A few years ago, an author I was reading asked a simple question. He said, “How long could you live your current lifestyle with all of your expenses if your main or only source of income was cut off today?” To me this was an interesting question that I didn’t have the answer to.
The point of the question is to help you determine the true picture of your financial independence or in many peoples cases, your financial dependence on your current position.
According to Lending Club:
“Sixty-four percent of U.S. consumers (166 million) were living paycheck to paycheck in December 2022, up 3 percentage points from 61% the year prior, with the most growth seen in higher income brackets. In fact, 9.3 million more consumers are now living paycheck to paycheck, and eight million, or 86%, of those consumers earn more than $100,000 annually.”
The stat here that blows my mind is not the fact that 64% of US consumers are living paycheck to paycheck. It is the fact that 8 million of those consumers earn more than $100,000 annually.
Look, I know life is expensive nowadays. But I have lived at every income level you can think of. I started my professional career making $10 bucks and hour. Then gotta raise to $13 bucks an hour. This is the early 2000’s. Then I had a big pay jump to $15 up to $17. Then I took a job that paid me a salary of $34,000 or so. Then I big jump to $40K. And then ultimately, $50K, $62K, $80’s, $90’s, and then into the six figures plus category.
I share all of this to say. I know it expensive, but you can still put aside money to invest. I bought my first investment property when I was making $50K. And then bought like six more before I ever made six figures.
So how long could you go if your income source was cut off today? Would you make it a week, two weeks, a month, six months, a year?
You might have never pondered this question before and that is okay. Most of us haven’t. But my goal is to create a much time as I possibly can between the day I leave my current and main income source to something else or quite frankly to nothing else.
If ultimate freedom is not your goal then you probably haven’t read this far. But if you have. Then I will assume financial freedom is your goal.
Do an analysis of your current financial picture and see how long you could go. The only way things in your life change is to know where you are today and then can make changes and plans accordingly.
To your success and your future.
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