I recently came across the story of a man who retired at 35.

He did it by living on almost nothing — digging through dumpsters for furniture and clothes, eating recently expired canned goods, timing his showers, and wearing whatever he could find for free. After splitting some utilities and internet with his tenant, he spent as little as Singapore $120 a month on everything: electricity, food, transport, and the rest.

To many people, this sounds inspiring. A man who beat the system. Who escaped the fear of losing his job by needing almost nothing to survive it.

I really do respect the discipline.

But reading his story didn’t make me want to copy it. It made me realize how differently he and I define the word “wealth.”

Surviving Is Not the Same as Living

His entire philosophy is built around one fear: losing his job, and not having enough to survive after that.

So he built a life designed to need less. Less food. Less spending. Less exposure to risk. Fewer wants.

It worked. He achieved what he set out to do. He no longer needs an employer, ever again. And I congratulate him for reaching his goal.

But here’s the question I kept asking myself while reading his story:

Is that actually freedom? Or is it just a very well-optimized way of surviving?

Because if money weren’t the constraint; there’s a difference between having enough to get by versus having a life you can actually choose to live .

I Don’t Want to Just Survive

I don’t dumpster dive for furniture, clothes or household items. And I don’t want to eat expired food just to save a few dollars (which he contradict himself by “save on the big ticket items, not on the small ones”). Nor do I want to ration my showers or unplug my life to shrink my expenses down to the bare minimum.

Not because I look down on anyone who does — but because that was never the goal for me.

I want financial freedom for a completely different reason: so I can keep investing, learning, creating, and experiencing life at its fullest, without financial pressure holding me back.

I keep learning new skills, not because I have to, but because growth by learning is part of what makes life feel alive.

To me, these things aren’t luxuries or distractions.

They are the entire point of having freedom in the first place.

A Full Home, Not an Empty One

Like him, I believe in living debt-free.

I’m currently waiting for my replacement flat at Pine Ville @ Ang Mo Kio, expected to complete in Q2 2027. When I collect the keys, I intend to pay for it in full — no mortgage, no decades of repayment.

But that’s where the similarity ends.

His home is functional — furnished from what other people threw away, run on the bare minimum. Mine will be a home I actually enjoy living in, filled with things I chose, not things I happened to find in dumps.

Paying off a home in full isn’t about depriving myself along the way. It’s about removing debt as an obstacle, so I have more — not less — room to spend on the life I actually want.

Different Fears, Different Freedoms

I think this is really the heart of the difference between us.

His freedom is freedom from something — from ever needing a job again, from ever being caught off guard by retrenchment the way his aunt once was.

My freedom is freedom to do something — to build, to create, to explore, to keep growing for as long as I’m alive.

Both of us technically achieve “financial independence.” But what we do with that independence looks almost nothing alike.

He optimized his entire life around minimizing risk.

I choose to optimize mine around maximizing meaning.

The Cost Neither of Us Talks About

To be fair, his path isn’t free of cost, and neither is mine.

His frugality has come with real trade-offs — friends who drifted away, decades of being seen as “the weird one,” a lifestyle so minimal that even he admits he tends to over-save out of habit, long after the fear that started it all has been dealt with.

My path has its own cost too. My challenge isn’t survival — it’s what to do with the time left over once everything else is running smoothly. When your systems are optimized well enough, life stops demanding your constant attention, and staying purposeful with that free time is something you have to choose for yourself, every single day.

Some of that time and money now goes into building health — strength and resistance training regularly and making sure I actually have sufficient time for rest and recovery. Because health is wealth too, and no amount of freedom means much without it. Freedom without direction can be just as wasted as no freedom at all.

Neither of us gets to have it all without giving something up. We just chose different things to give up, based on what we were each actually trying to solve.

My Definition of Wealth

If someone asked me today what wealth means, my answer is simple.

Wealth isn’t the size of your bank account, and it isn’t how little you can survive on either.

It’s waking up each morning knowing my time is mine — and choosing to spend it living fully, not just surviving. The greatest return on any investment was never the money. It’s the freedom to live life on your own terms.

He found a way to never have to worry about money again.

I want more than that. I want a life so full and meaningful, that not worrying about money is simply the starting point — not the destination.