The maths is sound and the logic is simple when it comes to financial independence and we mostly agree, that in premise, the following works:

• Identify your annual expenses (e.g. £40,000)

• Multiply your annual expenses by 25 (e.g. £40,000 * 25 = £1 million)

• Set this number (£1 million) as the goal line for financial independence.

There is however, one fundamental psychological flaw with this problem: for every minute, every day, every year that someone has not reached their target portfolio number, they are in a state of failure. Only once the threshold has been passed can victory be claimed. As someone who has been trying to achieve Financial Independence (FI) on a regular income, that this can be a persistent feeling.

Whilst the FIRE movement has provided a formula for financial freedom after the FI date and far more time-freedom than the traditional approach to retirement (work 40 hours a week for 45 years); it does not solve the issue of the perception of the time leading up to FI. For example, essentially putting your life on hold for 10-20 years in order to save and invest is not optimal.

The FIRE Mentality Is Enticing, Revolutionary & Motivating… BUT

The Financial Independence Retire Early concept can be an important initial first step to envisioning a life free from:

• Unfulfilling work that you struggle to see the point of

• Hours upon hours of commuting with time that could be spent with family.

• A life spent in uninspiring offices, locked away from nature and sunlight.

I accept that of course this is a great starting point and it was the initial spark in my brain that inspired me to change the way I perceived money and retirement. It gave me a sense of optimism about work and life, as I no longer felt trapped by obligatory work for an unendurable amount of time.

However, we shouldn’t be too quick to accept this first solution of – “save up 25 times my annual expenses, then quit working entirely!”. I feel there are a number of critical problems with the assumptions of this approach:

• Work of any nature holds little meaning and I won’t work after FI in any capacity.

• Life until FI has little potential for freedom or enjoyment until FI.

• FI is the only way to facilitate lifestyle design and negotiate the life I want.

Why Can’t We Be A Little More Creative?

Essentially, if there are things we want to do after our FI date, why can’t we just bring them forward to the now. Making some assumptions of my own, I would say that the people most capable, imaginative and insightful enough to save 25x their income, are going to be the most driven, productive and ambitious people.

I don’t mean ambitious in the sense of career goals, I mean in terms of trying to build a meaningful life, with accomplishments by their definition of success and not by the standards set by an employer. Many people engaged in FI have a side business, a blog, a podcast or a long term-enterprise they are working on, this is clear to see.

• How I Made My First $100 Blogging: You Can Make Money As A Beginner Too

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What Are The Fundamental Pain Points?

If we really investigate what the fundamental pain points of not being FI are, perhaps we can find an alternative solution.

• Wasted time commuting sitting in traffic at rush hour twice a day

• Lack of geographical freedom

• Working an arbitrary number of hours each week

• Lack of autonomy, everyone has a boss.

• Working for a business end goal of increasing profit/shareholder dividends

By contrast, most people yearn for:

• Additional freedom to spend time with their family.

• Flexibility and freedom to work on interesting and meaningful projects

• Control over their environment, free from a distraction-filled open office

• The choice to work during times when they’re most productive (whether that’s mornings or evenings).

• The option to travel more (e.g. holidays).

• Predominant control over their thoughts, which comes as a result of being able to unplug and not needing to worry about responding to work emails and texts after normal working hours.

• Enhanced energy from being able to sleep and exercise when you want. How nice is it to wake up without using an alarm clock for example?

Traversing This Seemingly Impossible Mountain Range Of Requirements?

Some of them will now be resolved by the shift to remote work, as a result of covid-19). However, there are #6 counter-arguments to the above assumptions:

1. You don’t have to separate life into a sprint-towards-financial-independence period and a never-work-again. You can find meaningful, autonomous and flexible work during your journey to FI. Making you feel less desperate to reach your FI goal.

2. Your goal can be to generate active and/or passive income in an enjoyable way. You don’t have to sprint towards financial independence. Instead, you can take a more drawn out, enjoyable journey.

3. Starting your own business can allow you to quit your day job long before you have 25x expenses saved up. Online business is not just for the top 1% of intelligent individuals, there are 1000s of successful businesses, run by everyday people.

• Productivity Hacks To Help You Save Money And Live Better: Feeling Tired?
• How To Start A Blog In Under 20 Minutes: You Could Have Your Own Blog Today

A Sample Of Inspiration

Even from a small sample of episodes from the SPI Podcast, here a few individuals you can look to for inspiration:

• Julian Bradeley Jazz pianist and composer by trade who was navigating the expensive U.S. immigration process so that he can be with his fiancée. After building a following with Jazz tutorials on YouTube channel, he created an ebook but smashed his $4,000 goal within two hours of his launch.

• Deborah Neiman wanted to have a couple of goats so that she could make goat cheese. She now helps people all over the world raise their goats and make cheese and soap via her online courses.

• Marie Forleo has coached thousands of people over the last decade in basically every industry you can think of and has recently published a book ‘Everything Is Figureoutable’

• Chef Allison Schaaf took something she loves—helping people create amazing meals in their own homes—and turned it into a sustainable online business by building newsletter-based business

• Steve Kamb combined two of his passions: getting fit and playing video games, by carving out a space in the fitness market for folks just like him, Steve’s Nerd Fitness has become more than a business—it’s an amazing, die-hard community of devoted fans.

• Nathan Barry built and grew ConvertKit, an email marketing company, using customer funding and money from his own pocket.

• Kirma Luna and her husband found themselves on welfare with two young children, living in an unfamiliar town. Kimra turned to blogging, with a dream of making money online. In less than a year, she had done just that by hosting webinars and becoming an online authority.

• Brigit quit her corporate job to pursue her hobby-passion and now earns a 6-figure salary from online Tarot card reading.

You Don’t Need To Invent The Next Big Thing

One of the things I have learned from people like the above is that you don’t necessarily need to create a business that is scalable enough to earn you millions of pounds/dollars in revenue. You don’t need to be the next Amazon or Nike, or create the next biggest thing. The plan can simply be to create enough revenue to cover your monthly expenses like FI and this is a very different business model; where you only need to solve a pain point for a specific niche.

There is one SPI episode on how to create a business with no money, no expertise and no ideas, that has really stuck with me and remodelled how I think. As it defines the process of identifying and solving a pain point for a person or business. This concept is something that I’ve actually taken into my career and recent interviews and it’s really paid off.

6. Recognizing that work can actually play an important role in leading a fulfilling life and that you don’t have to stop working after your portfolio reaches a certain size.

7. Recognizing that starting an online business has never been easier and that the upside to doing so is unlimited. When you are employed you accept a contracted salary and have to ask, negotiate, get promoted or even change roles to get a pay rise. With online business the sky’s the limit with earning potential.

The Challenge Of Connecting Money, Enjoyment And Impact

What helped me to realise the importance of the above elements is blogging and this is because of 5 important reasons. Prior to this, I struggled to envisage a world where I would enjoy my work. I always wanted to get an MSc and PhD in Psychology and become a researcher.

However, I never felt I could commit because of the job market in that sector. This is because of the financial element of not being able to work and the subsequent financial impact. I couldn’t justify the ROI when I could gain practical skills whilst earning money. For a long-time I was unfulfilled at my jobs because this is all I wanted to do.

Now I understand the connection between what I enjoy, what I can make a meaningful impact with, and what I get paid for. More than this, I understand the elements that can contribute to wellbeing and life satisfaction:

• Autonomy in my day and work

• A direct link between action and value creation

• Geographical flexibility

• Meaningful, interesting and engaging work

• Less distractions, bureaucracy and pointless meetings.

• I direct link between how hard I work and growth or earnings

Finding Balance With Employment

Although I have just accepted a really an offer to go back to full-time employment and I’ll have to scale back blogging. It’s with an exciting company, where there is a strong link between action and value creation and they are keen to ensure each employer has interesting and engaging work.

I also think to some degree the company is keen to consider employee wellbeing, autonomy and productivity. In my first week, there was a team activity of talking about the results of a personality test and how it can influence how we work together; highlighting where we (the employees) might need more autonomy vs direction for example.

Take the personality test for a little bit of fun and drop me your results in the comments or to mrmoneysideup.com. FYI – I’m an ‘Advocate’ (INFJ-A).

We Can Be Our Own Biggest Barrier

I digress, despite the fact that the above list of people (e.g. Julian Bradeley) might seem normal, their achievements seem astronomical. You might think “I don’t have any monetizable skills right now”.

So, just finding a starting point can be difficult enough, but the important thing to remember is that we are often our own biggest barrier. Taking action to save, or even invest might seem feasible enough, but where do you even start when it comes to lifestyle design and moving your life in a different direction.

I know personally, that even considering a career change and moving to a slightly different industry or role, can be baffling.

You might tell yourself:

• I’m now qualified

• I don’t have the experience

• I don’t have any value to add

• I’m not good enough.

Taking The First Step Towards Success

The first step before being able to start achieving our goals, whether this is getting a higher paying job, a job that demands better flexibility and perks or even starting a business/blog is to overcome our limiting self-beliefs.

I’ve decided to deconstruct my own process for overcoming my own limiting self-beliefs. You can get this simple 4 step diagram to help you identify what’s holding you back, and start taking action. It may even help you to define the challenges you’re not even aware of right now.

For example you might feel anxious that you are not good enough, or you are not up to the task. Maybe you don’t feel confident. So click here to get this process and move past these negative feelings or thoughts.