"It belongs to the imperfection of everything human that man can only attain his desire by passing through its opposite." ~ Soren Kierkegaard
Conventional wisdom is an oxymoron. What is wise about conventions?
Consider the conventional idea of retirement: More than half of one's life is used as a kind of sacrifice to save enough money to replace the income needed to pay for living 10 to 15 years in the life one had only dreamt of during their younger years. By the time the individual is able to afford so-called financial freedom, their idea of happiness or the capacity to achieve it has either changed or diminished, respectively.
I see this as a tragedy.
To provide full disclosure: The idea and application of life planning, as opposed to conventional retirement planning, is at the forefront of my mind this week because my family and I are in the midst of moving to another city (which explains the lighter writing schedule lately). The reason for moving is not for financial or career reasons, which would be conventional, but for life reasons; we enjoy our current house and city but we feel strongly that our new city will provide greater quality of life in almost every way.
I will admit that our move is made possible because my work as a self-employed investment advisor and freelance writer creates more mobility than (sorry, I have to say it again) the conventional career. This is not to arrogantly say that one must be self-employed to be free. However, it does say that sacrificing life now for financial wealth later is a form of slavery and that freedom does not often come without significant risk.
"What is important in life is life, and not the result of life." ~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
I will provide details soon on the move and the new city. For now, feel free to get a primer with these life planning blog posts (with excerpts following the links to the posts):
The Goal is Not the Driving Force: You are the driver--the helmsman of your journey, your life. You choose the craft, the destination and the journey. However, none are more important than being your own driving force.
10 Potentially Perilous Paradoxes:We sacrifice life now -- we sacrifice meaningful pursuits and diminish the value of life now and work in a job we hate for decades; we delay "gratification" for a day when we will obtain an undefined "financial freedom," which will presumably buy the time needed to finally be ourselves; we kill ourselves to live; and thus life is made a tool for money, whereas money should be a tool for life...
The Non-Financial Cost of 'Retirement': If so many people who are actually in retirement have discovered that a happy retirement consists of working in a job that is self-fulfilling, shouldn't retirement planning therefore consist primarily of career planning or, even better, of life planning?
I look forward to sharing more soon...
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