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Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Why do we want to achieve financial freedom?


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Originally uploaded by panzergrenadier
Many of you who are reading this blog strive to work hard, be thrify, save and invest in order to achieve financial freedom. But do you stop and think about why you want to achieve the ability not to work and be able to support yourself?

What!?!! Some of you might be thinking, don't be stupid, of course EVERYONE wants to be financially free..."so that we don't have to work"...

Not working... Isn't this your dream? Isn't this my dream? Isn't this all our dreams. But wait, what are we going to do if we do not have to work?

Ah... there lies the "eureka" moment, we are coming to the point where we are closer to identifying what we really want to do with our lives!

Why do we work
We work because we have to. We work because we need to support ourselves, our families, our car/house/lifestyle/expenses/vices etc. Some of us even work because we love to. Ultimately, our reasons are as varied as there are plants and animals in this world. The money we earn from work goes into supporting us and for us to survive. But beyond that, what drives us to exist, to breathe and to truly live?

Financial freedom is about choices
My dream of financial freedom where my investment assets generate sufficient returns to sustain a decent standard of living without working frees up myself to choose whether to work or not. Now I still do not have a choice. I want to have this choice. Many of you also want to have to choice. To chose to work...or not. It is this choice that is so powerful, so compelling and so enticing because we have many other things we'd rather do than work. For some of you, your work sucks, for others, your organisation sucks or your pay sucks, but whatever it is, the freedom of choice that comes with financial freedom is a powerful motivator for us to be financially free.

That power can be attained if we are focussed and concentrate on what is the one thing we want to do if we didn't have to work.

For myself, it is the ability to pursue my other interests in public speaking and volunteering. The chance to start a small business and to be my own boss.

What drives you
What is your interest, passion or that thing you would love to do if you didn't have to work?

Write it down and use it to motivate yourself to work hard, save up to build your income generating assets and to work towards financial freedom. A goal that benefits you and those around you as it brings you closer to financial freedom.

Don't forget to enjoy the journey of life though. Yes, be thrifty but at times if you want to spoil yourself a little, by all means, consider using the interest, dividend, extra return from your investment assets to reward yourself for being thrifty.

May you be on your way to financial freedom!

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