Running after money? Stop right now!
Ever stopped to think to yourself “I’m spending way too much time and energy trying to get this money”.
Well if yes, then we have that in common. It’s like, will all the effort I’ve put into this over the years even be worth it by the time I’m there?
Well, then it occurred to me. Where is “there”? Over a lifetime, how much money do I consider enough for me to have spent or benefited from?
Interesting question. A brief look over my spending habits up until now gave me a reference point to estimate an amount over a lifetime. It came to me pretty quick. I thought to myself immediately 2 to 3 million.
Ambitious you say? Or not enough? That’s just it, that amount seems and feels right for me. Generous enough, yet not over the moon and unthinkable.
How did I get to that amount? I was like “how much money do I see myself having/spending in life? How much money do I see myself having at retirement?” When plotted against my needs, consumption habits and more expensive desires, it turned out to be not so much after all.
I would like to retire with a mil and have spent about 2 while getting there. Perfect.
It led me to this questioning, for which, if you have the time to do, it is best to really give yourself a verbal answer for each question before moving on to the next one.
Here goes:
1- Do you believe or feel that you lived frugally last year? Did you miss out on much/ need for anything?
2- How much more would you need to live very comfortably for a year? 50% more, double the amount, triple? (Really, triple what you had last year?!)
3- If that is a yearly amount, how much does that represent over a lifetime?
(annual amount times the amount of year until 90 roughly)
4- Are you confident that you can make that much in a lifetime? IN A LIFETIME?
5- If yes, then what is the hurry ?!
(Ha-ha, that last one was for me tho). But in truth, is that amount really as staggering as you were imagining? Did you imagine any lifetime amount at all? And now that you have the lifetime amount in mind, does it seem out of reach? And most importantly of all, do you feel comfortable with the idea that you will make all of that OVER A LIFETIME, and can you afford to relax into life a little more? ;) Well, I hope your answer to that is yes.
Here are my answers, very briefly:
1) no, minimum wage just covered everything. 2) quadruple should be cushty. 3) 50k a year for the next 60 years => 3 mil. 4) sort of, that’s a fraction of what a friend has made as a trader in 5 years. 5) fuck-it no hurry as long as I always have what I need on the moment, no rush for millionaire status.
I’ve always been an ambitious guy and tried to stand out or build myself up to be worthy of wealth later on. But that has often cost me dearly in terms of life, expenditure and sacrifice. I’m not saying that these things are bad, everyone knows you need to leave the comfort zone. But perhaps now that I have a sort of lifetime amount in mind, which gives me a kind of earning and spending timeframe or structure, then maybe now I have a better wealth-generation/ life-appreciation balance figured out.
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