For the past 33
years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: 'If today
were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?'
And whenever
the answer has been 'No' for too many days in a row, I know I need to change
something. -- Steve Jobs
I
just found this quote by Steve Jobs and it has really caused me to take a step
back, look in the mirror and ask myself the same question. Do I want to do what
I am doing today? Here is the honest answer. No!! My answer is no because as
examine my life I see that I have very little control over my day to day
activities. Every day I have to be my place of employment no later than nine in
the morning and I have to stay there at least until four thirty and a few times
I have had to stay until ten at night. What makes this situation the worst is
that I personally find absolutely no satisfaction in my employment on a day to
day basis. In fact what I like most
about my job is my twenty mile bicycle commute to work and then the twenty mile
ride home. Also, because of the nature
of my employment I am required to move every three to five years and because of
that I have had the opportunity to live in and travel to some very interesting
places. For example I have lived in Hawaii, Georgia, Virginia, Germany, Iraq,
and Afghanistan. The last two place I have no desire to go back too. While
living in Germany I was able to travel to Italy a few times, Norway, The
Netherlands, Luxemburg, Belgium and Spain. There are few more place that I just
can’t remember right know. Having said all this fact, the fact remains that on
a day to day basis I, like many other people, have very little control over my
day to day activities.
If
I want to take a trip I have to submit a formal request and seek permission of
my supervisor. In fact this coming week one of my nephews is getting married
and I will not able to attend his wedding because my request for leave was
denied. You might be thinking that I am just a big complainer and should be
thankful for what I have and to count blessing for having a job because a lot
of people do not. Please don’t get me wrong I am grateful for the life that I
have and for the people in my live that make it better. All I am saying is that
I do not enjoy the fact that I have very little freedom over my day to day
activities.
So
then what is my remedy for this unfavorable situation that I find myself? The
answer lies in the last part of the above quotation. “Whenever the answer has
been 'No' for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.” I
simply need to change something and in this case the something that I need to
change is the method that I employ for obtaining my income. When I talk about
changing my income generating method I do not mean to get another job because
all I would be doing is trading one master for another and I would be no better
off and I might be worse off. For me a job is one of the worst possible ways to
generate income, because in order to get paid you have trade your time in
exchange for dollars.
The
first and I think the most important step to gaining financial freedom is to
learn to control yourself and what you do with the income that you currently
have. Some things that I currently do are I pay myself first no less than 10%
of my gross income, tithe 10% of my gross income to my church, I do not have
any consumer debt. Because I do not carry any consumer debt my bank account is
never empty because my family lives on less then we bring in each month. This
allows me to increase the amount money that I use to generate passive income. The
next step to gaining financial freedom is to generate passive recurring income
that will flow into your life day in and
day out weather you work or not. In time if you are persistent your passive
income sources will grow to the point where you will be able to live off of
those income sources. Once this happens you are officially financially free or
wealthy because you will be able to quit your job, still pay all of your living
expenses and you can do whatever you like whenever you like.
How
do you generate passive income? You simply start acquiring income producing
assets and keep acquiring those assets until you can live off of the income
that your assets generate. And then keep
doing the same thing until you have reached a level of passive income that will
allow you to live the type life that you desire.
So,
about five or so years ago I decided that I needed to follow this advice
and start making some lives changes regarding my financial goals. The actual
change was to breathe life into my goals by applying action, because knowledge is only power
when we apply action to knowledge and start moving progressively in the
direction of our goals. So, over the past years I have been acquiring income
producing assets.
My first
passive income goal was to generate $10,000 per month from rental properties.
In order to accomplish this I need to own between ten and twelve debt free
rental properties with an average monthly rental of $1,000 per-month. This
takes into consideration the operation cost of each property which are property
tax, insurance, management fees, maintenance costs to name a few. All of these
costs need to be budgeted for and included in an income and expense report for each
property. This is not hard and only requires a little time.
My
second goal is to generate the same passive income level $10,000 per month in
my network market USANA business. To do this I simply recruit people who want to
start a part or full time home based business. I do this by calling and
following up with people have requested that I contact them and provide them
with information about starting a business from home using the same system that
I use. It is pretty easy to do it just takes persistence. Persistence in any endeavor
is the key to success.
You
ask if I am anywhere close to my passive income goals. And I would answer yes,
because whenever we are progressive working toward our goals each day we get
closer to realizing the goal. On my last review I am about two-thirds complete
on my mid-term passive income goal which is to have income equal to or greater
then my current monthly expenses. My friends it is a good feeling that gets
better and better each and every day.
So
as I bring this essay to an end I would like to say if you look in the mirror
and cannot say to yourself that you like what you are doing day in and day then
join me and make some changes and take control of your life.
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