When Financial Independence is Irrelevant

When financial independence is irrelevant? That sounds like heresy! But such irreverence regarding the relevance of FI came from a regular blog reader, so let’s give him a chance.

The argument is a riff on the “If you find a job you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.” Or “Live a life you don’t want to escape from, and you’ll never want to retire.” Something along those lines. How did he and his wife strike that ideal balance? Read on!

When Financial Independence is Irrelevant

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One day, Kelly and I were talking about our future goals in the context of our financial plans. If we suddenly became financially independent today, what would we do differently? Would we quit our jobs? Live somewhere else? Travel full time?

What if you won the lottery tomorrow?

Imagine that you won the lottery and you’ve reached FI. You’re living on $100,000 a year and you won a $3,968,254 jackpot taxed at a 37% federal rate, disregarding state taxes.

After some thinking, we decided the answer was no. Like 85% of actual lottery winners (with average winnings of $3.63M), we would continue to work. We wouldn’t make any significant changes to our lives.

If this were you, would you do anything differently?

I was previously in a high-stress, high-volume private practice where I would have quit if given this windfall. Kelly hasn’t always been in the place she is now with her job and with her work-life balance.

It wasn’t always like this

At least some of the desire to retire early comes from a place of dissatisfaction and burnout that may be remedied by making some hard but deliberate life choices.

Fresh out of training, I took a job at a large private-practice ophthalmology group. I quickly increased my volume and responsibilities.

A few years ago, I would have joined the ‘quitters club.’

In two years, I became a shareholder, was elected Vice President and served on the Executive Committee. I ran one of the satellite offices and was involved in prospecting for venture capital deals. While I loved my job, I also hated it.

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