I got an email just this morning from somebody that I’ve done lots of business within the past, and what I didn’t know was they actually had a full-time job, and their side hustle was what I was hiring them to do. Which is great. They’re a phenomenal worker. When they reached out to me, and two of their other mentors, and said, “Hey, look you guys, I would like to leave my current job, my full-time job that I have. It’s not fulfilling for me. I’d like to delve into the work that I’ve been working with you on.” And so, the work that I know that he was doing, and he made a list of all the things that he’d been working with all three of those. And kudos to him. He had three mentors, and I knew about the other two mentors, and I think it was really smart. He was building his foundation and gaining his knowledge. And he got to a point where he just had a ton of knowledge and was ready to apply. The problem was, he wasn’t sure when to make that jump.
Now to him, something that was really important was financial security. Now, he had gained the knowledge. He had worked with coaches and mentors, me being one of them, and he had proven himself time and time and time again. So, I’m going to tell you exactly what I told him. A shortened version, but I’ll give you an idea of when to make that jump. Because I know a lot of you are in a similar situation, where you’re either a business owner and now you’re really an employee in your business. Right? Your business owns you. Or you’re an employee somewhere that you’re just not happy. So, when do you know to make the jump? Especially if financial security is really important to you.
So, first thing, do you know how much money you need? Most people don’t. When I’m usually talking to somebody about when to take the jump, or when to take that leap, they think the amount of money they need to survive is a lot more than it really is. So, what I want you to do is, is write out six months of expenses. Right? Write out six months of your expenses. That’s living. Do you have a roof over your head? I mean, if you’re living at home with your parents, okay, maybe you don’t have any rent. Maybe you’re living with friends. You know, maybe you can crash on the couch. But maybe your rent, let’s just say it’s $500, or $1,000, or $1,500. Whatever it is. Maybe it’s your mortgage. Write that down.
And then, what are your basic food expenses? Right? You’re just basic. You’re not going out to dinner. You’re not going to happy hour with friends. But, you know, if you need to survive, what are your basic food expenses? Right? You know, you have clothes, so we’re going to stop that. And then utilities, right? You have a car payment, gas, just basic utilities. Again, what do you need to survive? Now, this isn’t to thrive because that’s the second one.
Now that you have that number, what you need six months, we’re going to go ahead and break that down, divide by six. Right? Then you know exactly how much money you need to bring in each and every month, just to survive, while you’re going after your passion. While you’re doing your side hustle, whatever it is for you. Right? Now I encourage you, and I encouraged this person to save up six months of just-in-case money, so you have that as a buffer. But now you know what you have to do.
My guess is, that that amount of money is so much smaller than you thought it was. Right? Everybody that I’ve done this exercise with is, kind of goes all the way, “Wow. That’s a lot less money than I thought.” And that’s because we all have subscriptions, we have, you know, Netflix, or whatever it is for you. We’re going to happy hour, we’re going out to dinner, way more than we probably think. You know? We’re doing all these extra little things that we can cut back on if it allows us to chase our dreams.
Now the second thing that I would tell you to do, is looking at financial vitality. Now, this is an exercise I did with Scott Harris, my wife and I did, almost six years ago at this point. And so, when you look at … And I’m not telling you exactly the formula, and I don’t have it in front of me, but then really what you go to is the next step, financial vitality. Now that’s your basics. Right? Your rent, your utilities, and your food.
But now we’re going to add in clothes. Right? How much are you going to spend on clothes? Just a little bit, right? I’m assuming that you don’t splurge, and maybe you do, but I’m assuming you don’t. So, maybe it’s an extra pair of jeans or a shirt. You know, whatever it is for you. So, write that down, on your average, and you can look back at your budget if you’re using something like QuickBooks, as I do, or Mint. I like Mint a lot for managing personel. There’s a ton. every dollar is the one Dave Ramsey sells and recommends. So, whatever it is, look back at how much you’re spending on your clothes, and divide that in half. Right? This is vitality. So it’s just a basis. It’s another step up. And then give yourself a little spending cash for going out each month. Not each week, but each month, and lets you live your life.
We’re also going to add in a few other little extras. Right? A little extra for yourself. So, your food quality is going to go up a little bit. You’re going to have a little bit more money to spend, but not a lot. If you’re single, maybe it’s a date night with your wife if you’re, I mean, certainly, if you’re single, but if you’re married. If you’re single, then maybe it’s just date night, going out on dates.
And the next one we’re going to look at is financial independence. Right? So now we want to figure out the amount that’s going to give us true financial independence. Now the amount of money that you’re going to be bringing in that allows you to do all the things that you want to do. Right? Just all of them. Go ahead and just go crazy. Entertainment, travel, you know, we’re covering all the bases in vitality, but we’re adding on to it now. And so really go at it and look at that number. Right? What do you need per month or per year? So, you want to know both of those numbers.
And then, absolute financial freedom. Now, this is the sky’s the limit. This is you in your palace. Right? You’re palatial … You have an extra car, that car of your dreams. You know, you have the house. You have the investments. Right? That’s going to allow you to roll over. So, you have investments that are going to pay dividends that are going to pay for your lifestyle.
So, having these four numbers in front of you allows you to make more educated decisions and pulls you into your dreams. I always hear, or often hear people say, “I want to be rich, or I want to be wealthy.” But what does that mean? What’s that number? It’s such a … You know, you can’t really grab onto it. How do you know you get there? So my wife and I did this exercise, like I said, about six years ago. It was, again, mind-blowing, on how little money we really needed. You know? It was easy. I mean, we could have got a job at Starbucks and done just fine. Right? And so that became a life decision as we were going on the Author of Your Own Story lifestyle together now. Right? Before, I was doing it solo. We met, and now we’re going together on this path. We need to look at that.
Now, of course, we didn’t want, you know, just that. We wanted vitality. We want absolutely financial independence. Right? Financial freedom is what we are after. And so, knowing those numbers, we know what milestones we have to hit. And then we get to make a decision. What is that worth to us? Right? What is that worth to us to go after that? So, for us, total financial freedom is what we want. Absolute financial freedom.
But it wasn’t worth sacrificing. You know, it wasn’t worth me working 15 hours a day. You know? I run six different companies. I coach some of the most successful people in the world. But at the same time, I spend just a boatload of time with my family, and myself, doing things that fill me up. Snowboarding, going on adventures, scuba diving, traveling around the world. I get to do my epic Author of Your Own Story lifestyle. And so it’s going to take us, potentially, longer to get to that goal, but that was a conscious decision. Because we know exactly the number that we need to hit, and now we have a roadmap on how to get there. And that’s worth it to us.
And so, I’m going to tell you what I told him, and it’s laid out, is figure out exactly what you need to survive. Save up six months of that, and then figure out, hey, can I have a side hustle at what at this gentleman does? In fact, he works with me, and I hire him to do special projects. And figure out your side hustle, can you get your side hustle cover your monthly nut? And if it can, go for it. Just go for it. You know, I’m an entrepreneur, so I just go for it anyway, but I want you to think about if you need financial security, this is just another avenue to give you that safety net that you need. And if for some reason you get sick, injured, something happens, you have six months saved up of that safety net that you’re okay. And that’ll give you that peace of mind to really go after it and move forward. And when you go after it and move forward, I want you to go after it with tenacity. Right? This is your life, your dream, and you have to grab it and let it pull you into the future.
That’s it for me today. Go ahead and grab your draw. I’d love to hear how this exercise works for you. Reach out to me. You can find me on social media. I’m just about everywhere. Of course, you can also reach to me through the Author of Your Own Story community on Facebook. Make sure you share this with at least three people. Three people that you think could hear this and help you keep accountable, and you keep them accountable, so you’re building your own tribe. Your own tribe of people going to the Author of Your Own Story, breaking through the matrix and getting out there. All right. I will see you tomorrow. Have a great day, and go inspire someone by doing something different, and that’s being you. Being the Author of Your Own Story.
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