By David Heitmiller

Do you ever wonder what it would be like to be financially independent? To have pretty much everything you need? Do you wonder how it would feel to get up every day and spend an hour or two doing your favorite outdoor exercise, come home refreshed and, over a second cup of coffee, decide which of several possible projects or interests you will pursue that day?

Perhaps you decide to read a book, write some letters and go to the park. Or maybe this is the day you spend as a Big Brother helping a fatherless boy fix his bike or pitching in at the latest Habitat for Humanity project. These are just some of my activities since becoming financially independent 13 months ago. Notice I didn't say "I became wealthy," "I inherited a fortune" or "I won the lottery." Also, please note that none of the activities mentioned above involves cash expenditures.

After pursuing the materialistic, Yuppie lifestyle through most of the 1980's, my wife and I began to realize that we were no happier and less satisfied with our lot in life and our prospects for the future. Then we read Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin's book, Your Money or Your Life. Having begun our journey toward Voluntary Simplicity in 1991, Your Money or Your Life became our "Bible" on how to achieve financial independence. In January 1994, with the help of an "exit" package from the company I worked for, we achieved our goals and leaped into the blissful world of financial independence!

As defined by Joe and Vicki, Financial Independence (FI) is "having the income sufficient for your basic needs and comforts from other than paid employment." This doesn’t mean that FIers lay around and loaf or never work again. It means that you have the flexibility to work if and when and where you please, not because you have to in order to survive. This could mean volunteer work or temporary paid employment to fund a specific item you want, to finance travel or to meet unexpected needs. Or if you are one of the lucky ones who finds complete fulfillment in your current job, great. If you have reached FI, you no longer ever have to worry about getting laid-off or downsized out of a job. You know you can meet all your basic needs from other sources.

The key to successful FI is attitude. It's realizing that our true needs are pretty basic and that owning more and more stuff doesn't equal happiness. Pretty simple and perhaps obvious to many. FI gives you time to research and seek out the best buys for those items you decide you really do need -- like food and shelter and basic transportation, or that you want and desire and have consciously decided are worth your money to own and maintain. For example, I consciously choose to spend a fair amount on bicycles and bicycling each year. Once I adopted this attitude, I found less and less stuff that seemed worth the money, hassle and effort. I no longer have any desire to keep up with the Joneses or own the latest hi-tech gizmo. Advertisements blow by me with little appeal, knowing that few, if any, of these products are really necessary for my happiness and satisfaction. Whenever I feel a want or desire for some unneeded item creeping in, I just remind myself that my rather frugal (by typical American standards) lifestyle is still well above 80% of the population of the planet.

The real bliss of Financial Independence is the freedom to explore new and old interests, drastically reduced levels of stress, time and energy to help my elderly parents, volunteer time to worthy projects in my community, travel and maintain those items I choose to own. And most important, that my worth as a person is not defined by the stuff I own, the car I drive or the size of my home or bank account.

© 1995 David A. Heitmiller

This article first appeared in The Simple Living Journal (now Simple Living Oasis) Spring 1995. Reprinted here with permission.