I wanted to share an interesting thing I noticed over the years of taking steps towards the wonderful world of Financial Independence. There was a time when the debt of my house and cars created a monthly expense that was near equal to my total income. Basically meaning I had to work constantly just to maintain the lifestyle at the time. The classic paycheck to paycheck lifestyle. I call that working for bread. Over the past 5 years or so I have taken many steps including living more minimalistically as well as paying down debts, selling the cars, refinancing my mortgage into lower interest rates, etc. Nowadays I'm not making any more money than I used to. However at this point only about a half of my income goes towards the lifestyle around me. The rest of the money I earn is going towards, well, whatever I want it to. I call that working for butter. And you know what? I enjoy working for that butter soooo much more than I enjoy working for the bread. Same job, same time, same requirements, but it's less stressful. All because I know in the back of my mind that the money I'm earning isn't a requirement just to survive. It's fun money. It's play money. It's money that in many respects I really don't need. I need bread to survive. The butter just makes it sweeter.