Other benefits of sound personal finance
While writing about the benefits of working for The Man even when you are self-employed, Brian Lee at Genuis Types puts into words an opinion I have held dear:
Working for The Man and not needing his money is a whole different story. You’re doing him a favor. You’re not afraid of being fired. Your confidence shines through and tends to get you what you want.
That’s golden stuff right there.
When you need your job, and the pay or insurance or benefits it provides, your entire experience becomes colored by that fact. The job becomes “the daily grind”. You do your work sort of grudgingly, as if everything is asking more of you than you want to do. You work late only because of deadlines. And you don’t do the little extra things that allow you to learn cool new stuff, or work on exciting projects. It becomes a rut.
Oh, but how different it is when you don’t need your job. When you have the comfort of knowing you’d be just fine without that job, you have confidence. You take the job because you want it. You stay only because you like it. You stay late only when you’re doing something really cool and you just don’t want to leave yet. You’re willing to take risks and try new things. And you soak up every new learning experience that comes your way.
You don’t have to be rich to reach this point, you only have to make smart decisions and be financially sound. Even while I am still working at paying off the last of my debt and being truly debt free, I also have a comfortable savings to hold me in emergencies, and should that turn out to be not enough, I can also liquidate some investments if it ever became necessary. I’ve never had to do it, but just knowing that I have those options gives me the confidence to be myself wherever I go, rather than become a part of the machine.
The difference it makes in life is huge. Speaking for myself, I am currently in a job that I love, working for a company that is fun and innovative. I am surrounded by interesting, intelligent people and I have opportunities to try new things and learn new things all the time. And best of all, I know that my voice is heard. These are the benefits of taking a position because I wanted it, rather than because I needed it.
January 1st, 2008 at 12:54 pm
[…] I never want to carry another balance on any revolving credit account. Without debt, I will have financial freedom to do whatever I want. I have chosen November as my target because I also want to have a debt-free […]