I don’t think there is anyone reading this that doesn’t think that 100G’s isn’t a lot of money. (If you do think that can I have $100,000 please? I swear I will put it to good use!)
Think of everything $100,000 could buy you.
A Tesla Model X.
A 44’ Jeanneau SunMagic sailboat and enough money to sail the world for a year.
40+ in-town acres in Vermont with enough left to bring in a tiny house.
A bitchin’ kitchen and bathroom remodel plus an inground pool.
A whole house! (I paid less than $100K for mine)
2,000 meals for two in a decent restaurant.
100 iPhone X’s.
10 Bitcoins.
The specific choices are endless, you can fantasize about it all day if you wanted.
Over the past three years, I have accumulated $100,000 all while working a job that pays less than $65K/yr. In addition, I purchased a mini-van to haul my expanding family. Yes, during these same 3 years my amazing stay-at-home wife and I have produced two little ones.
Most married people wouldn’t have saved up $100K in three years if they were BOTH earning $65K and had no kids.
Why?
Simple. Most people spend every dollar they get. Some even more than they earn!
They lack a purpose for their money. They lack the money mindset that I have. That mindset being to become financially independent.
Oh, did you know instead of ‘stuff’ you can buy some of your freedom with that much money?
According to the 4% rule, you can safely buy $4,000 per year for the rest of your life with 100K. Acquire enough passive income to cover your expenses and you no longer have to work for money.
That's what I chose to buy.
Financial Freedom Mindset
I think that most people would like to have the option to not to HAVE to go to work to earn a living. But most people still think that they have to be a certain age to retire. I mean, you can’t claim Social Security until you are at least 62, right?
What about Medicare? You’re gonna need that.
The problem with this line of thinking is that you are looking outside yourself for security. I say build that security from within. You can create a solid retirement yourself and gain back all those years. Anything you get from the government is one bill away from being changed. What you create yourself is something you can control.
You become the captain of your financial future, not a passenger. Most people are content to be passengers. I challenge you to build your financial mindset. One that says “If I can dream it, I can do it.”
I built that mindset, and now I am building my financial future – one small step at a time.
How I Accumulated 100K In Three Years
I already mentioned that I earned less than $65K annually during this time period. However, this does not mean that is all I earned. I also saved where I could.
You see, finances are like two levers. One marked ‘Saving’ and one labeled ‘Earning.’
Some people say not to bother with the saving lever, just earn more! That only people with a poor mindset touch the savings lever. Other people are too scared to touch the earning lever as they either don’t care to learn about earning more or are scared of failing.
I say work BOTH levers – save more and earn more!
So I found ways to earn income from many sources – writing, secret shopping, eBay and Amazon sales, working gigs, investing, and passive income.
Additionally, I found ways to stop money from leaving me. Finding deals, using discounts, rebates, cash back, negotiating, paying less taxes, fixing things myself, cutting back or eliminating spending on things that mattered little to me, and numerous other small things that all added up to large savings.
When I started my first mission was to eliminate bad debt. So I paid off my car and a personal loan. Now my only debt is a small mortgage. You can see how flat my investments were in 2015 while I focused on debt payoff.
I now live on a spending level that I had 10 or 15 years ago while my income has grown since those days. The difference gets invested.
I didn’t learn everything about income generation and money saving overnight. Bit by bit I learned and tried different ideas.
I am far from the best person at these things, but I continue to learn and improve myself and my situation.
You Can Do It Too
I am not special. There is no grand secret to what I am doing, the information is out there if you wish to find it. You can become financially independent too.
It doesn’t happen overnight, though. You have to be prepared for the long journey. To strengthen your determination you need to have a strong WHY. This is the deep desire to achieve your goal. The ability to overcome obstacles that will fall on your path.
When you have that deep desire inside you, you will have the endurance to succeed.
You will also have to learn what to do. You can learn by trial and error or you can learn from someone else. I often share my experiences and tips I have learned, so be sure to follow me if this interests you.
Another thing to do is track your progress. One day to the next will often be identical so it is important to have something to look back on and see how far you have come. Humans easily forget the past. If you forget your past, you don’t realize how far you have come.
No matter how much or how little you earn, there is always room to save and earn more. If you think you can’t or what I am saying is impossible then you need to get rid of the sob story and take responsibility for where you are in life.
Being financially independent is something each of us can become.
As always, it's your choice.
(Note: The numbers here do not include any crypto I hold)
It is a matter of geography.
There are places where this amount has a lot of buying power while in other places it will not be something unusual.
The ultimate advise should be don't spend all of it, instead, save and invest part of the amount in order to keep a steady income from interest or other type of reward.
Location, location, vocation
Nice read buddy!! I wish I had a better guide for finances in the past. It is ok though, been learning a lot more about it these days.
Saving is huge !!
My goal is to hit 100k in cypto by December 2018. I have been living off Steemit earnings, so I try to spend as least amount of crypto as possible..
After my Asia trip I need to focus on other gigs to do so that I can save more cypto! ;)
Financial intelligence is of great importance! Glad to see you educating yourself about money.
Living the Steemit dream, nice! I know you will reach your goal as you are a motivated person. Hows things? Karen is doing well?
Thanks for the kind words!
Things are well. Karen is doing well. We where traveling together for a while. I extended my trip a little longer to hang out with a friend in Laos.
Travel has been great but I am looking forward to getting back to California and seeing Karen and the other friends. 😀
It really isn't a lot of money. So, you should be able to give it to me. ;-p
Please send me your bank account details for the transfer
Ah ha ha. Hands up who wants 100K?
What's the threshold where I get two chicks at the same time?
That depends on the specific two chicks
the type of girls who would double up on a guy like me.
Well shit, I'm pretty sure $200 or $300 would get you an hour
Go on the community college student plan--save 50%!
Well, here you are talking about two gold diggers.
So... how good is your pimp hand?
When they say, "oooh, that is such a pretty diamond tennis bracelet" how long do you say NO?
Further, I suggest you read the likes of Rollo Tomassi.
Because having two chicks is easy, unless you let them rule your life.
However, you also cannot build a strong relationship with two chicks.
So, we are back to the gold diggers. Which means, you just need to act like your are rich and the center of your own attention. You could live in a shack.
Become financially independent for yourself.
In my younger days, I thought buying trinkets was the way to a woman's heart. Thanks to Tomassi and people like him, now my general first date is telling a girl she can pick out a Redbox movie and order three things off the dollar menu. It's scary how much better the second option works.
This is a true story: My go-to comeback when a girl starts shit testing me is, "Girl, you better watch out. If you don't start acting right I might not let you rub my feet later."
Works every time.
Some good knowledge contained in this post! Thanks for the information. :) Also hope you've been doing well! :)
I'm doing well - and you?
Thanks for the ReSteem :D
Glad to hear you're doing well! And I'm doing pretty good. :) My contest is starting to really take off more and more and it's exciting how quick it's growing. ._. Also.. You're welcome for the resteem, thanks for introducing me to steemit! :D
This is becoming more and more rare, unless you live in the right part of the US...or in a different country. haha
If you aren't tied to a specific location for your job, you can live anywhere! Use that power to live even cheaper :D
I totally agree with that line of thinking! :D
How much per year would buy a decent lifestyle in Chile?
That, I'm unsure of. I'm back in the states now. :)
No need to complain - just adjust your numbers for what $100K in the US translates into in your country.
Minimalist lifestyle means small expenses. Small expenses mean larger savings. So even with relatively small income you can build up large savings over time. Just keep hustling and finding different income opportunities, just like @getonthetrain shared in his personal experience.
Damn, if I could buy a house for $100 000... In Finland you can't find a studio apartment for that price usually. Unless you go outside "populated areas" which in Finland means something like 30 people per square mile (turning these values to miles is hard). Then you can find that studio for under 100k. If you go all the way north, where there are even less people, something like 2.5 per square mile, then you might be able to find an apartment for 2 at that price. The reason I suppose is that the building quality needs to be really good to last winters, not only because of the cold, but also due to the ground freezing and causing all sorts of issues.
Old houses usually start from $150 000 or so, but I wouldn't buy such a house. Currently we live in an apartment, which is a little under 200 000€ ($244 000), it is cheap for its size about 80 square meters (I don't know what you use for house size measurement over there).
Finland and Sweden are crazy, when it comes to real estate prices. That’s why I’m seriously considering moving to Portugal. Way better climate, lower cost of life, affordable housing, better food, AND zero tax on crypto and pensions. It’s as good as it gets without leaving the EU.
Hey, people have always moved around the planet in search of more freedom - I say go for it! :D
Denmark is really expensive as well! Crazy what you pay for in the big cities
In the US we use ye olde Imperial Units - so that's square feet.
1 square meter is 10.76 square feet.
Im kinda stuck. Im 23 and I got into crypto quite early.. besides that I don't have much put away.. and not really sure what I want to do career wise.
I don't know if I should take the majority out of crypto and do something with it.. or let it ride out on crypto..
I want to become financially free one day but I also don't want to sacrifice giving up fun stuff as well. Want to eventually buy a VW kombi and drive through a bit of Canada before going down and doing a States road trip and hopefully get Steemit in full swing. Trying to do meet ups and all sorts of other stuff!
Hopefully one day i'll figure it out like you!
Spread your investments and your risks. Maybe take some part of your profits in crypto off the table and invest it in precious metals / real estate / your own business or something like that. Usually I would add “stock market” to this list, but since the beginning of this year I have a very bad feeling about it…
Yeah good idea. Im thinking of buying my brother a vehicle. He's quite high up working at a bank but he would use his line of credit buying a new vehicle but I'd rather just give him the cash and he can repay me later.. with a bit of interest. Hard to say.. I took some BTC out today and already went up 5000$ haha
I'm a fan of having investments in many different areas. But right now I think that silver is the best bet. Still, silver and the rest of the precious metals can go down further before they rise high.
Like Oleg says, the stock market is getting closer to a crash and real estate is expensive in most areas as well. Besides silver, I am kinda tempted to stockpile cash so I will have ammo to purchase assets after everything falls.
We decided to invest in our house. Money invested now, will reduce the cost and some investments even ensure a daily passive income (solar panels).
For the rest we are living a good life, trying to save some money here and there. Investing in Crypto hopefully will make things a little bit easier. Everybody has to make choices.
But I do think that what you did is a great achievement but don't forget to life. It could be over before it started!
You live in an area where you can sell solar back, nice! The local electric company pulled some muscle and got that stopped where I live.
The argument 'to live life now' is what my wife fights me on. I am of the mindset to hunker down and get it all out of the way now so that my future is wide open and free. She wants to spend a lot more and is fine working longer to do so.
Which is why I tell her we are going to swap once I retire - she can go work and I will watch the kids. Then she can spend all her efforts working and then use that money for all the things she always wants me to do.
But don't think we just sit in the dark like frugal misers. We do plenty of stuff that is inexpensive as well as big trips once or twice a year - more than most people I would think! Every year is a trip back to England, as well as a lesser trip in the USA.
I wasn’t imagining that you guys were sitting in the dark only carving wood sticks 😎
The elec company does not pay us directly but when we are supplying elec to the network our meters runs backwards. But I can’t become negative.
The government is also weet enough cause they do pay us €250 per1000 kwh. A good year delivers 3000 kwh
Inspiring article @getonthetrain. I'm adamant that I want to achieve financial freedom in the next 3 years for myself. I've pretty much cut back complete and have some savings (but not as much as that), so I look up to you :D haha Keep up the good work and I hope you write more like this to inspire me ;) M
Hey, that's what I am here for! Keep at it, it is a marathon not a race.
Thank's for such nice ideology,i also want to be financially independent.But i have got the problem you mentioned that i spend more than i earn.Savings habit is very important for any one in the world.Creating alternative income source is always a good idea.Thank's for sharing such super but simple technique to save money.Thank's a lot for the post.@upvoted and resteemed
You need to stop that bad money habit of spending more than you earn. Want my advice? I would need more info about your situation.
Thanks for u r reply.I will let you know about my self very soon.
First, congratulations for managing to earn so much money! As you said on your post, not everyone can achieve that number in just 3 years.
Second, I think the huge crypto boom of 2017 helped a lot with this am I right? Those crazy returns made a lot of people rich.
I am hoping for a similar increase for this year, although I think its hard to have 2 spectacular years one after another.
I think if you keep up with your strategy, and crypto continues to grow, you can one day reach the big M my friend :D.
Cheers!
The amounts I talk about here do not include any crypto or precious metals purchased or sold, only traditional investments - mainly stocks.
Thank you for the kind wishes :)
YES!! Way to go on your savings! I love this part at the end, "No matter how much or how little you earn, there is always room to save and earn more. If you think you can’t or what I am saying is impossible then you need to get rid of the sob story and take responsibility for where you are in life." So true!
I make less than $50K per year and I've also been able to raise my net worth over $100K over the last four years. Saving money and focusing on a frugal lifestyle has been the best decision for my life.
Hell yeah frugal sister!
$100,000 is nothing, and everything.
If it was just you, you could live in Mexico the rest of your life on just that.
But really, what I noticed is that the poor, middle, rich groups are divided by 10x or 100x money. To a poor person, $100,000 is like winning the lottery. Of course its gone in a flash. But to a rich person $100,000 is filling up the yacht with diesel, once.
So, where most people break down is that they want that "rich" lifestyle, and realize they can never ever save to that level. However, most never look at how they can become financially independent. (and how very easily affordable it is)
P.S. $100,000 in bitcoin will probably grow faster than you could spend it with your normal expenses.
Financial independence is achieved even faster if you learn that the "rich" lifestyle is a false happiness.
The trick is to find what is your enough number.
Well done @getonthetrain, I'm also trying to do the same thing, I'm trying to spend less (living with my parents atm so it's easier to actually save) and trying to earn more, atm my only other source of income is steemit, don't have any of the others...
All my saved money is being reinvested into cryptos, i still haven't bought any stocks, getting stocks is harder than investing in cryptos...
don't know if you are doing this but if you are thinking about living in the same home for many more years you should think about getting some solar collectors and solar panels, it would decrease your spending by a lot and it's a long-term investment
I looked into solar here, as I live in the freaking desert, but it still didn't make financial sense. I don't think this is the place I will live forever. I moved here for work and soon I won't need it.
It's nice and cheap here and I will be in no rush to move, but I think that I will leave here for greener pastures. :)
Then yes, doesn't make any sense to get solar panels, when you go to your next house then
$100,0000 usd is what I need in the next 5 year. Am from Uganda this money can do a lot of things.
I come one of the richest men in uganda
I bet it would @battebilly
I believe I can
congrats on not only talking the talk but @getonthetrain you also walk the walk :)
Thank you for sharing this. Do what you did 9 more times and you will have a Passive Income of $40K per year. That's pretty dog gone nice ;)
Again, thank you for this Post
One year from today I will have a passive income of $24K! That's not including any investments - so things are looking great. 😀
I really agree with your sentence and that is my fight day and night. A fight to always moving forward and achieving great things by starting slow.
It's really wonderful how you manage your finances. I would like to grow my saving slowly but surely until I reach a sustainable level and still investing more.
May be I'll have also the 100.000 dollars . I believe.
Set that amount as your deepest desire and then say what date you will have it by. Repeat that goal to yourself every day and work for it. You will see how well that works.
Yeah.... that's true. I know it will work. Just trying to set high goals
I'm 23 and I own a restaurant and few small business here in Nepal. It's really difficult. I would definitely like to earn some passive income though. I wonder if you would share some information. :)
Ok. I'll put my mind towards writing that article for you.
Thank you very much.
All I know is I am going to the LCS to pick UP some more Silver. In fact I need to do a posting today to earn some more STEEM................
Nice, I'll be expecting pics of it
Going to Drop another Lady of The Bunker Melt tonight this time a BIG SILVER BAR, Stay Tuned.....
Are you a financial consultant by profession. If not, you should that. You are great at finances. Or may be we think alike.
I find an elder self in your writings. That would be me thinking may be 5 years down the time.
I think I would do well in a personal financial field, but I am not working in anything like that.
Congratulations on reaching financial freedom for you and your family! That is truly an awesome accomplishment in itself. Add the 100K to that and wow! You have learned well Grasshopper! LOL!
Not financially free yet - working on it - will be soon!
It's really amazing post..
thanks for sharing...
I read to you, spend it well. Cool Post
Thanks a Lot For Sharing What We Can Do With 100000$.Yes Its Lot of Money.Thanks For Sharing.
Money is very important. Everyone needs money to live in comfortably. So we should earn more money. Money can be a important link to achieve of success.
Upvote...............
awesome read.. now you are my go to financial guide