The Five Freedoms
When we think about retirement and freedom, it’s not just one thing, and it can mean many things to many people. When it comes to retirement, real estate investing can help you achieve this freedom, and below are five common types of freedoms that people seek:
Financial Freedom
Time Freedom
Location Freedom
Health Freedom
Lifestyle Freedom
Described below, in no particular order, are what each of these freedoms entails.
Financial Freedom. Things cost money. If you have enough money to pay for the things you want and need, you have financial freedom. You don’t need to be rich, but you need enough money to fund your planned lifestyle which will differ individually. Calculate what that means for you (https://www.playingwithfire.co/retirementcalculator) and get to work. Save more. Be a good steward of your resources. Stop spending on things that aren’t important to you. The more financial freedom you have, the less beholden you are to a job or lender, and the more flexible you can be in your life decisions.
Time Freedom. Think of life as a pie chart that is divided between time you control, and time controlled by others. The goal is to gradually shrink the piece of the pie that is controlled by others. The smaller that piece becomes, the more time freedom you have. The more time freedom you have, the more retired you are. Be careful, however. The most common way to achieve the money freedom we discussed earlier is to trade your time freedom for it. That can work while you’re building your nest egg, but it’s not a good long-term trade. The goal is not to be cash rich and time poor. The goal is to have financial freedom while simultaneously controlling your time.
Location Freedom. Location independence is a key tenet for intentional retirement. Being location independent means that you’re not tied to a specific geographic location for work or other reasons. You are free to move about, explore and experience while still staying on top of work or other obligations. Pre-pandemic, this was a rarely used and somewhat radical concept. Post-pandemic, it has become almost normal. We have the tools and technology to facilitate it and fewer gatekeepers telling us no. Location freedom is important for obvious reasons. If the things you must do are tied to a specific location, they will prevent you from doing the things you want to do that are not. A caged bird isn’t free.
Health Freedom. Think for a minute about how your health can affect your freedom. For starters, getting sick is expensive. Health issues often sabotage your financial freedom and can force you to continue working, which undermines your time freedom. Even worse, being sick or unhealthy will often get in the way of everything else you want to do. I’m sure many of your plans involve some level of activity. The worse your health is, the less you’ll be able to do. Better health = More freedom.
Lifestyle freedom. Having the first four types of freedom enables you to achieve freedom number five: Lifestyle freedom. This freedom comes from deciding what you want out of life and having the time, money, independence, and health to pursue those things and make them a reality.
Drop us a line and let us know which freedom motivates you the most!
