Why The FaceApp “Old Age” Filter Is The Ultimate Early Retirement Motivational Tool

You’ll one day be old. Much older than you are now.

So will I.

If we’re lucky.

But it’s difficult to imagine such distant fates when we’re young and carefree.

Well, FaceApp’s old age filter drops the hammer on you and gives you a dose of what’s potentially to come.

Personally, I think it’s great.

I think this filter is the ultimate early retirement motivational tool.

Now, I’m not recommending you go and download FaceApp. There have been some concerns regarding privacy and how the app can access and retain your information, but I don’t see how it’s any worse than social media or almost anything else digital these days.

Regardless, I recently downloaded (then quickly deleted) the app and took the old age filter for a spin.

While most people are using this filter for funsies only, the realistic nature of the generated photo really jolted me.

And it gave me some perspective.

That’s You

When I took my picture, uploaded it to the app, and then applied the filter, what came back to me was… well, me.

Except not me.

It’s what could very well be me in about 40 or so years. Again, if I’m fortunate enough to live a long life.

So I’m sitting here, looking at this photo. A photo of someone so familiar, yet so alien.

And it dawned on me.

This guy is staring at me, reaching back through time, and telling me to make sure I do the right things today so that he can exist and be happy, healthy, and wealthy.

This old man doesn’t want to struggle or have regrets because the me of today is making poor choices. He doesn’t want to have aches and pains. This guy certainly doesn’t want to be broke.

Old me is looking at young me square in the face and saying:

“Listen, young fella. Don’t be an idiot. I don’t want to be broke and miserable. I want to have lived life on my terms and made my – our – dreams come true. Let me look back and be proud of you. Don’t saddle me with your problems. I’m an old man, yes. But I can be as happy, healthy, and wealthy as you’ll allow me to be. Make the most of me so that I can make the most of you and these last years that I have left.”

Before he trails off,  he adds one more thing:

“Don’t wait until you look like me to live life on your terms. Life is short and precious. Take advantage of your freedom today.”

Listen To Yourself

Sure. This guy doesn’t actually exist. He’s not really talking to me.

It’s just an app. Just a picture.

Or is it?

I think there’s a lot to be said for the power of manifestation.

I took advantage of this power back in 2014, imagining a future version of myself who was already financially independent. That future version of myself existed, in my mind, as real as anyone walking around exists today. And because I believed he was real, I did what I thought he would do in order to be real. Then he became real.

I quit my miserable car dealership job in May 2014. And I became financially independent in March 2016, at 33 years old.

I lived below my means, intelligently invested my capital, became financially independent, and retired as early as possible.

All because I saw what was coming and got out in front of it.

Well, that same principle applies here.

If you apply a filter and see a realistic version of yourself when you’re old, you see with your own two eyes what’s potentially going to come. There’s no imagining necessary.

Look at yourself. Listen to yourself.

Just think of what that much older version of yourself is telling the you of today.

All of the lessons that an extra 20, 30, or 40 years of life experience can provide are being thrown at you.

You don’t want that future version of yourself stumbling around in poor health and poor wealth. You don’t want to have to show up to some job you don’t like in your 60s or 70s because you didn’t plan for the future. I don’t believe for a second you’d want to eventually become this person and finally have all the time and freedom you always craved… only to find your physical self well past its prime.

A year is not a year. A year in your 70s or 80s is not the same as a year in your 30s or 40s. Years in your youth are worth so much more, especially since it’s very possible that those older years never come at all.

With this older version of yourself staring right at you, looking older and weary, I think they’re saying something loud and clear:

“Live below your means, intelligently invest your money, become financially independent, and retire as early as possible!”

Become free. Right now.

Do this so that you have that collection of incredible memories when you meet this older you. Put this person in an amazing position in life.

This older version of yourself doesn’t want to finally start to live life on their terms and make their dreams come true, now that they’re old and worn out from years of busting their behind. They want to be able to sit back and reminisce on all of the years of living life on their terms and making their dreams come true while they were young enough to fully enjoy and take advantage of it all.

They want years of a well-lived life to cherish.

You want those years of a well-lived life.

Start living life on your terms, today, because this person is going to come. And they’re going to come sooner than you might think.

Conclusion

I posted this picture on my Twitter and Facebook accounts.

And someone said this in response:

“This is what you would have looked like if you would have stuck with the dealership job.”

Amen to that.

I’m not sure exactly what I’ll look like when I’m 80. We’ll see if I’m fortunate enough to meet that older version of myself.

But if I become him, I know that I’ll be able to smile as I look back on a well-lived life that was all built on financial independence and early retirement at a very young age.

If that’s not the ultimate motivation to retire early, I don’t know what is.

Feeling motivated?

Then be sure to check out 5 Steps To Retire In 5 Years, my recent best-selling book, for more on how exactly to retire as soon as humanly possible.

As I took one last glance at this photo of my older self before I deleted the app, I noticed something.

It was a glimmer. Something sly. Perhaps a knowing encouragement. As if everything has already worked out, and this old man is happy, healthy, and collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars in passive income every year – which he uses to give back and improve the world through philanthropic endeavors.

I’ll see you in the future, old man!

What do you think? Have you used this FaceApp filter? Did you find it motivating? 

Thanks for reading.

P.S. If you’re ready to retire as early as possible, take a look at some awesome tools I personally used on my way to becoming financially free at 33!