Also trying out a new Wordpress site. View this HERE:
I read an article in the New York Times a while back that asked this very question. What the author was referring to was how much more money a year do you need to be happy. They also presented some data from a few studies that defined a comfortable standard in the US to be somewhere around $75,000. I assume this might be for your typical family of 4 living in suburbia. Mortgage, 2 cars, and all the other typical minutia. So this breaks down to about $6,000 a month.
This got me thinking about what most people have to do to earn $6,000 a month. Most work a job for someone else. That means they trade their time for money. Typically 40 hours a week and in some households that could mean both adults with jobs. But they are happy because they are somewhere near or above the $75,000 threshold right?
Not so fast. They may be comfortable to a degree in that they have more than adequate food, clothing, and shelter. They also have some disposable income for some creature comforts. A nice TV. Cable or satellite service with 300 channels of nothing good showing, etc. Having lived at ground zero in the “Bubble” of this supposed comfort zone for 15 years I can tell you that most are not satisfied at all. Most have slowly given up on their dreams over the years and traded them for mortgages and car payments and a life driven by consumerism. Now they are in a place where they HAVE TO make this much money or more just to keep their head above water and to keep up pretenses.
Most of you who know me are aware of how I have transitioned from a life of pursuing stuff to a life pursuing experiences. I made it pretty simple. The less stuff I had or desired the more experiences I could explore. I am no longer a prisoner of American Consumerism. I have reduced my overhead to the point where with a $2,000-$3,000/mo income I could become the master of all my own time. Right now I still am tethered to a traditional job. This is the last piece of my plan for world domination that I am working on.
I do not want to trade my time or the currency of my youth for a limited income where I work on someone else’s schedule and the hope that SOMEDAY I can retire and do all those things stacking up in my bucket list. I have seen too many people regret that they were over committed to working all those years and now that they can finally “retire” their bodies are no longer capable of embracing the dreams of their youth. None of us are promised tomorrow!
My plan to create EXACTLY the life I dream about is in the last stages of becoming complete. I know exactly what it looks like. I know exactly what it is I have to do to achieve it.
So the question at the beginning of this post was: What is your number? Mine is $3,000/mo. At that number I can live and breathe any where on this entire planet doing exactly what I want to do with my time. The trick now is to create a passive income that can be generated from anywhere 24/7. In our hyper-connected world there is no reason one cannot leverage technology of the Internet to accomplish this. They do not call it the WORLD WIDE WEB for no reason.
I have simply chosen to expand my horizon as to what is impossible out to infinity and remove the entire variable of geography from the equation. Stay tuned to this blog to watch this grand experiment in life unfold. My goal is to be completely free from all geographic income restraints in 30 days. August 22, 2012 is my Independence Day!
Peace!
Dave
Tetons! Just one beautiful place on this Earth I roam.
P.S.- Check out some of the tools I am using to leverage technology to help me turn myself loose on the planet: HERE
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