Why do you want to be wealthy? To have a nice car, big house, fancy clothes, or to go on exotic vacations? All of that sounds great, and I don’t know anyone who would complain if they had any of that– but to me, being wealthy is not about the money.
I want to be wealthy so that I can be self-reliant. I want flexibility and freedom.
Sure, I wouldn’t mind having nice things like a spacious house or nice cars. But I would much rather have the flexibility to do what I want, when I want. I’m a family man, so to me that means spending time with my family whenever I want to and being there for my kids as they grow up. I want the flexibility to be able to create lasting memories for my family and me. At the end of my life, I would much rather have a life full of meaningful experiences with my family than a bank account that is flushed with cash I’ll never get around to spending, or a house that is too big. Nice things will eventually go out of style or become obsolete, but memories last forever.
My drive to become financially independent originated from experiences of seeing people live paycheck-to-paycheck and struggle to get by. I never wanted to experience that. Since then, it has morphed into this idea that financial independence means flexibility and freedom. I don’t want to be tied down to a job forever that makes it difficult for me to find quality time with my family. That being said, I know that there is no magic formula to make work disappear. Work, to some extent, will always be a part of our lives, and an important one. But I do believe that by making wise decisions and working hard, we can get to a point where work does not determine our lives, because we have financial independence. It’ll take some sacrifice, especially upfront, but a little sacrifice now will go a long way.
So I’ll ask the question again: why do you want to be wealthy? Figuring out the why will help drive you and push you to do your best. If you’re “why” is not compelling enough, you need a better “why”. For me, nice things are not a good enough “why”. But seeing the world, bonding with my family, and having more freedom is.