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Sunday, November 28, 2010

I Thinketh! - Stuff in My Room & the Need to be Financially Free

This is the true joy of life, the being used up for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one. 
~ George Bernard Shaw

As I sit up on my bed typing this post with my future wife lying fast asleep cuddling up next to me, I’m reminded how important and what being financially free really is to me from just observing my surroundings.

In front of me stands my library. Three 2m high bookshelves cluttered with books.  These books from a wide range of categories – literature (classic and modern), contemporary fiction, finance, philosophy, travel, history, arts, science and language – lie dusty, in need of wiping, and quite a number in need of being read. It’s been a nagging thought of mine to start. Instead, I find myself constantly being distracted by something else that needs looking into causing me to put down the book I intended to read.

The last I had any proper time to really start and concentrate on my book was on a holiday to Krabi in September. That was a beautiful and relaxing trip. I finished the book too - all 300 odd pages of it - in the 4 days I was away. Just like I used to in the past. It helped that it was a page-turner. The Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk.

Today, I find my eyes constantly drawn to my guide on Italy. The breakfast chatter with my brother has got me longing to travel once more. I love Europe and want to visit it again. Backpacking around for a month wasn’t enough. England, France, Germany, Czech Republic. That was more than four years ago. The mini-trips since then never quite matched up to the experience. Let's Go, the words on my travel guide to Italy says on the cover. I want to. It’s been a dream of mine.

My future wife rolls over in her sleep and my thoughts turn to her. In another year, we should be married. A wedding. Honeymoon. A house. And then kids. I’m not quite sure that they’re always in that order though. But I am sure that I want to be capable no matter the order they come in, and not handicapped by that piece of paper constantly changing hands called money.

I’m also sure that eventually we’ll have a dog. A dog that will provide love to and will be loved by the family. A dog that will be annoyed by the kids, but will play with them all the same. But eventually dogs too, grow old, and a lot faster than us. And at the end, we’ll wish we had spent more time with it before the inevitable. I’ve experienced this before. And I never hope to experience it again, let alone wish it on my children. The mat in the corner of my room ensures this. It belongs to the past.

Old age, illness, they go hand in hand. Personal calamities that need dealing with. The medicine bottle lying on the shelf serves as that reminder.  Zoom out. The world is a lot larger than our own personal problems. Wars, famine, poverty. Animals ill-treated. Species threatened. Dying. People suffering, children homeless. Uneducated. Sometimes all they need is a bit of helping hand. Isn’t that what humanity is all about? A dollar goes a long way. Involvement goes even further.

In short, being financially free opens up options, giving one more time to do the things that really matters to oneself and in that way, living and eventually dying without any regrets.

Able to do what one wants to do, when one wants to do it. The long awaited freedom.

~K


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