I’ve always wanted to be rich.

Not for the nice cars or big houses, but because I want my family to be free.

Free from the idea of being a slave to a wage. Free from money worries. Free to do the things we enjoy.

Now, I’m from a working-class village in the North of the UK.

So when I became a dentist, I felt responsible for proving this dream was possible. I deep-dived into finance to find out how to build wealth.

The plan I fell in love with?

The FIRE movement.

If you don’t know about FIRE, let me give you a quick run-through.

It stands for financial independence, retire early.

You cut back expenses and invest as much as possible in low-risk returns like index funds. Then all you need to do is sit tight for 20-25 years and you’ll have enough money to say FU to society.

I loved it because it rewards the patient and reflects the power of compounding…

But I haven’t followed FIRE in 3 years now.

And I used to be a massive advocate.

The problem?

It leads to an unhealthy relationship with money.

You save on the basis that one day, you’ll feel secure.

But the paradox is this attitude becomes so engrained that you’ll likely never be happy when you get there.

You can’t enjoy freedom because you earned it through fear.

And you make bad decisions around money in the first place - justifying doing work you hate if it means you might escape.

Take me for example.

I worked 6 days a week as a dentist. I figured I could hustle for 10 years and have the runway to begin building the life I wanted.

But after 3 years I was burned out…

Anxious…

And always stressed.

I kept telling myself it was worth it because I could see my investment slowly growing.

But trust me my friend:

Making money doesn’t mean shit if it comes at the cost of your happiness.

When you work a job you hate it stops you building a career you love. I didn’t want to turn 40, look back, and realise I wasted so much time - so I quit.

I used my savings to retrain as a writer - a skill I’d fallen in love with. And I made a pact:

Any money I make, I’ll reinvest into the business:

• Learning skills
• Hiring help
• Software and automations
• Mentorship
• Courses and education

Monetarily, the first 2 years were awful. But now I’m grateful to say I make more writing than I ever would drilling teeth. More importantly, not a single day feels like work.

My point here is that by focusing less on saving money and more on improving your capacity to make it with a skill you enjoy, you’ll achieve financial freedom much faster.

But you’ll also care less about getting there because you’re already having fun.

Like Naval Ravikant once said, retirement is when you stop sacrificing today for an imaginary tomorrow.

Hopefully this gives you food for thought.

Kieran