It is very generic to say that "Money isn't everything.. Best things in life are free.. Money doesn't bring you happiness, etc, etc, etc".. These cliches are the expressions of the shallow and the ignorant. Money has everything to do with life. Infact, money is probably the one thing that gives many people a purpose to live. They choose their career, their education, their day-to-day lifestyle based on this one supposedly "insignificant" part of life. Clearly, there is something in the power and luxury to acquire anything we want in life. There is this want of becoming "financially free", i.e. free from the burden of money, and our pursuit of acquiring it. I've heard many people talk about starting a business and acquiring enough money to retire and live a life of luxury and do-nothing relaxation. Is this the ultimate success in life? Do we simply live life to make money and then spend it on things?
Let me start at the root of life: our childhood and conditioning (i.e. The "ego"). Since birth, we have been brought up in a society where a successful person is one who is powerful, rich and is able to buy anything s/he wants. We are taught to get a good education and become honorable citizens of the world, etc. and their purpose is simply to end up with a good job with a comfortable salary. Ultimately, money gives us a purpose in life and every superficial thing we do has to do with money.. The implicit rules set by the society of an honourable individual is as follows: Person must be honest and hardworking, which leads to good education and development of knowledge, which can be used to acquire a good job/ start a business, which is how we make a living. After that, for the rest of our life, we are stuck "making a living" through our work. Work=Money.. Hence, we are forced to work and get things done. The paycheck at the end of the month gives us motivation to do better...
So, in the current world, money IS everything. Without it, we have no drive, no purpose, no satisfaction in life. Now, there are levels to how significant money is in ones life. At the high end, are people who put money at the utmost of priorities and are willing to sacrifice their health, their integrity and relationships for money. A simple example is a businessman who spends most of his time working on his business ignoring his family and friends. On the low end of the spectrum, are people who don't care about how much money they have. Ironically, these are usually people who have lots of money at their disposal..They've never slept with an empty stomach, or have had their wants unsatisfied, so they've never experienced the significance of money.
Where am I going with all this? I simply wanted to define financially free for what it should be. It should be a state of mind where our lives are no longer dictated by money. We should always do what we want to do at the time of doing it. We should not do anything in expectation of a reward (monetary or otherwise) at a later time. The focus should be on the NOW and what we have NOW. And at this precise moment, (not 1 second ago, not 1 second later.. at this point in time as you are reading this statement..), we are not doing anything related to money. I am writing this blog and you are reading it. It's as simple as that. You have no expectation of getting a reward at the end of this.. you are not getting paid to read this.. nor are you dissatisfied with anything in your life as of this moment. Life is simply the present. The past and the future are creations of the mind and it leads to greed, ambition, unhappiness and dissatisfaction. So ultimately, money should not have any value in the quality of our life.. I do recognize that I am myself a person who is fairly satisfied with my financial situation and I've never "experienced" the significance of money either. I suppose the poor will always have that worry and curiosity of the other side of the lawn, so I can't speak for them, but I will say that it is a great feeling to be free of monetary conditionings because you are no longer constrained.. you are indeed financially free..
