You Don't Need as Much Money As You Think.
So last week I was thinking about money. A lot of people are chasing this dream of being 'rich' but what does that actually mean? And how much is enough? Let me share a thought...
Big dreams.
I used to think I wanted $200 million dollars. I read Think and Grow Rich years ago and that was my number (if you've read the book you'll know he tells you to define the exact amount you want). Every single day since then (for literally years) I would write that figure in the steam of my shower and I never missed a day.
Then a few months ago I was re-reading the 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris, and there's an exercise called 'Dreamlining' that outlines how much it ACTUALLY costs to live your dream life. It’s an exercise when you list what you want to have, be and do. The ‘have’ section is for the material stuff - and then breaking down how much per month it actually costs to own all that.
What's the number?
When I did this, even with everything I want it was $19,000 a month. Which is still a lot - but that’s if I want everything on the list and I’d have everything I ever really want in life - items can easily be taken off as they aren’t essential. It's really not that much money! So back to the $200,000,000 I thought:
What could I possibly do with all that money?
To get that I'd have to take ungodly risks and likely do things I don’t like.
But then I also broke it down and thought.... I don't need a fancy car, I don't need a stupid penthouse, I just want to work with people I enjoy and make enough to be comfortable and financially secure without working like a madman.
A mental shift.
So I changed the $200 million to a comfortable monthly target instead with a long term investment approach to create passive income later in life, while I enjoy what I do in the meantime. I think this can be hard to do for high achievers or hard workers because they feel like they are ‘settling’ or tapping out. But the truth is, you don’t NEED all that stuff you think you need, and how you make your money is far more important than how much you make.
Signs from the universe?
It’s so funny how things sort of happen in a sequence. Just when I was thinking about how I don’t really need that much money this all literally happened in the space of 24 hours:
• I was re-reading the $100 Startup and towards the end it said ‘grow - but only as big as you want to be’ and it shared stories of people growing their business too large that they lost the passion.
• I saw the finale of house of lies and the last episode was about how they liked their job, didn’t want to sell the company and didn’t need the enormous payday they thought they wanted.
• I had a meeting with a potential client but didn’t resonate with them, and if I wanted to ‘hit the goals’ I would’ve pushed for a sale but I did the opposite and shared some advice they can try without me.
How can you use this story?
So the message I have for you is to:
1. Write down all the things you want in life.
Go nuts - write whatever you want! and figure out how much it actually costs per month to have (eg rent, loan on your dream car, travel money etc)
2. Choose the must-haves.
If your list is big, pick out the key ones that would really make you happy and if you had those, you’re basically living the dream. I mean I’d love a Ferrari but I don’t drive that often, so do I really need one?
3. Create a plan.
Create a super simple plan for how you will get there and doing something you love. Eg for me I know how much I charge and my costs, so I can write down how many clients I need to hit the target.
4. Execute.
You still have to work hard of course - but doing this exercise I think you’ll find that not only is your dream more affordable than you think, once you have a plan to execute it doing something you enjoy you will love the process, even if you can’t afford it all right now.