I want financial freedom because...

I want financial freedom because on some days, I really really HATE my job.

How many of you have the sinking, creeping feeling when you go to bed on Sunday night, knowing that on Monday morning, you have to face difficult bosses, challenging customers and combative co-workers? There were some years in my career when I felt like I was back in the military, having to book in by 2359 hrs on Sunday evening, ready for Monday, the start of another week being in thrall to the Singapore Armed Forces as a conscript in the Lion City.

Your job doesn't need you but you need your job
The reality that afflicts us is that WE are dispensable in our jobs. The job doesn't need us but we need the job because we are not yet financially free. We need the income to support our living expenses and for us to save and grow our investible nest egg to the targetted size where the passive income generated from it exceeds your living expenses.

So how can you overcome your sucky job and reframe it into terms that will re-energise and re-engage you to be more involved?

See your job as a stepping stone to financial freedom
While your job may not satisfy your aspirations now, the income derived from it helps you move one step closer to your ideal state of financial freedom IF YOU LIVE WITHIN YOUR MEANS. If you continue to be profligate in spending, then no job and no amount of income will be able to satisfy your insatiable WANTS.

Even if you hate certain aspects of your job, there is bound to be some aspect that you do enjoy. Focus on that to sustain you and not let the unpleasant aspects derail your objective, i.e. to achieve financial freedom. Your job is meant to provide you with income commensurate with your qualifications, skills and abilities and the job scope. It is not meant to make you happy in life. To make yourself happy, you either change the world to suit you (if you can) or you change yourself to suit the world.

I see the accumulation of a nest-egg that grows and grows in exchange for accepting that sucky job for a limited time frame as a trade-off. While truly toxic jobs can rob you of your joy and health in life, most unpleasant careers only make your life "sian" without giving you high-blood pressure.

To be fair, I don't hate my job all the time and for all aspects. But there are some aspects which deal with combative colleagues that really make my blood boil. I've learnt to try to live and let live and not let such colleagues give me an aneurysm. I'd rather take one day at at time and manage it because I know, at the end of each month, I am another step closer to financial freedom.

Think about your own situation. You want financial freedom because ___________.

You are in the driving seat. The road may be bumpy but you can navigate through the roadblocks and obstacles toward your destination of financial freedom.

Be well and prosper.