Life’s been pretty good lately—not super exciting, but not bad either. I’m not rich yet, and I don’t travel much or have grand adventures. It’s mostly just work. I don’t go out much, and neither does my family. We’re not really outdoorsy people, but overall, life’s been good, especially in the last couple of years as my income grew. I could be content with how things are going, so why push for more?
I think it’s because I’m just tired. I feel like I work too much, and maybe I should be scaling back, saving more, and focusing on enjoying life. It’s not like we live extravagantly; we don’t splurge on luxury items or have a flashy lifestyle. I drive an 8-year-old Honda CR-V, which is perfectly fine. Our previous home was a townhouse, and while this house is nicer, it was mainly to give my wife space for her business. It’s never been about appearances or luxury.
I guess it’s more about wanting more free time, actually enjoying things we’ve been putting off for so long. Technically, we *could* be doing that now—we don’t have to wait until we’re retired or some future date that may never come. We should be enjoying life more now, and in our own way, we do. Life is peaceful, maybe a bit boring, but it’s enjoyable. Still, we’re getting tired, and we want to do other things too.
I also feel like I’m a smart guy—not a genius, but smart enough to figure things out. So why not use that to improve my family’s financial future?
I want to do more, but not by working even more hours. In fact, I’d love to work less. It’s more about testing my limits, seeing what else I can achieve, and continuing to grow. I *could* settle for what I have now, and it wouldn’t be bad at all. But the future is uncertain, and even though I feel good about my skills, the tech industry hasn’t been stable lately. There have been layoffs, and I know people who’ve been affected, so I don’t take anything for granted, especially when it comes to my career and income. I want to build a bigger financial cushion for peace of mind.
Why $5 Million?
The reason behind the $5 million goal? Well, the short answer is: why not? But here’s the longer explanation:
I started by estimating how much I would need—or at least want—as yearly income to comfortably provide for my family and then some. I settled on $200,000 a year, which I think is a good number. From there, I did a quick calculation to see how much I’d need to invest in the stock market (let’s say the S&P 500) to generate that amount annually, purely from returns.
On average, the S&P 500 tends to yield around 8% annually. I know that’s a rough estimate and doesn’t take into account all variables, but it’s a decent starting point. I then thought about inflation. To buy what $200,000 buys today, I’d probably need around $230,000 in five years. So, I used that figure to backtrack and estimate the total investment required to generate that kind of income, which came out to about $3 million.
However, I realized that I might not be able to tackle this alone. It’s a lot of work, and, as I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I’m already pretty busy. So, I figured I’d likely need a partner to share this objective. That means we’d have to split the earnings. To keep things simple and aim for a solid number, I settled on $5 million. With an 8% return, $5 million would yield around $400,000 annually, and when split between two people, that’s $200,000 each—right on target.
Now, why the 5-year timeline? Well, I know this is an ambitious goal. It’s not easy, but it’s not impossible either. I just had to come up with a timeframe that’s challenging yet achievable. I heard somewhere that it usually takes around 7 years to grow and sell a startup. Plus, I recently met someone who shared that a friend of theirs sold their startup in just 3 years. Three years seemed a bit too fast, and seven felt more realistic, but I wanted something with a nice ring to it—so I chose five years. It’s a stretch, but it feels right.
Why the blog?
Well, it’s mainly to keep myself accountable and have a record that I can look back on to see what went right, what went wrong, and how long it’s been since I started. It’s a way to track my progress—what milestones I reached (or didn’t)—and reflect on the journey.
I’m already taking a lot of notes, so I thought, why not organize them a bit better and share them? Maybe someone else could benefit from what I’m learning here. You know, we can all learn from my mistakes and, hopefully, from my successes too.
Why a blog and not YouTube? Well, I didn’t seriously consider YouTube because I’m an introvert. I don’t think I’d do well in front of a camera, and it’s much easier for me to write down my thoughts than to create an entire video. Plus, if the blog happens to generate a little income—just enough to take my family out for a movie and dinner every now and then—that would be a nice bonus.
But really, this is mostly about documenting and sharing my experience. If it helps someone else out there and they use this information to improve their lives, that’s great! After all, I’ve benefited a lot from the free knowledge available on the internet, so why not give back a little?