I’m back! Six weeks in South America allowed me to step back and reflect. I kept asking myself three key questions:
Why did I take a career break?
Why do I want financial freedom?
Why am I focusing on property?
I thought long and hard about these questions on eight hour bus rides, unexpected emergency flights and along the Inca Trail.
Why did I take a career break?
I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me
Regrets of the Dying – Bronnie Ware, https://bronnieware.com
My very first blog post touched on this: I was burned out, I was living to work rather than working to live, and I wanted to live more intentionally.
But one thing kept niggling at me: what would other people think? Would my peers respect me as much now that I’m not pursuing an ambitious or high-earning career? Would my parents think I’m wasting my time and education? Would my husband still see me as an equal?
Ultimately, two things made me realise these questions were unhelpful and futile. First, I can’t control what others think – I can only control myself and my emotions. Second, I had been reflecting on the top five regrets of the dying. The regret that resonated most was: “I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.” I felt like, all my life, I had done what society had deemed as ‘success’: getting into Cambridge, going into investment banking, co-founding a start-up. Now I wanted to do things true to myself: be more creative, visit more countries and experience new cultures, take proper care of me and my family.
Why do I want financial freedom?
Money doesn’t buy happiness – a well-known study in 2010 by Nobel prize economists Daniel Kahneman and Angus Deaton showed that once your household income exceeds $75k ($90k in today’s terms), money and happiness doesn’t correlate.
Instead, money buys freedom. Freedom to choose how I spend my time, where I am located and what I do.
How I spend my time (”time freedom”): instead of being glued to my desk, I have the freedom to walk my dog, go to the gym, cook a nice meal, go travelling, pursue multiple business interests.
Where I am located (”geographical freedom”): with my husband working abroad, geographical freedom matters a lot to me. I want to live and work from everywhere in the world (with a stable internet connection!).
What I do (”activities freedom”): with my time freedom, I also want to spend it on activities that bring me joy. Some of these activities are not cheap, like travelling. My definition of financial freedom is not simply to afford the bare minimum and live on a shoestring – I want to live life to its fullest. That doesn’t mean I have to drive a fancy car, dine solely in Michelin star restaurants or stay in 5-star hotels; it means collecting a pocketful of memories that makes me smile.
Why am I focusing on property?
Interestingly, a lot of property podcast interviews ask “what is your why?” and the interviewee answers with a variation of freedom of time, location, money so they can travel, spend more time with the kids, pursue other interests.
For me though, the freedom aspect is more fundamental than property. After all, I can also become financially free through the stock market (FIRE is the most prominent version of this and is much more passive), through crypto and/or through any other asset class.
So, why property?
First, my core values of minimalism and sustainability: I wanted to start a business that isn’t product-based. I believe there is too much product, too much consumption and too effective marketing that makes us feel inept for not having the latest gadgets and widgets. On the other hand, a home is something everyone needs. If I can bring decrepit houses back to life, if I can improve the quality of accommodation, if I can add to the housing stock and help alleviate the housing crisis – I would be proud of that.
Second, I find it fun. I enjoy the process: going on viewings and noseying round, the adrenaline rush of putting in offers and getting them accepted, assembling my Avengers (of solicitors, mortgage brokers, tradespeople, architects), interior design, marketing the property… The work is varied and keeps me interested.
Third, property is a relatively low-risk asset class. My personal preference is to generate stable-ish returns without mark-to-market fluctuations in stocks, bonds or crypto. That’s not to say we don’t have a diversified portfolio, it’s just that I’d prefer to generate income that I have to live on from somewhere lower risk. It also helps that property is the one asset class where leverage is easily accessible.
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The bottom line: my ‘why’ is to live life how I want to, not what others expect of me.
