The Financial Independence Project

Exactly one year ago at 5am in the morning, my wife was driving me to the hospital for a major surgical procedure that was scheduled to start at 6:30am. I will never forget that surreal feeling as we drove on mostly empty roads to get there and thinking about how quickly time had passed since the time my surgery was scheduled until it was actually happening. This would be the first time I ever had any type of surgery, and this was several major procedures. I knew this day was coming for several months, but everything felt like it was happening so quickly in those last few days leading to the surgery. I spent a long time with my kids before they went to bed the night before, because I just did not have it in me to wake them up before heading to the hospital. While driving I felt a bit of regret about not being able to say goodbye in the morning, and really hoped that I did not miss the last opportunity for them to see me. The literally life saving surgeries and procedures I was having came with a fair amount of risk and I would be under general anesthesia somewhere between seven and eight hours. I knew the potential risks of complications and potential death going in, but there were no other medical or non-medical options available that would solve or even begin to address my medical issues. In this post I am not going to describe my medical history and details for the whole internet to read, and in fact I am unable to do so right now even if wanted to. As I think about this day one year ago, I want to use this event to highlight some of the impact this had both on planning and thinking as it relates to financial independence, and life in general. There is a significant amount of research in psychology that discusses how facing mortality can impact your outlook on life and self-perception as well as having a huge impact on your personality, disposition, and beliefs. This is especially true when potential events or diagnoses are directly related to one’s own mortality.

As I mark this year milestone I find myself reflecting on the past year and the future in many different ways. The good news is that as I am typing this post exactly one year from the day of my surgery, I can say that everything turned out well. Aside from a pretty rough recovery that lasted a few months, everything, at least from a physiological perspective, has normalized. In this post I want to reflect on how I prepared for my surgery since I knew it was coming about six months before it took place. This is going to come mostly from a financial perspective, but it is impossible to do so without including some of the personal and emotional aspects of preparing for this as well, and I think that is the point. So often we pretend personal finance, and especially financial independence is only about numbers, or about the math, but that ignores so many aspects of our lived experience. That being said, I am just going to dive in and share my approach preparing for this significant life event,  especially when I had such a large amount of time between scheduling and the surgery taking place…