S4E88 I'm 47 and ... can we talk about meaning for a sec?

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Transcript

Speaker 3 (0s): Good morning, Wilson Bow ties. Okay, it is 4:55 AM and I'm en route to work. I'm getting in early 'cause I need to get out early. There's some things that I've got going on today, but lately, you know, I've been doing a lot of thinking and one of the things, well there were several things that popped into my mind this morning actually, but the first one was fire.

I'm not sure how many of you remember that. It was quite popular several years back. Sam Dogen, I, think it was his name. He kind of popularized fire. And for those of you who are unfamiliar with fire, FIRE, it was financial independence, retire early, and the goal was to retire by age 40. I believe it was 40.

And I remember when I was reading all the blogs and so many people were engaging in this fire movement was a whole movement. It was one of those things where five years ago, 10 years ago, I forgot how many years ago, but people were more concerned about stacking a lot of money and retiring early and sticking it to the man and having f money. And the concepts are great concepts.

but I remember when I first started getting on Twitter before I finally closed my account this year, and I don't really tweet that much at all. That's why I'm done. I remember thinking about how, how miserable you have to be. You have to be very miserable in order to execute this movement. And, but I took away some of, some, some really good principles on, you know, saving, investing in that type of thing.

There were people before going to extremes to save money. I have a point, it's a little bit of ramble, but I have a point, and I understand the whole sentiment in terms of, hey, you wanna be debt free, you wanna be all these things. But then I was like, where's a living? And I found that it seemed like so many people were hyper-focused on the fire movement at the time, and there was no living.

And you know, when I, when I examined all the different permutations, maybe not all of them, right? Because I know we get caught up in having to qualify everything was saying. But when I examined different permutations on, on how to lift fire, there was different flavors of fire. There was coastal fire, extreme fire. I forget all the different names. Like there were the needs, there was the fire for like, if you, oh, I didn't know my thing was on Scan it, but Jesus outta me. I was like, yo, my car is curing out.

So I remember years ago there was coastal fire where, and I might be butchering this a little bit, but it was basically where you had enough money in investments that were working for you so that by the time you were some age, you can retire and you don't have to actually put in any more money. There was the, the, the fire, there were the fire people who wanted to retire like, yes year, like et cetera. And during that time when I was reading up on that whole fire movement and I was kind of like motivated, but not that motivated. And I realized that the fire movement was not sustainable.

And I felt like I didn't even know, let me tell you, you could tell how there was a little bit of God in me. I felt like it became this worship for money. It became a worship for money. It's like the whole goal was simply just money. It was like there was no balance. There was no time for relationships and all these other things. And the reason why that was so significant for me was 'cause apparently I must have been smart enough to realize that the seeds you sow early on or is what's gonna help you reap this harvest in the future.

But when I was looking at this fire movement, there was no, no God in there. There was no family, there was no purpose. When I look back now, I, I kind of feel like, okay, you know, there's a lot of people fired, but I'm just sitting here thinking like, I know they did not prepare for this inflation because they probably prepared for, what was it, what were they thinking?

Was the 3% inflation or whatever it was. Well, inflation was inflation in over the last couple of years. And now I, think about the, the fire people who Went to such extreme measures to focus only on this money aspect and And, they, they, they, they crunched all the numbers, they crunched the numbers. And, they came up with a figure, And, they worked towards this figure or those people who may be still working towards this figure, right?

Well, now they're in a situation where there's so much that they didn't account for. Food is astronomical. College is not even affordable for most people. You can't afford rent, mortgage, et cetera. you know, if you're young. So I'm like, you did all of this to try to retire at 40 or whatever, and now you still can't afford, you know, longevity.

What, what's happening? Because I'm pretty sure this, this, what we're experiencing right now was not part of the calculations, right? No one would've perceived this level of like ignorant in our economy and world economy, et cetera. And where I'm going with this was or is I. think about the people who did not invest in anything other than their portfolio. They did not invest. Like, so they put into their portfolio portfolio, I can't talk this morning.

They put into their portfolio, but they didn't invest in building themselves. D discovering who they really are outside of just making money. They didn't invest in their families and their relationships with friends or people, whatever. And none of us get it right all the time. I, think about how people were so hyper-focused on things that in the long run are not gonna hold the same weight as the things that you can't touch.

You can't touch love, you can't touch affection, you can't touch education, you can't touch self-growth. like you can't pick it up. You can't buy it. It has to be grown. It has to be soaked. So where now where do I want to go with this? This is going to be like a crazy stretch and a crazy leap, but that's just where I'm at with it.

Okay? you know, I was on the TikTok this weekend and I keep seeing people, I guess react to the balloon popping, I don't know if I wanna call it phenomenon or whatever. And my first thought was, boy, we got it all wrong. You've got it all wrong. you know, you've got contestants, male contestants lining themselves up to be basically, it's almost like a speed date by a woman.

It vice versa of female contestants lining up to be speed dated by one guy. But in the process, many of them just tear each other down. And it, it hit me that like, as much as everyone talks about this gender war, everyone is, well, most people, they're, they're looking for love and companionship and affection. But the way we're going about it is all wrong. We're not investing in anybody. We, we're very selfish.

We're not investing in anybody. So in the past, people were really focused on, you know, this fire movement, but there was no investing in people. And now I feel like it's just gotten worse. Today. Young people are not investing in each other. They don't know even know how to date each other. Even the way that, that, that, that whole, I don't know if it's a show or whatever you wanna call it, it's so mean. They just popable like, oh my gosh, I think ultimately we don't really try to have meaningful relationships.

We don't try to search for other purpose and meaning within ourselves. I think much of it has to do the fact that we've gotten so far away from God. So that we've got, we're we're convincing people now that there's no God, we, we, we, there's so much that goes into this, right? We don't have any purpose if we're not chasing money so hard. And don't get me wrong, resources are incredibly important. I wanna make it clear. I don't want anyone to think that. I don't think it's important to have resources. We have to have resources, right?

But we are not investing in all the other things that are meaningful. And that's our own healthiness, self-growth, friendships, family relationships, whatever. We're not busing in anything. We're concerned about making a quick bag because the whole, what do they call it? The gig economy? Is that what we're calling it? but I understand the need for the gig economy too, don't get me wrong, right?

Like people have to eat. but I just feel like at the end of the day, like we need to have some sort of purpose I. think maybe if people found more purpose and and meaning to something, then maybe our communities would be better. We've got a fallen world, we have a broken community. Just look at the black community by itself. We don't even like each other. We make songs that are just horrible.

We don't like each other. We, we get out on these podcasts and we tear each other down. Even the way we're dating each other. There's this boom pop thing. Now, don't get me wrong, I did experience a couple haws and I I know it's so hypocritical. It I am a full on hypocrite because some of them I'm like, oh no. Oh no. you know, especially when people come out there and they're just talking crazy, right? But ultimately, if you look at how we're treating each other now, it's, we don't invest in each other.

We don't like each other. We don't have any purpose. And it's, and it's a shame because at the end of the day we we're all searching for love and companionship and, and that type of thing, but we don't even know how to talk to each other. Anyway, I don't wanna get too far on topic. I just wanted to go back to, I just remember that whole fire movement was, was growing and people were so who invest, invested, excuse me, into just acquiring a massive amount of money so that they could not work again.

But my whole thing is like, what is your purpose after that? If you're working so hard to acquire this money, chances are you're not gonna be able to stop working. You're gonna still wanna do something. 'cause then what's gonna happen? You're gonna have all this money and, and no one to share it with. You are gonna have all this money. And then what, I don't know if any of you have a really good book that you recommend in terms of purpose, meaning of life, whatever.

I, I, I'm, I'm open. I'm not, it doesn't mean I'm gonna read it. 'cause if there's anything that's Satanic or something like I'm not about that life. But you know, just understanding life purpose or like if there's something that, that you recommend or a passage or anything like that. Bible, I don't know. And I have fallen short too. I was reading the Bible daily and then I haven't read probably two or three months. Probably about two months. Just haven't done it. There's no real reason other than lack of motivation.

And that's on me. That's not on anybody. It's on me. Yeah. all right. I am going to disconnect. This is not going to be a popular video unless I'm setting it off on something. I mean, usually the things that are popular are things that are the videos that people watch are, it has to be about, I don't know, why are single women angry or whatever.

Which I don't do for another one of those because I, I see a lot of things still, still got the crazy men. but I don't like to focus on the men thing. I feel like men should be checking men. I don't really care to focus on why the men are angry. I mean they are. But I think the women are angry. I think everybody's angry. But it's not for me to check men. I'm not a man. I can't speak to men's needs, but I can, you know, talk about things that bother women.

But I'm due for another video soon. Maybe something in relation to married women or something like that. Or the aging process. you know, I'm getting up there. I'll be 48 this year. you know, it's different than when I was 28 for sure. But Saving Grace is I halfway try to take care of myself. This whole video right now, I don't even know why I'm talking.

I just had a whole a DD moment. Anyway, let me end this video and leave a comment, subscribe, all that good stuff. Have a good one.

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