Enjoy your life now, while you've still got it 😀.
In a world where many are caught up in the relentless pursuit of wealth and possessions at all costs, it's essential to step back and reflect on what truly matters.
This post explores the importance of enjoying life now, rather than deferring happiness only to an uncertain future.
We've noticed two broad patterns with the work that we're doing here with The Humble Penny.
💼 The Hardworking but Unfulfilled
The first pattern is that people are working hard.
They're trying to make their money but a lot of times, they don't feel like they're moving very forward.
It feels like I'm still here. I'm working hard, I'm earning a decent income, but there's not very much happening in my life at all.
In fact, people are working so hard, partly to keep up with a lifestyle they already subscribed to in the past and the lifestyle they're keeping up with in the present and the future.
So there's a lot of keeping up that means that a lot of people's cost of living and way of life is very, very expensive.
Obviously, outside of things being expensive, more generally, there are a lot of lifestyle choices.
That means that because they're working so hard and continually working hard, they are not making enough time to enjoy their lives while they've still got it.
Pause, because I'm going to share some real-life examples in a minute.
💰 The Accumulated Wealth Paradox
The second pattern is people who I've seen, who've actually acquired wealth.
They've done very well, relatively speaking, however, they suffer from this fear of what they've got not being enough.
To the point where they carry on accumulating and working ever more hours to prove something to the world and keep up a particular lifestyle.
As a result, even though they're at a good place financially, they still carry on slaving away daily, to the point where they still don't enjoy their lives until potentially it becomes too late.
⏳ Real-Life Examples of Life's Impermanence
Okay, here are two real-life examples:
Last year, very sadly, and I'm still struggling with this, we lost a family member.
He was only 39 years old and we're the same age.
The weird thing about life is that you spend all these years accumulating things, and one day you die.
When you die, you leave everything you've accumulated to the people who happen to be around you.
This could be family members, the government, or somebody else, but you leave everything you've accumulated.
The weird thing is that there isn't a great deal of focus on enjoying the fruit of our labour.
Last year when I lost my sister's husband, we really struggled.
One flashback that keeps coming to my mind is that very night, a very sad day, I had to drive his very beautiful car to the home he and my sister own, because he wasn't there to drive a car back, and she couldn't drive a car back.
When someone passes away, as we know, naturally, everything is left behind, and nobody knows when this is going to happen.
But a lot of time is is we very we struggle generally with the balance between working and working, actually, enjoying the fruits of our labour.
Here's a second example:
A few weeks ago, a friend who I went to school with passed away, again around the same age as me.
He was very well accomplished. However, very sadly I saw in our class WhatsApp group that he very sadly passed away in the car.
And of course, he didn't expect he'd pass away, so he didn't get preparations in place, which meant that we all had to start to raise a bit of money to help with the burial proceedings.
I've just been thinking about this, right?
This post is really a reflection for me and hopefully, a reflection for you.
Sometimes it takes hearing something from a stranger or somebody you follow or somebody you admire or somebody who you want their lifestyle or whatever, for something to really sink in or just unlock in your mind and you go, hmm, I need to really think of my life very differently.
The purpose of my writing this post is to ask you the question: Are you truly enjoying your life?
If you think about it, chances are you've probably lived a third or maybe even half, or more than half of your life already.
This is assuming you live according to the so-called average life expectancy here in the UK, or more so in the West, more generally.
The evidence I'm seeing around me is a lot of people aren't living those averages.
Don't get wedded to those averages.
⚖️ The Balance Between Living and Planning
What I want to do with this post is to challenge you.
✅ Yes, you should be saving 💷
✅ Yes, you should be investing 📈
✅ Yes, you should be a good steward of your finances 📊
But I want to challenge your need for working and working and working, potentially in jobs you probably hate, jobs that don't edify you, jobs that don't give you fulfillment.
But at a real, true cost of enjoying the one thing you have, which is this one life, which is very, very finite.
Every minute, every second I'm writing this post is running out.
I'm just hearing that tick, tick, tick.
It's counting down.
What I'm doing personally with my wife, Mary, is making the effort every week.
Like yesterday, I took the day off.
Today, I'm working, but I've got bits in a day that I've made specifically for enjoying my life.
Next week, we're going away on holiday and absolutely cannot wait.
Recently we went sailing in Santorini and enjoyed a spectacular sunset. See the image at the top of this post.
This is all part of our goal of taking August off every year to travel, a dream we've had for years and started after the pandemic.
All planned and saved for, of course, but we're making an effort to have beautiful experiences and keep things fun.
You can do it too according to your budget.
Enjoying your life doesn't need to cost a lot of money at all.
It's the small things and more importantly, the intention.
I'm also doing work that I find fulfilling, which for me is a big aspect of enjoying my life and having a sense of purpose.
🌟Enjoy Your Life Now: A Call to Live Beyond Accumulation
I know this is a challenging topic for people because people have bills to pay, etc.
However, you have to really ask yourself – Is this job I'm slaving away for really something that I need to be doing at this stage of my life?
Or could I think more radically about my lifestyle?
e.g. pare things back to the point where I'm living a much simpler lifestyle, but I've got a really good balance between living for today and planning for the future whilst enjoying my life.
This is what we've done.
We live a very simple lifestyle and don't accumulate things, but we leave room to enjoy our lives.
It started at 5% of net income and it has gradually increased to around 20% because we're mortgage-free (and 100% debt free) and have invested for many years.
This all took about 15 years so far to get here.
If you're starting out, we'd recommend allocating at least 5% of your net income to enjoying your life.
Of course, prioritise paying off expensive debts first and even whilst doing that, leave some room to enjoy your life in some way.
Read more about all of this in week 5 of Financial Joy.
I want to leave by asking you guys what you think about this post.
Are you truly enjoying your life?
Let me know in the comments below.
I'm really keen to hear what you guys think because I think this topic is one that not many people talk about a great deal.
A lot of society is focused on accumulating, accumulating, accumulating, when, in fact, a lot of that accumulation, which is mostly led by other people and led by society, is ultimately, if you really think about it, what's keeping people where they are today.
Imagine a life that aligns with your values.
A life where you felt more free with fewer restrictions, more freedom to truly live with some balance.
Imagine a life with more abundance of time in your life, but without being held back by your monthly payments or direct debits and all the various things that feel like you're being chained to the sort of life you're living today.
That type of life is possible, but it takes approaching this life much more intentionally and by some design for it to be possible for you.
Let me know what you guys think. Comment below, and let's talk about it.
Much Love.
More to read next to enjoy your life now:
- Financial Joy: a 10-week plan to Banish Debt, Grow Your Money and Unlock Financial Freedom
- 12 Best Purchases to Make In Your 20s and 30s For Freedom In Your 40s and Beyond
- Escape Plan: How to Stop Living Paycheck to Paycheck
More to watch next to enjoy your life now:
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