Share Your Number
Calculate Your Number
If you already know your Life's Purpose, this exercise will be a snap ... if not, you'll either have to go back and find Your Life's Purpose (just click on the tab to the left, and in 20 minutes you should have a pretty good idea) or you'll just have to do some guessing.
Either way the exercise is simple; just choose one (or more) of the following methods:
1. Use this table to pick the minimum level that you feel that you NEED:
2. Pick a Lifestyle
Click on each of these three links and use the Lifestyle Costs from each (feel free to mix 'n' match' to come up with your own):
3. Build from scratch
This is really a combination of the above two methods, with a better way of dealing with the individual expenses and the one-off major purchases that you want to make; here are two examples (both of which include the tables that you will need to copy and adapt):
http://7m7y.com/author/ryan/
http://7m7y.com/author/debbie/
Hint: for future expenses, imagine IF you lived that lifestyle today, how much would it cost today? For example, if you are trying to decide how much the 'house of your dreams' will cost, you should be able to use online resources such as Zillow.com to see how much the types of houses in the types of neighborhoods that you want to live in will cost TODAY? Then read on ...
But, we're not quite done yet ...
... you still need to decide your Date: when do you want to reach Your Number? It makes all the difference.
Choose a Date that you want to begin Life After Work - the time when you have the financial freedom to truly begin to live your Life's Purpose. Be aggressive, but be realistic ...
Is it 1 year? Or, can you wait 5 years? 10 years? Longer?
Obviously, the longer you are willing to wait, the easier and more likely it is that you will get there!
A note about inflation:
The later your Date, the less likely it is that the Number that you choose today will be enough, simply because inflation erodes your future spending power: so we need to adjust our Number for Inflation.
It's easy, just use this table to adjust your Number according to how may years from now your chosen Date is:
Acknowledgments:
The Table used in Method 1. was excerpted from 'The Number' by Lee Eisenberg, Free press, 2006.
The $100,000, $250,000, and $550,000 A Year Lifestyles used in Method 2. were adapted from 'Seven Years To Seven Figures' by Michael Masterson, John Wiley and Sons Inc., 2006.
Either way the exercise is simple; just choose one (or more) of the following methods:
1. Use this table to pick the minimum level that you feel that you NEED:
2. Pick a Lifestyle
Click on each of these three links and use the Lifestyle Costs from each (feel free to mix 'n' match' to come up with your own):
- The $100,000 A Year Lifestyle
- The $250,000 A Year Lifestyle
- The $550,000 A Year Lifestyle
Once you have your Lifestyle chosen, you will need to multiply your annual expenses by 20 to come up with your Number.3. Build from scratch
This is really a combination of the above two methods, with a better way of dealing with the individual expenses and the one-off major purchases that you want to make; here are two examples (both of which include the tables that you will need to copy and adapt):
http://7m7y.com/author/ryan/
http://7m7y.com/author/debbie/
Hint: for future expenses, imagine IF you lived that lifestyle today, how much would it cost today? For example, if you are trying to decide how much the 'house of your dreams' will cost, you should be able to use online resources such as Zillow.com to see how much the types of houses in the types of neighborhoods that you want to live in will cost TODAY? Then read on ...
But, we're not quite done yet ...
... you still need to decide your Date: when do you want to reach Your Number? It makes all the difference.
Choose a Date that you want to begin Life After Work - the time when you have the financial freedom to truly begin to live your Life's Purpose. Be aggressive, but be realistic ...
Is it 1 year? Or, can you wait 5 years? 10 years? Longer?
Obviously, the longer you are willing to wait, the easier and more likely it is that you will get there!
A note about inflation:
The later your Date, the less likely it is that the Number that you choose today will be enough, simply because inflation erodes your future spending power: so we need to adjust our Number for Inflation.
It's easy, just use this table to adjust your Number according to how may years from now your chosen Date is:
5 years out, simply add 25% to Your Number.
10 years out, simply add 50% to Your Number.
20 years out, you will need to double Your Number.
This approximates (very roughly) 4% inflation. That's it ... you're done!Acknowledgments:
The Table used in Method 1. was excerpted from 'The Number' by Lee Eisenberg, Free press, 2006.
The $100,000, $250,000, and $550,000 A Year Lifestyles used in Method 2. were adapted from 'Seven Years To Seven Figures' by Michael Masterson, John Wiley and Sons Inc., 2006.
For more real-life examples visit the Share Your Number Community Site here
