I’ve been thinking about this post all week long…..Financial Independence (FI): what is it? but most importantly what does it mean to us?. If this blog is meant to be a resource for you I think it is appropriate we set the stage around FI.

First, did we miss this subject in school? how come so many people don’t have a clue about this or live their lives paycheck to paycheck?. As I was reflecting about it, I came across an interesting flowchart by Fitz which I slightly adjusted based on our own perspective:

What we are taught growing up

What those seeking FI do

What those seeking FI reach

If you take a second and Google “Financial Independence” you will be surprised by the many posts and articles that discuss this topic. Let me summarize some keywords I found that might help you start developing your own definition.

• Having income-generating assets
• To have income from assets that cover your current expenses
• You no longer have to work for your money
• Living life without having to think about money
• Having choices in life
• The precursor to Financial Freedom

The list could go on but you’re starting to get the point. Assets, income, expenses, work, and options. Pretty simple and easy to digest right?. Let’s do one more thing let’s take a look at one definition to see if we can piece it out.

According to Wikipedia, Financial Independence is “the state of having sufficient personal wealth to live, without having to work actively for basic necessities. For financially independent people, their assets generate income and/or cash flow from dipping into the assets that are at least as great as their expenses”.

Keywords in this definition are:

• A state: suggests a place or point in life you’re striving to reach
• Sufficient wealth: I’m thinking about numbers
• Not having to work: not sure If I agree with this; however, it infers something I do like which is having options
• Income from dipping into the assets: this seems critical if you want to reach FI

What Does FI Mean To Me?

The more I think about it the more I realize it’s not going to be easy to come up with a single phrase that captures it all. What if instead, I try to summarize what I think FI IS NOT?

• Having money as your role model
• Having money but no family or friends
• Having money but hating your job
• Having money but no time to spend it
• Having money but no desire to enjoy it
• Having money with no purpose in life
• Having money but no happiness

Interestingly enough some people think about FI in the context of retirement; however, to some, there is an automatic connotation associated with this word that pictures individuals reaching the age of 60+ enjoying the benefits of a 401(k), social security, etc.

To those who think that way all I can say is that age is completely irrelevant with respect to achieving Financial Independence.

After visiting different personal finance (PF) blogs It was pretty obvious there were too many definitions which I thought were pretty cool. As I was reading some of them I was thinking, well it might be a good idea to put as many definitions as I can on this post to help you see the different perspectives that are out there.

I could go ahead and do that but what if I share the two sources of information that I found most helpful? Call me lazy or not, I’m gonna do it anyway.

The two sites I would recommend checking out are: esimoney and thinksaveretire. They did a phenomenal job putting together a list of definitions from many bloggers in the PF space. At the end of each article, they nicely wrapped it up sharing their own perspectives and guess what? they were different but by now you know that is Ok.

Agree To Disagree

I’ve come to the realization that there can be many definitions and no one is right or wrong.

Instead, what I have decided to do is to have a definition that makes sense to me which simply boils down to:

Having options to do what we love and building passive sources of income that give us the freedom to enjoy life in a meaningful way.

Whether you love your job or not or would like to do something completely different, is about having that FU money to be free.

Final Thoughts

There are key elements to reaching financial independence; however, discussing all stages in this post would be a disservice to you. Instead, I plan on taking a step back and setting a logical framework to discuss all aspects of FI.

Until next time … JJ