How Working for Your Retirement Restricts Your?Liberty

The following in an edited excerpt from my new book, Heads I Win, Tails You Lose.

Allow me to rewind the clock a few hundred years to the origins of what has become my financial philosophy — what I consider the American Dream.

One individual epitomized the pursuit of the foundational American ideals and coined a phrase that still echoes today. It is rightfully the backbone of my financial philosophy and a motivation for you to realize the opportunities ahead.

“That being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his Life, Health, Liberty, or Property.” — John Locke

The iconic phrase, or rather sequence of words, was conceived in late 17th-century England amid a period of widespread social revolution. Some consider the events that unfolded one of the epicenters of revolutionary thought that eventually led to the American Revolution and, subsequently, the greatest period of human ingenuity, industry, and prosperity up to that point in history.

You Are Your Greatest Asset in Life

Our life is the foundation of wealth, and all other rights and principles are corollaries to it. Our life belongs to us, and likewise, the life of another is theirs and cannot be claimed by us. Life is the context in which we experience everything, and without it, nothing else would matter.

“If money is your hope for independence, you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability.” — Henry Ford

When the environment of life is free, the dynamic sets in motion an innate ingenuity to nurture, improve, and subsequently optimize our physical world. This same motivation carries directly to the same stewardship over our most precious and valuable asset — ourselves.

The result?

Our personal drive to grow and progress will grow stronger. The desire to discover how to be the most valuable to others will intensify. The exchange for that value is not only material wealth but the remuneration of fulfillment and freedom.

“You don’t get paid by the hour. You get paid by the value you bring to the hour.” — Jim Rohn

Unlike other assets that are finite in nature, there is no end to your degree of understanding, knowledge, education, training, and capacity to be the greatest value to the greatest number of people.

Your capacity to build wealth is unlimited.

Investment in you takes precedence.

“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” — Benjamin Franklin

Each of us has a unique genius inside waiting to express itself for the benefit of others; it is an asset waiting to be discovered, enhanced, and made even more valuable.

Liberty is the Goal of Your Financial Strategy

“They who can give up essential Liberty to obtain a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” — Benjamin Franklin

For well over a hundred years, the meaning of liberty has arguably decayed as we have delegated more and more responsibility to third parties to care for our well-being, such as government, investment firms on Wall Street, and banks.

The financial education of society today is starting to fit snugly into that popular quote by Benjamin Franklin.

The typical American narrative of going to school, getting a college education, establishing a high-paying job, funding a 401(k), and retiring at 65 is not freedom, and it is diametrically opposed to the American Dream.

The slow and steady permeation of these ideas began in the educational system, made its way to the factory-style work environment, then to the promises of retirement, and finally to the bequeathing of wealth into the hands of Wall Street and the financial services industry.

Today, the more funding pre-college education receives, the worse the outcome is. Despite record profits for universities, there is record student loan debt. Entry-level wages remain stagnant, and underemployment is in the double-digit range.

The broken education system and the mindset of factoryism has bled into the modern workplace, where careers are the function of making money by following orders and where hierarchical management is the law.

The carrot of a future retirement comes from the desire for liberty. It has become an elusive reward, and for most, it’s just enough motivation to repeat the cumbersome daily grind.

Many are convinced that the American Dream is retirement, which means “to be taken out of service.”

The concept of retirement with a state-paid pension comes from Otto von Bismarck, the statesman who was the first Chancellor of the German Empire between 1871 and 1890.

Bismarck is remembered for statements like, “Politics is the art of the possible,” and, “Laws are like sausages; it is better not to see them being made.”

He’s also the architect of the modern social welfare state, including old age pensions. In Bismarck’s day, few people lived to the age of 70, when old age pensions started. Life expectancy in the 1880s was less than 60 years.

Today, retirement age is generally 65, and average life expectancy in the US is 81 years for a woman and 76 years for a man. In Bismarck’s time, someone who was 70 was considered very old and was probably not capable of working. In our own time, most people at 70 are still physically and mentally active. The equivalent retirement age of today would be 93.

The notion of retirement today is not grounded in the principles of liberty and freedom.

There exists a dependence on third parties like Wall Street, banks, and the government for our financial welfare. Wall Street must look out for our best interests and subsequently perform and make money. The US government must be fiscally responsible and avoid wasteful spending above and beyond their means. This expectation is, unfortunately, not the world we live in, and it’s a risky proposition to assume it will change.

The dynamic of financial freedom is accomplished in two ways. First, by taking back control of your wealth, which requires eliminating the dependence on third parties and educating yourself to invest in what you understand. Second, it is by investing in yourself to make more money because you are more valuable to others, which initiates the discovery of employment or business that aligns with your genius, passion, and calling.

“If you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.” — Marc Anthony

The Role of Resources

The physical world we experience has always had the potential to be what it is today. The material to make a computer, a television, a car, or an airplane has always been here. When humankind was free to pursue it without the fear of recourse, their minds began solving the matters that kept humankind in the dark for millennia.

Today, the average American lives better than kings of old.

Humanity has solved inefficiencies in health, food, shelter, clothing, transportation, communication, and entertainment by combining the internal resources with those resources externally.

What you bring to the world is unique and infinite in scope. The world is full of challenges awaiting your mind to come up with solutions.

To learn more about retirement planning and finding freedom through financial strategies, read my new book Heads I Win, Tails You Lose.