32 Years Old

I turned 32 years old yesterday.  With a pause for reflection I noted that I'm grateful for the choices I've made and the lessons I've learned along the way.  I'm grateful for a family that I'm closer with than before and friends who are true.

32 is a significant number for computers.  In the computer world 32 bit processors was a leap in computing power and  32 bit memory addressing was a leap in storage.

32 years is what I realistically think will be a third of my life span.  32 years of experience with knowledge makes me feel confident.  32 years of learning about myself will open me up to learn more about others.

Happy birthday

Poor and free OR Rich and shackled

There seems to be a correlation between wealth and freedom that goes like this:

More wealth and more possessions equals less freedom for better living

and

Less wealth and less possessions equals more freedom for lesser living

Somewhere in the middle would be nice...

I value the freedom to think, freedom to explore and freedom to enjoy life with family and friends. Somewhere along the way I noticed that as I accumulated possessions I gave up freedom in return. This made me reevaluate my goals. Do I really want to achieve the status of living in a huge house and having lots of money to give up the freedoms I value so much? Nope!

So the idea is to find a balance in lifestyle where the net value of life is high. Meaning earning enough to live but not so much to give up what I value.

Last year was the closest I've had to reaching that goal. It was stressful and demanding but the rewards were fulfilling. Since I left my full time job I took a massive pay cut but I'm still alive and I didn't accumulate debt.

In return I was able to travel, take five weeks off, and spend more time with people who are close to me. I also had the least amount of commuting ever in my career which was nice.

What I walked away with was the sense that it is possible to tailor my life with options I never seen before. These options weren't visible until I took that first step.

I have no intent to boast here. I'm just sharing my experiences. Here's the site I found today that encouraged me to post about it:

"Are you fed up with having to live by the rules that say you have to work really hard, make lots of money so you can buy a house with a big mortgage that you then have to work even harder to pay off, until you can finally retire with a nice little nest egg pension…and finally start enjoying your life?"

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