Or even the version of freedom that says if you have a job you’re doing it wrong. I’m not talking about the version of freedom where you assume everybody else is a slave and you’re so smart and good-looking for figuring out how to stack $100 bills. I’m not talking about retirement where you sit on a beach in your swimmers and sip mojitos all day. I deserve a cake in the face for using them in a title. Wealth, freedom, and retirement are three of the dirtiest words on the internet. Start building companies that will outlive you, write books that will outlive you, and make artwork that will resonate to future generations.The hand grenades about to be thrown at me.Become as wise as you personally can, by studying philosophy and applying it to your real life.Help empower others who are weak and need opportunities to do good in society. Study Stoic philosophy, and recognize you have nothing to fear.Increase your earning of money, and start saving 80%+ of your income.Reduce your living expenses to the absolute bare minimum.And if you don’t know how to live frugally and below your means, you will always be a slave to your “steady” income. Just because you’re rich and have lots of money doesn’t mean you have freedom. Remember - it’s not “happiness” we are seeking, but freedom. If you’re a billionaire and a slave to the board, share holders, and cannot even take a 15 minute nap when you want to, you’re simply a (very rich) slave.īecome an entrepreneur, earn money, and use that money to buy your freedom. “Can you take a nap whenever you want to?” The ultimate luxury is free time and freedom- to do what you want to, and to NOT do what you don’t want to do.Īnother saying by Taleb, to gauge how free you are: I only measure success by how much time you have to kill. So if we have enough money to feed ourselves, not die of thirst, or die of the cold - how much money do we really “need”?Īnother quote I like from my buddy Nassim Taleb, In Vietnamese, Cindy taught me that “to work” is ‘lam an’- which literally means, “labor eat”. To have money and to not have to do anything in order to “make a living”. Oh yeah, money is also good for buying our freedom. Money is good to buy food, coffee, and to pay rent. We become slaves to our stuff, our homes, our bills, and our lifestyles. We think we “own” our stuff, but it’s actually our stuff which owns us. With modern credit systems, banks, mortgages, etc- we are now modern share croppers. The way I see it, employment in capitalist society is institutionalized slavery (idea: Nassim Taleb). I learned from my best friend Seneca that when we think we need more money to be free and “secure”, we actually have too much money- far more than we need to secure our personal freedom. How do you know you don’t (already) have too much? If you don’t have debt, if you don’t have a fancy lifestyle, and if you don’t seek to own fancy stuff, it is actually quite easy to buy your freedom. The easiest way to buy your freedom is via the following: However, we need money in order to buy our freedom.īut how much money do we really need to buy our freedom? I’m watching SOLO, and a mini epiphany I had is this:
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