Hello everyone,
I'm new around here, so I'd like to introduce myself. Sorry if it's a bit long, but hopefully some of you will read it, it is my life story after all
My name is Chris. I'm 22 years old, and I'm a poster boy for the slowlane lifestyle.
From a young age, success in school was the top priority in my life. I studied hard and took every advanced class, many of which I didn't give a crap about, all in the name of boosting my GPA. I graduated valedictorian of my class and went on to study software engineering at a well known university.
My real passion was personal finance and investing. In my free time, I learned as much as I could about the stock market, compound interest, and how I could become a millionaire by living frugally and investing in low-cost index funds. I ate it up like Joey Chestnut at a hot dog contest! I opened an IRA as soon as I turned 18, and I've been contributing to it for the past 4 years.
As I entered my college years, I knew the next step in my financial journey was to land a high-paying job so I could shovel more money into my investment accounts. I got great grades, spent the summers interning with great companies, I built my resume, and worked on my technical interview skills. I did everything right. Leading into the last summer of my college career, all my hard ward was rewarded with an internship at a FAANG Tech company. It was my dream come true!
I completed the internship, graduated in the top 0.5% of my class, and accepted a full time offer with the same company, paying well over six figures a year. This was the vision I had for my life since I was 18 years old. Now, I've moved across the country and live alone in a tiny studio apartment in Seattle where I save over 50% of my income so that I can retire in 20 years instead of 40. A dream come true if you asked my 18-year-old self. I've been living this life for a few months now, and I can tell you IT'S FREAKING BORING! I never do anything fun, exciting, or meaningful. And during the COVID shutdowns, I barely leave my apartment.
What do I dream about now? I dream about quitting my job. I dream about moving home to be with my friends and family again. I want to become a better athlete, to start lifting weights again, to take a yoga class, to become a cross country coach. I want to learn to make great food, and to share it with great people. I want to be able to go anywhere and do anything without thinking about the cost, or the amount of hours it's going to take to pay for it.
I don't remember exactly what lead me to pick up The Millionaire Fastlane , but I do know that it has opened my eyes to the fact that I'm living in the slowlane while all the financial role models I had been looking up to are making millions in their own fastlane businesses. It was a frustrating revelation, because I've dedicated so much of my adult life to the slowlane and I've seen it work for me. I'm a stand-out success by normal standards, but I still feel like I'm living a lie. For example, I love to run. If money was no concern, I could spend my whole day training to be a better runner. In college, there were days when I would go out for a run twice a day plus spend time training in the gym, spend time stretching and recovering, spend time preparing healthy meals, and get ten or eleven hours of much-needed sleep each night. My financial independence dreams were fueled by this vision. But if I'm honest with myself, I realize that I'll be a shell of my former self in 20 years. These days, I never go to the gym. I still run, but after a long day of sitting at a desk, I feel stiff and I have no energy. Long story short, I have come to understand that I need to enter the fastlane if I want to live my dreams while I am still young.
So I got to work. I decided to start building a website for aspiring software engineers to pick up side projects they could build and add to their resumes. I also started reading UNSCRIPTED , to get some additional inspiration and advice. I am currently working through part 4 of the book, which is what prompted me to join this forum. For those of you who have read the book, MJ starts by outlining TUNEF - the unscripted entrepreneurial framework. The foundation of the framework is an FTE - a "F*ck this event." I stopped reading to reflect on this, and I realized that I definitely haven't had an FTE. I have a good job. I get along with my team and my manager. I'm nowhere near fed up to the point of anything as drastic as quitting my job, but I have acknowledged that my dream is impossible on my current path (what's the point of being a millionaire if I'm too old and my body has deteriorated from 20+ years sitting in a desk chair?)
So this is my story. I'm a successful slowlaner who is on the verge of letting his dreams slip away, and I've come to the fastlaneforum for advice. I think we hear a lot about these entrepreneurs who make it big from a background of flipping hamburgers or cleaning toilets. Everyone likes these underdog stories, and they spread over the media like wildfire. I'd like to know whether this FTE is actually a prerequisite to fastlane success (if MJ says so, I think it must be), and if so, how can I convert my fastlake interest into unwavering commitment? If you have any experience, success or failure, coming from a similar background, I'd love to hear from you!
If you made it this far, thanks for taking the time. I know it's a most valuable resource. I look forward to reading your replies.
Have an awesome day,
- Chris
I'm new around here, so I'd like to introduce myself. Sorry if it's a bit long, but hopefully some of you will read it, it is my life story after all
My name is Chris. I'm 22 years old, and I'm a poster boy for the slowlane lifestyle.
From a young age, success in school was the top priority in my life. I studied hard and took every advanced class, many of which I didn't give a crap about, all in the name of boosting my GPA. I graduated valedictorian of my class and went on to study software engineering at a well known university.
My real passion was personal finance and investing. In my free time, I learned as much as I could about the stock market, compound interest, and how I could become a millionaire by living frugally and investing in low-cost index funds. I ate it up like Joey Chestnut at a hot dog contest! I opened an IRA as soon as I turned 18, and I've been contributing to it for the past 4 years.
As I entered my college years, I knew the next step in my financial journey was to land a high-paying job so I could shovel more money into my investment accounts. I got great grades, spent the summers interning with great companies, I built my resume, and worked on my technical interview skills. I did everything right. Leading into the last summer of my college career, all my hard ward was rewarded with an internship at a FAANG Tech company. It was my dream come true!
I completed the internship, graduated in the top 0.5% of my class, and accepted a full time offer with the same company, paying well over six figures a year. This was the vision I had for my life since I was 18 years old. Now, I've moved across the country and live alone in a tiny studio apartment in Seattle where I save over 50% of my income so that I can retire in 20 years instead of 40. A dream come true if you asked my 18-year-old self. I've been living this life for a few months now, and I can tell you IT'S FREAKING BORING! I never do anything fun, exciting, or meaningful. And during the COVID shutdowns, I barely leave my apartment.
What do I dream about now? I dream about quitting my job. I dream about moving home to be with my friends and family again. I want to become a better athlete, to start lifting weights again, to take a yoga class, to become a cross country coach. I want to learn to make great food, and to share it with great people. I want to be able to go anywhere and do anything without thinking about the cost, or the amount of hours it's going to take to pay for it.
I don't remember exactly what lead me to pick up The Millionaire Fastlane , but I do know that it has opened my eyes to the fact that I'm living in the slowlane while all the financial role models I had been looking up to are making millions in their own fastlane businesses. It was a frustrating revelation, because I've dedicated so much of my adult life to the slowlane and I've seen it work for me. I'm a stand-out success by normal standards, but I still feel like I'm living a lie. For example, I love to run. If money was no concern, I could spend my whole day training to be a better runner. In college, there were days when I would go out for a run twice a day plus spend time training in the gym, spend time stretching and recovering, spend time preparing healthy meals, and get ten or eleven hours of much-needed sleep each night. My financial independence dreams were fueled by this vision. But if I'm honest with myself, I realize that I'll be a shell of my former self in 20 years. These days, I never go to the gym. I still run, but after a long day of sitting at a desk, I feel stiff and I have no energy. Long story short, I have come to understand that I need to enter the fastlane if I want to live my dreams while I am still young.
So I got to work. I decided to start building a website for aspiring software engineers to pick up side projects they could build and add to their resumes. I also started reading UNSCRIPTED , to get some additional inspiration and advice. I am currently working through part 4 of the book, which is what prompted me to join this forum. For those of you who have read the book, MJ starts by outlining TUNEF - the unscripted entrepreneurial framework. The foundation of the framework is an FTE - a "F*ck this event." I stopped reading to reflect on this, and I realized that I definitely haven't had an FTE. I have a good job. I get along with my team and my manager. I'm nowhere near fed up to the point of anything as drastic as quitting my job, but I have acknowledged that my dream is impossible on my current path (what's the point of being a millionaire if I'm too old and my body has deteriorated from 20+ years sitting in a desk chair?)
So this is my story. I'm a successful slowlaner who is on the verge of letting his dreams slip away, and I've come to the fastlaneforum for advice. I think we hear a lot about these entrepreneurs who make it big from a background of flipping hamburgers or cleaning toilets. Everyone likes these underdog stories, and they spread over the media like wildfire. I'd like to know whether this FTE is actually a prerequisite to fastlane success (if MJ says so, I think it must be), and if so, how can I convert my fastlake interest into unwavering commitment? If you have any experience, success or failure, coming from a similar background, I'd love to hear from you!
If you made it this far, thanks for taking the time. I know it's a most valuable resource. I look forward to reading your replies.
Have an awesome day,
- Chris
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