The incredible, life-changing power of idleness and how you can use it to achieve Financial Independence

December 6, 2018 16 By Caveman

Being idle is a big part of my identity. Should I admit that? Probably not, but it’s true. I really am very idle. But I’m also [whisper it now] not completely unsuccessful in my career. Don’t get me wrong I’m not one of those shooting stars who was destined to be the Fortune 500 CEO at 35 and I’m clearly not the most objective person to judge. But, on factual measures like salary, I’m doing OK.

Equally, having discovered and embraced both the idle and FI philosophy I’ve also found myself in a place where I’ve reached a place where money is not a source of stress for me.

How is this possible? Some might say that idleness and achievement are not compatible. I can see that some might argue that it’s just to do with the privilege that I was born with. Idle + privilege triumphing over ability + hard work. And I’m sure that there is an element of that (although my thoughts of privilege are for another time).

But I think it’s more than just privilege – as there are plenty of people I know with greater privilege who are less successful. I’ve come to the conclusion that idleness is a critical part of achieving success in finances and in life.

If you don’t believe me, see what you think at the end of this post.

Classic idling

What idleness is (and why it isn’t the same as laziness)

Before we get stuck in it’s important to get some definitions right. Most critically let’s be clear that being idle is not the same as being lazy. They’re seen as synonyms but they’re not.

To me being idle means that you’re not working. That’s it. It describes the state you’re in. It doesn’t say anything about your attitude or ability to work, it describes what you’re (not) up to.

An Idler works smart all of the time, but also works hard some of the time, in order to be idle most of the time.

By contrast laziness to me is about attitude, more specifically an unwillingness to do any work or put in any effort. I see laziness as undesirable whereas idleness is a state to be actively pursued.

However that’s only one part of the picture. The other thing that I associate with idling is a certain mindset; it’s not just about work. For me being idle encompasses a kind of relaxed self-confidence. A sense of not being able to shrug off the slings and arrows that life will throw at you. A desire to prioritise in your life so that you focus on what really matter.

If you want more on this, and the granddaddy of idling philosophy have a read of How To be Idle (not an affiliate). And H/T to Tom for coming up with and refining many of these ideas well before I did (and, sadly, he did it much better than me).

Why idleness isn’t socially acceptable in the Financial Independence community

One of the things about the FIRE community is that we can be very sensitive to the accusation of being idle (partly because I think people see it as the as the same as being lazy…WHICH IT ISN’T). I think it’s to do with the “Retire Early” bit of FIRE. Not unreasonably, when people outside of the community think of retirement they think of it as a long hedonic whirl. Or if not quite that, they think that retirement means, yanno, not working. Again I’ve got a lot of sympathy with that.

Many FI bloggers bridle against that. They argue that FI isn’t about sitting around in your pants all day rewatching Westworld obsessively while simultaneously furiously railing against the idiots making up crazy theories on the Westworld rumours sub-reddit.

*Ahem*

Obviously I would NEVER do something like that…[but some of the stuff about the man in the black hat they were putting out there is just nuts]

No, for a large chunk of the community, FI is about still working but doing the sort of work that you want to rather than the work that you have to. Renovating/building if you’re MMM. Being a full-time parent if you’re Mr Tako . Coaching tennis if you’re Financial Samurai. Oh and at the same time essentially running a small business in the form of your blog.

Now if that’s what you want to do then all strength to your arm. I’m impressed. I really am. It’s just not what I would do (well maybe the parenting bit but I wouldn’t be as active as these cats – benign neglect and bribes is my parenting technique of choice).

How I laid down my solidly idle roots

I have a long and proud history of idleness. I can remember a time when I was around seven years old when the class had been asked by the teacher, Miss Daly, to do some maths questions. Seems a fair ask right? What possible problem could I have with that.

“Caveboy [as I was then],” said Miss Daly, “why are you looking out of the window? You haven’t started your maths?”

“But I know the answers Miss Daly,” sez a precocious (and undoubtedly irritating) idle Caveboy. “What’s the point of writing them down?”

Similarly, my geography school report from Mr Holloway when I was 12 records:

Caveboy gave the impression through his inattention in class and his mediocre homework that he was not doing any work all year. Unfortunately, the mark he achieved in his end of year exam was exemplary. I hope that next year one or the other of those things change.

Man alive, they don’t make ‘em like My Holloway any more do they!

That sums up my attitude to education. I wasn’t actually naughty or uninterested it was just that once I understood what the teacher was saying I didn’t see the point in then expending any more effort on it. If I could do the first five questions then why do the subsequent 15? I just didn’t get my teacher’s logic.

Smarter, not harder

Looking back I realise that I what I was doing was working smarter, not harder. A key precept of idleness and getting to Financial Independence. I would concentrate properly for exactly as long as I needed to before drifting off to think about whether I would rather have been Aragorn or Legolas – which was a much more pressing matter [the answer of course is neither, it’s Faromir – but we can get into that later].

Ah Lord of the Rings

That approach is one that I applied throughout my school career. When I was presented with a task I would be the one that would take a few moments to think through what would be the least effort way of achieving what was required.

Why idleness is critical to Financial Independence

So while I know that you’re been fascinated by my trip down memory lane I’m sure that you’re wondering what all this means for you. Well there are three key reasons why I reckon that constructive idleness is critical to getting to FI. It all comes down to that simple mantra “Spend less than you earn and invest the difference” You can play tunes on that all you like but that’s what it boils down to.

Being idle helps you in all three of these areas.

Idly spending less

On spending less I think people underestimate the sheer effort it takes to have lots of stuff. First of all you have to go to the effort of actually buying it. Not only do you have to work to earn the money to get it but you have to then decide on the best value for money way to obtain it (which requires time and effort in research) and then you have to actually go and get it (and even if you get it online you have the headache of being in to take the delivery). Once you have it, the more stuff you have the more you need to look after and eventually think about whether you need to replace or maintain or upgrade it.

Phew!

This is not me when shopping

By contrast if you don’t buy stuff, or indeed get rid of some of the unnecessary stuff you already have, then you free up time and money and effort. If you’re happy sitting on a bench reading a book from the library or just idly watching the world go by then you spend less than the person who want to watch the latest DVD on their home cinema system.

Idly earning more

Idling is also key to the process of earning more. I’m going to go into more detail on this in a later post as it deserves a discussion in its own right. But, the reason I talk above about my youth is because it taught me the value of working smart not hard. If you can work smart at your job then you can usually get more done than the person that works hard. If you’re getting more done than the person at the next desk you are more likely to get promoted than they are – one of the cruel lessons in life is that effort is rewarded less often than outcomes (and sometimes not even good outcomes are rewarded).

Idly investing easier

Investing in an idle way is also key to the process of FI. Many FI gurus talk about the value in automating your savings. I couldn’t agree more with that. As I’ve described before, I’ve set up my investing so that I tax efficiently buy into index trackers automatically every month whether I’ve thought about it or not. No effort to get to the outcome that I want. This sort of thing is the quintessence of idling.

Conclusion

So there you have it. Too many people talk about the effort it takes to get to financial independence. There’s a whole FIRE narrative of working hard, very hard, for 10-15-20 years so that you can enjoy the rest of your life. The whole 5am tweet saying things like “Working at my side-hustle so I can build my stash faster. #AlwaysGrinding”

Bleurgh.

That might work for some, but I think it makes the whole FI process daunting and inaccessible for most people.

By contrast my choice would be to spend my time re-reading Dombey and Son, going for a long walk down the pebbly paths along the coast, reconnecting with my friends over a slow pint of mild in front of the fire or in the beer garden. Doing one of my hobbies. Or, possibly, just watching the rain trailing down the window pane or the sunlight playing in the leaves. Essentially I want to be idling – and I want to do that now, not just in the future.

So I would suggest that if you’re going about your FIRE journey in that full on way then consider an alternative.

Just take a step back and ask yourself the question: What would an Idler do?

Thoughts?

Have you tried idling? How did it work out for you?

Do you think that idling is no substitute for intense grafting?

Aragorn, Legolas, or Faromir?