Financial Independence Means the Ability to Change Your Mind
When planning your long-term financial life, what does the end goal look like? Do you have all this planned out to the smallest detail? When planning, be sure to include the possibility that you will change your mind.
As personal finance blog Frugal Vagabond notes, many of us think of financial freedom as simply being able to buy or do whatever we want. This is a lofty goal, but at least a comforting one. A more realistic (and in some ways more achievable) goal, however, is to just get enough so that a change in your mind doesn’t bankrupt your bank:
The world of personal finance blogs (including this one) is filled with a healthy dose of fantasy. Where will we live, what will we do, and how many adventures will allow us to be able to say “see you soon” at our work. There is one freedom given to us by financial independence that I think many blogs about personal finance and early retirement ignore: the freedom to change our minds.
Through this filter, “financial independence” may look different than we usually think. Maybe your financial goal isn’t just to have a million dollar retirement account, but to have the freedom to travel. Maybe your goal is not to get a specific salary, but to be able to change jobs when you get bored. The goals are mutually complementary, but they are not quite the same. When planning your financial goals, are you imagining a number or are your goals more intangible?
Changing your mind is also freedom | Thrifty Drifter via Rockstar Finance