Someone once asked me how I define "Freedom".
There are different kinds of freedom. The freedom to think, the freedom to do something, the freedom to be able to freely share my opinions, and the freedom to live life the way I want. The freedom that every one of us has is the freedom to think, but not everyone has the freedom to do whatever they want, and live however they wanna live.
Everyone can think about the lifestyle they want, but not everyone can have the desired lifestyle.
Everyone wished to follow their heart and do whatever they want, but no, not everyone has the privilege to achieve it.
So how? What do I have to do to be able to live the life I want?
Firstly, I wanna emphasize the word "Freedom"
True "Freedom" is sustainable, the "Freedom" that you spent in your youth partying and enjoying your life, and then going to work after you've has your fill isn't real freedom. It's just an illusion that you're having the freedom to party and enjoy life all you like.
I'll call the freedom in your youth "Freedom First".
"Freedom First"
Freedom first is when you choose to live your teen life partying and enjoying it all the way till you're a young adult and start to begin working, you may even start taking life seriously at about 25-30 years old and realize you need to have your own house and car. That should be when you start to think about saving up and having your own property.
And from then, it should take a few years before you save up the required down-payment. And from then, you'll take another 20-30 years before you pay off all your debts and start having leftovers to save up. By then, you'll only have a few years left(About 5-10 years) before you retire.
But lemme ask you, how much do you think you'll save up in that period of 5-10 years? I bet it won't even be nearly enough for your retirement, some over the retirement age may even have to continue working because they didn't have enough for retirement.
Hence, this isn't real freedom.
"Freedom Later"
Someone once said to me, "Hey, if we choose freedom later, won't we miss the golden years of our youth? It'll be a waste of our youth!."
I then told him, "If we were to enjoy life and party that first 5-10 years of our youth, and later have to work our ass off for 30-35 years just to buy that freaking house and buy and pay off all our debts, wouldn't it be more of a waste of our life?"
Then I continued, "Instead, what if we start early and have our little side hustle at the age of 15-18, then slowly work on as that little side hustle grows. And with the money from your side hustle, invest it either into real estate, stocks, cryptocurrency, or reinvest it into your side hustle and make it big. Imagine the cash flow and property appreciates from your real estate, dividend from stocks and price of your stock goes up, or your crypto going to the moon.
Let's say you do everything correctly and everything goes your way. I bet it'll take you at least 10 years and at most 20 years to retire yourself with that multiple income streams you've built up by "sacrificing your youthful years". Even though the price for the wealth built up is significantly high, it's worth it, right?
- You're able to retire yourself at 40+ instead of the usual 60.
- You live your life building your assets and accumulating wealth instead of paying debts just to buy a freaking little house.
- You can take vacations and often as you like, or even party and enjoy your life until the day you die.
- You'll have more time for your family or your unfulfilled dreams.
Personal Opinion
If you're thinking that building a business or a side hustle is impossible. Then I'll compare it using the same situation, but with a different starting point in life.
Let's say there are 3 good friends, John, Peter, and Steven who're working at the same company, with a similar position, and both earning $3,000/m.
John starts investing $1,000/Month into an Index Fund at the age of 35.
By the time he retires, he would have $1,244,159.Peter starts investing $1,000/Month at the age of 27.
By the time he retires, he would have $2,810,378.
*Steven starts investing $1,000/Month at the age of 22.
By the time he retires, he would have $4,602,704
By now, you're starting to see the comparison, right?
This is the power of "Compound Interest", a few years difference can inflict an enormous impact on your life.
Even though the difference in time was only a few years apart, it manage to prove Warren Buffet's quote, "Compound Interest is truly scary."
What I'm trying to say is, even though you don't aspire to start a business and be wealthy. At least be serious with your future, don't be wasting money and time on a couple of drinks just to get drunk, then wake up to find that the world sucks. The world won't change for you, it's up to you to change yourself, create your financial freedom, achieve the freedom to be able to do what you want in life. Even if you're not gonna be wealthy, then at least aim to achieve financial freedom and be free from having to worry about not having enough money for this and that, not having money to pay for your bills, for your food, and your child's education.
You waste 5-10 years of your youthful life just for your little entertainment and throw away that potential wealth.
Instead of just sacrificing that few youthful years and being able to support your whole family and even live a wealthy life from then.
Now tell me, weighing the Pros and Cons, which is better?