How Much Income is Your Goal?

[EelKat]

Originally Posted by James Grey

Just wondering what sort of lifestyle the 4HWW folks here are shooting for…

1. Low Range
Staying at guesthouses, eating at street vendors and maybe bringing in around a grand a month from websites or something, ect...

This is my end goal lifestyle, actually. Why? Because I LIKE this lifestyle. I like living in a motorhome and living in campgrounds. I like eating at small food vendors and talking with the seller and his other customers. And I live this lifestyle on my current income: $150 - $200 a month, via my online business. More money in my pocket is not going to change my lifestyle.

Originally Posted by James Grey

2. Middle Class
Travel without having to “slum” it too much, have some cash in savings, travel a few times a year, make a few grand a month from your websites or consulting, maybe live overseas and have an ok used car, ect...

Getting to this point would make things easier. Less RV Boondocking, and more RV Park hookups (which cost $25 - $60 per day). I already have one okay used car (a 30 year old Volvo) and one not running "used to be new" car (1964 Dodge). Increasing my income from the current $200 per month to $2,000 per month, would allow me to park my RV with full hook ups, and work on restoring both of my cars. Build a Cat House to take in feral cats (a business I had years ago, but lost to a fire). But I would continue living in campgrounds and eating at vendors, as mentioned above.

Originally Posted by James Grey

3. Upper-middle Class
Have a house or condo overseas, travel when you want to, descent amount of spare cash, eat out allot, hang out in cars/clubs on the weekend, new car, your own successful business, invest in a few interesting things, ect..

I already travel when I want to and eat out a lot on my $200 per month income, why wait for money to do what I can do without money already? With $5,000 a month I would get to work on restoring my 2 cars faster, restore and remodel my 40 year old RV, spend more time at fairs and festivals, take my boyfriend and 3 brothers out for pizza a few times a week, and maybe get yet another old junk car to restore (I like restoring cars.)

Originally Posted by James Grey

4. Rock Star Style
Have one or two houses overseas, six-figures in the bank, fly 1st class, stay in the nicest hotels, eat at the Ritz Carlton four nights a week, have a corporation that you pay other people to run wile you make more deals, people come to you for investments, hang out in the VIP sections of clubs around the world drinking Cristal champagne with models, ect..


~

With a $10,000 a month income I'd buy land to start my own RV Park, let homeless boondocking RVers park there for $50 a week (instead of the $50 a night other places are charging) buy a couple of 1970s RVs to restore, get a few more old cars to restore including a 1973 Stingray. Continue to do the things mentioned above.

At no point do my plans involve buying a house, first, second or otherwise. Been there, done that. Lost everything to a flood. Rebuilt and lost everything to a fire 6 months later. Spent 5 years homeless, living in a tent, than a car, than a motorhome, and discovered the freedom that comes with living without a house, living in campgrounds all year long, and being close to nature, all the while with the goal of getting back into a house, but than I got back into a house and HATED it. I felt trapped, caged, imprisioned...stunned, shocked, I couldn't believe how much I had changed in those 5 short years. 6 years ago I NEVER would have considered living in a motorhome, now today I can't think of a better way to live. This really, stunned me! But there it is. That's what happened.

So, my goal is, yeah, make more money so I can do more things hobby wise, but overall, continue the lifestyle I've got right now, as it's the lifestyle I want and more or less money isn't going to change the fact that I like the way I'm living right now.

On that note, I'll add that I used to have a house, lots of land, and a pretty high end above average lifestyle. I wasn't "rich" but I was "rich enough" to not worry about money. That was before the flood. That was before I became homeless and had to live on the streets with nothing at all. Now I'm rebuilding my life and "starting over". Originally my goal, as I mentioned was to get back into a house, get back into having plenty of money, get back into the whole lifestyle I used to have. But as mentioned before, I changed over the years, and when I finally got back to the way things were, I realized, I really wasn't happy with the life I had back than. I'm much happier today with less. And so, my goals changed.

I am debt free. So no worries about things I have to pay off, so no worries about making enough money to "cover debts".

At this exact moment, me and my 12 cats are surviving on $2,000 PER YEAR. (approximately $150 per month). (Yes, 12 cats, the last of the over 500 I had before - remember - I said I owned an animal shelter at the time of the flood?). Surviving is the key word. Surviving is not thriving. Surviving is staying alive until something better comes along. I have Autism and thus am NOT ELIGIBLE for disability OR health/medical insurance, nor am I allowed to work (business will not hire Autistic folks like me...400+ job applications/interviews in 5 years and I'm still unemployed. *frustrating*). For the moment my income comes from sales of my art on Zazzle.com, and it's enough to keep us going, but not quite enough to keep us going well.


Anyways I figured it up and for myself and the 12 cats to live comfortably, I need an income of $500 per month ($6,000 PER YEAR). If it were just me and not the cats, $200 a month ($2,400 PER YEAR) would be MORE than plenty. (Cat food is astronomically high priced. You don't notice it with 1 cat, but what you would buy for 1 cat per year, I buy for 12 cats, meaning I pay the average cat owners YEARLY cat food bill EVERY MONTH!)

These figures are taking into consideration that I own my own land and that I'm a fulltimer (I live in a motorhome & tent, NOT in a house, seeing how the flood took the house), because my house left in a flood, not because I had any plans to travel. I am pretty much parked for a lifetime, so not much wear and tear on the RV. So these figures also neglect to include such things as campground rent or gas in the motorhome, as a tank of gas pretty much lasts me the whole year. Please keep these things in mind when looking at the fact I am living on such a very low income - my expenses are very low, basically with me only buying my food and cat food, and paying property taxes and registering the vehicles, and pretty much nothing else.


(continued to next post...ran out of room!)

[EelKat]

(continued from last post...I ran out of room and had to start new post for rest!)


Now I hear people asking all the time, one loses their job and they worry they'll not survive and they ask can 2 people live on $1,500 a month? Well, this 1 person lives on that a year, so, yeah, you can but ONLY if your expenses are low. I once talked to a guy who lives in a van and survives on $500 a year. I don't know how he does it, but he does. I think it's all about personal choices, budget management, and lifestyle. Every person is different. I look at that guy and think there is no way I could live on $500 a year, but than I know a lot of people look at me and say they could not survive on my $2,000 a year. It's all about how you live your life, what you spend money on, and how much you "NEED" to get by. With their $1,500 a month (a whopping, gigantically huge amount an almost unimaginably high figure of $18,000 a year) I could live like a king. But for most people that is a low income, because most people have HUGE expences and me, well, I didn't spend money even back when I did have a lot of it, so now that I don't have any to spend, it's not really a big deal for me. So you really have to look at what you spend money on, what you will be spending money on after RVing, and what sort of lifestyle you plan to maintain. Everyone has different needs and different ideas about what they need to survive, so everyone is going to have a different answer.

I've had people say they wanted to learn to live like me - living like a normal middle class person, and doing it in an RV, but they want to do it on their $1,500 a month income.

My advice: write a list of everything you spend money on RIGHT NOW.

Make a second list of everything you THINK you will spend money on while in the RV.

Compare those lists. For each item, ask yourself: Do I REALLY NEED this or do I simply WANT this?

Take all the items you NEED and put them on a third list. (Food, water, gas, medications, toothpaste, deodorant, soap, and almost NOTHING else, will be on this list.)

Take all the items you WANT and put them on a fourth list. (Hair salon, makeup, movies, snacks, hobbies, recreation, etc, will be on this list)

Make a list of POSSIBLE EMERGENCY expenses: accidents, medical, auto, break downs, blow outs, etc.

Tally your totals from lists #3, 4, & 5. Add all three totals together. Do they total $1,500 or less? If so, than you'll be all set on $1,500 per month. If they total more than $1,500, head to the WANT list and start crossing off non-essentials, until your total is under $1,500. If you cross off everything on the want list, you CAN move on to the EMERGENCY list and start crossing things off, but this is not recommended.

If you have to start crossing things off the NEED list, than something is VERY wrong...there should be nothing but the barest essentials on this list: food, water, gas, medication. If there is more than this on your need list, you need to rethink the RV lifestyle. Why? because it's a minimalist lifestyle. Even with the highest income and the biggest rig, you still are living in a very small space and can not afford to keep buying things, otherwise you'll have no room to live in your RV!

But anyways, if you plan ahead and budget your spending, yeah, I think you 2 should do fine with $1,500 per month, esp if you plan to do a lot of boondocking. Boondocking cuts costs down A LOT!

I am a full time boondocker. I live 100% without hookups, full time. And I do it in a place that sees -48F winters and snow 7 months of the year. No hook ups means no untilies. No electricity. No running water. No toilet. I have yet to park in a campground (partly due to money constraints and partly due to I have 12 cats and few campgrounds allow more than 4 pets, nearly all have "quantity limits". Even ones without limits, balk at 12 cats. My parking spaces thus far have consisted of: land I own, land owned by relatives, rest stops, and WalMart. For the most part stay on the land where my house once sat, and don't move the RV at all. My toad is a 1992 Volvo 240GL, as a general rule, when I travel I leave the RV parked and travel in the Volvo.

Having no electric hookups, (not even solar) I either eat no-cook foods (sandwiches, fresh fruit/veggies, etc), eat out (SubWay, pizza shops, cafes, etc), cook outside over a fire pit, or I drive the Volvo to a relative's house and cook dinner there. (And because I walk to most places and eat less processed food, I also lost 80lbs, kept it off and and fit and trim and very healthy, without doing any exercising or calorie counting - big bonus there!) I get my internet from libraries or take my computer to a relative's house. I have no need for lights as I get up with the sunrise and go to bed with the sunset. What rare light I need a flashlight is plenty for.

Having no water hook-ups, I bath in the ocean, fully clothes, without soap/etc, using the mineral rich sand to wash my skin and hair. I live on the beach, obviously. I drink bottled water now, after a misshapes (major medical crisis) caused by drinking natural brook water.

Having no sewer hook ups, I know where every public toilet is and am walking distance to a dozen or so. And use trees and "cat holes" at night when businesses are closed.

Neighbors? There is a house to either side of me, and a 400 lot RV resort behind me, a 725 lot campground on the other side of one neighbor and a 200 lot "hideaway" park on the other side of my other neighbor. So yeah, I've got a lot of neighbors, most of them speaking only French and me speaking only English (I'm just south of Quebec). On my list if things to do: learn French so I can talk to the neighbors. The local WalMart has 10, 20, 30 or more RVs out there every night. So yeah, it depends on where you are parked. You could have tons of neighbors, a few neighbors, or really be way out in the boonies with no neighbors at all!

Most of the year, I live outside in a tent. On clear warm nights, I don't even use that, sleeping instead in a sleeping bag under the stars. I'm a person very much at one with nature and being indoors doesn't sit well with me. I basically am only in the RV if it's raining or if there is snow on the ground.

Now granted I am a bit more extreme than the average person. I'm fully content to life a fully "off the grid" living off the land lifestyle, but most people are not as in touch with their feral wild child as I am, so most people are going to want more "luxuries" than I afford myself. It's all about choice. You can boondock a little or boondock a lot. You can boondock full time or part time, with no hookups at all, or with semi-hookups such as solar panels and composting toilets. It just depends on how much you want, how much you need, and how comfortable you want to be.

A thing to keep in mind: the more wild and less comforts there are in you boondocking - the harder you are going to have to work physical labor to maintain your boondocking. I haul water in 5-gallon pails from a near by brook (on my land). I have a garden and fruit trees on my land, but I till the 1/8 acre of soil with a shovel, not a garden tiller! I chop wood and haul kindling (no gas or charcoal grilling for mee!) I like the hard labor of working and living off the land. But most people would rather not have to live the way I do. The more comforts you have, the less hard manual labor you are going to have to do. How much boondocking is too much boondocking? Only you can answer that, as every person has different ideas about what they want and how they choose to boondock. There's a BIG difference between boondocking on your own land with no hook-ups at all, to boondocking at WalMart with self contained "hook ups", to boondocking at a small campground with "semi-hook-ups" to boondocking miles from nowhere in the middle of a dense forest all by yourself, just you and the bears. You just have to look at all your options and decide what is right for you.

But yeah, so you see, my goals, money wise are to increase my income to $500 a month. I know that sounds low to you guys with your $5,000 a month or more dreams, but $500 will MORE than cover my expenses and leave me with plenty left over for frivolities.

Actually, long term, my goal is $1,000 a month, but at the moment, my mini-goal is $500 a month - going in steps here. I set that $1,000 a month goal back in 2007. Well, as you can see, I have not yet achieved my goal of $1,000 per month, than again, I do not do as much promotion or work on my website as I probably should be doing either. At the moment my income varies from $90 - $200 a month. *sigh* I have no one to blame for that but myself either, though, because I've been a bit lazy about actual promotion and marketing. I keep putting stuff off and saying "I'll do it tomorrow" YIKES! I think though, that if I got with the program and started massively promoting and marketing that my online business would do much more in sales and yeah, I can see my $200 a month jumping to at least $5,000 a month if I just put a little more effort into it. I think in my case, the problem is lack of motivation. I'm not really that motivated to get money. The $200 a month income I'm living on now pays for my needs and expenses and I don't buy anything so I'm not motivated to TRY to increase my income seeing how I don't NEED to increase my income.

[Dixon]

Originally Posted by James Grey

Just wondering what sort of lifestyle the 4HWW folks here are shooting for…

1. Low Range
Staying at guesthouses, eating at street vendors and maybe bringing in around a grand a month from websites or something, ect...

This is my goal, about $1000 per month. However, I don't consider it low range and will not be living in guesthouses. I'll probably be living on the tenth story of a new apartment building with a pool and 24 hour security next to a big mall in Chiang Mai, Thailand, for less than $200 per month.

Ideally I'd like to make more to invest for my future and to have enough to have kids in a developed country some day. But $1000 would definitely support my ideal lifestyle in Southeast Asia or South Asia including maids and eating out for all of my meals. To live well in Seoul, where my partner lives, I'll need $1500 per month.

The sad thing is that I read the Four Hour Work Week almost 2 years ago and still haven't accomplished any passive income :-( I do obtain $60 per week online for two hours timed work though. I guess I have to get my priorities straight.

[korvix]

My goal is $5,000 per month

[Evilchippy]

I agree with what most of you said previously. I also think it's important to consider expense reduction as a form of increasing income. $4K/mo in Argentina is a nice income, while the same income in Southern California is meager.

I started a company (actually a JV) where I sell for product for furniture stores in los angeles, and I found that the number of legitimate write-offs boosted my effective income over 30%.

[Brave_Man]

I think I would like to be in the middle of 2 and 3

I really would like to buy a house in Denmark, and another one in another country (haven't decided yet) as my dreams although I am starting and the goal right now would be #1, to win enough to get my family out of debts, and then I would like to travel all europe, to live at least 1 or 2 month in every country, then to go travel the next one, and living just with the minimun required to travel, I am kinda of a party beast so I have it easy meeting new people, so I would like to travel, make a ton of new friends to have great experiences with, and after all the travel, come back to my country for a while, and then go to live to denmark and travel time to time

then learn how to

-bartender
-speak german and danish
-Skiing
-have a great body
-fight MMA
-play the guitar like a rockstar
-be a chef
-dance tango & salsa
-party like a beast anywhere xD
-diving
-surf

and lot of stuff hahahahaha I think actually that the most expensive dream that I have is traveling and the houses, besides of that I just want to enjoy the world

[JoeTheDream]

My wife and I are targeting 5K-6K/m. W/in 4 months we'll be at 2K. I'm hoping to be at 4K by the end of '12. We're doing this through real estate investing.

First post and look forward to posting more often.

[Mr Miyagi]

500k a year.

[hvfpaints]

I want everything in my life PAID for! House, car, etc.etc. To meet that goal, I would like to have a gross annual income of $150,000.00. I realize that this may take several muses and a few years and more would definately be ok by me! There! I've said it! Now let's do it!!

[StevePaul]

There should be no limits for your income and your goals.Just work hard and try your level best to get a big target,because dreams have no boundary,always unlimited.