Cash Fast! Making It in the Modern World

It’s as pervasive as the wind, and it’s as old as the hills… Make a ton of money and retire early! Become Financially Independent and Retire Early.  Master the market and become a day-trader.  Invest in real estate and become a tycoon.  More money, more sex, more parties, more… More… MORE!

Before I deliver the sweetness, I’m going to tell a little story to make the journey more meaningful.  I was recently watching a movie about Kenny Saylors, called Facing the Fat.  He started out fit and athletic, but the modern world got to him.  He liked the taste, he liked the feelings from eating, so he kept doing it until it was way too much.  He had become severely overweight, and he decided he was going to do something about it.  He decided to stop eating for 40 days.  The movie looks at the implications of over-eating and documents his personal journey through the process.

A few days ago, my oldest son was battling with a similar problem.  He asked, “If we’re supposed to eat good things, like kale and such, why doesn’t it taste better?  Wouldn’t we have evolved to appreciate the tastes of the things that are better for us, and to not like the taste of things that can become toxic, like sugar?”  We had recently watched That Sugar Film, but because of his ADHD, he only remembered the main message (which I’m glad hit home).  I explained that in the “real world”, things like sugar, salt, and fat are rare.  And when we find them, our survival was dependent upon gluttonously consuming as much of it as possible, so we could tough out the drought between these opportunities.  However, because of advances in technology we’re able to mine salt, extract sugar, and press oil and put it into everything. This technology has advanced faster than we have.  Those who make food products found that the right combinations of flavor sells more of that product, so they turn it up to eleven.

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You see, the real problem comes when we become desensitized. For example, a little sugar is great.  It tells us that the fruit we’re eating is desirable, and we make sure to eat all of it, including the fibre, etc.  An apple is delicious!  But an apple right after you brush your teeth tastes nasty!  Why? Because you’ve had so much intense sweetness that your body thinks the natural sweet is now sour.  The same thing comes from overeating.  The first few times you overeat, it hurts.  Your stomach has to stretch to get all the goodies in there.  But, after eating like that, it takes more and more food to “feel full.”  Just like the sugar overload, you adapt, our needs expand to fill the available resources and “too much is never enough.”  In The Four Hour Body, I was re-introduced to the positive effects of “intermittent fasting”, in which the body, through scarcity, enters a new mode of healing and increased health.  After doing this only a few times, I was amazed at the natural size my stomach shrank back down to.  I now have a far more healthy perspective of the right amount to eat for a meal — when it hurts, it’s too much.

Just like the food manufacturers who are fine with you eating junk food until you starve from malnutrition at 600lbs, the creators of luxury automobiles, boutique vodka, and McMansions are fine with you working yourself to death in pursuit of “a comfortable lifestyle” when you retire.  The problem is, after working 100 hour weeks, eating garbage food because you’re always in a hurry, and drinking so much coffee to push your productivity that you need a six-pack of small batch craft beer to even get to sleep once you push through the wall.

So, whether you end up flipping properties, internet marketing, becoming a landlord, running your own business, day-trading, or joining a pyramid scheme, it takes that up front investment of your time and money to be good at your new “skill” you intend to leverage for your non-stop stream of passive cash flow.  And that’s on top of your normal commitments to school, work, family… oh, and don’t forget about health, unlike the other ones, it will come back with a vengeance when you’ve ignored it for too long.

Maybe instead of looking to make cash fast, you need to go on a cash fast, instead.  Let yourself get used to having less, living simpler, and taking more time to do what’s “right”.  You do remember why you started down the path of independence, don’t you?  So you could “live the life you’ve always wanted.”  What is that life?  Why not just start living it?  You might just find that like your first bite of apple after a fast, life is just so much sweeter than you ever remembered.