{"id":7499,"date":"2023-11-21T10:45:56","date_gmt":"2023-11-21T10:45:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.johnthornhill.com\/blog\/?p=7499"},"modified":"2023-11-21T10:45:56","modified_gmt":"2023-11-21T10:45:56","slug":"are-you-financially-independent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.johnthornhill.com\/blog\/are-you-financially-independent\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cAre you financially independent? Yeah, right!\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you had asked me what \u201cfinancially independent\u201d meant 30 years ago, I would have had the answer \u2026 \"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEnough money in my bank account to do anything I want, whenever I want.\u201d<\/p>\n

And in my opinion, I achieved it!\u00a0 <\/span>Or at least, so I thought.\u00a0 <\/span>Realistically, I didn\u2019t know much about anything in those days, and as such, my wants weren\u2019t all that significant or frequent. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

These days I\u2019m 61 years old, I have almost everything I could wish for, and I\u2019m on the verge of retirement. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Would my response be the same?\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not so sure.\u00a0 <\/span>When we\u2019re young, it doesn\u2019t matter that we use vague terms like \u201canything\u201d and \u201cwhenever\u201d.\u00a0 <\/span>We expect to live a long life, so there\u2019s always time to sort out the details.\u00a0 <\/span>But as we get older, we become more and more concerned about those details.<\/p>\n

Why? \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Well, because those details matter.\u00a0 <\/span>They bring a certain reality to our world.\u00a0 <\/span>Unfortunately, that reality is often more difficult or costly than we expected. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Let me give you an example.\u00a0 <\/span>My retirement plan includes:<\/p>\n