This snippet is from one of our previous episodes: Why Great Investors Don’t Need to Be Champions.

Ask most people what financial freedom looks like and you’ll get a number.

A portfolio size. A passive income figure. A date on the calendar.

In this week’s Throwback Tuesday, our guest Michael Kemp (author of The Ulysses Contract) answers the question completely differently. Asked what wealth means to him; he doesn’t reach for a spreadsheet at all.

Three words: Friends. Family. Freedom.

Freedom means nobody’s forcing you

Freedom, in Michael’s definition, is waking up in the morning without a financial burden pushing you out the door.

Nobody’s literally holding you in handcuffs. But if you’re heavily in debt, you’re effectively forced to go to work… even on the days you’d rather not, and even if you’ve come to dislike the job.

That’s a useful reframe.

We tend to think of debt as a number on a statement. He thinks of it as a constraint on tomorrow morning.

A 2,300-year-old idea on friendship

None of this is new.

Michael describes becoming fascinated by Epicurus, the Greek philosopher who lived more than two thousand years ago. He tells the story of Epicurus surrounding himself with friends because he understood how important companionship was to a good life.

People were wrestling with these ideas long before modern investing, retirement calculators or passive income entered the conversation.

The more you own, the more complicated it gets

Money, to Michael, is a pool of capital. It isn’t primarily there to buy more things. He recalls something his mother used to say: The more things you own, the more complicated your life becomes.

So he keeps life simple. There are things he could buy and chooses not to.

Instead, he sees his capital as something that generates an income — much like a farm produces a harvest. The aim is to live from the harvest rather than continually consuming the underlying asset. He calls the result financial autonomy.

Enough to do anything, not enough to do nothing

Autonomy isn’t permission to do nothing.

Michael paraphrases a line often attributed to Warren Buffett: that he’ll give his children enough money that they could do anything, but not so much that they could do nothing.

His point is that the same philosophy can apply to your own life.

Build a pool of capital that delivers enough, or a little more than enough. Spend only what you need. Then look for the things that give you pleasure outside of material possessions.

The hard part

Plenty of people have chased the money, got the money and discovered it didn’t give them the sense of freedom they expected. They just didn’t know that beforehand.

As Bryce puts it, experience is that thing you get two minutes after you need it. And until you’ve climbed far enough up the mountain to see it for yourself, the principle doesn’t always land.

Which is perhaps the strongest argument for having this conversation early — while you’re still building wealth, and while the plan is still something you can shape.

Work out what “enough” looks like for you

Of course the number matters… it’s just not the point on its own.

The bigger question is what you want that number to give you. More time? More choice? Less financial pressure? More time with family and friends?

If you want help defining what your version of “enough” actually looks like, start with our latest book How to Retire on $3,000 a Week.

Or, if you’d prefer to work through it with someone, you can speak with one of our qualified professional advisors about the lifestyle you’re working towards and what it may take to get there.

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