Today’s post tells the story of the typical middle-class citizen: a tale of debt, work and consumption.

Although this story features plenty of stress, poor health and environmental destruction, it’s not all bad. In fact, very few young people will be able to fully escape this story at the start of their careers. 

The trick is simply to step off at the right time and build your own story. 

The self-strengthening cycle

It’s far too easy to miss your exit and get stuck in the vicious cycle illustrated below.

Once you get yourself deep into debt and a typical high-expense consumer lifestyle, it becomes very hard to get out again. 

Working for money first and purpose second almost guarantees that your job will be a stressful battle of willpower. 

And humans tend to respond to stress and willpower with consumption, often of the self-destructive kind. This is the root of the deeply flawed work-to-earn-money-to-buy-happiness mindset. 

Once that mindset takes hold, the cycle is locked in place. 

The great escape

For those saddled with big debt, an expensive lifestyle and a stressful job done mainly for the money, bailing out is tough.

These consumers typically have almost no financial resilience, giving them very little leverage. In the short run, they simply have no choice but to keep running in the orange circle illustrated above.  

Escaping this situation will require a concerted effort over several years to increase life efficiency and build up enough financial resilience to escape. 

However, early and proactive investments in life efficiency and financial resilience can make the transition a whole lot smoother. 

The make or break years

Those at the start of their careers with limited experience and wealth will often have little choice but to enter the vicious cycle above (mainly via student debt and a large home loan). 

These are the make or break years.

You can either set yourself up for an eternity on the consumerist hamster wheel, or you can lay the foundation for a (considerably longer and healthier) life of liberty and purpose. 

Luckily, if you manage the transition, the path of liberty and purpose is also self-sustaining. In fact, so much so that one needs to be careful not to get too caught up in it. 

We’ll get back to that tomorrow…