If you’re over five, you’ve probably experienced your dreams evaporate.  Life changed, circumstances changed and you began to doubt that it was possible.  What once was excited energy, and perhaps a joy became something to dread.  What do you do when it all begins to fall apart, when it feels like you’ve lost it all?

My first reaction is… I don’t know.  I’ve had dreams fall apart.  I’ve been there, yelling at God, asking why.  Crying out in frustration and anger. 

My second reaction is to tackle it head on.  There are times when you need to throw in the towel.  However, before throwing in the towel take the time to assess the situation.  Is it recoverable?  If it’s a relationship, is the other person will to work on whatever is causing the problem.  If it’s a business, can something be changed about the way it’s being done? 

Perhaps a new marketing strategy.  For low cost marketing ideas I recommend Guerrilla Marketing.  Do you have too much overhead, perhaps you’re over leveraged and need to take a part time job to help pay it down?  The purpose of assessing the situation is to determine what exactly is causing the failure.  It may be one thing or multiple things.  Be brutally honest.  What is in between you and success?  It could be you.  You may need to change you in order to succeed.

My third reaction is to throw in the towel.  If you have assessed the situation and determined that there isn’t anything that can be done to keep the dream alive… it’s time to bury it.  I wish you didn’t have to.  However, if it’s truly gone then it’s time to put it to rest.  As you close the door on this particular dream, do take the time to understand what went wrong?  What caused the failure?  Taking time to do this will help you make experienced decisions the next time opportunity knocks.

How about you?  Where are you at?  Are your dreams evaporating?  Take action, only you can decide what your path from here on out will be.  And let me know if I can provide any advice.

I wish you all the best as you seek out your dreams!  Go DO IT!

Iron Man freaking rocked.  It was an incredibly well done movie from both a cinematic and script perspective.  I look forward to any franchise movies that follow and hope one is in the works.  Note: I do not consider this movie appropriate for young children, primarily for mature content included a sex scene and violence.  People, there is a reason it has a PG-13 rating.  I personally wouldn’t take my sons until they are closer to 7-9, depending on their maturity level.  Anyway, ‘nough said, and on with the discussion.

There were several things that stuck out to me.  First, motivation.  When Stark was captured and realized that his weapons were being sold under the table to terrorists he initially wanted to give up and just rot in a cave.  Funny how quickly his perspective changed when he was told he had a week to deliver a new weapon system or be killed.  It energized and motivated Stark to take action and do what was necessary to escape.

Second, Purpose.  Prior to Stark’s capture and subsequent escape, he seemed to have a playboy life and drifted without a sense of purpose.  That all changed after his escape when his purpose became to find and destroy those who were using his weapons to destroy innocent civilians.  He became so laser focused that nothing would deter him from his end goal. 

Third, Tenacity.  He failed frequently and kept on going.  As Stark’s focus drove him to build the best suit he frequently experienced setbacks and failure.  And yet, he was not deterred from what he considered his purpose in life.  He learned from his failures, adjusted and tried again, until the final version of the suit was produced.

There are other parallels that could be drawn, however, I believe these three embody the keys to being successful in whatever you’re doing.  Initially, Stark didn’t have a purpose.  It was the motivation to live that helped him find a purpose to live for something worth living and dying for.  It was finding his purpose that gave him the endurance to continue through numerous failures and setbacks as he developed the suit. 

How about you?  Have you found a purpose that gets you up and keeps you going in the face of adversity?  I know I struggle with this and believe that many others do as well.  Keep on trying, keep on learning.  You will find it and you will succeed as your purpose drives you to your goal.  Nothing worth doing is easy.

I leave you with a quote from Theodore Roosevelt:

Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty… I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led diffcult lives and led them well. 

Now, for today’s note… I just read an article about how some of the youngest boomers are struggling financially.  The article goes on about the difficulties facing them in such harsh economic times.  My primary criticism of this article is mostly lacking key to solving the whole thing.  Personal Accountability aka Personal Responsibility.  I don’t mean to be harsh.  In fact, if you’re hurting financially I hope that some of the advice I’ve provided in other prior posts will help you devise a good financial plan for your life. 

So, what to do when you’re struggling financially?  First, admit that the problem is not more money, the economy, gas prices, your mother-in-law, spouse, children, etc. etc.  Admit that the problem starts with you.  If you’re married the problem is both you and your spouse.  Admit that you have a problem.  Decide to do something about it.  Then commit to the following:

1. Budget ruthlessly.  Learn to scrape every last penny out of your budget.
2. Emergency Fund.  Get a thousand bucks in savings and then come back later to beef it up to 3-6 months.
3. Pay off all debt except the house.  List in order from smallest to largest.  Then beef up the Emergency Fund.
4. Save:  for Retirement and kid’s college.  Experts suggest 10-15% of gross going to retirement.
5. Pay off the mortgage.
6. Invest: the mortgage payment and become wildly wealthy.

How cool would it be to retire without a house payment, without a car payment, and a couple of million in the bank?  It’s entirely possible.  It’s not fun, it’s not glamorous.  Your friends will probably thing you’re a bit strange… sorry, this isn’t get rich quick,  but it is a plan to become very wealthy so you can enjoy the retirement years.  I personally don’t plan to retire but do plan to own my own companies that are managed by good people I trust so that I can travel and do other things.

It’s your choice.  Do you want to be a broke boomer?

That said, here’s a short brain dump:

• I’ve completed Failing Forward by John Maxwell.  Initial thoughts, everyone needs to read this.  Particularly those who are held back by the fear of failing.
• Currently reading Mindless Eating.  We’ve already changed our main dining plates out for smaller square plates.
• I’m tired. 
• Ran a little over three miles this morning.  Averaged just under 10 minute miles with my fastest around 8 minutes.  I need to head over to the 1/2 mile track for a better benchmark.
• My Father’s Day gift arrived early.  A pair of Tifosi Envy sunglasses.  I’m really excited because I haven’t had a pair of sunglasses for over 10 years.  Guess I’m overdue.  Great thing about the budget is we made it fit!!
• Really enjoying our homework from the counselor.  Hope that it helps us develop a better set of communication skills.
• Finding a good Wordpress blog theme is challenging.
• Succeeding takes more work than doing nothing.  Doing nothing seems to be a failure of the worst kind.

That’s all for now… signing off for the evening!

This is a rant post… I know it, now you know it, and if you’re new well… welcome to my rant… and now here’s why I’m ranting.  In the past month or two I’ve had instance after instance of a friend or someone I know get a tattoo.   And I’m completely down with that… as long as you don’t owe money to anyone or anything except your mortgage payment.  Here’s the problem.  Most of these people owe money on all types of debt, some so much that they are declaring bankruptcy, others, are having trouble making ends meet.

If you think it’s a great idea to get a tattoo while you are deeply in debt, then you are being stupid.  I don’t give a flip how hard you work.  I work hard for my money too but treating yourself while you’re still in debt is a really stupid idea.  Here’s why.  Next month your boss walks in and bam, you’re instantly jobless. 

Now tell me, would you rather have a couple of hundred dollars in the bank to help you float.  Or a freaking tattoo that’s not worth a nickel.  Hello????  Wake up and start acting your wage.  Get yourself out of debt and then save up some money to get yourself a nice tattoo.  I’ve seen some really sweet tats lately, but none of them was worth being in debt or not having an emergency fund or not having money in retirement.

Get with the program, grow up, be an adult.  Get out of debt.  Get an emergency fund in place and start saving for retirement.   Then go get all of the ink you can afford (cash only of course!) .  At least with my plan you’ll be able to retire to enjoy your ink!

Start today!

I love saving money! and you should too!

I’ve talked all around the original question which was “Why do I want to be millionaire?”.  At the end of the day, I want to have fun making as much money as possible while maintaining my relationships and good health.  If I manage to build vast sums of wealth but lose everything else then I will not consider that a success and the money will be worthless to me.  It’s critical for me to have the whole nine yards even if it means not having quite as much money.  You may not agree but that’s okay.  That’s why this is my blog, consisting of my thoughts and opinions.

Yes, part of my drive is to own some nice “stuff”.  In fact,  one of my dreams it to own an island with a large home, nice beach and helipad.  I would like to own a second or third home in different parts of the world so that I can take my friends and family on trips to  other parts of the world.  Here’s the deal, no matter how much “stuff” I own, I can’t take it with me when I take my last breath.  So, my focus isn’t to own as much stuff as possible.

At the end of the day, I want to be a multi-millionaire (or billionaire) so that I can help others succeed and enjoy some of the finer things in life.  That’s it. 

Some may question my motives.  Perhaps even suggesting that I’m waiting to become wealthy before giving money away.  I can understand those types of questions.  The reality is this.  We are of the Christian faith and give 10% to our local church.  Whether you are a Christian or not is irrelevant.  You can still give money to your favority charity and see good done in the world.  We also support children through Compassion International.  Honestly, my favorite type of giving is anonymous help.  I love the anonymity and the thrill of touching a life but not ever really knowing the impact.

I don’t write this to brag or boast.  Rather it is a demonstration of a life committed to generosity and being generous.  It’s about me becoming less selfish.  The world is in need of people who are becoming less selfish.  I hope to count myself among them although I do not believe I have even scratched the surface in this area.

Here’s what I’m not.  I work hard to ensure that the giving we do is not creating a welfare environment or one that is enabling misbehavior.  We don’t attach strings but would if the situation warranted it.  For example, if someone asks me for money I may do it on the condition that they sit down and create a budget that the stick to.  Or that they attend some financial counseling to make sure that they have the tools to make better decisions so that they don’t end up back in the same boat.  If that sounds mean to you, well, it’s my money and I’m trying to be wise with it.  Get over it.  I’m tired of people trying to tell me what to do with my money.  I work hard for the money I earn and you don’t deserve any of it.  (stepping down off soap box).

You ask why I want to be a billionaire?  To wisely give like I’ve never given before.

And the reality is that there are many starving artists.  Frankly I don’t want to be one of them.  But, what if I had decided to work in computers and build a music career on the side until it reached a point where I could support myself and a family.  Who knows… that’s so much water under the bridge but it should make you pause to think about what it is that makes you feel alive?  What gets you out of the bed in the morning?  Contemplate and make a decision.

Don’t get me wrong.  I enjoy working with computers and I don’t hate what I do, although I do find myself bored at times… At the same time, what I do with computers doesn’t make me feel alive the same way when I’m doing more creative things such as performing or creating things.  Additionally, I make a good living doing software development.  I do sometimes wonder if I’ve allowed the thought (that I’ll never be poor) emblazoned in my mind at an early age to direct more of my decisions than I should.

The jury is still out on that question.  I do know that I’m preparing to make some other decisions that will slowly take me toward some of the things that I believe give me greater enjoyment and fulfillment in life and having money will allow me to do that.

Tomorrow, I’m going to talk about another important aspect about me that may surprise some as I continue to address Why I want to be a billionaire (or multi-millionaire)?.

Lastly, I would love to hear from any readers about what financial topics they would like me to cover.  Leave a comment with your question and where you’re writing from.  State or geographical location is close enough.