Imagine that you spend 45 hours per week at the office — 9 am to 6 pm. You commute 30 minutes each way, leaving home at 8:30 am and returning home at 6:30 pm. You also spend 30 minutes each weekday morning “getting ready” — showering, dressing, brewing coffee. You spend another 30 minutes on work-related tasks after you return home, like checking email or ironing shirts. You sleep 8 hours per night. You spend 10 hours per week on chores and errands. You exercise 5 hours per week. Sounds like a jam-packed schedule, doesn’t[…]
Category: Your Time
The Simple Habits That Make You Feel Invincible
How many days have you felt like this? You toss and turn all night. Wake up groggy. Curse at the alarm. You stumble through a morning fog. You’re drowsy, even after two cups of coffee. You stare at the computer screen feeling overwhelmed and unfocused. You get sucked into Email Hell. You spend the rest of the day bouncing between interruptions and distractions. You finish the day knowing you’ve accomplished nothing. You’re frustrated. You want to accomplish so much. Launch a business. Travel. You have a vision for your life. But days, weeks, months tick by without progress. You’ve chastised yourself to “work harder.” You’ve given yourself pep talks. And yet … yet … you can’t break the cycle. Sound familiar?[…]
Feeling Overwhelmed? Here’s Why Simplifying is the Smarter Choice (and How to Do It)
I used to be obsessed with optimizing. I opened new checking accounts if a bank offered a $50 sign-up bonus. I monitored gas stations near me to know where fuel was 5 cents cheaper. I once wasted an hour to save $3.60. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I started making real progress once I figured out two truths: #1: I wasn’t “optimizing.” I was maximizing. — and — #2: Simplifying is more powerful than maximizing. Don’t just take my word for[…]
I Stepped Away from My Business for a Month. Here’s What Happened.
A few days ago, I slept in my own bed for the first time in more than a month. I’ve been on the road nearly nonstop for the past few months — including trips to Costa Rica and Ireland — and the last 30 days really took the cake: from San Diego to New Orleans to Austin, I traipsed all across the U.S. These trips were half-work, half-play. I made speeches and presentations at a couple of conferences, met with a various bloggers, and participated in a few face-to-face mastermind groups. But I also went camping with friends, read loads of books, hiked, kayaked, paddleboarded, and generally soaked up each new location with[…]
The Secret Truth about the Digital Nomad Lifestyle
I’m about to tell you something that most travel and lifestyle bloggers are afraid to say. I’m going to reveal the truth about the “digital nomad” lifestyle. The term “digital nomad” (or the phrase “location independent”) refers to people (like me) who have the freedom to work from anywhere on the planet with an internet connection. Bali, Barcelona, Belize — the world is wide open. We can roam the globe freely. Most articles about location independence only highlight the awesomeness. (And to be fair, it’s absolutely awesome.) But most bloggers gloss over the rough edges. Fortunately for you, I’m not “most[…]
The Ultimate Challenge: Finding the Real “Value” of Money
What’s the purpose of money? That’s not a rhetorical question. I’m inviting you to sit with this question for a moment. Ponder it. Pray / meditate / reflect on it. Why do you want to create wealth on your life? What’s the ultimate purpose? I’ve thought about this on a near-daily basis for the past decade. Here’s my response to this question – and how it’s influenced a HUGE, game-changing, turning-point decision that I made six months[…]
Afford Anything Turns Three! … And Incites a Rebellion …
Afford Anything turns 3 years old! (Which is 87 in blog years, as my friend J. Money says.) This lil’ website officially launched on March 1, 2011, with a handful of posts about (what else?) retirement and travel. Little did I know, at the time, that the Afford Anything tribe would begin brewing a rebellion … Our tribe has grown to more than 4,100 subscribers, and our message of freedom, lifestyle design and awesomeness has enjoyed 1.3 million pageviews. What-what! If you’re new-ish to the community, welcome. Here are a few classics you might enjoy: **** Are you sick of hearing people whine about why they can’t get ahead? “This economy is[…]
Make a Profit AFTER Paying Yourself
The biggest mistake I’ve made as an entrepreneur? Confusing my role as an investor with my role as the general manager. As an investor, my role is to infuse money into a project or a company. Then I kick back and wait for the returns. As the general manager, my role is to oversee the daily grind. I send emails, make phone calls, conduct research, source supplies, and do a hundred other tasks that amount to the nuts-and-bolts of the daily drudgery. In many entrepreneurial ventures, it’s common to wear many hats — to be both the investor and the employee. In doing so, it’s easy to confuse “profit” with “paycheck.” You Don’t Work[…]
There’s No Such Thing As Paid Vacation. (But There’s Something Even Better!)
Today is my first day back at work after a one-week “unpaid” vacation. I’ll earn less this month than I did in the previous few months, since I only worked three-fourths of the time. This is because I trade my time for money. I have a huge limitation on how much I can earn. Everything I do these days – including my pledge to invest 100 percent of my income – is intended to cut the relationship between time and money. I’ll have “real” wealth the day I can unplug for one year without suffering a hit to my income. Wealth is measured in time, not dollars. Some people believe that they already have stints in which they get paid[…]
So Much Happens in a Year …
Today, Afford Anything turns one year old. Exactly a year ago today I wrote my first post on this website, and geez, it was a terrible post. I’m too embarrassed to link to it. I had no clue what I was doing when I started this site. I didn’t know HTML coding. I didn’t know how to read site metrics. I didn’t know the first thing about how search engines operate, or how to negotiate with advertisers, or how to layout a page, or what a plugin is. Most importantly, I didn’t know how to engage with my readers. My training as a journalist taught me to stay detached and impersonal. (“Most Americans say they’re worried about retirement, a new[…]
