Endless Gibberish

Defining "rich".

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I want to be rich. Who doesn’t? However, I probably define “rich” in a different sense than most people when they’re thinking about that word. Being rich to most people is having fabolous cars, homes, etc. Being rich in my sense is not particularly about how much money you make or how much you have, but rather how much of it you keep. Also how your money works for you, instead of you being forced to work for money.

Let’s say if you stopped working today. How long would you be able to survive on your current savings/investments? If you answered “forever because of income from my real estate and stock dividends covers my expenses” then you’re rich in my view. You’re rich when you have the ability to stop working. I want that ability. I want to build up enough assets to generate a modest income so I don’t have to work the rest of my life and watch it pass me by.

Say my assets generated $40,000/year. That would take $400,000 in assets generating 10% or $500,000 generating 8% per year. With $40k income I’d probably miss out on the nice cars and fancy restaurants but I would rather have the free time to all the things on my list of “things to do before I die” (which will soon be posted).

That drive to get a head start and build assets early is why I stay away from the high tech gadgets I desire and reckless spending. I believe the earlier you start having money work for you, the easier it’ll be to stop working for money later on.