Financial freedom, how to destroy a person’s outlook on life

Article | Su Jinqi

Financial freedom is now a very popular word in the workplace. Behind its popularity, there are temptations and traps everywhere.

What is financial freedom?

Financial freedom refers to a state where people do not need to work hard for money for living expenses.

Simply put, the passive income generated by a person's assets must be at least equal to or exceed his daily expenses, which can be expressed as a formula: Financial freedom = passive income gt; expenses

On the road to pursuing financial freedom, you can always hear the myth that many people become rich overnight, or that they seize a certain opportunity and fly into the sky immediately. But are these addictive legends really reliable? Is it really something that ordinary people can imitate?

"The Richest Man in Xihong City" was released in 2018. Wang Duoyu, played by Shen Teng, appeared overnight as a grandfather with a net worth of over 100 million. While the film was funny, it also threw out a story for us. Serious and profound social issues: Is everything possible with money?

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? Greed

Let’s talk about the craze for stock trading and fund buying that became popular in 2015. That is a personal experience of mine.

In the first half of 2015, I often heard people say that just buying a stock would make a profit of 20 per day, and the same goes for buying funds. Some people who pursue financial freedom even quit their jobs and join the stock market trend. The more principal you invest, the higher the returns, which makes people want to stop. When enough capital is invested, some people's income in a day may even exceed their monthly salary.

The temptation of huge profits makes people get lost and red-eyed. Some people even don’t have enough liquidity in their hands and borrow money to speculate in stocks. When they see the soaring bull market slowly reaching 5,000 points, people always I regret that I was conservative the day before and didn't invest more money.

But on the morning of Monday, June 15, 2015, the stock market opened and fell, falling 103 points throughout the day. Then there was another sharp decline in August. By the end of August, it had It fell from the high point to 2851 points, a drop of as much as 28.6. Retail investors who followed the trend and those who longed to achieve financial freedom through stock market investment were all dumbfounded.

The money invested before, including the income earned, is tightly locked up. Not to mention that if you withdraw in time, even if the profit is equal to the loss after the circuit breaker, you are already considered a master among masters. Most people have suffered heavy losses, losing their principal and still losing money.

After the incident has fermented for a period of time, people will reflect on why this happened?

Putting aside the risks of the stock market, we non-professional people do not understand this matter. It is a kind of greed and the pleasure of making quick money that makes people lose their reason and blind their minds.

When you open an account, link your bank card, and make money with just the move of your fingers, you will forget who you are and what you should do.

When you see that you have used 100 yuan to earn 20 yuan, you will not collect the 20 yuan you earned and deposit it in the bank. You will ALL IN, and you will invest all 120 yuan. , dreaming of earning another 24 yuan, just like this, layer by layer, once people's desires expand, it will be so big that it makes your hair stand on end when you think about it. Because of such a "vicious cycle", even if you are a small investor, you cannot escape the end of losing all your money.

Has stock trading really made you financially free? For those who quit their jobs and speculate in stocks full-time, do they really make money just by lying down?

Many people are glad that they were conservative at that time, and even think about it in retrospect. Fortunately, they did not quit their jobs at that time, leaving themselves a way out.

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Cunning?

Today’s parents, when choosing college majors for their children, always look down on English, law, and accounting. There are no majors that have the possibility of getting rich. I want to enroll my children in finance and economics. I hope that after graduation, my children will enter industries close to money in financial institutions. I hope that a good major will change their destiny.

However, is finance really as glorious as everyone imagines?

In fact, they don’t know that many investment projects sound like making quick money and getting rich overnight, but at the same time, they have to bear a lot of risks. When a project succeeds in speculation for a short time, just like buying stocks, people become bloated, reduce their awareness of risk control, feel that they have unique vision and judgment, lose rational thinking about the investment project, and then invest again.

After several cycles, many people who had become rich suddenly suffered heavy losses. Either they encountered fake projects, or the products were not as ideal as expected. In the end, not only did they lose profits, but they also could not get their capital back.

And those who honestly learn a skill and work steadily after graduation are still moving forward step by step, but those who are rushing to make quick money are suddenly getting rich, buying houses, After buying the car, I got back to my starting point, and even hit the bottom of my life because of the burden of debt.

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Confused?

When people see Internet celebrities, see others opportunistically, and see success in making quick money, they can’t help but be jealous.

Some people even throw away the three views they have established over many years of education.

However, even if you get on the train to make quick money and successfully make money, what is the next step, and will you be confused again?

The pleasure brought by making quick money makes people gradually lose the habit of doing things step by step. Gradually, people who make quick money only see huge profits and cannot return to industry.

With resources in their hands, they only focus on how to draw a pie, draw a picture, and find bigger resources. They no longer focus on the real economy, but always seek to connect with so-called resources through a certain channel, and then greedily ask for huge intermediate fees.

If everyone in this society makes money in this way, and fewer and fewer people do things in a down-to-earth manner, what will this society look like?

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Misunderstanding?

When the term financial freedom was coined, it was not meant for people to speculate and make quick money.

Financial freedom gives young people a good expectation, hoping that they can work hard and eventually live the life they want.

Financial freedom only encourages everyone to choose to do things that they think are interesting and valuable after completing their initial accumulation.

However, many people understand financial freedom as making enough money by any means in a very short period of time, and then not having to work and squandering their lives.

However, this kind of speculative behavior has no deep cultivation in a field, no knowledge system, and no accumulation. How can we continue to accumulate wealth and how can we do it for a long time?

Financial freedom does not mean that you can achieve it once and for all by doing something. Is it successful to get into college? Is it successful to find a good job? Is it successful to climb up to a management position? no.

People are always obsessed with this kind of once and for all, but this is a wrong way of thinking. Life is not something that can be achieved overnight. Each stage of life has to face different problems. There is no solution to one thing that can permanently keep people away from troubles and completely liberate them.

When you expect financial success once and for all, you are undoubtedly forcing yourself to rush for quick success and take risks.

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Reincarnation

Master Jiqun once said,

Whether a person is rich or poor, the world likes to use wealth Measured by the amount of money,

But in fact, a person's wealth does not entirely depend on wealth.

A person whose heart is filled with lack and lack of satisfaction cannot be considered rich.

On the other hand, if a person has nothing in his life,

but he does not feel that he is lacking anything in his heart,

this kind of person is the richest.

Because he has no dependence on the material world.

We say that financial freedom means that passive income is greater than expenses, but what are the expenses? It is a person's desire, and mentality determines a person's desire.

When we have a skill and work hard, we can obtain a stable income and maintain a basic life. Our life is valuable.

Does one have to wear gold and silver jewelry all over the body and buy all luxury goods to be rich?

If a seventeen-year-old child does not sit in the classroom and study, but carries a brand-name bag, drives a luxury car, hangs out in bars and other adult social places, and lives in a mansion, his Is life really complete?

What does this kind of wealth that does not match his age and experience bring him? Is it the realization of the value of life or the beginning of a downward spiral in life?

The days when there is nothing else to pursue in life are usually the pursuit of excitement and the beginning of death.

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Expectations

Those who flaunt financial freedom and expect to achieve success in life overnight are destined to be short-sighted.

Life is not linear. No cable car can take you to the highest point in one go.

The financial freedom we pursue is that in a life of constant exploration and progress, we do not have to bury our ideals in order to survive. We just want to spend more time doing the things we want to do while pursuing the meaning of our lives.

If you live your life just for money, then such a life will end up with nothing in the end and is meaningless.

Don’t let a one-sided value blind you, follow the trend of others, and do things that you don’t agree with.

After receiving many years of good education, what we should see is the many possibilities in life.

It is indeed impossible to live in this world without money, but once you have money, what do you do with it? How you equip yourself with the ability to sustainably acquire wealth is more meaningful than the money itself.

Financial freedom is not the end of life, nor is it the meaning of life.

When we calm down and reflect on ourselves, we need to see clearly, what kind of life do we want? What is it that we keep fighting for? The answer lies in everyone's heart.

Above