[quote=spdrun]Coronita – what don’t you get? One may want to be independent of having to work as soon as possible, not when they’re 60 or 70, with bad knees and health problems. Did very well with COVID and will likely do even better in the future … airline, transport, and travel stocks are still beat to fucking hell and will likely pop when a vaccine is announced. Property in urban areas that I like will also likely take a fucking in the next year. Estate sales, coming riiiight up. I like condos, but they’re out of fashion for now since you can’t socially distance as easily.[/quote]

But that’s a fallacy. You aren’t financially independent right now , or in the past. You still work. Yes, you run your own small consulting biz. But instead of working for an employer, you work directly for customers. They ask you to jump you say how high. You’re limited by the number of customers you have and subject to the risk of them cancelling biz with you. And it sounds like you have to be very careful on what you spend money on, even when it comes to basic essentials, no different like anyone else. You still have a boss, still have to work, and if you make less than a comparable peer employed at a company for an extended period of time, still further away from financial independence from a salaried peer.