Hello everyone!
First of all, some words about myself. I'm Daniel, 25, from Romania. Finished college (no debt, college is almost free here), against my wishes, listening to parents and relatives (my fault here though, listening to them was MY choice), in a domain I decided I hate after a couple of months, but still ended up wasting 4 years of my life with it. I'm talking about landscape architecture. Anyway, at the moment, working a damn job as a call center operator, wasting my days away with the classic trade 5 for 2 bullshit...
Just finished reading the book... God damn it, I have been blind... All this time, I was blinded by lies and bad advice from all the people I know (none of them successful, obviously). Reading The Fastlane has hit up sooo many sweet spots... From the bullshit that is slowlane, where I'm stuck at the moment, to the fact that I've stopped learning after graduating college and my sense of entitlement for various stuff just because I feel like I'm a smart person and I deserve it. I always apreciated the no bullshit approach when interacting, I always apreciated when people told me where I'm doing things wrong, because I'm always open to change and improving myself. But this book was on a whoooole another level of "dude, your choices suck and everything you've been doing was wrong".
First of all, thank you MJ for putting this knowledge out. I needed this wake up call.
Secondly, it's time to act. It's time to "bring value to the world and impact millions", to quote the book.
First step is to re-read The Fastlane. The first time, it was mind-blowing and eye-opening. Now it's time to re-read it to fully understand, comprehend and assimilate the information.
The second step is where you guys come in, and where I need a little bit of your help. I need, lets say counseling, in two different matters.
First, my slowlane job. I'm 25, living alone, financially independent from my parents. Dad and I have a extremely bad relationship, we basically don't talk at all. Mom had a spinal chord surgery recently and had to retire "early", at 60, and her pension is shit. So I have to sustain myself financially, and I do that with my job. The problem is the "trade time for money" spot that I'm into. Toghether with the commute, I waste around 9-10hrs/day at my job, that pays 350$ per month. Couple that with other things I have to do (cook, clean, laundry, go to the gym etc), there is little time left for me to work on improving myself and switch to The Fastlane. My cost of living isn't that high though. Knowing I don't have a safety net at the moment, I already live frugally. I don't buy chains, designer clothes, new pair of sneakers every month, go out every weekend etc. So, out of the 350$ I basically "really" need around 200$ to live one month (utilities, food and transportation via public transportation, obviously. My luck is that I don't have rent to pay).
Since there is a lot of money in this world, but not as much time, what would you do in my position? I can't quit my job (or can I? Is there something I fail to see at the moment?) since I have noone to help me financially, but I'm considering switching to a part time schedule at my current job. Probably my pay will be cut in half, but I'll be just short of my minimum monthly need. There will be some adjusting (cheaper food for example, shorter showers for less water usage etc) but I believe I'll be able to pull it off. This will enable me to have TIME to learn, educate myself and start switching roads. Any other ideas or suggestions regarding this? I'm very open to them.
Second, I need some guidance as to "where to look next". More specifically, financial education. As stated in The Fastlane, how can you expect to make money when your financial education is shit? So basically I'm asking for recommendations on financial education books I should further read.
I've checked google for recommendations and I almost puked. For example, people recommend "The richest man in Babylon" by George S. Clason, with reviews like "pay yourself first is brilliant" and "save 10% and invest and you'll be rich". This is not the kind of book I'm looking for, obviously. I'm looking on books that teach me how money works. What is a 401k. What is ROI and how do you calculate it. To quote MJ: "For example, while studying finance I learned complex mathematical formulas that aided in financial decision-making, things like “lease or buy” and “return on investment.” I want to learn this stuff, so I can make my financial decisions alone, or at least perfectly understand them while taking with a specialist, to be able to dispute them.
Thank you for reading this, and thanks in advance for taking the time to throw in a reply and your 2 cents.
Now excuse me while I go and re-read The Fastlane. Time of change begins now
First of all, some words about myself. I'm Daniel, 25, from Romania. Finished college (no debt, college is almost free here), against my wishes, listening to parents and relatives (my fault here though, listening to them was MY choice), in a domain I decided I hate after a couple of months, but still ended up wasting 4 years of my life with it. I'm talking about landscape architecture. Anyway, at the moment, working a damn job as a call center operator, wasting my days away with the classic trade 5 for 2 bullshit...
Just finished reading the book... God damn it, I have been blind... All this time, I was blinded by lies and bad advice from all the people I know (none of them successful, obviously). Reading The Fastlane has hit up sooo many sweet spots... From the bullshit that is slowlane, where I'm stuck at the moment, to the fact that I've stopped learning after graduating college and my sense of entitlement for various stuff just because I feel like I'm a smart person and I deserve it. I always apreciated the no bullshit approach when interacting, I always apreciated when people told me where I'm doing things wrong, because I'm always open to change and improving myself. But this book was on a whoooole another level of "dude, your choices suck and everything you've been doing was wrong".
First of all, thank you MJ for putting this knowledge out. I needed this wake up call.
Secondly, it's time to act. It's time to "bring value to the world and impact millions", to quote the book.
First step is to re-read The Fastlane. The first time, it was mind-blowing and eye-opening. Now it's time to re-read it to fully understand, comprehend and assimilate the information.
The second step is where you guys come in, and where I need a little bit of your help. I need, lets say counseling, in two different matters.
First, my slowlane job. I'm 25, living alone, financially independent from my parents. Dad and I have a extremely bad relationship, we basically don't talk at all. Mom had a spinal chord surgery recently and had to retire "early", at 60, and her pension is shit. So I have to sustain myself financially, and I do that with my job. The problem is the "trade time for money" spot that I'm into. Toghether with the commute, I waste around 9-10hrs/day at my job, that pays 350$ per month. Couple that with other things I have to do (cook, clean, laundry, go to the gym etc), there is little time left for me to work on improving myself and switch to The Fastlane. My cost of living isn't that high though. Knowing I don't have a safety net at the moment, I already live frugally. I don't buy chains, designer clothes, new pair of sneakers every month, go out every weekend etc. So, out of the 350$ I basically "really" need around 200$ to live one month (utilities, food and transportation via public transportation, obviously. My luck is that I don't have rent to pay).
Since there is a lot of money in this world, but not as much time, what would you do in my position? I can't quit my job (or can I? Is there something I fail to see at the moment?) since I have noone to help me financially, but I'm considering switching to a part time schedule at my current job. Probably my pay will be cut in half, but I'll be just short of my minimum monthly need. There will be some adjusting (cheaper food for example, shorter showers for less water usage etc) but I believe I'll be able to pull it off. This will enable me to have TIME to learn, educate myself and start switching roads. Any other ideas or suggestions regarding this? I'm very open to them.
Second, I need some guidance as to "where to look next". More specifically, financial education. As stated in The Fastlane, how can you expect to make money when your financial education is shit? So basically I'm asking for recommendations on financial education books I should further read.
I've checked google for recommendations and I almost puked. For example, people recommend "The richest man in Babylon" by George S. Clason, with reviews like "pay yourself first is brilliant" and "save 10% and invest and you'll be rich". This is not the kind of book I'm looking for, obviously. I'm looking on books that teach me how money works. What is a 401k. What is ROI and how do you calculate it. To quote MJ: "For example, while studying finance I learned complex mathematical formulas that aided in financial decision-making, things like “lease or buy” and “return on investment.” I want to learn this stuff, so I can make my financial decisions alone, or at least perfectly understand them while taking with a specialist, to be able to dispute them.
Thank you for reading this, and thanks in advance for taking the time to throw in a reply and your 2 cents.
Now excuse me while I go and re-read The Fastlane. Time of change begins now
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