The Back Door to the Present
The Art of Being Here and Preparing There
The strangest thing about planning for the future is how much freedom it gives you right now.
Not someday. Today.
Most people think saving for tomorrow means sacrificing today. But the opposite is true: every dollar you move toward independence expands your choices in the present.
This is the paradox most people miss — and the reason so many stay stuck between spending and saving without ever finding their rhythm.
Here’s how I started thinking about this:
Yesterday I saw a post from a well-known financial writer:
“If your kid invests their summer job money, it could grow into $1,000,000 by retirement.”
My nerd-alert went off immediately.
I opened a spreadsheet.
I started calculating.
And sure enough:
If my oldest daughter earned $450 a week for one summer, invested it once, and never added another dime, she’d have roughly $1,000,000 at age 70.
That’s the power of time.
The power of early.
The power of letting compounding work long after you’ve forgotten about it.
Then the very first comment under the post said,
“Or we could just let kids be kids.”
And that comment was also… right.
Two views of the same moment.
Two ways of valuing time.
Two opposing good ideas.
Welcome to the tension at the center of personal finance:
the constant pull between now and the future.
The Real Financial Question Most People Are Asking
Every money decision sits inside this tug-of-war:
Should I enjoy this now? You only live once.
Or should I invest this now because my future self will thank me?
But when you zoom out, the real question beneath both is this:
What is the best use of my time — today and tomorrow?
Money, on its own, is a weak comparison point.
But money compared to time?
It shrinks. Almost to nothing.
Money’s job is to protect your time —
so you can spend your life the way you actually want to.
Where People Get Stuck: The Two Camps
Most people fall into one of two extremes — both of which create friction.
Camp 1: The “Now” Camp
Everything is about the present moment.
Money is for spending, experiences are for today, and the future is a foggy abstraction.
There’s beauty in this — Eckhart Tolle is right: the only moment we ever truly have is now.
But if you live only for now, society’s treadmill will eventually push you backward.
Every dollar spent without intention is a dollar moving away from independence.
Camp 2: The “Future” Camp
These are the hardcore FIRE people.
Every dollar optimized.
Every joy deferred.
Every present moment sacrificed on the altar of “later.”
There’s wisdom here.
But there’s also danger:
You can accidentally accumulate money and starve your actual life.
The Cadence of Expectation and Surprise
As a musician, I’ve always believed that great songs live in the tension between expectation and surprise.
Too much expectation — the piece becomes predictable and boring.
Too much surprise — it collapses into chaos with no structure, no coherence, no motif.
This isn’t just a metaphor.
Leonard Meyer’s Emotion and Meaning in Music argued that musical pleasure comes from how the brain manages expectations. Modern research confirms:
Fully predictable music disengages the listener.
Fully random music overwhelms them.
The sweet spot lies in the balance between the two.
Hit songs use harmonic surprise strategically.
Melodic question-and-answer phrasing thrives on this principle:
first you set an expectation, then you offer a meaningful variation.
This is exactly the tension between now and later:
Live only for now → a predictable song with no soul.
Live only for later → a structureless surprise with no pattern.
A meaningful life needs both —
the grounded structure of expectation and the enlivening surprise of the unknown.
Your financial and life decisions follow the same musical law.
People Notice When You Live This Way
When I was on the BiggerPockets Money podcast, Mindy Jensen closed our episode by saying something that stuck with me:
“Andrew, you seem to live in the now while planning for the future.”
I had never heard it phrased that way before, but it captured exactly what I’m trying to do —
and exactly what I think most people want.
Not live only for joy now.
Not live only for security later.
But find a rhythm where the present has meaning
and
the future has shape.
Mindy noticed it because it’s rare.
Most of us default to one camp or the other.
Finding the middle takes awareness, intention, and practice — just like music.
That’s the whole point of a cadence:
a steady, intentional tempo that holds both expectation and surprise…
both now and later…
in balance.
The Back Door to the Present
Here’s the paradox:
Future-planning — when done with intention — is actually a back-door strategy for protecting the present.
Every dollar you invest toward independence increases your freedom right now.
It gives you flexibility today.
It reduces stress today.
It expands choices today.
Investing for the future is an act of reclaiming the present.
Meanwhile, spending thoughtlessly in the present often mortgages your future and compresses your now — because debt, obligation, and dependence shrink your options.
Future-planning and present-living are not opposites.
They are partners in rhythm.
Living in the Middle Is Countercultural
The middle path — the cadence — is the hardest to follow.
Our culture rewards:
impulsive spending now (“upgrade! treat yourself!”)
reactive panic about the future (“buy! sell! optimize! hurry!”)
But quietly prioritizing both?
Protecting today and tomorrow?
Choosing a steady tempo?
That’s countercultural.
If you don’t set your own rhythm, the world will set the tempo for you —
and you probably won’t like it.
Leaving your financial life to chance almost guarantees drifting backward,
not because you’re irresponsible,
but because the default setting of our world is consumption and urgency.
Your cadence must be intentional.
Finding Your Cadence
Morgan Housel has a line I come back to again and again:
“The best way to make decisions is to minimize future regrets.”
That’s the heart of it.
That’s the cadence.
Ask your future self:
If I do this now, how will I feel in 10 years?
If I don’t do this now, how will I feel in 10 years?
If I spend this, will I regret losing tomorrow?
If I invest this, will I regret missing today?
You’re not predicting the future.
You’re conducting a small anthropological study of your own life.
Your cadence — the rhythm that keeps you balanced — emerges from those reflections.
It’s the tempo that lets you be fully alive today
while steadily building your freedom for tomorrow.
The Holy Grail: Living Now and Later
The goal isn’t to sacrifice the present for the future.
And it’s not to live only for today at the expense of tomorrow.
The goal is to build a life where:
You’re alive today.
You’re prepared tomorrow.
And your money quietly protects your time in the background.
Not by racing.
Not by grinding.
Not by chasing.
But by practicing.
This is the space between now and later.
This is where your cadence lives.
Because in the end, money isn’t the point.
Time is.
Your rhythm is how you protect it.
Your cadence is how you live it.