My Friend Kelly

go ahead and finish that sentence for me. Maybe leave a comment with just your one or two word answer.  Try to answer with the first word that comes to mind no matter what it is.

Financial independence can be terrifying, seemingly impossible, a long term goal, a dream, within reach, challenging, rewarding, peaceful, worry reducing, empowering, enlightening, fun, great, inspiring…. you get the idea.

So many times we strive and we push for something and don’t even know why; it’s important to have goals, sure, but we should remind ourselves (and often) why we want to accomplish that goal.

For example, it is my long term goal to own a large house in the country with a few acres of land and wrap around porch.  Sounds great but if I start focusing on the dirt out there and field mice and living away from town it can quickly be discouraging.  Instead I remind myself that I love the outdoors and taking a look out my window to see fields and orchards instead of pavement and fences.  My dogs would thrive with more room to run and I could probably stand a cat or two to catch rodents.  I’m organized enough to handle trips to “town” once a week and instead of listening to drum practice, neighbor kids screeching, competing dog serenades and 3 straight hours of fireworks I can hear crickets and locusts. Music to my ears.

So what does financial independence mean to you?

Here’s mine:

Financial Indepence is Sexy.

Why? Glad you asked.

Maturity – having your finances in order is a sign of maturity. When you’re a child you depend on mom and dad to take care of well, everything.  Rarely will a child have to plan for their own clothing purchases or figure out how they’re getting to Grandma’s house next weekend.  As you mature you begin to take responsibility for more and more of your life.

Responsible – no one is following you around cleaning up your messes.  If there is an unexpected expense (and there invariably will be) you take responsibility for it.

Provider – demonstrates that if you are in a relationship you can provide for your family. This isn’t gender specific, btw, if your spouse is gravely injured or disabled will you have the means to provide?

Intelligent- knowing where your money is coming from and how it will be distributed is a sign of intelligence. Nothing more un-sexy than looking at a bank statement and saying “doh… I don’t know where it went!”

Self control- instead of spending every dime for today’s wants, you’re putting something away for tomorrow.

Wisdom- even if having control of your finances isn’t your idea of a good time, you’re wise enough to understand it’s important.  Wisdom doesn’t mean you never make money mistakes but you do attempt to minimize them and the damage done. You learn from those mistakes.

Integrity- you are (presumably) earning your own way, providing for yourself and the future and staying within the bounds of the law.  Not waiting for the lottery win, that blackmail to cash in or the rich grandparent to die.  You recognize that it’s your life and you must be responsible for it. (look out for a future post on integrity, btw)

So that’s why I think financial independence is sexy, what is financial independence to you?