Last week, a vicious incident happened in Guangzhou that surprised everyone:

The dean and doctoral supervisor of a college of Guangzhou University stabbed the director of the Science and Technology Department of the same school and his wife to death in the underground garage. The dean and the director of science and technology are still brothers.

There are all kinds of speculations about the inside story of this matter.

Based on my understanding of the academic ecology of colleges and universities for many years, most experts and scholars at this level have been in a carefree state, and most of their energy will be devoted to academics. What motivates a scholar at the peak of his career to do such a bloody and cruel thing?

Presumably it has something to do with money.

You may not understand that in a university, the scientific research director is the administrative person in charge of the allocation of scientific research funds in the whole school, and whether many projects can be established depends on this scientific research director.

Will a doctoral supervisor go to the extreme of working with colleagues in order to win project funds? ?

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Last month, there was a public opinion fermentation event:

On June 5, a female executive, the general manager of a real estate enterprise in Nanjing, fell to her death without warning at the age of 44.

As for the reason for the fall of the horse, some news reports said that it was because the leaders were dissatisfied with the performance at the meeting, publicly criticized the female executive and hinted that she would take over the position of general manager.

These two news protagonists, one is a doctoral tutor and the other is a strong woman in business. They are more successful than many people. They should be regarded as a stable middle class, but one is an enemy and the other is self-defeating and has a tragic ending.

We don't know why the tragedy happened. According to people around them, both of them are cheerful and positive, and they are by no means troubled by depression.

From the analysis of known plots, it may all be because of the pressure brought by people around, such as the censure of colleagues and superiors, or feeling that they are not capable, or that their career has not developed, life is hopeless, and they have gone to extremes.

The psychological mechanism that causes extreme behavior is nothing more than extreme anxiety and insecurity.

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What makes me a little shudder is that the protagonists of these two events are in the upper-middle stage and their social status is above average, so as a middle-aged person, I can't help but think of the situation and way out of the middle-aged person.

Whether our cause is successful or not, we must accept two realities:

First, whether it is after 90, 80 or 70, every day we are moving towards middle age, or we are already middle-aged;

Second, middle-aged people are not as responsive and creative as young people. In this highly competitive environment, the social atmosphere will become more and more unfriendly to middle-aged people.

Stress in middle age is inevitable.

Do middle-aged people have to die in front of this natural law?

Is the road to middle age the road to insecurity and instability?

Of course not. I am moving towards middle age, and I can say for sure that this is a solid front.

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The life after middle age that many middle-aged people yearn for is to realize the freedom of life. The ultimate goal of my financial planning is the planning of life freedom.

But have you ever thought about what freedom of life is?

Some people say that freedom of life is financial freedom. From one day on, you can stop worrying about living expenses and work for your life, but you can work for your own interests.

Yes, not exactly.

Although financial freedom is one of the thresholds of life freedom, it seems to be different from the murderer and the suicide executive.

It is not difficult to realize financial freedom whether it is a doctoral tutor with a prosperous career or a famous enterprise executive who becomes a vassal of the business community: as far as I know, doctoral tutors in Guangzhou universities have stable income and worry-free retirement; It is not uncommon for the project director of well-known real estate enterprises to earn more than one million yuan a year.

Seeing "victory" in sight, why don't they live in middle age?

So I think there is still a threshold for freedom of life, which should be the freedom of mind and thought. To put it more bluntly, it is a state of not caring about anything, a state of wanting nothing, a state of freedom, and a state of complete consciousness.

Because there is no care and no pressure, I can care about the world and do things more calmly.

Freedom of thought and financial freedom are the left and right legs of freedom of life. Only with steady steps can life move forward steadily.

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How to achieve the goal of double harvest of wealth and ideas?

Some people say that life is a practice, and in the end, you will fly high and be free. But it's so mysterious.

According to my own practice, first of all, of course, it is necessary to establish a financial planning based on rational evaluation as soon as possible, but financial planning can be completed not by blindly setting a number and time target, but by a belief from the end.

What do you mean, start at the end?

It is to achieve financial freedom through financial planning, with this as the goal and as the starting power of life struggle. Only by knowing how long it will take you to achieve financial freedom and what you know can you do things more calmly, detached and open-minded;

At the same time, financial freedom cannot be regarded as the ultimate goal. Financial freedom is both an end point and a new starting point. The purpose of realizing financial freedom is to live a better life and create new glory, otherwise it is easy to fall into nothingness.

To tell the truth, my anxiety about starting a business is by no means less than others. Before, there was pressure from giants on our company, and then there were countless rising stars trying to catch up, as well as the rapidly changing and unpredictable financial market and regulatory environment, but I was anxious at best, but I was never anxious.

Because I am engaged in the financial planning industry, I made my retirement plan and children's education plan early, so when I struggle, I will know that I have a buffer there.

With this certainty, when encountering obstacles, we will never treat them negatively and solve problems by hurting ourselves and others.

Therefore, I am determined to become a middle-aged Buddhist-trying to benefit all sentient beings and looking down on the troubles in the world.

I really like this state. I hope my friends, fans and people I can influence can live such a middle-aged life.

About the author:

Sun Zhan Ming

He graduated from the School of Mathematics of Sun Yat-sen University with a master's degree in statistics, an international financial planner, a candidate actuary in North America, a professional tutor in the Department of Finance and Statistics of Sun Yat-sen University, and the founder of the financial education platform.