Black Friday sale: FREEDOM

Black Friday is here and people are buying so much stuff!  This morning we walked down 5th Avenue, NYC, the bracing, cold, November air whipped around us. People were lined up in their droves to get into the stores when they opened to buy the "deals"!  Black Friday was in full swing. 

What have you been waiting to buy in the sales?  How much will you spend on stuff?

Consumerism is at fever pitch at this time of year with the holidays, Christmas and gift buying going CRAZY! 20% of ALL retail sales happen in November and December driven by Black Friday, Cyber Monday and then Christmas.  

The question is what are people actually buying?  What are you buying?  A bunch more liabilities for the house that you have to maintain?

Buy your freedom first

Most people don't want money they want stuff.  They want cars, houses, TVs and stuff.  As soon as they get money they swap it for more stuff.  One friend got a huge redundancy pay-out and bought a new BMW with the money. 

This Black Friday, this Cyber Monday, this holiday season maybe you should consider buying Freedom for you and your family rather than more stuff. 

By this point in the article you might be thinking "what the hell are you on about Alan? How do you buy freedom?  Where is the freedom store?"

You have a choice of what to spend every dollar or pound that you have on.  You can buy plastic tat, cars, houses, televisions or freedom.   You get to decide what to spend your money on and there is a marketing WAR to get you to spend your money with different companies.  Apple, Samsung, John Lewis are all competing for your money. 

If only there was a freedom sale on Black Friday.  If only there were teams of marketing people working to get you to spend your money on you; rather than more stuff?  Instead of buying stuff you could buy a broad based index fund such as the Vangaurd FTSE Global All Cap and buy your freedom back instead.

This is my meagre effort at competing with the marketing teams around the world! Maybe next year I will actually run a freedom sale with a huge marketing campaign. 

You have a choice: freedom or stuff

You get to choose what you do with your money, you get to decide how you spend it.  Katie and I for many, many years chose freedom instead of stuff. 

We would prided ourselves on spending as little as we could on stuff and taking EVERYTHING else and buying Vanguard Index funds.  Those funds grew over the years till we had enough to retire early.

Katie retired at 35 and I retired at 40 years old. That is 25 years earlier than the average in the UK.  So instead of buying plastic stuff we bought freedom.  25 years of it!

What would you rather have?  Freedom or a house full of plastic stuff and things?

You can probably tell by my tone how important freedom is for me.  I can travel anywhere in the world, explore, enjoy and meet incredible people.  I get to decide what to do with my time rather than turning up every day for an employer.

I can do without the latest television in exchange for my freedom. 

Give Freedom for Christmas

This Black Friday why don't you take every dollar or pound you would have spent in the sales and spend it on a broad based index fund instead and start to buy your freedom. 

Give yourself the gift of FREEDOM this holiday season rather than a luxury towel, set of golf clubs or perfume set. 

Or maybe tell your friends and family the gift you want for Christmas or the holiday season is the gift of freedom.  Please don't buy me stuff buy me a Vanguard Index fund??  I am not sure how they would react but it would be an interesting conversation. 

Or how about you GIVE freedom at Christmas?  Buy your nieces or nephews broad based index funds for Christmas (educate them to never sell and watch it grow!) and start them on the path to freedom.

Practical steps

Buying Freedom can be a bit more complex than buying a television and that is why people avoid doing it and go to the stores instead.  If you don't know where to start then Katie (my wife) and I wrote this article on investing for you.  Donegan Guide to investing

Then chose how you will spend your freedom

After you have avoided the Black Friday sales and started on your journey to freedom then it is time to start to think about what you want to do with your freedom.  Do you want more time with the kids, do you want to be able to do yoga each morning and have coffee with friends or as Katie and I have chose to do go travelling.  

Buying freedom is super cool; but the truly amazing piece of the pie is spending it on what you want to.

Have fun this holiday period avoid the sales and take all that money and put it into buying freedom instead

Sending happiness and love

​Alan