RetireJapan

I think something that often gets missed out of articles in the mass media is that this is not a binary thing, where you have the hapless working peons on one side and the smug financially independent elite on the other.

It's a gradual thing. So if you manage to not spend all your money every month you get less stressed about bills. And if save up an emergency fund in cash you can handle emergencies. And if you have a couple of years' worth of spending invested losing your job is less stressful. And if you have a decent amount invested for retirement you can change jobs and maybe not save as much going forward.

And maybe one day you find that you don't need to work for money any more.

But the previous steps along the journey are all positive ones, and there is no need for everyone to read financial independence unless they really want to.

Wrote a blog post about this a while ago: https://www.retirejapan.com/blog/levels-of-wealth/