$28,000 Book royalties
$ 2,500 Performing Arts Center building fund
$ 5,000 Wealth Building Fund (Total $100,000)
$20,500 Vacation Home Fund (Total $137,000)
Wow. I need to take a moment of silence as I contemplate these numbers. Altogether, in 28 days we have spent $406,000. On the scale at which money is being earned and spent out in the world, that's not really an incredibly large sum of money, but to me it seemed a life's fortune.
I heard last night that when football players retire they get paid $25,000 a month NOT to keep playing ball. That is $300,000 every year. There are people out there making well over a million dollars a year doing whatever it is that they do to make that kind of money. While I don't really need a million dollars every year to sustain the lifestyle that I've imagined over the past four weeks, I certainly would like to make more than the $11.00 an hour I'm currently making. But then, that $11.00 seems huge compared to being basically unemployed for the past two years.
Four the past four weeks we have imagined spending money; beginning tomorrow, we will start exploring ways in which we might reasonably earn more money than we are currently bringing in. But first, we must take our Final Exam!
This is an essay exam, consisting of the following questions. (WARNING: This is a graduate school-level exam, so I will be asking you to do some serious thinking. I urge you to take the time to formulate and write down your answers. I promise you will learn a lot about yourself from the process.)
1. Look over the money you have spent in the past week, and break it down into categories of spending. For example, How much did you save? How much did you give away? How much did you spend on travelling? How much did you use to pay down debt? How much did you spend on specific projects?
2. How you spend your money is an excellent indicator of what it is that you truly value. What do the above numbers say about your values? According to how you spent your money, what is the thing that you value most of all?
3. Think back on who you were on Day 1 of the Prosperity Project. How has your relationship with money changed since you've begun this game. How have YOU changed.
4. How you spent money in this game is pretty much how you would like to spend money if you were to have some. Without worrying about where the money might come from, write down some long-term financial goals for yourself.
HERE ARE MY ANSWERS:
1. Out of 406,000 I allocated 10% as God's money, and gave about $40,000 to local classical music programs. I spent $22,300 on my workspace, about 5% of the total money. I spent $25,000 travelling, again about 5%. I saved $100,000, about 25%. I spent $39,000 on a motor home, about 10%. I collected $137,000 to buy a vacation home, about 34%. That means I spent about 6% of my money buying stuff for me and my loved ones, plus outright gifts of money to friends.
2. According to these numbers, the thing I value most is having a home base that is completely set up for me to comfortably do my life's work. Between enhancing my current home in Florida, buying a motor home, and buying a vacation home where I can work without being subjected to the unbearably steamy Florida summers, I spent over half of my allotted money on housing. I also greatly value traveling, because I spent a significant amount taking vacations, and quite a bit of money on that motor home and a vacation home. I want to be able to work in different locations as the mood strikes while still being at home. I also value sharing money with others, and saving a portion of the money that I earn.
3. I feel much friendlier with money now than when I started this game. I feel more worthy, somehow, as if it really is OK for me to buy the things I've written down here on these pages. I've often thought of vacation homes before, but they were just dreams. After going through this process for the past four weeks, I can clearly see that everything I've written down here is completely within the realm of possibility for me. I feel more confident in my ability to earn larger sums of money, even though I don't yet know how that will happen for me. I do notice that I am planning more frequent vacations than was my habit in the past, and I'm doing so without my usual fear of loss of income. I have recently bought a few expensive items for myself with almost no guilt. And I am also noticing that I am enjoying what I do have much more thoroughly than when I started this game.
4. Here are my financial goals:
- Save 10% of every dollar I make. I will first amass an emergency savings of $10,000, then put the rest into a wealth building fund.
- Save 10% of every dollar I make, and put it into a Home fund (workspace, motor home, vacation home, in that order.)
- Save 10% of every dollar I make, and put it into a Vacation fund
- Give away 10% of every dollar I make
- Live on no more than 60% of my money. Until I make more money, this will require loads of disipline!
- Figure out how to make more money! At my current rate of earning, that Vacation Home is really just a pipe dream. But I believe that I can increase my earnings by working in That Certain Way, so I am beginning to truly believe that it is possible for me to completely finish my current home, complete with a second story, buy a motor home, and own more than one vacation home: Carolinas, Maine, Pacific Northwest; all while doing lots of travelling.
I'll see you here tomorrow as we begin to explore the earning portion of this equation.
It does make sense in this final exam phase of the project to list the last day's spending first:
ReplyDeleteRoyalties from book sales: $28,000
Wealth building account: $13,000
U of A scholarship: $5,000
Arkansas land purchase: $10,000
I took some time today to look over my spending habits throughout this exercise, how they changed and what I can glean from them.
1. Breaking out my spending pattern, I gave away a little over 28% of my earnings. That's a broad classification that includes computer purchases for friends and family members, a scholarship fund for students at my alma mater, paying the start-up costs of a friend's business, and outright donations which included random acts of kindness to total strangers. I also spent heavily (15%) on creative endeavors from woodworking to photography, which wasn't too big a surprise. I invested in land (23%) and a wealth building account (20%) and have a nice chunk of money saved up for trips all over the world, and the means to go first class at that (11%).
2. My greatest spending was to help others in need or in crisis and I like that. I felt that passion was inside already but it was still nice to see it manifest in how I spent my money. I also have a need for a secure future as evidenced by my investment strategy. I also have a desire to get the right tools for creating the things I envision.
3. What surprised me most was how much more disciplined I became to stay within a spending plan the more money I got. Early on, I spent well but I spent freely. Toward the second quarter of the game, I began to better visualize my goals and made my money fit into accounts. But the best way I can describe how my feelings changed is that I became more relaxed about money. I had plenty to satisfy my needs and still some to help out where I could.
4. My financial goals are to, first of all, find ways to make the revenue I would like to see and have it come in at a nice pace. For me, that probably means multiple streams of income. I can make some money as a freelance writer, so that's one source. I have my novel in progress so that is potentially another source when it is finished and published. I have some outdoor and indoor furniture pieces I am pretty good at making and I think they can be sold. My blogs can be better monetized and I have ideas for more websites that could produce income. None of these concepts are huge money makers by themselves, but together, they can work to produce a comfortable living.
I would like to set a goal of saving 10%, donating 10%, setting aside 10% for special purchases and 5% for a travel fund, leaving 65% of my income for everyday living expenses.
This has been a great game, a wonderful learning experience and I thank Valerie for coming up with the concept and for producing excellent, thought provoking commentary all along the way.