The most conventional definition of financial freedom is that you can cover all the expenses of your life through passive income without trying to earn money to support your family. There are two key points here. First, financial freedom doesn't necessarily mean that you don't work, you can still work, but the purpose of work is not to get paid and then support the family; Secondly, because the purpose of work is not to make money, but there are always consumer expenses in life, non-work income, that is, passive income, is needed to ensure the living expenses.

Then what is passive income? A simple understanding is income that can be obtained without spending any time and energy. For example, if you have a house, the rent obtained by renting the house is passive income; For example, if you deposit a lot, the interest earned from the bank is passive income; And the income you get from investing in stocks, funds, P2P, precious metals, bonds, futures, collectibles, etc. It can also be regarded as passive income; You have an invention patent, and authorizing others to use the funds obtained is also a kind of passive income; For example, after you write a book and get the royalty income from the first printing, the royalty income from the subsequent printing can also be regarded as passive income; Nowadays, it is popular to operate your own official WeChat account, and the rewards and advertising income from media and online training videos can also be regarded as a passive income.

We can see that with the development of society and the change of lifestyle, there will be more and more forms of passive income. Passive income does not fall from the sky. To obtain passive income means to invest time, physical strength and energy in the early stage. For example, if you want to get rental income, you have to have a house first, so you have to save some money through work before you can buy real estate; For example, if you want to get interest income and various investment income, then the premise is that you also have principal, which may also be your labor income; As for invention patent licensing fees, manuscript fees, awards, advertising revenue, etc. You also invested time and energy in the early stage to create corresponding intellectual property rights.

It is not difficult to see here that if you want to gain financial freedom, you must first have passive income, and it will take some time and energy to get passive income in the early stage. It is meaningless to talk about financial freedom without primitive accumulation unless you win the lottery or inherit it suddenly.

If passive income can cover daily expenses and even resist certain emergencies and risks, is it financial freedom? If this person has nothing to do all day, his spirit is empty, and he leads a boring life, or even though his passive income has reached the requirements of financial freedom, he is still doing a job he doesn't like, with little free time and great mental stress, which obviously cannot be regarded as financial freedom.

Therefore, the real financial freedom should be to be able to do what you like, to be mentally happy and psychologically satisfied, and not to worry about all kinds of expenses in daily life. This is the real financial freedom.

The life of financial freedom is not necessarily a lot of free time, and then traveling, eating, drinking and having fun everywhere, but one's own living condition is what one wants and may be very busy, but this kind of busyness is not the pursuit of material life, but more a satisfaction of one's spiritual world.

For example, Buffett, whose income from investing in stocks can't be spent all his life, continues to study stock investment. This is not because he needs money to live a better material life, but because this is the lifestyle he loves. Jiro Ono is over 90 years old. He is the oldest Michelin-starred chef. He has been making sushi for more than 80 years, and the money he earns can support his old age. He doesn't have to sell sushi to support his family, but he still gets up early every day to make sushi, because this is also his favorite lifestyle. There are many such examples.

I read a post in Zhihu earlier that many mainland gamblers who go to Macau are rich. They have their own business, and they can't spend all the money they earn every year, so they go to Macau to gamble, and it doesn't matter if they lose. These people may be financially free, but spiritually empty, even under great pressure. They just gamble to escape from reality for a short time. Such people are far from financial freedom.

The blind pursuit of money and material financial freedom is not true financial freedom, but only the freedom of quality of life, good health, spiritual satisfaction and spiritual release is true financial freedom.

Manage your finances while you are young-I hope you can live the life you want. WeChat official account: Mucheng Free Life (ID: mucheng-life)