Welcome to the 110th edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance.  This week’s Carnival of Personal Finance is hosted by yours truly, Fat Pitch Financials. 
Fat Pitch Financials is the personal blog of a value investor with a strong interest in…

I even had a follow-up:

http://gatesvp.blogspot.com/2007/07/multiple-streams-of-income-part-2.html

Suffice to say that I was thinking of much the same thing that you are. What I bore it down to was actually happiness as the fundamental unit of measurement, not money.

When somebody like Luc gives you a reply with a nebulous word like comfortable, he’s giving you a value judgment. He’s actually saying that he doesn’t believe that a bookstore could give him enough money to live the lifestyle he wants to live. You can talk about 100k+ a year, but that doesn’t really matter b/c 100k+ isn’t “comfortable” to some people And whenever they run a survey about “comfortable” living, most people think that “comfortable” is whatever salary is one step higher.

I haven’t read Kiyosaki. But based on your interpretation he has the right idea. Do what makes you happy and make money to do more of the things that make you happy. But fundamentally, and foremost, make active decisions on the lifestyle that you want to live.

You don’t have to pay for a mortgage, you just figured that was the way to go. Add a couple of kids to the mix (more lifestyle decisions) and hey that mortgage is probably not a bad idea compared to renting an untenably small apartment. So after making a bunch of lifestyle decisions (or having them made for you ) you end up with a mortgage that needs monthly attention.

If you look at Julien’s link, check out this line from the top:
This is the one time in your life where you can bet the farm without worrying about the consequences.. That’s only “true” b/c the average person saddles themselves as life progresses. Average person follows the masses, gets a job and a car, gets married, has kids, gets a mortgage and then complains about “being stuck”. Then when they get a pay raise they buy a bigger house, a more expensive car and then continues the cycle.

Most people can’t “bet the farm” at 40 b/c they’ve spent 20 years making decisions that don’t let them do so. They spend 20 years making decisions that limit their options. The financial bloggers who are saving 50% of their incomes are actually doing the opposite. They’re limiting their current lifestyle decisions in an attempt to have more options in 20 years. Of course, then they fall into the trap of spending all of their time making money they never spend, ’cause they don’t have an interest or hobby to spend it own, their hobby is making money.

So if you want to do yourself a favor, don’t take either of these roads. Figure out what you actually want to do with your life and what your partner wants to do with theirs and run the numbers on lifestyle vs. income. Saving 50% of your income is like saying that you only need to work 6 months of the year. So what’s better? Work 12 months and save lots of money, work 6 months and save nothing (but cover all of the bills) or work 9 months, save 25% for the future and then have 3 months every year to do “whatever the heck you want”.

These are the calls you have to make, you can make the house, kids, car, full-time work into retirement decision. But that’s actually the default decision. That’s what everybody “just does”. So it’s probably worthwhile to investigate other “lifestyle” decisions and find one that actually works for you.

Hi Luc,
I believe you can make money from anything you like. I actually know somebody who was making 100K + a year with a magazine store. You never know!
Cheers,
FB.

Read this article.

http://www.gobignetwork.com/wil/2007/6/13/start-a-company-when-you-are-young/10166/view.aspx