What is your number?
As a project manager, my working days consist of creating and managing complex project plans for others, but sometimes I fail to apply the same skill and professionalism to my own life.
After reading this post by @ forexbrokr, I realized I didn't have an actual number. Sure, I contemplated this idea before and had a rough idea of what that number would be, but it never felt like a goal to pursue, so I decided to change that.
Setting my number
I don't need much. I've been living a frugal life for many years now, and I'm happy with it. I really only have a couple of goals, financially speaking:
- Living comfortably with some spare money to spend on unnecessary stuff now and then
- Being able to provide for my family if they are ever in need
That's it. Other than paying my bills and food, I'd like to be able to travel every once in a while and maybe buy a new guitar every five years or so. My family is not really big, and they are doing well for themselves, but I want to rest assured that if they ever get in financial trouble (as it happened before), I can jump in and save the day.
Those things considered and factoring in exchange rates and token prices; I designed the following three scenarios of how much I would need per year to fulfill the two goals above:
- Pessimistic scenario: $120,000.00/year
- Realistic scenario: $84,000.00/year
- Optimistic scenario: $52,500.00/year
Now, I'll use a technique in Project Management called PERT 3-Points Estimating. This is commonly used in projects to estimate activity duration or cost. It's a straightforward formula:
O being the optimistic estimate, M the realistic (or most likely) estimate and P the pessimistic estimate.
That gives us $84,740.00, which I'll round to a nice $85,000.00
So that's my number. I need to be able to generate $85,000.00 per year to live the life I want on my terms.
Getting there
There are tenths, if not hundreds, of different project management methodologies and frameworks out there, but at the end of the day, you can divide them into two big groups: waterfall or agile. I don't want to turn this article into an essay on project management, so it's enough to say that agile is usually the preferred approach when the level of uncertainty is high and since I believe that is the case when it comes to financial planning, especially on crypto, I'll definitely take the agile route here.
That means I won't (and actually can't) plan my every step from now up to the point where I'm earning those $85K. Instead, I'll plan for a much shorter horizon and adapt accordingly.
The first goal I'm setting for myself is going to be earning the equivalent of minimum wage in my country from my activities on Hive. This is not a very significant milestone in the big picture, as it is pretty far from my final goal and I can't do much with minimum wage considering my current lifestyle but it's still a nice first step.
After that, my next goal will be to earn enough to cover my basic expenses which, while still far from my objective, is a much more significant milestone as it already gives me some financial security.
I know that $85,000.00 is quite a large figure, and I'm fully aware that getting there is going to be very challenging, especially considering that, right now, I only have a tiny fraction of what I need saved up in FIAT and something around 2k Hive and 2k LEO between my two accounts but, on the other hand, considering that I started on Hive just a bit over a year ago and I had nothing then, things don't look so bad.
It's still a long way, and as I said before, the path is full of uncertainty, but I learned firsthand how far consistency and effort could take me here on Hive, and because of that, I'm much more motivated than I am intimidated.
Final thoughts
Having a goal is essential, even if you don't have all the answers to figure out how to get there. Just keep your eyes on the prize, plan for a shorter horizon and, most importantly, show up and do the work every day. This does not guarantee that you will reach your goal eventually, but it sure will put you closer to it than where you are now, so, to me, it's a no-brainer.