This weekend's prompt is about time and probably life.
What age would you like to be if you had the ability to choose a given point in your life, past or future, and why?
If I had the ability, I would choose to be in my late 40s or early 50s, which is probably a decade into the future.. The biggest difference between then and now would be that I would probably be financially free.
Financial freedom is something that resonates with me a lot. Having financial freedom means it allows me to do stuff that I truly enjoy. Well, it doesn't mean I dislike my current job, but I am sure most of you would agree that there will always be bad days (along with good days) where I need to work late nights (i.e. having to prioritise work over other aspects of my life, something which I dislike but have grown to accept it as part and parcel of my responsibilities at work), or be stressed out by either demanding bosses, immense workload or tight deadlines (thankfully they are not often).
So having the luxury of time allows me to really live and enjoy little simplicities in life. Some of my peers told me life would be so boring if they didn't have a job but I disagree. I feel that there are so many activities outside of work to keep myself engaged.
Right off the bat, I could imagine myself:
- Having sufficient hours of sleep everyday
- Exercising more often
- Playing games (Splinterlands or whatever that would be in trend at that time)
- Writing posts and stories on Hive and interact with more people (I always feel that I don't have as much time as I would like to when it comes to engagement on Hive because work and real life commitments takes up a huge part of the time, especially on weekdays)
- Spending more time with my parents, loved ones and people around me (no more turning down of meetups because life is too busy!)
- "Working" (I thought I should clarify this, because being financial free wouldn't mean I necessarily have to quit the workforce. It just means I don't need to rely on my income for my expenses. I totally won't rule out working on a part time basis or perhaps even volunteering, as long as I am doing something I enjoy and find it meaningful.)
So the question is, with that goal in mind, what am I doing to achieve it? I have been working hard at my current job, keeping my expenses at a manageable level (I wouldn't say I am super thrifty) while saving as much money as I can. Thereafter, I try to grow my pot of savings through investments across diversified assets (e.g. bonds, equities, cryptos, etc) to generate capital gains and passive income. It is never easy, to set an ambitious target of reaching financial freedom in the late 40s or early 50s but sometimes a little optimism goes a long way. So wish me luck, and see you in 10 to 15 years time!
Thanks for reading and wishing all a restful weekend! :)