Jul 10
7
Living Life on My Terms
Creating the life you want for yourself and your family is probably the single biggest reason so many people get into real estate investing. It’s all about freedom. The freedom to head on over to your niece’s five year old birthday party at 2pm on a Wednesday afternoon (which is where I am heading as soon as I post this sucker!), or the freedom to take a long weekend EVERY weekend. 
It took Dave and I nearly 8 years to leave our work once we set down this path but for some the time between the decision to pursue freedom and the leap into freedom is much shorter. It just takes some focus, determination and a giant reason WHY you want the life you’re trying to create. And that is why I am so excited to share this guest post from my friend, fellow blogger and source of inspiration Shae Bynes. This is her story of what led up to her leaving her job last month. Enjoy!! And be sure to visit her blog over at GoodFaithInvesting.com for great deal updates, book reviews, tips, pointers and a cheerful community of commenting readers.
Living Life On My Terms
by Shae Bynes
On April 26, 2010, I gave a 30-day notice to my manager informing him that I was leaving the company to be a full time entrepreneur. Memorial Day was my official last day after nearly an 11 year career at the company I worked for since I finished college. I had dreamed about that day for years because I’ve known for quite some time that the only way I was going to live the life of my dreams was to have freedom and more control over my time.
When Julie asked me to share my story I was honored but I also wasn’t sure what I should share because I wanted to ensure that the story was meaningful — not for me but for anyone who read it. Over the past couple of months many people have asked me how I made the decision to leave and what preparations I made in order to make the decision possible, so I thought I’d share more about that and hope that you find it be helpful.
So how did all of this start?
It started with a decision.
A decision I made years ago to figure out what God wanted me to do with this short life on Earth that I’ve been blessed with. I’m a 33 year old happily married mother of 2 young girls and I’m wildly passionate about life and making a difference in any way that I can. While I still don’t have a full picture of what I’m supposed to accomplish, I’m gaining clarity for both the vision and the path each time I take bold steps forward in the right direction. One of my favorite personal mantras comes from real estate artist and investor Frank McKinney and it simply is “Forward relentless motion” and that’s what I’m focused on.
In January of 2009, I decided that it was time to get serious about leaving my corporate gig so I spent a few days focused on designing the life that I wanted and writing it down. I wrote it out in a couple of paragraphs and everything was written in the present tense as if I was living it right now. I did this exercise by myself and then my husband and I created one together. Money is the key tool to help you do and have what you desire, so my next step was to put a price tag (and a timeline) on everything. I counted up the costs so that we could say with reasonable certainty how much we needed to generate in passive/residual and active income on a monthly basis (and by when) to live the life we designed for ourselves.
Part of the aggressive financial plan we put together was to grow a healthy emergency fund so that our monthly expenses would be covered for several months after I left my job while we substantially increased our net monthly cashflow from our businesses. We had already paid off all of our debts other than our mortgage in 2008, so fortunately we were able to really focus on the emergency fund and investing in our businesses. I really can’t stress enough how important it is to have a handle on your personal finances. You need to know what’s coming in, what you’re spending, and where there may be leaks (i.e. money being spent wastefully that could be used to invest in your business, reduce debt, and/or save in an emergency fund).
Anyway, at the top of that plan was a goal that stated “Leave IBM for full time entrepreneurship by June 2010.” With a plan in place, we got busy and stayed faithful and focused on 30, 60, and 90 day action plans that would making leaving my job in June 2010 a no-brainer. We made progress for sure! We had some successfully completed real estate transactions and we grew our enriched healthy coffee and tea business consistently each month for six months, but guess what?
The plan was to have at least 50% of my net monthly salary from my corporate job coming in as mostly passive cash-flow from our businesses before I’d leave. Made progress, but didn’t hit that goal.
The plan was also to have a full 12-18 months of expenses in an emergency fund before I’d leave. Progress? Yes, absolutely! Goal achieved? Not quite.
I can go on here because the goals were rather aggressive, but you get the point. The June 2010 date was getting closer, but I was nervous about the fact that we had not achieved all the goals, particularly the financial ones that I felt I needed in order to free myself from the job that was paying me a comfortable nearly 6-figure salary with awesome health benefits. I wanted my decision to depart to be a no-brainer!! My husband was still very supportive of my departure regardless, but I was still a bit unsettled about it and spent most of the month of March praying every single morning about whether it was time to take that leap of faith or whether I should wait until that entire list was completed.
Something really clicked in April. I started to ask myself “What’s the absolute worst that can happen if I leave right now?” and then I’d ask “What’s the absolute best thing that can happen as a result of leaving right now?” and eventually the nerves were gone and there was nothing left but excitement and confidence about taking that step out on faith.
I chose to stop playing it safe and chose a path to an extraordinary life instead.
The next day I met with my manager and gave my 30-day notice. I haven’t looked back since and the momentum we built during those several months while I was working in my 9-to-5 is really paying off.
To put it simply….choosing to live life on my terms was one of the best decisions I ever made.
**Tip** If you’re looking for excellent books to get your wheels turning on how to do goal and life planning, my two personal favorites are “The Power of Focus” by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, & Les Hewitt and “Visioneering” by Andy Stanley. My favorite practical and no-nonsense guide on personal finances and debt freedom is Dave Ramsey’s “Total Money Makeover.” As an entrepreneur and/or real estate investor, you’ll likely modify your total money makeover plan from the one described in the book particularly in the later stages of the plan, but its a solid plan to start with!
Shae Bynes is a real estate investor in Sunny South Florida. On her blog, GoodFaithInvesting.com, she provides helpful tips and an inside look at her real estate investing adventures — obstacles & successes!
