That’s awesome to hear you have had such a great blogging experience so far! It’s definitely enjoyable to write about a topic you’re passionate about. Looking forward to seeing what you write in the future and best of luck 🙂

I’d love to read that book if you ever finish it in the future. I’m also deeply fascinated with the connection between money, happiness, and freedom. The more I read about the psychology of happiness, the more I come across the same factors that lead to happiness – connection, freedom, and meaningful work.

Financial independence can bring freedom. It can also give you flexibility to do meaningful work. The tricky part is finding work you actually enjoy doing once you’re F.I. The other component, “connection” makes sense to me as well. A social circle provides stability, support, and meaning. One of my favorite books on the importance of having a social group is “The Village Effect” by Susan Pinker, where it’s explained that the number one cause of longevity is a tight-knit social group. It makes me think of Buffett and Munger – both are in their late 80’s/early 90’s and yet show up to work every day and do something they love because they found work they enjoy and a group of people they like working with.

I’ve never heard of “How People Change” – I’ll check that out!

There is no greater day in the world when you finally discover “yourself” and your true passion/calling. I have definitely worked jobs in my life simply because they paid the bills, even though I knew deep down it wasn’t my passion. I feel most fall into this zone. Not only is it not easy to initially take that first leap and go against the grain, but also most of us truly don’t know what we want to do with our lives. The majority are content with floating by as long as their bills are paid, and they have the ability to still do some of the things they enjoy.

You (and the book) highlight that it can be difficult to make that initial leap because you can get some pushback from your friends, co-workers, and peers. You also nail it in that this is because you are doing something they didn’t advise you to do, or they are simply jelous you are doing something they wish they did at some point in their lives.

I have been out of college for 3 years and worked 2 different jobs within the federal government. It has been “okay” work and some what satisfying, but I always knew personal finance was my true passion. After I created my personal finance blog 2 weeks ago, I have never felt more ALIVE in my life. These past 2 weeks working on my passion has been the most thrilling work experience of my life!

Thanks for the share!

In my head, I have a book I want to write. I’ve already written two-thirds of it. One-third is the material collected in my “Money Boss Manual”, all the nuts and bolts of how to achieve financial independence. The second third is about happiness, and I’ve written about twenty thousand words on that. (That material can be found scattered at my various websites.) But the final third is about personal freedom and how it relates to both happiness and financial independence. For whatever reason, I’ve been unable to produce anything substantial on this subject even though I’ve been trying for more than five years. I have notes on the source material (Browne’s book, “How People Change” by Allen Wheelis, etc.) but can’t seem to distill it into a unified whole.

But it’s been several years since I read How I Found Freedom. Perhaps I should do so again.