Where do I see myself in 10 years? We all heard that question mainly asked in job interviews. I’ve been giving this a lot of thought as I start up this blog to document my journey.
I am really into personal development and mindset. One of the things I realized (for me at least) is that I need to re-phrase the question. “Where do I see myself in 10 years?” seems to be too wishy-washy for me and results in a lot of “I don’t know” type of responses. Instead, I like to phrase it as “What do I want in 10 years?”.
Being that I have MS, a 10-year look ahead holds a lot of unpredictability. One of my big worries is what if things take a turn for the worst and I’m unable to work. So my goals are going to be a little far fetched for some. I would rather fall short trying to hit a big goal than hitting a small goal.
Making a small goal knowing that you can hit it is like making a to-do list and you write down things that you already have done just so you can cross it out for the satisfaction.
It’s ok … we have all done it.
My Long Term Goals Before I’m in my 40s
Let me start off by saying that I am currently 32 years old. So this only leaves me 8 years to hit my targets. So here are my goals:
- I have a net worth of $1,000,000 CAD
- I earn $5,000 per month through online ventures.
- I have 5 rental properties earning over $200 per month in positive cash flow.
Yea I know what you are probably thinking …
“Yo BS … these are some really unrealistic goals you have here!“
And the answer to you my friends would be … probably.
But like me break it down …
Breaking down Goal 1: Net Worth $1,000,000
Let’s look quickly at where I am at right now.
- Condo: I purchased my condo back when I was 26 years old. Currently, the condo is assessed value is roughly $350,000. My mortgage on the property is about $125,800.
- Investments: $90,000
- Cash Savings: $65,000
- Debts: Other than my mortgage I have no other debts.
Current Net Worth: $379,200
So that means I need to figure out how to add $620,800 to my net worth in the next 8 years.
That breaks down to $77,600 in net worth per year. That’s $6,466 a month.
So the question is what can I do to gain $6,466 a month to my net worth. Well, I can expect roughly to save about $900 a month after expenses and taxes from my job. I also get about $420 a month from investments after taxes.
So really I need to come up with about $5,100 a month but the question is how …
Well, I could:
- Get a part-time job
- Do a side hustle
- Do more investments
- Earn money online
- Get better at my current job
Getting a part-time job won’t work for me. I do suffer from fatigue because of the MS. So jumping from job to job won’t work for me. It might be a good starting point for others to get some extra cash.
I tried the side hustle for a while. I had a resume writing service teamed up with my sister who is a recruiter/HR professional. It was good for some Starbucks cash but it eventually did not become worth it for me to do anymore. It was starting to take time away from my actual job and once I broke down the hourly rate for me doing resumes turned out to be about 25% of what I currently make. So why not just spend more time working my actual job at that point.
I could do more investments which will be a big part of my plan. The problem is that I can only save so much money a month from my full-time job that I can use to invest.
So really I need to think of a way to add more sources of income. Which leads me to my next idea goal.
Breaking down Goal 2: $5,000 per month online.
Nowadays we are doing so much more online. Because of that, I believe making money online is becoming less of a scam and becoming a way to actually earn money from.
I’ve been doing a fair bit of research into this the last year or two and diving deep into all the possible ways someone can earn money online. Here is a quick list of ways I can make money online:
- Affiliate Marketing
- Ads
- Selling Products
- Selling Online Courses
So my plan here is to warp my idea with making money online and getting better at my current job into one thing. I am going to make a website about engineering.
So hear me out …
I know there are a lot of websites about engineering and there are a lot of sources online about engineering. Most of these sources are general and theoretical. If you got a particular problem that you are not sure how to handle it can be very difficult to find something online that talks about it.
So my plan is to base a website around only the field of engineering that I specialize in and base it on the problems that I encounter and how I solved it. This will also help me achieve my experience so that I can refer back to it at a later date if I run into that same issue later on.
I also figured that since I already spend so much time researching and studying on my own time why not share it.
Eventually, I hope to develop this engineering website to a point where I can apply ads to it. I don’t believe this one website will get me to the $5,000 per month goal but it is a start.
Another reason why creating a website is so attractive is that it requires a lot of time and effort to build it BUT over time it becomes more valuable with the more information it has. So if I’m unable to work the website will hopefully bring in some cash on its own.
Breaking down Goal 3: 5 rental properties earning $200 per month in positive cash flow
To be frank with you. This is the goal that I’m like thinking “what the hell bs … what are you thinking!“.
To give you some reference. I live in the lower mainland of British Columbia. Affordability is a big issue here with Vancouver being some of the most expensive cities to purchase real estate in North America.
I’m not completely sure how I am going to do this but I’m committing to myself now to try.
All I know is that real estate to me makes sense. It’s easy to understand the concept of rental properties and you can buy on leverage. Meaning that it only costs me $80k – $120k to own a $400k asset for example.
All I know is that from all the self-made millionaires and billionaires that I follow say that real estate is where they made their fortunes.
Heck, even Arnold Schwarzenegger became a millionaire through real estate before he made it big with his acting career.
My Next Steps …
Well first off I need to get a handle of my money. That means I need to see what I’m spending money on. The good news is that I’ve been tracking my expenses for the past few years, perhaps it is the engineer in me or I just really like working on spreadsheets. Needless to say, I’ve recently been getting lazy with maintaining my budget. So that will be the first step and see where I can cut some expenses that may have crept up more than I expected.
Second, I want to start diving into the real estate. Understanding the data and trying to figure out where I should invest. What I do know is that I want to invest in my local market. Unfortunately, I live in the lower mainland BC and real estate prices are through the roof. So understanding what local city will give me the best bang for my buck is important.
Lastly, I want to start creating my website so that I can provide content relating to engineering in my particular field. I do want to start up this website fairly quickly. It takes time to create helpful content and I want to do it at the same time when I am creating this website as everything is fresh.
Stay tune for more material is coming up …