Do you Live to Work?
Are you really free? If you're like most middle-aged people, you're probably living a life to serve the system.
Everyone starts with 24 hours:
8 hours for sleep
1 hour for showering, breakfast, etc. in the morning
1 hour commute
8-9 hours at work
1 hour commute
1 hour meal prep, eating, cleaning
1 hour of exercise
1 hour kids homework
What does that leave you? 1-2 hours of 'freedom'. Yeah, your best hours to invest in yourself can begin after you've fully drained all your mental and physical energy.
Do you have hopes and dreams? Save them for between the hours of 10:00pm and 11:00pm.
You'll notice I'm leaving out laundry, groceries, repairing the back stairs, mowing the lawn, dry-cleaning, picking up pencil crayons for your kid's art project, and so on. That's where your weekends go. And if you're like many people, those obligatory social gatherings - after work drinks, in-law's birthday party - might as well be minor forms of work too.
The time each of us have to actually do what we want is minimal. If you're like me, you have to find enjoyment in the daily chores.
The funny thing is, most jobs don't require 8-9 hours. How much of your day is wasted? This has become especially apparent when we started working from home. This new setup is amazing! I can get my work and daily errands done much faster than before.
But the system doesn't like it. The system wants us indebted with minimal free time. This keeps us dependent on our employers for money. Moreover, with little spare time we blindly purchase short-lived dopamine hits - retail therapy, objects of desire - benefiting our employers. The house always wins.
Yeah, that's it...your pusher wants you to happily return every penny he provides you so you're totally dependent. It keeps you coming back for more, despite hating every minute of it.
Ever have a boss suggest you buy a bigger house or upgrade to a new car? Perhaps after they just gave you a raise? They certainly don't want you using that extra money to pay down your debts to achieve financial freedom. If they're to shape your behaviour they need you financially subservient. Highly mortgaged people with families to care for make the best indentured servants employees.
God forbid you smoke a little ganga when not on the clock and your employer tests. That stuff stays in your system for a while - doesn't matter how good you are at your job. Even your free time is co-opted by the system.
In the end, you're just an anonymous cog in a machine. Those people at work that call each other family will fall off the face of the earth as soon as they retire/quit/fired/die. Although turnover is a pain in the ass, in the long run everyone is replaceable. We're all just worker drones.
So don't give your life to work. Because work will happily take it. Break free by striving to become debt free while owning income-producing assets. Only then can you live life on your terms.