Can you pick out the person in the crowd that is not like the others? Is there a person in the crowd that thinks nothing like the masses they’re surrounded by? What specific thoughts am I talking about? I believe people who are SUPER financially responsible must be 1 in 100, maybe just 1 in 50. So, if you are surrounded by a small crowd, or in a large group, and you are actually super financially responsible, you may be the only one. Yes, these abnormal creatures do exist, but I feel we are extremely rare.

Of course, there are people who will tell you they are good with money. They’ll say they pay their bills on time (mortgage, car loan(s), credit cards) without worry. Many will be in a “retirement savings plan” at work and save every paycheck, maybe even $100 per check, umm.  Those who truly believe they are crushing it, may even have an “investment account.”

I definitely believe all three of the above positions are extremely valid toward financial responsibility. What I feel makes some of us abnormal creatures is the fact that we plan ahead, WAY ahead. We set goals with targets along the way. We track and measure how we’re doing. We consider our purchases with respect to our plan. If we are smart, we make enough purchases to enjoy life, while staying on track. No need to become so frugal you waste your youth—“youth” being your previous younger self.

One major characteristic defining these abnormal beings is delayed gratification. By waiting for something, you increase the desire, you possibly think through various usage/spending scenarios better, and may even get better pricing.

I didn’t realize that I grew up with this strange concept. The concept of waiting for Christmas or my birthday for a gift seemed normal in my family. Thinking back, I saw many friends get “stuff” whenever they went to the mall with their parents, or when they wanted something. I usually picked out what I wanted and waited. I can tell you I know many people who are in debt, or worse have filed bankruptcy. I don’t know all the facts, but they definitely have/had more/nicer “stuff” than I do. I just feel there should be a balance, not deprivation.

Recently I’ve heard multiple podcasts and read blogs about delayed gratification. These creators make me feel great knowing I’ve lived a smart path, and that others are sharing this foreign concept to help new people pick up on this amazing idea for financial positioning.

Be strong in yourself when surrounded by commoners. Be proud that you’re probably the only alien in the group. Be aware that you may be in the 1% of financial wisdom. Be sure to find balance and enjoy your life through working/earning and in FIRE.

YOLO! You Only Live Once. Of any fact in the universe, it sure seems that we are definitely living now, right here in the present. I’m assuming this isn’t some sci-fi imaginary life. So this may be our one and only lifetime. I know there are afterlife and previous live ideas, yet I don’t really know much about those.

Based on my narrow focus of living this current lifetime, I would like to have the very best life possible. This entails many goals such as: enjoying my time, being a good person, being good to others, helping others, etc.

Having just traveled to South America and witnessing huge areas where people seem to have VERY few possessions, I can’t help but think about what I have in my life. I think about what those around me have as well. So many of the people I met while traveling seemed quite happy. Everyone I encountered was friendly.

This is not something I can say from my daily experiences in the US. Is it possible we have built up a higher level of desire/needs thereby creating a lower threshold before we start to get anxious or upset? Take a couple minutes to think about what upsets you. How can you lessen those feelings, or even better, turn them around and find happiness?

I’ve tried for a decade to “find the positive.” How I wish I could become much more zen. I’m getting better, but I still have a LONG way to go. This takes me a lot of constant effort.

Now, having said all the above, I still LOVE my life. I actually have a t-shirt that states “I love my life.” I am thankful every morning I see the sun. Obviously, it’s much better than the alternative(s). I find great things in every day. I know I am blessed. I do still struggle with “bummers” each day, but they don’t slow me down.

I definitively have plenty of ideas on living a good life for myself. The term “myself” being of primary concern since I can only control myself. Of course, I do have the ability to extend beyond myself and try and give to others. I know giving is a core foundational happiness trait of so many people. Giving must be a way to be bigger than yourself.

Quick thought: Forget the bucket list, make sure you’re enjoying life now, every day. Start working on collecting experiences now. These experiences can include the experience of giving to others.

Your Net Worth doesn’t lie. Net worth is your report card, your score sheet, your scale, a thermometer—all of this in one number. So is your net worth where you should focus the most energy? I believe yes and no. I know this info is everywhere, but I have to share my thoughts because it is YOUR foundation.

Tracking your net worth over time is extremely important to see your financial trajectory. Those reading this probably already have a tendency to see an upward trajectory of net worth. The trajectory may have started at zero, or may have started at -$10,000 or -$20,000 or lower. What matters is the direction of net worth. Surely we all want our financial situation to show improvement, no matter what the Y axis is currently.

Net worth doesn’t care how much your salary is from year to year. The change over time will show you how you manage your spending/saving in relation to your income. So by ignoring your income stream(s) and simply viewing assets vs. liabilities, you get a black and white grade.

What can you do with your current grade? It will let you determine if you are financially sound. It will show you if you are preparing for the future. The “future” could be 30+ years from now, or it could be 8 months away when you have an emergency expense.

The long term goal of your net worth may be to aim big for Financial Independence. This could be defined as the point when your assets generate enough income to support your financial needs. At that point, you don’t need to “work” for money—though many people who are financially independent still work in many different ways. I can tell you that it’s truly much easier to go to work each day when you know you don’t have to work, but instead, continue working because you enjoy what you do. Many people give their time, energy, effort to causes they believe in. Don’t believe this is not “work,” it’s just not for a salary. This is the “no” part of focusing your energy from paragraph one. At some point you do not need to concentrate and track your net worth, but instead, live your life. Give to others as you can.

I believe the ONLY goal of net worth is to strive to increase the amount each review period. It doesn’t have to be a huge increase (especially if you start early), it just needs to improve quarter after quarter, year after year. Hopefully, a plan with a goal in mind.

The key component of a growing net worth is a positive cash flow. Not spending all of your income is a very important component to an easier life. Keeping spending under control, or increasing your income to offset your spending will only help your net worth grow.

Tools: How did I make this process less torturous (though I’ve learned to enjoy the process immensely)? I love using the wonderful tools from Personal Capital and Mint. Much has been written about these websites and assuming their security is top notch, there is NO reason not to let their dashboards show you how you’re doing. You can view everything from a high level, or dig into the details (macro vs. micro—to those of us nerds).

Tip: start your tracking—setup your accounts—as soon as possible. You want to get a longer historical reference as you grow your net worth. I really wish these tracking tools were available a decade ago because they are so much better (and easier) than my historical spreadsheets. Quicken/MS Money were not my favorite tools.

No matter what shape your finances are in, it will only help for you to start tracking your net worth. It might not feel great, but it will help you.

Something special happened to me one night at 2am when I looked at my alarm clock. Something that had never occurred in my past. On this night, I didn’t think “oh good, I have 4 more hours to sleep.” I realized there is no reason when waking up, to think how long until the alarm goes off. None!

I realized it doesn’t matter if it’s 2am and I have 4 hours left to sleep, or if it’s 4:00am and I have 2 hours left to sleep. Don’t stress, just close your eyes and relax. It’s your body’s time to rebuild itself for the new day. Soon after, on multiple mornings when my alarm went off, I remembered how I chose to relax after my mid-night waking (waking?) and noticed how I felt less tired the following morning.
It wasn’t that I slept more, but I believe the quality (relaxed, rebuilding) of my sleep was much better. There was actually less stress or anxiousness during the night.
There had been numerous stretches in my life where I would wake up at 2, 3 or 4am and accidently start thinking about life things. Sometimes I feel like I’m either on or off, and in that quick waking moment, my brain started to turn back on and take off. It wasn’t insomnia to me, rather it was some kind of brain activeness. Please don’t think it was one of those don’t-look-at-your-cell phone FOMO moments because I never worry about MO. It was simply my mind starting to get in gear when it should have been idling. That’s one good behavior on my side, some inherent drive I must possess.

As I tried to take this concept from sleeping into my daytime life, where I try not to let my brain race off into full-speed-ahead processing, I’ve found life somewhat calmer and possible to focus what’s happening around me more. I’m still not zen, not at all, but I sure do find the ability to enjoy the right now.

To wrap this up, don’t let thoughts jump into your head that are out of your control, they may cause you stress for no reason, and may put you into a time crunch unnecessarily. Maybe you can focus on the thought you’re having and the stress it’s creating, and see if you can let it go, and if not, then think about a plan to resolve the issue and eliminate the stress. At 2am, the stress of an upcoming alarm is resolved easily by going back to sleep while thinking…”ah, many more hours of sleep to be had.”

One quick thought, as you become FI this gets so much easier at 2am. Once you gain RE, this becomes almost non-existent at 2am. Independence is very calming, and “retirement” is even more freeing.

Thespian, I am not. Creative, nope-not that either. Mathematical and logical-yes, that is me. Yet somehow, about 10 years ago I realized the story of my life had been divided into three acts just like a play.
Act 1 school – The painful hours, days and months sitting in classrooms watching the clock was agonizing. This could be where I developed my fixation to control my own schetchle. I developed other skills in school, such as understanding how to get an A (highest level of graded achievement) in the easiest most efficient manner. Optimizing and efficiency will serve you well in life. I set my school goal, usually at 91% and determined the requirements for achievement. I figure out the assignments required and points possible, I strategically calculated what questions may be on the tests (often what the teacher talked about-with a couple sneaky, dig-deeper-into-the-book items) and grabbed the main points of the chapters (often first sentence of each paragraph). I did fine in school. I made the Dean’s list most semesters in college with just enough effort. TIP: I learned early on in college, “go real hard through the first exam to baseline with an A from the beginning of the semester, since it’s easier to maintain an A, than try and pull a B or C up to an A. So, start early, then cruise. Sound familiar? “Compounding” anyone?
Act 2 work– Now this is where my level of effort changed quite a bit. I was no longer scored against a standard 100 point scale. I knew I was compared to my peers on each project and for each annual review. I grew up being pushed towards being a perfectionist on tasks—the skill of not having to go back and fix/redo something. Rework not only wasted/doubled my time, but would surely irritate an employer or worse, upset a customer. Being a great employee allows you to maximize your earning potential. Increase your human capital.

I continued my setting-a-goal-and-reaching-it mentality month after month which served me well. In 18 years in corporate America, I went through at least 6+ Reductions In Force (layoffs). Usually, someone in my pod of 4 cubes or the neighboring cubes would disappear one day. Towards the end of my corporate life (2008-2014) the RIFs claimed more, in 2014 we lost two out of four people in a pod of four cubes through job elimination/shuffling. I was never laid off, but worse for me, I was not able to self-nominate myself for a voluntary exit/layoff package because I was one of about 20 out of 300+ employees deemed critical. Strangely, I had no super special tech skill! I just believe that I was always customer focused, I always said ”yes, I’ll take care of that,” and more importantly, I resolved many issues before they ever reached my boss or bosses boss. Proactive and near perfection each day.

Yes, I loved my job. Yes, it was easy to love working from home for years, working with people across the world every day, and most importantly, the last 3+ years of work were of my own accord (FI). I hit my “number” years before RE and worked only because I wanted to, not because I had to. Financial Independence at each level (no debt, then emergency fund, then after “the number”) is so amazingly freeing. You should try it.

Act 3 not working – This has been the best, and hopefully will be the longest Act in my life. I called it “not working” (or “no longer in corp. America”) because it seems more accurate than “retired.” Somehow, both my wife and I still seem to stumble into some working opportunities. Often a couple days a week to do some consulting or teaching when we aren’t traveling. It’s actually less than part-time of partial-time—a couple days per week, a couple weeks per month. The point is, we own our schetchle, we choose to do any amount of work, we definitely don’t mind our skill based part-time “playchecks.” Some special purchases or projects have been funded just by working a little—trading a little labor. “Work optional” is probably a great description for FIRE for some people, especially younger people.

If you think of life in phases or play Acts, you may be better able to handle the ups and downs you will face in the dramatic script that is your life. Make goals, track your progress towards your goals, manage the pitfalls, and succeed. I wish you the best in all the new goals you will be setting and attaining in your future. Driven people NEVER stop setting goals.

Let’s get down to it. How do you know where you stand? How are you doing? How can you possibly know if you’re doing well financially (hint: it’s not your income) or falling behind and not realizing it? What is “behind?” Can you compare yourself to your friends, your co-workers, your family, the articles online? Nope. There is really no direct comparison. You must create your own scorecard. I personally have money “report cards” from my whole adult life.

I started tracking my money in high school. I was not some penny-pinching nerd—though I probably am now. I just noticed how my allowance would always run out before the end of the week (I did not work when I was in school).  See, my parent always had a “budget book” on the counter. It wasn’t for planning a future budget, but actually a spending log from past actions. I would always see how they wrote in their spending at the end of each day. It seemed it only took a minute per day. I never paid much attention to the act of their logging their spending. I definitely never thought about what they did with the book at the end of the month, year, etc. Yet, I did know they could look back to see when they had purchased something and what it costs.

So I guess instinctively I just grabbed a spiral binder and wrote “October” at the top and wrote down what I spent each day, if I spent anything at all. My parents taught me by example. Within a couple weeks, I was able to see how much I spent hanging with friends, eating out, buying stupid items, gas, etc.   Did I mention I did this when I was 17—doing something that NOBODY seems to do. (Side note: this was the 80s, there were no debit cards or online transaction histories, and all my items were cash. It’s so easy now.)

What’s exciting nice about this topic is that it’s never too late to get a handle on your spending. You can start tracking any month. Bonus: the less money you spend, the easier it is to track your spending (who got your money). Yes, I know seeing “$68 at Target” doesn’t tell you what you bought, but it does tell you where it went. If you had unlimited time, then you could break down each receipt into major categories but a detailed/overall idea is extremely valuable.

My tips: Basic: Just create a list of spending for each month, ATM withdrawals, debit card, credit card transactions, and autopay bills. Keep a running total for the month. You could even track from payday to payday. This cannot be a one-month activity because there will be large, surprise bills in your life. Those large bills are part of normal spending patterns in life. They must be part of your cash flow plan.

Intermediate: migrate the basic list into columns for a few categories Fixed/required-mortgage/rent, insurance, utilities. Variable/Semi required-cell, internet, TV, even medical. Variable-food in, eating out, Household, HH Misc, gas, auto maint, entertainment/travel, misc spending. I spend about 1-2 hours each month putting this together. That time has proven so valuable over the past 20+ years.

Advanced: break down each receipt into the categories. I find this is far less valuable if you aren’t spending every penny of income. 100% detail is not required If you’re saving money, then you have a handle on being cash flow positive.

Here are some things we’ve learned:

• We know where our money goes.
• We know when we’ve had large expenditures and can use for historical tracking years into the future.
• We can evaluate any of the large spending items. We can make vehicle ownership decisions based on costs.
• We can easily tell when we’ve done a little over indulging. And can get back on track.
• We know our travel expenses by trip.
• At the beginning of each month, my wife knows if I’m going to be in a good or bummed mood for the next few hours. Not by the amount as much as by the items.
• Very interestingly, we tend to spend close to the same amount each year, even as income increase. And our personal rate of inflation seems low based on being quite consistent over the past couple decades. Most importantly, that spending amount has been below our income amount.

So, back to my question, where do you stand? The most important part of your financial foundation is your cash flow, your Personal Profit & Loss statement. Cash flow based off (net) income vs expenses to determine your money trajectory. Are you spending less than you bring in and allowing your savings/net worth to grow? Are you falling short each pay period? How much money do you spend on food (in house), on food (eating out), on gas (don’t buy a higher MPG car, just combine trips if you can), on quick visits to Target or Costco? There is no doubt in my mind that you would be shocked at where you money goes. If you want a copy of my intermediate level tracking spreadsheet for any idea, just email me. It’s a simple document that allowed for life-changing decisions, year after year.

Would you go to the gym for an hour once a month if you were told it would drastically help your health? Tracking your spending for one hour a month helps your financial health, which can ease your stress, which can even help your physical health.

Why do you think normal retirement age is 65, 66, and early is 62ish, and late may be 69+?
Having been freed from my 8-5 job, I’ve had time to reflect on many, many thoughts. My newest thought is to “think 60.” The more I thought about “think 60,” the more I realized it can take many perspectives.

Let start with—Live each 60 minutes, Obviously days get super busy and the hours fly by and you can miss so much—so much enjoyment—while you push through your daily activities and responsibilities. Stop, or slow down, take a breath and realize the 60 minute you are living in. I’m not zen (yet) but I’m sure this is a big part of the “be in the now” idea. Yes, you can be busy and spend a few hours on a task, but take the time to value your efforts, whatever they may be at the moment. Hopefully, you are able to find enjoyment or at least some satisfaction in the task.

OK bigger picture, If you’re young, think like your 60 years old, be smart and wise. What would the older you say to the younger you? Would you say “don’t miss your life going by?” Would you say “try harder” “save more” “live more” “keep the future in mind” or something else? What can you do while you’re younger to set yourself up for a great 60 and beyond?

If you’re older, think like you’re only 60 years old, be young at heart. I know we all heard “sixty is the new 50.” Maybe people say that because once they hit 60, they realized they aren’t old. Maybe these people realize that today’s 60 year-olds are younger at heart, more active, more interested in new things, still setting goals, still looking onward. Don’t let your age number slow you down. Don’t let slower people who happen to be around you slow you down. Find people that are younger than you—maybe those who are free—and hang out with them. Challenge them in a way that challenges you.

So why do you think 60 could be an important number for you? Maybe that’s when true wisdom settles in for so many people. You often hear “old and wise,” why not be proactive and become young(er) and wise(r)? If you’re reading this, you surely are a thinker, unless Google screwed and sent you here incorrectly…