Since this blog was started about 8 years ago, the recurring theme has always been about advocating the real incentive behind achieving financial independence and how much benefits we could derive from achieving it than not.

We've always pictured financial independence as having the options to do the things that we want rather than the things that we're forced to do and having that autonomy gives us the flexibility to become happier naturally.

As human beings, I understand that we tend not to like being controlled and we like to define our time according to our own needs. Best still, we could arrange our very own FI weekly schedule to meet the needs of our body and mind instead of the other way round, dealing with the inaugural needs of the society.

The truth is achieving financial independence is an utterly overrated phenomenon that proves to only be a general marketing gimmick led by masked bloggers like us that try to prove our points because we force ourselves to think like that.

You see, most of us financial bloggers are no different from the usual snake salesman you see on the street trying to get passerby to buy things and packages that we sell. Like them, our income is very much dependent upon hitting the group of mass market on the street who were too weak to believe in their own capabilities and therefore are being targeted so bloggers can receive more online income to sustain our self-proclaimed lies and lifestyle.

We like to influence the general public with our sexy dividend stories by publishing quarterly dividend reports and putting up a nice beach instagram photos sipping pina colada on the beach to further enhance our stories but the fact remains that the beaches in the photos are not as elegant as they were in real life and you've got to pay a premium to even pay for that benches you sat on the Patong beach.

We also know that while dividend income and capital gains are not taxable under the Singapore jurisdiction, one of the top early retirees' wish list is to actually go back to the workforce and pay taxes because workforce is actually awesome after they found out how overrated is the goal of financial independence that they've been seeking for decades.

Being in a different time zone with the norms also means that you are likely to be alone and outcast during the day when everyone is having their awesome lunch together at lao pat sat squeezing both  literally and figuratively sandwiches between the hour lunch.

You start to live your life as if the world is just about you - shopping for groceries, reading book in a library, eating in an empty restaurant without the lunch crowd and no one to talk to. The best thing that can happen is if you can find a similar clone elsewhere that lives the lifestyle like you did, but even so it is extremely rare.

As I am approaching my target destination soon on the path to reaching the dreaded financial independence goal, I am afraid of what the new life may take me to. I am afraid of having no more goals to look forward to and life would go downhill from there.

You see, I'm not trying to put a salt on the wound that may break the heart of anyone who's just starting out, but in my journey so far, it has been the case and I so very much regret my decision to pursue it in the first place.

Financial independence is utterly overrated! Urgh....

And to everyone who reads this, hope you have a good Happy April Fool's Day :)

And let us instead give thanks and celebrate Easter day for the blessings for what God has given us :)

Happy Easter Sunday