One of the nice things about having your own blog is that you can declare anything the “top 10 best” of something and nobody can stop you from doing it. In my case, I’ve just decided that I’ll be sharing with you what I consider to be the top 10 best financial freedom quotes.
These are quotes that I’ve encountered throughout my life that have helped form the foundation of my philosophy on financial freedom. Each quote relates back to the concept of financial freedom in one way or another. Sometimes, the connection will be obvious. Other times, you might wonder what a quote from Gandalf has to do with financial freedom. Read on, and I will explain!
The list of financial freedom quotes
#1 All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.
Gandalf the Grey
Time is the most precious resource we have. According to the CDC, the average life expectancy in the US as of 2018 is 78.7 years. That may sound like a lot to some but when you consider that is all the time you will ever have to live, that doesn’t sound like a whole lot of time to me.
And unlike most other resources, there’s not a lot we can do to get more time. That means we must decide to treat time as the scarce resource that it is and spend it in a way that maximizes its utility to us, which most often means spending as much of our time as we can with the people we love the most. I emphasize “decide” because, true to Gandalf’s words, it is largely within our control to choose how we want to spend our time. So remember to choose wisely and you will quickly be on the path to financial freedom.
#2 It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.
Seneca
Once you’ve satisfied your basic needs in life, such as food and shelter, what else do you truly “need”? Go ahead and ponder that question for a minute or two. Seriously, stop reading and think about how you would answer that question. Don’t worry, I’ll still be here.
Scroll down when you’re ready.
The answer to that question above is probably “very little”. Yet, we trick ourselves into always wanting more. A bigger house, a newer car, the latest phone, fancier clothes but when is enough enough? For many, there is no such concept as “enough”. And unfortunately, for those people, they are destined to live out their finite lives on a treadmill that will keep them chasing after the ever-elusive “more” that they’ll never be able to reach, no matter how hard they try. And, like the quote says, those are the people who are truly poor.
#3 Care about people’s approval and you will be their prisoner.
Laozi
Let’s rewind a second and think about that previous quote. If you’re reading this blog, it probably makes a lot of sense to you, but the idea that you would voluntarily choose to consume less is borderline antithetical to what most would consider the “American Dream”.
That makes this third quote important because once you choose to go down this path, you will be living your life in a way that differs from the majority of your peers. This means you will immediately become different. If you remember anything from middle and high school, it’s that people who are different typically get called out on it.
But you know what? Do you. Don’t worry about what others think. Don’t worry about “keeping up with the Jones’s”. Celebrate your newfound way of living life and don’t fall victim to what others might think. Trust me, they will be jealous when you’ve achieved financial freedom and they are stuck showing up to work on the weekdays.
#4 There are many kinds of success in life worth having.
Theodore Roosevelt
By now, you may have noticed that there’s an ongoing theme here. The second, third, and fourth financial freedom quotes are all closely linked. For many, material goods and conspicuous wealth are visible indicators of “success”. The logic goes that, to be successful, you must spend a lot of money on fancy things, regardless of whether or not you can actually afford it. That might at least partially explain why 40% of adults in the US can’t afford a $400 unexpected expense. So many people are so tapped out from buying things they think they need that they can’t afford surprises like auto and home repairs when they inevitably show up.
So if success is not defined by wealth or material possessions, how else might we define it? I don’t know that I have the definitive answer to that question but I have at least a few ideas:
- Do my wife and kids still love me? Yes? Success!
- Have I prepared my kids for the life they’ll face in adulthood? Yes? Success!
- Have I used my finite time in the best way possible? Yes? Success!
- Did I leave things better than I found them? Yes? Success!
I may expand on those ideas in a future blog post but for now, that’s a rough outline of at least a few things that sound “successful” to me. Interesting that none of them are centered on material possessions, or even financial freedom for that matter.
#5 The person who is waiting for something to turn up might start with their shirt sleeves.
Garth Henrichs
This one is important for two reasons.
First, if you are one of those people who is waiting for the perfect opportunity to present itself…stop. Actually, don’t stop, start! Just start and begin to make some progress. Take small steps and let the early wins compound and snowball as you build momentum. You’ll look back and suddenly realize that even if you didn’t make the “perfect” moves, you will likely still be further ahead than if you were stuck back at square one waiting. This has served me well throughout my life, especially in my career.
Second, and I need to be real with you…the journey to achieve financial freedom is not going to be easy. Unless you’re extremely lucky, there will be no lotto tickets or get-rich-quick schemes that will suddenly catapult you towards wealth. Instead, you will need to make a series of conscious decisions about how you will choose to live the rest of your life and then stick with them for years (decades even!)
So, if you want to achieve financial freedom, look in the mirror and then get started.
#6 You can’t manage what you can’t measure.
Peter Drucker
Umm… I thought this was supposed to be a list of financial freedom quotes, what is a business quote doing in here?
At some point in your journey to achieve financial freedom, you’re going to have to start dealing with a lot of numbers. How much are you earning? How much are you spending? What is your savings rate? How are your investments doing? To be able to answer questions like that you are going to need data. There’s a lot of different ways to get that data. How you collect it and keep track of it isn’t all that important. Pick what works for you and just do it.
The bottom line is that you will have a hard time trying to manage and improve your financial situation if you can’t measure it.
#7 You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future…This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”
Steve Jobs
Once you’ve drunk the kool-aid and have embarked down the path towards financial freedom, you are inevitably going to start making all kinds of plans.
- “X number of months or years from now, I am going to have Y dollars!”
- “When I’m X years old, I’m going to retire!”
That’s good, you should make those plans. Those plans will serve as your guideposts that will keep you on track along the way. But don’t get too hung up on those plans working out exactly as you thought they would. Stock markets crash, people get sick, and accidents happen. Plan for flexibility.
Also, be an optimist. There will be lots of naysayers that will raise all the “what if’s?” that I just did a second ago. Don’t worry about it. At some point in your life, bad things will happen. A lot more good things will happen too. But you know that already and you’re prepared for it. Focus on the things within your control and let the rest go. As Dr. Seuss says in Oh the Places You’ll Go, success is “98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed.” I like those odds.
#8 The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough.
Randy Pausch
Did I mention this wouldn’t be easy? How badly do you want to achieve financial freedom? Even in the best case scenario, you will likely spend 10+ years working your butt off and saving and investing all of your spare dollars.
You will be giving up all of the fancy things that many people spend their whole lives working for. You will stand out and be different from a lot of the people you know. They will question you, criticize you, and even make you doubt yourself at times.
Is it worth it? Only you can answer that question.
#9 In life, you don’t get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate.
Unknown
This is actually one of my favorites on the list. I can’t recall where I heard it for the first time but it’s one that I’ve shared with others on numerous occasions, especially during garage sales where it seems people actually expect a certain amount of haggling.
To me, this quote is a great reminder that life isn’t fair. You can be the best at your job, the top performer, but unless you are willing to negotiate, you’re not going to get what you “deserve”.
Never rely on others to give you what you think you deserve. If you want it, ask for it, and be willing to walk away if the answer is no.
#10 Man…sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present, the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.
Dalai Lama XIV
Wow, this one is a heavy hitter. I originally had this at the top of the list because somewhere in the early days of my discovery of FIRE, I stumbled upon this quote and it really made me think.
I decided instead to put it here at the end because once you’ve read every blog post out there, made all of your plans, gathered all of your data, and optimized your life you will spend a long time on cruise control.
So, enjoy the ride. Don’t waste years of your life worrying about the future. Enjoy living in the present, especially if you have kids.
Which one of these quotes was your favorite? Why? What quotes did I leave out that you think I should have included? If you were to make your own top 10 list, what would it look like? Let me know below in the comments!
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