Financial freedom is not free

Question: Is it difficult to achieve financial freedom? —asked at “Ask a friend, ask Efren” free service available at www.personalfinance.ph, Facebook and SMS.

Answer: One day, I brought my wife’s folding bike to our neighborhood bike repair shop to have the twist shift gear control repaired. Earlier, I saw that the cable connecting the shift gear to the mechanism attached to the rear wheel was disconnected. However, even after reattaching it, the gears of the bike would not change and so the bike was stuck at the lowest gear (i.e. slowest speed).

A young man came out in his very dirty work clothes. You could see from his hands the difficult manual labor he goes through every single day. Forgive my being too observant but the tips of his fingernails were painted not a la French tip but with grease. Yet, there was this air of cheerfulness about him.

He diagnosed that the internal plastic mechanism of the twist shift gear control was cracked beyond repair and that they did not have any replacement part for it. So, I immediately launched into a global search, starting with a popular online shopping app all the way to the website of the bike’s manufacturer. Alas, I could not find any original part, not even a replacement.

Just as my hopes were about to be dashed, the young repairman came up with a brilliant idea of installing a different kind of branded gear shift, the one that uses paddles. And just like in a roller coaster, my hopes were immediately brought back up. But as the repairman was trying to install the replacement part, he realized that it would not connect to the gear mechanism attached to the rear wheel.

It didn’t take long for the repairman to exclaim with a smile, “Hindi kaya ng powers ko.” Loosely translated, the repairman said his solution would not work and that he cannot think of any other. Just then, my hopes were dashed. I worried that my wife would not be able to use her bike because it would be difficult to pedal (i.e. being always stuck in low gear). It would transform into a stationary bike.

So, I just asked the repairman to keep the cable of the old twist shift gear attached to the mechanism at the rear wheel, pull on the other end and lock it onto one of the nuts on the handle bar so that the bike’s gear would always be on highest level. After he did so, I asked him how much I owed. He had every right to ask for some payment for half an hour’s labor spent on the bike.

But with that same smile that beamed and never left his face from the time I entered the repair shop, he said I owed him nothing as he was not really able to repair the broken gear.

Now that’s financial freedom. Did it cost him? You bet!

It cost him a simple smile and the view that he probably ingrained in his mind over many years that money is not everything nor the only thing.

After all, it is written in the Interview with God that a rich person is not who has the most but one who needs the least.

Financial freedom does not come free. As I put in my FB post, you get financial freedom with discipline, determination, selflessness, support of family and friends, and most important of all, with faith.