Do You Need To Be Financially Independent (or Ultrarich)

Good morning!

I hope this finds you well.

Welcome to another edition of The Matt Viera Newsletter.

The newsletter with the goal to inspire you to live the life you actually want to live.

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Do you journal?

Not in a "Dear Diary" way, but in a way you pour your thoughts out on paper (or digitally) to achieve mental clarity?

I've been journaling for years.

Today (August 17, 2023), as I was journaling (which helps before I write anything, e.g., an article for this newsletter), I wrote the following:

"There's only so much you can do."

With as much time as I currently have, I sometimes find I am pressed for time.

Effective time management has been an area of my life I am constantly striving to improve.

As is personal finances.

As good as I believe I am in managing my finances effectively, "there's only so much you can do."

I started writing this newsletter with the goal to inspire you to live the life you actually want to live (whatever that may be or look like to you).

The theme initially was: effective money management for anyone living paycheck-to-paycheck.

Full disclosure: I lived paycheck-to-paycheck for years until I finally broke the cycle.

But when it comes to personal finances, "there's only so much you can do."

Examples of only so much you can do: budgeting, cost cutting, tracking your spending, pre-tax contributions to your employer-sponsored retirement account, investing, etc.

Unless you're saving/investing ~70% of your pre- and post-tax earnings, I hate to break it to you: you're not going to become financially independent (or ultrarich) any time soon.

Unless you win the lottery.

Even then, you must learn how to manage your money effectively to ensure your lottery winnings will last long.

And then it hit me: do you need to be financially independent (or ultrarich) to live the life you actually want to live?

Let me go off on a tangent for a minute:

I have been building an audience on Twitter for the past several months, which is an absolute beast of a social media platform to grow an audience on.

The reason is to funnel some of my Twitter followers into subscribers for this newsletter.

I started by posting financial content to a reasonable degree of success.

But when I started posting content on Twitter about mini-retirements, my growth exploded (the feedback loop was intense).

I gained ~300 new followers in about a week, a week and a half, which for Twitter, trust me, is very good.

The content about mini-retirements resonates so much with readers that I'm exploring drafting an eBook, an Ultimate Guide, about mini-retirements using all of the content I posted on Twitter.

You see, I found the intersection of what I am passionate about and what resonates with Twitter readers: mini-retirements - a means to escape, if only for a brief period of time, your usual 9-5 existence.

I've been on 4 month-long European mini-retirements since 2018.

And this doesn't include the countless cross-country road trips, camping, and weekend escapes I take as often as I can (which, I argue, are forms, albeit extremely short forms, of mini-retirements).

I'm living the life I actually want to live despite the constraints of my 9-5 career and income and despite the fact that I am not financially independent (or ultrarich).

So, where does that leave us regarding personal finance vs. mini-retirements?

I'll continue publishing articles about personal finance, to some degree, as it relates to how you can live the life you actually want to live despite the constraints of your 9-5 career and income.

As my Twitter bio states: "I write about leveraging your 9-5 income & time so you can take your 1st life-changing Mini-Retirement."

So to answer my previous question: you do NOT need to be financially independent (or ultrarich) to live the life you actually want to live.

I hope I can continue to encourage and inspire you to live the life you actually want to live…

Despite the fact that "there's only so much you can do."

As you read this, I will be driving cross-country to Wyoming.

One of my annual escapes from New York City to further continue meeting the objectives of a mini-retirement:

Slow down.

Get lost intentionally.

Disincorporate old habits and rediscover yourself.

What are you going to do in the near future to meet these objectives?

Interesting read:

These young people were burned out. Then they quit the rat race to travel.

Thanks for reading!

Please feel free to reply to this email with suggestions, questions, or comments.

I read every email.

If you have a question about personal finance or mini-retirements email me and ask, I’ll discuss the answer in a future article.

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