How I Lost Financial Freedom While Building Wealth and What I Learned
Financial freedom isn’t just about money. It’s an emotional state I lost while building wealth—and here’s what I learned from the journey
How do you lose something you didn't know you had in the first place?
This thing was financial freedom, and this post is about how I lost it while simultaneously gaining wealth.
It seems counterintuitive, right? However, financial freedom is more than the numbers on a financial statement; it's also an emotional state.
I define financial freedom as having the flexibility to make choices that align with personal fulfillment, values, and desired lifestyle.
Financial freedom involves having the resources to pursue passions, spend time as you choose, and maintain peace of mind about money. It's more of an emotional or psychological state where money isn't a source of stress or limitation.
How I Had Financial Freedom Without Even Realizing It
Let's rewind about five years when things were going exceptionally well.
Looking through the lens of how I define financial freedom now, I had already reached it back then. Financial freedom wasn't something I was even actively thinking about, and indeed, it wasn't a goal.
If you had asked me, I don't know what my definition of financial freedom would have been at that time.
Sure, I had been diligently managing my finances and establishing sound financial habits to build wealth. This diligence allowed me to have everything I needed and many of the things I wanted.
I was also able to put aside enough money to retire one day. My significant other and I were both at great places in our careers, earning six-figure salaries and having many opportunities to advance our careers.
The best part was that my job didn't even feel like work; I loved going to work every day.
The Pandemic: How It Challenged My Sense of Financial Freedom
Then COVID came, and things changed, but not in the way you might think.
During the lockdown, our jobs remained intact. However, there was some uncertainty at my significant other's employer.
Like many people, we spent much less money, received substantial raises, and refinanced our mortgage to a historically low rate.
So what changed to lose our financial freedom?
I remember sitting at my desk one morning, staring at my screen, and realizing I felt nothing but dread. The work I used to enjoy now felt like an endless cycle of emails, meetings, and meaningless tasks.
Honestly, I can't tell you precisely the root cause, but the defining factor was that I grew to despise my job over the next few years.
Doing a job every day just to bring home a paycheck is not fulfilling, regardless of how financially secure it makes you feel.
How Job Dissatisfaction Erodes Financial Freedom
One of the critical components of financial freedom is its emotional aspect: being happy, having free time, being stress-free, and pursuing passions.
Changes in these aspects were all significant contributors to my financial freedom loss, and they all seemed to compound and intersect to make each other worse.
I was not alone in experiencing job dissatisfaction and stress post-pandemic.
A 2021 survey found that 79% of workers experienced work-related stress, and 3 in 5 said it negatively impacted their performance. Furthermore, 36% reported cognitive weariness, 32% reported emotional exhaustion, and 44% reported physical fatigue—a 38% increase compared to just two years earlier (American Psychological Association, 2021).
I checked several, if not all, of these boxes myself.
Around this time, I began considering why I was no longer happy, even though I had everything I could ever need.
I had achieved many of my goals and had been very successful financially. How did I lose my happiness?
These feelings also spiraled into affecting my physical and mental health.
Research shows that long-term job dissatisfaction can have a detrimental effect by raising your risk of depression, anxiety, and burnout, creating a cascading effect that affects much more than just your financial health (Mayo Clinic).
Redefining Financial Freedom: What It Really Means
This realization made me stop and think about my life choices and my financial goals.
I had spent a lot of time and effort saving money and investing with the general goal of retiring someday. But the more significant, bigger piece missing from my thinking was the aspect of financial freedom.
This realization was the inception of this blog. I began recalling and documenting my entire financial life, from how some habits were born to why I evolved and adopted new ones.
During this time, I also began exploring and embracing my introversion and had the epiphany that the two were intertwined.
For readers looking to redefine their financial freedom, I recommend starting with Personal Finance for Introverts: Building Wealth on Your Terms or Budgeting for Introverts: A Personalized Path to Financial Freedom.
My Steps to Reclaim Financial Freedom
I planned out the following steps and began leveraging alternative income streams, both active and passive, with the hope of first supplementing and then replacing my entire income with work I am passionate about.
If you're interested in exploring this path, I've written about 10 Introvert-Friendly Active Alternate Income Streams to Supplement Your 9-to-5 and Building Wealth as an Introvert: Exploring Active and Passive Alternate Income Streams to start creating more financial flexibility.
I continue to read and invest in myself to learn about the subjects I am passionate about and share them with others.
If you feel like you've lost your financial freedom, start by exploring what brings you joy and identifying small steps to align your financial habits with your values.
For practical tips, check out my posts on Budgeting for Introverts: A Personalized Path to Financial Freedom and Digital Banking Accounts for Introverts: Do Any Really Meet Our Needs?.
Closing Thoughts
If this post resonated with you, take a moment to reflect on what financial freedom means in your own life. How would you redefine it to better align with your values and aspirations?
I'd love to hear your thoughts—share your perspective in the comments below. Together, we can continue this journey toward quiet, intentional wealth.
Sources:
