{"id":9603,"date":"2019-07-07T19:18:34","date_gmt":"2019-07-07T17:18:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/schweizerfinanzblog.ch\/financial-freedom-hype-or-a-goal-worth-striving-for\/"},"modified":"2019-07-07T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-07-06T22:00:00","slug":"financial-freedom-hype-or-a-goal-worth-striving-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/schweizerfinanzblog.ch\/en\/financial-freedom-hype-or-a-goal-worth-striving-for\/","title":{"rendered":"Financial freedom: hype or a goal worth pursuing?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Who wouldn&#8217;t want to escape the daily hamster wheel and become financially free? Financial freedom and financial independence \u2013 these glittering buzzwords are on everyone&#8217;s lips these days. But what do they actually mean? Which factors are decisive in achieving financial freedom? You&#8217;ll find the answers to these and other questions in this post.<\/strong> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/pl01.owen.prolitteris.ch\/na\/plzm.169d0c92-d1b9-41dc-a11f-95ae6763dead\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\"\/><\/p>\n\n<link rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"https:\/\/schweizerfinanzblog.ch\/wp-content\/themes\/schweizerfinanzblog\/components\/post-info-component\/post-info-component.css?v=3\">\n<div class=\"post-info-component sfb-post-info-autoren\">\n\t\t<span class=\"sfb-post-info-bilder\">\n\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"sfb-autor-bild\" src=\"https:\/\/schweizerfinanzblog.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/stefan_bw_round-autor-240.webp\" alt=\"Stefan Huser\" width=\"40\" height=\"40\" loading=\"lazy\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"sfb-autor-bild\" src=\"https:\/\/schweizerfinanzblog.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/toni_bw_round-1-autor-240.webp\" alt=\"Antun Brcina\" width=\"40\" height=\"40\" loading=\"lazy\">\t<\/span>\n\t\t<div class=\"sfb-post-info-text\">\n\t\t<div class=\"von-and-comments sfb-post-info-namen\">\n\t\tBy <a href=\"https:\/\/schweizerfinanzblog.ch\/en\/author\/stefan-huser\/\">Stefan Huser<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/schweizerfinanzblog.ch\/en\/author\/antun-brcina\/\">Antun Brcina<\/a>\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<div class=\"post-dates\">Published on <time class=\"entry-date published\" datetime=\"2019-07-07T19:18:34+02:00\">7.7.2019<\/time><\/div>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<a class=\"sfb-post-info-kommentare\" href=\"#comments\">2 Comments<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Let&#8217;s get one thing straight from the start: achieving financial freedom without an inheritance or the like is definitely <strong>not a sprint but a marathon.<\/strong> But there is some consolation for us \u201cordinary mortals\u201d: average earners quite often manage to become financially free, while many high earners can&#8217;t, because of their lavish lifestyle combined with a lack of financial literacy.<\/p>\n\n<div id=\"toc_container\" class=\"no_bullets\"><p class=\"toc_title\">Contents<\/p><ul class=\"toc_list\"><li><a href=\"#From_quick_riches_straight_to_bankruptcy\">From quick riches straight to bankruptcy<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#Financial_freedom_vs_financial_independence\">Financial freedom vs. financial independence<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#What_financial_freedom_comes_down_to\">What financial freedom comes down to<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#Examples_of_passive_income\">Examples of passive income<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#Financially_free_now_what\">Financially free \u2013 now what?<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#How_to_become_financially_free_in_just_88_years\">How to become financially free in just 8.8 years<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#Financially_free_with_20_times_your_annual_expenses\">Financially free with 20 times your annual expenses<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#Step_by_step_to_financial_freedom\">Step by step to financial freedom<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#Conclusion\">Conclusion<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#You_might_also_be_interested_in\">You might also be interested in<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#Disclaimer\">Disclaimer<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span id=\"From_quick_riches_straight_to_bankruptcy\">From quick riches straight to bankruptcy<\/span><\/h2>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Just think of the many <strong>dramas of former multimillionaires<\/strong> from the world of sport (see the Watson article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.watson.ch\/sport\/fussball\/998968753-nur-noch-am-tresen-stehen-und-saufen-22-fussball-stars-die-pleitegingen\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">\u201cJust standing at the bar and drinking \u2013 22 football stars who went bankrupt\u201d<\/a>) and show business (a striking example is Curtis Jackson, once the most successful rapper and better known as \u201c50 Cent\u201d; in 2015 a bankruptcy court confirmed his insolvency, as well as his running costs of USD 108,000 \u2013 per month!). All of them ran into serious financial trouble after the peak of their careers. Not to mention the many former lottery millionaires who ended up broke.<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span id=\"Financial_freedom_vs_financial_independence\">Financial freedom vs. financial independence<\/span><\/h2>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But what exactly do we mean by financial freedom or financial independence?<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Following the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mrmoneymustache.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">FIRE movement<\/a> (\u201cFinancial Independence, Retire Early\u201d) and the frugalist scene, we use the following definition:<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Financial freedom<\/strong> = being able to live exclusively on passive income streams, without a budget, i.e. essentially without any restrictions on spending.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Financial independence<\/strong> = being able to live exclusively on passive income streams within the scope of your current spending.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Financial independence is therefore <strong>a preliminary stage of financial freedom.<\/strong> For the sake of simplicity, we will only use the term financial freedom from here on. In other words, we assume that all our financial needs and wishes can be covered by our current spending. So the following applies: <strong>financial freedom = financial independence.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span id=\"What_financial_freedom_comes_down_to\">What financial freedom comes down to<\/span><\/h2>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"font-size: 24pt;\"><em>\u201cThe goal of financial freedom is to be able to live on passive cash flows from investments.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To become financially free, you need to go through the following <strong>three steps over and over again<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Earn money<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Save the money you earn<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/schweizerfinanzblog.ch\/investieren\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Invest<\/a> the money you save profitably<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The goal is to be able to live on passive cash flows from investments and thus to depend neither on an employer (salary) nor on the state (pension).<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Passive cash flows can come in many forms, such as income from <strong>shares<\/strong>, <strong>real estate<\/strong> or <strong>P2P lending<\/strong>. What all these cash flows have in common, however, is that they are <strong>not generated by active work<\/strong> but earned <strong>regardless of how much of your own time you invest<\/strong>. This is such a central aspect of financial freedom that we want to explain it in more detail in the next section.<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span id=\"Examples_of_passive_income\">Examples of passive income<\/span><\/h2>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If, for example, someone holds individual stocks in their <strong>equity portfolio<\/strong>, the income from them is often not passive at all. That&#8217;s because these investors tend to be more or less heavily involved with their portfolio: they study annual reports, attend general meetings, trade, reshuffle and so on. In other words, the income in the form of dividends and realized price gains is generated by active work. <strong>Our recommendation:<\/strong> a buy-and-hold strategy with passive investments in broadly diversified equity ETFs (<a href=\"https:\/\/schweizerfinanzblog.ch\/en\/in-etfs-investing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">see our blog article \u201cETFs: the revolution in investing\u201d<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"font-size: 24pt;\"><em>\u201cRental income generated by managing the property and looking after tenants yourself is not passive income.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It&#8217;s a similar story with <strong>real estate:<\/strong> rental income generated by managing the property and looking after tenants yourself is not passive income. Because here, too, the income in the form of rent is matched by active work. <strong>Our recommendation:<\/strong> a <a href=\"https:\/\/schweizerfinanzblog.ch\/en\/buy-and-hold-5-strong-advantages\/\">buy-and-hold strategy<\/a> with passive investments in broadly diversified real estate ETFs.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Finally, a word on <strong>P2P loans<\/strong>. Here you play bank by lending money to SMEs or private individuals. In return, you receive interest (and bear the default risk). Interest income that requires active risk management, such as checking the borrower and their financing project, is not passive but involves (often nerve-racking) work. <strong>Our recommendation:<\/strong> choose a P2P platform where you can lend with just a few clicks and don&#8217;t have to interact with the borrower. In addition, risk diversification should happen automatically or be built into the system, i.e. without you having to invest countless tiny amounts. (In our view, the Swiss platform \u201cCreditgate24\u201d takes an interesting approach with its automatic risk diversification and its solidarity contribution concept.)<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span id=\"Financially_free_now_what\">Financially free \u2013 now what?<\/span><\/h2>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Once you&#8217;ve achieved financial freedom, you can basically do whatever you like: explore the world, pursue your hobbies, devote yourself to your family or, of course, carry on working in your job. <strong>The latter with the crucial added freedom of simply walking away when it no longer suits you.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"font-size: 24pt;\"><em>\u201cFor us, financial freedom is primarily a matter of being rather than having.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">From this perspective, we consider financial freedom a thoroughly <strong>worthwhile goal<\/strong> (with certain reservations, as we will show in the conclusion below). For us, financial freedom is primarily a matter of being (i.e. living in freedom) rather than having (in the sense of having lots of money), although of course one doesn&#8217;t rule out the other.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><span style=\"color: #339966;\"><i><span style=\"color: #37c392;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #37c392; font-size: 14pt;\"><em>&#8211; P a r t n e r \u00a0 o f f e r &#8211;<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>In our experience, and thanks to its low ETF costs, \u201cDEGIRO\u201d is currently a particularly attractive broker (link to our <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/schweizerfinanzblog.ch\/degiro-review-etf-sparplan-schweiz\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">DEGIRO review<\/a><em>). If you&#8217;re interested, you can sign up with DEGIRO via our <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.degiro.ch\/?tap_a=55321-c5c085&amp;tap_s=1016265-b529be&amp;utm_source=schweizerfinanzblog&amp;utm_campaign=DEGIRO+Switzerland&amp;utm_medium=a&amp;utm_content=shares_lp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">partner link<\/a><em> to secure<strong> trading credits worth CHF 100 <\/strong>(subject to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.degiro.ch\/?tap_a=55321-c5c085&amp;tap_s=1016265-b529be&amp;utm_source=schweizerfinanzblog&amp;utm_campaign=DEGIRO+Switzerland&amp;utm_medium=a&amp;utm_content=shares_lp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">conditions<\/a>) while supporting our blog at the same time.<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.degiro.ch\/?tap_a=55321-c5c085&amp;tap_s=1016265-b529be&amp;utm_source=schweizerfinanzblog&amp;utm_campaign=DEGIRO+Switzerland&amp;utm_medium=a&amp;utm_content=shares_lp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/schweizerfinanzblog.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/DEGIRO_Banner_EN.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6721\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><span style=\"color: #339966;\"><i><span style=\"color: #37c392;\"><strong>&#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211;<\/strong><\/span><\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span id=\"How_to_become_financially_free_in_just_88_years\">How to become financially free in just 8.8 years<\/span><\/h2>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As mentioned above, three factors play a role in financial freedom: income, saving and investing. The basic rule is: the less money you need to live on, the more of your income you can put aside and invest \u2013 and the sooner you can live on the investment income from your assets.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">These three factors can be summarized in the following<strong> two key drivers<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Savings rate: <\/strong>the amount you save relative to your active income<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Investments: <\/strong>broadly diversified, profitable investments<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A high savings rate is likely to be much harder to achieve, as it means going without, i.e. living frugally. By contrast, broadly diversified and potentially profitable investments via passive equity ETFs are very easy to make with just a few clicks <a href=\"https:\/\/schweizerfinanzblog.ch\/etf-kaufen\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">(see this article).<\/a><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Oliver Noelting, probably the best-known frugalist in the German-speaking world, who has set himself the goal of retiring before 40, has set up a corresponding calculator on his blog <a href=\"https:\/\/frugalisten.de\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Frugalisten.de<\/a>. As Figure 1 below strikingly shows, the higher your savings rate, the earlier you can reach your individual retirement age. With a savings rate of 70%, for example, in as little as 8.8 years!<\/p>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/schweizerfinanzblog.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Rechner-f&#xFC;r-finanzielle-Freiheit.png\" alt=\"Financial freedom\" class=\"wp-image-1069\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Figure 1: The higher the savings rate, the sooner you reach financial freedom (source: <a href=\"https:\/\/frugalisten.de\/rechner\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Frugalisten.de<\/a>).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The calculations are based on the following simplifying assumptions:<\/p>\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Your expenses stay the same \u2013 now and during retirement<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Income and return (5%) are net amounts (after tax)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>All amounts are adjusted for inflation<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span id=\"Financially_free_with_20_times_your_annual_expenses\">Financially free with 20 times your annual expenses<\/span><\/h2>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This means you would need to have invested 20 times your annual expenses in order to live off the returns afterwards. With annual expenses of CHF 50,000, you would therefore need an ETF portfolio worth CHF 1 million. Important: in the context of shares or equity ETFs, returns always consist of dividends <strong>and<\/strong> price gains. This means that, in this case, the passive income consists of dividends and\/or proceeds from sales.<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>\u201cIf the focus is not on preserving capital (and on your heirs) but on generating the highest possible passive income for the rest of your life, the road to financial freedom can be considerably shorter.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If we also assume that shares return an average of 8 percent (<a href=\"https:\/\/schweizerfinanzblog.ch\/wieso-investieren-mehr-bringt-als-sparen\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">see our blog article \u201cWhy investing pays off more than saving\u201d<\/a>) and that average inflation does not exceed three percent, then this 5% rule will not eat into the real value of your assets. In other words: if the focus is not on preserving capital (and on your heirs) but on generating the highest possible passive income for the rest of your life, the road to financial freedom can be considerably shorter.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And that assumes constant net returns, which of course is not realistic. Even with a globally well-diversified equity portfolio, more or less <strong>strong fluctuations<\/strong> are the reality. Depending on whether returns are positive or negative at the start of the withdrawal phase, you will end up with inflation-adjusted capital growth or capital depletion.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you are hit by extreme negative events at the start of the withdrawal phase \u2013 so-called <strong>black swans<\/strong> such as the Great Depression from 1929 onwards \u2013 your capital could even run out completely ahead of time. <strong>That&#8217;s why our 5% rule should be understood as a rule of thumb<\/strong> (see also our reply to Oliver&#8217;s input in the comments below). <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the article <a href=\"https:\/\/schweizerfinanzblog.ch\/bester-entnahmeplan-fuer-deine-fruehr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u201cWithdrawal plans: how to retire early with peace of mind<\/a>\u201d, we use historical data to present different ways of funding early retirement. <\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span id=\"Step_by_step_to_financial_freedom\">Step by step to financial freedom<\/span><\/h2>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On your way to financial freedom, it can be motivating to draw up a <strong>cross-off list<\/strong> of all your <strong>major expense items<\/strong>, such as health insurance or taxes, and cross off each one you can already fund with passive income.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Or you can work out the <strong>number of days you&#8217;re already financially free.<\/strong> Based on the example above, this means: if your passive income is currently CHF 10,000, you&#8217;re already financially free for an impressive 73 days a year (365 * 10,000 \/ 50,000). Or, perhaps even more motivating: every time your passive income increases by CHF 137 (50,000 \/ 365), you gain an extra day of financial freedom per year \u2013 for the rest of your life!<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span id=\"Conclusion\">Conclusion<\/span><\/h2>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In our view, financial freedom is fundamentally a <strong>worthwhile goal<\/strong>. After all, it can give you a <strong>sense of security and comfort <\/strong>in life. But for most people, complete financial freedom will probably remain a <strong>pipe dream<\/strong>. The sacrifices are too great and the costly extras too dear to them. You also need to be aware that on the way to financial freedom \u2013 from a purely financial point of view \u2013 you are \u201csacrificing\u201d life in the present for the future. To end on a <strong>conciliatory note<\/strong>, we would like to draw a nuanced conclusion on financial freedom:<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For those who hardly want to save or can hardly afford to, financial freedom is neither achievable nor desirable.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the other end of the spectrum are the <strong>hardcore savers<\/strong>, the so-called frugalists. These folks lead an extremely modest lifestyle as far as consumption and materialism are concerned, often combined with a good income and equally good financial literacy. Naturally, they have the best prerequisites for achieving financial freedom.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For the majority who belong to neither group, the authors included, there is an <strong>interesting middle way:<\/strong> steadily building up your passive income through <strong>conscious spending<\/strong> and <strong>regular investments<\/strong> (e.g. in broadly diversified ETFs), and thereby gradually reducing your financial dependence on others, be it your employer or the state.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If, for example, your passive income reaches 20 percent of your current expenses, you could also reduce your working hours by 20 percent. You can then \u201cinvest\u201d the time you gain in your family, your hobbies or simply in doing nothing, depending on your taste. <strong>Now that&#8217;s a great start!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span id=\"You_might_also_be_interested_in\">You might also be interested in<\/span><\/h2>\n\n<link rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"https:\/\/schweizerfinanzblog.ch\/wp-content\/themes\/schweizerfinanzblog\/components\/post-list-component\/post-list-component.css\">\n\n<div class=\"post-list-componenet pt-2 pb-4\">\n\t<div class=\"row\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t <div class=\"col-xl-6\">\n\t\t\t <a class=\"text-decoration-none\" href=\"https:\/\/schweizerfinanzblog.ch\/en\/bester-entnahmeplan-fuer-deine-fruehrente\/\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"d-flex post-list-card\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"post-list-image \">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"image-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" src=\"https:\/\/schweizerfinanzblog.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Titelbild_freedom-4503959-scaled.jpg\" class=\"attachment-1920x1297 size-1920x1297 wp-post-image\" alt=\"Withdrawal plan\" srcset=\"https:\/\/schweizerfinanzblog.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Titelbild_freedom-4503959-scaled.jpg 2560w, https:\/\/schweizerfinanzblog.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Titelbild_freedom-4503959-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"post-list-title px-2 d-flex align-items-center\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"\">Withdrawal plans: how to ease into early retirement<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t <div class=\"col-xl-6\">\n\t\t\t <a class=\"text-decoration-none\" href=\"https:\/\/schweizerfinanzblog.ch\/en\/minimalism-experiences-less-is-more\/\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"d-flex post-list-card\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"post-list-image \">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"image-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1852\" height=\"1297\" src=\"https:\/\/schweizerfinanzblog.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Titelbild_Minimalismus_klein.jpg\" class=\"attachment-1920x1297 size-1920x1297 wp-post-image\" alt=\"Minimalism\" srcset=\"https:\/\/schweizerfinanzblog.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Titelbild_Minimalismus_klein.jpg 2372w, https:\/\/schweizerfinanzblog.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Titelbild_Minimalismus_klein-768x538.jpg 768w, https:\/\/schweizerfinanzblog.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Titelbild_Minimalismus_klein-1536x1076.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/schweizerfinanzblog.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Titelbild_Minimalismus_klein-2048x1434.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1852px) 100vw, 1852px\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"post-list-title px-2 d-flex align-items-center\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"\">Minimalism experience: less clutter, personal &#038; 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You have to decide for yourself whether you want to take on these risks or not.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Errors excepted:<\/strong> We have written this article to the best of our knowledge and belief. Our aim is to provide you, as a private investor, with information on financial topics that is as objective and meaningful as possible. Should we nevertheless have made mistakes, or if important aspects have been overlooked and\/or are no longer up to date, we would be grateful if you let us know.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Who wouldn&#8217;t want to escape the daily hamster wheel and become financially free? Financial freedom and financial independence \u2013 these glittering buzzwords are on everyone&#8217;s lips these days. But what do they actually mean? Which factors are decisive in achieving financial freedom? You&#8217;ll find the answers to these and other questions in this post. Let&#8217;s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7871,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[181,180],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-financial-freedom","category-investment-strategy"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/schweizerfinanzblog.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/schweizerfinanzblog.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/schweizerfinanzblog.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schweizerfinanzblog.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schweizerfinanzblog.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9603"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/schweizerfinanzblog.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9603\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18691,"href":"https:\/\/schweizerfinanzblog.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9603\/revisions\/18691"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schweizerfinanzblog.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/schweizerfinanzblog.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schweizerfinanzblog.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schweizerfinanzblog.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}