Over the past 16 years, many things happened to change the way I think about my financial situation. Some of them were nice, some less so, but I would like to think that I took some lessons from all of them.
The first was that a friend exposed me to the teachings of Robert Kiyosaki. The first book of his that I read, was Retire Young, Retire Rich, in which he outlined his passion for owning rental property and deriving a passive income from that. Later - after the accident - I found another of his books, Rich Dad, Poor Dad and then I simply HAD to read Cashflow Quadrant (to find out how the story unfolds).
Another book that I found really inspiring was Tough times don't last, but tough people do by Robert H. Schuller. He planted the concept of crowdfunding in my mind long before crowdfunding became a "thing".
And the book that got me out of debt was Dave Ramsey's The Total Money Makeover.
I'm still a long way from where I am supposed to be, money wise, but I have realized that having money doesn't necessarily make you wealthy, nor that being broke makes you poor. It's your mindset, more than anything else, that determines whether you are going to stand up again and be counted or simply wither away in a ditch somewhere.
I have a really scary dream.
What I want more than anything in life is to own a small patch of land on which I can be a self-sustained farmer, utilizing Permaculture principles to feed myself and my family and have enough left to provide to others less lucky than I am. But - more importantly - I want to be able to encourage and enable those people so that they can prosper and pay what they have learnt and grown forward to a next generation as well.
The irony is that mine is not an expensive goal... to the average American! To someone living in Africa this really sounds like an impossibility.
BUT - Mr Kiyosaki taught me that it's simply a matter of HOW I am going to afford it - not whether I am going to afford it or not. There are quite a few ideas in my mind:
Sell my house, quit my job, leap, and pray that the money from the sale and my pension fund payout will be enough to fund at least the first two years of the project.
Start up some projects while I still have a salary every month and let them grow into something that is self-sustaining over time (and let each project fund the start of the next).
Buy a beach metal detector and go treasure hunting. Use the money from the sale of my finds to pay for my dream.
Win the Lotto. (Remember to buy a ticket!)
Rob a bank. (As if they would allow me to!)
Write a book. Or two. Or three. Or ten! Use that income to fund some projects.
Monetize a blog. Spend some money to make monetization possible and then shamelessly ask for cash to keep the blog going! Or - OK - be more subtle about it and simply sneak in links that poor unsuspecting readers can click on...
Create "stuff" that people would want to pay money for... Add value to the basics. And use my blog to sell those things!
And suddenly I find myself being less bent than before! Why? Because I have ideas in my head. Putting them out here makes them - well - more VISIBLE and DOABLE and opens up my mind to other POSSIBILITIES and things to do to expand on those ideas and then the process repeats itself until the ideas fill the whole space between my ears and start bubbling out of my mouth!
There will be a marked difference in 2020, though. It may not be obvious at first, but maybe that's the point of the exercise. The difference in 2020 would come from what I am going to DO! This year will be one of ACTION, not merely ideas. A dream without a date and some serious action is merely a wish.
It's time to make some wishes come true!