Morgan Housel

Because I've had a sense of financial security and I've had a sense of independence financially since I was in my early 20s.

Not because I had saved a ton.

I hadn't.

But any amount that I saved, I viewed as like the cushion that gave me a much higher sense of confidence that if or when things go wrong, I'm not gonna be flailing.

I'm gonna have some cushion to fall back on.

So let's start at the very bottom.

You're homeless, you're panhandling, reliant on the kindness of strangers.

As you go up from there, you can be completely reliant on your boss.

in a job that you don't like.

Now, that's another low level.

As you go up from there, you have, look, I'm relying on my job, I'm relying on my paycheck, but I probably have some opportunities.

I could go work at another job, I could choose to work here, I could choose to work there.

And as you go up from there, it's like, yo, I like my job and I have some savings.

So if I lost this job, I can fall back onto it from there.

You can go up from there to have – you can live where you want.

You can work where you want.

You can change fields.

You can go and you can do a completely different job.

You can take two months off and travel if you wanted to.

Like you're working your way up all the way to the highest level of financial independence, which is I don't need to work anymore.