Garrett is one of our most important and prolific contributors on this blog. I love reading his thoughts because he is a born motivator as well as a highly competent Rule #1 investor and he does a unique job of blending the two. What follows is Garrett about moving past the JOB and on to financial freedom:
Phil, I just spent two days teaching someone how to leave his JOB at 41 years old. He's been liberated! He can now work at his JOB because he wants to, not because he has to. SIDE NOTE: A "JOB" is "Just Over Broke." To me, it means: 1) Getting up 5 days or more a week to do something that isn't your passion. 2) ...Which earns you a paycheck and keeps you living "two weeks from bankruptcy" (if the paycheck stops coming in, you're on the street) 3) ...while you voluntarily confine yourself to the "Golden Handcuffs" 4) ...So that you can convince yourself you have some security 5) ...and that "Being Responsible" is somehow more important than living your "Life's Purpose" (Rulers, please don't confuse a JOB with an OPPORTUNITY...I made pretzals at Auntie Anne's for a year...it was an Opportunity to move to other goals in my life...not a JOB.) I think that most people get stuck in life because they were never taught that their JOB was suppose to be a stepping stone to provide their immediate needs. All dreams begin at the kitchen table with a pen and note pad. We need to be designing a life instead of making a living. My idea of being financially free means I have the Freedom to Choose. It means I don't have to work at a JOB that isn't my life's purpose. Do I consider flying at Southwest Airlines my Life's Purpose? Hardly. I truly love it, but it doesn't have a lot of "Intrinsic Meaning" to me. It's a wonderfully fun place to be while I continue to pursue my other goals. And yet, I have no desire to ever voluntarily leave Southwest Airlines! I have the Freedom to Choose. That is what I think we all want. The Freedom to pursue our life without the "Golden Handcuffs" of a JOB we hate or at best, tolerate. Like many of us, the person with whom I was teaching was trained in the "401K Myth" and the "Accumulation Theory" to wealth building. He KNEW it was flawed, but didn't have an effective "Wealth Strategy" to replace it. I've been alluding to this in the blog...planting seeds that our goal shouldn't necessarily be to accumulate X Million and then try to live off the interest by donating our money to create wealth for the Financial Services Industry. As Rule #1 Investors we need to be living our "Life's Purpose" while learning how to create "Cash Flow" until our "Wonderful Company" comes on sale. The money we make as Rule #1 Investors should be used to create "Value" in the world...not accumulated in a Mutual Fund with your Employer's 401K and 3.5% match. I was able to share with this person how he could "Create" the income he needed to replace his "Earned" income from his W-2 Job using the principals in Rule #1 / PBT. With that as a foundation, we were able to use leverage to our advantage to create "Cash Flow" while we wait for our "Wonderful Company" to go on sale at our MOS / PBT price. I believe financial freedom from people's JOB is closer than they think. To truly find joy and meaning in our work we need to be pursuing our Life's Purpose. When we do that, we'll have wealth no matter how we define it. To Your Wealth! Garrett
THANKS, GARRETT! NOW GO PLAY!
