The Secret “Third Person” You Need in Your Financial Life to Be Financial Free Fast Without Sacrificing Happiness

Highly intelligent, DIY investors are told that by building a portfolio of stocks, bonds, mutual funds, or ETFs up to 25 times their annual expenses, they can safely withdraw 3-4% for life and never run out of money.

Practically, though, there’s a problem with this path.

While a large net worth backed by a portfolio is fantastic and essential in long-term wealth building...

For most of you with a salary, this path takes soooo long that you will spend a lifetime feeling financially insecure, increasingly dependent on your salary to keep investing, and not particularly successful. Key word: Successful.

(Feeling disappointed, like a sore loser, like you're hardly making progress is a great way to take 30 years to retire. The feeling of success is VERY significant for anyone striving for financial freedom, as I discussed yesterday.)

For UAE expats? In this volatile job market, with so many AMAZING THINGS to do in the city and the high costs of lifestyle & education, it's hard to focus on financial freedom if you care about enjoying your own life and your family's happiness.

Why? Because if you need 30 years to attain financial freedom and there's no faster way... you will feel either bored, numb, or disappointed in their financial reality.

And if you want to go any faster? You'll need to budget harder, say no to having fun, say no to your wife and kids.

This leads UAE expats to wrongly believe that achieving financial freedom, fast either:

• Requires extreme frugality and discipline that would bore them to death, require them to sacrifice things they truly enjoy and create inconvenience and suffering for them, their spouse, and their kids. Gross. Who cares about financial freedom in 30 years if you feel like garbage every day?
• OR the only way to be able to enjoy your investment dividends faster is to rush into the rental market, which requires a host of skills, knowledge, debt... basically starting a second career on top of their existing stressful career for 6-7% returns p.a. On top of owning properties they don't even really want. Great.

And this small feeling of strain will practically affect their ability to invest consistently.?

You already know this. You can say you're ready to invest today, but if it feels horrible you won't be able to stick to it.

You can hold up a glass of water for 15 minutes just fine… But it’s hard to do it for 24 hours. Even a tiny glass.?

There’s only so much you can force something that feels fundamentally unrewarding to you…

When you'd rather be rewarded by how meaningful it is to make your wife and children happy, to pay for food delivery or a personal trainer.

If you care about your and your family’s happiness... financial freedom may feel 30 years away.

People restrict their idea of freedom to a "freedom number" that they expect will bring happiness in 15 years. They think, “Once my net worth hits [X], I can withdraw 3-4%, secure my wealth, and finally be free.”

But here’s the truth: Waiting and suffering isn’t just unnecessary; it won’t even feel satisfying when you reach that number. Years of sacrifice will rob you of joy.

If you’re holding onto a pile of properties you don’t care about...

If you have to sacrifice all your enjoyment to get there...

If you’re highly reliant on your salary for mental peace,

If you're terrified of being generous and spending money...

If your worried about whether your wife will keep contributing each month,

And you have to hustle to keep up with yourself.

Trust me. That number on your IBKR/Sarwa/banking app will mean nothing.

And you will resent creating a life of suffering to get here.

The “How” of Financial Freedom Matters More Than the “If”

Too often, the “how” of financial freedom gets ignored in favor of the numbers on paper, which is how people accumulate a bunch of stuff that means nothing to them.

For example, highly intelligent UAE expats may focus on accumulating paper wealth with a house and big net worth number, and that’s exactly how they end up accumulating resentment, debt, and stress.??They feel trapped everyday, but they're hoping one day that the number on an app makes them suddenly feel free.

The Key to Financial Freedom In <5 Years That You Can Actually Enjoy? Create a “Third Person” in Your Financial Life

Before doing anything else, I encourage my clients to create a “third person”—an immortal, intergenerational version of themselves that works 24/7 to make them feel freer.

This “third person” is a cash-flowing portfolio that gives you cash fast in 30/60/90 days.

Without a property. Without a second career or suffocating budget. Without sacrificing happiness, enjoyment, and creating memories with family.

Suppose you need 20,000 AED per month to cover your expenses. If your cash-flowing portfolio returns 15% per year, you’d need around 1.6 million AED to cover all your bills—for the rest of your life.

Now you can go out and enjoy that money. Reward yourself for your actions in the short run. You will be wiring yourself to invest more when you reward yourself.

Build your cash-flowing portfolio before you buy a house, a car, or other long-term investments, and your purchases can ultimately pay for themselves.?

Once this cash-flow foundation is set up, you can build other parts of your “moat of security”...?

You can add some padding to your net worth after buying back your time: stocks, bonds, ETFs, mutual funds, or property that are all extra, because you will already financially free at this stage. You have your passive income that you can count on.

The Case for a Cash-Flowing Portfolio Over the DIY Investor Or Long-Term Wealth Building Route

Adding this “third person” to your life enables everything to happen faster than if you try to piece things together on your own. With a cash-flowing portfolio:

• In 5 years, my clients are covering their children’s university costs purely with dividends.
• In 5 years, they’re able to take career breaks, sabbaticals, or travel while supporting dependents.
• In 5 years, they can purchase homes that cover 60-80% of their cost through dividends.

In just 30 days of working with me,

You could knock out your DEWA bill forever.

This will feel like such a wonderful win that you'll snowball into AED 40k, 50k, 60k/month in 3-4 years.

You can actually use that money to…

• Take a round trip to Paris
• Go out for family dinners
• Send your wife shopping
• Pay for kids’ extracurriculars
• Learn a new skill

Instead of suffocating, hoarding and worrying about your budget your way to "freedom" after 30 years. I guarantee you'll end up bored, resentful, and the money feeling entirely meaningless to you.

If you skip this step, freedom will elude you.

A lot can happen in 5 years, if you start with this:

1. Generate immediate cash flow to cover basic expenses.
2. Focus on a reliable system for UAE expats with trustworthy support.
3. Build a life that feels free now, so that you can grow into a larger vision over time…

All without sacrificing you and your family's happiness today.