30 years old now.
Spent age 22 - 28 developing a business. That was a terrible time in my life, honestly. Living with my parents. Barely much of a social life :( Fast forward to today, I have a decent income that varies between 90 - 115k + a year, working very much part time. Income comes in bursts of 5-10k a week when things are hopping, followed by weeks of stagnation and boredom when there's nothing going on. For the first four or five years, I scraped by on probably 20k a year. Driving old beat up cars, living on peanuts, all while pouring tons and tons of cash into my business. Around 175K over four years or so, to get things up and running. Now, things are pretty stable. I work 5 or 10 days a month. Bring in around 10k a month. Virtually no business expenses. No employees. Very little overhead in general. I know lots of people earn more, but my income level feels sufficient and is generally in line with the life I had hoped to achieve.
In the past 2 years, I managed to save up about 110k without even realizing it. Decided to move out of parents house. Bought a house for 140k in December. A nice, energy efficient 2003 partial brick ranch home, 1800+ sq ft. Financed part of it. Spent 7.5K on furniture. Nice memory foam bed. Pottery Barn knock off tables and chairs. It's tasteful. Still have a mortgage. It is 50K at a fairly low interest rate. My risk aversion told me to get a 30 year loan, just in case my income drops and I can't pay it off quickly. But, I am planning to have it paid off in another year or so, assuming business continues at a steady pace.
My only major "investment" is actually in my business. Spent 175K building the darn thing, and as far as I am concerned, it pays me a 50% return on my investment every year. So, that's why I am paying the house off rather than "investing" it in rental real estate or bonds or whatever. The business is fairly risky and so I am interested in owning the house outright to feel more secure.
The question is, is this all there is to life? Buying stuff, eating, sleeping, etc. It seems to me that building my business and having long term goals such as home ownership drove me for so many years. And, now, I'm sitting here with a profound sense of ennui. I'm somewhat stuck financially, in that I owe house payments for another year or so. So I can't really grow and develop in any way or invest in P2P loans or anything else until the house is paid off. Even though some people like having house debt, it just feels like a noose around my neck that I am anxious to get rid of! It's stifling my ability to grow and develop more!
But, I am really feeling a sense of stagnation. What do you mustachian's do to keep motivated and excited about life? On my path now, financial independence is probably only 800K away, more or less 10 years away. So... when I'm 40, what on earth will I do with the rest of my life? I literally have no idea. Having had 250 days of vacation a year for the past decade, I feel like I have been semi retired my whole life. I just don't know what to do with the time, hence the profound ennui. Thoughts to improve my well being??
