My early taste of Financial Independence
A few years ago, after graduating from university and returning from my travels across the world I landed my dream job working at an outdoor activity center on the South English coast. Ever since I was a child and had attended these camps in the school holidays I had known someday I wanted to become an instructor and help other kids experience the joy of activities which didn’t involve a TV or Xbox. What I didn’t realise at the time was that not only was I working my childhood dream job; I was also experiencing early financial independence.
The job itself paid next to nothing, far less than minimum wage.. however instead we received free accommodation, no bills, no taxes and best of all: 3 proper freshly cooked meals every day. Everyone lived together in a converted country mansion and spent the evenings playing sports or chatting around a camp fire. All of a sudden I was living in a world where money didn’t matter. Not once did I wake up and worry about how I was going to afford the grocery bills that week. Utility bills never even crossed my mind and I never had a phone call from an angry landlord demanding their rent.
My House
Because everything was included already there wasn’t the push for promotion or awkward talks with the boss for a badly needed raise. Everyone worked there because they genuinely enjoyed doing so and they enjoyed the lifestyle that came with it. I learnt to rock climb, build rafts, hit the bullseye in archery, fire air rifles, kayak, canoe and loads more. I even became a qualified Fencing coach for no other reason than because I wanted to.
Many people claim they enjoy or even love their jobs, and use this as the reasoning to justify a 40 year working career. The real test of this is a simple question:
‘Would you continue working your job for free?’
And the truth was: I would. I knew I would because I already was, and it was great! I didn’t ever dread going to work the next day. I spent most of the days up the abseiling tower enjoying the amazing coastal views whilst throwing children off the sides (and occasionally tying them into a harness first).
Luckily I was good with heights!
When the concerns of money evaporate from your life it creates a change you need to experience to truly appreciate. Suddenly your free time is entirely your own as the thought of financial concerns never begin to enter your mind. Instead you can focus on the things that really matter to you. Financial Independence isn’t about being rich, splashing cash and floating around on an over-sized yacht. Its about having the freedom to choose what you want to do and live how you want to live.
Unfortunately my taste of early financial independence came to an end. November came around, the center closed for the winter and I had to make the journey back home after 15 months on the road. While it had only been temporary, this early taste of financial freedom gave me the drive to achieve it again, permanently.
How about you? What gave you the drive to seek financial independence and early retirement? Please contact me or leave a comment below and join in the discussion.
4 thoughts on “My early taste of Financial Independence”
Our first goal was to escape debt. Then build a nest egg. Now my primary driver is wanting to escape long cold winters. My wife and 3 kids don’t agree with that plan. Step by step, bit by bit. Do the right things and seize opportunities as they come. I love reading about FI and changing your lifestyle, but doing is harder.
If only the doing was as easy as the reading part! I’d be cycling everywhere MMM style and retiring in a couple of years ;)
I still think escaping debt is a massive achievement because you’re having to battle uphill rather than rolling a cash snowball downhill. My partner isnt so keen on my plans either, but she is slowly coming around. I’ll probably write a post on ‘the chat’ and my personal experience of trying to bring her along on the journey.
This post hits very deep for me. What are we all playing at? Why don’t we just choose to do something we love that just gets us by in the first place, rather than striving to get a “better” job so we can buy more stuff or do more things with our life? Shouldn’t happiness be what we are doing every day, not what we buy in our very limited spare time?
These are very middle class/first world issues of course but I think the key point is that there are a LOT of people who get pushed into the whole consumer treadmill lifestyle that really couldn’t care less for it, and the whole world would probably better off if we weren’t pushed into it in the first place (and were left to our own devices to, for example, come up with some world bettering inventions)
Anyway I digress. Great post. I have never done anything like this myself but my father is active in the Scouts movement, I presume the motivations are similar because the pay is zero, but he loves it. My first love is creating music but I got too bogged down into getting a job that paid money to follow that passion… once I am FI I will hopefully get back into it!
Great post. A bit too late for me as I’m in my 50s but this is something I try and promote to my adult children that buying stuff doesn’t make you happy but buying experiences does.
I’m trying to divest myself of stuff as a lot of the thing accumulated are hardly used.
Only found your website today but will avidly follow your adventure towards FI