海角大神

What's your financial target?

Many people live their lives aiming for a day in the far-off future when they feel settled in their finances, Hamm writes. What's your financial target, and how do you plan to get there?

鈥淵ou know, almost every day I spend a day just 鈥榣iving for the day,鈥� I go to bed feeling like I wasted that day.鈥�

I told my wife this the other night as we were getting into bed. We usually have our best conversations during those ten minutes after we both get into bed but before one of us gets tired enough that the conversation stops and the sleep begins.

Anyway, we chatted for a few minutes about this idea and about some other things, and then as she drifted off to sleep, the idea kept running in my head.

I live most of my life 鈥� and find a lot of joy in my life 鈥� living for a far-off future day.

It shows up in how I spend my money. I don鈥檛 buy too much 鈥� in fact, we could basically live on Sarah鈥檚 income alone, and we did so in 2012 according to my math. That means聽every post-tax and post-professional expense dollar I brought in thanks to writing, book royalties, and so on went into savings.聽2013 is going to be very close to that, even with the tenth anniversary trip Sarah and I took to Boston.聽

It shows up in how I parent. While I certainly do a lot of fun things with my children, my focus isn鈥檛 on being their pal. My focus is on being their parent. Much of the time I spend with them is spent, on some level, molding them into better people.

It shows up in how I work. Although I spent a lot of my time writing articles to cover the next several days, I spent a lot of my聽thinking聽time trying to plot out the larger professional goals that I have and I try to use as much time as possible for those long-term goals.

As I laid there in bed that night, I realized that聽most of my day-to-day life choices are about creating the best possible life for myself at a point that鈥檚 about fifteen years in the future.

At that point, all three of my children will likely be in college. I hope to be financially independent at that point, with the definition of financial independence matching what I鈥檝e always talked about on here 鈥� the ability to live a full life off of investment returns. I hope to still have an incredibly enriching and healthy marriage. I also hope to be living in our dream home in the country.

That鈥檚 my 鈥渢arget day.鈥� To me,聽a truly good day is one where I enjoyed myself today, but I also planted a lot of seeds that will come to fruition far down the road.聽Quite often, planting those seeds brings me deep joy, even if the actual activity isn鈥檛 fun.

I think everyone has a different 鈥渢arget day.鈥� After talking to Sarah about it, I think her 鈥渢arget day鈥� is聽even further聽down the road, because she mentioned grandchildren and a lot of travel in a mobile home.

My parents have a 鈥渢arget day鈥� that鈥檚 not very far in the future, on the other hand. They come pretty close to living for the day, which is fine because they already have financial independence thanks to Social Security, a pension, and frugal living.

Why is this important?聽Once you know your 鈥渢arget day鈥� 鈥� the day you鈥檙e really living for 鈥� it casts all of your actions聽today聽into a different light.

Are you living for a day eight years from now where you can afford to launch that comic book shop you鈥檝e always dreamed of owning? Look at today鈥檚 work as what you need to do to earn some money toward that. Look at today鈥檚 spending as a choice 鈥� are you funding a quick pleasure today or are you funding that dream? Look at today鈥檚 time use in that light, too.

You鈥檒l find that when you really figure out your 鈥渢arget day,鈥� all of the tough choices of today that can potentially benefit your 鈥渢arget day鈥� become a lot easier to make. Not only that, they聽feel聽good. Frugality doesn鈥檛 feel like 鈥済oing without鈥� if you know that your frugal choice is helping make that 鈥渢arget day鈥� great.

What鈥檚 your 鈥渢arget day鈥�? What are you doing today to make that 鈥渢arget day鈥� great? Even more important, how does it feel when you reach the end of a day where you鈥檝e made a lot of choices to make that 鈥渢arget day鈥� great?

For me, a day like that feels聽great.

The post聽聽appeared first on聽.