Have we got property ownership confused with financial freedom?
Financial freedom can mean many things.
- It could mean the freedom to choose how (or if) we earn our income.
- It could mean freedom from worrying about having enough.
- It could mean being able to take a holiday without thinking about work.
- It could mean knowing that our paycheck will cover our expenses for the next two weeks. Or six months.
In general, living a life without our financial situation being a constant drain on our time and mental energy is good for all of us. We're able to be more present to ourselves and the people that matter.
So let's use that as a working definition for now:
Financial freedom is when our emotional energy, mental energy, physical energy and practical time aren't taken up by caring about money, worrying about money, thinking about money, planning our money, earning money, or otherwise spent on money, at the expense of the ourselves and the people we care about.
And here's where things get interesting. Because the kind of freedom we're talking about probably has more to do with our own internal attitudes, expectations and approach to life, and finance. Which of course, are largely influenced by our background, society and family.
We talk about financial freedom as something that is an external situation: No mortgage; having a six-figure salary; getting past a 90-day trial at work. But in reality our expectations of life and our relationship with money have a bigger impact on our ability to achieve financial freedom.
All of which influences our approach to property.
Some of us have tied the idea of property ownership to our expectations of financial freedom, and missed the decades of restrictions on our finances, time and mental energy required to get there. And perhaps we're willing to accept the tradeoff. But others are realising that we'd prefer to experiment a little. To take a few risks and learn from them. To study, or travel. To start a business, of seven. To have children, and not work. To not work, and create instead. And we're restricted, because we own a house.
Of course, long-term renting has it's own restrictions. But that's another post.
If we are able to take an honest look at what financial freedom means for us, and how our own internal attitudes shape our experience of financial freedom (and likelihood of getting there), we might be able to create a middle ground of property ownership that is more freeing for more of us.