All this talk about financial security has recently caught some fire, with bloggers like Kyith from Investment Moats (here) and LP from Bully The Bear (here) talking about it.

But when they get comments like “where’s the entertainment expenses?” or “what about parents’ allowances?”, I start to wince.

Entertainment? Nah, not when I am just trying to just survive…

It’s apparent that the message did not get across well and the distinction between financial security and financial independence is blurry to most at best. In fact, I would even argue that there is also a difference between survival and security expenses, as explained below.

Financial Survival

The type of situation that forces one to switch on financial survival mode is rare.

I can think of one, though: A budding entrepreneur with a stay-at-home wife (likely looking after the kids). Before he takes on the risk of ...