No, seriously. Say this 3 times out loud, “My job will not make me rich”. Did you say it? It is very important that you say these words and heed this advice. The sooner that you believe this realization to be true, the better off you will be. I wish that someone would have grabbed me by the shoulders in 2008 and made me say these words. For 20 years I operated under the false narrative that I would somehow have enough money if I worked hard and towed the company flag. To be honest with you, I am actually in one of the best situations I could be in when it comes to employment. I make $120,000 a year and once I retire, I should be bringing in $7,000 to $10,000 passively for the rest of my life (depending on how long I stay in the Marines). These are massive numbers and I should be rejoicing, right? Sure, but it is not enough. This income will not allow me to be the father and husband that I want to be.
What do I want? I want to be able to able to see my grandkids grow. I have missed so much of my kids’ lives that I want to ensure that I do not miss my grandkids’ lives as well. I do not want to be worried about money, ever. Having a nice pension is awesome and a great start to retirement. However, if we want to go to Turkey or Arizona, I do not want money to be the determining factor on whether we can go or not. Living off of $9,000 a month is easy if we had no dreams. Just being here in Japan makes me want to come back with my wife at a later time in life. I need to have money to create a trip like this. We worked our butts off for years, stayed married, and raised kids. My wife deserves to be treated like a queen!
What are my options? Well, I can retire and go back to work. Become a civilian employee. I can pray that they release me for two weeks out of the year to visit my grandkids. I can wake up at 0500 every day and spent one hour with my wife before work. I can play the political work game for another 20 years until I reach the age of 68. Then, after 50 years in the workforce, I can finally retire and be free. My kids will be 42 and 38. The grandkids will be between 12-18. I will have two pensions and my TSP. So this should be around $20,000 a month! Exciting. By this age, I will probably be too old to do some serious traveling. I will have missed another big portion of my kids’ lives. I DO NOT want this life.
What are some alternatives? I am very glad that you asked. Well, I can start by becoming my best self. I can start by putting down my Nintendo controller and pausing my Netflix shows. I need to learn how the world of money works. Without this self-education, I may as well continue to be an employee. The more that I read about money, wealth, and business the more that I can see a path forming in front of me. Nothing about creating money is particularly hard. Creating a plan is easy, executing this plan is the harder part. For my particular plan, I want to focus on 4 distinct areas of wealth, which are; employment, investments, real estate, and business. Your plan may be completely different. No two plans are the same. But by turbo-charging my knowledge and action, I am shaving years off of my retirement plan.
Does it work? So far, so good. When we started in June 2019 it took us 4 months to save and invest $6,000. Which is amazing. In November 2020, we invested $6,000 in this month alone. So things start to accelerate as you understand more. Things you think were risky, now seem a lot easier to fathom. Reading and taking actions builds certain confidence that can’t really be explained until you do it. I plan on Kris being able to retire by the time she turns 42. I am giving myself until I am 50, so 10 more years. I will still have businesses, but they should be either automated or run by someone else.
What is your best advice? Start now. Today. Outline all your debts. Document all your income. Reduce expenses. Generate more income. Learn where to put your money in order to get a solid return on investment. Find a way to create an automated business. Some quick ways may be to buy a small car (Ford Focus) and rent the car out on a rental car website. So if you can buy a car for $4,000 but make $400 a month for 5 years from it, your return would be 600%. If you do not know how I calculated this number, you need to read and learn about it. The world of money is not as complex or unobtainable as we think. Many of us did not grow up with money, and we have to make a concerted effort to “get into the game”. That is okay. There is no shame in not knowing much about money, the only shame is not learning and acting to get money.
Your job will not make you rich. Remember this line. Decide, now, how you want your future to look. Do you want to work until you are 68 and have a couple of weeks off a year? Or do you want to be on a boat at 50 years old, with your kids and grandkids off the coast of Florida? I choose the latter and I am implementing controls and procedures to get there. How about you?
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Disclosure: I am not a financial advisor or money manager, and any knowledge is given as guidance and not direct actionable investment advice. I am an Amazon Affiliate. 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.
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