Why am I seeking Financial Independence?

Well, I expect it's pretty obvious why anyone would want to be financially independent ... not having to worry about working for your income, being able to do what you want, when you want, etc.  But this post is more personal.  I wanted to write about why I particularly want to shoot for FI and I think that might resonate with a lot of other professionals in particular.

I've reached the point where I realise that my income, although at an ok level, is never going to get me to FI if I don't change my spending and money habits.  I will write about habits and mindset in another post but for now that is what first got me thinking about a change.

I am just coming up to my 39th birthday as I write this.  If I look at my current financial situation, retirement at any age looks like a distant dream!  My State pension age is currently 68!!  So my future is currently to keep working as a lawyer and slogging it out in the high-stress environment I am in for another 30-odd years, then retire with no savings or pensions other than whatever State pension is available at that time (which is likely to be next to be nothing)!  That does not sound very appealing to me and certainly not the way I want to support my family, or spend my retirement years.

Then there are those 30-odd years ahead of me as a working career.  Do I really want to spend those years (some might say my prime years!) working all the hours, missing everything my kids are doing as they grow through their most exciting ages, and only travelling for 2 to 3 weeks a year when I can take annual leave?  Definitely not.

So what do I want?  Good question!  I haven't completely figured that out yet but as I write this, I know that want something different, something more than the future I have managed to sleepwalk into by following my professional career path.  One of the big incentives for me to do something different is that I want to be able to spend summers with my children travelling.  They have 6 or 7 weeks off from school over the summer and we could spend that time broadening their horizons and teaching them about the world if only I was able to step away from the office grind for a few extra weeks.  Currently that cannot happen and that is not good enough for me.  (I will be exploring different ways that could be achieved in another post too, before reaching full FI.)

This process of really taking stock of my debt has also made me realise how vulnerable we are as a family financially.  Yes we have life insurance but no income protection.  We have equity in property assets but very little cash flow if I was unable to work.  I also realised just how much of our income was also committed to paying debts and bills, leaving us no real ability to save or prepare for the future.  When I stop living in the moment and look at my financial circumstances with a bit more distance, I realise how crazy it is that I continue spending as much money as I do.  It causes me stress and although I may not realise it all the time (probably because I've become accustomed to it) it is always there.  The occasional fear when you swipe your debit card that you may not have enough available because you forgot to check your balance; the stress of not being able to spend anything for 3 more days because you spent all of your money and are having to wait for pay day.  Those sound like the concerns of a teenager working a paper-round, not a middle-aged lawyer!  But they are real concerns.  Not just for me but for thousands of other people stuck in jobs, safe in the (mistaken) belief that they can continue spending because that next big pay rise or bonus is just around the corner and in a few years you will be so wealthy this little bit of credit card debt will seem like a drop in the ocean!  That, my friends, is the Professional Trap!

So what does FI mean to me?  It means financial security.  It means being able to support myself and my family if the worst happens (through ill health or loss of job).  It means less stress because I have a financial cushion to protect me.  More importantly, it means choices.  The ability to choose when to work, when to travel, when to spend time with my family.  Being able to make the most of the times that are important to me, not waiting until I am 68+ before being able to do the things I want to do, with half the energy I had when I actually wanted to do them!  If I wait until I am 68 to retire, my children will both be in their mid-thirties and, hopefully, have great lives of their own.  I don't want to waste the precious years we have together now.  We only get them once.  That is my reason for pursuing FI.  What's yours?

Jake