I concluded early on that fitting in (which includes showing off) was not something I had much interest in chasing. For reasons, someone else at the time found this to be necessary. A lot of that showing off ended up in boxes in storage.
Financial freedom is incredibly valuable. It is something the rich have, and it is what most people really want, but they get distracted by capitalism. You can enjoy most things on life on a reasonable amount of money, well less than 250k a year. You can’t have financial freedom if you buy a million dollar house on that income, or a new 100k car every 3 years.
I mean, above the poverty level (or some low bar) it’s always by choice. Not sure we’re saying different things. People choose to live to their means, maybe not exactly consciously.
Completely agree with all of this. And I think that many people wind up in the latter situation than the former. And this goes well beyond $250k p/y income, too.
New/different house is tempting for sure. I should have enough savings to pay off my current mortgage this time next year, but that chunk of change now represents a degree of financial freedom that I don’t think I want to give up.
I’ll have clarity on the college tuition question in the next 5 years, which at that point I think I can double my savings and reassess the decision.
This is one of the lessons I’m imparting on the bonus kids, as well as my kids: by and large, given the income you have you can have anything you want. You just may have to pick which of those things you really get.
No, its not about choosing between things you want with the money you will eventually have. It’s the freedom that comes with choosing none of them, but being able have any of them.
But that sounds boring, because humans want something tangible as a result of their efforts, and they want to prove their status for a number of reasons.
You are forever poor as long as you are waiting for more money to do that next thing. If a golden opportunity falls in front of you, be prepared to go after it. You will think more about regrets in life and opportunities missed than that new SUV that you admired about as long as it took for that loan payment to arrive in the mail.
That doesn’t mean be cheap and sacrifice on the things that will make you happy, but the key is focusing on what makes you happy, rather than what might convince others of that.
One of my retirement balances has been hovering annoyingly just under 500k for too long. Maybe it will finally punch through once the NAVs update overnight.
Have we discussed the line of bullshit that is “cash on the sidelines” and how this untapped $4 trillion, $5 trillion, $6 trillion or more is waiting eagerly for the chance to jump into the market?
