Financial Independence is an Equation—Not a Destination
The choices behind the number matter more than the number itself.
The FI Number
People often think of financial independence (FI) as a number. Once your savings reach it, you no longer need to work unless you choose to. Save enough, hit that number, and you’re done. You’ve arrived.
Arrived at what, exactly?
Maybe it’s sitting at a café in Italy with a glass of wine. Or slow mornings sipping coffee with a view of the mountains. We all have some vision of this. A future where we’ve finally “made it”.
But that framing puts most of the focus on saving and not enough on everything else that shapes the outcome.
Rethinking Financial Independence
A better way to look at it isn’t as something you arrive at, but something you’re constantly solving.
FI isn’t about reaching a number. It’s about understanding the variables behind it. Most people focus on the obvious ones: income, spending, time, savings. The ones you can measure and even model. But they’re not the only variables that determine the outcome. Some of the most important ones don’t show up on a spreadsheet at all.
My goal is simple: to help you see what’s actually driving the equation, think through the tradeoffs, and decide what financial independence actually looks like for you.
Why Your FI Number is Limited
Treating your FI number as the destination comes with limitations:
It’s Only a Snapshot:
A common way to estimate your FI number is multiplying your annual expenses by 25 (e.g., $100K × 25 = $2.5M). But that number is built on assumptions. Will those assumptions behind your number hold for 20 or 30 years?
The version of you that calculated that number may not be the version of you living it. Priorities change.
Things Outside Our Control:
Steady job, steady markets, steady health? None of that is guaranteed.
As a millennial, I’ve lived through one major market-moving event after another. My first accounting job came right before the housing and financial crisis. I had to change jobs.
I entered my mid-30s just as a global pandemic shut down the world. World markets collapsed. Then rebounded.
I had multiple back surgeries for herniated discs in my 20s that had me barely walking for months and paying medical bills I hadn’t planned for. Reinjured again after turning 40. More time limited. More unexpected costs. I’m doing better now, but I don’t take feeling good for granted.
There will always be plenty of ‘out of your control’ events. And plenty of decisions you’ll make that will impact your future.
Always a Little More:
When we reach our FI number, how many of us will actually say, “Done”?
More likely, we’ll hesitate as the fear of being wrong creeps in.
Maybe our savings should be a little bigger.
Maybe we should work a little longer.
I’m guilty of this myself. Every few years, I revisit what it would take for me to feel secure in my finances, and without fail, the number goes up again.
Sadly, we rarely think we might need less.
It’s Too Rigid:
Even a well-calculated FI number assumes a fairly fixed path. A specific retirement date. A consistent level of spending. No additional income. But real life doesn’t move in straight lines.
You adjust. You earn. You spend differently. You change your timeline
In another post, I’ll walk through an example of what spending $20k more in retirement actually looks like in practice.
Financial independence changes as your decisions change. And that requires flexibility.
The problem isn’t calculating a FI number. A static number just isn’t enough. Financial Independence evolves as your decisions do, requiring flexibility.
Embracing Flexibility
Don’t get me wrong; I enjoy calculating my FI number. It’s one of the first things I did when I started thinking seriously about retirement. And I still revisit it. But I treat it as a tool, not a destination. Just one variable. One input that shifts as everything else does.
As an accountant, I enjoy that part. And as long as I don’t pull my wife into the details too often, she’s perfectly happy to let me fixate a little too much over our finances.
If you’re new to FI, you might be wondering how to calculate your FI number. I’ll tackle that in a future post.
But what matters even more is this:
Your FI number is really the result of multiple variables—income, spending, time, priorities. And those things change. That’s not a flaw in the process. It’s the point.
It means you have options.
Final Thought
Financial independence isn’t about solving for a single number. It’s about understanding the tradeoffs behind your decisions.
How the choices you make shape the outcome, and how to build the FI equation that fits your life.
— Brad
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