When it comes to the lifestyle you want to live, you are heavily influenced by the lifestyles of those around you.
Your upbringing, family, friends, coworkers, and any advertising you are exposed to can heavily influence how simple or extravagant your life is.
The lifestyle you want to choose is your choice, though. I have family and friends who live what I consider very opulent lifestyles, whereas others live simple lives. I know several very wealthy people you would have no idea are wealthy due to their lifestyle, and many high-income earners who seem wealthy but don\’t actually turn that income into wealth. I, personally, prefer to live a much more simple life than many I know. I like to own fewer items, but what I do own, I prefer to be high-quality.
I prefer this because I see the burden of owning a large home, expensive cars, and everything that goes along with the initial purchases for that lifestyle and the ongoing costs to maintain that lifestyle. It\’s easy to look at the payments of a particular purchase instead of the total initial cost, any loss of value due to depreciation, and cost to maintain.
Look At Where You Are
To determine the type of lifestyle you want to live, you first want to look at where you are. What do you own, or what owns you? What do you find a great deal of enjoyment out of, and what has become another thing to maintain? Really think about this one.
I believe there are seemingly small aspects of life that bring a great deal of enjoyment. It\’s essential to see what this is for you. Look at whether more of that thing would be better or whether there will be diminishing returns by having more of those things.
Then look at the aspects of life that you thought would bring enjoyment to you, but don\’t. Doing this may be even more critical, as there might be several things in your life that you thought would add to your quality of life that really didn\’t contribute much.
What Level of Risk Are You Willing To Take?
Beyond looking at what brings you enjoyment right now, think about the level of risk you are willing to take on to change your lifestyle. Certain people are more risk-averse than others.
Like most eccentric entrepreneurs would tell you, do you look for high risk, high reward? Do you look for asymmetrical risk and reward like Ray Dalio and Tony Robbins? Or do you play it safe, minimizing your risk as much as possible?
Take a look at your parameters for your personal finances, as this will help you quickly evaluate options and narrow down what you want to focus on moving forward.
You have the choice to choose your lifestyle and how you want to live. Take cues from those around you, look at what truly brings you the most enjoyment, and then what level of risk you\’re willing to endure to accomplish the life you want to live.
Is the vision for your life living on a ranch year-round in Colorado or being able to be at the beach every day in St. Thomas? Or, like me, is it splitting your time between the climates and regions you enjoy most?
Identify this, and then look at how you are moving toward or away from that goal.
Call To Action
My call to action is to look at the lifestyle you want to live most and determine the next step toward fulfilling that vision for your life.
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