Debbie's Version of Lee's List


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Debbie’s Version of Lee’s List

Debbie walks that fine line between describing her Lee’s List in terms that are concrete yet not too superficial – at least it seems that way to me … feel free to cross-reference to her Rear Deck Speech to see if she is indeed supporting her Life’s Purpose. We all need all the help that we can.

And remember, even if you are NOT one of the 7MITs your opinion is as valued as anybody else’s AND we would even appreciate anybody who is brave enough to share their Lee’s Lists 🙂

This is what I’ve come up with.  I’m not exactly clear I’ve done this correctly, but I have tried to give what I would need at a minimum to fulfill my Life’s Purpose… and tried to give it a dollar amount as well.

I think I would need:

1. Time with Family/Friends tops my list for being most important (time when I’m not also trying to work that is!) So this requires replacing my active income with passive income (and increasing total income to account for required lifestyle updates!) $120,000 per year.  (Replacing active income with passive also affords the time to try new ventures and experiences that I would not otherwise be able to do b/c all of that time is spent working to earn a living…)

2. Ability to travel with family 4 “big” trips (both domestic and international) per year.  This would, at least for the next  10 years or so, probably include bringing my parents along and/or a nanny to give adults some vacation time as well!  I once traveled from NY to Sydney, Australia in coach class seats and vowed never to do it again- so I’m looking at business class at a minimum, and nicer hotels than I’ve experienced so far!  Estimating $20,000 per trip, or $80,000 per year.

3.  Start-up Moolah!  I am full of ideas for businesses and inventions, for ways to help others see their own businesses and inventions become reality, as well as various marketing techniques that could result in huge returns but that require money up front to make them happen.  Gotta spend money to make money, so I would say I’d allocate a good $1 million here – but fully expect this “category” of my lifestyle to be self sustaining in time (businesses and inventions would begin earning money and replacing the money I’ve spent, and earning more than what I spend)

4. Some time for me.   Granted, I’ve pretty much accounted for the cost of this time in my first list item (having passive income supporting me, enabling me not to trade hours for dollars to earn a living) but it’s so important to me to have this time that I’m including it here anyway!  Instead of writing for everyone else, I could write about things I want to write about for a change.  I could think about all the start up businesses and inventions and marketing ideas I want to try out.  I could read books for fun rather than just research/work purposes.  I could have time to hear myself think, and in return- become a better mom, daughter, and friend-  with more energy to devote to the kids since I’m allowing myself some time, as well.

The above 4 items cover my People & Passions.  What about possessions?  I discovered during this exercise that I’m not as focused or motivated by the possessions as I am the people and passions that are important to me.  That being said, a dream house is one of the few “possessions” I certainly would want, so I’ll just include that here as well to finish out my list:

5.  There is a house on the corner of a quiet area in my town that everytime I drive by it, I say “I want that house.”  So much so, that my 5 year old will now beat me to it and say “Mommy wants that house.” as we approach it.   I would just like to relocate that house to waterfront property, so that it is a lot like being on vacation all the time! This photo is much more extreme than what I’m really looking for, but it sure does paint a pretty picture, doesn’t it??

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Reader Comments

@Debbie – that’s a nice house! I want it too! That reminds me of a quote from Robert Kiyosaki. Instead of saying, “I can’t afford it.”; try “How can I afford it?”. It will program your mind differently. I think choosing a more positive language can help.

@ Mark – I agree with the “How Can I” approach. All too often we operate in a defeated mode keeping us from ever moving forward.

This seems interesting is that a lot of folks aren’t willing to go the “extra mile” for what they really want.

@ AJC – I assume that there will be a lot of “extra miles” ahead of us all.

By the way my son asked the following “extra mile” question”

Question:

How has going the extra mile given you a leg up on the competition? He goes on to say “I am anxious to hear”.

If you want to read the rest of his comments on the extra mile check out our Father and Son Blog at: http://fatherandsonmastermind.wordpress.com

@ Debbie – Here’s one for you, Why would you want “that house” when you can have a better one?

@ Debbie – Great insight about the ‘possessions v People’ thing; if this is the type of breakthrough that at least some of our readers get, the whole exercise will have been worth it …

… even though, y’all ain’t seen nuttin’ yet!

BTW: You’ll be struggling to get Business Class seats ‘down under’ for 2 for less than $25,000 (QANTAS will charge nearly $20k EACH)

Also, you bring up a great subject: houses. My only advice to ALL of our readers (from personal experience, here) … look for the UTILITY in a house first (what features do you NEED IN/NEAR the house? Pool? Rooms? Transport? Golf Courses? Ocean” etc.) then try and Zillow the areas/houses that seem to fit the list … THAT’S the cost that you should use.

@ Mark – People like to malign RK but he has told me a number of useful things … even if it’s only the two or three things that I can remember right now, it’s worth the $100 or so that I’ve spent on all his books:

1. “An Asset is something that puts money IN your pocket; a liability takes it OUT” – VERY POWERFUL CONCEPT

2. ‘Don’t buy a Ferrari; instead buy a low-maintenance business (e.g. self-storage) and have that PAY for your Ferrari’ – a brilliant way to turn a depreciating liability, into an appreciating asset.

3. The ‘cash flow quadrant’ diagram – STUDY IT; UNDERSTAND IT!

@ Lee – Great post by Matthew; you comment over there won’t be lonely anymore 🙂

@ AJC – I figure with all the new traveling I’ll be doing, I can buy regular seats down under and use frequent flier miles to upgrade to business class! But this is true – I remember asking United when booking my flights last year for the heck of it and was shocked to find out business class was $22,000 each that day.

@ Debbie – Just remember to be very flexible if you’re going to rely on those frequent flyer points – a great idea though it may be. I’ve got the 4 of us going ‘downunder’ (adults fly Business; kids fly Coach) down to a ‘mere’ $25k for the 4 of us on Air New Zealand.

Debbie, If you’re flying to all those places with better hotels, they usually have a babysitting service for the adults to attend other things. I’ve also found that regular yoga helps the coach seats be more comfortable, plus you can always get up in the aisle and walk around and be sociable.

I’m not sure I see your purpose in there either (to Adrian’s comment and my own list earlier) – what is different from what you are envisioning from being a rich stay-at-home mom (tho not necessarily “staying” at home, of course). Perhaps a little bit more about your ideas on financing all those ideas you mentioned? Is this a real driving force for you? Or is the free time more of a driving force? Either could be enough; only need to decide how much work you’re willing to put into making THAT happen. Is it do or die for you?

@ Diane – Great questions! Debbie?

@Diane & AJC – I have a lot of ideas, it’s part of my problem. I have no time to focus on them and see them become a reality because I’m working just to pay the bills/living expenses I currently have. Many of my ideas are businesses/programs and such that will enable OTHER people to increase their income, and that is very important to me and I see that as my ‘giving back’.

The free time – time when I’m not tied down to working just to pay the bills – is extremely motivating because “free time” for me is time with family and friends. I don’t have a lot of that now, despite being a work-at-home mom. We’re around each other a lot, but it’s not quality time. Huge driving force for me, absolutely.

As Scott mentioned in another comment – I think everything we’re including here is wants. We could all survive with just a shed, some heat when it’s cold, food, clothing and a little love. But we’re here in this experiment because we all want more than basic survival and have bigger plans for our lives and the lives of those we touch.

And I think that WHAT we want more of is all for our personal reasons, what we see as our life’s purpose, but that the wants are so great they have almost become needs for us. I may not see your list as being necessities, you may not see mine as being necessities – but to each of us individually, we have very specific reasons for wanting/needing what we’ve included in our lists.

@ Debbie – Absolutely, your Lee’s List items are your MUST HAVES in ORDER to live your Life’s Purpose: time, money, people, things.

We will ADD to the list in order to finally get to your Number, but never TAKE AWAY … these are the non-negotiables FOR YOU.

And, yes, it means a hill of beans whether you list means anything to anybody else … but, it HAS to be critical to you – no IF’s, no BUT’s, no compromises!

Now, as to Time and Money to get there: we’ll get to that soon enough 🙂