The Moral Thing To Do

Not contributing productively could - and will - be seen by society, and the slave mentality, as something amoral. 

Not that it would be wise to argue.

But let's stop for a second and consider the argument.

Is not being productive ... amoral?

The Face of Arete in Ephesus, the Goddess of Excellence as in full realization of potential or inner function 

Carlos Delgado, CC BY-SA 3.0

What would be the purpose to agonize over how much one can produce; if it's one's insatiable thirst after recognition and plenty, that one is trying to quell: a more beautiful house, another car, another expensive pastime for one's children. 

Wherein lies the moral prominence in squandering one's life in the pursuit of any such insatiable appetite? Are these delights a worthy cause to worry over, and loose the little time that was given to us?

Or is it more moral to recognize what is enough, and instead of everlasting production pursuit health, wisdom and love?

Free people are far between. Shouldn't we, then, pursue what would only happen, if we are free to choose to do it.

That is the moral question.

Farewell,

//antinous&lucilius

Shifting priorities

When we started the journey, we were so focused on getting to financial freedom. We put our eyes on the money, and we didn't expect superior results if we behaved normal.

We still don't behave normal, and we still have our eyes on the money.

Yet, there is a shift in our priorities. It is as if we start to settle in, realizing that we have enough and will soon have abundance.

And now, other things come back to our cone of light. 

Friends. But not the friends from before. Instead our friends have grown closer. It's not the ones we want to hang with, like one would hang with a bottle of beer. Instead our friends are those we care about, who don't compare themselves with us, that don't give much for the normal, that inspire us and attract us, that we can spend a night and a day chatting with. 

Family. But not the struggles of the past, but the appreciation of in-laws, the happiness of our nieces and nephews, a good hour spent with an old grandpa or aunt.

Art. Art is developing as a concept for us a little as well. But here we are still searching. We have some enterprises that reach out, and we feel that art wants to reach out. We still don't know everything that hides here.

Travel? Not so much. Even though we realize that with tons of bonus points piling up it's basically free for us to go where ever we want. But we still can't think that much of where that would be. We start to realize that there are other factors that are important to us. We don't want to travel for the same reasons as before, with the emptiness of escaping, for we have nothing to escape from anymore. 

That doesn't mean that we're never going to change the scenery around us. But then travel is more a background, and not actually of much importance.

We start to realize that most important for us might be to help the sun wander over the sky; helping ourselves, helping those we care about, and helping humanity to be a little better. 

Hermes, messenger from the Gods and wanderer of light over the skies.

And in the end, when the sun settles in the west, we know that the most important thing for us might be too be able to say; it was a good day.

Farewell

//antinous&lucilius

Why the Samurai shouldn't study too much Buddhism

There's so much mindfulness in today's world. And to enjoy freedom, the stoics, and quite a lot of thinkers like them, advice a kind of detachment from the material world - at least when it comes to deriving anger from material failures.

Yet - when we are NOT yet free; isn't it better to think of how to be good followers of our clan and company? Is then too much dwelling on the mental virtues for freedom really with what we should consider ourselves?

A Samurai is not overly concerned with a peaceful mind.

(Kusunoki Masashige, 14th century)

In the Hagakure, Tsunemoto writes that the Samurai should not study too much Buddhism. 

Instead, one finds other virtues, quite detrimental to preserving one's peace of mind, in the thinking of the way of the samurai - bushido. 

Act quickly

The philosophers in Their Elevated Elysium like to think and not make haste. 

Yet, the Samurai prefers to to act and act quickly. Only the feeble refrain from acting. 

Use the anger

The stoics stay clear of anger, and comfortably turn their fat necks away.

Yet, for a Samurai, rage can be turned into a force that can be directed at one's enemies or what needs to be done.

Don't be afraid of death

In one translation, Tsunemoto writing goes:

"This is the substance of the Way of the Samurai: if by setting one's heart right every morning and evening, one is able to live as though his body were already dead, he gains freedom in the Way; his whole life will be without blame, and he will succeed in his calling."

Perhaps we don't always have death over us, yet at some point, being attached to personal safety is obviously counter to Tsunemoto's samurai. If we accept that everything will vanish to the point that it has already vanished, we can do the right thing, free of fear. 

If we are afraid of death, we might refrain ourselves from doing the necessary.

Often, the hard way is the right way and can be enjoyed precisely because of its hardships. 

Live by honor

Honor, and the lesser byproduct of reputation, is everything in a clan-based society. 

Hint: much of business life, and beyond that, behaves like a clan based society.

In all action, show respect, stick to your word and never loose face.

Serve your master

Precisely because of honor and reputation, the Samurai cannot have anything but complete loyalty to his master.

A good follower

Most of us spend some time in a clan, nowadays called an "organization" or a "corporation". This existence can be enjoyed for its medieval, clan- and samurai-like attributes.

And being valuable to the clan is a sure way to achieve freedom.

So let's think how we become a good follower for our master, and put the horse before the cart, and consider this and enjoy this before we start to consider freedom.

A samurai shouldn't study too much Buddhism. 

Be a good samurai first, and then, be the monk who dwells on transcendental freedom in his state of higher and higher enlightenment. 

If we set our will to it, our goals will be in our grasp.

Tsunemoto again:

"Nothing is impossible in this world. Firm determination, it is said, can move heaven and earth. Things appear far beyond one's power, because one cannot set his heart on any arduous project due to want of strong will."

Farewell.

//antinous&lucilius

Only the wise are rich

Cicero was a funny guy. He used an old-school trick to maintain his financial freedom, which was the Roman version of house hacking - to have a lot of property out for rent. 

He was obsessed with how he should furnish his villa and which statues to buy. 

This was a fellow who did not live as he learned. His writings are confusing. Once when war called for duty, he escaped it by calling home sick.

He wrote about the stoics, and about stoic paradoxes, and sometimes he hit close to home. Perhaps because he could draw on personal experience of how paradoxical human behavior can be.

One of his paradoxes are: All Fools Are Mad. Only The Wise Are Rich.

Only The Wise Are Rich

We think that there's something creepy with the Rich Dad, Poor Dad kind'a'guys. Of course, a Poor Dad is doing something wrong with neglecting money all together, and we've been there. 

But someone who just want to amass as much money as possible, to the detriment of one's tranquility of mind or, worse, one's core moral values? 

A man, like Cicero, obsessing about buying the right statues to his villa. Is that person really wise? And if he's not, can one say that he's rich?

This question is tangible for us. 

We start to seriously leave the basic level of lean financial independence. But what after that is enough? 

Well, we add some safety margin. For instance, like Cicero's mad man, only a fool would assume that the highest mountain he has seen is the highest mountain (or financial crash) there is.

But after that safety margin? At a certain point, perhaps for us around USD 2-3 millions, there's a new level, the point where someone that are used with our level of expenses just can't spend the money on a monthly basis (unless we buy something very expensive or give the money away). 

For us, at that point of a few million dollars, we could always do whatever we could imagine; renting whatever car we wanted, travel from Sydney to Bali to a chalet in the Swiss Alps, hang out with the jetsetters, go to our conferences, meet the people we like all over the world - indefinitely, month after month - as long as we are at least reasonably conscious about the price and not paying over-prices. 

All experiences that we could imagine would be financially feasible without end.

This is of course what we want to do anyways, but with moderation. The key difference is the 'without-end'.

By just adding a little extra we could achieve all experiences we've imagined, forever, for as long as we want. 

Is it worth to work 3 more years to get to that point? Or should we use the last years of our relative youth to concentrate on for instance more health? Or can we do both?

Heli-skiing with the jet set bunch
Picture by Zach Dischner

And what comes after that? Are we becoming the Rich Dad, the mad fools? Appetites are insatiable. The financial independence community would agree with Cicero here; all fools are mad.

We are always at risk to become slaves to our appetites, be it the inferiority complex of the buyer of yachts and castles, the fear of having a too small safety margin of the too neurotic, the lack of imagination of the one that is forever stuck at the desk with the paycheck.

There's a point, where it is much more important to work on one's wisdom, rather than one's riches. 

Farewell,

//antinous&lucilius

Amor fati

Mark Spitznagel of Universa, the guy that did a 2000% return on the start of the pandemic, has an interesting thought experiment, that he attributes to Fredrich Nietzsche. 

It's about a curse (and a lion).

The curse is that we will freeze in a time-loop, being 5 years long (yes, there are a Hollywood clichés on this theme).

And the loop is there forever and contrary to the Hollywood clichés, there's no hope of escape. And we wouldn't know what would happen during those 5 years that would repeat forever.

What would be a wise strategy going into the time-loop, before we know the results?

In Nietsche's writing the answer to that question is represented by a lion, what else. And the lion turns "thou shalt" spend an eternity into "thus I willed it and thus I willed it for eternity".

Because, well, a lion doesn't much care what happens. 

Would we be able to say, whatever fate has in store for us; "thus I willed it"?

Medici lion, reasonably calm about the future.

sammydavisdog CC BY 2.0 

We do plan to live longer than 5 years. But we are also interested in what will happen during the next 5 years. It's a liberating thought-experiment to try to look oneself in the mirror and think about one's own strategy for the next half-decade. 

Is it a strategy that gives the confidence of a lion?

Are we so calm and confident with our strategy so we are able to, like Nietzsche's lion, say "Thus I willed it and this I willed it for eternity", whatever happens?

Or is something meeker looking back at us from the mirror?

Farewell,

//antinous&lucilius

Where to go now?

Try: Ergodicity: Anything that can hit us will, eventually, hit us

What fools these mortals be

Moral letters to Lucilius by Seneca, Letter 1 on Saving Time: "Nothing, Lucilius, is ours, except time. We were entrusted by nature with the ownership of this single thing, so fleeting and slippery that anyone who will can oust us from possession. What fools these mortals be! They allow the cheapest and most useless things, which can easily be replaced, to be charged in the reckoning, after they have acquired them; but they never regard themselves as in debt when they have received some of that precious commodity, – time! And yet time is the one loan which even a grateful recipient cannot repay."

There is no upper limit to our desires; a house, a bigger house, a castle, a boat, a yacht, luxurious travel, food, servants. For all those we pay with our time.

But we don't exist in property, nor style, and those palaces are evanescent and within minutes, hours or months they have lost their allure. 

Instead let us give what is truly ours to grateful recipients; good friends, good causes, the pleasures of existence, that what are beyond simple and becomes sublime. 

Give our time with simple dignity, and then we can live a life that flows in quietly, more alike the existence of the Gods.

Farewell,

//antinous&lucilius

Life as a training arena for the stoic virtues

Antinous is the true stoic of us. If anyone would rate the four stoic virtues, Antinous would clearly come out on top.

Antinous wears a better social mask; he's friendly, agreeable, likeable.

If there's something that is going for Lucilius, then that would be that he's got his emotions on close range. Too close, according to himself.

We have come up with all sorts of explanations of the differences that are most of the time quite amusing. Probably genetics, and the role we played in our early teens seems to have colored these parts of our personalities.

A lot of things about personality are on a flip-side scale; on one hand, and on the other hand, and everything can be both good and bad, and there's no real value judgement to a personality trait, or so the common wisdom goes.

But here's something where the stoics, and the ancients before them, knew: that some scales are absolute. More is just better. And that insight is underlying the concept of the stoic virtues: fortitude, prudence, justice and temperance.

Fortitude

Fortitude, strength, the ability to endure the necessary hard times and do what must be done during challenges that life unavoidably entails.

"Are you samurai?"  is a question we ask each other sometimes, after having had a stab at the playstation game "The Ghost of Tsushima" where the phrase gets thrown around a lot.  

We say it like a; "wht the f*ck, how hard can it be?" and a "stop complaining, and get it done!"

Are you samurai?

To some extend it works. And it reminds of that some of the ghosts we face and that are stopping us from showing the strength needed in everyday life is more in our minds than real.

Prudence

Prudence, the ability to step back and think about the course of action and make cold-headed decisions. In latin, the word is prudentia, and this virtue is sometimes just translated as wisdom. 

So the ability to back off, let go of anger, giving up short term wants or silly cravings of recognition, and clearly see what path is best. 

Lucilius, as said above, especially can feel the sting of anger and get carried away by emotions. And it's dangerous. Suddenly he might have said something, let something slip, that gets a life of it's own.

Once upon a time, allegedly, there was a tribe in the arctics, that had the concept that they had a soul that always walked beside them, a kind of mirror-spirit of themselves, that they called the bigger man. 

They themselves were just the little man, consumed and dragged into the petty things of life.

But when something happens, we (and they) can always ask what the bigger man would do. 

Do we feel assaulted? Then we ought to ask ourselves: what would be the little man's response? And what would the bigger man do?

Justice.

Justice is about doing the right choice, of having an adequate sense of right and acting in accordance with the laws and what's right.

So not trying to cut a shorter path that isn't right, doing evil for short term games, and accept the just laws that govern human interactions and act in accordance with one's values.

Do the right thing.

Temperance.

Temperance is knowing what is enough, knowing how to control oneself, one's emotions and one's wants. 

There's more to temperance. As anyone striving to financial freedom knows, moderation is an absolute necessity to walk this path. Someone who cannot temper his appetites will always want more, and thus never becomes truly rich and never reach any kind of significant freedom.

Being In The Arena

The virtues are learned in the arena, with other people, while we are trying to achieve something difficult and of value.

The arena provides the training ground needed for freedom.

We suspect that it's much harder to chisel out the virtues if one is too deep into a propped-up otium. 

The world and its challenges, correctly taken on, train us in fortitude, temperance, prudence and justice.

Venus punishes Psyche with a task (more precisely to get water from a high rock guarded by dragons).

Ca 1692-1702, Luca Giordano

That's why, according to a more hardcore attitude, we should thank the gods for the misfortunes they throw in our way. 

If one should be able to truly enjoy freedom, we suspect that one better be trained, and keep on training, and embrace the training opportunities the arena throws in one's direction.

Farewell,

//antinous&lucilius

The Tragedy of Paul Allen

I don't know much about Paul Allen. Obviously, he has done much more for humanity than I or anyone reading this could ever hope to achieve.

A lonely man on a yacht

The only things I know are fragments, a few pictures in the media and a Wikipedia article.

Poor Allen will be a symbol here; a meme, something we might recognize. He is the picture of the lone billionaire who never married, sitting on his yacht.

Was he happy? I don't know. 

The Octopus, 2010.
By Issacc brock - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0

Greatest Treasure

For Antinous and me, the greatest treasure is having one another. To be on the journey with our soulmate and married to our handsome best friend.

Sometimes we have the impression that heterosexuals might forget this, perhaps out of convention, more used to take a relationship for granted, or because the external and internal battling have been less confusing and conflicting. 

The picture is not that easy and stereotypical, of course. But whoever we are - let's not take our relationships for granted or as a convention, a comme il faut. 

The most fundamental capital we might have is our own, human capital. What we finally really own is our ability to create wealth.

This fundamental capital is infinitely boosted and magnified by having our best friend at our side.

And it's not only capital. It's two brains, two ambitions, two sets of friends and families and networks and passions and inspiration, and all that add up, and create something that exists between us, and is far greater than anyone of us can achieve, do, think or imagine by ourselves.

There's infinitely more wealth and adventure that materialize in the empty air when we are together. And adventure out of thin air is magic that not even Mr Allen's yacht seems to quite make up for.

Hardcore Health

Something that comes back again and again in the financial freedom-sphere is health. Perhaps because there is a similarity between breaking free from misconceptions about finance and misconceptions around health.

Our conclusion is that we need to be as radical with health as with finance. Actually, health came first for us, and we discovered investing later. The same concept still applies - what is considered 'normal' has gone far away from what is in our own interest.

The 'normal' has inactivity as its goal, inventions that remove discomfort (e-scooters, really?) and convenience as its means. The 'normal' markets health as a commodity, with roughly the same mediocre results as listening to financial advice from the old banks.

When one has been indoctrinated to the normal for too long, the break seems hardcore. Just like with finances. 

The body below the head is not a dead appendix sewn on under the shoulders. It's something that requires attention!

And a really nice butt. Hermes, quick runner.

Marble Statue (~200 BC),  Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC

Go Hardcore!

1) Sell the car. Just get rid of it, give it away if need be. Get to everywhere within 12 kilometers (7 miles) from where you live with muscle power. Kids? They can bike. We're not kidding.

2) Go up at 6:00 every morning and go for a 5-km run (2 miles). It's not so short that it doesn't matter, but long enough to make you really happy, and healthy. And the heart is a super-Godlike-fabulous muscle, that literally keeps you alive from second to second, so give it Respect! The secret to getting up at 6 (or 5:30)? Start with going up early! That's how one gets sleepy in the evening and gets into the habit.

3) Office? Stand up! At least 4 hours a day. And go for a lunch walk or run.

4)  Don't underestimate micro-training. Do pull-ups in that outdoor gym when running. Do 50 pushups, squats and sit-ups when you can.

5) Always have ready access to training. Have kettlebells at home. Running shoes by the door. Live close to a swimming pool. Get rid of the gym card, that's just a silly excuse, draining costs and worth nothing by itself. Get real, get out and get going instead.

6) Surprise the body. Go for the odd long run. Swim in lakes. Jump. Dance.

Don't fool yourself that hand-eye-control and kicking or throwing things is training. It's not. It's just eye-hand-control and throwing things. Benefit? Unclear. Grow up. 

Where to start?

Don't let the Ego be the Enemy. Run 1 km, walk 1 km, and progress slowly until you can run a complete 10+ km. Do push ups, squats and situps with body weight. Do yoga. Keep on until your body starts to respond.

We keep some metrics:

- Our BMI:s should always be in the 20-25 range. 

- We log training. In a year we should accumulate 10000 minutes. 

- We should run 80 mornings, and we have some stretch-goals to strive for: go for a long run at least every month and crawl +3km 3 times a year. 

Food? 

Some suggestions:

- Breakfast is a stupid invention of modernity, made up by the food industry to make us consume junk food (don't try to excuse yourself in thinking your breakfast is an exception) and pooring in useless, low-quality calories. Have a coffee in the morning, learn not to fear some hunger that keeps you sharp - and eat an early lunch with real food instead.

- Bread was invented by the Devil.

- Cole and broccoli were invented by the Gods. 

- Give up meats. It's as stupid to let a cow eat grass and then eat the cow as one might think. Did we mention hardcore?

- No alcohol. Not kidding. Why the heck would you?

- Popcorn is underrated.

- Use sweeteners if you like, or stevia. The criticism is machiavellian propaganda to the uninformed and mentally behind by the sugar and farmer industry. Sugar is the worst cancerogenous substance we habitually consume now, after alcohol. And you will be able to decrease sweeteners as you learn not to expect food to be so sweet.

- Think about how much energy you put in (nuts = much, cole=not much), and how much you use up by training, moving and being active during a day.  

- For GODS SAKE: the MOUTH should NOT be a path to great pleasures in life! We would recommend scenic runs, happy kids, good art, a meaningful vocation and a fun sex life instead. Stop whining and get serious.

Leaning in too much

As with finance, one can go too far, and let the ego-complex-nerd, the inner little person fueled by insecurities and control-needs take over. Then, just as with finance, one's compensatory behavior quickly becomes unhealthy. No, you don't have to run EVERY morning. No, don't run marathons, ultramarathons, iron-mans or any races for that matter. Who are you competing with? Why should you? 

And no, don't go and lift a mammoth three times in the gym to get biceps as big as your legs. 

There's healthy, and there's too much.

Even Seneca recommended just jumping around, to avoid the excessive eating that comes with excessive exercise. 

A Hardcore Break

There's no excuse. Just as we can realize that the 'normal' in finance is anything but healthy and requires a radical break; the same applies to an even more important asset - our body, heart and butt -  and the approach needs to be just as thorough, consistent and radical. 

Good luck and get going!

//antinous&lucilius

The Worst Way of Investing

Are we having fun watching our investments? Well, of course not. We shouldn't.

Today, I saw an add for some internet investment service.

One of all those thousands of ads that scroll past in a day.

I'm not sure if it was consciously designed to make me stop scrolling because of the stupidity of the message. If so, the ad creators succeeded, but on the other hand I don't remember the company behind. Only the ill-advised question stuck.

The ad asked: "Is this a Happy or a Sad day?" 

The masks of Melpomene and Thalia

Tim Green, CC BY 2.0

To replace the divine sensation of comedy and tragedy with quick thrills of if an investment went up or down, and to add to the stupidity, within only a day, is tantamount to spending a road trip in Tuscany with only eating on Kentucky Fried Chicken. 

If this is even close to one's view of investing, one can be sure that it's the absolutely worst kind.

Emotional neediness and one's life's savings should be kept far apart. The real struggle is in keeping emotions and investments separate. Not the opposite, deliberately joining them together.

It is easy to have a look if the portfolio went up or down within a day, because the internet brokers are designed that way, to make us want to log-in and do something, usually stupid, so they can gain on their fees.

If the most thrilling thing that happened over the day had anything to do with the stock market then:

a) the 'investment' strategy is guaranteed to be seriously flawed

b) one should rethink what one finds 'happy' or 'sad' in life.

If one is out of thrills, may I for instance suggest getting a squirrel suite?

   Other ways of getting one's dose of emotional thrills

Barry Holubeck, CC BY-SA 3.0 

I think it's every billionaire's right to die in a self-inflicted flight-accident, so if one has high hopes one better start practicing now. And it's probably beneficial to the development of the stash, as a dead investor is likely to be the best investor.

Or even better than getting superficial thrills from the stock market or a squirrel suit: grow up from toying around like an underdeveloped teenager.

Get a challenging, interesting vocation in life instead; one that actually matters to someone.  

//lucilius

Introvert-, Hippie- and Vagabond-Freedom

There are many types of financial freedom. The types of freedom are important, because our ideas about freedom put limits on our careers and implicitly sets a goal for our stash. 

What kind of life do we want to live? How sure do we want to be that we reach it? And what are we ready to sacrifice to get there?

Hole-in-my-Soul Freedom

No Entrance is Grande Enough
(Opéra Garnier Paris 1867, le grand escalier)

The most consuming kind of freedom is, as we all know, the never-is-enough-freedom; the kind of freedom that cannot be achieved even when one stands on one of the terraces of one's Penthouse, alone, at 70 years of age, silently looking out on the streets below. 

It's the Freedom of Imbalance, and an consuming one. The only capital on one's life's journey has been monetary. 

Where does the hole in the soul that needs to be filled with kitsch, in its many disguises, come from? Perhaps very poor beginnings, or at least a belief that one's beginnings were very poor, and then life turns into an everlasting revenge on that poor beginning.

The hole in the soul wants more, at the expense of all other sides of life.

Do you feel that enough is never enough? Well, at some point the money is better spent on a shrink than on more brilliant furnishings.

Joneses Freedom

Another kind of freedom is the one that is lived in relation with the closest social group that happened to be at hand: childhood friends, colleagues, neighbours and influences from media, social or otherwise. 

The common denominator is that the social group is not a conscious choice. They were just available, or imposed.

Freedom becomes what is reflected back from that unconsciously imposed social group: having that house, the two cars, better children, a better husband, more sanity, better work and better vacation. All in comparison to that group one happens to compare oneself with.

One becomes Ayn Rand's "Second Hander" who can only perceive oneself through the mirror of others. 

Introvert Freedom

A solution to the Hole-in-the-Soul and the Joneses is to go 180 degrees in the opposite direction. 

Cast all possible allure of the social mirror overboard. Let's not even be tempted to compare oneself with other people's social values, because, well, let's scrap social, shall we?

Especially easy if one is a stark introvert, who only needs the tiniest of external stimuli to be content. 

Hermit cave, Spain.

By Basotxerri - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0

Financial freedom now becomes easy. There really isn't much need for money at all, so financial independence is almost automatically achieved. There are very few interactions with other people where money could even be needed.

Freedom, at last. 

As long as the hens survive the winter.

Hippie Freedom

Another kind of freedom is the one where one still participates in the arena of social life, but one is content with being a lot ... stranger than the Joneses.

Here one must put up with the scorn one will inevitable receive by not following the rules.

In many senses of the word, one is a hippie, a non-conformist, an epicurean; like the philosopher content with one's cheese.

Perhaps one can survive the social stigma by associating with something else, like the fire-moment, or some other kind of subculture, to build another, parallel but different pyramid of social recognition.

One is still connected with the world around, and one is not afraid to act in the arena, but in other ways, and not wanting to receive the usual kind of social recognition. 

And with that parallel value pyramid, one will probably start to value new things in life, more independently; be it the small things, the long runs, the good food and the peculiar hobby.

Vagabond Freedom

Whatever holes we might have in our souls; they are not about keeping up with the Joneses or building the Grandest Staircase of them all.

We suspect that our freedom is that of the vagabond, the wanderer, with a touch of the introvert. We've never been so much for a having a house or a home in any normal sense of the word.

We like the luxury of rootlessness, and enjoy the feeling of slight alienation that travels bring; being that citizen who is at home everywhere and nowhere.

Do we always want to flee the arena? No, probably not. Our appetite of vagabondism will probably change over the year and over time. So sometimes we will revert to a kind of epicurean hippie-freedom, and certainly also try to act with the world around us, and then be ready to leave for our next journey.

So that mean that we will probably not aim for the minimal stash when trying to seize up our portfolio. 

But even as one travels the world, one will discover, as the philosopher puts it, that one can really never truly escape oneself. Because one always has oneself in the saddle.

So where is the true limits of financial freedom?

As Seneca had it: What does it matter how much a man has laid up in his safe, or in his warehouse, how large are his flocks and how fat his dividends, if he covets his neighbour's property, and reckons, not his past gains, but his hopes of gains to come? Do you ask what is the proper limit to wealth? It is, first, to have what is necessary, and, second, to have what is enough. 

Farewell.