Signs of Wealth: Choosing whether you work or not and/or your environment

By work I do not mean just working at a job or a career, as I have previously mentioned working at home or making your own food and items as a sign of wealth because it shows how much free leisure time you have to spend on said hobbies.

So another thing rich people have is being able to work from home.

Let’s face it, even in office jobs, the golden ticket would be able to work from home 100% of the time and choose to go into the office (OR NOT) if you want, rather than being mandated to go; not many office employee jobs or otherwise, have this luxury. I cannot think of a single person who has this, even though their jobs are 100% office jobs with no need for them to head into an actual office unless they want to.

And yet, their companies mandate them to be back in the office at least 3 days a week (a big increase from 5 days a week, so I guess we will take the win in any way we can!)

So if we really think about it, being able to work from home also already says you have a job that’s pretty comfortable and high up to be able to do so and you are able to dictate the terms of your employment in a classic ’take it or leave it’ fashion….or you basically own your own company (another rich person thing).

A lot of rich people also own their own businesses, so they work for themselves and can dictate their schedule, hours and terms – whether they work 40 hours, more or less, or not at all. These people, along with the secretly rich who are working for something to fill your days with, rather than being idle, maybe are also working not because they NEED to but because they WANT to.

I suspect this is what is the most appealing part of the FIRE (Financially Independent, Retire Early) movement for many people, to mimic this rich lifestyle – being able to decide to work or not, and at what job, is an incredibly freeing thing. You can decide to work part-time, full-time, or not at all if you choose too as long as you can manage your expenses.

When you start working for leisure or fun, to fill your days rather than working because you have a mortgage to pay and feel chained to your bills (all the while trying to self-care and travel abroad to justify all this hard work you are doing, thereby digging your financial hole even deeper by continuing on this rat race), you start to actually live.

I also find it interesting to think that maybe people would enjoy their jobs a lot more if they weren’t so constantly reminded of how much they need it with every bill that passes by their desk. If you did not have to work to pay your bills, and did it for fun – would you be so stressed about meeting deadlines or if your manager loses their temper on you?

You can secretly just smile and quit when it is convenient so that you no longer take any more of their BS, and this becomes an even stronger self-fulfilling prophecy because the less you need that job to live, the more money you end up making. It sounds so counter-intuitive, but if you are able to walk away, or not care as much, you are seen as more desirable. Or maybe you can also choose to cherry pick which jobs or companies you want to work for, rather than being scared to move or ask for more in fear of losing your income by which you depend on greatly.

What is interesting to me about this sign of wealth – being able to choose to work – is that it is 100% achievable for people (and not just ‘rich’ people in the conventional sense) in that you could see what your lifestyle costs, and cut down significantly to reach financial independence sooner because you will need less money.

If you need 25X your expenses to live, and you only spend $3000 a month, that means you need $36,000 a year which means you need roughly $900K invested to be able to say you do not need to work any more and still draw down $36K a year for living.

Another twist to add to this would be if you only had half of that invested at $450K, you could STILL say ‘NO’ to a job you hate, and just only need to make up the shortfall of $1500 a month or $18K a year, perhaps by working a less stressful job that is minimum wage or another job that is a passion one (like working in a fun coffee shop or retail store), rather than one out of necessity to cover your bills.