This is post #18 from the 30 Day Personal Finance Challenge: Boost Your Financial Health with a Daily Tip!
As I was thinking about my future lifestyle in 2022 after I become financially independent, I came upon an article published on the World Economic Forum website: Welcome to 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better*
The article presents a possible future scenario. What stuck with me were the futuristic yet very believable concepts:
Free clean energy
First communication became digitized and free to everyone. Then, when clean energy became free, things started to move quickly.
The death of ownership
Everything you considered a product, has now become a service. One by one transportation, accommodation, food and all things we need became free, so it ended up not making sense for us to own much.
We don’t need these items anymore:
- A Car – we could call a driverless vehicle or a flying car for longer journeys within minutes
- An apartment – in our city we don’t pay any rent because someone else is using our free space whenever we do not need it
- Any appliances – the necessary kitchen equipment is delivered at my door within minutes
The death of shopping
Shopping? I can’t really remember what that is. For most of us, it has been turned into choosing things to use.
Durability, repairability, and recyclability
When products turn into services, no one has an interest in things with a short life span. Everything is designed for durability, repairability, and recyclability.
The effect on the environment
Environmental problems seem far away, since we only use clean energy and clean production methods. The air and the water is clean. In the cities we have plenty of green space and plants and trees all over.
I find this fascinating and I wanted to connect it to the world of personal finance. The decisions we take today are the foundation of our future. If we want the right future, we need to make the right decisions today.
Some companies even employ a full-time ‘futurist’ to help predict social/ economic /technological trends. All these future possibilities might become enough of reality within 10-15 years:
- Alternative energy sources (wind/solar/hydro) produce more power than fossil fuels
- Battery powered and hybrid vehicles outnumber gas powered vehicles
- Home 3-D printing significantly disrupts shipping of physical products
- Global food culture shifts
- Driver-less cars make collision insurance obsolete
- Facebook, Google, online and mobile payment players offering retail banking and loans services
- Routine medical checkups are completed free of human doctors
- Low cost, online higher education gains real legitimacy, significantly disrupts brick and mortar colleges
So, have you thought what the assets of the future will be?! It surely makes sense to think about it when you make your financial and investment decisions.
* Author of the original article published on the World Economic Forum website is Ida Auken Member of Parliament, Parliament of Denmark.
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