Shane Parrish tweeted out the following quote;
“Intentional living is the art of making our own choices before others’ choices make us.” — Richie Norton
The term intentional living is a little buzzwordy versus just saying that living the life you want is the art of making our own choices before others’ choices make us.
This is a hot button for me personally. We all have our hot buttons of course but the idea of this sort of self sufficiency is one of mine. In the past, I have articulated it as not wanting someone else to dictate my outcome. What that really is about though is resiliency in the face of adverse circumstances.
An easy example to point to is Social Security which could be facing a 23% haircut in the mid 2030’s (from what I have read, 23% seems to be the number but the year it could happen seems to be a moving target). Based on the countless studies and articles showing how undersaved we are collectively, a lot of people will be hurt by a large cut in Social Security.
I’ve made the point before that the runway on this is very long. Social Security could get cut 15 to 20 years from now. If this is concerning, and it probably should be, we all have a lot of time to figure the solution that is right for us which might include saving more, spending less, creating another stream of income, working longer, downsizing or any combination of the five.
That last sentence may not be very appealing but choosing your own changes in lifestyle or behavior is better than enduring an old age perpetually worried about coming up short every month.
To me this isn’t about being rich it is about being financially self-sufficient. Self sufficiency comes from having an introspective understanding of what is truly important to you and figuring that out makes it easier to be sufficient which in turn becomes a building block for a happier life. Hopefully, that resonates with more people than it doesn’t.
