The Goal Is Not To Save Up Enough Money Only To End Up Doing Nothing
The Goal Is Not To Save Up Enough Money Only To End Up Doing Nothing
Today's post is inspired by a good thread about a guy that sold his company for $20M, retired but quickly ends up bored and depressed.
This led me to think about my own journey and the relationship between money, happiness, and the forever search for making it in crypto.
I will share my thoughts in this newsletter issue.
See the full story below:
Is the grand prize for working hard and making it the opportunity to work hard in a nicer house with additional pleasantries?
Why do we strive so hard for becoming financially independent if life becomes boring once we make it?
These questions and the relationship between money, happiness, and time is a question I'll ponder in this issue.
My own reasoning for wanting to reach financial freedom was something like this:
I expect to have way more "purpose" (and certainly be more "active and engaged") when I'm not tied to a desk in an office for the majority of my waking hours.
I can spend time on whatever I want, work out more, see friends more, deep dive into hobbies, etc.
But in February 2021 I quit my job, having reached my initial FI goal. In advance, I'd heard about people who got bored quickly, so I made sure to have lots of things to do when I quit my 9-5.
The first week without a job was pretty euphoric. It was exactly as I imagined it to be. Sleep in, do what I want, meet friends, not have Sunday blues anymore, and not stress about time.
My plan was to do some consulting work, and I followed my plan and did that. But the truth is that my goal of reaching FI was so strong that when I finally reached it, I felt a lack of purpose and motivation afterward. This feeling lasted for some months before I got interested in something new.
You see, I really missed working and staying busy with something.
Day trading stocks soon became my new day-to-day activity. What I did was just replace a 9-5 job with something even more demanding (first the Europe market, then the US market). Now it was 9 AM to 10 PM. But I wanted more, I wanted activity and volatility. And what casino is open 24/7?
You guessed right, crypto.
I was mainly interested in Ethereum, and the upcoming EIP-1559 which was launching in July 2021. Then I discovered NFTs and DeFi and was pretty hooked. This was at the last leg up in the bull market.
You could literally buy anything, go to sleep and be sure that the price went up the next day. I spent full days researching, lurking around on Twitter, and trying new things in crypto. I felt really productive and the truth was that I was working more than ever before.
You know that feeling when you love something, time flies away quickly. Every day while staying busy didn't have enough hours.
From summer 21' and until May/June 2022 I was pretty hooked and spent most of my hours dedicated to crypto.
However, this had some adverse side effects as you can read about in the thread below:
But in June when 3AC collapsed and $BTC went to $17K and $ETH went below $900 I got a wake-up call that I should have gotten a long time ago.
The DeFi yield was mostly gone by February/March, and I focused more and more on crypto trading.
What I did really was simply to replace one crypto activity with another.
But my wake-up call came one morning when I simply asked myself what the hell I had spent so much time on for the last year.
While I was invested in the stock market I had a healthy balance between investing and everything else.
But now, I made crypto my only purpose.
And when the crypto bull run was over and the market conditions got harder I was forced to ask myself the hard questions in life.
What was the meaning of everything and how could I make a plan to get back to real life again, catch up with friends, get back in shape, and enjoy my hobbies again.
I had sacrificed everything for one year.
Lots of drawbacks to only one positive factor: money.
I felt sad that I had sacrificed everything else in life for gaining wealth.
I don't regret going down this route, but I realized that I've been going a little too far. Because it is possible to combine a normal life of meeting people with being in crypto. At least I want to. Even though I'm always reminded of this tweet by GCR:
PS! Remember that the tweet above was written at the height of the bull market.
There is no making it.
Because if it is, it means you're finished.
And what will you spend your time on if you're in your 20s or 30s and have 50+ years left of your life?
I wrote about it below:
Because if you stop being hungry, you'll lose all your motivation and it's easy to become apatic.
So the boring answer is to set yourself some new goals.
You might think: "What is the point of chasing more money when you have enough?"
But who says that your new goals has to be money goals?
Maybe you want to travel the world, give to charity, help others achieve what you've made, create a startup or just become good at playing a guitar.
The good thig about having enough money is that it takes away the pressure of taking risks. You can allow yourself to fail. Ironically many people that no longer needs to earn money ends up earning it anyway because they spend time doing things they love. And when you spend time on things you are destinied to do, then there's a chance people will pay you for it in some ways.
If you're not sure about your goals for 2023, then spend some time doing the exercise below:
It's question that makes you reflect on what you've done so far, and gives you a compass for leading your way with new goals into 2023.
And just to end this.
Most people strive their whole life to make their ends meet.
Every situation is different, and I'm not saying it's easy. In most parts of the world financial freedom is completely unrealistic. However, since you're subscribed to this newsletter chances are that you're either well off already or are aiming to become free to do what you want in life.
I will continue sharing my journey here in this newsleter and on Twitter, and also try to provide some educational content. I think it's +EV to stay in crypto now, soak up all wisdom you can in this bear market and prepare for a new run (if it ever happens).
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