The Moment I Realized I'm Financially Dependent

It has come to my attention that I’m not financially independent. In fact, far from it. I’m 100% financially dependent.

My money is in a check account with a bank. My investments, including retirement accounts, are in a brokerage. Except for about $1000 in cash, I rely on the bank and the brokerage, along with credit card companies, for all my financial activities. It’s these corporations that I’m entrusting my financial assets to. Consequently, I’m at their mercy.

So, no. I’m not financially independent. I’m also not Dan Suelo, Mark Boyle, or Robin Greenfield. Each of them have lived, or is living, without money. They are the ones who are truly financially independent because they have cut money out of their lives. They don’t have any attachment to money. And that, I think, is the ultimate freedom.

I don’t think I’ll ever be like them, living with $0 or close to it. At least not now. For me, there’s the middle way. I need some money for survival in the modern world so that I don’t rely on anyone financially. At the same time, I’m not greedy enough to chase money since I know it’s just a concept made up by humans.

Having most of my assets in the US stock market is my bet that the next fool will pay more for the stocks or the ETFs than what I already paid for. I feel I’m in a Ponzi pyramid scheme. The “greater fools” are the new investors putting their money into the stock market so they can hope that the next generation of fools will do the same. And the cycle continues so the stock prices go up in the long run as long as there are more fools behind you willing to pay more.

I’m also at fault for advising people, such as my friends, family, and strangers, to invest in the stock market, especially in VTI, the total US stock market ETF that I also own. This is because the US stock market’s annual return is around 8% in the long term accounting for inflation. It’s probably one of the safest and most diversified investment vehicles out there for beating inflation.

Inflation, on the other hand, is a concept by made up the economists. There’s no basis that inflation has to be around 2% per year for a so-called healthy economy. There is simply no mathematical explanation. It’s just an economical theory made up by a bunch of economists to keep people working, so that if you didn’t work the value of your assets will decrease over time even if you didn’t spend. By “investing” your assets into something that can provide a greater return than inflation do you not lose your purchasing power in the long run. Such is life’s game of money.

My financial assets are tied to these two constraints: the corporations that have my money and the illusion of stock market returns.

One might suggest why don’t I just hold everything in cash. My response is that I’m kind of lazy and don’t want to hold a bunch of paper currency in case they get lost or stolen. I like the ease of using credit cards and paying them off every month from my checking account. I guess I’m comfortable with the modern banking system as long as everything goes well.

But the idea of completely detached from money is super interesting to me. It’s a thought experiment that I perform many times. Just imagine the freedom and creativity everyone would have if we operated on trust, community, compassion, kindness, etc.

I also wonder when we make contact with aliens will they have a form of currency and rely on money. If so, what would their currency look like? And if they didn’t have money, what would they have instead?

In any case, I guess I’m financially dependent and independent at the same time. I just don’t want money to constrain me in doing the things I want to do in life. Perhaps the term I should be using is “financial freedom”, not financial independence.