Monday mornings. Deadlines. Working for someone else’s goals.
The easy part is knowing what you DON’T want to fill your bucket with.
The hard part is figuring out what you DO want to put in there.
The FatFIRE subreddit is littered with big tech employees who have more money than they’ll ever need.
One post I saw over the weekend is representative of a recurring theme.
“I’ve done the math, played with the calculators, read the advice, and even though I know I’m financially ready to FI I’m afraid—I’m not mentally ready. I hate my toxic job and my paycheck is 45% of a safe withdrawal rate (3%) of my NW. I’m 45 years old. I know I should prioritize my health and happiness at this point. What do you think can help me pull the trigger? Thanks in advance.”
That scenario is hard for a lot of people to imagine. You can retire at 45, but you’re afraid to.
And yet that is the reality for so many people including most of our Financial Zen Members.
We stare into the abyss and if the abyss DOESN’T stare back at us, we stay on the “easy path” which is ironically the path we’ve been fantasizing about leaving for most of our careers.
Like Morgan Freeman in The Shawshank Redemption, we get institutionalized to our careers.
The only way to break free and meet Andy on the beach in Mexico is to spend as much – or ideally MORE – time searching for what you WANT to fill your bucket with.
Only focusing on the things to leave out, paradoxically are the very things that keep us locked up.
