What is your rich life?

I want you to do an exercise with me. I want you to imagine your best case life at 50 years old. Do not limit yourself with money, status, or relationships. This is your dream world. Who are you with? What do you have? Where are you at? Now, most importantly, how do you achieve the dream?

I will talk about myself first. I grew up poor. To this day, I get excited every time I completely fill up my gas tank or see food in the pantry. Something so simple brings me immense joy mostly because I used to see my mom struggle to do these things. I can honestly say that I am living my rich dream already. I have a beautiful wife and amazing kids. I always loved the Marines, and I am proud to still be a part of this organization. We own 3 income-producing real estate properties. And my wife and I have already hit our 2020 investment goal (in August). So life is good, very good. However, along the way, I realized that my children will need more assistance in life for them to be able to reach their dreams. The world is stacked against them, and they need a solid foundation in order to achieve these same levels of success. That is why my wife and I still grind every day. To ensure our children and grandchildren are given the opportunities in life to build success, grow families, and live stress-free. 

Now, back to you. I ask again, what is your rich life? This question is important because it allows you to understand how much you will need to push yourself. If you are happy owning a home and living off of a 401k, you may not have to do much more than you are doing. If you want to retire from the military after 30 years and never work again, you may need to build up a little investment portfolio outside of TSP or 401k. If you are a big dreamer, like big boats, fast cars, and luxury vacations, then you need to understand how much money these dreams cost.

I know that my dream of taking care of my whole family will be very expensive. I know that my military retirement will not be enough to live the lifestyle that I want to live. I do not want anyone in my family to worry about money, EVER. This is big talk and requires big action from me. I will need multiple income streams to produce the kind of income to live the life that I envision. Right now we are looking at having a military pension, federal retirement (second career), disability, social security, rental income, business income, and investment income. All and all, we should be close to $35,000 a month by the time we reach 65 years old. 

Now, put a price on your dream life. How much do you need? How are you going to get there? The earlier you ask these questions, the better off you be. Also, the more likely you will be to accomplish your dreams.

Disclosure: I am not a financial advisor or money manager, and any knowledge is given as guidance and not direct actionable investment advice. Please research any investment vehicles that are being considered. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it.  I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.