Do You Know How Much Your Dream Life Costs?

Figuring out how much your dream life costs is a very important step on the road to success that many entrepreneurs often skip.

On a recent Facebook post, I talked about goal clarity sharing how being precise and being clear is important.

I highly recommend that you take the time to read it.

To Summarize…

A lot of people tend to be pretty generic about their goals. They’ll say things like, “I want to be rich,” or “I want a dream home” without being specific.

For a long time I said, “I want to make a six figure income” and had no clue what that entailed.

A six figure income can be anything from $100,000.00 dollars to $999,999.00 dollars — That is a really big gap.

There’s nothing wrong with big dreams, but in order to achieve those dreams you have to be specific, and you have to be clear about your goals.

Why Specifics?

Because success is created in the actions you take every day. Success is created over time in the actions you take every day.

If you don’t have goal clarity, you’ll end up with results you don’t want, or miss your dreams entirely.

To use a more understandable example:

Without being clear on your goals, it’s like trying to use your GPS without an end destination.

Your GPS can give you directions, but it has to know where you want to go first.

Figuring out how much your dream life costs? That’s important.

So, do you know how much your dream life costs?

Here is a simple exercise you can do right now.

First, put yourself in the mindset that money is no object. Allow yourself to be a position where you can get whatever you want..

Now picture your dream home. How many bedrooms does it have? How many bathrooms? Do you want land? If so, how many acres? Does it have a pool? A basement? What city do you want to live in?

Really sit down and picture what you want for your house.

Then? Go to a site like homes.com or realtor.com and search for your home. How much does it cost? What are the mortgage payments like?

Write it down!

Next? Do the same for your dream car. Is it a truck? Sedan? A sports coupe or luxury car? What color. What features do you want in it?

Got it pictured?

Now go to a site like autotrader.com and search for your car. How much does it cost? How much are the monthly payments?

Yup. Write it down!

Next, do you want to travel? Picture your dream vacation.

Where are you going? Are you flying or going for a road trip? What kind of hotel are you staying in? Or is it a condo?

Are you there for a weekend, a week or longer?

Now, go to a vacation research site like tours.com, or a travel research site like travel.com and find out how much your dream vacation costs.

Are you travelling once per year? Once every 3 or 4 months?

Remember, money is no object.

You guessed it. Write it down!

Having all of those things is great, but what about keeping and maintaining them?

You have to furnish that house. You’ll have utilities to pay. You’ll have to eat.

Speaking of which, how would you eat?

If you were to go grocery shopping right now and be able to buy the healthiest food possible, how much would it cost you?

Next time you go grocery shopping, come up with an estimate and write that down too.

What about your other expenses, like health insurance? Or even entertainment?

Of course, these would be rough estimates of how much you would spend, but with a bit of research, you can get fairly accurate. Write it down!

Now… here’s where the cool part comes in.

Now that you have estimated monthly costs for your house, car, and travel, plus other expenses, add them all together.

Then add 30% of that total.

That’s how much money you need to make every month to live your dream life!

A lot of people think that they’d be okay with an extra $1,000 or $2,000 dollars a month, but in reality, they’ve never stopped and actually figured out how much their dream life will actually cost them.

Goal Clarity

Now that you have a very specific income level to reach, what you want is probably a lot more real to you. Now all you’re missing is goal clarity – figuring out what you are going to do every day to achieve your income goal.

For me, my goal was pretty low.

My highest paying job ever was $78,000 a year, so I knew that if I made that, I’d be happy. Things were pretty good for me when I made that amount of money, so when I set my goal, it was $6,500 a month.

I was sure that if I could find a way to replace my income I would be happy – and then I did that very same exercise I just told you to do and I was shocked!

It turns out that in order to live the life of my dreams, I would have to make $13,130.00 per month. That’s $157,560.00 per year, which meant that my best paying job of $78,000 per year – 40+ hours a week? I would have had to do twice!

80+ hours a week doesn’t sound like something I would want to do for the rest of my life!

How about you?

Multiply your monthly income by 12 to get an annual income amount, then divide it by your current annual income to how how many of your current job you need in order to make the kind of money you need to live the life of your dreams.

A friend of mine realized he needed to work 5 and a half of his jobs in order to live the life of his dreams. Another friend, he had to work his job 9 times!

What about you? How many times would you have to work your job?

The Game Plan

At this point, you ca stop reading. Honestly, you can. However, if you want to learn more about my solution, keep reading.

So you are now clear on your dreams, and you have some goal clarity on where you need to go.

What you’re missing now, is a system to get you there, and a daily action plan with steps you can follow to achieve your goals.

Obviously, for most people, working a job, or a second job, or a part time job will NOT get them to where they want to be.

The only option is to do something different – and the answer is to start a business. Become an entrepreneur.

Don’t freak out!

Thanks to the age we are living in today, working at home and starting a business, even on the side (if you have a full time job, or family responsibilities), has never been easier.

In a recent post, I shared my story of hardships.

From being a full time uncle, losing my business, and hitting rock bottom. Basically starting my life over and having to rely on family to keep the end met.

Everyone’s situation is different. You may not even be facing hard times, but certainly you want more. You want the best life possible for you and your family, and after that exercise, you know EXACTLY how much is costs.

All you need now, is a game plan.

Goal clarity is the ability to set clear goals, so that you can take actionable steps to achieve them.