Tag: Money

Why I Never Give to the Beggars and Why Neither Should You

As you travel through the third world countries, you will encounter beggars a lot. As a budget traveller who’s on the tour around the world, I have to spend wisely and giving away may in return put me in a position of a hungry and a lost. Furthermore, beggars who sell trinkets of no value on a pretense of working so they don’t have to beg are a no no for someone like me as well. If you move from place to place and none is your long stay home, you carry all you have with you. In such cases there is simply no room for anything that’s not essential. But none of these are main reasons why I never give to the beggars and why neither should you.

Who Are the Beggars?

When you set foot in third world countries, you will notice that beggars are always people who are intensely difficult to say no to: children, old people, visibly disabled, etc. It is not unusual to see a 7 year old boy carrying his 2 year old little sister with big, beaming eyes locked on your food in his arms. He would gently tap you while you’re lavishing on your breakfast and would make a movement with his available hand to simulate the food putting in his mouth. He will bear a very sad face, often with cheeks visibly marked with tears and his little sister will add to it by delivering the look of a completely innocent, yet hungry child. How do you say no to that?

And that’s exactly it – “how do you say no to that?” People who send those kids after tourists to beg them out of money realize that it is near impossible to say no to children like that. That’s why they send them and don’t go begging themselves. Children are easy to exploit and so are old and visibly disabled people. When you see an old person who should be enjoying their retirement after whole life of hard work, but instead looks in bad shape, underfed, dirty wearing worn out clothes, you can’t help but feel sorry and willing to help. But sadly, more often than not, they are out there because their looks are so striking, they are more likely to succeed. And are easy to force into begging.

It is the same with visibly disabled people. When you see a person with both arms missing and a sign hung on his neck stating that he has no chance at getting a job being disabled in a country with extremely high unemployment, you can easily relate and feel sorry for the person. Fact is, they scarcely have easy lives no matter where they live, but their custom tailored “sales copy” with which they appeal to you clearly shows how well they are prepared for begging and how well polished their begging methods are.

Fact of a matter is, it’s always people who are strikingly difficult to resist because their looks will touch the soft spot of even the toughest of persons who go out begging. That fact itself should raise alarms and say a lot about how easy these people could be potentially exploited or abused to benefit from their misfortunes.

Things Beggars Say

There are certain things beggars like to say. They are in it for one and only reason – to get as much money out of other people as possible. This is their sole purpose and they are ready and willing to do/say whatever it takes to ensure maximum efficiency of their “performance”. They know darn well that if they said that they are only begging because their parents told them they would not buy them new bicycle unless they bring in $20 a day, it may not tarnish desired results. Hence they will say whatever appears to work the best, whatever appears to deliver results (make most people give most money). To say what they want to hear, instead of what you want to say is a known and safe method to achieve a goal not only among beggars, but also among many other professions.

When a lawyer makes closing speech before the members of jury, he/she will focus on highlighting things he/she believes will have the strongest impact on this particular set up of jurors. Picking up right lines to say is the key between winning or losing the case. And it’s no different with begging. Whether and how much is a beggar going to get from any particular person depends on what he/she says and how well he/she presents him/herself. Similarly, when hamburger company chooses the lines for their TV advertising, they will say what is most likely to get people to buy their hamburgers. They won’t base their sales pitch on how much MSG is stuffed in each patty or that occasional rats make it to the grinder where their patties are mass produced. No. They will say whatever is most likely to make your fat ass to get off the chair and buy one.

It is no different with beggars. Polished from talking to hundreds, maybe thousands of people each month, they already know what works the best and can even assess what would work best with which person. Believing that a sob story presented to you is true would be rather foolish. While some may be based on the truth, always keep in mind that beggars solely and strictly say what is most likely to yield best results (aka make you give them cash).

Why Giving to the Beggars Causes More Harm Than Good

The more easy money the beggars get, the more encouraged they will be to continue begging. If begging remains a profitable venture, why would they even consider trying something else? Parents will continue forcing their children onto the streets and pimps will continue exploiting the weak and disabled onto the same.

What To Do If You DO Have Money to Spare and Wish to Help Regardless?

The best thing to do is to take your funds to a charity with good track record of helping people in need. Local charities should have it down and know the people who really need help and also know those who just exploit children and disabled. This would distribute your contributions effectively and would target those you intend to target.

If you can’t help the urge and feel sincere need to help a beggar on the spot, buy them food or give them the rest of what you were eating when they approached you. Avoid giving them money or anything that has monetary value and can be taken to a pawn shop to sell. If you truly believe they are poor and need help, then there is nothing more important for them than good meal. Even inexpensive fruit would do the trick as it’s a tasty and nutritious snack. If you do give them money, they may not even get food as a result. Pimps could be watching from a car nearby and beggars would know it.

Don’t encourage begging and abuse by the pimps and parents. Don’t give beggars any money. You best not give anything to get these people off the streets because when there is no money to be made begging, no one will beg.

Morning Rituals of Buddhist Monks

While I was munching on my Fish Curry with Steamed Rice at the Khmer Family Restaurant, something extraordinary happened, something that I had no idea how to properly respond to. Since I was sitting on an outside patio, I was within reach of people on the street which was abused by little kids and landmine victims who continuously and repeatedly kept bothering me with requests to buy something from them. Since none of them takes “No” for an answer and each is determined to literally molest you into buying something from them just so they can leave you the hell alone at last – I grew excessively wary of not being left alone for half a minute. Then a couple of young Buddhist Monks came, stopped before the restaurant and stood there motionless with a firm stare pointing inside the wide open restaurant. Having just been to a country for a few hours and unaware of morning rituals of Buddhist Monks, I had no idea what they were expecting and how to respond to it without stepping over the line and offending (or worse).

I did the best I could in this situation – I pretended I was too busy reading stuff from the menu, hoping it will look like I have not noticed they are standing there, staring in a general direction where I was seated and that it will get resolved without my involvement, which would be inappropriate in any case.

The monks were young boys. While age of Khmer people is oftentimes hard to guess as they are of smaller built than us Westerners and virtually all of them are slender (kind of looking like kids most of the time), these monks looked like boys of about 16 years of age. They were definitely teenagers. They were both dressed in bright orange robes, which appeared to be made of one solid piece of fabric which was skillfully wrapped around their bodies offering an impression of a safely enclosed and well protected body temple within. Both monks had their heads shaved and one of them seemed to have been carrying something that resembled a large bowl underneath his robe.

I saw them as they were walking up the street when they were just outside the restaurant and since this was the first time for me to see a real Buddhist Monk, it was kind of exciting. Yet still, being anaware of proper etiquette when dealing with monks (who are undoubtedly considered a form of “holy men” walking the Earth), I feared that my actions, regardless of good intentions, would be inappropriate, offensive or worse. What do you do when two Buddhist Monks stop right by the table at which you are seated and silently look inside in a general direction of your presence? I have rejected all beggars and hustlers who approached me so far – should I now break my stance on not being able to financially support everyone who asks me for the money and offer some to the monks? Or am I supposed to share some of my food or drink? Or just play a complete dumb tourist, pick up my camera, shove it in their faces and start taking pictures while mumbling to myself: “Cool, a real Buddhist Monk!” I really had no idea what these monks were there for, so coming at them with the money could potentially offend? But does ignoring and not giving do any better? I was stuck, unable to act. I did not know what to do in this situation. It seemed like a standard morning ritual of the Buddhist Monks as while I was sitting there embarrassed, not knowing what to do, I have noticed another pair of Buddhist Monks stopping in the same way at the restaurant across the street.

The rescue for my stickiness came quickly, though. The boy who worked the shift in the restaurant along with that cute girl who served me my breakfast came to the monks after about a minute of them standing there and passed them small plastic container the content of which they had emptied into the bowl one of the was carrying underneath his robe, the boy then gave them a bank note (not sure how much), joined his hands together as if for a prayer and bowed his head. The monks did the same and uttered a prayer in native Cambodian language. It was just something short, perhaps a brief sentence thanking the boy and the establishments for their generous donation and blessing them in the name of Buddha.

After that the monks moved on to the next restaurant to do the same there. It truly seemed like a morning ritual that Buddhist Monks in Cambodia perform as part of the beginning of every day. As I have learned later, monks rely on support from all people who offer money and food as monks don’t work and have no income similar to regular working class of Cambodia. Cambodia people are impowerished, they don’t make much. Average monthly salary is about $60 to $80. However they always take out of that little bit and give to the monks. Very devoted believers who despite not having much themselves, always find some money to give to the representatives of Buddha on Earth.

Commission System That Takes Place in Cambodia

Cambodia is an impoverished country so when tourists come, the locals automatically (often mistakenly) assume that they have lots of money so as a tourist, you will always be seen as a packet of walking bank notes. Cambodians (Khmer) are generally nice people, but their tight economic situation forces them to take firm grasp of opportunities that deliver easy income. To earn an equivalent of one dollar in wages, a Cambodian would have to spend many hours at work busting his ass off. Realizing that one dollar is an easy tip and a cheap transport rate for most westerners, when an obvious tourist comes to vicinity, they get swarmed by dozens of locals at the same time, each competing for that much desired dollar that a tourist can easily afford to spare, but it means so much for them.

Tuk Tuk Driver Taking a Nap in Rain
Tuk Tuk Driver Taking a Nap During Rainy Season When There Are Few Tourists Walking the Streets

Unfortunately for you as a tourist this means that you will be hackled to no end on every step, repeatedly and unceasingly over and over, non stop at all times throughout your entire stay. None of the locals will let you just pass by without approaching you. You will be constantly hackled about something, being offered this and that and then something else and then yet some more. You will have those locals breathing down your neck non stop and if you say you’re good, they will continue harassing you never the less in hopes that eventually they will hit the spot and offer something you will need so you agree to use their services.

They will always make it look like they are “offering you their service and complimentary advice” but that is only because you don’t know what really is going on. The thing is – everyone in Cambodia, including business owners who cater to tourist will want to get the business of sa many tourists as possible. As such, there is this deeply embedded and omnipresent commission system that works everywhere and all the time. Basically, in 99% of cases involving a transaction with a tourist, somebody will collect a commission for that tourist. In other word, each time a tourist spends money – whether it’s for the food in a restaurant, or for a room at a guesthouse, or for a boat ride, or whatever else it is you are going to pay for, if you were taken there by a Tuk Tuk driver or other referred to (even if you don’t realize), your referred will collect their commission from the business you spent your money on. This commission system always works and never stops. And what’s best – oftentimes it’s you who covers the difference in price so the business can pay their commission to the referrer. In other words, you end up paying extra – you pay regular price plus the commission.

For a Cambodian, commission money can add up to a lot. Few regular jobs can earn money equivalent to the commission they can gather by “helping” tourists with advice. Because of that, there is never a shortage of locals preying on tourists offering Tuk Tuk rides to a better and cheaper restaurants than the one you are intending to use, offering stay in much better and cheaper guesthouse than the one you are intending to stay – often having any and all stories at the ready to deter you from going to your intended location. You could be told that the guesthouse is no longer in business because the owner dies last week, or that they had a recent rat infestation, or “fill in the blank”. These claims are hardly ever true. The real purpose behind them is to argue you into being taken to a place that offers then highest commission – at any cost to you. They will do anything and everything in their power to get you to a place that offers the highest kick back. Period. Never any other. Not for any reason.

Whether you see it or not, this commission system is deeply embedded in Cambodia and is a natural part of local life. As visitor to Cambodia, you will become a part of it by being hassled non stop, mostly by Tuk Tuk drivers. Because commissions can earn locals far more money than regular jobs, Tuk Tuk drivers heavily outnumber tourists even in the most tourist dense areas. You will have dozens of them on your back at any given time. You will have rejected scores of them yet you will continue getting approached. It will make you wonder what the deal is – can’t they see that if you wanted a ride in a Tuk Tuk you would have taken one of last two hundred who asked if you needed a ride in past 2 minutes? They will run to you, point at you, yell at you, clap their hands at you or use any other means to attract your attention. It is a nature of every person to not be rude and ignorant so you will turn your head and will have to explain yourself to them.

It truly is aggravating and pushes you to the limit. However despite all that, Cambodians are a friendly bunch and affordability of the place makes it extremely attractive. Afterall, they are just trying to survive. They do it in the worst way possible, but this is the way it is. Commission system always works. If you are a traveller on a budget, you can keep your stay in already inexpensive country down by going everywhere on your own and never taking on an advice for trying a different place from locals. No matter how friendly and genuine their “advice” may seem. It’s not. It’s always and only an advice to get you to a place that offer the highest commission.

Be the Change You Want to See

9 out of 10 people don’t like where they are in their lives at this moment, or would put themselves in someone else’s place if they could. Are you one of them? If you are – don’t worry. For one, you’re not the only one who’s desperate for a change and secondly, if you knew of the hardships others are going through, you would likely want to keep the lifestyle you currently have, regardless of how much you think it stinks. Many people desire a change and they should. Life is meant to be abundant and enjoyable. However, lamenting will not deliver change you desire. It will only make matters worse. Change requires action. Action on your part. You be the change you want to see in yourself. Be the change you want your life to fall into. Be the change you’ve been dreaming off and it will come to be. For there is no greater power in the universe than the power of yourself. Help yourself and the powers of the universe will re-arrange to help you too. The change starts with you.

Change begins with clearly defined goals. Unless you know exactly and undisputedly what you want, how can you expect to get it? If your life right now doesn’t seem fulfilling, take a minute for yourself and go through your goals. Take a note that you are the master of your own life. Whatever has happened in your life so far is in the past. The past is the time that’s gone forever. A new day has started and it could be the best day of your life if you let it. Don’t hold back, don’t fear change and don’t be afraid to take risks. Better life is just around the corner. Believe in miracles. No matter how good or bad current situation may seem, it will change. It always changes. Change is a constant. You can start your change by getting rid of everything that isn’t useful, cheerful or pleasing. Don’t waste your time succumbing to envy. Let THEM envy you the lifestyle you are embarking on.

This is about what you love in life so don’t take “NO” for an answer. The seduction of money and prosperity may be difficult to overcome, but not impossible. Ask the right questions to get the right answers and know it is not the money you want. It is the lifestyle you were falsely lead to believe could only be had if you had a lot of money. If you dig into it a little bit deeper, you’ll easily learn that the cost of lifestyle you covet is oftentimes lower than the cost of your current lifestyle, the lifestyle you are trying to change. To be laying in a hammock on a private island, clipping your fingernails off while cool ocean breeze washes off the sweat after an endless walk along a tranquil beach doesn’t require you to be a millionaire. You can have the lifestyle you desire by changing your focus from making money to ensuring positive cash flow.

Society today conditions its members to spending. Why do people who are in debt continue buying? So much useless junk in their houses already yet they keep spending. And those are not isolated incidents – I used to be one of them myself. And that’s why I can relate. Advertising, media, soap operas – all the biggest junk of modern cultures condition you to buying new gadgets you don’t really need, but are brainwashed to believe it is the way of the world so you follow. Set yourself free from conditional spending, set yourself free from possessions that are not essential for your day to day life and breathe the free air again.

Designer clothes, expensive homes or flashy cars are not signs of wealth. They are merely a sign of a great deal of money spent. Don’t feed your ego. No one on their death bed wishes they had spent more time showing off with expensive gadgets. Furthermore – feeding one’s ego is a losing fight. No matter how much of your hard earned money you spend to get the biggest rig on the road, one day you will stumble across someone whose ego made him buy an even bigger a toy. The satisfaction you experience after acquisition of ego fueled merchandise doesn’t last long. It will just increase the demands laid upon your spending by your own ego. There is so much of it out there, that no matter how much you keep buying, you will always want something else. This is a sure fire way to becoming a rat racing champion.

Change your life by being the change you want to see. You have all you need to do it, you just need courage to put it in motion. We’ve all made mistakes in the past, learn from them and use them to your advantage. Never dwell on them. Past is gone and it’s not coming back. Enjoy the present and look forward to the future. Today is the best day of your life. Stand up high and see yourself for a magnificent being that you are. You deserve the change for the better and it will come your way if you let it. Everyone who got where they are had to begin where they were. Every hour you save for yourself, to spend it the way you enjoy, is like an hour added to your life. So grab at it and become its leader for life is like a dogsled. Unless you are a leading dog, the scenery never changes (quote by Lewis Grizzard). The clock is ticking. Are you gonna watch it tick away or use it to your benefit?

Positive Cash Flow

You’ve heard me mention Positive Cash Flow number of times during previous lectures on Early Retirement. Positive Cash Flow is the key to retiring young. As someone who understands the value of time, it became clear to me early on that the goal is not to score big financially. Aiming for a big payday puts everything into way distant a future. To retire rich, you may be faced with decades of tight lifestyle before hitting jackpot, but to retire early, you may need as little as positive cash flow of $50 a day. The former will keep you stuck in the office until you’re too old to enjoy yourself to the fullest, the latter could send you on your way to endless adventure in a few months.

My Positive Cashflow

I got my positive cash flow out of the websites I’ve been running for years. I set up my personal photography website back in 2003. In 2004 I added ten more websites to my portfolio but they were each more of a hobby, rather than a business venture. I had a little bit of income through promotion of affiliate networks, but it only amounted to about $50 a month. As years went by, I learned a thing or two about SEO (Search Engine Optimization), learned a little bit of web programming and by 2006 I already had a network of 20 sites running.

I’ve been working on them diligently every day and come 2007, the popularity of some of them grew to a point that a server upgrade was needed. I was still only making pennies a day even after investing a lot of work into them on daily basis. I was doing it because I enjoyed it. There was a little bit of money, but hardly anything to reasonably compensate for the work put into it. Continuous growth resulted in complete necessity to switch to a fully dedicated server in 2008. I was getting a lot of traffic but kept failing in monetizing on my sites. The cash flow was vastly negative at this time as my monthly cost for the server was $199 yet income from my sites was only in the $100 neighborhood.

As the traffic kept growing, I was forced to upgrade my server once more in the beginning of 2009. This time my traffic amounted to half million unique readers a month and that required more powerful server with more available bandwidth. Monthly cost just went up another $100 draining $299 out of my pocket each month for just webhosting itself. Negative cash flow ruled, but I kept financing it out of the money I was making at my government job.

My life was awful. I spent whole day in the office, then when I got back home I worked on my websites. Yet cash flow remained negative. At that time I started to travel again and the phase of my spiritual awakening was initiated. I started to question the premise of going to work until retirement and bit by bit, these pieces of scrabble that combine into a complete picture as presented here in my blog, which opens you up to the life of enjoyment and abundance came together and made me see things I was brainwashed to ignore. I realized that I’d wasted too much of my precious time as a corporate slave and started to work my way to early retirement. There was one and a half month lag between full awakening and my departure.

I used most of that time securing myself with positive cash flow. I knew the websites with lots of traffic were there. After years of putting so much work into them I was faced with the biggest challenge of my life. I’ve realized that 20% of my websites make 80% of all the money. The rest either didn’t make any money, or only very little but together amounted to very high server costs. The idea of getting rid of those websites was extremely difficult to swallow. I put years of work into them and believed that they were on their best way to make it big. If I only stuck with them for a bit longer, I could really hit the pot of gold and become financially secured. But that was exactly the issue – there was a possibility of it happening one day in the future. And as I have come to realize, focusing on future instead of this moment makes you waste your precious time. You don’t live, you enslave yourself because you believe that one day in the future you will get the reward.

I understood it clearly. Happiness is a journey, not a destination and this 20/80 principle is something that accompanies everyone throughout their lives. I worked really hard to get those websites to grow and become popular and now I was playing with an idea of dumping them. I had an option to stick with them, continue doing what I’m doing and look forward to one day in the future when someone with lots of money notices my sites and offers me several figures just like that. Or I could just let them go, quit waiting for something I hope will come, render all the work I put towards them over the years useless, but gain positive cash flow that could set me out on a journey of a lifetime within a matter of weeks.

Since you are reading the blog about Early Retirement with entries from my adventures around the world, you know what came next. With biggest sites gone, my server and bandwidth costs decreased significantly and my negative cash flow changed into a positive cash flow literally overnight. But that’s not all – those biggest sites that were eating most bandwidth and bringing least money were also biggest eaters of my time as maintenance of such busy sites required a lot of dedication. By freeing myself from the clutches of busy but negatively performing sites (in terms of cash flow), I gained more time to focus on sites that previously made 80% of the money.

Within days, I was able to end my $100 negative cash flow and turn it into a $300 positive cash flow. One and a half month later, I quit my work and sat on the plane to South East Asia. During initial weeks of my early retirement I lived frugally but not cheaply and I put some work towards my money making sites, increasing positive cash flow to $1,000 a month. And I just went with it from that point on.

The only trouble was, that my life instantly turned from this miserable rat race in the office to an exciting adventure that never ended and I was enjoying myself every day to the fullest. Early Retirement rocks. But because of that, I’ve been only putting a few hours a week towards growth of my online business so my positive cash flow has not increased significantly since I’ve reached the $1,000 a month net income. My monthly Early Retirement costs fluctuated between $600 and $700 so the cash flow remained positive even after all of my expenses. And this is all I could need. I’m having the best time of my life. I’m enjoying myself every day. If I did not go for it, I’d be in the office right now, doing what my boss tells me, fixing other people’s problems. Then when the paycheck comes, I’d go and spend it on something because that’s what consumerism we are brainwashed into by the media is all about. We enslave ourselves by dedicating the best days of our lives to working for corporations and end up spending our compensation on material things we don’t actually need to be happy.

I don’t own that much right now and I’m way happier than when I owned all the crap in the world. I have my laptop, my digital camera, few things to wear and a whole world to explore. Would I be better off if I continued focusing on retiring rich when I’m 65? No way. I’m perfectly healthy right now, I’m enjoying myself while I still can. The whole world lies before my feet and I explore it unhindered every day.

My goal is to increase my positive cash flow within the next 6 months so I have enough back up and I would also like to diversify the activities so I have some positive cash flow from different sources. Retiring rich puts the lifestyle you desire in indefinite future. Retiring early enables you to get the lifestyle you desire as soon as your positive cash flow reaches the level that meets or exceeds your comfort level.

The quest for cash is a fool’s errand. Rich people can become poor on any given day and all you have worked for will be gone, but once you have the positive cash flow happening, you don’t concern yourself with whether you’re rich or poor. But that still doesn’t matter, because if you build up the positive cash flow and use it to retire early, you will have lead rich and fulfilling life full of amazing moments to share with your friends and family. Don’t save your life’s enjoyment for the end of your journey on Earth. When you are on your death bed, you will wish you had spent less time with your boss in the office and more time with those who matter to you. The life is now. Instead of giving yourself reasons why you can’t, give yourself reasons why you can and make it happen. Go with confidence in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.

“The minute you choose to do what your really want to do, it’s a different kind of life.”
— Buckminster Fuller

Retiring Rich

Most people associate retirement with money and want to retire rich. And I can’t blame them. Before I embarked on my journey to early retirement, I used to think that in order for someone to retire, they must have certain amount of money or else their retirement will stink. Back then, the rat race through life was all about retiring rich, all about this coveted life that’s supposed to come one day in the future. Questions about retiring rich and how to achieve that goal seemed perfectly valid, but it only lasted until I realized the importance of asking the right questions. “How Much Money Do I Need to Retire” is a fundamentally wrong question because as most wrong questions it implies that possession of something (in this case “money”) is necessary in order to retire. But that’s something I have already covered in my How Much Money Do I Need to Retire Early article. So why am I coming back to the same topic you ask? Because I believe it is important to realize that retiring rich should not be the goal, otherwise it will lead to the rat race. Hunt for the riches can cost you a lot of time, the commodity you only have the limited supply of. If you waste your time trying to get rich, trying to achieve a goal that you believe will bring benefits in the future, by the time you are a baby boomer you will be so short on the time left, that even if you have accumulated riches, you will have little time to enjoy them to the fullest. And that doesn’t even take into account worsened health you will have developed by the time you have reached that age.

Retiring rich should not be the goal, retiring soon, preferably now should be. If you make retiring rich your goal, you will set yourself on a long path using the best years of your life working like a slave. Whereas if you make retiring now your goal, you will look towards the ways to establishing a cashflow that will set you free from shackles of corporate slavery and send you on your way to enjoy life.

Forbes Magazine has a list of Rich People. According to their definition, a rich person is someone with annual income of at least $1 Million. This is Forbes’ definition of “Rich” – their understanding of “Rich” has everything to do with the amount of money. My definition of “Rich” would be vastly different as what Forbes considers rich people are simply people with a lot of money to me. Just because they have heaps of money, it doesn’t necessarily mean they live rich and fulfilling lives. But that’s not the point at this time.

Given Forbes’ definition of rich, if you wanted to retire rich, you would be aiming at gathering at least one million dollars before you retire. If you happen to score a good paying job, let’s say one that pays $60,000 a year, you might be able to put away $2,500 each month towards your goal of retiring rich. If everything goes without obstacles and you remain diligent and never fail at putting away $2,500 a month, it will take you 33 years and 4 months to reach your goal and retire rich.

Now – if you take into account that you won’t score a job that pays $60,000 a year right off the college, you may not be able to start with such savings until let’s say – the age of 27. This means that my the time you have saved enough to retire rich, you will have been 60 year old. Great – you’re an old vegetable. How does it feel to retire rich?

Why would you want to make retiring rich your goal? It could condemn you to lifetime of servitude as corporate slave, wasting the best years of your life in a cubicle or wherever your workplace may be so you can have the retirement you desire when you are 60? Let me remind you of the fact that to live it up as though you have retired rich, you do not need much money in your bank account. As matter of fact, you don’t need any money in your bank account and still be able to embark on a journey of a lifetime. What do I base such bold statement on? I base it on a fact that I personally know a guy who retired in his 30’s just like that – myself.

Not only did I not have any money when I retired, I was actually $30,000 plus interest in debt. Yet I’ve wasted no time and set out on my merry way to early retirement and never looked back. How could I do that? Cashflow and belief that I can do it. That is all you need to retire young. Or simply retire at any age. If I could do it, anyone can. Get rid of the notion that you need money in order to retire and quit focusing on the size of your bank account. Because if you keep asking yourself how much money you need to retire, you will be putting your retirement off into the future. And what you put off once, will be put off again. There will always be obstacles, challenges and changes in your life. At one point it will be more money that you need to retire, then completion of the project you are working on, then fill in the blank. If you see it in the future, it will always be in the future. Future is the destination, but that’s not where happiness lies. Happiness is the journey.

Let me recapitulate again why the idea of working yourself to exhaustion so you can save enough money to retire rich is a silly one and why working to save money for the future is a fundamental loss:

  • Being employed provides you with security of a steady paycheck, but at the same time it is the type of income that’s taxed more than anything else and offers little control over how big a chunk of your hard earned money is taken off as tax
  • Going to work requires dedication of your time to job tasks and time is the most precious commodity you have
  • Employment doesn’t come with significant fluctuation of money earned. In order to earn more, you’d have to either work more (take overtimes or second job) or work harder
  • Employment has little or no residual value. You get paid for work performed and/or time spent at the workplace. In order to get paid again, you need to do work and/or spend time at the workplace again

Does the idea of spending your whole life being a corporate slave with the goal that one day you may retire rich still sound appealing to you? Being an employee is to be the most underprivileged member of society. You will be taxed near 50% of your income and you will only have the after-tax left overs to pay your rent with. But the worst thing is that you will spend the days of your life while you are able bodied doing anything but what you want to do. Days you have only so many of before your time is up. If you are going to invest it towards securing your retirement, don’t do it with the goal of retiring rich. Invest it into getting some cashflow happening for yourself so you can retire now, whatever your age and start spending your precious time doing things that matter to you, things that excite you, things that fulfil you. This way, when your time comes and Grim Reaper knocks at your door to end your journey on Earth, you will feel rich. Not Forbes rich, but content with the way you have led your life. You’ll leave this world happy and fulfilled.

Can Money Buy Happiness?

Can money buy happiness? If you asked me that question prior to mid 2009 when I was at the peak phase of my corporate lifestyle, I’d be able to give an answer that’s hard to refute. I’ve been up to my ears in debt since 2006 (yes, still am but not for much longer) and when you spend the best days of your life killing yourself going to work and taking overtimes so you can make ends meet, an influx of money would definitely deliver happiness. Back then I knew for sure that if I had the money to pay off my debt, I’d feel much happier than I was so don’t be telling me that money can’t buy happiness. Yet there’s been leagues upon leagues of people who made it big and became rich, both past and present and they all said the same thing in unison – money can’t buy happiness. So what’s the deal? Why do all those people who lived miserable lives when they were flat broke say that money can’t buy happiness now that they can afford anything their heart desire? Do they know something we who have not reached that level yet don’t know?

This was something I was having hard time accepting. How can money not buy happiness? Have all those people who say that money can’t buy happiness forgot what it was like being poor? And then I started paying more attention to people around me. Especially people with clear signs of affluence – those driving $200k cars, business owners, large entrepreneurs, et cetera. There is hardly anything they can’t afford to buy, yet you look at their faces and they look miserable. They walk around with their Blackberries at the ready because they must be available 24/7 to solve problems. Other people’s problems.

It has quickly become clearer than the sky that money truly can’t buy happiness. Being flat broke is no happiness either, but being rich doesn’t necessarily mean that you will be happy. It will allow you to solve your debt problem or whatever other financial problem you may be currently facing, but it comes with problems of its own. Being rich, just as being poor are the two extremes on the opposite sides of the same spectrum. Happiness lies somewhere in between.

I’m sure you have one of those neighbors yourself. He drives brand new Lexus with leather upholstery and all available extras. Sound system he had installed can be heard from three blocks away. He goes on a five week vacation three times a year yet each time you see him, he looks grumpy. He gets about 5 phonecalls every 30 minutes and always seems to be in a rush to go somewhere. He has all the money in the world, so why is he not happy?

It is because pursuit of money is akin to chasing your own tail. At one point in your life when you are flat broke you see money as the only solution to your problems. You start killing yourself working long hours, your life becomes all about elbowing your way up to the top and work becomes your life. You eventually reach the point at which you are promoted to a position which pays enough to quickly pay off your debt. But as you got consumed by the corporate lifestyle, the only goal you had in your life was to make X amount of dollars and now that this X was reached, you simply set yourself with a new goal and increase the value of said X. The pursuit of money continues.

At this point your bank account is nice and thick and you quit work to start your own company so you can make even more money. The temptation of driving that new Lexus in leather with navigation system is irresistible. The more money you make, the more you want to make. You are on the sure way to working until you die. You have been asking yourself all the wrong questions and because of that it’s not clear in your mind what it is that fulfils you. So you fulfil yourself with work because it provides you with the sense of purpose. You are financially secure, but you continue working to feel productive. Is there any way you are gonna tell anyone that money can buy happiness now that you have all the money in the world?

That being said, if I were to choose between being broke and being rich, I choose being rich. However, when asking whether you’d rather be rich and sick or poor and healthy, I choose rich and healthy. Never compromise your happiness. Happy person is an enthusiastic person. Happiness boosts energy and creativity. As a result, happiness can buy you money. If you set yourself up to living an enjoyable, fulfilling life, your mind will be clear to come up with fresh ideas for financial freedom and instead of wondering whether money can buy happiness, you will find out that happiness could lead you to money.

What Do You Really Want in Life?

When faced with the “what do you really want in life” question, I’ve come to realize that our minds are so affected by mass-media controlled society, that we provide ourselves with wrong answers. Oftentimes where you are faced with the same question, the answer you come up with does not reflect what you really want in life, it reflects what you think will lead you to what you really want in life. Let me give you an example:

I was at my cousin’s wedding and got engaged in meaningful conversation with young gentleman whose outlooks on life were remarkably sophisticated for someone in their early twenties. I’ve asked him what his goals were in life and the answer was ambiguously plain. He said he wanted to be rich so he can comfortably provide for himself. So I asked him how much money he would like to make to feel comfortable. His answer was $100,000 a year. I asked him what he would do with the money if he was making $100k a year? He said if he was making at least $100,000 a year, he would be rich enough to travel abroad and explore three new countries each year.

Once he said that, my brain instantly scanned through the records of my life during the past 6 months and I have been faced with an astonishing revelation. I responded with: “Wait a second. Did you know that in the last 6 months, I travelled to three foreign countries myself? One of them was Iceland, one of the most expensive countries in the world, another one was Cuba where everything is government controlled and prices for tourists are hardly negotiable making it one of the most expensive destinations in the Caribbean and last one was the Dominican Republic where I went through insane adventures every day, including the whale watching, climbing of 27 waterfalls, performing live on stage with local celebrity called Luiggy Luiggy – plain and simple living it up to the fullest every day. On top of these three foreign destinations, within the same period I visited the Canadian Rocky Mountains 3 times, each time at a different location and I made an unforgettable trip to Toronto. Does this sound like the type of lifestyle you would like to be able to have but need $100,000 a year to afford?”

His affirmative stare made me continue with the same breath: “You know what the funniest thing about this is? I did all this and I make one third of what you believe you need to make in order to be able to afford this. And even funnier thing is that it didn’t cost that much either. I was able to finance each of those trips from the leftover money after I had paid for my rent, commuting, day to day expenses and whatever else my body desired during that time.”

This is it. When faced with “what do you really want in life” question, people often respond with wishes of being rich, because they believe that’s the key to the lifestyle they desire. So they basically offer wrong answer because while the answer is “money”, it’s not actually money they want. It’s certain lifestyle they want, but they believe money is the key to that lifestyle so they answer with “money”.

That’s what I used to think too. I always wanted to travel around the world and had a whole list of “must visit before I die” places which seemed so distant because I believed it was impossible to visit them unless I had money. I was telling this lie to myself for near a decade until I eventually decided to take action and once I did, I visited some of my favorite destinations, some of them known as world’s most expensive places and I did it on the cheap without a sweat.

Here are the facts:

  • You believe it is money you want but it’s not. It may be a really nice car you want to be driving, it may be a sail on a yacht across the Pacific you want to take, or maybe you want to learn Muay Thai under direction of a martial arts master in Thailand. These are things what you REALLY want. You only answer “money”, because you believe money will give you the opportunity to engage in your dream activities.
  • You may be surprised that with just a little bit of thoughtful planning, most of the activities which you believe take a lot of money, can actually be done on the cheap. I wanted to visit Iceland my whole life but was putting it off because I realized that it’s a very expensive country and I’d need a lot of money in order to be able to survive there. Yet I spend unforgettable 10 days in the country, rented a car to drive around the island, climbed glaciers, walked behind a waterfall, swam in a cave, visited bubbling mud fields and even had a great night out with local girls in Husavik on Friday night whom I met 5 minutes prior. We partied whole night and went dolphin watching the following day. All this for less that I would be willing to admit.

You have probably asked yourself the “what do you want in life” question several times throughout your life and have probably seen the answer in money as well. Now ask yourself: “What do you REALLY want in life?” and focus on final wishes, not on what could lead you to it. As you explore further, you will find out that you don’t have to be rich to have the lifestyle you desire. I am not rich, nowhere near. Yet I’ve been travelling all over the world and have many more places to go to – and it costs me less than $1000 a month. You don’t need to be rich, you only need enough to get the lifestyle you desire. And this will set you free from slavery of work and put you in the way of life where every day is an adventure you will never forget.

Time – Your Most Precious Commodity

Throughout my life so far it’s always seemed as though I’ve never had enough time to do the things I am supposed to do, let alone things I want to do? The dreaded “wasting my life away” quote was at the back of my head as I was sitting in my cubicle browsing through pictures of people photographing themselves having the time of their lives at places I’ve never been to. All I could do at the time was say “maybe one of these days” to myself. After all, I have to go to work every day which leaves me with little time for traveling and money is tight so I’ll just have to bite the bullet and hope something comes my way. It didn’t.

Actually, it did but in a whole different form than I would have imagined. As part of my spiritual awakening I started to see things differently and realized how precious a commodity time is. It was already clear to me that spending the best years of my life working so one day when I retire I can enjoy myself made no sense, but when I realized the value of time, things took whole new turn. “Maybe” must be replaced with “May Be”.

I had tens of thousands of dollars worth of stuff sitting in my livingroom and I’ve dumped it all in the bin. I have primarily done it to liberate myself from chains these possessions kept me in, but as I was done, a realization of one far more important aspect of this act came to me. By dumping all these in the bin, I have also saved myself a lot of time. The other option was to list all these items for sale on classified ads sites. Had I followed this option, I may have added few nice bucks in my pocket but at what cost?

I’d have to take each item, take picture of it, get pictures ready for use on the net, write up a reasonable description of the item otherwise it may not attract attention of potential buyers and go through steps of publishing it on the websites. Subsequently, I’d have to deal with potential buyers who would be hitting me up with supplemental questions about each item and requests to drop the price (aka negotiations). I’d be spending my evenings responding to emails, bouncing them back and forth in hopes that someone will bite.

If I got lucky and found a buyer willing to shell out for these second hand things with expired warranty previously owned by a person they don’t know, I’d have to let it go for a price that’s way below reasonable value, because that’s how it goes with classified ad sales. So yes, in theory, I’d eventually make some money on it, but amount of time I’d have to invest into it could grow exponentially. Postings and repostings of ads that didn’t attract any bites, continuous questions from enquiring minds who’ll be trying to lowball me ad nauseum… would time invested really be worth it?

Bingo – that was the million dollar question. If it’s money you want, perhaps one would be better off spending this time focusing on something that could bring more in. As I was digging deeper into it, I came to realize the real value of time. Yes, time is your most precious commodity, because there is no money in the world that could buy it. Those things I had dumped – if such need arises, I can buy any of those back. But time – that’s one thing you can never buy back. Nothing in this world is more precious than time.

Time is so precious, everything revolves around it. Every regret you have is directly or indirectly affiliated with time. If you lose someone you love, you will be devastated. It’s after they are gone that you realize that so many things were left unsaid, so many undone. And now they will remain unsaid and undone forever. And it’s all because you have not spent as much time as you should have with that person. Perhaps it’s because you spent your days going to work and after work you were too tired. Perhaps it’s because you spent last two weeks re-visiting that car dealership and spent every evening there trying to get that new SUV for $10,000 less than advertised. To make or save money, you spent your time – the most precious commodity you have – by doing everything, except from what truly matters to you.

You are not the only one who makes this very mistake. I spent near a decade of my life – the best years of my life – going to work every day, working for money so I can exchange it for things that I then had to store in boxes and haul them around each time I moved. I did not do things I wanted to do and it went on for near 10 years. I will never be able to get those 10 years back. I can get back any of the items I threw in garbage as described above, but my years I spent going to work are irrevocably gone. During those years I haven’t done anything I really want to do. I simply went to work every day with a vision, that one day, sometime in the future I will retire and then I will be able to do what I want to do. As this premise became clearly ridiculous, I realized the value of time and started acting accordingly.

Keep this in mind – time is your most precious commodity. This day, this particular day on which you are reading this post will be there only once in your lifetime. Seize it. Seize the day! Wise people have been telling us that for millennia and I can’t believe it took me this long to realize it. There is a world of infinite possibilities out there. Live your dreams now, not in 20 or 30 years. Time does not discriminate. There are 1,440 minutes in a week and every single person out there gets this exact amount. It’s how you choose to use those minutes that makes the difference between those who live life to the fullest and those who don’t.