More Things I Think About

This morning I was feeling the gray cloud again. I've been thinking about writing. (In fact, I'd like to write a book at some point, though at this point I have no idea what that book would be.) So I started an entry in my journal, and it has made such a difference for me today. Here's what I wrote this morning:

"Why am I sad? Do I have a reason to be? And tired? I'm always tired. If I'm honest, I feel there's not much to which to look forward. I'm here, but there is no inherent purpose to that. I must provide the purpose, and some days I can. Some days are happy and fulfilling. Other days are such a drag.

"'God' once provided some meaning. But 'God' has been shown to be a myth. So there is no going back to god. He's gone. And honestly, good riddance. His son said a couple of decent things, and some of his people are lovely, but on the whole God is just nasty.

"So here we are. The truth appears to be, regardless of what triggered the event, that we are here as a distant minor consequence of an explosion that occurred about 13.8 billion years ago."

And there I ran out of time. But in writing that something inside me unclenched. My heart became lighter; hope grew stronger.

I did not create myself. I do not control all the many things that affect my future. But I do control some of them, and I do get to choose how I react to the rest. That I can live with. Time to go figure out some more.

Things I Think About

Could you live well on $100,000 a year? By well I mean live comfortably now without worrying whether your bank account will be overdrawn by next payday, be able to take some time off for a bit of vacation (with the whole family, if you want) once or twice a year, have money to encourage your kids interests and explorations, repair the house if a drain is damaged or an air conditioner fails, and save so you don't have to work until the day you die. $100,000 isn't what it used to be. Well, the number is, but what it buys isn't. So I'm thinking about $300,000 instead.

And what one does to get there.

Let's look at the numbers. Remember the question, "How do you eat an elephant?" And the answer is, "One bite at a time." Right? So, the elephant is how to generate $300,000 annual income.

There are 52 weeks in a year, and the nominal work week is 40 hours. That means there are 2080 hours in a standard work year, which I will round to 2000 for convenience (and time off). If one were to earn $300k from an hourly wage, one would need to make 300000/2000 = $150/hour. OK, so there are not a lot of jobs that provide that. Hey, it's hard to get 10% of that for a lot of jobs still. If you could find a job paying $75/hr you'd have to work 80 hrs/wk even with that, which would be possible but very tiring, and wouldn't leave much time for anything else.

So let's imagine you're an engineer with 20+ years, or accountant with a decent clientele, or a senior program manager for a large company, and you're pulling in $100k/yr, including benefits. OK, you're a third of the way there working full time, which probably means something more like 45 or 50 hours a week. Where do you get the other $200k?

Here are some ideas:

1. Invest in stocks and/or bonds.
2. Invest in a start-up and hope the new company hits the big time.
3. Engage in some kind of network marketing activity.
4. Develop affiliate marketing to make money online.
5. Start your own business and benefit from the work of your employees. 

None of these are guaranteed to bring results, but all have achieved the results I'm suggesting (and much more) for some people.

What ideas do you have?