The Simple Path to Wealth: Your Road Map to Financial Independence and a Rich, Free Life

by J.L. Collins

For me, the pursuit of financial independence has never been about retirement. I like working and I’ve enjoyed my career. It’s been about having options. It’s been about being able to say “no.” It’s been about having F-You Money and the freedom it provides.

Put in those terms, the choice was easy. She quit. It was far and away the best “purchase” we ever made. Of course, this also meant we had no working income. However, for the three years we both weren’t working, our net worth actually grew. It was the first time we fully realized we had moved beyond just having F-You Money. We had become financially independent.

It’s not hard. Stop thinking about what your money can buy. Start thinking about what your money can earn. And then think about what the money it earns can earn. Once you begin to do this, you’ll start to see that when you spend money, not only is that money gone forever, the money it might have earned is gone as well. And so on.

Warren Buffett is rather famously quoted as saying: Rule #1: Never lose money. Rule #2: Never forget rule #1.

“The Dow started the last century at 66 and ended at 11,400. How could you lose money during a period like that? A lot of people did because they tried to dance in and out.”

The market is the single best performing investment class over time, bar none.