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Passion vs financial freedom or both?

Sid23

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This is a question for people who have already achieved financial freedom or will be there shortly. I'm hoping people like MJ, Diane, Peter2, SteveO and RussH will weigh in here.

Was your means to achieving financial freedom your passion, or was your passion to achieve financial freedom any way possible?

For example, MJ, did you love internet businesses and find they were your passion, or did you see them as the fastest path (and maybe best utilization of your skill set) to get you financially free? SteveO, same question with apartments.

If you just used those business to achieve financial freedom, are you now pursuing your passions? What do you do each day/week/month?

I'm asking because I know financial freedom is my goal, but I'm confused as to how to get there. Should I be doing something I enjoy to get there? Or should I just find the quickest path there so I can do "whatever" I want once I've achieved it?

I'm not looking for someone to answer the question for me per se, I'm more interested in the thought process of the already successful people on this forumn.

:thankyousign:
 
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Jason_MI

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Oooh. I'm not any of those people, so my opinion probably doesn't count, but I'm generally the odd-man out here. I believe that the goal...financial freedom...IS the passion, not the road towards it. In other words; I absolutely DO NOT BELIEVE in 'do what you love and the money will follow'. I believe in doing anything legal and ethical to achieve the goal, then I'm out.
 

Sid23

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SteveO

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I agree with Jason. I took up apartment investing to become financially free. My passion for the apartments was driven by the money it would bring. There have been times that I have despised the headaches and hassles. But, my eye was always on the goal.

I also had a desire to get to the point where I could be hands-off with most of the process. The part I enjoy is the hunt. Aquisitions and dispositions are still the fun part to me.
 
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kimberland

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Oooh. I'm not any of those people, so my opinion probably doesn't count,

LOL... I looked at this thread and figured the same thing
but since Jason weighed in...

My goal was financial freedom.
I decided to go the paper route because I understood it
and liked it enough to put the extra time in.

The issue with doing "what you love"
is that the first time it isn't fun anymore
(and there will be times when you'd rather stick a fork in your eye
than continue plugging away at the route you decided on),
you quit.
 

Sid23

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This is a question for people who have already achieved financial freedom or will be there shortly. I'm hoping people like MJ, Diane, Peter2, SteveO and RussH will weigh in here.


Please understand that LIKE is the oprative word in that sentence. Jason and Kimberland, thank you for replying.

What I meant was I was hoping to hear from people who have achieved this freedom already or are close (probably a reaction to posts back from the RDPD days when everyone under the sun would respond to a thread - most who didn't have a clue what they were talking about).

Next time I won't list actual names. Was just trying to prove a point.

So Steve, Kimberland, Jason - what do you do now that you are financially free? Do you spend your days working? Volunteering? Doing something you feel is your passion?

When you were on the road to financial freedom, did you think, "I can't wait to get there so I can do XXXX?" Or did you just figure out you'd figure it out?
 

Diane Kennedy

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SeanS,

This is a good question because it made me really think.

My path was maybe a little different than others. I started out as a CPA and became fascinated early on with tax planning. So, as I got better, I attracted better and wealthier clients. I didn't start out loving accounting - I was good at math and at the time it seemed like I needed to either be an engineer or an accountant.

But as I got more into tax, I learned from the people who were my clients and it just made sense. Invest in real estate. I could crunch numbers with the best of them and I could do what others did.

Then I had my big "ah-ha" moment (I think I wrote about this in my intro). I sold my first CPA firm for approximately $500,000. One of my colleagues from college sold his payroll accounting company (shudder! He didn't become a CPA after all that schooling) for $200,000,000. (BTW I wanted to write it out with all the zeroes,just as a reminder. There's still a trigger there for me.)

That's what kicked me into doing more - it wasn't even a dream for financial freedom. By that point, I made a pretty high hourly wage and although I was an hourly worker...I didn't have to work many hours. That plus the real estate and I was set.

I never sat down and figured out what I was passionate about until I had been working for over 10 years. But, I kind of knew. I knew what got me excited and what I hated to do. So, I just worked on what I liked and found other people to do what I didn't like. Then I only worked on things I loved (got rid of the "like") and then I only worked on things that I loved, was good at and gave me energy.

I'm still a CPA - but I work in a way different from every other CPA I've ever met. I don't bill by the hour. I give away tons of free education on my website, TaxLoopholes. And through that I've found my passion - empowering individuals to maximize net worth.

It's changing now, though, I want to find a way to tie charity into entrepreneurship - the social entrepreneur idea that Bill Gates and Pierre Olmidyar typify. But, you don't have to be a billionaire to do it - anyone can.

So, maybe my real passion is taking ideas and distilling the true essence down so that they are available for everyone.

I'll let you know when I figure it all out. :smxA:
 
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Talkintoy

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If you just used those business to achieve financial freedom, are you now pursuing your passions? What do you do each day/week/month?
I think you have to do what you think is for you once you find out who you are first as Russ H had asked everyone in other thread. Everyone has a different trigger inside them and thier past on what drives them. I think it all start from the past history of family etc... Thats what made me ask in the other thread "If your Happy or did you lose anything in the process". Sometimes money doesn't solve anything, it just creates more problem.

Being entrepreneur can do different things at different skill level and still be good at it regardless. Working for someone is somewhat a lot of people are doing but not happy. They only do it because its an obligation to support whatever it is your paying for, debt? if you didn't start out right like 95% people out there.

You can do what you love or you've grown to love and have fun at it then money follows along this direction. You can do the same from working but money is not going all to you but to your employer and your not happy is a different story. Im sure everyone is passionate in what they do regardless in working or business but you have to love it or you must get out of it coz you'll ask yourself someday why i didnt do it before when you get older. :)
 

Diane Kennedy

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how do you bill?

We have turned our services into products. I personally ONLY do big picture tax strategies for a flat fee. We have nationwide CPA offices with senior personnel who have trained with me. They also do tax strategies and provide compliance, financial accounting, etc..
 
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snowbank

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We have turned our services into products. I personally ONLY do big picture tax strategies for a flat fee. We have nationwide CPA offices with senior personnel who have trained with me. They also do tax strategies and provide compliance, financial accounting, etc..


Diane,

Do you have an e-mail or some form of contact you could PM me. Tried to PM you a while back but I don't think you accept PMs. I have a business idea regading taxes I wanted to run by you.

-Bill
 

Diane Kennedy

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Diane,

Do you have an e-mail or some form of contact you could PM me. Tried to PM you a while back but I don't think you accept PMs. I have a business idea regading taxes I wanted to run by you.

-Bill

Bill - My PM is back on. Fire away!

Diane
 

nomadjanet

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In every project or business you are doing there will be task that you love & task that you hate or at least dislike. You delegate the things you hate or dislike and keep the things you love for you to do. Hopefully you will love things more important than stuffing envelopes. J
I am a bit of a Pollyanna; I tend to love almost everything but the most tedious of tasks. It took me awhile to delegate things that I should delegate. Once I did this, I found other projects, other little business ventures that I loved and I started doing these things. When I did this, I stated having the same issues again, lack of delegation. I have delegated out the day to day tasks in our plumbing business, and then I failed to delegate the tasks in our real estate business. Now I have started the process to out source more of the tedious tasks associated with real estate and other ventures.
My passion is travel, we use our businesses to pay for our travel in the last three years we have enjoyed Kauai, Seattle, Portland OR, Savanna GA, Tampa, Phoenix, D.C., Reno, the Bahamas, Cancun, St Petersburg FL, Boston, Martha’s Vineyard, Providence RI, Long Island, and lots of time off at our beach house. Another thing I feel is more important than any amount of money is the contact with people that we have from all over the country these are all people that we have met through business groups and they are true friends. We hear from them every week & take vacations with them; attend family functions in far away states, they have become our extended family.
My husband’s passion is vintage cars, we have started a car restoration and sales business and he has owned or now owns cars from the 30’s, 40’s, 50’s, & 60’s. He has bought, sold, tinkered with and thoroughly loved every second of the car business. He has met like minded people & made great friends in this business they have become a great part of our life.
 
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kimberland

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When you were on the road to financial freedom, did you think, "I can't wait to get there so I can do XXXX?" Or did you just figure out you'd figure it out?

Actually, yes.
I always wanted to write novels
but that is a tough, tough road
if you need money immediately to pay the rent.

I "saved" the novel writing until I had "enough."
Note: My definition of enough is different from everyone else's.
I don't have $10 million dollars in the bank (yet).

But I still also take contract gigs,
I still invest,
etc.
That doesn't all stop because I reached a magical net worth.
 

Rawr

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As a guy I know says:

When I started, I didn't really like construction. When I made hundreds of thousands, I suddenly realized I did like it

Nobody said the path to financial freedom is something ugly and mean. You have many options that allow you to make money and still enjoy it - I mean what makes more sense - to become a school teacher or an investment banker if your love for kids and numbers is the same?
 

MJ DeMarco

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This is a question for people who have already achieved financial freedom or will be there shortly. I'm hoping people like MJ, Diane, Peter2, SteveO and RussH will weigh in here.

Was your means to achieving financial freedom your passion, or was your passion to achieve financial freedom any way possible?

For example, MJ, did you love internet businesses and find they were your passion, or did you see them as the fastest path (and maybe best utilization of your skill set) to get you financially free? SteveO, same question with apartments.

If you just used those business to achieve financial freedom, are you now pursuing your passions? What do you do each day/week/month?

I'm asking because I know financial freedom is my goal, but I'm confused as to how to get there. Should I be doing something I enjoy to get there? Or should I just find the quickest path there so I can do "whatever" I want once I've achieved it?

I'm not looking for someone to answer the question for me per se, I'm more interested in the thought process of the already successful people on this forumn.

:thankyousign:

For me, I was passionate about obtaining a certain lifestyle. Now when I say that, you might conjure-up thoughts about big houses and fast cars, but it wasn't that primarily. The fast cars, toys and doodads were secondary.

For me, my initial passion was:

1) No alarm clock
2) No traffic
3) My own hours
4) A comfortable lifestyle (newer car, decent house)
5) Freedom from a boss
6) Make a difference

What I learned, after I achieved the first 5, that #6 was my driving passion that fueled my exponential income/net worth growth. I enjoy making a difference. In my last business, the "making a difference" feeling disappeared which is why I pursued a sale.

Now (again) I am embarking on a new "make a difference" field by writing a book. Perhaps it might not be as lucrative as my last business, but I know I will enjoy the process.

I know this isn't the place to be religious, but there is more to life than money. I believe much of my success can be attributed to a Christ-like philosophy - help others and God will give you everything your heart desires.

Another key element to my passion is the yearning to learn. I love learning new things and find myself watching Discovery Channel, History Channel, Military Channel, HGTV, Science, Animal Planet -- all types of educational television. In college, I shunned these types of topics - now I love soaking up knowledge from all aspects of life, not just computers and business, but life.

For anyone reading this, you have to find your passion and it doesn't have to be a particular field. These types of passions can fuel your motivation - not just "do what you love". I enjoyed learning computers. I enjoyed the internet.

Another passion I had? I wanted to help my mother in retirement. As a single mother, she put up with a lot of my shit. She worked her a$$ off at bad jobs (fast food joints and what-not) and raised 3 kids on her own. I leeched off my mother until I was 26 years old while I dabbled from one opportunity to the next.

I remember thinking to myself many times, "When I become successful, you won't have to worry about retirement".

I'm proud to say that 3 weeks ago I paid my mother's mortgage in full. I eliminated a big financial burden for her and it was the least I can do to say "thanks" for putting up with my various schemes over the years.
 

Luke12321

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Way to go MJ!! I can't wait to the same for my parents.
This is kind of what I am feeling right now....

1) No alarm clock
2) No traffic
3) My own hours
4) A comfortable lifestyle (newer car, decent house)
5) Freedom from a boss
6) Make a difference
 
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