My sister sent me a Zillow Gone Wild post for a $5 million property that recently sold (pending).
It’s on the beach in a town I am considering getting a second apartment in to continue my quest for “Right Place.”
It was a beautiful house, no doubt about it.
Way out of my price range, though. By a lot!
$5 million for a beachfront property is something we have come to expect, particularly in certain parts of the world versus others.
It’s the same with any category of thing we can purchase.
There is the low-end bargain, the messy middle, and the luxury top end.
This post reminded me and brought me back to my eternal struggle.
I do believe less is more.
But just how much less and more are we talking about?
For example, the only way I can imagine affording a $5 million property, in a way that I might be able to live with, would be a combination of these things:
Go back to work in my pre-FIRE field, in a top position at a high-paying company in a thriving industry.
Save over half of what I earn and invest it in low-risk assets To use as Down Payment.
Sell my existing home, sell some of my existing investments, and get a loan for the rest.
This would be the definition of house rich and house poor, right?
In a sense, I would have less to focus on.
Everything I did would be about buying and maintaining that $5 million property.
But is that the “right” more for me?
I don’t think so.
It’s funny, because many “new” millionaires have become so because their homes have grown in value by 50% or more in the last five years.
But they are essentially, for many of them at least, house rich and house poor, too.
It’s not cash flow. It’s equity.
You can’t spend equity unless you leverage (get a loan against) that equity.
And then you are in debt.
It’s a funny game.
I loved the beauty of the place in the listing, and I loved the beauty of the surrounding city.
But, at the end of the day, I love freedom more.
The real purpose of today’s article, though, is to get back to the question of what I am doing with all that time freedom FIRE has given me.
If I were engaged in 70–80+ hours of working and commuting again, I wouldn’t have the time freedom I have now, but I might have a beautiful house in my future.
It’s the trade-offs in life that seem to matter.
That’s where three comes into focus.
It does seem to be a magic number for thinking about how we spend our time.
Using this house as an example, if it were the central pursuit in my life, I would probably have time for three major things:
The house
The corporate position that pays for the house
One other thing. Health? Relationships? Hobbies? What would it be?
The third Item would Probably a bunch of little things that aren’t being taken care of adequately enough to satisfy or fulfill me.
In his book 4,000 Weeks, Oliver Burkeman has proposed a method of life management called 3-3-3.
Each day, you spend three hours focused on deep work.
This is uninterrupted time focused on moving your most important project or activity forward.
You then have three shorter tasks: things that are urgent and that you tend to procrastinate on doing.
For example, I have a birthday card I want to send.
I should have sent it yesterday. I definitely should send it today.
I will likely send it Monday.
It’s a perfect candidate for one of these three slots.
And you have three maintenance activities that keep your life from falling apart.
For example, yesterday I did laundry.
It might be exercising.
It could be meal planning and grocery shopping.
I really like this idea and want to meditate on it more.
Unfortunately, I may have already painted myself into a corner as it relates to today.
I have a self-care appointment that will take 2–3 hours when all is said and done (commute, getting ready for it, having the appointment, and getting back).
A two-hour get-together with a friend in the middle of the day.
A two-hour class on dreams in the afternoon.
Oh, and this blog article.
And 15,000 steps.
Where do they fit?
Rehearsing and practicing? Strength training? Etc., etc., etc.
Less may be more, but it ain’t easy.
This “focus” issue is eating up an enormous amount of my psychic energy of late.
So, more than likely, I will return to the topic tomorrow.
However, I do think the limitation of three is Potentially golden.
I always want to turn it into five, six, nine or even twelve, though,
and that is probably a place where I lose touch with my intuition and joy.
It’s worth unpacking some more, for sure.