The Personal Development & Financial Independence Thread

Priapus said:
Look, if you buy stuff on CC like a gaming console or 5, that you can’t pay back within a month - then sure - that’s not great.

And no, I have not watched the film; I will make a point of watching it.
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I think its a matter of your goal.

Like financial independence and buying every single thing your heart desires, rarely goes hand in hand.

I think a very important thing I learnt is that most things fall on a spectrum and the extremes on either end are usually not the answer.
 
RedViking said:
I think this also ties in with FI in an SA context.

justonelap.com

The Fat Wallet Show - Just One Lap

The Fat Wallet Show is a weekly podcast about all the money questions we are too embarrassed to ask. It's a show about learning about money.
justonelap.com justonelap.com

thefatwallet.libsyn.com

The Fat Wallet Show from Just One Lap

The Fat Wallet Show is a show about questions. It’s about admitting that we don’t know everything, but that we’re willing to learn. Most of all, it’s about understanding as much as we can to make us all better investors. Phrases like, “I’m not sure” or, “Let me look that up and get back to...
thefatwallet.libsyn.com

It is a bit dated, would be nice if they restarted the show, but still great information.
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love the fat wallet, was gonna be a post in future.

After Kristia left it was meant to be brought back in a new format but I think she was the driver.

I must actually check what she is up to these days.
 
RedViking said:
Well, I guess lets start with what the definition of Financial Freedom is or Independence in context of the thread.
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"Financial independence is a state where an individual or household has accumulated sufficient financial resources to cover its living expenses without having to depend on active employment or work to earn money in order to maintain its current lifestyle."

Financial independence - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
cguy said:
"Financial independence is a state where an individual or household has accumulated sufficient financial resources to cover its living expenses without having to depend on active employment or work to earn money in order to maintain its current lifestyle."

Financial independence - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
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Yeah this is sufficient I think
 
Priapus said:
Regarding this; I believe there has to be a balance. What good is a load of money in the bank, if you don’t use some of it to create memories? Like taking holidays and enjoying life with the family.

I’ve seen people go to the extreme where they won’t spend on anything, unless it keeps them alive. That’s no way to live.

A silly example, I sold my PS5 when I moved to the UK. Now I would like to buy another one here - some might say I’m wasting money on crap. However, to me, it’s something that gives me joy and something I like doing. If I can afford it of course, why not?

When it comes to delayed gratification; 100% agree - however, that is a hard, hard habit to break and one needs to be aware of it. Whole industries are built on it, because human brains have been rewired to :”take the shortcut”
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Spot on the tldr is if it adds value.

Some of them are just too extreme.

It's all about balance. You don't need the latest greatest thing and chasing the latest tech etc you will never be happy will never be content.

It's about finding joy with what you have and not constantly looking outside the whole time.

That's why I said it's a good starting point but I don't agree with it all.

When we buy new clothes and don't need the others give it away don't horde it give it to less fortunate ppl pay it forward it.

Buy new kitchen goodies sell the old or give away it.
 
RedViking said:
Well, I guess lets start with what the definition of Financial Freedom is or Independence in context of the thread.
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I like leaning more towards financial freedom with this definition rather than financial independence. Financial independence is very FIRE esq which I have no issue with but not necessarily something I wanna do and retire young.

Rather aiming more at this. Still working but doing everything in your terms.

What Is Financial Freedom?​

Financial freedom is a state where you have complete control over your finances, allowing you to make choices based on your desires and goals rather than being limited by how much things cost.

It means having enough income or savings to cover your expenses, giving you the freedom to live life on your own terms.
 
Snyper564 said:
Spot on the tldr is if it adds value.

Some of them are just too extreme.

It's all about balance. You don't need the latest greatest thing and chasing the latest tech etc you will never be happy will never be content.

It's about finding joy with what you have and not constantly looking outside the whole time.

That's why I said it's a good starting point but I don't agree with it all.

When we buy new clothes and don't need the others give it away don't horde it give it to less fortunate ppl pay it forward it.

Buy new kitchen goodies sell the old or give away it.
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I'm all about this. When we emigrated; we gave away 95% of our stuff in our house to good friends who then used what they wanted and then donated the items they replaced with what they got from us. Everyone benefited in the end.
 
Snyper564 said:
I like leaning more towards financial freedom with this definition rather than financial independence. Financial independence is very FIRE esq which I have no issue with but not necessarily something I wanna do and retire young.

Rather aiming more at this. Still working but doing everything in your terms.

What Is Financial Freedom?​

Financial freedom is a state where you have complete control over your finances, allowing you to make choices based on your desires and goals rather than being limited by how much things cost.

It means having enough income or savings to cover your expenses, giving you the freedom to live life on your own terms.
Click to expand...
I don’t think people should be redefining a well defined term. I also don’t understand how someone can have “complete control of their finances”, while requiring employment (the employer quite literally has control of your future income).
 
None of it counts if you don’t have a handle on your mental health.
 
Snyper564 said:
I like leaning more towards financial freedom with this definition rather than financial independence. Financial independence is very FIRE esq which I have no issue with but not necessarily something I wanna do and retire young.

Rather aiming more at this. Still working but doing everything in your terms.

What Is Financial Freedom?​

Financial freedom is a state where you have complete control over your finances, allowing you to make choices based on your desires and goals rather than being limited by how much things cost.

It means having enough income or savings to cover your expenses, giving you the freedom to live life on your own terms.
Click to expand...
cguy said:
I don’t think people should be redefining a well defined term. I also don’t understand how someone can have “complete control of their finances”, while requiring employment (the employer quite literally has control of your future income).
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I think the FIRE community themselves realised that the retire early portion was giving the wrong idea and has kind of moved to become just FI.

Like quite a few guys use FI in their moniker:
www.choosefi.com

Home

Discover and accelerate your path to Financial Independence by learning how to earn more, spend less, and live a life of intention - welcome to ChooseFI.
www.choosefi.com www.choosefi.com
www.youtube.com

The FI Guys

Welcome to "The FI Guys" podcast, hosted by Chris Monzon and Dominic James. Join us as we explore the secrets to achieving financial freedom and independence. With a passion for personal finance and years of experience in wealth management, Chris and Dominic are here to share their knowledge...
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com

I think Financial Independence is as simple as I have control of my time.
 
ronz91 said:
The general rule if I remember correctly is 25x yearly expenses.

There are different schools of thought where people can also get creative.
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How much do you need to hit some of these milestones? Like Milestone 4 - i am certain you would need a very large investment to cover the cost of food

For milestones, I like to compare these with some of my expenses:

  1. In my first year, my dividends paid for my car license renewal.
  2. The next year it covered my gym membership every month.
  3. After that, the next milestone was my child’s school fees.
  4. A few years later it paid for my food, yay I will never starve!
  5. Next up was minimum wage, my dividends were now a full-time employee working his ass off and giving all his income to me.
  6. A big milestone for me was my bare-bones budget. This was great, I’d now always have a roof over my head, food to eat and be able to pay school fees!
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Bewlen said:
I think an important aspect to growing wealth, is accepting the responsibility that you have to gain the information and expertise for- and by yourself. Relying on these dime-a-dozen "financial advisors" is a surefire way to simply pay excessive commissions, on a vast scale. Financial advisors are effective wealth destroyers. None of these have actual fiduciary duties, they are simply commission earners, pushing products. Be warned.

And it's simple, if you don't accept that responsibility, you will simply pay for it with reduced wealth - the income you invested could have performed better if you had and applied the knowledge yourself.
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THIS !!!

I have 2 guys me and my father have been using for a long time. Now that he has passed away and I am getting payouts left right and center they are drooling over me. I know them well enough. But man the FEES. FFS!!! And then you are also not guaranteed anything.

I have a good mind to just moer all the money in a fixed-term deposit account and get 8-10% interest for a year or 2 and pay the tax on it while I decide what to do with everything. Just to get it out of my life.
 
Ecco said:
How much do you need to hit some of these milestones? Like Milestone 4 - i am certain you would need a very large investment to cover the cost of food
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I’ve been able to make about 4-5% post-tax dividend income from a stock portfolio, and also from a rental portfolio. Note - one can likely get more by investing in ETFs, but that is volatile, or fixed deposit, but that’s going to inflate away if you take out 4-5% post-tax.

The corollary is that I need 20-25x (4-5% is 1/25th to 1/20th of the amount) of my annual expense in order to cover that.

At R50k/m expenses, you are looking at 600k/y, so you will need R15m to get that. Remember that you should be using you average expected expenses - expenses can be high early in life, when you still have car loans and a bond, so you may not need that much later in life.
 
W@P said:
THIS !!!

I have 2 guys me and my father have been using for a long time. Now that he has passed away and I am getting payouts left right and center they are drooling over me. I know them well enough. But man the FEES. FFS!!! And then you are also not guaranteed anything.

I have a good mind to just moer all the money in a fixed-term deposit account and get 8-10% interest for a year or 2 and pay the tax on it while I decide what to do with everything. Just to get it out of my life.
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no advice for you with this as it sounds like a good position to be in
 
Ecco said:
How much do you need to hit some of these milestones? Like Milestone 4 - i am certain you would need a very large investment to cover the cost of food
Click to expand...
cguy said:
I’ve been able to make about 4-5% post-tax dividend income from a stock portfolio, and also from a rental portfolio. Note - one can likely get more by investing in ETFs, but that is volatile, or fixed deposit, but that’s going to inflate away if you take out 4-5% post-tax.

The corollary is that I need 20-25x (4-5% is 1/25th to 1/20th of the amount) of my annual expense in order to cover that.

At R50k/m expenses, you are looking at 600k/y, so you will need R15m to get that. Remember that you should be using you average expected expenses - expenses can be high early in life, when you still have car loans and a bond, so you may not need that much later in life.
Click to expand...
Yeah as per cguys example, it will differ depending on the person but it would be a large amount I would think.

I feel like you are thinking reaching financial independence would be a short term thing, it is very much a long term thing, just significantly shorter than ones career, for it to make sense for someone. It also matters where you are starting from.
 
ronz91 said:
Yeah as per cguys example, it will differ depending on the person but it would be a large amount I would think.

I feel like you are thinking reaching financial independence would be a short term thing, it is very much a long term thing, just significantly shorter than ones career, for it to make sense for someone. It also matters where you are starting from.
Click to expand...

I know it's not a short term thing, but read the way the guy posted it, he makes it seem like he got there after a few years.
 
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