It’s been awhile since I did any book reviews, more so book reviews that actually changed my thinking. It’s quite rare to find these books nowadays, given the amount of rehashed content there is preaching the same lessons using different words. These two books however, introduced new ideas that I’ve either never thought of before, or answered questions that I’ve only just started asking myself.
The first book, Dying With Zero, tells us how to spend money instead of so many books out there telling you have to save and grow your capital. I admit that this book comes from a privilege position of first have a stable and sufficient income, such that basic needs are no longer a cause for worry. Rather, it’s how to wisely manage our money, and how/why we should end with 0 dollars in our bank account.
It’s a simple concept: money is meant to be spent. And as you grow older, your physical ability to spend on things decreases, so why are we aiming constant perpetual growth even till old age when we are way beyond our physical and mental capacities to appreciate what money can get us? Instead, at a certain pivotal point in our live, we should start the slope of capital decline, and start spending more on experiences, lifestyle changes, occasional materialism, and attempt to drive our net worth lower. What use is it dying with $5 million in our bank accounts? If we follow financial advisors and throw all our money into indexed funds, and constantly grow our capital at 5% per annum, we start to accumulate capital way beyond our abilities to enjoy the fruits of it. The book offers views about how to calculate the pivotal age of capital decline, what you should spend on, how to think about inheritance, and general thought about our human relationship with money.
This changed my thinking in that, all these while when doing financial planning, I’ve always thought about having X amount in the bank, which then gives me Y amount of interest which I can live on and be FIRE. But what I didn’t think about is how the capital X should start declining, and become part of the (Y+nX) of spending away. If I could live on Y until the end of my life, X would essentially be wasted and not spent. So achieving FIRE would come earlier than expected, since Y is now supplemented by nX, and at the end of my life, X should be 0, meaning I’ve fully lived and used whatever my work has earned me.
Speaking of work, I’ve previously wrote a pretty long post about it here:
But while exploring the concepts more, I read another book, The Good Enough Job: Reclaiming Life from Work.
Here are some key concepts from the book:
Don’t expect to gain life fulfillment from work. There is satisfaction and some degree of fulfillment to be sought from the type of work you’re doing, the quality of work you’re producing, the impact of the work you’re engaged in, the people you’re working with, but that all falls within the realm of work. Humans on the other hand have multiple realms that needs to be satisfied; relational, spiritual, physical, leisure. And each of these realms requires time and effort to be invested, just like how we would invest time and effort to get good at our jobs. When we start to expect work to fulfill every single aspect of our lives, we will be sorely disappointed and will constantly chase for the “perfect” job. But the perfect job rarely exists, and we should settle for a good enough job. Just like a spouse, it’s impossible to find a perfect partner that ticks all the boxes with absolutely zero flaws; we have to accept and live with some flaws, while appreciating all other characteristics of the person.
Likewise, we a job should be good enough; pays well, low stress, good bosses, relatable meaning, it’s up to you to decide which factors makes a job good enough for you to accept. You can’t control every single factor a job gives you, so you have to make do with what you’re given. If you’re constantly searching for the perfect job, you will end up job hopping and chasing a perfect environment, and even the tiniest flaw of the job will send you scrambling on a job hunt. This is a perfect recipe for burn out, and never being able to “settle down” on a job that even though does not tick all of the boxes, it’s good enough.
So again, introspect to find out what a job absolutely must give you, make a list of 5-7 of them. Pay, Flexibility, Purpose, Environment, Travel, Creativity, Routine, Human Interaction or none at all. If your job offers you half of what you expect, it’s good enough. If you job offers you everything, why are you even worried? And if you job offers you nothing, then it’s time to go!
This book has lead me to re-prioritize work, and the fulfillment I expect out of it. I’ll admit, I used to seek the perfect job, and it has got me constantly worrying and being anxious because this job had a little flaw, or that job didn’t provide me with meaning and purpose. I’ve learnt to build my identity around thing I can control such as fitness, creative side hobbies, self improvement, and just being a better friend, husband and person. I have some identity in work as well, and identify as a cyber security specialist, but that’s not my entire identity, only a small part of it. And just as I take pride in work and do the best I can, I too take pride in the other identities and do the best I can.
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