I am 40 years old. Already old for some, still young for others. Same thing again, and I will be 80. Maybe I will still be standing, maybe in a chair, maybe in bed or even completely horizontal. In short, I have already been on a big ride and I already have only one more left, in the best case scenario. And there is no reason to believe that this will be the best of the two. When I think back to my 20s, I feel like it was yesterday and I wonder where I let all those years go.
Midlife crisis. Say, is that it? If what you're reading right now tickles your fancy, you're probably in the same age bracket as me... Holy shit, I can still see myself fooling around at parties with my mates. Mocking along to Killing in the Name by Rage Against the Machine. Knocking down mugs of Cardinal and smoking weed at the Usine squat. It seems so close that it almost gives me a headache. And yet it was almost 20 years ago. I barely have time to snap my fingers. One more clap and I'll almost be at official retirement age. At the rate things are going, needless to say it's tomorrow.
I remember an old man at the time who said to me, leaning on the corner of a bar: "Enjoy, it goes by quickly". I listened to him. I enjoyed it. And it went by quickly. And now the old man is me. What to do then? Lament? Cry over your best years?
When I started working I quickly realized that as long as I had a lucrative job, I would never again be able to have the same good life as during my studies. Paradoxically, I slowly went from grasshopper to ant... Of course I didn't completely abandon my casual life, it is buried inside me, part of my very essence, reappears from time to time. It waits its turn. It waits for the ant to have worked enough so that the grasshopper can reappear, definitively this time.
"Enjoy it, it goes by fast." Holy shit, the old man was right. At the rate things are going, I have every reason to believe that in 10 years I will be financially independent. Maybe less, maybe more. It doesn't matter. 10 years. Not even time to snap my fingers.
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VERY NICE POST…
THANKS!
Well, well this post really depressed me. It makes me want to NOT live like a rentier but rather go out and blow everything day by day...
The rich at the top look at us and sneer... To be a rentier is to not worry about being one.
And then, rentier at 50? What's the point????
No, really, we are too similar, but it's depressing...
But no, the goal is not to get depressed, but to enjoy every moment that is offered to us on this earth. And therefore not to sweat body and soul all day long in the service of someone else…
Independence is above all about escaping from being an employee. The greatest satisfaction is to have a job where you are free and where you control your time. No gods, no masters and... especially no boss.
I did it, it has its price, it is tax-free, and even if I do not yet have financial independence like some classmates who are senior executives in big listed companies, I laugh when I think of their tightly tied tie knot... Think about it, it is everyday, concrete, and it is easier to achieve than hoping to be a rentier, which very few will manage to do in the end, and often not before the age of 60...
On the contrary, I think you are more financially independent than your classmates, given how you explain it. With their ties, they are literally and figuratively attached to their company, they are financially dependent on it.
Being free and controlling your time, as you say, that's what (financial) independence is. Several paths are possible, a job with few constraints, a job where you feel free, a job that offers a lot of time. When I talk about financial independence, I don't necessarily mean a total retirement from working life, but rather a mix of lighter professional activity, passive income and semi-active income, like blogging. There is no royal road, everyone must find their own path.
Yes, the solution is the mix and to start the multi-activity professional before integrating the financial income. This can start with part-time employment or subcontracting for the current employer and we can put on top of it various profitable activities: teaching, consulting, training, journalism, blog, publications. In short, you have to invest for yourself and for the long term.
It is an illusion to think that one can be truly independent. I work for myself and I do not feel free for that. We are slaves to something, always. Whether it is the client, taxes, family, or simply employees, we always work for someone. Work in itself is slavery, whatever it is.
Jerome, you say you want to enjoy every moment, so why complicate your life by becoming a rentier when you will only enjoy it when you are old?
The real rentiers, the real free ones, are the 1%. Those who don't need to create a blog, or read it...
The rest of us are dust, it's the people having fun.
I said!!!
You're right, you can't become independent. You are, deep down, or you're not. After that, it's just a matter of the path you follow, or the path you don't follow.
My blog, my investments in dividends and real estate, the income I get from them, that's already my financially independent life. I don't have to wait until I'm old, via a "traditional" retirement for that to happen. It's happening today, and it's more rewarding than those who already have everything from birth.
That's what we tell ourselves, you and I... To be able to exist peacefully. But people who have everything from birth, they don't care about these little honorific phrases... They are happy too.
Anyway, we're not going to remake the world. That's how it is... I have the same reasoning as you, except that it pushes me to do more stupid things and blow everything on travel and personal enrichment.
One does not prevent the other, even if I would like to be able to enjoy myself even more, in stupid things and travels as you say. Today what prevents me is not my journey towards financial independence, but on the contrary my dependent professional activity. I could obviously throw everything in the towel, give up and act like an idiot for quite a while. But that would only be a flash in the pan, with a very hard landing. So I prefer to make myself less and less dependent on my job, not only financially, but especially in terms of time and responsibilities. I have already changed employers recently for this reason. There is already clear progress, but I want to go much further.
I don't think it should end up as a flash in the pan... We can have fun responsibly.
Anyway, after 60, it can end however it wants... It doesn't change much.
All this inspires me to write an article… to be continued 😉
Hello everyone ,
The feeling of escaping from any form of servitude cannot be measured with a thermometer...
Speaking of thermometers, does anyone know these two dividend growers screeners?
stock rover & dividata
I didn't know about dividata, it seems nice, but I still lack a bit of precision regarding dividends (growth, payout) and then it's American, so they don't have to worry about the essential criterion which is currency risk... not to mention volatility which is not addressed either