The Irony of It

Autonomy and freedom over our life is, I think, a universal goal. It’s certainly what almost every person who sits in my office articulates, in one way or another.

It’s about having the autonomy and freedom to wake up in the morning and live life on your own terms – to go where you want, when you want. The freedom to do what you want, when you want. The freedom to leave a job at any moment, if you choose. The freedom to try sometime new. The freedom to spend more time with your family. The freedom to be a better parent, husband or wife, and perhaps ultimately to leave this world a better place.

If that is our most important life goal, shouldn’t we be using our money to gain that?

Morgan Housel spoke about this irony of money in his recent conversation with Tim Ferriss. He said, “the interesting thing to me is that among huge numbers of people, educated people, financial professionals, the purpose of money is to buy stuff. It’s to accumulate more stuff, a bigger house, nicer car, whatever it might be. I love all that stuff too. But to me, the most powerful thing that money can do and the most universal benefit that it can bring is systematically overlooked. Using it for independence and autonomy is so overlooked.”

He explains how savings and investments bring you that independence and autonomy.

“And the reason that they don’t want to have more savings is because to them, the knee jerk reaction is “Why would I just keep my money in the bank or even invest it? Like, the purpose of money is to go out and buy more stuff to enjoy my life. I get that, I understand that, but it’s usually once every five or ten years that people realise how important independence and autonomy is. And having that wealth that you have not spent, having the money that you haven’t spent that was just lying around, becomes the most valuable thing in the world when it lets you gain control of your time and just wake up every morning and say, ‘I can do whatever the hell I want today.’”

Ryan Holiday looked at this irony of money a different way in his recent post titled ‘What would come out at trial?’.

There’s an old saying “show me your calendar and your checkbook, and I’ll show you what’s really important in your life.”

Luckily we are not put on trial for this sort of thing, but imagine we were. Imagine, for example, you claimed the most important thing to you is to have more freedom in your life so you can spend more time with your family, your children and your spouse. Now you are put on trial to prove this. Ryan asks; what would the record show? Are you as committed as you say you are? Would the evidence be compelling? Or would it turn out that you talked a good game, but didn’t walk it?

What does your checkbook say?

What does your calendar say?

You don’t have to answer. We all know the answer.

My question is, why why why? What are we scared of? Is it other people’s expectations? Is it our own expectations? I suspect it’s different for everyone.

Here’s a challenge. Next time you are tempted to add to the collection of shiny objects (whatever those might be for you), think about it. Ask yourself the question, how does this thing contribute to the life I say I want? Ponder what is important to you and whether you could you use the money in a way that would move you further towards that freedom and autonomy, instead of further away from it.

Georgie

georgie@libertywealth.ky