Topic: "I saw my salary on a bottle of perfume today" - page 7. (Read 1208 times)

to many they would think I am financially free.

to myself I am not financially free.

I have a friend I met in 1996 he is worth over 26 million USD.

More likely he is worth around 45-55 million.

To me he seems financially free.  But I can honestly say financially

free is more than the cash and debt.  My buddy is 77 years old I know for sure he would drop from 55 million to 20 million if he could be 25 years old.

Myself at 66 won't want for money. Yeah I won't be buying $1,000 dollar bottles of perfume for my wife. I won't be drinking $2500 bottles of whiskey.

But I can buy a 100-200 dollar bottle of wine or whiskey when every I want. which is not very often.

What is real financial freedom for me have enough money to buy time. As I would like to be younger for a lot more time.

I think a lot of people that finally get a decent amount of money end up wanting more time instead.

Despite of the different interpretation about financial freedom, at the end of the day the only thing certain about it is that we need financial freedom so we don't have to face financial problems at the present and most especially in the future. That's why we need not to settle less but learn to maximize opportunities so we can achieve financial freedom in the end. We need not to limit saving our own money not only from our salary alone but as much as possible from our investments that are giving us bigger interest and profits compared to the salary we earn from 8-hour day working.

And lastly, we need to build financial freedom not because we want to satisfy our own self but because we need to give our children the bright future they deserve. That is the reason why a lot of us are working day and night not to let us feel that we are highly capable to earn a living but as parents its our obligation to do it so we can provide the needs and wants of our family without bothering other people asking some help.

I also happy with the second option. It is normal that the meaning of financial freedom may be different for each person. But according to me, financial freedom does not mean that I need to buy things that are expensive and unnecessary to me.
In fact, nowadays Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, these social media influence our lives too much. Most of the people here prefer to show off who used what kind of cosmetics or who used how expensive clothes, or went to luxury hotel restaurants and compete among themselves. Especially by social media marketers and influencers, these public are so brainwashed that they have no brain. Yes if afforded then different matter there. But these things are trivial to me, I think it is better to save that money for business planning instead of over-expenses, and currently, holding Bitcoin for a long time can also be a good choice.

In short, there's no equality into this world on which everything cant really be that balanced on which means that there are ones who are richer than you, who are earning more than you, better financial
capacity and this is why its not really that right that you should really be making yourself that get jealous on whatever things that they do possess. Its never been good  that you would really be that making yourself get jelous because this one would really be creating that kind of desperation on trying out to commit something illegal if you cant really be able to find yourself on buying something.
Its never been that recommendable on doing so but instead you would really be needing to be contented.

The key on here is that if you do have those kinf of wishes in life then you should work hard for it and not really just that keeping yourself that sitting without
doing nothing. You wont really be that progressive on that case.

Normally, that is how life is. You are looking for what someone has, and at the same time, someone else is looking for what you have, so that is how you think you are seeing others overspend or being more than you. That is how another person out there is also seeing you, so it is normal that someone uses another person's monthly salary to purchase a common perfume based on their capacity to earn money. If you earn less, you will know what to buy that will suit your money, and also another person will see the same thing.

So it’s not something you will be surprised for, in my opinion, it's just a normal thing that happens every day, or maybe you just experienced such a thing today. That’s why you are bringing it up here for discussion. If not for me, now it’s quite right that someone uses another person's salary to buy perfume; you don’t know what he earns monthly or even weekly.


In simple terms, financial freedom is when someone has sufficient funds to sustain his leaving without having financial problems that will come up for you, and you will not be able to solve your problem when you are able to solve your problems by yourself without requesting money from someone. I think you are financially free. However, when you said in the future you are not talking about the current situation and financial freedom is all about when you are financially okay with depending on someone but you bringing the future in your sentence, I think you are talking about something that will happen later, or did you think financial freedom is to setup some certain amount that you will use in the future?

However, it is also good when you are currently free financially and sure of your future that you will not be running around for financial assistance. On the other hand, we can also consider financial freedom, but to me, the main thing is the current situation of someone's financial status.

Whenever I see things like this, I am not moved by them, we cannot be equal. Your salary, which you see on a bottle of perfume that makes you feel bad, is what some people are praying for. In this life, there are people who will be more than you, and there are some people who will be more than you. The best thing is to just be satisfied with what you are having. What are you going to say about that? The amount which some people receive as a salary is what some people spend on feeding in a day, What's your say on that?  Don't be moved by what you see, just stay focused, and never let what you see affect you.

I am financially independent if I can purchase the items I require for myself. I don't have to amass a lot of opulent possessions before I can declare myself financially independent. You must be satisfied with what you have if you are able to get the necessities, else, you risk engaging in criminal activity in an attempt to live a lavish lifestyle.

No matter how high the salary you are receiving, don't be surprised that you will still end up seeing it in perfume. I have seen different perfumes that are worth thousands of dollars, and people who have the money are still buying them. The best thing is that you should just be satisfied with what you have and don't feel bad whenever you see things like this.

Financial freedom is something else and for me, financial freedom is the excess amount of money that fulfills what you desire regardless of the time and the price. I know everyone has their thoughts about it and someone will not agree with me but for me, this is financial freedom. How a person can call it financial freedom that he can buy things within limits, there are two classes in the world one is upper and the second is lower. The upper class has financial freedoms while the poor one has not and they are slaves or workers of the first class. The thing is how to get financial freedom and there are certain ways, well it is harder but for those who just think not the practical one, they follow and will gain this financial freedom sooner.

That feeling when you can afford all you want,  no matter the price tag attached without having to overlabour yourself. That is freedom,  financial freedom.  You have a very strong purchasing power. Being an employee or a salary earner cannot guarantee financial freedom. This is not something that happens overnight,  it takes years of hardworking and of course brain work too. Though there are still people who are lucky to be born into a world of financial freedom through benefits they inherited from their relatives.

To acquire this freedom, one  needs to take that risk and invest in a longterm project that will generate returns till if possible infinity. Who ever can afford the perfume in the story above has paid his dues and is reaping the benefits.

Financial freedom in its actual meaning is to be able to do whatever you want in monetary terms, which means that you shouldn't be unable to do something just because you don't have enough money to do it, other problems and hurdles are a different topic, but if you know you have the money to achieve what you want, you have financial freedom. There is one more thing that is also important in this, after doing whatever you want, you shouldn't have to compromise on something else in your life, which means that you should have enough wealth to do everything you want and still have more than enough left behind.

I know that a lot of people would have different definitions for the term but the actual definition is what I've described above. Being satisfied and happy with what you have isn't being financially free, having enough money to eat good food twice a week, or buy branded clothes doesn't mean you have financial freedom, these are things that are easily achievable by someone having an average paying job, but financial freedom isn't easily achievable.

Wait what? What are you talking about buddy? Just because you know everything doesn't mean those things are going to play out the way you think it will. Nothing in life goes as planned. Life is so uncertain that anything could happen at any time and you can't control it. But what you can do is you can prepare for it. Diversification is the key. It doesn't matter what you say. Do you want to lose it all or lose a part of it so that you can continue to invest in the future? This is why diversification is so important. If you lose your one hand it should be able to use the other one.

And passive income is a thing and it is quite important. People thinks that passive income means you don't have to do anything and you will get something in return. That's not how it works. You invest in put your work in it and as you most yours the future those investments Will continue to grow. That's what passive income is. You have to work for it. And one source of passive income doesn't stay for lifetime. If one is gone then you search for another one. You keep on investing to make more profits. That's how it works.

I think it will be better if you read the whole post. Don't jump to conclusion because we are not talking about the price of a perfume instead we are talking about financial freedom and people's thought about it. Have you gained financial freedom to leave the luxurious life or what you have right now is financial freedom to you.
Is financial freedom luxury or reliability for the future?

I agree with you to some point. Most of the time, we see ourselves as financially stable, which is based on the kind of money we have been able to accumulate over time, not knowing that what we have right now as the highest money in our lives is what others are spending on a daily basis, and some people see it as them being on their lowest cash.
 
Financial stability is when one has a steable cash flow that is coming into their account or whatever means of saving they use, either crypto or bank account. When the money you have is all that you have and you don't do some kind of investment that can be giving you a return, a time will come when you will spend that money up to the level that it will be giving you the thought to even make further withdrawals because you know when that one is finished you have nothing else to run back to.
 
Financial freedom could also be seen as having access to your wealth whenever you need it and wherever you want to make use of it without any form of limitation or restriction. Anyone who has such monetary access can say they are financially free, and I don't think financial freedom is being dominated by wealth.

Why shouldn’t you diversify your portfolio? Why depend on a single source of income? For an individual to be financially independent, a single source of income wouldn’t do.
It’s not all about fully knowing something so therefore you expect positive outcome all the time. It doesn’t work that way all the time and doesn’t always materialize, hence the need to diversify on your income. A wealthy person knows best to diversify on his income despite earning a huge sum from a single source. You just can’t get wealthy from earning from only one source.

I think this is the first time I read this kind of story. It's really interesting how the difference between different people could be big because of this. You know that there are a lot of people who are affected by how much other people are earning and the "comparison" part is what hurt the most. It's the part where you see in a month's salary, it's just a bottle of perfume to others.

People in general are yearning for more expensive stuff if they want to. I do hope not everyone is like this.

Price of most of the cosmetics are heavily inflated. They know these are luxury items and this they are charging upto 10 times the manufacturing cost. One should look for newer brands which have correct pricing to avoid money waste.

If someone has limited amount of money then he should avoid expensive perfumes and other materials because we will do what we can afford to do. If we are spending lots of money on expensive perfume then we will not able even to eat well. Everyone buy things according to his salary so when someone spend just for smell good then he will have larger amount of money in which price of perfume does not matter to spend.

financial stability does not come easily but a person have to sacrifices his happiness for sometimes after which every way will be smooth for him. A person always work day and night to live a satisfied life and buy expensive things but when time comes then either he dies or are not able to enjoy the life as he wants to do. So it will be enough for us that we are eating good, wearing good and there is a satisfaction in our lives and we should be thankful for these.

2nd one. I consider the current stage of my life where I'm starting in the work force and up to a certain age investments towards my time in the future. While I do take part of my income for my personal enjoyment, I still try to create methods and ways to make passive income for my future retirement. I don't really want to become an old dude and still have to mind everything and anything related to money, instead, I just want to sit back and relax. I don't even want that much really, just enough to enjoy my small hobbies (games and drawing) and enough to live my life (though I guess what I want is rather big already, especially in this economy).

for me, there is no amount of money that someone has now that he can brag that he has financial freedom, financial freedom is rooted in your assets and not stationery money, If you have money and it is not moving, in no distant time, that money would vanish cos fiat currency depreciates over time and its subject to theft and liquidation as long as its not multiplying itself. Good Investment is the escape route to financial freedom cos the money invested wisely, be it in real estate, Agriculture or cryptocurrency like Bitcoin has the tendency of multiplying itself. There are risks associated with investments too as you must act smartly not to be victimized, but the risk in holding money stationarily is far greater when compared.
I got with the second option.

To be honest, I feel like when it comes to financial freedom, it really does differ. While some believe in luxury others believe in comfort. I think financial freedom really comes down to a mindset that you're free from any and every financial problem that'll come your way both now and in the future. You're stable, and even if problems come you can face them. Some people can get to a very high amount of income and still not be free, and speaking about potential future freedom, it's very possible for one to meet an unforeseen event and lose all they have. Besides money can't make you free in all sectors of life.

So personally, I think financial freedom simply boils down to a mindset of stability when it comes to finances, and trust me the amount differs for everyone.

Same with you OP. I would also choose the second option. For me, financial freedom is not even about making life luxurious and expensive. But for me financial freedom is more about a very pleasant life where I can live in peace with all the money I have which will be enough to keep me earning even if I don't work (Passive income). But everyone definitely wants to enjoy life in different ways, but for me a simple life is more enjoyable. Because even if I become a rich person, it is because I have achieved financial freedom. But I don't like to stand out. I prefer to look like a normal person.

And to achieve this, I have prepared myself and have made plans for this. Where I have started my investment from now on. It's okay if I don't live a luxurious life now. The most important thing for me is that I can build my wealth to grow more rapidly for the future. The focus now for me is to continue working, investing and maintaining health. Because health is the most important investment.

First of all there’s no way of knowing if the “future” we are all talking about is already the present of the man wearing the expensive perfume


he couldve worked really hard and invested so that our so-called future will finally be his present we are all aiming to be financially stable but what for? i believe if people are capable of such, we should be able to treat ourselves from time to time that man could already have saved more than enough for his lifetime and could support himself and buy something on the side too i don’t see anything wrong with that as long as it’s all in responsible use