Why it’s good to be rich

A little while back my wife discovered a small lump on my cat’s stomach. We weren’t sure what it was. So what do we do? We Google it of…

A little while back my wife discovered a small lump on my cat’s stomach. We weren’t sure what it was. So what do we do? We Google it of course. Now we’re really scared. It’s the last thing you want to read about. It could be the big C. Based on my cat’s age, and the description online it is also somewhat likely.

We go ahead and yelp the closest good vet in the neighborhood and schedule a prompt appointment for the next day. I took the kitty in and sat there anxiously as the vet inspected her carefully. Eventually she informed me she doesn’t really know what it is exactly and we’ll need to do a biopsy. Great… :-s

One thing she did recommend is to do an x-ray to make sure that if it is cancer, it didn’t spread to the lungs. If it did, there wasn’t much to treat there. Also, she was missing a couple of shots that the city enforced by law. I obliged and we went ahead with the procedure and the shots.

I sat through and waited patiently for the results to come back. Luckily, there was no sign of cancer in the lungs. A big relief to say the least. As I get ready to walk out I’m also reminded that I have to pay. They hand me a bill and ask me to go to the front desk and settle it. I open it to see the total damage. It’s well over $700. That’s just for today. The biopsy estimate is another $500.

Now don’t get me wrong. I’ll gladly pay that and much more as long as my kitty is healthy. But not everyone is able to pay $1200 and keep the lights on. For some people, that’s a very significant amount of money. Some people may need to choose between paying the vet bill and rent.

My first hint regarding the cost of treatment should have been all the posters advertising financing options. I remember looking at them and then chuckling in my mind about the absurd idea of financing bills in general. How irresponsible!

Before you start explaining to me the free market I just want to say this isn’t some cry baby, socialist plea to nationalize veterinarian treatment. I picked the best vet in the area and agreed to all the pricing ahead of time. But there was one huge thing that dawned on me that day. Something that I never truly understood until that day.

The reason why money is great is not because of all the consumables you can obtain but because of the security it offers you.

I swiped my credit card and walked out of that vet high as a kite thinking only about the fact that my cat didn’t have cancer that metastasized. That’s all I cared about. The $1200 I just paid will be paid off the next day and I’ll never worry about it again. That’s a very privileged but little appreciated place to be in.

I guess I understood this idea subconsciously. After all, the entire idea of being FI (financially independent) is financial security. You save enough money to be “employer independent”. It’s something I’ve been working towards for nearly a decade. But never in my life did I understand how important it is until that day.

A lot of people concentrate on the idea of not working. At least not the traditional way for some big corporation in a soul sucking cubicle job. I admit that this idea is very attractive but it’s the cherry at the top. The real benefit of FI is the security that comes with it. It’s the knowledge that no matter what, your bills will be taken care of.

You are recession proof for life. You are interest rates, stock market, bond market, and job market independent. On top of it all, life tends to throw curve balls. Those curves could in many cases improve your state. It could be a raise, a move to a different city or country or a new more lucrative job offer. Occasionally it could also be a broken transmission. Either way, you got it covered and you can sleep at night just fine. Great feeling in my mind.