The difference between humans and animals is self expression through creation.

I started writing this having just finished another guitar lesson and grinning like a ‘90s kid after a whole tub of blue smarties.

You know what? I sucked most of the time. Being good is not a requirement for self expression.

Financial independence is useful to live, but it’s not what living is for

I sometimes worry that I focus too much on the money.

Payday. Invest. Number go up. Assets = good, cash = depreciating.

Go for growth. Capital gains. Dividends. Coupons. Yield. Bigger savings rates. Earn more. Even bigger savings rates. Safe draw down rates. Years to FIRE. Days to CoastFI. More emergency funds.

Fuck it – can’t invest this month? Invest in yourself! Get fitter. Leaner. Faster. Sexier. Smarter. Study. Make yourself more attractive, make yourself more valuable, attract more money. Go for growth again.

Like: cool. There’s a place for that and you should do it. Investing in yourself does bring rewards and has been a pillar of my strategy from the get go.

But maybe you should take some time on the way to actually learn how to express yourself?

My FI campaign has taught me that creativity is its own freedom

Starting this blog was my first real attempt to put my thoughts out into the world.

And from there?

Yeah, I wrote erotic fiction as a side hustle. No regerts. No regrats, even.

Then we moved to the Channel Islands and I took up guitar lessons. Oh, and fiction writing classes.

To be fair, I didn’t do those later things entirely for the sake of creativity. I did the first one because I’d played drums on and off for years, but you can’t really get a drum kit on a boat. Hell, I did the second one as a cheap way to meet people and maybe improve my blogging!

The key thing about these is that they were fun.

Not stuffing-your-face-with-pizza-while-playing-GoldenEye-with-your-mates fun, not cocktails-and-nightclubs-in-your-20s fun, not paintballing-and-shooting-your-brother fun.

But satisfying, “actually, yeah, that was pretty cool, look at this cool thing I made” fun. And they make me happy. Not high thrills dopamine fun but slow burn happiness.

And apart from paying for guitar lessons, these things are also pretty cheap!

But you know what? It’s more than that. Even the crappiest, least effective attempts at making something are a decision. Agency. A choice to do something.

In a world where everything is mass produced and every human experience is monetised, making something for the sake of making it is a big “Fuck You”.

And I like that.

This is a freedom that’s basically impossible to take away. It’s possibly the only fundamental freedom.

Agency and financial indepedendence

There are only two real motivations for wanting financial independence:

  1. You live in fear that everything will be taken from you, so you want to be able to sustain yourself without assistance.
  2. You want agency over your life so you can do things (or choose not to do things).

I reckon most FI Campaigners are guided by a bit of both, but if I had to favour one over the other: pick number 2. Living in fear is stressful, but agency is freeing. There are people literally living in fear of oppressive regimes and if you can choose not to then you absolutely should.

So this is my challenge to you

This week I want you to try to create something for the sake of creating it.

I want you to – figuratively or literally, I don’t care – give a big middle finger to an excessively consumptive society.

That’s right.

I want you to go out there and create something.

Anything.

And I want you to share it with someone else, because arts are how we relate to other people. How we express who we are. And how we communicate our values.

It doesn’t matter if it’s anonymous. You can do a lot worse than write a limerick on a toilet wall. Someone, somewhere, will see your idea. Your mark on the world.

And, on a basic level, they’ll connect with you.

But if nothing else: you will have enjoyed a moment of agency that doesn’t rely on having money or spending all that much of it.

So? What are you waiting for?

My financial independence campaign continues!