Jae Park

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For the first half of this year I was obsessed with financial freedom. I used to fantasize about the things I would do if I "just had the money": pursue my hobbies, travel the world, buy a nice car and house, retire my parents, etc. Somewhere towards the end of April, I effectively became "free". Free in the sense that: Effectively, I was financially "free". I had no obligations and enough money coming in to finally pursue my hobbies and travel. Yet my life felt miserable. When I woke up, I scrolled social media endlessly. My phone screen time averaged 10hrs/day. I was floating around day by day, devoid of purpose, experiencing "bedrotting". What was wrong? Didn't I make it? I pondered many thought experiments: let's say I had a hundred million dollars in my bank account. Would my day to day change? Over time I realized a few things: All of this finally clicked together, and I realized all of the dreams and fantasies I had about money were just marketing campaigns that were sold to me.

Purpose and Money For the first half of this year I was obsessed with financial freedom. I used to fantasize about the things I would do if I "just had the money": pursue my hobbies, travel the world, buy a nice car and house, retire my parents, etc. I think this obsession is a common one particularly amongst first generation immigrants like myself. We feel indebted to our parents for their sacrifices and want to repay them before they get too old. Sometime near the end of April, I effectively became "free". Free in the sense that: I had no active work obligations, effectively unemployed…

Jae Park

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