Quote: (01-24-2012 03:30 AM)pitt Wrote:
Dont get me wrong, i am not underestimating the power of money, i also hate poverty and i hate people that choose to live a mediocre life. However i like my freedom and happiness too much to be enslaved on making money for the rest of my life, im currently working 12 hours a day for a company and running businesses on the side, i know this will pay later, but im not looking to live this type of life for too many years, i was way happier when i was just travelling. So its all about calculating how much you need to live an independent location lifestyle, get the money for it or streams of income and then go live that freedom lifestyle.
Pitt, deciding what type of business you create will be very important if you want to later relax.
I started out consulting. At the height of my consulting days, I was bringing in anywhere $4 - $6k a week.
The only problem with that was trading time for dollars. I was capped at that point and it wasn't something I felt had security or something I wanted to do until I retired.
Besides, the traveling got under my skin after awhile. We were not talking about places I wanted to spend time at. I had to go where the work was and it was mainly onsite at undesirable locations.
I then got into real estate and set that up more as a business rather then investing. It was a lot of work but I learned a lot and did pretty well. In fact, I may be getting back into this market but more as a lender to other investors.
Still, it wasn't quite what I was looking for. I was still married to that. I could hire others but the skill set needed wasn't something a lot of people had. The ones that had it probably wouldn't stick around for long.
I ended up getting into selling my own software products. This is what I do today. I had a lot of experience in software from my consultancy work.
Lifestyle wise, this was the best option for me. I can work from anywhere. Depending on the market I choose, I can sell a shit load.
It is completely automated from purchase to delivery. I can hire people to program who doesn't happen to understand the marketing aspect. That helps me keep people more long term.
This year is already blowing up for me but it took me over 6 years of a lot of hours to develop my current product line (still working on it). Well worth it...
Now, I will be hiring some more programmers this year as well as customer service reps. My time involved will diminish greatly if I want. I have it set up so two people can run the day to day stuff.
Unfortunately for me, I have 5 more years of products enhancements and other lines to develop. haha I do love the game and I like to be productive with my time. Spending time on a beach gets boring after a couple of days for me.
So it really depends on the business you create, how you structure it, and the type of markets you go after. Always think about the end game. You will start trading a lot of your time in the beginning. If you set things up right that doesn't mean you will have to continue that route later once your business is kicking ass.