I heard a really powerful statement recently which I believe came from Confucius, the Chinese philosopher.
It goes something like this – “we each have two lives and the second one starts when we realise we only have one.” It kind of took me aback a bit and made me think why am I holding back and procrastinating from doing certain things when the opportunity to do them, for whatever reason, might be taken away.
As another year goes by we are all getting short of time – the clock is ticking and time is running out. It’s so easy to get wrapped up in the busy, busy, day to day stuff of life.
Simplistically, it could be stated that there are two key financial planning life stages – the saving stage when we are working and the spending stage when we have stopped. However, it should not be viewed as a cliff edge.
Of course, it is prudent to save as much as we reasonably can while we are working. However, I disagree that we should work as much as we can during this stage so that we can live comfortably when we “retire”. Life isn’t just about retirement and a financial plan should not have such a rigid framework that denies us from being happy and living today.
There is more to financial planning than just seeing our money go up forever. What matters most is what we do with our lives, not how much money we have got. Money does not make us happy, it’s how we use it that matters. Also, it’s not about status and possessions. Creating wealth does not necessarily lead to living a life well lived.
I believe three key components towards living a fulfilled life are firstly, having time to do the things that are important. Secondly, being in the right location and thirdly achieving financial freedom (where enough money has been accumulated).
They may not all be ticked and greater weighting may be placed on one compared to the other two. For example, I am yet to achieve financial freedom but spending time outdoors when I choose (within reason) is really important to me.
Getting the balance right between enjoying the here and now (which does not necessarily mean spending money) and holding back towards something in the future is no easy task. Furthermore, we don’t always know what we want and often we think what we desire is by observing what other people have got.
However, having “more” of something is unlikely to make us happier. Our lives should be designed towards what makes us happy and trying to understand what happiness looks like is the key. The trouble is most if us think we have time but the ticking of the clock is getting louder.