Archive for the ‘Lifestyle’ tag
Financial Abundance
Millionaire Lifestyle
If only I could win lotto. The catch cry of millions, the catch cry of everyone really? I know I wouldn’t scoff at someone giving me a few million dollars. What would you do with a few millions bucks? Big house, car, holidays and maybe a new plasma TV? You’re chasing the ‘life’ of a millionaire, not to be a millionaire. Most of you would get bored not working, which disgusts me and motivates me to try and change your mind.
Here’s an exercise you can do right now; what’s your ideal lifestyle? You might be stuck in a rut at work, bills mounting, living in a dive, but just for a minute take some time to think about what you want. Not a million dollars, quantifiable things, real things.
I’ll give you a few of mine, for me to be ridiculously happy and even more smug than I am now; I want to be living in an apartment in continental Europe, put more time into photography, zooming from city to city on a nice old motorbike and enjoying the delights of Belgian beer with my girlfriend.
The Facts
Now here’s the next part, put some dollar figures to the running costs of your lifestyle; let’s have a look at mine. There’s the odd ‘purchases’ (like the motorbike) but the rest is a general cost of living. I worked out that my ideal lifestyle would cost around $250 per day. So now I’ve got a target and a goal to strive for. If I can generate $250 per day without being employed then as far as I’m concerned, I can live my dream lifestyle.
So let’s cut to the chase, what is financial abundance? I’ll spare you a fair bit of money and time in attending ‘wealth building’ seminars, motivational speaker conferences and trawling the internet for hours on end.
I’m the guy that’s spent thousands of dollars listening to ‘share trading’ gurus tell me that it’s never been a better time to get into the market! It only took me one seminar to realize the good money is in selling tickets to a seminar! (On a sidenote, educate yourself as much as you can)
Having a financially abundant mentality is believing that you’re not working for money, you’re there because you enjoy your job. If you want money you’ve got other resources & income streams up your sleeve. Multiple sources of income include; property, stock market, online marketing, businesses etc.
Too often I’ve had the following conversation with a co-worker;
Me – *usually ranting on about money/life/work etc…*
Co-worker - “Nah I’m pretty comfortable with where I’m at financially”
Me – “So what’d you get out of bed this morning for? Wouldn’t rather a sleep in?”
Co-worker - “Well yeah but there’s bills to pay, you know”
Sometimes, more often than not, the light bulb goes off at this point and they realise what I’m on about. If not then I’m usually wasting my time. People become either complacent or conditioned to what they are used to, don’t forget to dream and look at the bigger picture.
Getting Ahead of the Pack
Once you dive into the rabbit hole, good luck coming out and returning to the working world. As a bit of a background; I thought I was years ahead of the game – I saved all of my pennies from my first job and brought a rental apartment at age 18, went to university, brought my second house at 23 and now I’m ‘stuck’ (if you believe the masses) with half a million dollars of property debt and a 25 year mortgage hanging over my head. And all this by trying to ‘get ahead’ of the pack!
The attempted solution – Over the past couple of years I’ve tried the lot; Google adwords, affiliate marketing, online clickbank sales, selling an online eBook, share trading etc. And I’m sad to say everything failed. I can honestly say that each of these schemes failed, not because I didn’t know what I was doing or flew blindly into a new ‘scheme’, the number one reason was that I just didn’t have the time. I was too busy with ‘work’ (for someone else) and I didn’t have the time to develop these other sources of income. Now that I’ve made the jump and landed in the free world I’m going to be focusing all of my efforts on trying something new and putting a lot more time into my own ‘research and development’ department.
The solution – I’m currently involved in month 7 of a lengthy project. A friend and I who were both working in the backward industry I mentioned in ‘The work life balance’ realised our industry was run by the old school and that the implementation of a bit of software would increase efficiency and simplify the whole operation. Not to bore you with the details, but we’ve invested some money and over the past year have been involved in; designing a new software product from the ground up, drafting a patent specification, dealing with overseas subcontractors, graphic design, company branding, business plans and website design. In the near future we’ll become heavily involved in importing, packaging, logistics and sales. It makes you laugh just a bit when the bank manager looks across the table at two scruffy guys and says “And sorry what are your current positions within the company?” to which we both look at each other a bit bewildered and answer “Uhh.. Company Directors?” Our friends look at us both a bit strangely, usually asking ….’how’. Sure we didn’t know how to set up a company, but I knew how to pick up a phone book and book an appointment with an accountant to ask him?
So there you have it, a director of a company. Once you know what’s involved and how easy it is to setup, you’ll be less impressed the next time you meet a ‘company director’.
Your Next Move
I can’t recommend this highly enough, in your next lunch break head to Steve Pavlina’s website and trawl through some of his articles. It’s from Steve that I’m going to ‘borrow’ his advice; with all of the get-rich-quick schemes and investments you can make, your best bet is yourself. Invest some money in yourself. If you’re confused by this read on.
“Pay” yourself $500 per week (possibly out of your savings) and now you’ve got 8 hours a day to delve heavily into research and development. Buy up on eBooks, there’s also plenty of free resources online & in libraries. If you can’t make the big jump, as some of us will have financial commitments we won’t be able to avoid, have a look at what you’re currently doing. Look around, look above you, who are you paying for; your boss, his boss, the admin girl, the payroll lady, the tax man, your superannuation (401k) fund? Everyone is taking a cut out of what you’re earning as a ‘total’ figure. Once everyone has been paid by your potential earnings, then they’ll pay you your $26 per hour. Feeling ripped off yet? Try and apply your skills and the value you add directly to your customer.
If you try and fail, what’s the worst that can happen? You’ll be back at work in another few months, doing the same job, reading my next article?
You’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain! You have plenty of options; no one is going do this for you!
The Work Life Balance
Work
What are you working for? If you had the choice, if someone paid your bills and expenses would you still go to ‘work’? No one within their right mind would prefer to go to spend their time trapped in the cubicle, or wearing ‘that’ uniform, digging holes, standing at the check-out…
You could be stuck in the 9 – 5, the daily grind. The sad thing is, some people are actually envious of the 40 hour work week, as they’re working ridiculous overtime as it is!
Before I dive into this article, I’d like to qualify ‘work’ as the drudgery, the place you’d least like to be. Some of us are lucky enough to enjoy our jobs and don’t see it as work at all, congratulations to you small few as you’ve already got the work/life balance sorted out. As for the rest of us…
I’ve come to discover it is definitely all about the journey and you should be spending your time doing what you want. Sure work is a must for some but it should be an 8 hour inconvenience to your day (if that), not the be all and end all. Life is all about the 1% moments.
Life
I’m more confused than ever, as people look forward to their 4 week annual holiday. 4 weeks? You’ve worked for 48 weeks, to be rewarded with 4 weeks of your own time? Don’t you see something wrong with that? Wouldn’t it be nice to have more time off, more often?
It’s taken me three full time jobs and a university degree to realize the working world is not for me. I get laughed at when I say I wouldn’t mind retiring next year (by retire, I mean retire from being ‘employed’). People comment that they’d ‘get bored’. Now they’re usually my friends or work colleagues, but seriously, is your life that boring that you need to have someone else give you a set of mundane tasks for 8 – 10 hours of the day to fill it up? You can’t entertain yourself for more than a few hours a night?
One of my good friends and I quite often have a laugh about trying to increase the ‘hobbies and interests’ component of our lives. I’ve taken great pride in being able to introduce friends to kayaking, golf, beers, anything! There’s plenty to do. There’s plenty that you don’t know how to do, so learn it!?
I’m not saying that throwing the towel in at work is the answer, but at least remember why you’re working in the first place. It’s not because you’re trying to increase profits for the share holders, it’s not because you love your company, it’s so you can fund your lifestyle. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to de-couple your time from your income?
Balance
Look around you. Everyone is ‘too busy’. Too busy doing what? Writing reports, filing, sending emails, reading blogs!? I’m not religious at all, but I do believe in the minimalist. De-clutter your life, your time, possessions, even to the point of your associates and commitments. Focus on what and who is important to you. For a wake-up call you definitely need, read Steve Pavlina’s blog on why you shouldn’t be working for anyone but yourself and that being employed is the dumbest way to make money! And after you’ve read that and you’re either seething with rage or disgusted at yourself as Steve points out how you’ve been begging for scooby snacks your whole working life then grab yourself a copy of Tim Ferriss’s ‘Four Hour Work Week’ which will help you get out of the rat race and onto bigger and better things.
Whether you’re a lowly paid office grunt, a manager, a cleaner, nurse or garbage man, if you’re employed you are getting paid for your time. If you put in big 16 hour days in the office, congratulations, you’ve been giving yourself a 50% pay cut! It’s no wonder your bosses love you, you’re cheap labour!
In the overall scheme of the work life balance, you’re aim should be to increase the ‘life’ quota. Educate yourself, I’m sure you’ve met my friend Google, knock yourself out.
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