Update on my Quitting Date

I attended a pre-retirement seminar for my work and discovered that there is no real benefit to staying to the ten year mark. I can quit at age 50 and receive a small monthly paycheck and have medical and dental coverage, or I can stay until the ten year mark and wait to collect a bigger paycheck at 62, but have to suspend the medical and dental benefits until then as well. So....the time value of money and the cost of medical benefits means that the small paycheck plus the medical and dental benefits FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE at age 50 is a pretty good deal. That moves my quitting date up to Dec of 2009. I had better get on the ball and create my passive income streams. I am excited about the change on the horizon, investigating my options for doing something else, like teaching English abroad, or becoming a tour guide.
In other news, I finally listed the eight hundred pound gorilla on back (aka my vacation home) with a realtor. Any remaining equity will go to the realtors at this point, but I am going for debt relief. I can then spend the money I was putting into that on paying down the credit cards and getting this financial plan off the ground. I am determined to be financially free and I will make it happen. Stay tuned.

Set Your Quitting Date

I apologize to anyone following my blog for my lack of recent posts. I am not going to make excuses except to say that I have been working on the concept for my website and trying to figure out how to organize it. Its a bit more complex than blogging, because if you want any traffic you have to rank high in the search engines, so you have to learn about SEO (search engine optimization).

Anyway....I have set my quitting date for my job. I decided that by setting a firm date, it will push me harder to get the things done that I need to do to accomplish it. So...drumroll please.....my Quittin' date is.......June 10, 2010. Why 06/10/10? For a number of reasons, but mainly, I will have a ten year service retirement at my job, so I'll have a little retirment money coming in when I am 62. Also, I think it will take me another two years or so to get my financial house in order. If I can make it happen sooner, so much the better, but setting a date roughly two years in the future kind of makes me relax a bit (even tho' I hate my job) and plan accordingly. So my challenge to you all is to find out a plan that will make you financially free, figure out how long it will take, then set a date and keep it in your mind. Focus on it every day, and do something every day that will help you achieve that goal.

My Website is On the Way!

I have not posted in quite awhile. I've been brainstorming and working on my financial freedom website, which I hope to have available soon. Well, not too soon, theres so much to learn. But I have found a program that is amazing as it teaches you all about SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, as you actually build your site. I can't recommend this program highly enough. Its called SiteBuildit! and will most likely take years off your learning curve, and generate traffic for you. It costs 299 bucks, but you could pay several thousand for someone else to build a site, and this program has all the tools for finding the best keywords, etc. So check it out.

In other news, I've been trying to sell my money pit, AKA my vacation home in ski country. Its a beautiful home, but I just can't afford it anymore. I would rather put that mortgage money into becoming financially free. Later

An Intro to Quantum Physics

I am now reading a great book called The Field Updated Ed: The Quest for the Secret Force of the Universe . Its a layman's intro to quantum theory, but goes into some depth about different scientists and their discoveries about the subatomic world and how it relates to the mind. It requires some concentration if you have not encountered these ideas before, but for me, its kind of the final piece of the puzzle in the whole Law of Attraction movement. It actually presents scientific evidence of a Life Force, and an interconnectedness between all things and the universe. I am only halfway through it, so I can't comment on the entire manner in which this has integrated my other spiritual readings, but suffice it to say that the activity in the brain on a subatomic level is compelling evidence that what spiritual leaders and teachers have been articulating for centuries is most likely true. The book has also given me pause to think about psychic phenomenon and how quantum physics explains the high probability of truth in the second sight of mediums, psychics and intuitives. It also makes me think in more depth about the quantum mechanics of dreaming, and dream interpretations. I highly recommend checking it out.

Power, Freedom and Choice

I have been thinking alot about personal power, because tied to my job I don't feel I have a lot of it. I know, I could quit and make a go of something else, so I am really there by choice, but then again, quitting would subject me to alot of potential financial hardship, so I feel limited in my ability to choose. Perhaps I am just afraid?

Having personal power is paramount to living a life that is fullfulling and of service to others. Unfortunately, there are many ways in which personal power is lost to the individual. Sometimes it is abdicated. Sometimes it is taken away forcibly. And other times it is insidiously squirreled away by the powers that be so that you do not even notice it disappearing until suddenly one day you wake up and realize you are not free, and freedom seems impossible to attain. Freedom seems more than just elusive, it seem impossible.

So what is freedom? Freedom and personal power are closely related, if not the same thing. Personal power and freedom are the ability and the right to choose. Anything that hinders your ability or your right to choose is bringing you down. You are controlled by those things. If you are in a relationship where someone tells you what you can and cannot do, you are not free. Your power is in someone else's hands. If you are tied to mortgage on a second home that you don't even live in and you cannot make other financial decisions,(choices) you are not free and that mortgage controls you. You are powerless to spend your money any other way than on that mortgage. And like me and my job, I am right now powerless to choose to quit. My second mortgage has taken away my freedom to choose to be jobless. I am so clear on this concept right now.

I Did It! I'm putting 10% to Retirement!

I'm still reading Trump University Wealth Building 101: Your First 90 Days on the Path to Prosperity (Trump University) I just finished another chapter by John Burley on setting up an AIP (automatic investment plan). He does not advocate budgets, but AIP's. He recommends that you put away 10% of your gross pay into an investment vehicle, such as a mutual fund, stock portfolio, etc. I have chosen to put mine into my 457 plan, that way I am saving, investing, and also reducing my tax liability which will increase my income. I wish I could put the maximum in there, but I am just not there yet. I still have too much credit card debt. I need to sell my money pit, which is a vacation home in ski country. Its killing me financially, and in this market, I'll be lucky to break even, but I am remaining optimistic! Some interested buyers looked at the place this weekend, although the realtor wants 5% commission. Yes, thats right. ONE REALTOR wants a whole 5%, no other realtors involved. I think its a bit greedy but this brokerage has a monopoly in the area, and if they can sell an in house listing to a buyer they are also representing, they are going to push that property, not mine. I can't afford to give them 5%, theres barely any equity left! But I will remain hopeful, until tomorrow, when I phone him up and beg, er, negotiate.

Vision vs Goals....and a Dream I Had

Well, I got derailed for awhile by some of life's drama and have not posted since May 5th! So I am now back in action and hope to keep my focus on my goals in order to obtain my vision!

So what is the difference between your vision and your goals? This is another thing to ponder from Chapter 4 of Trump University Wealth Building 101: Your First 90 Days on the Path to Prosperity (Trump University) Simply put, your vision is a clear picture of how you want something to look, such as your financial future or your future lifestyle, and goals are the steps you need to take along the road to accomplish it. So you have to have a clear vision of what you want to acccomplish. Apparently it helps to write it out and focus on it as often as possible. My vision is to have the financial freedom to work for the joy of what I do, not because I have to or because I am tied to the paycheck. I want to be able to maybe go back to flying airplanes or just work in the garden and travel when I want. I want the freedom to take off and drive up to the river without feeling like I am not getting my "days off" chores done. So I have the vision-now I just need to find the plan and set goals that will get me there. Hopefully fast, like in the next two years.

On to my dream...during all this drama I've had recently I had a dream about missing a math class in High School. I've had this dream before. In the dream, I am remorseful about never having shown up for a math class. I knew I probably failed because I never went and therefore never did any work for it. Occasionally I will dream that I signed up again to repeat the class, but then fail to show up a second time. But this time the theme was a bit different. I was re-enrolled and trying to do a math problem for homework. But I kept getting waylaid by other things, or losing the paper, or just not being able to concentrate. I finally got focused enough to know that it was a simple rate X time = distance problem and that I should be able to do it rather easily. Then I woke up. I wondered for days what this dream was trying to tell me and then I figured out that the whole dream reflected exactly what I was going through, and that there was a message in there for me. The rate at which you work times the time you put in equals how far you are going to go. So I need to work smarter and more efficiently at my goals, and put more time into accomplishing what I need to do and I will go alot farther down the path to financial and job freedom. And not let myself get waylaid with other distractions.