The Financial independence Head Game

The Financial Independence Head Game

There really is a simple path to wealth.  Financial independence may be hard, but it is certainly not complicated.  Sure you can argue about definitions.  You can squabble about the actual appropriate safe withdrawal rate or the benefits of investment verse speculation (I’m not going to delve into all that at the moment).  Thus, it follows, that everybody and their brother should be on the way or financially independent already.  Right?  Of course this is not the case.  I would argue that a strikingly small percentage of our population has either found this space, or has been successful in reaching the goal of financial freedom.  Furthermore, once financial independence is reached, few have the emotional stamina to pull the trigger and leave a lucrative job.  The reason why is both simple and confusing.  Most of us are failures at the financial independence head game.

We have all the tools necessary to reach financial independence, live a life of purpose and connection, and leave our jobs at the proper time.

Yet most of us don’t.

The Power of Limiting Beliefs (Reaching For FI)

Why in the world does everybody not strive towards financial independence?  One of the major reasons is the belief that it is utterly unattainable.  The number of limiting beliefs is so large that they are almost hard to count.  And all of them start with the single most horrible of phrases. * I can’t*:

  • Save enough
  • Make enough
  • Invest enough
  • Do without things
  • Eat at home
  • Ride my bike to work
  • Build a business
  • Start a side hustle

The list goes on and on.  The problem with I can’t is it usually means something entirely different from it’s literal meaning.  it usually means I didn’t try, or I won’t, or better yet I’m scared.

These limiting beliefs sap away success before anything is even risked.  And this is the problem with the financial independence head game.  Instead of embracing unsuccessful attempts, it causes many to focus on failure mitigation.

You can’t fail if you don’t try.

The Money Mind Meld (Living With Purpose)

The financial independence head game is no more clear than when considering the money mind meld.  As we have discussed on this blog, our big audacious dream of financial freedom often becomes the goal itself instead of a means to an end.  Financial independence should always be considered Plan B.  A life of purpose, identity, and connection should be Plan A.

When meaning is stripped from life and all our energies are focused on  bank accounts, reaching the number becomes a jarring, vertiginous exercise.

What now?

A difficult question to answer for one who has not built a strong identity and purpose into the financial independence journey.

The One More Year Phenomenon

There is no doubt that leaving the work place, even a disliked job, is often difficult.  This is especially true for high W2 wage earners like myself.  The math tells me that I could have retired a long time ago.  Yet the wall of fear has kept me from going any further than my half retirement.

I have become a victim of the financial independence head game.  No matter how secure I feel in the theory, I’m finding the emotional pull of the workplace and my own uncertainties holding me back.

The golden hand cuffs are a real and often self-imposed.  No matter how many times we run the FireCalc simulations, we want the success rate to be 100% every time.  And even then we manipulate the variables to model all sorts of disasters and unlikely events.

We are all trapped in the accumulation phase.

Final Thoughts

Reaching financial independence, avoiding the money mind meld, and escaping the one more year phenomenon should all be easy.  We have math and science behind us.  We have a whole philosophy of happiness to lean on.  Yet, time and again, the financial independence head game turns us sure winners into losers.

We are emotional, imperfect, human beings.

Sometimes it’s hard to do what is good for us.