288 | Mad Fientist

<ul> <li>Should you rush to reach FI? Or use it as a map in a lifelong pursuit to master your relationship with time, money, and happiness? Brandon, from the Mad Fientist, wishes he would have found more free time to work on other goals while on his journey to FI.</li> <li>When Brandon was first on the show four years ago, he had just reached FI and discussed the psychological hurdles he had to overcome. What's changed for him since then, and with the benefit of hindsight, what would he do differently?</li> <li>Brandon's dream as a child was to write music and put it out in the world. However, his musical tastes are not mainstream, so becoming a pop star was never one of his ambitions.</li> <li>He did not want to just be a consumer, he wanted to be a creator and always felt that it was his job that was holding him back.</li> <li>It wasn't until after reaching FI that he realized it wasn't was what holding him back at all. He had been spending his free time on things like television on travel instead of his music project.</li> <li>His problem was psychological. As a math and science guy, he didn't believe he could do it. Trying meant the risk of failure, and if he failed, the dream would be gone. It took Brandon two years to come to grips with and get over that hurdle.</li> <li>During his pursuit of financial independence, Brandon has tunnel vision, with all his time and effort devoted to making and saving more so that he could reach FI more quickly. The result was a decrease in his overall happiness.</li> <li>He admits that he did it wrong. The whole point is to master the relationship between money, time, and happiness. Mastery is probably better to focus on over goals.</li> <li>Goals delay your happiness because you are always looking to the future instead of enjoying the present or the journey.</li> <li>Reaching FI for Brandon didn't have an impact on his life other than making him more confident that he could step away from his job.</li> <li>Motivating yourself to do something is hard when you don't have any