Sometime not too long ago, my wife and I had lunch with my brother and a friend of his. It was our first time meeting this friend, so we got into all of the usual pleasantries that come with meeting someone – what do you do, where do you live, and other things like that. When I said that I was a lawyer and my wife was a dentist, we got the usual “wow” type reaction that we often get when we introduce ourselves by way of our professions. People always seem to be impressed by the lawyer/dentist combo.
At some point in our conversation, we got to talking about our home and naturally, we were asked about how we handle the winters in Minnesota. Anyone from Minnesota knows that this is a common question you get from people not from a cold state. After all, how do people live in such a hellish landscape?
“Isn’t it super cold there?” we were asked.
“Well, we really try to get outside and just embrace the winter. We bought some cross-country skis a few years ago, so we try to cross-country ski when we can.”
“Do you ever go regular skiing?”
“Not really,” I responded. And then, without really thinking too much about it, I said, “We don’t really know how to ski and we can’t really afford it anyway.”
This seemed to puzzle my brother’s friend, and she leaned over and whispered something to him, which made him laugh. As my brother later told me, his friend had asked him this:
“If they’re a lawyer and a dentist, how come they can’t afford to go skiing?”
It’s actually a good question – lawyers and dentists are viewed as two professions that generally make good money. What do we mean that we can’t afford to go skiing?
I think it all comes down to how we view the word “afford.” It’s about what we can and what we choose.
What You Can Afford Versus What You Choose To Afford
What you can afford versus what you choose to afford might sound like pretty similar concepts – but they aren’t the same. The distinction lies in the word “choose.” It’s all about intentionality – what you can versus what you choose.
The truth is, most of us can afford pretty much anything we want. You really only need to do one of three things to afford something:
- Figure out a way to make the money
- Get someone to give you the money
- Borrow the money
No, I probably can’t go out and buy a Tesla today. But, I probably could one day, if I really wanted to. The same is true of other ludicrously expensive things. Dental school can cost $500,000. Law school cost me $87,000 (even with a 50% scholarship). And yet, anyone with the qualifications can afford to go to dental school or law school – if they want to.
It’s the choice of choosing to afford the things you want that actually matters. Most people don’t understand this fact and let things choose them – the house that’s too big, the car they don’t really need, the clothes they never wear. You can afford it, but it’s up to you whether you want to afford it. You get to choose!
A few things that I can think of that I can afford include:
- A new phone
- A new laptop
- Nicer clothes
- A bigger house
- A car
There are things on this list that I do have. There are other things that I don’t. I don’t have my own car, for example, because that’s something I just don’t care about. I can afford it, but I choose not to. My wife and I could go skiing, but we don’t because we’d rather choose to do something else that we can afford.
Your own list of things you can afford is probably different. What matters is that you are choosing your list.
Be Intentional – Choose What You Can Afford
You can buy anything you want. It’s not really that hard. The harder part is figuring out the things you actually want.
I went for years without understanding this. Looking back, I actually made a decent chunk of change over the course of my college career – over $20,000 by my count. I had one summer during law school where I made over $20,000. And yet, when it was all said and done, I had nothing to show for it in the end – just a bunch of stuff that I could afford (shoes, clothes, and things like that). But nothing that I really chose to afford.
The essence of financial independence is pretty simple – it’s all about making deliberate choices. Choose the things that you really want. Ignore the things that you don’t really want. The nice thing is, you get to make this list. So make it a good one.
More Recommended Ebike/Scooters
Check out these other ebikes/scooters I've had the chance to do a review for:
- GEN3 Outcross Bike – The GEN3 Outcross is a solid, affordable fat tire ebike that does a good job of doing what I need it to do. It works great for city riding, giving me a smooth ride in all conditions. It’s works really well as a winter ebike since the fat tires give it good traction over snow and ice. Check out my GEN3 Outcross Review.
- Himiway Escape Bike – The Himiway Escape is an interesting bike for anyone looking for a moped-style ebike. If you’re a gig economy worker, the Himiway Escape is particularly interesting and it’s possible to think of it as an investment, especially if you can opt to do deliveries with the Himiway versus using a car. It’s not cheap, but you can definitely make your money back when you compare the mileage you’ll put on your car versus using an ebike. Check out my Himiway Escape Bike Review.
- Espin Sport Bike – The Espin Sport is a good ebike for someone who is looking for an ebike that feels and rides more like a regular bike. There are many ebikes that are really only bikes in name. In reality, they’re basically electric mopeds. The Espin Sport, by contrast, is a bike you could probably ride without the battery and you’d feel like you’re just riding a regular bike. Check out my Espin Sport Review.
- Varla Eagle One Scooter – The Varla Eagle One is an excellent scooter that can make sense for a lot of people. It can work as a primary mode of transportation. You can use it to work on gig economy apps like DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub. And it can also be a recreational vehicle if you’d prefer to use it for that. Check out my Varla Eagle One Review.
- Fucare H3 Scooter – The Fucare H3 is a fun scooter and I’ve enjoyed testing it out. For a daily commuter or quick trips or errands, the Fucare H3 is probably the scooter I’ll use. It’s portable and easy to maneuver, so it’s just easier to take on the road when I need it. Check out my Fucare H3 Scooter Review.
More Recommended Investing App Bonuses
For additional investing app bonuses, be sure to check out the ones below:
- M1 Finance ($100) – This is a great robo-advisor that has no fees and allows you to create a customized portfolio based on your risk tolerance. You also get $100 for opening an account. Check out my M1 Finance Referral Bonus – Step-By-Step Guide.
- SoFi Invest ($25) – SoFi Invest is an easy brokerage account bonus that you can earn with just a few minutes of work. Use my SoFi Invest referral link, fund your SoFi Invest brokerage account with $100 and you’ll get $25 of free stock. I also have a step-by-step guide for the SoFi Invest referral bonus.
- Moomoo (15 free stocks, $100 cash reward, 1 stock of Tesla or Google) – Moomoo is a free investing app currently offering 3 different referral bonuses if you open an account using a referral link. Read my Moomoo referral bonus guide for more information.
- Webull (24 free stock shares) – Webull's current promotion gives you 24 free shares valued between $3-$3,000 each if you open an account using my referral link. Here’s a guide I wrote about how to earn your free shares using Webull.
- Robinhood (1 free stock) – Robinhood gives you a free stock valued between $2.50-$225 if you open an account using my referral link.
- Public (1 free stock) - Public gives you a free stock valued between $3-$70 if you open an account using my referral link.
More Recommended Bank Account Bonuses
If you’re looking for more easy bank bonuses, check out the below options. These bonuses are all easy to earn and have no fees or minimum balance requirements to worry about.
- GO2Bank ($100) - GO2Bank is an easy bank bonus that I recommend people take advantage of if they have an easy way of meeting the direct deposit requirement. I like that it’s easy to open the account and that the bonus pays out quickly. Check out my step-by-step guide on how to earn your GO2Bank $100 referral bonus.
- Chime ($100) - Chime is a free bank account that offers a referral bonus if you use a referral link and complete a direct deposit of $200 or more. In practice, any ACH transfer into this account triggers the bonus. This bonus is easy to earn and posts instantly, so you’ll know if you met the requirements as soon as you move money into the account. I wrote a step-by-step guide on how to earn your Chime referral bonus that I recommend you check out.
- US Bank Business ($750) – This is a fairly easy bank bonus to earn, since there are no direct deposit requirements. In addition, you can open the Silver Business Checking account, which comes with no monthly fees. Check out how to earn this big bonus here.
- SoFi Money ($275) – SoFi Money is a free checking account from SoFi. They’re currently offering a $25 referral bonus if you open a SoFi account with a referral link and deposit $10. You can also make an additional $250 as well if you complete a direct deposit. This is a good bank that is also 100% free, so you won’t have to worry about managing this account. Here’s a post I wrote with instructions on how to earn your SoFi Money bonus: SoFi Money Referral Bonus: Step By Step Guide.
- Fifth Third Bank ($225) – This offer is limited to customers in the following states: Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, West Virginia, and South Carolina. If you don’t live in one of those states, you won’t be able to open an account online but you can still open an account in-branch if you happen to be visiting a city that has a branch. This is a fairly easy bank bonus to earn, especially since there are plenty of data points showing what will trigger the direct deposit requirement. In addition, you can open the Fifth Third Momentum Checking bank account, which comes with no monthly fees or minimum balance requirements. Read my guide on this bonus here.
- Fairwinds Credit Union ($100) – Fairwinds Credit Union is offering a referral bonus for users that sign up using a referral link. Fairwinds has no fees or minimum balance, so this is a particularly easy bonus to earn. Since this is a smaller credit union, my gut instinct tells me this offer won’t be around long, so if you’re in a position to meet the bonus requirements, grab this bonus before it’s gone. Here is my step-by-step guide on how to earn your Fairwinds Credit Union bonus.
- Netspend ($40 + 5% Interest Savings Account) – Netspend is a company that provides 5% interest savings accounts. If you sign up using my referral link, you’ll get a $40 signup bonus once you make your first deposit into your Netspend account of $40 or more. That means you get a 5% interest savings account and a free $40 to start! Make sure to check out my in-depth guide on how to set up these accounts.
- Current ($50) – Current is a free fintech bank that’s offering new users a $50 referral bonus after signing up for an account using a referral link.Current is an easy bonus to earn and also gives you access to three savings accounts that pay you 4% interest on up to $2,000. That means you can put away up to $6,000 earning 4% interest. That’s very good and makes Current an account I recommend to everyone. Check out my step-by-step guide on how to earn your Current Bank bonus.
- Digital Federal Credit Union ($20) – Digital Federal Credit Union (DCU) is a free, nationwide credit union that I recommend to readers for two reasons. First, DCU has a $20 referral bonus if you open a free DCU checking account with a referral link. Second, DCU has a saving account that gives you 6.17% interest on your first $1,000. Check out my in-depth post on how to set this account up.
- Novo Bank ($40) - Novo bank is a free business checking account that’s currently offering a $40 bonus if you open a Novo business checking account using a referral link. In addition to being a good bank bonus, Novo is also a good business checking account. It has no monthly fees or minimum balance requirements and operates a good app and website. Indeed, it’s the business checking account I currently use for this blog. Check out my post on how to easily open a Novo account.
- Varo ($35) – Varo is a free fintech banking app similar to Chime or Current. It’s currently offering a $35 bonus to new users that open a new Varo account with a referral link. The bonus for this bank is very easy to meet, all you need to do is spend $20 within 30 days of opening your Varo account. Check out my step-by-step guide to learn how to earn this bonus.
Kevin is an attorney and the blogger behind Financial Panther, a blog about personal finance, travel hacking, and side hustling using the gig economy. He paid off $87,000 worth of student loans in just 2.5 years by choosing not to live like a big shot lawyer.
Kevin is passionate about earning money using the gig economy and you can see all the ways he makes extra income every month in his side hustle reports.
Kevin is also big on using the latest fintech apps to improve his finances. Some of Kevin's favorite fintech apps include:
- SoFi Money. A really good checking account with absolutely no fees. You'll get a $25 referral bonus if you open a SoFi Money account with a referral link, and an additional $250 if you complete a direct deposit.
- US Bank Business. US Bank is currently offering new business customers a $750 signup bonus after opening a new account and meeting certain requirements.
- M1 Finance. This is a great robo-advisor that has no fees and allows you to create a customized portfolio based on your risk tolerance. You also get $100 for opening an account.
- DCU. Digital Federal Credit Union (DCU) is a free, nationwide credit union that I recommend to readers for two reasons. First, DCU has a $20 referral bonus if you open a free DCU checking account with a referral link. Second, DCU has a savings account that gives you 6.17% interest on your first $1,000.
- Personal Capital. One of best free apps you can use to monitor your portfolio and track your net worth. This is one of the apps I use to track my financial accounts.
Feel free to send Kevin a message here.
This is so true! We’ve been contemplating selling our condo and people are confused why we haven’t bought a house already. The problem is we are trying to find the Goldilocks sized house at a Goldilocks price. We don’t want to spend too much on a house and risk it being a bad financial decision, so we haven’t moved yet. Everyone else thinks we can afford far more house than we do. It’s a bit frustrating! I’d rather retire in our 30s than buy too big of a house.
The house thing is so tempting. Everyone assumes you have to have the house that matches your profession. Bigger isn’t always better though.
Great post Kevin, I love the line at the end: “The essence of financial independence is pretty simple – it’s all about making deliberate choices. Choose the things that you really want. Ignore the things that you don’t really want.” Perfectly said! I tell my wife this sometimes, that just because we have the money for something or CAN buy something, doesn’t mean we can’t search for a more cost effective option.
I think the word “afford” in this type of conversation can bring about some confusion, like with your brother’s friend. She probably could’ve benefitted from hearing about your line of thinking, saying something along the lines of “we choose not to go skiing because we prefer to spend in other areas.” I’ve found myself approaching conversations with my friends in ways like this, for example saying we “choose to not eat out very much, so that we can put more money towards travel.” I think it has helped show that it’s a deliberate choice we’re making to be able to support other goals.
Thanks Matt! Yeah, I do get into the mistake of saying things just by habit, without actually meaning exactly what I said. It’s a choice, not that I literally can’t afford it.
I think it’s just generally more socially acceptable to say “I can’t afford it” vs “I don’t want to spend on it”, so that’s what we say. We don’t want to offend the person who suggested X Y or Z activity, particularly if it’s an invitation, so we just say we can’t afford it.
Yeah, it’s like an automatic impulse – I feel like there’s a lot of that in the personal finance world, where we say one thing but don’t actually mean what we said. Like how I always tell people I want to retire early – that’s not exactly accurate, I want to be financially independent, not necessarily “retire.”
Hi Kevin! Thank you for all you post and share with us, you really do inspire and guide me in my financial journey. One thing that came to mind while reading this post was how I wish you would consider translating your blog into other languages, in my case to Spanish. My girlfriend came to mind while reading about your brothers’ friend. She believes that because you have the means to purchase somthing you can “afford it”. Our first language is Spanish, although, because of her current occupation she speaks Spanish 905 of the time. She is put off by reading in English, as much as I would love to send her links to your posts, I know that she would most likely ignore them, simply because they are in English. I even though about translating the article myself, just so she would read it. Now that I think about it, I could actually help you translate your posts if you wanted. Let me know what you think.