Saturday 24 October 2015

Can anyone reach financial independence?


A old gentlemen and business man in a top-hat

When I am reading German, Swedish and UK blogs then very often the targets are not to become financially independent. It has more to do with investment process and to write down the ideas one had upon the time of investment and over the course of the investment. To sum it up it is more of an online investment diary for us.

The blogs that I read in the US are often a bit different. Many of them push financial independence to the border of being insane. Some of them claim to be financial independent (and they probably are) but still they spend a lot of time on their blog to keep the revenue flowing from advertisement or why not the new book that they published on Amazon or maybe the latest must have app or investment aid needed to chose, control or supervise your investments. It could be that they are financially independent but to me this is not financial independence and trust me when I say that those guys are working very hard to keep their blogs running as they do.


They are however selling and profiting from the dream of financial independence that many people have when they are sitting bored out of their minds in the office with a job that they hate and with a boss that they hate even more and on top of things there might be some debts that needs to be paid which prevents you from leaving.

Going back to the question at hand... can anyone reach financial independence?

The American bloggers often tend to think so and even though I would love to say yes to that question I am afraid that I do not think that to be the case. Every person do not have the mindset to push something like financial independence to the goal line and once it has been reached the people changing their lives once they have become financial independent seems to be even fewer. 

There are plenty of extreme savers in the world, I think that I have become one of them, and one often read articles concerning them... worked all his/her life in the gas station... had two million in stocks and earned five times more in dividend payments as compared to his or her salary etc.

When one of those stories appear in the daily news often one also hear comments such as: "What an idiot! Lived the entire life on almost nothing and did nothing of interest and then they died and left that heap of money behind them!" The interesting thing with such statements are that people are not able to accept that a person can be happy going to work, doing what they do without feeling forced to spend a heap of money on an excessive cars, trips etc. What I find additionally funny is that there is never any envy towards those people. I really wonder why? The very same people making those statements will probably never become financially independent and that is fine! I, for one, need consumers to buy the products my companies make so that my companies can earn even more money.

I would however have loved to be in that situation in my life. Doing a job that I love, having absolutely no need to do it but still doing it just because I love it! Maybe it is like that for the American bloggers but I am not sure and personally I would prefer to hang out with my buddies and kids after work hours and weekends and simply enjoying life! Human interaction with people one love is more important than any object one can buy. As an example MMM have gone very far with how he lives his life and he is well worth to read if you clean out his extreme car obsession.

Conclusion: Not everyone will be able to become financially independent but you know what? It is fine like that! As long as you are happy with how you live your life then in the end... all is well! I am fairly certain that I one day will become financially independent and when that day happens I will have to decide what to do with the remainder of my life. What would you do?

4 comments:

Onevikinggirl said...

Yes! I think many use their FI process to endure their daily life. Save hard, dream big, invest and then buy car, house, bigge house, a few children - and then they stop blogging. Or like me, cut work hours, find a new employer, sleep eight hours, and fokus on the good life. What will you do with your Fi?

Fredrik von Oberhausen said...

Hi Onevikinggirl!

First of all congrats to reaching FI! Well done!

I hope that I will do like you have done but before I am standing in that crossroad I do not know how I will respond and what I will truly do.

Murmlos said...

Hrm, its an interesting question.. I have no idea if im going to reach financial independence.. But i dont think id manage life unless i saw a way out of the hamster wheel. Im young, but im cynical enough to realize that the governement isnt going to take care of me when i grow old. So i save to be able to ignore my surroundings and the growing debt that surround us.

I look at it like i am a financial-prepper :)

Fredrik von Oberhausen said...

Hi Murmlos,

Good! The world need more preppers! I do not know what your life and life situation looks like but only by starting to think about finance and considering saving and knowing that and understanding compound interest will for many people lead to financial independence. A value that look unreachable today will, via compound interest, be very doable in 20 years time.

Keep at it Murmlos!