If you’re like me, you find it very easy to list things that you want to avoid: working full-time in a job you don’t like for 40 years, commuting every day, being forced to go to work because you need the money, not having control over your time, and so on. You could probably rattle off a list as long as your arm about things that piss you off.

‘Away from’ Motivation

These are examples of ‘away from’ motivation: situations you want to remove or avoid. Some people naturally see life this way, and it’s how they’re motivated.

It’s also easy to encounter situations in your daily life that you know you don’t want to happen again. Your boss pisses you off and you think about how good it would be to tell them to stick their job. You want to go on holiday, but you don’t have enough money. You climb a flight of stairs and it takes a couple of minutes to get your breath back.

Lots of us in the financial independence, retire early (FIRE) community (me included) have ‘away from’ motivations. We don’t want to have to work until the traditional retirement age. We don’t want an employer to have control over our time and dictate how much time off we have, and when we take it. We don’t want to go to a job we hate because we have bills to pay.

These are all valid reasons for pursuing financial independence; happiness is not just about doing more of what makes you happy or adding new things into your life – it’s also about reducing or subtracting things that cause you unhappiness.

To me, ‘away from’ motivation is a launchpad for pursuing financial independence; it’ll give you a kickstart, but in the longer term you’ll need different reasons to keep you going.

‘Towards’ Motivation

Where some people are motivated by what they don’t want, other people are motivated by what they do want. They’re not repelled by things they want to avoid – they’re pulled towards outcomes they desire.

Instead of getting away from having a boss they don’t like, they want to be self-employed.

Instead of not wanting to be out of breath after climbing the stairs, they want to be able to run a 5K without stopping.

Rather than not being forced to work into their 60s, they aim to be financially independent by 40.

How Does This Relate to FIRE?

As I said, ‘away from’ motivation is great for kickstarting your pursuit of financial independence. You know you don’t want to sit in an office for the next 40 years. You know you don’t want to be broke and live from paycheque to paycheque. Great – you’ve got clarity on what you don’t want.

But what do you want? A lot of information relating to financial independence is about how to get there – how much to save, what to invest in, how much you need to retire, and so on. But once you’re financially independent, how will you spend your time?

If your pursuit of financial independence has been triggered by ‘away from’ motivation, like the desire to quit a job, then once you’ve quit and freed up 40+ hours a week, what will you replace it with?

I’ve known people who wanted to reduce their hours at work but held back because they didn’t know what they would do with the free time. They had the money to pull the trigger, but not the plan on how to spend their time.

You’ve probably heard stories of people who work all their lives then drop dead a few months or years after retiring. Some people have their identity wrapped up in their work, and when they don’t have it to give their lives purpose and routine, they become aimless, purposeless.

If you’re an ‘away from’ person, it may not come naturally to you to think about what you want with some clarity. But you probably have plenty of time to think about it – most people take 10-20 years to reach financial independence. Use the time on your journey to consider what you want to do, and this boils down to spending your time in ways that bring you happiness and fulfilment.

If you don’t know what you’ll do with the extra free time, experiment along the way. Try new activities and interests – see what you like, and what you don’t. We’re all different, so you need to find out what works for you. One person’s dream could be living on a farm in a remote location, growing their own food, and enjoying the peace and quiet. Another person might want to travel the world indefinitely as a digital nomad or ‘vagabond’, meeting lots of new people along the way. Each would hate the other’s plan, but it only matters that each has the right plan for their happiness.

Make sure you have a plan – most people work until they’re in their 60s and many people still don’t know what they’re going to do once they retire. They might have vague plans about doing the garden, spending more time with family and friends, DIY projects etc. But no-one will dictate your schedule and impose deadlines (well, maybe the wife!), so if your last day at work is on a Friday, then come Monday, it’s up to you to decide what to do.

My Plans After Reaching FIRE

In the last year or two, I’ve been putting more thought into what I’d like to do after hitting my financial independence number. I’d like to take a year off work and travel extensively. Travelling is a bit of a cliché in the financial independence community, but with good reason. I love exploring new countries, and not being able to travel during COVID reinforced that for me. I didn’t miss some things as much, like going to restaurants, but two years between trips abroad really had me getting itchy feet.

After the year of travelling, my time would probably be filled with:

• Spending time with my partner, family and friends
• Working part-time
• Teaching English online
• Going to football matches
• The gym
• Salsa classes (dancing is a good way to have fun, meet new people, and get some exercise)
• Reading (fiction and non-fiction)
• Podcasts (for learning and entertainment)
• Blogging
• Xbox
• Watching TV and films
• Going to the cinema
• Cooking more
• Doing/learning more DIY
• Volunteering

How Will You Spend Your Time?

Here are some questions to prompt you to think about how you’ll spend your time after reaching financial independence:

• What do you want to do less of or eliminate?
• What do you want to do more of? Things that you already do, but work stops you doing more of it.
• What new things would you like to try? A college class, an online class (there are many free courses available through EdX, Future Learn, Coursera etc.), a dance class, volunteering, a new hobby?
• What makes time disappear? What activities do you do that make you forget to check your phone every five minutes?
• There are 168 hours in a week – what are you going to do with them? Are you a spontaneous person? Or do you like routines, a schedule?

Remember, this isn’t a maths test – there are no right or wrong answers: just what’s right for you.

Create a life that you don’t want to escape from.