New BiggerPockets Article: Why Financial Freedom Can Be Highly Overrated

In my latest article on BiggerPockets (that many have misunderstood as judged by the comments) I make the case that the goal of "financial freedom" is overrated. I first note that the mortality rates for those who retire is substantially higher than for those of the same age who don't. I believe much of the reason is that people who retire often (although not necessarily) lose their purpose and become aimless. Then I ask the question, is financial freedom really that important if you don't like what you're doing to become financially free?

Isn’t a comfortable retirement pretty much the same thing as financial freedom? Yes, retirement comes later in life than does what most people mean when they say “financial freedom,” but a comfortable retirement still means you don’t have to work anymore — or worry about money anymore.

The problem though, is what good is financial freedom if there is no purpose to that freedom?
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While freedom is great, and it’s fundamentally important in a political sense — freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom to protest, freedom of the press, freedom to start a business, etc — those types of freedom are not what we’re talking about here. What we’re discussing is the freedom to do whatever you want. And such freedom, taken to the extreme, is just libertine irresponsibility writ large.

Yes, financial freedom is great, but only if you enjoy what you're doing to get there. Otherwise, you have the same problem as you do with goals; namely, you'll always be in a state of presuccess failure until you succeed and set a new goal to be back in a state of presuccess failure. Systems are much better. With systems, you can enjoy the path.

And financial freedom is only worth it if you can enjoy the path to get there.