Humans have a strong natural desire for independence. History is full of examples where people have fought and died for their freedom. America was founded on the principle of independence, and its citizens value independence more than almost any other thing.
We usually think of independence as freedom from being ruled over by someone else.
The Financial Independence (FI) community has also popularized independence as having enough money to support your lifestyle without ever needing to work for income.
These are both valid definitions of independence. But there are four distinct types of independence that you need in order to be truly free. And you may be willing to pay dearly if you are missing any one.
“Life without liberty is like a body without spirit.” –Kahlil Gibran
1 The four types of independence and a way to remember them
Before going through the four types of independence 1-by-1, let’s define them at a high level. The four types of independence are:
- Social Independence (SI) – the ability to spend time with the people you love and who make you the best version of yourself.
- Location Independence (LI) – the ability to live and travel wherever you desire.
- Time Independence (TI) – the ability to do what you want, when you want.
- Financial Independence (FI) – having enough money to support your lifestyle without ever needing to work for income.
The world probably doesn’t need another acronym. But the four types of independence work together in a way that I thought deserved one. Putting them together, we get the acronym SILITIFI (pronounced “solidify”). And I whole-heartedly believe you want to SILITIFI your life!
2 Social independence
Social independence is about spending time with people you want to be around. It’s also about not being forced to be around people who you don’t enjoy being with.
“You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with.”
–Jim Rohn
This famous quote by motivational speaker Jim Rohn has deep truth to it. Spending time with good people who challenge, inspire, and teach you wisdom will have a profound impact on your life. Too much time spent with people who continually discourage, de-motivate, and lie to you will have a very negative impact on your life.
Social independence gives you control of the people around you.
People you work with dragging you down? Go work with someone else.
Son or daughter surrounded by bad influences at school? Change schools or switch to homeschool.
Family member whose behaviors are destructive to your mental and emotional health? Distance yourself until that behavior changes.
You can find positive communities through churches, local clubs, and even websites like PathwayToFI!
A large amount of our social independence comes from the country and society you live in. It is further enabled, however, by the other 3 types of independence: location, time, and financial.
You can leave the country when you are location independent and the country you live in is forcing you into a certain social group. You can choose to use your time more wisely when you have time independence and the group you are a part of is getting into illegal activity. You can quit your job when you are financially independent and the coworkers at your current employer are abusive.
3 Location independence
3.1 Ability to live anywhere
Have you ever dreamed of living somewhere else?
Pre-COVID, most people were tied to a location by their job. Now, more of us are experiencing location independence through remote work than ever before! Many people—myself included—have re-evaluated their lives and made a move. For some, it’s to get closer to family. For others, it’s driven by activities and the lifestyle available in that place.
We usually don’t live somewhere just because of a job. There is always something we like about a place that we can appreciate, and smaller pockets that we enjoy within a city or town. I actually loved Tucson, where I lived for the last 15 years before moving to Colorado. I wasn’t running from a place. I was running to a place!
But what if you were forced to live somewhere horrible against your will? You’d call it a prison. And that’s exactly what prison is—the complete opposite of location independence. Being locked in a cell most of the day, constantly told where you can go and when.
The funny thing about prison is you have a wealth of time. You could even argue that you have time independence. Yet the location itself restricts what you can do with that time. Similarly, the location restricts who you can socialize with. And the options are typically not the best.
The biggest thing you will cherish when you get out of prison is seeing family and friends. But the second biggest is the ability to be where you want to be and go where you want to go.
Once you have lost it, you’ll never take your independence for granted again.
I met a Russian foreign exchange student years ago. She had to return to Russia after her student visa expired, and is now living and working there. She would love to live in another country, but has been unable to get a work visa anywhere else. She feels stuck.
Russia is one of the more difficult countries to leave due to its foreign relations with the rest of the world. North Korea ranks as #1. Do you think the citizens of North Korea, with its mostly-closed borders and communist rule, have location independence? People have been attempting escape from North Korea for decades.
3.2 Ability to travel
The ability to travel is another type of location independence.
The strength of your passport determines how easily you can move between countries. PassportIndex.org has an interesting map and ranked list of the strongest to weakest passports. At the time of this writing, UAE is #1, USA shares #2 with 11 other countries, Russia comes in at #36, North Korea at #90, and Afghanistan is dead last at #96.
A person with an Afghanistan passport can only visit 4 countries without a visa, while someone with a USA passport can visit 115. Citizens of low-ranking countries on this list place a high value in getting a stronger passport if they desire to travel.
Joshua Sheats hosts a podcast called Radical Personal Finance. He has been traveling for years with his young family and exploring the possibilities of getting additional citizenships and passports along the way. If location independence ranks at the top of your list and you aren’t comfortable with your single country citizenship and passport, I would recommend listening to some of the information he has by searching “passport” from his website.
4 Time independence
“Time is your most precious non-renewable resource.”
–Originator unknown
Time independence is the greatest luxury money can buy. Don’t get me wrong. You could be nobler by giving it all away, adopting orphans, or buying freedom for others.
But I believe TI is the ultimate form of independence. This is particularly true for those of us who live in hard-charging societies where 50-hour workweeks are the norm. Location and social independence are mostly taken for granted. What we control least is our time, and we are never getting it back.
This is how I felt as an engineer leading a team of over 100 people on a high-stress, high visibility project several years ago. Sure, I was restricted by who I worked with and where I had to be during those 50-60 hours each week. But any of that can be easily handled for short periods of time. It was what I could not do with the extra time I was devoting to my job that challenged me the most.
I was leaving home before my family was awake, returning for a late dinner, and missing big parts of my young daughter’s life. I wasn’t able to spend time dating my wife. I didn’t have much time to exercise and take care of my health. And I couldn’t even think about hobbies.
It was an important time in my professional life, but a miserable time in my personal life. And it drove me to dream about taking control of my time one day, the sooner the better.
There are multiple ways to claim time independence. You don’t have to get all the way to FI and quit your job like I did. Many people want to continue in their job or business because they enjoy the work, their coworkers, or their customers. That’s great! Those people are still TI since they are using their time intentionally that way!
TI can also come by freeing up time from work. You can find a job that gives you the hours you want. You can build systems and processes into your business and hire employees to free up more time for other things. Or you can do as my wife did when our daughter was born, and ask your current employer if you can work part-time.
5 Financial independence
Financial independence is a great enabler. It is a means, not the end, to building a wonderful life.
You thought I would say FI is the ultimate form of independence, didn’t you? The greatest value of financial independence is that it gives you the means to achieve time independence.
There are two reasons that FI isn’t synonymous with TI:
- Some people reach FI and either don’t realize it or are afraid to take control of their time. These people have FI, but not TI.
- Some people reach TI simply because they have the job and the hours they want. These people have TI, but not FI.
The benefits of FI don’t stop with TI. FI also gives you the means for location and social independence. With FI, you can—for the most part—be where you want to be, spent time with those you love, and do what you want with your time!
FI enables me to live in my dream location in Colorado. It enables me to be in nature daily with a forest, trail, and lake just steps away. Most importantly, it allows me to spend much more time with my family.
I love being able to pick up my daughter from school every day now! She used to be in childcare until 5pm many days, and that made me feel guilty sometimes. FI has relieved me from that guilt.
What is your ‘why’ for FI?
6 Summary
The word ‘independence’ brings a lot of emotion with it. It’s one of 3 ‘unalienable’ rights given to all Americans via the Declaration of Independence: Life, Liberty (Independence), and the pursuit of Happiness.
We all want to be free. To pursue our own individual goals and dreams. To live life on our terms.
The four types of independence allow you to do what you want,
- when you want (TI),
- where you want (LI),
- with who you want to do it (SI) because
- you can afford to make those decisions with your life (FI).
Which type of independence do you have the most of today?
Which do you have the least of?
What is your plan to ‘SILITIFI your life’ by reaching true independence in all 4 areas?
I’d love to hear your answers on social media or through the contact page!
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