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I get a lot of people who contact me and say, “I want to quit my job.” They say, “It is sucking my soul out of my body. Every day I feel a little bit lighter because I’m dying inside.” They want to quit now. But, there is something called “life” that is getting in the way.
This is what you do. You sit down and do an assessment. I’m going to walk you through the process that I used with this person I was working with who was so unhappy about his job. This person is married. He and his wife made about $65K. He said it was a struggle.
So, what I told him actually blew his mind. I told him that to escape the life that you hate, you are going to have to do something radical. The person was stressed the hell out.
One of my first questions for people who want to quit their job is, “What is your debt load?” We addressed that. His debt load surprisingly enough was nonexistent. All they had was a mortgage.
We created a new budget. This person had a lot of fat in the budget like season tickets, vacations; things like that. I gave this person credit for paying cash or paying off their credit cards each month. They didn’t have all this crazy debt.
I said what you’re going to have to do is live on one income and bank the other one. This is advice that actually originated as part of my dating process. If I see a woman who has potential as a long-term relationship, this is one of my dating questions.
“Hey baby. You know I’ve got a little thing. I was thinking, just suppose you and I were married and I came up to you and said, hey, what if we just live on one income and we bank the rest?” Then, I’d shut up just to see their response. You have to hit them with this question when they don’t expect it. I want to see how they’re going to respond to logic and a strong leadership move. So many women failed that test because they said crazy stuff.
But going back to the couple, I said this is what you do. You live on one income. I said, “Get the wife on the phone.” I told them, “It’s going to cause you some pain because you are used to living on your money and blowing it fast.” I said, “If you want to get out of that, you’ve got to make some serious ass changes.”
This is the deal. I told them that all of that has to go away for a period of two years. They were both resistant, saying they did not know if they could do that. I told them they were saying one thing, but their actions were saying another.
I said if you want to get to that point where you want to be a boss versus having a boss, you’re going to have to change how you live and how you spend your money. This is the time you’re going to have to put up or shut up. I was silent. They discussed it.
They said, “It’s so hard. The kids – they want stuff.”
He wanted to get into the storage auction business. I know what it takes to make a full-time living with storage units. It takes having a warehouse, stuff that a lot of people don’t want to do. Buying one or two units a month is probably not going to be enough to make the money you want unless you are in a really small town and you are the “Big Fish.”
The storage auction business is very hard and you need real scale. A lot of people are stuck in that fantasy that I am going to be able to do this business out of my basement and make a million dollars. It’s not going to happen.
We talked it out. I said some really stern stuff. I asked him if he was a punk or a man. I said this on the phone and then figured this would be a chargeback. He got defensive as expected.
Then I just took control of the situation and said, “This is what you’re going to do.” I sensed that no one in that family unit could make a firm decision on something difficult. I said, “Starting this month, you are paring back. You are going to do this. I said, “For the next 90 days, this is what you’re going to do.”
Three months later, I called them up to see how they were doing. These people who were freaking resistant responded. “That’s one of the best things we’ve ever done. We have $9K in the bank. We turned saving money into a game. “
To give you some perspective about savings, the average American does not have $2K in the bank. Over half of Americans don’t have $2K in the bank.
Here are some steps for paring down. If you have two incomes, you have to live on one. You have to have a “Coming to Jesus” meeting and ask yourself if the things that you have are worth the life that you want. I learned from the storage auction business that people accumulate stuff that really doesn’t matter in the scheme of things.
What you need to do is an assessment. Look at your life and asked yourself whether a certain thing is life enhancing or life distracting. You have to think about what’s most important, your dream life or stuff. That’s one of the reasons I don’t keep a lot of stuff in my life.
Go through all of your stuff and make bold plans about your life. I’m going to say that about 70% of the people in the country can’t have the life that they want because of the stuff they have.
You might need to move back in with your parents. The money that you save should go immediately in the bank or to retire debt. For more steps on this, go to DaveRamsey.com because that’s all they talk about.
Think radically. Sit down and think about how you can make the money go farther. Another reason for living on one income is it gives you the ability to create something that a lot of people don’t have. Assets.
What I’m telling you is the most important thing in your plan to make a living without a job is purpose, mindset, strategy and plan. You have to think about how the seeds you drop today will shape your future. One thing that is certain, if you live long enough, you’re going to get older. Whether you plan for it or not, tomorrow is coming.
Understand that if you want to make a living without a job, it’s going to take effort and potentially some sacrifices. Consistency and dedication are also mandatory.
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