As I traverse along this journey towards my goals in financial freedom, I’ve come to some realisations that challenge my entire view of what it means to be financially free.

In the beginning, I thought what everything was thinking. To be financially free means to be able to buy anything and everything without worrying about money. The more I started to understand and apply the principles of living within my means, saving and investing, growing and protecting my means, the more I realised that to achieve financial freedom, I need to understand that money is not everything!

Why money is not everything

The paradox of financial freedom is that so long as you cannot have control over your impulse to spend and use up your finances unwisely, no level of earned or passive income will be enough because your human wants are unlimited relative to the resources available.

This is why we keep hearing stories of very rich people who still become bankrupt even when they were worth millions. Mike Tyson, once a top boxing champion spent away all his millions. If you cannot exercise control and understand how your life energy in the form of money is going, then it will be very difficult for you to ever truly achieve financial freedom.

The key to financial freedom is wanting what you need

Financial freedom becomes more of a reality when we see that the key is keeping our wants manageable while fulfilling our needs. The basic human needs are simple. Food, shelter, safety. If you are healthy and can work and have some education, this is generally not a problem. The more basic you keep your needs, the easier it is for your to achieve financial freedom by saving and investing a capital sum sufficient to generate passive income that covers your living expenses.

Many things in life cannot be guaranteed by money. We can buy good healthcare but we cannot buy guaranteed good health. We can buy time with our friends but we cannot buy genuine friendships. We can trade money for time but we cannot take back the time lost if it is not spent on family and true friends.

The more I grow my investments and suffer the occasional delay due to life’s changes such as birth of my daughter and the financial crisis hitting my equity portfolio, the more I realise money is indeed not everything. Money is important, make no mistake about that. It pays for the home, utilities, food, medical costs and transport. But it cannot replace internal happiness generated from having a loving family, committed friends and connected life.

I’ve recently gotten onto facebook and realise it is a great tool for connecting with others we have met in our lives. The older I get, the more I realise these connections start to be more important because we tend not to make many new friends as we age. So keeping existing friends and acquaintances becomes more important because ultimately, we are social creatures that need that social interaction to feel alive and part of the tribe of people.

What has been your insights in financial freedom

Share with Panzer what you’ve learnt in your life that helps or hinders you towards financial freedom.

Be well and prosper.

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