Hey There,

Here am I am writing again for you – proud that I have finally started this blogging adventure (see my first post!).  

I think one of the biggest fears of someone that is trying to escape the corporate life is: how I am going to make money and pay my bills?

At least, it is happening to me… I’ve always been very planned person from a financial perspective. Not seeing or understanding where my income will come from makes me a little bit nervous…

I wish I could have more courage and just blow everything up right now! Start working on my new ventures today would be a dream, but things are not always the way we want!

I like taking risks, but I am a master on trying to mitigate them…. This means that everything for me needs to be planned, assessed, and tested from different perspectives.

This is good and bad:  I tend to have a higher success percentage in my ventures (good), but, sometimes, I feel that I spend too much time analyzing something, rather than acting on it (bad)…

Well, this planning trace in my personality made me always look ahead.

Ten years ago, when I started in my first job, I was already thinking – what if I don’t like what I am doing? What if I have to say “no” to something that I don’t agree at work? How am I going to survive?

Because of these questions, I started to plan my financial independence when I had my first salary as a graduate – I set a rule for myself – my cost of living cannot overcome 50% of my income – that is right!

As a freshman out from University, you can imagine how hard it was at the beginning – When I first left my mom’s place and moved by myself to another city my home was like this: 

Not a lot of furniture or luxury life, but a lot of dreams and planning!

With the money that I saved from my graduate time, I first created a buffer and then started to invest in stocks, bonds, and real estate market (via stock market as well).

After the first year, I started to have my first passive income – dividends! And after this day, the passive-income bug has hit me.

Passive Income

Do you know what is passive income?

Investopedia defines passive income as “earnings derived from a rental property, limited partnership, or other enterprise in which a person is not actively involved” – To simplify, money that you make without much effort (that is brilliant!).

There are several ways to create passive income today and here are ideas for you:

a) Investment in Stock Market

b) Investment in Bonds

c) Investment in Real Estate

d) Holding an Intellectual Property and receiving royalties from it (i.e. write a famous music and license the rights to someone!)

e) Internet (There are so many options over here that it is a little bit overwhelming – i.e. Start your YouTube channel, Instagram, e-commerce, and it goes on…)

f) many others

Unfortunately, I was not blessed with artistic skills, so option d) is out of my league! 

I’ve been focusing on options a), b) and c) and my investments have been going well so far- Project Exit 1095 is partially funded by this income.

To be honest, there is no secret in the stock market – you just need to find good companies, assess their balance sheets and financial reports, and buy them at a good price and wait – that is where most people fail (waiting is not for all…).

After this, you just need to let the compounding interest magic happens!

Actually, the compounding interest trick is not magic – it is a real thing indeed. Imagine the following scenario then:

• You earn $100,000.00 per year
• Your cost of living is $50,000.00 pear year
• You save $50,000.00 per year ($100,000 – $50,000) and invest theses savings at a rate of 6% per year.

If you keep doing this for approximately 12 years, the monthly passive income generated from your savings will cover your cost of living and you can retire (see below – read my article about Financial Independence and Retire Early)!

Amazing, isn’t it?

Obviously, your income and cost of living will change throughout the years, but if you stick to the general principle of spending 50% of what you earn, you will arrive there.

If you are in the corporate life, you will probably climb up the ladders and increase your income, which is great.

The secret is: control your costs. I am not saying that you shouldn’t buy anything and live a 0-consumerism life.

Just before buying anything – question yourself: Do I really need this? Will I really use it? Is it really essential? These questions helped me a lot.

Numbers don’t lie. If you keep consistency and have patience, you will arrive there (I am almost there!)

What happens when you reach financial independence?

You are probably fantasizing about having all the days to do what you want. Knowing myself, the last thing that I want to do is retiring.

I just want to work for myself in things that makes sense for me and that I am passionate about – and not being stuck in useless meetings and dealing with corporate politics.

My plan now is starting to explore option e) – I am fascinated with the power of internet and I want to run my online business asap!

I am writing a new article to discuss it with you, and it will come out soon….

Well, I hope you enjoyed this post – your feedback is much appreciated (feel free to suggest me a topic).

Let’s keep in touch!