The One Tip To Consider Before Making A Plan

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I hope this finds you well.

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One of the things I really don’t enjoy about living in New York City is the traffic.

Traffic has always been crazy in NYC (I learned how to drive in NYC traffic with a stick shift car).

But, living in Brooklyn and getting out of Brooklyn on weekends is the very definition of “hell on earth” if you don’t leave early in the morning or, maybe, late in the evening.

Coming back into the city anytime after say 11am is complete vehicular chaos.

This past Saturday I left the city to check out a few camping spots I was interested in reserving for the upcoming Memorial Day weekend.

Afterwards, I decided to go to a movie before heading back into the city thinking the traffic may be a bit lighter.

The movie finished at about 5:30pm and I started the trip back.

The distance from where I was to my apartment in Brooklyn is ~75 miles.

Anywhere on the planet, in ideal traffic conditions, that’s a trip of about an hour, maybe an hour and 15 minutes.

I arrived home after 8pm.

It wasn’t a pleasant experience.

But, I’m not writing to discuss how unpleasant the traffic is in New York City, I writing to discuss a podcast I listened to while struggling in that traffic.

The title of the podcast is “Does Money Buy Happiness? A Conversation with Deca-Millionaires” by host Ali Abdaal (Mr. Abdaal has made millions with his YouTube videos - I’ll post a link to the podcast episode below).

Mr. Abdaal hosted two guests: one who sold a business for several million dollars and one who sold a business for several hundreds of millions of dollars, both while relatively young.

The conversation was enlightening.

One story told by one of the guests really resonated with me.

The story goes that one of the guests had a mentor early in his business journey.

The mentor, while attending Harvard Business School during his 20s, drafted a business plan for his life.

His goals (laid out in the business plan) were to become an entrepreneur, earn a set amount of money (say $2 million) he deemed enough, and then exit the business by age 40.

Not only did the mentor achieve his goals, he then decided to live the rest of his life on his terms.

Ultimately, the mentor wanted to help people, so he went to law school at age 40 (which is incredibly challenging. I speak from experience. I started law school at age 33).

Here are the three points from that story that resonated with me:

• The mentor had a plan

• The mentor had a number he deemed enough

• The mentor lived the rest of his life on his terms

Most people want to live life on their own terms.

Most people have goals to live life on their own terms.

Heck, the theme of every article of this newsletter is "live the life you actually want to live."

But, do you have a plan to achieve your goals, financial or otherwise?

I carry my financial goals with me almost everywhere I go. I do have a number in mind that I deem enough. But I do not have a plan.

And that's a problem.

I can quickly devise a simple plan to achieve my financial goals.

But I haven't, and I don't.

Why?

Because two different professions I've had in the past required me to make plans consistently and I didn't enjoy the process.

Who finds anything enjoyable when it's done out of obligation?

I admit every reason I listed why I don't have a plan is an excuse.

They're poor excuses.

What's the point of all this?

The point of all this is to encourage you to have a plan to achieve your goals.

Without excuses.

It doesn't have to be complicated.

It doesn't have to take much time to actually put it together.

And it may just help you live the life you actually want to live.

I will invest the time to develop a basic plan to achieve my financial goals.

I encourage you to invest the time to do so as well.

How am I going to start?

With the end in mind.

Both podcast guests stated, on multiple occasions, when drafting a plan, envision the life you want to live and then work backward from there.

And that's exactly how I am going to start.

I will develop my plan by answering: "What does my life look like when I no longer have to trade my time for money because I have enough?"

And work backward from there.

As for my plan to deal with next weekend's holiday traffic, I reserved my camping spot to include Monday night.

I paid the extra night's fee so I don't have to leave at noon on Monday.

I'll leave at about 7pm, hoping the traffic getting into Brooklyn will be significantly lighter at 8-9pm than when trying to get into Brooklyn at 1-2pm.

I started with the end in mind and planned backward.

What caught my attention:

Does Money Buy Happiness? A Conversation with Deca-Millionaires

What is a Financial Plan?

You can find the collection of financial tools & resources that helped me grow from a 6-figure debt to a 6-figure net worth by clicking here.

Thanks for reading!

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