
One of the largest misconceptions I used to have and now see in so many people is just how little you need to have financial optionality. We have had a black & white view where either youâre earning or youâre not (ie retirement) so ingrained in us itâs hard to see something else. Even the more modern idea of financial independence doesnât capture things correctly. FI is basically just rewrapped retirement, a new shiny word to make it sound better. Optionality doesnât mean that you can be done working, or earning income, but it does mean that you can drastically change what the rhythm looks like, at least for a period (years). This is also why the liquidity penalty of retirement accounts just is not worth it IMO. All youâre doing is putting golden handcuffs on yourself. Bitcoin accelerates this mindset even more as we can have a somewhat reasonable expectation that whatever liquid assets we have wonât be susceptible to debasement across a long enough time period. But holding it in this FO arrangement has its issues. Pure and simple hodling likely isnât ideal. Weâre all so worried that we wonât have enough or canât get rich as fast as we want, but what if we reframe it to, you have optionality and that optionality is true riches, not the number on the screen.