Do you have any dreams? A path? Or aspirations?

[Limper]

If not for you then for your kids.

I find it amazing and I do not understand how anyone would actually want to make the paths to success harder for themselves and others.

[TiQuinn]

I find it amazing and I do not understand how anyone would actually want to make the paths to success harder for themselves and others.

I'm not sure what the last part means.

[Name Lips]

I think the fundamental difference in thinking that you and I have, Limper, is that none of my aspirations really involve career or money. I've always been sort of confused by people who are motivated by those things. We live in America - that amazing land where even the poor can afford to be fat. A little more money would be nice, I guess, but I don't need it or feel any particular urge to strive for it. We make about 30k a year, give or take.

I want to learn programming, and I'm taking classes towards that goal. But I'm not thinking about it in terms of career-hunting but in terms of personal development. There's something I want to learn, so I'm learning it.

I'd kind of like to own a home, but not so much that I'd make sacrifices in other areas to do so. I have a very comfortable existence, and the only things I really feel I need to strive for involve personal development, like learning new things or discovering new elements of my spirituality.

I'm in a position where I can save up for almost any "thing" I decide I want (though that list is typically very short). I don't have any debt except student loans and a car note, both of which aren't a problem. We own a nice little patch of land in the mountains (rather, its in our name but my father-in-law lives on it and pays for it. In a few years it'll be paid off, and completely "ours." I figure we can save up a few thousand dollars to have a retirement cabin out there.)

I really consider myself very lucky. I have good friends, a loving family, and everything in the world I could really ask for.

[Lady Fury]

Well said NL. I agree.

For me I'd like to add that I'd like to continue to keep my health in check as well as the health of my family members. My biggest dream is that we all live to a very old age and are able to enjoy as much life as we can.

I want to be happy about life. It's been hard to do lately. I know I how I can achieve happiness but I'm nervous to do things to get me there.

I'd love to travel the world one day. Seeing all the places I've only read about.

And my newest aspiration is to open up my own business and become successful with it.

[Limper]

Money is a means to an end for me. I live cheap by most folks standards I don't need much.

I have a duty to provide for my family and I'd also like to have more time to pursue things I enjoy... going to a job does not at all provide me with happiness, I hate working in a conventional sense.

If I just quit working I fail in my first duty. I can go into debt and start over with anotehr career after going to school but that doesn't get me any closer to not punching a clock its just a gamble on finding a clock I hate less to punch.

Or I can try and have my excess money work for me so that I can quit this shitty job and let som other person have it, someone who wants it and would like it, or needs it... don't care it just wouldn't be me doing it and thats what matters.

I set about this course about 4 years ago when I figured out I HATED corporate climbing.

Thus far I find it very frustrating but I don't see another course to completing both goals. I get VERY angry as I hear more and more road blocks placed in my way and peopl;e going on about how its a good thing that I have to give up my fairly modest dream so that people whom I feel could do more if they actually wanted to can take more of my hours of life.

[Cat of Ulthar]

I'd love to travel the world one day. Seeing all the places I've only read about.
Get Sing to watch the kids and come over to London for a week!

[TiQuinn]

Limper, with all due respect and I do respect you a lot, you do not have a fairly modest dream. Not even by a long shot. You have a very admirable goal, but it's an incredibly tall order. People are living a lot longer nowadays, and the idea of retiring early and not punching a clock is getting more and more difficult.

[Name Lips]

I don't like figuring out investements and finances, so I don't really envy Limper's goal of self-employed investor. But hey if he likes it better than other jobs he can shoot for it.

Right now Emerald is making $14/hour and that's keeping us going just fine, and by and large she likes her work. She wants to be a proper Kindergarten or 1st grade teacher, and is credentialed for it, but needs to get her foot in the door. However it won't pay much more (if any). The main difference is she'd get summers off, which would be nice because then for 3 months out of the year we can relax with the family, go on road trips, and so on.

I'm not sure about my programming. The school we like is a half-day program with extra parental involvement making up the rest of the work, so having a stay-at-home parent is ideal. Besides the odd pick-up and drop-off hours, somebody needs to spend 2-4 hours on the "homeschooling" portion of the curriculum every day. If I got a job we'd probably have to switch schools, and we love this one too much to let it go.

On the other hand, if I get some sort of stupendous job offer after getting my certification, enough to justify Emerald putting her career on pause, we could switch and she could stay home and I could work. It would have to be pretty impressive for us to make this leap - those summers off together sound really nice.

[Limper]

Limper, with all due respect and I do respect you a lot, you do not have a fairly modest dream. Not even by a long shot. You have a very admirable goal, but it's an incredibly tall order. People are living a lot longer nowadays, and the idea of retiring early and not punching a clock is getting more and more difficult.

$3000 a month in income would allow me to keep investing as well as pay my bills and that would hopefully be enough to keep on top of inflation.

My current salary is 40k and I could do with a bit less and still keep my standard of living. Best part is I'd have control of my own old age and no longer have to fund social security (which I'll NEVER get a dime of).

I need to have about $300k invested to make it happen.

More taxes takes me longer to get there. Increasing capital gains and dividends by 33% from its current level makes it take longer and makes me need more. Bush and crew was a hinderence but they weren't a direct attack on my goal. Obama and his plans are a direct attack.

[nerfherder]

I just fulfilled a childhood dream this month. Since before I learned to drive, I've wanted a Porsche. It's sat on my drive, freshly washed, right now.

[TiQuinn]

$3000 a month in income would allow me to keep investing as well as pay my bills and that would hopefully be enough to keep on top of inflation.

My current salary is 40k and I could do with a bit less and still keep my standard of living. Best part is I'd have control of my own old age and no longer have to fund social security (which I'll NEVER get a dime of).

I need to have about $300k invested to make it happen.

More taxes takes me longer to get there. Increasing capital gains and dividends by 33% from its current level makes it take longer and makes me need more. Bush and crew was a hinderence but they weren't a direct attack on my goal. Obama and his plans are a direct attack.

What investment is going to guarantee you a 12% annual return with no risk to your capital? Also, are you factoring in health care, your wife retiring, unforseen events, college, weddings, etc?

[Limper]

What investment is going to guarantee you a 12% annual return with no risk to your capital? Also, are you factoring in health care, your wife retiring, unforseen events, college, weddings, etc?

Given my strategy that would give me 300 blocks to generate income and paid for shares from.

I guess should have said 300k working capital.

My wife doesn't want to retire and is not at all the sort of person who could.:) Health care can be ugly but there is always incorporation whcih can get the rates down to somehting managable. I'm putting money away for my kids college already on the 40k so I don't see that changing.

Now if we double the ammount I can get my wife out of work as well. I have NO idea what she'd do if I did that.

If I replace my income with another source of income I can still do all the things I do with my income and if I'm already preparing for unforseen events on my current income I can do so regardless of the source of the income.

The capital pool would replace one of us needing to work... I'd prefer that to be me.:)

[TiQuinn]

All I'm saying is that your plan has always seemed incredibly ambitious to me and with little margin for error, and of course you're dealing with the stock market, which has a higher level of risk to capital involved.

In order to get 90% of your current income from $300,000 means you need to return 12% a year when you retire. After taxes and after inflation. That's way tough. There's very few investment vehicles that can give that kind of return without putting your capital on risk of facing severe fluctuations or actual loss.

[Limper]

All I'm saying is that your plan has always seemed incredibly ambitious to me and with little margin for error, and of course you're dealing with the stock market, which has a higher level of risk to capital involved.

In order to get 90% of your current income from $300,000 means you need to return 12% a year when you retire. After taxes and after inflation. That's way tough. There's very few investment vehicles that can give that kind of return without putting your capital on risk of facing severe fluctuations or actual loss.

Even with what you are saying which has truth to it, increasing taxes on the vehicle I need as well as policies that make the vehicle unreliable more so than it already is make me nervous as well as angry.

Take any dream of any person and place roadblocks that make it take longer or no longer possible and you'll get the same result.

I really wish I was more materialistic or differently motivated then I'd have less issues and be happier.

[Xavier Lang]

If not for you then for your kids.

I find it amazing and I do not understand how anyone would actually want to make the paths to success harder for themselves and others.

Yes. Some of them are financial, but many of them are also just enjoying life while its here. Not having to work would be great, but unless I had people to share all that extra time with, I"m not sure how wonderful it would turn out.

On the scary/morbid side, I'm in much better health that all of my good friends. I am likely to outlive them by a goodly amount. Its a case of unfair genetics , but it does mean I want to spend time with them now, not later.

[Name Lips]

On the scary/morbid side, I'm in much better health that all of my good friends. I am likely to outlive them by a goodly amount. Its a case of unfair genetics , but it does mean I want to spend time with them now, not later.

The easy solution is to eat lots of Big Macs.