If you start today putting into to practice everything that I have written on my blog, on Facebook, and in my book Forever Cash, how long will you have to wait to see real results in your life?
As is so often the case the completely unsatisfactory answer is: “It depends”. But don’t get discouraged. Bear with me for a few minutes and I think you will see that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
How long you will have to wait to see results will depend on three main factors:
- Where you are at now – financially speaking
- What goals you have set for yourself
- How much work you are willing to put into reaching your goals
Let’s take these factors one at a time.
1) Where you are at now. How much money do you make per month? What are your current living expenses? Do you have a lot of debt?
If you are loaded down with consumer debt, don’t make a lot of money, and have high monthly expenses, then the fact is that you will likely have to make fewer investments and use a portion of the profits from each one to pay down debt. The initial results might not be too visible (after all, who else but your bank sees your credit card statement) but they will be there.
Focus on lowering monthly expenses where you can and generating extra seed money by doing odd jobs, selling stuff online, or even picking up a part-time job for a limited time.
2) What goals you have set for yourself. Have you figured out your “number” yet? If not, sit down to take a moment to decide how much monthly cash flow you need to live your ideal life. That number is your goal that you should be working towards. The more debt you have and the higher that monthly number is – the longer it will take to reach your goal.
So I might recommend setting several mini-goals along the way. Try to set up several streams of Forever Cash (small business, online selling, home rentals), and look at each one as a small victory. For example, if you purchase a home that throws off $350 in profits each month, then you can tell yourself: “Hey, that takes care of a car payment for the rest of my life!” or “That will take care of my cell phone and internet plans forever.” While you will not have reached your ultimate goal, you will be seeing real results in a short period of time.
3) How much work you are willing to put into reaching your goals. As anyone can tell you, anything worthwhile is going to take some effort. Building Forever Cash assets and getting out of debt is going to take some hard work on your part. Now, I don’t want you to sacrifice every luxury in your life, but I don’t want you to get discouraged that first time you have to get your hands dirty either. Perhaps that most important quality will be something old-timers used to call “stick-to-itiveness” – not giving up no matter what. If you can stick with the principles and celebrate even the small victories, then I can’t see any reason why you won’t succeed in a short time.