Diary of a future rentier (44)

Becoming a grasshopper is not as easy as it seems when you have been a hardworking ant for many years. At first glance, you might think that all you need to do is put yourself in holiday mode, with sunglasses, a deckchair and a cocktail in hand. Of course, this is one way to deprogram yourself from your old life, but it is not enough: you need to change your mindset in a profound and permanent way.

Such a turnaround does not happen overnight. It is a part of one's personality that must change. If I remember how I slowly and insidiously moved from the carefree nature of youth to the "responsibilities" of adult life, I can well imagine that the reverse change will take quite a while.

Acquiring financial independence, from a strictly "technical" point of view, is certainly done over a long period of time, but is not that complicated. On the other hand, putting yourself in rentier mode requires a profound change in your personality. Even if the path is pleasant, since it goes in the right direction, there is always the risk of getting lost along the way. Changing your behavior at 20 is quite easy, at 40 it is already more laborious, and we are not even talking about later.

For this reason, I have always thought that financial independence was a state of mind before it was a state of fact. We must move on rentier mode as soon as we have become aware that a change in life is necessary and not wait for this change to be effective. In this way, we will slide slowly and surely towards financial independence, with a few jolts sometimes on the road, but without a real identity crisis.

Today, I have made good progress in my quest, I am receiving increasingly significant passive income and I am gradually starting to let go of the professional world. However, I know that nothing is certain and that there is still a way to go before I can completely disconnect from it, whether financially or psychologically.

I am no longer the grasshopper of yesteryear, and I am not yet the one of tomorrow. But the important thing is that today I left the ant behind me. And I hope never to see it again. Thank you little ant for all the work you have done. Thank you for saving and investing my money wisely. Now you can go rest and I can start enjoying it 🙂