To many, the pursuit of Financial Independence (FI) can seem like a lot of hard work and sacrifice. Scrimping and saving, cutting back on dining out, cable, and other retail expenses, buying used or not buying at all sounds like deprivation. If I am being totally honest, there are days when I sometimes question my motivation myself.
Today is not one of those days.
Today is a reminder of why I choose FI.
The Day
The day starts well enough. I pop out of bed at 5:15, throw on some warm clothes, grab the dog and her leash and head out for an early stroll. I enjoy 30 mins of birds chirping and a cool breeze blowing through my hair. It looks like it is going to be a beautiful day. Not too cool or too hot. Then the walk is done and the day truly begins.
Once I walk through the door I immediately turn my attention to waking up the kids, who are less than thrilled to get up after an action-packed weekend. Already protesting, I try to wrangle clothes onto the kids and get them ready to go to daycare and school.
My wife takes one to school and I hustle the other one to daycare. The look on my youngest daughter’s face as she waves to me while I drive away makes me feel ill inside. I return home (luckily for me, I’ve negotiated to work from home on Mondays). I flip on the work computer and a bunch of action-needed emails pop into view. Instantly the stress starts to build.
I’m a consultant and I predominantly write reports detailing construction recommendations and develop proposals for new projects. I review my project list to sort out my week. My mood worsens. I have 8 reports and 3 proposals due this week and several of them are due in the next couple days. In review of the cost estimates, I see I have about 8 hours per report budgeted and a couple hours for each proposal. Adhering to the estimates I should be spending roughly 70 hours on this workload this week. Normally, I would try to distribute some of this work among my staff, but one is on vacation and the other is so green she doesn’t know which way is up yet.
In our routine Monday morning staff meeting, I send out the plea for assistance. I receive some lip service about some possible capacity… later in the week, but I’m mostly on my own. I also learn, to my surprise, that my supervisor and final QA/QC reviewer is leaving in a couple hours and won’t be back in the office until Thursday. There goes what little backup I had. The meeting adjourns and I find a fresh batch of emails and voicemails demanding action. Two new proposal requests for this week roll in as well.
I look out the window and see the sun shining and neighbors doing yardwork. I am super jealous. Around here it seems like nice spring days are few and far between. It’s depressing to be stuck in front of the computer on a day like this. Now I must focus on the work, not stopping except for bathroom breaks. I’m triaging requests that continue to pour in… what can wait, what needs immediate attention.
I pound away on the keyboard until past noon, when I finally can’t hold off hunger any further. After a quick bite, I am back at it. And just in time too… Another client emails wondering when they are going to get their proposal today. Whoops! I forgot about that one. It was written down, but after numerous phone calls and meetings, the note is several pages back in notepad. That seems crazy, because I just wrote it down on Friday! I put my administrative assistant on alert and rush through the proposal as fast as I can. Its forwarded to another senior engineer to review (who squeezes the review into a couple minutes between meetings). It comes back so fast I wonder if they even read it? Either way, crisis averted.
A couple hours later I’m finally starting to make some headway. However, progress comes to a complete halt when another client reaches out asking if their proposal is on it’s way yet. Ahh! That one was supposed to be due tomorrow!
We revisit the frantic cycle of proposal prep/review/issue and get the document over with a minute to spare, literally. The final details are hashed out while I am in my car on my way to pick up my daughter from day care.
With that, the work day ends. I now am back with my family. However, I’m mentally drained and just beat down. I don’t want to make any decisions (I’ve been making them all day long) and I have no energy to play with my kids. I just want to sleep, but I know that tomorrow is just going to be more of the same.
In Reflection
I sit here now, punching words into this machine and I realize that I am one of the lucky ones. I get paid well and get to be at home at the end of the day. I am not abusing my body or putting myself in harms way. Many can’t say that. Compared to about 99% of the world’s population… I have it made.
But as I reflect on the day, I wonder: Why would anyone would aspire to this? I didn’t benefit society in any way, and was barely there (at least mentally) to support my family, and I sure as hell didn’t enjoy it.
I also realize that part of my frustration comes from knowing that there is a better way. That all this craziness that I find myself in can be optional. Truly, I don’t blame others for this. I’ve created, or allowed others to create, my current reality.
But does it have to be that way? What if…
What if?
What if I could afford to give no F%&Ks about reports or proposals?
What if I could fill my day by tackling issues that are worthwhile to me?
What if I could get to the end of the day with the mental capacity to meaningfully engage with my wife and kids? What if, they could experience the best of me, not just the leftovers?
What would it be like to look forward to getting up in the morning?
What if I could focus on a skill or hobby that genuinely interests me?
What if I had could organize my thoughts, rather than dealing with each decision as if I had a figurative gun to my head?
What opportunities would present themselves once I had enough mental space to look around and see them?
Boiling this all down to one simple question… what if I had time?
That’s pretty powerful stuff. That reality is something worth fighting for.
How do I get more time?
Since time travel hasn’t been proven yet, our options are limited. There are 168 hours in a week and you lose 49 right off the bat for sleeping. Subtract another 7 or so hours for showering and using the restroom and 14 hours for prepping and eating meals and you are left with 91 hours. With a full time job, another 40 to 50 hours (let’s say 45) come off the table plus about 5 for driving to and from work, leaving us with 41 hours a week 34 if you can swing 8 hours of sleep each night), to maintain our relationships ( explore our interests, tackle household chores, and do everything else we need to do. That’s not a lot of time and my “what if” scenarios will require A LOT of time. It’s clear to me that that job has to GO!
The answer to me is clearly Financial Independence. Time will be more plentiful once FI is reached. But you can enjoy some of the benefits before you even reach FI. The further down the path to FI you go the more options you get. As you save up multiples of your annual spending you can afford to walk away from a job to pursue something more lucrative or satisfying. Additionally, you can develop the confidence to turn down extra work.
Wrap Up
So the next time I am faced with spending decisions or lifestyle creep, I will remember days like these. I will remember that FI offers freedom from these silly circumstances I’ve created. It allows time for contemplation and discovery. I will remember this is “Why We FI”.
So while days like this frankly suck… maybe there aren’t for naught. Maybe days like these push us closer to our goals.
I haven’t written my personal “Why of FI” post yet. But when I do it’ll probably sound just like this one. Reading your work struggles, questioning and breaking down time spent… It all hits home for me.
Love the fact that you said “freedom from these silly circumstances I’ve created”. Cool to hear that you’re taking ownership of your current circumstances. Since you created them, you can dismantle them too.
Thanks for sharing!
Much appreciated Joel!
It’s a tall task to course correct and I am leary of “the grass is greener on the other side” mentality. I’ve been down that road before… and with kids now it’s much harder to make abrupt changes. But when you realize you are responsible for your circumstances then you gain some control over them.
The thing is, if you love your job that 45 hours counts as quality time with friends. I had a work family and a home family and both were important to me. Sure I got to FI and eventually retired early, but I’d have never retired in my 40’s. I’d have missed way too much fun! I don’t think there is any one size fits all, but FI is important to achieve regardless of how your career feels to you, because that can change in a moment.