@ Mike – Fortunately, we’re talking some ‘hypotherical’ Mike here and not you, as you wouldn’t want your boss to hear that

As to the Rule of 150 – 300 that you are setting yourself; what price ‘guaranteed’ $30k (indexed for inflation) for life?

But, where you live, could you not buy enough real-estate (for cash) to provide $60k – $100k (semi-automatically indexed for inflation) to provide 100% – 150% buffer on top of your required $30k living expenses a LOT cheaper than $10 mill.?

Perhaps, this will allow you to have your early retirement cake and eat it?

I like those odds- 50:50 seems pretty good. By the way, I already run a small / medium sized business in a small country in SE Asia, don’t think I’m on the ‘forced promotion’ curve.

Ill,

I’m not working anywhere close to 70+ hours per week, it’s more like 50 – 60 hours per week, 5 days only. Weekends are spent not working however I’m always thinking about how to improve the business so in that sense I’m never really ‘off’.

I’m pretty small potatoes really. There are about 10+ millionaires around the world so what I’m doing is not that special. Above average, yes but not a superman in any way.

And there is no guarantee I will be doing what I’m doing. I like to experience many things so perhaps don’t have the personality to stay the course and keep climbing the ladder- I like to do it for the fun and experience of it. So maybe another option for me is to lower my number and retire sooner, much sooner as the cost of living here is so ridiculously low, like $30K per year.

Only concern I have is that I would live, on average, another 40 years according to the life expectancy charts and therefore I’d like to get a savings level of about 150 – 300 years of my current annual expenses so I can ride out any inflation or loss of purchasing power events, that’s roughly where my 10 million number came from – the high end of the range.

The story of my path: no secrets. Just try and keep adding value to any company you work for (minimum 10X your salary), focus on quality not quantity with your work hours and have a little luck in your life. I think anyone could do it as I’m not particularly talented or special…. However I’m grateful for the lucky breaks I’ve got in my life.

-Mike

Most high paying jobs like that – bankers, lawyers and other professions, often have a forced promotion curve that ends up with HypeMike “being made partner / VP / Don Corleone” … or not. On average, someone like Mike will have a 50/50 shot at “making it”.

If HypeMike “makes it”, his work life will suck hard, but depending on the job he could make 2-15x of his already very good current salary. Achieving the $10M goal will be quite easy then.

If HypeMike is thrown out the saddle (or decides that working more than 80 hours a week doesn’t allow him to fulfill personal goals), he ends up leaving his current high-paid job and needs to land a job in the real world. Salaries there may match what he makes today, but there is also a good chance that they won’t be as good. Let’s assume he will need to take a 30% salary hair-cut. The $10M goal becomes quite a bit harder to reach.

If it is to be, it is up to me!

That’s what entrepreneurial spirit is, MLM or traditional business, it matters not.

Peace Out

@ Steve – Nicely put; and, they won’t get there unless they do it themselves … that’s why I’m teaching my kids to fish, rather than feeding them [ before you send out Child Services, I'm speaking metaphorically, here ]