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As it was recommended to me in my older topic, I decided to create my own value assessment exercise, in order to determine what I desire in life. So, I broke down what makes me happy that I can do on a day to day basis. Then, I also listed what are my greatest financial pains in life, since they create my desires. Finally, I created some potential exit strategies and came up with a surprising answer.
Basic Desires
8 Hours of Sleep. I find that I function best, am much happier, and less irritable when I get eight hours of sleep.
0.5 Hours of No TV/Computer before going to sleep. This is a recent addition to my life that has helped immensely. By the time a half hour has passed, I’m actually ready to go to sleep and have a much fuller night’s rest.
1.5 Hours of Exercise. This greatly improves my energy and focus throughout the day. I spend about a half hour stretching, a half hour on cardio, and a half hour on strength training.
2 Hours for Full Meals. Working both my full time job and my side business prevents this from happening right now. I can get by without it, but having a full breakfast in the morning and a full dinner at night helps round out my day. Not to mention, I find cooking my own meals to be very satisfying.
6 Hours for work (including commute). This would be the perfect amount of time for me to spend on a job, or part-time business, or whatever I would do even if I had achieved full financial freedom. I wouldn’t want to have 12 hours per day of pure free time, because I would get bored.
Free Time
2 Hours for individual recreation. This usually means video games and making YouTube videos. It’s a lot of fun for me, but going a week without my computer showed me that there are other things that I enjoy too.
2 Hours for social recreation. This would mean doing something for pure recreation with others. Poker, a game of basketball, or game night with the guys.
2 Hours for constructive social activity. Volunteer work would be a perfect example of this. For me, this might also include becoming a semi-professional musician (I play the flute) with my local orchestra or taking up my martial arts classes again.
My Greatest Pains
1) Committing more than 6 hours of my day to working and commuting. This pains me because it prevents me from achieving my perfect day, which requires at least 6 hours per day of free time.
2) Living on the edge of financial collapse. Duh.
3) Making no progress in building wealth. This is pretty critical to my happiness. Though they can both exist at the same time, it is distinct from being on the edge of financial collapse, because I can earn more money than my living expenses require, yet not make progress towards building wealth. Without this, I’m simply working to survive, which is a waste of an existence to me.
4) Living with constant failure. This is the greatest pain in life to me. Working on each of the three asset classes of building wealth showed me that I would have to constantly endure failure in order to achieve success. The pain was far greater than any potential reward could ever be.
Exit Strategies
From my desires and pains, I derived five potential exit strategies, which include varying degrees of pain and pleasure being added to my life. They are listed in order from least desirable to most desirable.
1) Relying on my business as my sole source of income. This solution became intolerable, because it basically summed up most of my financial pains. At the time, I thought that working less than 30 hours per week would compensate for that pain, but it did not.
2) Full Retirement. This would mean achieving full financial freedom where my passive income would be able to exceed my living expense indefinitely. As aforementioned, I had to deal with constant failure in order to dream of achieving this. It’s not worth it to me.
3) Living from Paycheck-to-Paycheck. I’m a little surprised this wasn’t higher on my list. I could enact this solution right now, cut as many living expenses as possible, and achieve my “perfect†lifestyle. Nor would I have to deal with constant failure. However, this would mean living on the edge of financial collapse (nerve-wrecking) and working only to survive (pointless).
4) Semi-retirement. Until today, I thought this was THE exit strategy. The theory is that I could slowly pay off all of my debts over the next three years and build my wealth at the same time, since I have access to income from both my full-time job and part-time business. By that point, I would have accumulated enough wealth to where I could semi-retire to a small part-time job, working less than 30 hours per week. The real problem with this solution is Pain #3. It would mean ending my ability to continue building my wealth over the rest of my life. That is an intolerable consequence.
Thus, through process of deduction, my best remaining exit strategy is...
5) Never retire. Frankly, this shocked me. This would mean giving up on my dreams and never achieving the lifestyle that I “thought†I wanted. Here’s how I came to this conclusion:
With both the full-time job and the business, I would never have to live on the edge of financial collapse. Better yet, I would always have the ability to continue building my wealth, even if one of my sources of income collapsed. Finally, I wouldn’t have to live with constant failure, as I don’t have to depend completely on marketing my business, in order to build my wealth. According to my assessment, I value all these things more than actually getting what I want.
Does this make sense to you? It’s going to be very hard for me to permanently give up on my dream, but it appears that the pain of achieving it far outweighs the benefits. What do you think?
Thanks for the discussion.
Basic Desires
8 Hours of Sleep. I find that I function best, am much happier, and less irritable when I get eight hours of sleep.
0.5 Hours of No TV/Computer before going to sleep. This is a recent addition to my life that has helped immensely. By the time a half hour has passed, I’m actually ready to go to sleep and have a much fuller night’s rest.
1.5 Hours of Exercise. This greatly improves my energy and focus throughout the day. I spend about a half hour stretching, a half hour on cardio, and a half hour on strength training.
2 Hours for Full Meals. Working both my full time job and my side business prevents this from happening right now. I can get by without it, but having a full breakfast in the morning and a full dinner at night helps round out my day. Not to mention, I find cooking my own meals to be very satisfying.
6 Hours for work (including commute). This would be the perfect amount of time for me to spend on a job, or part-time business, or whatever I would do even if I had achieved full financial freedom. I wouldn’t want to have 12 hours per day of pure free time, because I would get bored.
Free Time
2 Hours for individual recreation. This usually means video games and making YouTube videos. It’s a lot of fun for me, but going a week without my computer showed me that there are other things that I enjoy too.
2 Hours for social recreation. This would mean doing something for pure recreation with others. Poker, a game of basketball, or game night with the guys.
2 Hours for constructive social activity. Volunteer work would be a perfect example of this. For me, this might also include becoming a semi-professional musician (I play the flute) with my local orchestra or taking up my martial arts classes again.
My Greatest Pains
1) Committing more than 6 hours of my day to working and commuting. This pains me because it prevents me from achieving my perfect day, which requires at least 6 hours per day of free time.
2) Living on the edge of financial collapse. Duh.
3) Making no progress in building wealth. This is pretty critical to my happiness. Though they can both exist at the same time, it is distinct from being on the edge of financial collapse, because I can earn more money than my living expenses require, yet not make progress towards building wealth. Without this, I’m simply working to survive, which is a waste of an existence to me.
4) Living with constant failure. This is the greatest pain in life to me. Working on each of the three asset classes of building wealth showed me that I would have to constantly endure failure in order to achieve success. The pain was far greater than any potential reward could ever be.
Exit Strategies
From my desires and pains, I derived five potential exit strategies, which include varying degrees of pain and pleasure being added to my life. They are listed in order from least desirable to most desirable.
1) Relying on my business as my sole source of income. This solution became intolerable, because it basically summed up most of my financial pains. At the time, I thought that working less than 30 hours per week would compensate for that pain, but it did not.
2) Full Retirement. This would mean achieving full financial freedom where my passive income would be able to exceed my living expense indefinitely. As aforementioned, I had to deal with constant failure in order to dream of achieving this. It’s not worth it to me.
3) Living from Paycheck-to-Paycheck. I’m a little surprised this wasn’t higher on my list. I could enact this solution right now, cut as many living expenses as possible, and achieve my “perfect†lifestyle. Nor would I have to deal with constant failure. However, this would mean living on the edge of financial collapse (nerve-wrecking) and working only to survive (pointless).
4) Semi-retirement. Until today, I thought this was THE exit strategy. The theory is that I could slowly pay off all of my debts over the next three years and build my wealth at the same time, since I have access to income from both my full-time job and part-time business. By that point, I would have accumulated enough wealth to where I could semi-retire to a small part-time job, working less than 30 hours per week. The real problem with this solution is Pain #3. It would mean ending my ability to continue building my wealth over the rest of my life. That is an intolerable consequence.
Thus, through process of deduction, my best remaining exit strategy is...
5) Never retire. Frankly, this shocked me. This would mean giving up on my dreams and never achieving the lifestyle that I “thought†I wanted. Here’s how I came to this conclusion:
With both the full-time job and the business, I would never have to live on the edge of financial collapse. Better yet, I would always have the ability to continue building my wealth, even if one of my sources of income collapsed. Finally, I wouldn’t have to live with constant failure, as I don’t have to depend completely on marketing my business, in order to build my wealth. According to my assessment, I value all these things more than actually getting what I want.
Does this make sense to you? It’s going to be very hard for me to permanently give up on my dream, but it appears that the pain of achieving it far outweighs the benefits. What do you think?
Thanks for the discussion.
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