Don’t like your job? Here’s How You Can Stop “Working” In 10 Years – Part 1

Ditching the 9-5 Life

We’ve all had jobs before that we don’t enjoy. The early-morning alarms, long commutes, micromanaging bosses, endless meetings and office gossip, all just to collect a paycheck and fund our lifestyle. There is nothing wrong with hard work and pursuing a career you enjoy, however, it seems more common than not that we are just working to work. Many jobs are bad for your health (sitting too much, anyone?), drain your energy and make you feel a longing to do something more. I would love my work to be dedicated to personal finance, health and well-being, travel and renewable energy, but I currently work in sales for the construction industry. It’s a good job with great benefits, so I’m happy with that for now. But there has to be something more, right? A way to disassociate money from work so that we can pursue the endeavors that we want, whenever we want, without having to think about money. And even if you do enjoy your job and are happy to go to work everyday, wouldn’t it be great to take a year off to travel the world and then go back to work? Or spend more time with your kids while only working part-time?

Everyone at some point in their life, will probably come to a time where they wish they could just stop working or work less, whether it’s starting a business, having kids, caring for family members or pursuing long-term travel. The goal here isn’t to stop working all together, but to be able to use our energy in a way that feels most useful to us without worrying about money. So, is it possible to get to this stage without having to spend 30-40 years of life working or winning the lottery? And the answer is YES.

Is “Early Retirement” Possible?

Whether you want to call it “early retirement”, financial independence or just plain freedom, breaking the cycle of having to work to fund your lifestyle is something for which almost all people strive. It can seem like such a stretch to have enough money to never “need” to work again, but then again, is it really? How much do you think you would actually need to never have to work again? $500k, $1M, $10M?!? I used to be have the exact same answer as most people, and that was that “I don’t really know”. I never really sat down to calculate the number.

The truth is for most people with fairly standard financial needs, the number really isn’t that high. Compound interest and dividends can provide fairly great monthly incomes once you have enough money in savings. If you start saving money early, follow a simple investing strategy and practice discipline you could find yourself at a state of financial independence in anywhere from 10-15 years, not the 30-40 year working lives that most people follow now. And if you are asking yourself, “How is this actually possible?!?” We’ll get to that, and I’ll show you.

What’s The Cost of Your Dreams?

Your first task is figure out what you want out of life. Do you want to get out of the rat race as soon as possible? Or maybe would you rather just have a nice nest egg that you can sit on in case you ever need or want to leave your job? Is your dream to be able to travel the world for a year, or stay at home and raise your kids? Either way, it’s your life so YOU need to decide what you want to do with it.

Take some time right now, just 5 or 10 minutes, and really think about what you want to get out of life. Ask yourself these questions:

• What do I want my life to look like in 10 years? Where do you live? How do you spend your time on an average Wednesday?
  • My answer is that “I live on the beach in California, and I get to spend time with my kids and work on my business as I please”.
• Would financial freedom or independence be required to make that dream possible?
  • My answer is “Absolutely. I will generate income from my own business, and also have enough money so that I could stop working if needed”.

Asking yourself these questions and being very specific with your answers can help you get the most out of life and stick to your goals.

In the next post, I’ll show you the numbers for how this all works. In the meantime, share your story on why financial freedom would be great for you. Leave a comment or send me an email!

 

-NYPFGuy