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- #1 A good day to live!
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#3 What does it need for an independent and happy life?
Let's quickly outline the main ingrediences of hapiness that we probably will touch again and again in the posts to follow.
To live a satisfying, independent and happy life you basically need three things:
• Money
• Time/Freedom
• An idea what to do with your freedom
(...not to bad to have some of this...)
Let’s be frank about this: Without any money, life probably is not much fun. There might be exceptions, but me personally is not one of those.
Therefore the important question is: “How much money do you really need for a good life?”
My answer is: “Much less than you think! And probably even less than you have already!”
Why is this the case?
The first reason...
... is decreasing correlation between money and well-being. That means starting from zero, having some more money will increase your happiness massively. This is obvious to most people.
But if you already have a certain amount, additional money will not make you any happier in the long run.
This is not very obvious to most people, and even I have to remind myself from time to time about this fact.
A fact that is indeed scientifically proven, but I’ll come to that later.
The second reason...
... is that you probably might have enough money already, but you spend it inefficiently and on the wrong things.
If you look at it closer you will be surprised, how much money you can actually save easily without noticing any difference in the quality of your life.
Anyway, looking into saving money is a bit less sexy than spending money, thus we too often avoid to scutinize our spendings.
But if you recall that every needless spent Euro or Dollar you saved is a Euro you can spend on something else, its easier to understand that saving and efficiency in spending is absolute key to financial independence.
I guess every financially successful person among you or others will agree.
So I'll write a lot about money, as it is undoubted the fuel for our independence. I’ll write later how I reduced my families’ turnover by more than 20% without any loss in perceived life quality. And we will find out where your money is eaten away without any additional quality added to your life.
(...look at this guy! He probably has all the time in the world...and beyond)
If I had to rank, I’d say that time in the end is even more important in life than money.
Where money is the fuel, time is the car. Without a car there is no use for fuel.
Time is the one resource that is definitely limited for everybody and you have only little means to expand it (one is staying healthy, but we come to that…).
It is thus absolutely crucial to maximize the amount of time you have available and under your control and that you enjoy that time as much as you can.
That means we have to minimize the time that we spent being bored, annoyed, anxious, stressed and as well time that we don’t feel anything at all because we are working like a robot and without having fun.
As we have to spend quite some time to make our living, I probably will spend a lot of posts on “How to earn sufficient money in as little time as possible and with as much fun as possible”.
But apart from your job, there are also many other parts of your life where you can save tons of wasted time - those will be touched as well and I am looking forward to your comments and suggestions.
Now that we have sufficient money and time at hand, the magic equation begins to work:
Money + Time = Freedom
(one of the more simple ideas what to do with your time...but maybe not the worst!)
Money and Time brought you freedom.
But what to do now with your new freedom?
This is an important thing to think about from the beginning! (And many people unconsciously shy away from freedom exactly because they don't know what they should do with it)
Good thing is: There are many things to do in this world. But coming right out of the treadmill, many people need some time to find out what to do with themselves. I will have some suggestions…and I'm sure you will have even more that I will be happy learning about.
Let me say one thing already: In my view social ties and an open mind are very important! And there it comes back to time, as many people simple lack time to build their social ties and open their minds while still working in the treadmill…
Have a joyful day and see you later...at post #4
To live a satisfying, independent and happy life you basically need three things:
• Money
• Time/Freedom
• An idea what to do with your freedom
Lets first start over with money:
(...not to bad to have some of this...)
Let’s be frank about this: Without any money, life probably is not much fun. There might be exceptions, but me personally is not one of those.
Therefore the important question is: “How much money do you really need for a good life?”
My answer is: “Much less than you think! And probably even less than you have already!”
Why is this the case?
The first reason...
... is decreasing correlation between money and well-being. That means starting from zero, having some more money will increase your happiness massively. This is obvious to most people.
But if you already have a certain amount, additional money will not make you any happier in the long run.
This is not very obvious to most people, and even I have to remind myself from time to time about this fact.
A fact that is indeed scientifically proven, but I’ll come to that later.
The second reason...
... is that you probably might have enough money already, but you spend it inefficiently and on the wrong things.
If you look at it closer you will be surprised, how much money you can actually save easily without noticing any difference in the quality of your life.
Anyway, looking into saving money is a bit less sexy than spending money, thus we too often avoid to scutinize our spendings.
But if you recall that every needless spent Euro or Dollar you saved is a Euro you can spend on something else, its easier to understand that saving and efficiency in spending is absolute key to financial independence.
I guess every financially successful person among you or others will agree.
So I'll write a lot about money, as it is undoubted the fuel for our independence. I’ll write later how I reduced my families’ turnover by more than 20% without any loss in perceived life quality. And we will find out where your money is eaten away without any additional quality added to your life.
Then we come straight to Time…
(...look at this guy! He probably has all the time in the world...and beyond)
If I had to rank, I’d say that time in the end is even more important in life than money.
Where money is the fuel, time is the car. Without a car there is no use for fuel.
Time is the one resource that is definitely limited for everybody and you have only little means to expand it (one is staying healthy, but we come to that…).
It is thus absolutely crucial to maximize the amount of time you have available and under your control and that you enjoy that time as much as you can.
That means we have to minimize the time that we spent being bored, annoyed, anxious, stressed and as well time that we don’t feel anything at all because we are working like a robot and without having fun.
As we have to spend quite some time to make our living, I probably will spend a lot of posts on “How to earn sufficient money in as little time as possible and with as much fun as possible”.
But apart from your job, there are also many other parts of your life where you can save tons of wasted time - those will be touched as well and I am looking forward to your comments and suggestions.
Now that we have sufficient money and time at hand, the magic equation begins to work:
Money + Time = Freedom
Bringing us straight to “An idea what to do with your freedom”
(one of the more simple ideas what to do with your time...but maybe not the worst!)
Money and Time brought you freedom.
But what to do now with your new freedom?
This is an important thing to think about from the beginning! (And many people unconsciously shy away from freedom exactly because they don't know what they should do with it)
Good thing is: There are many things to do in this world. But coming right out of the treadmill, many people need some time to find out what to do with themselves. I will have some suggestions…and I'm sure you will have even more that I will be happy learning about.
Let me say one thing already: In my view social ties and an open mind are very important! And there it comes back to time, as many people simple lack time to build their social ties and open their minds while still working in the treadmill…
Have a joyful day and see you later...at post #4