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Building Your Lifestyle – Part 1
Financial plans, cash flow analysis, savings plans, budgets, debt plans… These are the topics that most personal finance authors focus on. They are some of the most important pieces of personal finance but they are also the most boring, least read, and most importantly they do not help people change their behavior.
Breathe deep and relax, I am going to write about building your lifestyle. Of course there will be personal finance tips and strategies here and there. Of course debt and saving will come up from time to time. But the goal is to help you build your lifestyle, not to cut your debt or save more.
Let’s begin the journey. The first step is simply know what you want as a lifestyle. There is no wrong or right answer to this question. Want to travel the world solo? Build a family and grow deep roots in the community? What about working to the top of the building and have people work for you?
Spend some time on this and think about what you want your life to look like. What do you want to build towards? What would you be most proud of accomplishing over the next few years? What do you want to avoid? There are a myriad different ways to flesh through your desired lifestyle but the one that has been most successful for me is to write. The process of writing allows you to work through your thoughts and feelings through a ‘self-conversation’. Writing helps you understand yourself and your deeper thoughts and emotions. At times subconscious feelings will arise that you didn’t know that you had.
The point is take some time out and figure out what type of lifestyle you want to build. Use whatever tactics work best for you. When you are done write it up in a detailed description. Write what you own, who you are with, where you are and what you are doing. Write in enough detail to allow yourself to close your eyes and imagine yourself there. Don’t leave anything out, put your soul into it.
Taking action is what matters. Treat yourself to some soul searching and clearing up your life path. If this is done correctly it will not be a waste of time. In fact if taken seriously it may be an activity that you repeat.
My next post will detail the making money portion of building your lifestyle. We will cover how much money is too little, too much and how to find a job to support your desired lifestyle.
