Financial Independence Is a Myth

Now, before you click DELETE or . . .

If you are an “I-can-go-it-alone-and-make-my-own-way” individualist and you’ve elevated your sense of separateness to the status of a metaphysical principle, just hold on and . . .

Think about this for a second.

What exactly does “financial independence mean?”

From a strictly money point of view it means accumulating enough so you need never have to work and need never have to depend on anyone else again for your money or even for further money accumulation.

And that, to quote Shakespeare, is “a consummation devoutly to be wished.” To be without financial concerns (except, of course for spending and managing the money you have accumulated) is a dream many people have and a dream that’s sold as an American dream we should all strive for.

In that limited way someone can appear to be financially independent.

But here’s the rub. How independent can you actually be (unless you are born into wealth) while you are accumulating your store house of cash?

Money making is an interdependent activity. You can’t amass large stores of money without a lot of other people. Oh sure you can hit the lotto. But your odds of that are probably just as good whether you buy a ticket or not.

So you NEED people—because, if you’re not a thief or extortionist, you need to acquire your wealth by offering something to the world that others are willing to give you their money for. And having that NEED for people to buy from you is precisely the opposite of what people mean by financial independence.

So you do NEED when you are accumulating and not independent. And you are told that when you gather enough resources, you will no longer NEED — but that’s not entirely true even if you are to live an entirely isolated life.

And there’s the second rub . . .

Because you NEED people to provide what you want and need for your daily lifestyle no matter how luxuriously you live. There’s that pesky NEED word again. You can’t do everything alone. You can’t provide everything you need by yourself. You can throw money around like Croesus but to whom will you throw it?

But would that make you independent? Not hardly.

To be independent means not to be influenced or controlled by others, not subject to another’s authority or jurisdiction, not influenced by the thought or action of others. AND – anyone who reaches this state of being is either a god or is clinically insane.

You are never independent. You can only and always be interdependent. We all live within the condition of needing and relying on one another.

This doesn’t mean anyone should cease working for wealth. Not at all. It’s just terribly important to dimensionalize your ambition to include the community that is so much an interdependent part of whatever amount you need to accumulate — and to provide what you’ll need in order to live your lifestyle.

So let’s redefine the myth of “financial independence” and bring it back down to earth, placing it in the reality we all live which is the fact of financial interdependence.

Financial independence is merely an idea, in fact a fantasy. In the very real reality of our lives we live with one another, among one another, relying on one another, always.

Because It’s All in the Connection,

Judith & Jim

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