How do you create your dream lifestyle?
Firstly, you need to know what that looks like. Will it be living happily and contently in your dream home? Will it involve an annual trip somewhere? Will it be lots of trips everywhere? Will it include a plan for helping your kids with a financial boost? Does it include collecting anything special or leaving a legacy of some kind?
If you want to create it, you need to know what you’re aiming for, right!
So once you have the plan, then you need to know what that lifestyle is going to cost you. How do you budget for the future? How do we know the cost of living and the inflation rate? The simple answer is that we don’t. We also don’t know exactly how our investments will fare. So we need to budget for some wiggle room.
My starting point is to know what it costs to fund my current lifestyle. What excesses are there? What can I save on? What needs a little injection of cash? Are you spending or saving extra cash? Is there such a thing as “extra cash”?
Once you know what your current lifestyle costs, you can then add or subtract depending on your goals.
The most important things here are awareness, motivation and action. Without these components, chances are high that you will happily float along, hoping for the best.
So take some time. Create the plan and the budget, set your milestones and get to work.
There’s no time like right now to get started!
