It's Time to Review Your 5-Year Plan
Khan, my housemate asked me, “Alex, what’s your 5-Year Plan? Do you have the same job? What about a family of your own?”
Wow.
It had been months since I looked at my Long-Term goals. I wasn’t sure what to say anymore. The pandemic didn’t affect my major goals, but it did affect my motivation to reflect on those goals.
Reader, I’m sure you felt the same way when our world changed. My consumption habits changed, my saving potential soared, but it was easier than ever to spend needlessly.
“In a time when there was seemingly nothing to do, I never ‘found’ any time whatsoever to work towards my Long-Term Goals.”
At Appreciating Interest, we have never “found” time to do anything we didn’t inherently want to do in the moment. This is the problem with Long-Term goals: they are easy enough to plan for, but following through with the daily grind is difficult. Khan’s question reminded me that in order to go where I want in life, it first must be planned.
After the plan, it’s time to act.
Any action requires a first step. That first step is often symbolic, but not very difficult. If you want to buy a house, your first step should be to look at houses-determine specifics later. Inertia is a property of matter, and of habits. In order to become world-class in anything or just consistent in something, routine and focused energy are required.
(Skip to next header if you don’t want to read a personal story)
I started building this website in college. I had no real knowledge of finance beyond the books I got from my uncle. The strange thing was that I knew I had a message to share, but I felt phony. “I have no authority to be discussing anything, I don’t even have any money!” was one of the thoughts I had. “I don’t even like writing and no one will want to read your page anyway” was another. Each negative thought pressed further and further into my consciousness as the repetition and consistency perpetuated this feedback loop. So for two years I owned this domain and paid for the website as it’s pages metaphorically collected dust. Inertia that strong can be hard to stop. In late 2019, I decided to try again. I was going to do a monthly challenge (handwriting, teeth whitening, etc.) and post the results on YouTube. I knew I was building something but I was still working on my voice. What did I even want to say?
You can do it. You can dream big, just remember to plan your steps there. Reverse engineer your dream to make tomorrow the reality. I finally determined my plan, and now I can make it my reality.
My plan is 10 years, $200 million dollars. Step-by-step I have a plan to get there and a way to course correct when it’s time to rethink the strategy. How can I do that? By owning assets. What assets? Real estate and investments. What real estate? How about a huge $100 million dollar ranch. And what investments? Well, I have a portfolio, but also the investment into this. Being able to value my site will also require time and effort. Reviews are an investment. All of it combined with my determination to prove the method true will hopefully bring this to life.
In year 10, I will have the ranch valued at over $100 million, the additional properties as rental vehicles, and this site completes the valuation.
My 5-Year Plan, therefore, requires effort towards my 10-Year plan for it to occur. I know the majority of my time in Year 5 will be required to nurture this dream into reality. I will make at least 1 million dollars this year.
In year 1, I will automate my finances and focus down my debt with precision. I will take my first trip to Portugal, determining my ability to work remote internationally. I will try to adapt my messaging to reach as many people as possible in order to further my cause.
The point is not to have every step figured out today. The point is to ask yourself what you truly want your life to look like 10 years from now. Do you want a lot of money? What about a family? Where do you live? These are all good questions to ask when envisioning 5 or 10 years out. The trick is to let yourself dream, then use your head to figure out logical steps and timelines for making it happen. Sure my dream is half-baked and huge, but the title is catchy and maybe we will all be surprised! Have a great day, see ya in 10 years!
Personal Development Skills
I have decided that my scope of personal finance was too narrow. The key to a well-rounded life (so I’m told) is to focus on the three major areas of personal development.
Enjoyment - your “why” in life. Nothing else matters if you don’t have a “why”. Who cares if you have a billion dollars but don’t know what makes you happy? Money doesn’t
Finances - money can’t buy happiness, but having no financial strategy can ruin more than just your day.
Health - this adds to your enjoyment. If you are healthy, you can do more, do it more often, and do it longer.
Looking forward to exploring this tri-pronged approach to personal development.
Pursuing Interests
The more defined the interest, the more one may appreciate it. You are not constrained to one minor interest; the parameters are of your own choice. A buyer may hesitate to buy Art generally, but may move to purchase any rendition in a favored mode.
One must prioritize their Interests only at their present condition. The past can be a teacher but nostalgia is a bad leader.
This prioritization allows for an accurate cost analysis. Think of it like a budget for your time. Trade offs are required for your money and your moments, so you want to be as transparent with your happiness as possible.
Last, it’s crucial to enjoy these Interests worry-free. How can you appreciate a beach vacation if you’re worried? You’ll likely be more stressed and less willing to vacation again!
My Interests (Jan 10-16)
Hello! Welcome back to Appreciating Interest.
This week’s focus is on the interests themselves which play such a crucial role in living a passionate life. There are two major points that I’m focused on, and the highly relate to one another.
Communicating effectively with purpose
Improving inefficiencies
It is easy to break everything else I do into one or both of these two points. For example, I am building this website because I want to share what I’ve learned about personal finances to anyone who feels lost in their own journey. And Appreciating Interest is all about being conscious with your financial actions in order to spend less time on your disinterests and far more time enjoying yourself. There is so much more in store, but you can’t appreciate anything if you’re focused on everything!
Updates from last weeks post:
I finally got my Experian Rating into the ‘Good’ range
I have enough saved up for my rent payment for February (This is the first time I have the money before the final paycheck of the month!)
Upcoming week’s goals:
I will pay off my Balance transfer card in it’s entirety!
Assess 2020’s finances
Plan 2021’s budget
Release video of my interests
Plan the release of videos for the future, including: my starting net worth, planning for a trip, saving for a purchase, my plan to get out of debt, plus many more!
My First Financial Big Break! (Jan 3-9)
Hi my financial friends!
I expect this week to be a big one for me financially. For a few reasons:
I finally paid off my most expensive US Bank Credit card last week, it should show up in my credit report this week.
My Balance Transfer Card 0% APR expired last month, and thanks to some planning and saving, I will have enough to pay it off in full without any accrued interest (though I did have to pay a 3% fee on the transfer when I first got it 15 months ago).
It’s time to review my spending from last year and update my budget and financial plan for 2021
Furthermore, I release my first YouTube video of 2021 tonight! In it, I will discuss some plans for Appreciating Interest, express my philosophy of finance, and discuss windfalls. Stay tuned for an update!
2021, and Defining Appreciating Interest
In order to curate content for you, it must be very clear of our purpose for Appreciating Interest.
At the most basic level, Appreciating Interest is a curated knowledge collection focusing on defining happiness for ourselves and strategizing the most effective, ethical path for realizing this happiness.
A few rules:
Any information I, Alex Holden, share with you on this platform will be to the best of my knowledge at the time of the posting. I will be constantly learning and evolving as this journey continues, but I want my past understanding to be available as a reminder to show the growth of (always) imperfect information. I will be candid and transparent upon exposing previous flaws, because I believe the learning process is vitally important. When our ego entrenches us to our past positions despite compelling evidence, it is our pride and not the truth that we seek to uphold.
I will be using marketing and persuasion tactics to coax others into valuing their own desires for their own best interests. I want to be very clear: I believe this is to a positive end and I am ultimately trying to help you. If you do not believe I am doing so, I welcome any and all well thought (civil) arguments as to how I can better serve my purpose. These tactics and strategies will be very clearly described on this website for all to see. I’m not trying to manipulate, I merely want to show you a different perspective. You are the only one who lives your life; you have to decide how to live and your philosophy on doing so.
While Appreciating Interest is more a philosophy of finance than a method of making money, I do plan on making this platform a profitable endeavor. When this happens, I want to be very clear with what happens with this income. At the time of this writing, I have 12 visitors to my website, so I will address platform finances at a more appropriate time. My personal financial information will be very public. Some people believe this information is private (and I may change my mind in the future) but I believe the best way to earn your trust is transparency. Any books I read, or videos I watch will also be recorded and relayed to you - you deserve to know what is influencing me and always check my sources.
The end goal of Appreciating Interest: at the time of this writing, my end goal is to has someone, unrelated to myself, go through this system and realize a goal they believed to be a pipe dream.