The best thing money can buy

To me, the best use of money is buying my freedom. Specifically, the autonomy to use my time however I choose.

• Working only on projects I choose to work on
• Spending time with a friend in the middle of a workday
• Going for a long walk whenever it’s sunny outside

These are the best things I ever bought with my money.

And I wonder, why don’t we get the freedom, autonomy, and flexibility we could have right now, and instead buy cars and houses and other stuff that only makes our lives more expensive?

Your freedom might be less expensive than you think. Your lifestyle including rent, food, and everything else you need might cost a few thousand dollars a month (depending heavily on where you live, of course). That’s something you can easily calculate.

So if you are saving money and get to $10k, $20k, $50k, or more, you have the option to fund yourself for years if you wanted to. And it doesn’t mean you have to quit everything. You could just work less and increase the freedom of how you spend your time little by little.

About six years ago, I met a guy in a surf house in Bali who made money as a chef in Australia for three months a year and spent the rest of his year surfing around the world.

I mean, it’s almost the opposite of what I want in life, but I admire his intentionality.

He knew what he wanted and wasn’t afraid to go after it. Or maybe he was afraid and full of doubts but went after it anyway, which is even more admirable.

I think we don’t do this enough.

We should learn to use money to take control of our lives. Freedom to do what we really want is the best thing money can buy and it’s cheaper than you might think.