Got financial freedom on your mind?
Many people want "financial freedom." Too few take the time to define what they mean. Do you know what it means to you? Does it mean that you want to be rich? But wait, that won't help. What do you mean by "rich"?
The other day, I had a discussion with one of my sons about what rich means - at least what I thought rich means. He referred to someone we know as being "rich." I disagreed. In the course of our discussion, it seemed like he really meant that person had more than we had. (Had what? More stuff? Bigger house? Nicer car? What?)
So I pressed him a bit and I think he saw that he was using a word - "rich" - without knowing what he meant by that word. Then I gave him my own rough definition.
Rich means, first of all, that you don't "have to" work. Now even there, you've got to drill down. I know people worth millions who, if they stopped working, couldn't lead the life-style they've committed themselves to. They could easily stop working and live a reduced life-style (probably a life-style most people would wish they could live, but for them a reduced life-style). But they don't want to reduce their life-style and so, in spite of their millions, they must work and make more money to support that life-style.
So rich can vary in meaning from person to person. If you're rich, you don't have to work, although you may chose to work. I know people in this position. If they didn't work another day, they could live well - the way they would want to keep living - for the rest of their lives. They work because they like what they do.
Now back to financial freedom. It's not necessary to be rich - not having to work a single day the rest of your life if you don't want to - to achieve financial freedom. But you've got to get some sort of definition that makes sense to you. You'll never get there if you don't know where "there" is.
Let's try to work on this a bit now. Let's start with this definition of freedom: "the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action" (from the Merriam-Webster online dictionary). I like this definition. There are so many ways to look at and think about freedom, but this one fits the concept of financial freedom. For example, it's not talking about the difference between a slave and free person, or the quality of being open and uninhibited. Can you see why this definition of freedom helps us better define "financial freedom."
OK. So you've achieved financial freedom when you're choices or actions aren't driven by necessity and when your choices or actions aren't driven by coercion or constraint.
Before we go any further with our definition of financial freedom, I want to step back for a minute. Do you see what I did here? Going back to my conversation with my son about whether someone was rich or wasn't rich, I knew that we could go around and around in a pointless discussion, even an argument, without ever coming to some understanding or agreement on the issue. And what's the point of that? So I simply suggested we define "rich." He didn't really have a clear idea what he meant. I did. He saw the point and we proceeded from there. (By the way, he did agree that the guy we were discussing wasn't rich. He decided he was "well-to-do.")
Why is this idea of defining our terms so important? I find lots of people who want "financial freedom" but never take the time to define what they mean. How can you achieve a goal or objective if you don't know exactly what you're trying to achieve? Does that make any sense?
So in a future post, we'll dive into the concept of financial freedom and see what we come up with. You can have a lot of fun discovering things this way. But you've got to be willing to start with some facts, something you can clearly grasp with your mind, before you start spinning out ideas that may wind up leading you nowhere.
Stick to facts, stick to the truth - always. You'll find you won't get lost or waste your time as much as you might be doing now. And you'll find you'll accomplish more when you know what you're really trying to accomplish - like financial freedom.
The other day, I had a discussion with one of my sons about what rich means - at least what I thought rich means. He referred to someone we know as being "rich." I disagreed. In the course of our discussion, it seemed like he really meant that person had more than we had. (Had what? More stuff? Bigger house? Nicer car? What?)
So I pressed him a bit and I think he saw that he was using a word - "rich" - without knowing what he meant by that word. Then I gave him my own rough definition.
Rich means, first of all, that you don't "have to" work. Now even there, you've got to drill down. I know people worth millions who, if they stopped working, couldn't lead the life-style they've committed themselves to. They could easily stop working and live a reduced life-style (probably a life-style most people would wish they could live, but for them a reduced life-style). But they don't want to reduce their life-style and so, in spite of their millions, they must work and make more money to support that life-style.
So rich can vary in meaning from person to person. If you're rich, you don't have to work, although you may chose to work. I know people in this position. If they didn't work another day, they could live well - the way they would want to keep living - for the rest of their lives. They work because they like what they do.
Now back to financial freedom. It's not necessary to be rich - not having to work a single day the rest of your life if you don't want to - to achieve financial freedom. But you've got to get some sort of definition that makes sense to you. You'll never get there if you don't know where "there" is.
Let's try to work on this a bit now. Let's start with this definition of freedom: "the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action" (from the Merriam-Webster online dictionary). I like this definition. There are so many ways to look at and think about freedom, but this one fits the concept of financial freedom. For example, it's not talking about the difference between a slave and free person, or the quality of being open and uninhibited. Can you see why this definition of freedom helps us better define "financial freedom."
OK. So you've achieved financial freedom when you're choices or actions aren't driven by necessity and when your choices or actions aren't driven by coercion or constraint.
Before we go any further with our definition of financial freedom, I want to step back for a minute. Do you see what I did here? Going back to my conversation with my son about whether someone was rich or wasn't rich, I knew that we could go around and around in a pointless discussion, even an argument, without ever coming to some understanding or agreement on the issue. And what's the point of that? So I simply suggested we define "rich." He didn't really have a clear idea what he meant. I did. He saw the point and we proceeded from there. (By the way, he did agree that the guy we were discussing wasn't rich. He decided he was "well-to-do.")
Why is this idea of defining our terms so important? I find lots of people who want "financial freedom" but never take the time to define what they mean. How can you achieve a goal or objective if you don't know exactly what you're trying to achieve? Does that make any sense?
So in a future post, we'll dive into the concept of financial freedom and see what we come up with. You can have a lot of fun discovering things this way. But you've got to be willing to start with some facts, something you can clearly grasp with your mind, before you start spinning out ideas that may wind up leading you nowhere.
Stick to facts, stick to the truth - always. You'll find you won't get lost or waste your time as much as you might be doing now. And you'll find you'll accomplish more when you know what you're really trying to accomplish - like financial freedom.
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