establish how want your post-FI life to look. This future lifestyle design is not imaginary. Creating this vision of your future self will serve as your main Goal, the reason you’re working toward financial independence to begin with!
Money is not the goal
Money is not your goal. With all this talk of saving rates, the 4% rule, and safe withdrawal, I often forget that Financial Independence is not actually about money. Rather, FI is about removing money as a limiting force in your life and turning it into a tool that enables the lifestyle you crave.
Excuses
We’ve all thought some variation on the following:
- If I could just afford…
- If I didn’t need this job…
- If I just had more time, I would…
- I can’t wait for when I retire, I’m going to…
Money is a lifestyle tool
The goal is to do away with those (very real) money-based excuses and to design your ideal life now. We do this by converting money from an inhibiting obstacle into a powerful tool.
Lifestyle vision
What does your ideal life look like? Write this down! In addition to what you yearn for now, try to imagine yourself in 10 years. Who are you with? Where in the world are you?
Perhaps images of you in a cabin in the woods with your family pop up. Or it could be you as a single person sailing a catamaran around the Mediterranean Sea. Maybe it’s more simple and you are in the house you’re in now with the people you are with right now, only difference being you’re not stressed about money.
What are you doing? Some of us love the career we have now, but do you wish your commute was shorter? Do you want to work a more flexible or reduced schedule so you can spend more time with people you love and on your hobbies? Maybe you’re in front of a computer all day now and you’ve dreamed of building your own house or wood working.
Focus on your lifestyle, not your bank statement
You can probably see where I’m going with this. Making your way to Financial Independence is about using money to realize your lifestyle goals. It’s about freeing yourself from the need to work a job you may or may not love so you can start spending time how you want.
Money becomes a tool. You will have enough money in the bank to leave your job altogether or (if you’re like me and like what you do) change jobs to reduce your commute, avoid toxic office politics, or increase your geographic and time-flexibility.
It’s a tool to allow you to travel, to live where you want, and live how you want. If you still desire a standard 40 hour-per-week work week you can even keep your job! The point is: you no longer have to after Financial Independence. You have greater freedom to craft your ideal lifestyle.
My ideal lifestyle
I’ve done this exercise myself and iterated on it throughout the years. I’ve broken out my goal, my ideal lifestyle, using three broad categories: Community, Purpose, and Adventure. To live my ideal life, I want a balance of all three.
Adventure
In my ideal life I am able to travel, both domestically and internationally, quite freely.
I have established a home for myself in a place designed for outdoor enthusiasts like myself—the Colorado Front Range. I want to be able to get outside during the week when trails and climbing areas are less congested. If the weather is good on a Tuesday, I want the freedom to go climb or trail run on that Tuesday.
I also want to chase spring and summer conditions, avoiding winter. This means that when it’s frigid in Colorado in January, I want to be able to go to Moab or Greece.
Rose and I put a high value on international travel. It’s important for us to be able to spend long periods of time exploring different countries. This winter, for example, we spent two months in Ecuador. Upcoming, we have a longer trip planned to Croatia.
Purpose
In my ideal life, I’m not working for a paycheck, but I am using my skills as a software developer to make the world a better place. I do get paid for that work; I selected a job that is both extremely flexible and gives back.
I am currently working on a software application that removes human bias from commercial loan underwriting to more fairly give loans to deserving, hard-working entrepreneurs.
The difference now is that I am not seeking the best paying job, I’m seeking a job where my skills make a difference.
Community
Family and friends are the essences of a meaningful life. Rose and I have developed a community in the Front Range of friends and a few family members with whom we climb, hike, and share meals.
When we travel abroad, we take time to learn the local language so that we can form meaningful relationships in the destinations we spend time in.
Why FI?
It’s important to start with your lifestyle goals in mind. When talking about Financial Independence, we talk a lot about money. Remember to keep an eye on these lifestyle goals and remember that money is just a tool to achieve the lifestyle you want. Money itself is not the goal.
