I want financial freedom because...
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.
3 comments:
I received a rather nasty anonymous comment which I have deleted because it adds no value to the discussion on financial freedom except to taunt me that I am still in a sucky job and am whining about it.
I deleted it also because I can.
I have since turned on comments moderation to filter out such value-less comments.
Be well and prosper.
Hi Panzer,
Sorry to hear you received crap comments. I had my share of weird comments on my blog too, including what you would term "spam" comments. I chose to retain the unpleasant ones and delete the spam ones because I am rather intrigued (personally) by the venom and self-righteousness that some people seem to have. This, to me, is a clear example of over-active emotions at work.
My replies to such comments have been to focus on the facts and not the emotions, and hopefully I have also learnt something extra from the "confrontation".
I am actually very impressed by your blog and your commitment to financial freedom, and am striving to do the same too.
Keep up the good work !
Regards,
Musicwhiz
Hi Musicwhiz
I'd rather delete some of those views not so much because they disagree with me but the way they are phrased to be a personal attack, totally condescending and superior even while the commenter didn't even have the courtesy to chose an identity or ID to be referred to. Since he chose to be rather anonymous without even a nick, I'd decided that obliterating his comment makes my blog'd comments page cleaner.
It is easy to cast stones and to say "tsk tsk" on others without needing to risk anything yourself. My response to that commentor is that it's easy to be a critic but challenging to be part of the solution and to try to ADD VALUE. :-)
Thanks Musicwhiz for your encouragement. I am heartened by it. I also wish you the very best in your endeavours to grow your way towards financial freedom!
Be well and prosper!
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