Have you ever thought about your magic number? The number that you would need to pay off all your debt, your mortgage, set some aside, help a family member out, go on your dream trip, and move towards a new life? I have and I’ve discovered that my number is $350,000 dollars. What does that number include?
- Paying off all of my student loans
- Paying off my mortgage
- Paying off my mom’s mortgage
- A year’s salary
- Money towards my wedding
- Money for a future teeny tiny (baby)
- Money to fix some things in my place
- Money to buy a car
- Investment money
- Retirement money
- Money for my dream trip
- A new wardrobe 🙂
$350,000 would go a long way in my world. So, I’ve found myself thinking about my number a lot because I want freedom to do what I want to do.
As I pay down my debt with my current decent income I am looking at ways to step up my income earning potential. Michelle from Making Sense of Cents and Holly from Club Thrifty are very inspiring to me because they are both making more than I do at my current job. Holly has made a little over $5600 which is more than I make a month. It is also the minimum amount that I would need to consistently make to leave my current position. Michelle of course is on the other end of the spectrum at $13,000. She has made over $90,000 working her business and as I look at my number there is an obvious way to get there.
Make more money.
I don’t need to make my magic number all in one year even though that would be great! I just need to make more money every year to reach that number. So, if I give myself a 3 or 4 year goal is that reasonable? I’m going to give a try and see what happens.
What’s your magic number? Are you almost there? What steps are you taking to reach your goal? What’s your time frame?
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My BF and I often play the ‘if you had $x, what would you do’ and the x varies. As do the outcomes. I almost always want to take a first class holiday – Sydney to NYC to Paris, all in the best of the best part of the plane and the most luxe hotels. Two weeks all up I think. My philosophy is if I won that money, well, it’s lucky. I also plan to save for 20 years to one day do this.
With larger amounts, that goal still functions, but I think ‘should I pay out 1 mortgage, or start another and rent it out like the first place?’. As to your wardrobe comment, i did also once say ‘I wish I was rich enough and skinny enough to fit into designer clothes’ (ie the ones you walk past in their window), but I’m not sure I would actually buy them, they don’t fit with my lifestyle.
It’s all very interesting when you start to think about large sums of money!
I tend to think in terms of living abroad. I really miss living abroad and I am thinking more and more seriously about living abroad for 6 months. I don’t need the posh flight, I would love the posh meals and shopping! I also want to have a gorgeous wardrobe. I am over the boring clothes that I’m wearing. I also want to only buy the majority of my stuff Stateside=really expensive. I’ve been thinking about my number a lot and I realized it’s not that big in the grand scheme of things.
I’m not quite sure what my magic number is. I know if I made 10k each month I’d be ecstatic, but right now I’m pushing towards 8k per month. Just trying to grow and stay sane as much as I can!
Umm, you make a heck of lot more than I do so what you make right now is my magic number LOL!! Part of what has gotten me really focused on working for myself is that everyone makes more than I do. Stay sane!
Yes but that’s a good month. Remember I have some video freelance months where I hardly made anything…like less that 1k. 🙁
Ok, that’s kind of a bummer 🙁 I’m sending good vibes so you don’t have another month like that!
Hmm I haven’t thought about my magic number, but I’ll think about it. I think 100-200k would be a good start!! I love how thoughtful you are about all this and creating the life you want.
If you did the same thing for 10 years you would spend a lot time thinking about what could change your life. Seriously. I’m at the end of my rope, so I’m looking forward to changing my life.
My number is $24k, which is exciting! I actually just wrote this morning how getting past that number is one of my goals for 2014. We’ve been working on our number for a while though, which has been tough. But as we approach it, we get more and more excited about the possibilities!
I love that number! I am completely sure that you will rock it this year. I can’t wait to read about your success.
That’s so sweet you’d want to pay your mom’s mortgage. I think it’s a great idea to have a long-term goal – that’s what keeps me going! I don’t have a set magical number, but we do have long-term goals that we remind ourselves to live below our means (and earn side income) to achieve!
Anna-it’s a little selfish on my part. I want to make sure that my mom is taken care of. There’s no point in having money if you don’t help the ones you love. This year is a pivotal year for me because I’m going to have to suck it up and deal with staying in my job till the end of the year-unless I make CRAZY money doing my online stuff. Quite frankly I need my income to help pay down debt and build a substantial emergency fund. It’s a hard choice, but I’m a grown up.
“So, I’ve found myself thinking about my number a lot because I want freedom to do what I want to do.”
Yep, I know. It’s extremely cliche, but I just heard it again this week: A lot of people who are about to buy the farm regret working so much.
You are smart and one step ahead for realizing it now…
Sometimes I feel a little late to the game, but better late than never!
Well. the way I think about it is this: most people never figure it out. Some do, but when they’re waay old and their time has already passed.
Time on this little green orb is short. I don’t want anything else* in life and am happier than I’ve ever been. Life is good.
*I still kinda want a motorcycle, but a crappy cheap one would be fine. Am I wrong?
I think you could find a motorcycle pretty easily! I agree about figuring it out before i’m too old. I really would like to meet “The One”, be debt free, have a kid, and live abroad for a summer. Am working on it as we speak.
Hmm, I haven’t really thought of my number yet. Let me think. Rounding up my debt to $70k, a future down payment & house savings of $100k, $10k to eventually bring kiddos into the world, Plus extra money to invest and travel. I’d say my magic number is somewhere around $250,000 🙂
Now if I could only be handed said $250k!
There is $250,000 floating in the universe for you. Keep focused-it will happen!
I don’t know what my magic number is really. Since I’m now debt free I think it would need some for a house, a car, and some for retirement and my mom. So I could probably do all of that for $250,000 and be thrilled with life. That’s a huge amount of money to me!
I am really thinking about how to increase my income so that I can get closer to my number. Quite frankly $250,000 would be a game changer for me too. Let’s make it happen!
Never though what my magic number would really be. I just chose $1,000,000 because a) it’s an even number, b) it’s definitely enough to cover all of my debt and then some, and c) the selfish part of me wants to be able to say I’m a millionaire!
I like $1,000,000 too! Maybe I should choose that number too! That’s in the future though.