I am going to use myself and my situation as a reference point. I am single/no kids/no debt. I came to the realization that, the most important thing to me is TIME and NEW EXPERIENCES and meetin/dating new Women. I really don't care much for fancy cars or huge houses or material shit. What bring joy to me is experiences, travel, meeting new people, forming new relationships, and doing actual fun activities. I also don't drink.
Without getting in too much depth lets get into some numbers. So based on what Ive just said…based on MY PERSONAL INTERESTS. to live my current lifestyle, with rent, food, phone, etc ALL my basic expenses included along with meals out, and doing stuff I like. It costs me around $1500 per month. Another important thing to mention is I've moved to a country where the cost of living is about a third of what it was in my original country of North America.(you people that are able to work remote, this is a NO BRAINER)
I also now live in a warm tropical place year round so a lot of the shit i do for fun now is essentially free… for example.. I surf, chill by the beach, talk to hot chicks on the beach, go for beach dates…I live about 2 blocks from a beach. All these steps were very calculated and strategy based. Because now that my money goes 3 times further, i essentially can work 3 times less and have 3 times more time to do the shit i enjoy.
So my same current lifestyle in north america would cost me about 2600-3k monthly all in….So, Now that we have these baseline numbers you can feel free to use this as a template and plug in whatever numbers apply to your current life. Find out how much it would cost you to live your ideal life. Get that number. whatever it may be. 1500 is mine.
So. Based on my monthly expense number of 1500… 1500×12=18000 per year it costs me to live my lifestyle. Comfortably.
The company I worked at for 12 years I had accumulated a nice chunk in my pension. I also had invested in a condo a few years prior and was able to sell it and not even profit but just got my money back. These two combined things gave me a decent chunk of change. We'll call it the freedom fund. You all need to start putting together a freedom fund if you ever want a chance at a different life.
I chose to quit my job. use this money to essentially buy time back. Basically I was able to leverage the fact that the amount of money I need on a monthly basis to live comfortably was SO LOW that the money i had would be able to hold me down for MULTIPLE multiple years even if I didnt do jack shit or earn a single dime. Now, this isnt me saying just drain your funds till u got nothing then go back to work…. This is me saying… Depending on what your job actually is. in this current moment. CHANCES are, even if you quit…You can probably just get a job in the same field or a higher paying job somewhere else etc…IF SHIT TOTALLY FAILS AND HITS THE FAN. you can always just get another JOB. But TIME is priceless and especially time as a YOUNG man or woman. This is what really hit home its like….even living 10 yrs of this semi retired life in your 30s or 40s is substantially better than 20 + years in your 60s or 70s. So now im just chillin, figuring what i ACTUALLY want to do with my time… and i have the breathing room to do just that. Im currently learning a new skill and im able to dedicate myself 100% because I have the time…once you can atleast buy back some of your time the weight is lifted off your shoulders and you can actually seek something meaningful that you may have always wanted to pursue but just never had that time. Id you dont give yourself the time now. You never will, and it will be too late.
[A great quote I heard once was: ” A salary is the drug they give you to forget your dreams” ]] Let that sink in.
This VERY THING happened to me during 2020 Corona…I was laid off for 7 months after 12 years of loyalty… I was completely thrown off and its like…While I was working there I could never even IMAGINE a world without that job. I didnt think I could even survive financially.
This was a blessing in disguise. My mindset started to shift, i started to do multiple little side hustles, my entreprenerial mind became awake. I got the confidence that…Besides good pay that job had me on the golden handcuffs…I now had the confidence that I was fine financially for the 7 months I was laid off. So I got the courage to just say fuck it. And quit entirely to figure out how I really wanted to live my life…
So basically now through investment, mainly real estate and some other things I prefer not to disclose, I have enough cash to live this modest lifestyle without having to work at all…Now obviously some people would probably say…Some variation of “Thats not enough” blablaba or people think you need exorbent amounts of cash to live this life…
The most important thing is you have to figure out is your number..For example mine was 18k per year and im happy as a pig in shit…so what does that mean? For every 18k I make that buys me 1 full year of total freedom and time to do whatever I want…
I now look at time this way, as keeping expenses low and if you dont have like a business or something and your just a regular joe, and all you have is the ability to work many hours…Atleast if you keep your expenses low enough…you can work your ass off and save and then just maybe like work hardcore for 6 months then take 6 months off type deal…or invest, or get a higher paying job…
To give kind of a real life example to live a semi retired life if you dont really have much savings or investment…. Say it costs you 20k per year to live…if you can make say 5k per month whether it be from one job or 2 or some hustling whatever… and if you can keep your expenses say at 2k thats an extra 3k every month
3,000×7=21,000 < view this as 7 months of hard work. 1 full year of free time without having to worry about a single bill. This is based on the above example of your lifestyle costing you 20k per year...That seems like a great deal to me.
And during that time you can literally just work on yourself, have new experiences, enjoy ur life meet people…just options are endless. Obviously the numbers will be different for each person but atleast you have a formula. I hope this rant wasnt to long and provided some new perspecitives.