A misconception is running around the financial world – that great sacrifice and delayed gratification is required to reach financial independence. This is simply not true.
The reason so many feel becoming financially independent is a sacrifice is a misguided notion that spending anything less than all you earn is somehow a great sacrifice.
If I net $200,000 a year as a physician, I might feel I am making a great sacrifice if I live on only $150,000. The $50,000 I could have spent but chose to save for my future is classified as a sacrifice.
Imagine the reaction I would get if I told those US households who earn less than the median US income of the great sacrifice I was making by only spending $150,000 a year on my lifestyle.
We must stop deluding ourselves into thinking we are living a less-than-satisfactory life when we don’t spend all our income and borrow additional money to purchase cars, boats, vacations, and houses.