Lifetime Strategy

The most valuable thing in my life is my freedom. My time. Well, that is the second most important thing. My life and my health is the most important thing.

Life and health is never guaranteed though. Nothing is ever guaranteed, except for death.
When we die is not known. We can expect to die of natural causes and perish around the age of 70, 80, or 90. I could get cancer or some other life threatening disease and perish at the age of 40 or 50. In the worst case, I could get killed in a car accident tomorrow. This is the reality that we all face.

With that being said, I want to make sure I can enjoy my life to the fullest extent possible. How does a person do this? Pursue that which makes you happy. What makes you happy? That is different for everyone. If you don't know what it is that makes you happy in life, then at least try to avoid the stuff in your life that makes you miserable.

To me, that which makes me miserable is working. The kind of hell of commuting to an office each morning, working a minimum of 8 hours, commuting back home, and enjoying only a few hours to myself each night is what I want to avoid. It is my goal to try to get through life working as little as possible.

There are a couple of ways to do this. First off, pursue a life of minimalist spending. Don't take or commit to any obligations or liabilities that drag out decades into the future or indefinitely. By adopting minimalist spending habits, you eliminate or mitigate the risk of being unable to pay for the liabilities in the future. If you don't need the money to pay off the liability, you don't need to work for it. By keeping annual expenses down as low as possible, you also minimize the amount of pain you experience when inflation hits.

The second way to reduce your need to work is to accumulate a large amount of capital when you are young. Instead of racking up large amounts of student and consumer debt as a kid, work as much as you possibly can and accumulate a large amount of cash. If you do decide to go to college, make sure to pursue something with a high earnings potential such as STEM. Pay off all your debts then accumulate capital.

By getting into a good financial position in the late 20s or early 30s, you make the rest of your life that much easier. Instead of having to repay consumer debt, maybe you can cut back on your hours and enjoy much more leisure.