Why are you saving so much?

Back in December my family went to Berlin to celebrate new years eve there. In Berlin It's called "Silvester".  It was a great time. The times when I'm most happy, is when my entire "core family" is together, meaning me, my brother, my sister, brother in law, and my parents. Somehow it brings me great joy to see them all together at the same time.

Back then, my brother in law asked me the following question: "Why are you saving so much, and why are you investing it?"

To be honest, I didn't have an answer ready, and just said "I don't know, Isn't saving money the right thing to do?" and that was the end of the conversation really. Deep down I knew this wasn't the answer that really did it for me, recently i started thinking about this, a lot. This simple question really struck me, why am I saving my money, why am I not enjoying it now? 

Fast forward to today, I started thinking about that question. And I came up with what is the right answer for me. Even though, I couldn't articulate that question in the way I wanted to five month ago, I can do that now.

I have the passion to be rich, I don't want the two million dollar house or the Bugatti, I want the independence, I am desperately craving it. 

I want to be truly free. The closest thing to freedom I can imagine is to own enough assets that produce more income than I can spend. In that way, I can do what I want, when I want, where I want. I want to be with my family, play video games, watch movies, listen to music, travel the world, learn to play the piano, watch my future children grow up, I like investing, a lot:  I like to see things grow, including my investments, including my dividend stream. When I really sat down and think about it, that's what I really wanted to do with my life.

I can't do that when I'm working 40 hours a week, excluding travel time. I can't do that when I'm constantly  thinking about things that don't really matter, like work. I can only do that when I am financially independent. 

The funny thing is, even though back in December I didn't really knew why I was even putting my money in stocks like JNJ, CVX and MCD, my subconscious knowledge knew that it was the right thing to do for me!

That's why I'm saving so much, not for the money, but for the freedom.