I have very loose definitions for “retirement” and “wealthy”. Most people view retiring as something you do when you are 60 - you stop work, collect your gold watch and take up golf or fishing. My view of retirement is having the financial independence and freedom to live the life that you want to live. Whether it is traveling, spending time with your family, running your own business or even working in a job that you enjoy.
The greatest danger to your financial well-being and possibly your health, is doing nothing at all. No matter what your financial situation is you should still keep trying to earn income and managing your investments. They key is setting up business systems which make money without you having to be actively involved.
I value financial independence over material wealth. Having a flashy car or the latest HD television means nothing if you have to work 60 hour weeks, in a job you don’t like to pay for it all.
I started this site in November 2004, but really didn’t start updating it until early 2005. I have had some success in terms of traffic and creating relationships with people through the site, but have earned very little revenue for the time I spend writing here.
Even though earning money was the initial goal of the site, I have come to realize that the greatest success has been my own personal development in setting goals, working to meet those goals, and documenting my successes and failures.
It has been an enlightening experience, and over the past year of writing on this site, I have definitely become more focused on making more money, saving for my retirement, thinking about where my life is headed and exactly how I would like to live my life.
The year of 2005 was a turning point in my life, where I said “this is it – 2005 will be the year I will make a lot of money. Although, I did not meet all of my goals for the year, I learnt so much in the process and happy just to come close to the goals I originally set. I hope to apply the same success in 2006 and beyond.
My business ideas for creating wealth and independence is a two-step approach. Make money with internet and affiliate marketing and re-investing it.
I use this blog to both write down my goals and how I plan to go about achieving them. Like any blog, I sometimes go off topic and have the occasional rant.