Rewind, Play, Forward, Pause

Tags

Failure, Jim Collins, Net worth, Personal Development, Success

This post comes from a gut wrenching past 48 hours filled with reality checks. When I started this blog I envisioned writing about my great financial conquests on my rode to being worth 1 million dollars by age 30. I set this big hairy audacious goal (thank you Jim Collins and Built to Last) to jolt myself out of slipping financially.

In April 2013 I realized my finance were out of control and it was time to make a change. That month my net income was -$4,729.73. I was especially disturbed by this considering that just 6 months earlier I had achieved a positive net income of $10,983.

Here is the reason why I have been hesitant to post anything over the past months. Because I have not been achieving what I wanted this blog to chronicle. Instead of climbing to higher heights of financial success over the past 12 months I have sunk to the lowest lows in my life.

Over the best year my net income was been around -$23,000. If you aren’t a business major that means I spent $23,000 more than I made. The worst part is that there is no big definable purchase such as a house or car to account for this. It’s just been “death by a thousand cuts.” To be honest I’ve broken down over the past few days at the thought of spending a year of my life working 60 hours weeks and having little to show for it. 

It’s at times like these that I wish I could hit the rewind button and do it all over again. But there is not reset in life. I hope to hit the “pause” button over the next few days and evaluate my current situation. I know that I can’t keep doing the same things over and over and expect different results. My stomach turns at the thought of shrinking my dreams down to fit inside certain parameters, or throwing in the towel on goals I’ve set for myself. Maybe this is one of those defining moments where my true character rises to the surface. I only hope that it is the type of character that leads me to where I want to be. Right now I pause, in a few days I hit play.

Action Creates Attraction

Tags

Net worth, Personal Development, personal growth, Quotations, Self Help, Wealth

Most people who have have listened to thought leaders in the self-improvement arena are familiar with the law of attraction. I would summarize most of the teachings that I have heard on this subject in this way: If you think about or visualize something that you desire long enough and hard enough you can bring it to pass.

Let me say that I do believe this because I have experience it. However the flaw that I see taking place is in the application of this idea. I see many people not coupling proper thinking with action. This is the only way that proper and/or positive thinking can work to your favor is if it is coupled with action.

This week I began blogging again about my goals and aspirations to become financially free by the time I am 30. I have set a finite million dollar net-worth goal for that age in order to give me something specific to aim for. I have not been focused on this goal for months. This week I began to step in action again towards this goal and I’d like to share two experiences that I have had. The first is that I was contacted about money that I was owed for services already rendered. I had written this dollar amount owed to me off mentally for a variety of reasons. I can’t explain exactly why things happen this way but when you focus on a goal events seem to fall in line to help you accomplish that goal. Also I was approached to see if I was interested in a career shift to a field that I have worked in before. I don’t know if this particular opportunity will provide for me better financially or not but we will see soon. As short post to say this. If you’re waiting to make a move because you don’t know how or if you’ll be able to accomplish your goals just make the move. Use good judgement where risks are concerned, but action creates attraction. When you prepare yourself and move in a direction the path becomes clear.

Two quotes to finish from J.P. Morgan. The first is “[g]o as far as you can see; when you get there, you’ll be able to see farther.” and “[w]hen you expect things to happen – strangely enough – they do happen.” We won’t know every turn to take before we set out on a journey, but that can’t keep us from starting. Somehow when you move with intention things move in alignment with that intention.

What’s your “why?”

Tags

Net worth, Personal Development, personal growth, Wealth

When I wrote my first every blog post back in May I had a lot of things in mind for what this blog would become. I envisioned a place where I’d share my thoughts, but most importantly my successes with the online world. 

Things don’t always go as planned. We get busy and life begins to fly by. We loose sight of goals and important things go by the wayside while we struggle to make the day to day grind of life happen. That’s what happened to me. I have’t given any thought to my blog, or my financial goal of 1 million by 30 in quite sometime. Then I rediscovered my why.

Why do I want to be worth 1 million by 30? Not to be able to brag. Not to impress my friends or coworkers. Certainly not to retire, 1 million doesn’t go as far as it used to. To me 1 million by 30 symbolizes the ability to live life on my own terms. To imagine something in my mind and bring it to fruition.

Last weekend I was out of town at a conference that focused on self improvement. I came back home Sunday morning. The first place I went was to my girlfriends house. When I arrived I found her upset at the thought of going to work in 9 hours. Upset probably isn’t adequate to describe how distraught she was. It hurt me in a place deep inside that I’ve never experienced before. I knew that if I worked hard and consistently that in a few years I would never have to see her upset at the thought of going to work again. Because we would be living life on our own terms, not tied to the 9-5 job, or in her case 7-7 job.

This was a new “why” that I had never experienced before. Why strive for more. Why grow and improve. Why earn more than I need to pay the bills. In my it was about pride and independence Today it’s about something very different. Today I’m motivated by a combination of both dream and nightmare. The dream of freedom of time and location. The nightmare of the job that constrains both of those.

When you loose focus things don’t tend to move in a positive direction. My net worth is down since may, to approximately 22,000. 

What gets measured gets improved

Tags

Net worth, Personal Development, Wealth

I think that we all know people that talk about dreams, goal, and ambitions. What kind of person they want to be, where they want to live, and what kind of wealth that they want to have. I know lots of people like this and I consider myself to be one. Recently I had a troubling realization that while I talk a lot about my ambitions I am not doing much in the way of tracking my progress towards them.

One goal that I’ve been talking about for years is to be a millionaire by 30. I don’t know why people (males in particular) love this idea. I guess the hope is that turning 30 will be much less traumatic if you have a million dollars in the bank. Just on a quick guess I would say that I first came up with the idea that it would be cool to have a million dollar net worth by 30 at age 19. By 21 I had made it a “goal” but obviously I haven’t been to serious about because now I’m 26 and I have had no idea how close or far I was from my magic 1 million mark until today. I’ll be honest I have a decent career so I wasn’t quite ready for how far away I actually am. After calculating my total net worth I realized that the sum of all my assets only amounted to $39,757….this isn’t looking to good.

I am thinking to myself “you mean to tell me I’ve been working for 8 years and I’m only worth 40K? We haven’t made much progress on the road to a million have we?” That means I have to increase my net worth by $960,000 in just a little over 3 years… yikes. I’m in sales so then I come up with the brilliant idea to break things down into smaller parts. Surely $960,000 will look much better if I break it down by days, weeks, or months right? Wrong. To be worth a million by 30 I only need to increase my net worth by $779.42 per day, $23,382.54 per month, and $284,487.58 per year. I’m not particularly encouraged by these “bite size numbers.”

To be honest once I did the math the first thought that went through my 26 year old brain was “Well you wasted too much time, there’s no way you can make it to 1 million by 30 now.” Then my tendency to stretch the rules and challenge the odds started rising up. So I’ve decided I’m going to try it, and I’m going to write about it as I go. It may be completely impossible, but I’m going to give it my everything starting today. Welcome to my road to a million.

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Start by Jon Acuff