I figure it might be helpful for me to start a journal of my progress out of this slowlane life. I'll start with writing out my current state of affairs and go from there!
I'm a 34 year old web developer. ~$85k/year job (benefits, pension), only debt is my mortgage (~$70k equity), with some cash, stocks, RRSP/TFSA and bitcoins totaling ~$50k. I have no kids and no woman. 10% of my salary is going into RRSP, and with my basic lifestyle end up with an extra $1k/month or so to invest/play with. So really, I could just stay on this path, living and retiring comfortably.
I get up early enough to get to the gym before work, then get home drained and stressed out (largely due to the commute) around 6pm. I fill most of my spare time with pointless distractions, and can't always be bothered to do the simple routine things to care for my house and property. I feel like I'm just drifting along, living weekend-to-weekend, not going anywhere with my life. And now that winter is coming, I'm reminded once again how much I hate the cold and don't want to live here (Edmonton, Canada).
The biggest things I dislike about a job are the lack of freedom and having little impact on my income. I have little-to-no say in the stupid decisions I have to implement, and if I work twice as hard or half as hard, I still get the same below-cost-of-living annual raise. I'm also starting to get a bit sick of staring at, writing, and thinking about code 8+ hours a day. I used to do it as a hobby, so I figured it would be a suitable career choice, but now I have so little desire to do more of it once I get home that I struggle to start any side projects. I might have the opportunity to advance to a team lead/manager role soon, which might be a welcome change and chance to learn new skills, but the main problems from working for someone else (or some corporation) would remain.
I have considered switching to contract work, which would bump me to $60-80/hr, maybe occasionally up to $100/hr. Factoring in down time and loss of benefits, it would be about break-even at the low end vs my job. And realistically, it would only really affect my savings/investments, not my standard of living.
I want to live some place where it never gets to -30C, or at least live there during our unreasonably long winters. I want to have the option to do literally nothing, or spend a few months traveling whenever I please, or picking up whatever hobby interests me and devoting however much time to it I please. This requires not being employed, with significant and reliable passive income. I think $10M is more than I'd ever need, but $1M won't cut it if it has to last my lifetime.
I have no idea how I'm going to get there, but this is my start.
I'm a 34 year old web developer. ~$85k/year job (benefits, pension), only debt is my mortgage (~$70k equity), with some cash, stocks, RRSP/TFSA and bitcoins totaling ~$50k. I have no kids and no woman. 10% of my salary is going into RRSP, and with my basic lifestyle end up with an extra $1k/month or so to invest/play with. So really, I could just stay on this path, living and retiring comfortably.
I get up early enough to get to the gym before work, then get home drained and stressed out (largely due to the commute) around 6pm. I fill most of my spare time with pointless distractions, and can't always be bothered to do the simple routine things to care for my house and property. I feel like I'm just drifting along, living weekend-to-weekend, not going anywhere with my life. And now that winter is coming, I'm reminded once again how much I hate the cold and don't want to live here (Edmonton, Canada).
The biggest things I dislike about a job are the lack of freedom and having little impact on my income. I have little-to-no say in the stupid decisions I have to implement, and if I work twice as hard or half as hard, I still get the same below-cost-of-living annual raise. I'm also starting to get a bit sick of staring at, writing, and thinking about code 8+ hours a day. I used to do it as a hobby, so I figured it would be a suitable career choice, but now I have so little desire to do more of it once I get home that I struggle to start any side projects. I might have the opportunity to advance to a team lead/manager role soon, which might be a welcome change and chance to learn new skills, but the main problems from working for someone else (or some corporation) would remain.
I have considered switching to contract work, which would bump me to $60-80/hr, maybe occasionally up to $100/hr. Factoring in down time and loss of benefits, it would be about break-even at the low end vs my job. And realistically, it would only really affect my savings/investments, not my standard of living.
I want to live some place where it never gets to -30C, or at least live there during our unreasonably long winters. I want to have the option to do literally nothing, or spend a few months traveling whenever I please, or picking up whatever hobby interests me and devoting however much time to it I please. This requires not being employed, with significant and reliable passive income. I think $10M is more than I'd ever need, but $1M won't cut it if it has to last my lifetime.
I have no idea how I'm going to get there, but this is my start.
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