My morning and evening routines – what I will do for my health in 2018
Given that I need to resolve a few health issues, especially related to dizziness, I need to come up with a morning and day routine that is really powerful against disease in general. I will be combining this with a fine-tuned diet, acupuncture and a few other things.
Waking up
Thank God for the day and promise Him and myself I will live to its fullest, as well as be generous, kind and happy.
Use positive affirmations.
Motivate myself, including convincing myself of my natural ability to heal.
Meditate for 5 minutes.
Visualize for 5 minutes.
Stand up and stretch.
Start the day with a vegetable juice (possibly with beets¹) with ionic minerals. Alternatively, I may have these ionic minerals with a citrus (mostly lemon) juice, or I will drink a ginger tea. Every quarter, I will do 1-month cycles of bromelain on empty stomach, to lower inflammation in the body.
Strech my neck (seems to work well against a stiff neck, like mine).
Do lymph drainage massages whenever possible.
Go for a run whenever energy allows and there is sun out there. Do that as close to noon as possible.
As for the lymph massage, I will go with this one:
Now, there are a few things that I will make a priority throughout the year because I am positive they will help me:
Detox at the very least 2 in the year, but probably once (meaning 7 days) every quarter and one day in the week (Sunday).
Drink bone broth² at least once a month. This is hard because we need to prepare it, and it takes a long time to cook. I don’t care, it heals a leaky gut 😉
Eat tons (I mean at least 20% of my food intake) of fermented foods and bring my gut to a whole new level.
Avoid ejaculation as much as possible, and at least for 60 days every quarter.
Massage my own body in a way that I work on the fascia of my stomach, back, and neck.
Put the computer away on Sundays (all of a sudden it feels that I have a lot of time).
Take care of my gut so that my bowels move at least once a day, minimum. Ideally, I will get to 2x/day.
Drink tons of water throughout the year.
Continue to learn about health, detoxing and gut health.
Learn how to do awesome bone broths, and fermented foods such as kombucha, water kefir and fermented vegetables and fruits.
Going to bed (always before 10:30!)
Thank God for the day and the great things that I had.
Thank God for all the good things that I have in my life. Being grateful is praying for real.
Meditate for 5 minutes;
Visualize for 5 minutes;
Use ho’oponoopono for the bad things that happened in the day or things that bother me.
Is there anything else you’d recommend me to do? 🙂 Go ahead and let me know in the comments down below. 😉
² – bone broth is super healthy, especially if you’ve got leaky gut. Check out this presentation by Dr. Kaayla Daniel, who researched bone broth for over 20 years.
Relection on 2017 and a brief look at 2018 in terms of health, work and finances
Happy new year guys!
I am so very excited about the new year. 2017 was probably one of the most special years of my life and I learned a lot. It is scaring that 2017 is already over. Time flies even when you’re not having fun!
There were a few things that happened in 2017 that make me consider it very peculiar:
I moved to Portugal and I started living alone, in one of my beautiful rental properties. Living alone on this property is freaking awesome!
I felt dizzy/nauseous for the most part of the year, and my CFS/adrenal fatigue was exacerbated in specific parts of the year. This was so relevant and debilitating for me, that 2017 was marked by my dizziness.
Although I first considered doing a gap year, being off of work for 12 months, I ended up getting a part-time, reasonably well-paying job, which allowed me to focus on other projects in my life. This enabled me to grow wiser.
My real estate business took off and brought home some decent income. I realized I can retire earlier than I expected at first, especially if my projections for 2018 are met.
I was able to re-structure my real estate portfolio and hit €1,800/mo in rental income (with about €400/mo in liabilities).
Post at least 3 times a week. ALMOST DONE. There was a period where I clearly published less often but I was able to keep 2 posts/week for most of the time. Sadly, anything above this is not realistic (unless I do like 90% of the bloggers – who hire ghostwriters – which I don’t want). In fact, many great blogs, such as Backlinko only have a few articles published and yet they get a ton of traffic.
I hope to complete the task of re-reading 100 books, and provide summaries and reviews for all of them. FAIL. This is more like “I changed the plans for the year. Entirely.” I do hope to read some books this year (and publish reviews and summaries) but it won’t be close to 100 for sure. I have plenty of things that I could do with my time beyond that.
Grow the number of subscribers of the blog to 6000 (I was at 650 last year), and 25.000 likes on Facebook. FAIL. This was also pretty unrealistic without spending more money on Facebook ads and what not. I am not disappointed though. This year, I hope to double the number of Facebook likes. Not sure if this is totally realistic, but I hope it is.
Find a fully flexible (probably freelancing or consultancy) job, which permits me to live in one of my units and make $25k for the year. DONE. I worked part-time at a Portuguese university and got a pretty nice salary for the Portuguese standards. I used most of it to fund the renovation of RP#3 so I definitely feel I put the money to work!
Rent out all my units and make $20k from that. DONE. Fortunately, the demand for apartments in my markets is pretty high, and so I don’t have many troubles in renting them out. I feel this will be the case in the following years, but I plan to rent out many or my properties to companies anyways.
Make $40k on my investments and businesses. ALMOST DONE. I only made 50-60% of that but I am still happy with this.
The ultimate goal was to make $85k, net $50k. DONE. I didn’t net $50k in cash, but I was able to grow my portfolio by LINK LINK.
I wanted to dominate the Portuguese fiscal code. ALMOST DONE. I sure learned a lot but mastering it like an accountant would retire me way more attention than I am willing to put into this.
I wanted to participate a lot on Quora. ALMOST DONE. I missed the stats that I aimed for, but I was able to reach more than 10k followers.
I wanted to publish 3 books. ALMOST DONE. The first one is published, the second one is written and the third one is planned. Good enough?
Not letting other people affect me in a negative way. FAIL. This is also why I wanted to fast from people during Christmas time LINK.
Cultivate all my friendships and create at least 10 new great relationships. ALMOST DONE. I was able to make 3 or 4 new great friends.
Learn a lot about renovating homes (and doing it myself). FAIL. I swear I tried, but feeling exhausted and dizzy all the time was a killer.
I wanted to regain the shape I had in 2011. FAIL. Again, I swear I tried, but feeling exhausted and dizzy all the time was a killer.
Do one or two 7-day juice cleanse with organic juicing. ALMOST DONE. I did at least 3 different detoxes so this is done.
Move to my dream home, and live alone. DONE. Just not the home I initially thought I was going to move to.
Why am I so excited about 2018
2018 will be big for me because I feel that although this may take a while, I am moving towards the right direction with my health, at the same time I am taking my company to a whole new level. The big thing for my company will be hiring 1 or 2 full-time employees and grow the fixed income to €5,000/mo.
In other words, I can now see the dream a few miles away from me. And the dream is to be healthy and set up an efficient real estate company that has a few employees and runs pretty much automatically.
I also feel that 2018 will be big for From Cents To Retirement. I will work badly to grow it to a reference blog in early retirement. I do hope to hit 3x more the traffic I currently have, by the end of the year.
As for my health, I have a few plans as well. And this year I will be sticking to them badly! I will write a complete article on my perfect morning and evening routines and I will cover all the plans for my health in 2018.
Later this week I will be publishing an article on the goals for 2018 and you can scrutinize them thoroughly. 😉
If you are a real estate investor, creating LLCs is really a must if you want to protect your assets and optimize taxes. I have created some companies up until this point (you can find out why in my book), and I can tell you that there are some differences to the US. I’d like to comment on those differences, as I have been working with RE investors from the US who want to create an LLC for every property. Well, in Portugal, that won’t do.
To set up a company in Portugal, you will incur the following costs:
€360 to register the company (LLC – which is called Lda);
€123-€300 to register a trademark (this depends on the sector, how protected you want it to be, etc)
€100-€200/mo to pay for an accountant (which is mandatory);
These are the mandatory costs (except for the trademark). However, note that you will also likely incur costs such as:
A salary. You don’t really have to have a salary – I don’t take any salary out of my companies. Note though that, if you do, you will have to pay for social security, medical insurance and what not. Your cost will be much higher than the salary per se.
Rent and utilities. Depending on the type of business you run, you may have to have a brick and mortar location. Even if you don’t have to have one, in most businesses they come in handy.
Advertising. This may be close to nothing or a lot. In my case, 95% of the costs of a company I run is advertising (it is a digital service, of course).
Bringing assets to the company. You need to pay about €50 per asset you bring to the company. This doesn’t include e-assets, fortunately. 😉
Insurances. Depending on the type of business you run, you may have to have insurances. I always have insurances in my companies, even if I don’t have to have them.
Legal advice. Unless you have a very basic type of business, today you’ll need legal counseling. This can be quite expensive as well.
Vehicles. Depending on the type of business you run, you may have to have vehicles to operate. I keep my companies super lean and I never bought any vehicle to any of my companies.
Taxes. There are two things you can’t escape in life: taxes and death.
As you see, the fact that you need to spend €100-€200 per month with an accountant, opening a company for every property usually doesn’t make sense, because your profit is wiped away by this fixed cost. At the same time, it typically only makes sense to set up an LLC when you reach 3 properties.
BTW, at the company level, in Portugal, prices are usually defined as the price + VAT. VAT is the value-added tax, which you may know as the goods and services tax (GST).
Opening a company in Portugal comes at a cost (although I list multiple advantages below). Some of them include:
Print and send the physical copy of the invoices to the accountant, every single month.
Issue the digital compilation of the invoices and upload it to the tax office every three months.
Keep the books in order (even if you’re hiring an accountant).
You may be held accountable as a CEO, manager or partner, for multiple things within the company, including maximizing profit for shareholders in multiple states in the US. This became quite polemic after Martin Shkreli brought it up.
etc…
My companies
I have set up multiple companies in Portugal, and I have a main accountant which actually charges me €75 + VAT per extra company. I currently own or co-own the following companies:
I also think that there are multiple advantages to having companies (and multiple companies) including:
Protection
As I said, this blog belongs to a company that I use to collect royalties, online businesses, etc. This also protects me, as this asset belongs to a separate entity that doesn’t hold any of my assets.
Flexibility
If I want to charge money, I can. This wasn’t the case back in the day (as I couldn’t do business because I lacked a license or was employed on an exclusive contract with an employer).
Also, having multiple companies allows you to write off way more costs than when you don’t have these companies. For instance, as an individual, you can’t write off fees and interest with mortgages even if you do get mortgages for real estate investing. For me, that is a killer.
Sometimes, when I release one of my net worth reports, I get asked a lot why I have multiple checking accounts.
Right now, I’ve got 3 checking accounts: one for investments, one for fixed expenses and another one in Germany, as I needed an account there for some money I need to get, still. Just so you don’t get confused or misled, I pay taxes on my investment account. I am currently thinking about opening a 4th checking account.
You may have heard of other people opening multiple checking accounts and may wonder how that could help you. Not only that could help you in terms of a better control over your overall spending, as it can also help you relieve stress from managing your finances.
In this post, I will comment on the benefits of having 2 or more checking accounts.
Benefit number one: separate things
If you can use multiple checking accounts, assign each account a specific purpose. In my case, I will open a 4th checking account merely for paying bills (utilities, gas, eating out, groceries, rent, fun, etc). I will transfer €500 to this account at the beginning of the month, and force myself to live off of that.
This is a great way to check where your money is going. I am kinda lost when I don’t do this. The other option is to cash out, but this may not be convenient if you need a lot of money for your month.
Benefit number two: it takes much less time to manage your money
Knowing precisely where your money is going to can be a painkiller. Back in the day, I use to have all my expenses in one card, and I would spend a lot of time checking the expenses and what they pertained to. With a second checking account, you pretty much get the slip at the end of the month, look at it and you’re all set. Ultimately, this is a hell of a stress avoider… With two checking accounts, you’ll track your money flow like you never did before.
What I truly recommend you doing is applying Amdahl’s law to your finances: if you spend 80% of your money on X (say groceries), optimize that and forget the rest! Within your groceries expenses, if you spend 50% of your money on meat alone, optimize that! You get the idea…
Benefit number three: a motivation to save and invest
Everybody knows this: if you have no limits when spending your money, chances are you’ll invest less. Forcing yourself to spend less money, by separating day-to-day money from investment money into 2 or more checking accounts will motivate you to invest more, as you spend less. At least it worked out well for me.
What many people with two checking accounts do is to separate fixed bills from variable ones. This is a very good system, but I personally like to factor in my fixed costs into the €500 I transfer over to my account at the beginning of the month.
Benefit number four: an actual profit on your investment money
If you decide to open a checking account with interest (for instance, check this one out), you’ll actually make a profit while you don’t invest your money. I tend to park my money until I need to renovate a rental property or I have enough money for a downpayment. This can sum up to $10,000, if not more. Parking all this money without interest means losing money. Quick tip: set up a checking account with interest for the money you save every month.
Benefit number five: create history with a new bank
I leverage a lot. For me, having a credit and non-credit history with many banks is crucial. Why? I don’t know which bank will give me the best offer on my next mortgage. Or which bank will have the best offers and fees. I want to diversify as much as I can, so creating 2 checking accounts will help you with that. If possible, use secure loans on different banks, so you develop a nice credit score with all of them.
What to pay attention to if you have multiple checking accounts
If you decide to go with multiple checking accounts, you’ll probably have to spend time opening and monitoring them. I have personally programmed a small Java software which collects information from my bank accounts and tells me everything I need to know. It even sends me an e-mail every day with the amount in each account, variations in regards to the previous months, and where the money went to. I know, it’s awesome, right?
However, keep in mind that some banks may charge you maintenance and even inactivity fees, so stay tuned into your account. You don’t have to code a program like I did, but you should monitor your accounts and don’t forget them.
Also, you can choose among different types of checking accounts. Make sure you’ve got a strategy before you open a second or third account and choose the type of your accounts (with interest, banking packages, etc) wisely. If you have a small business, consider opening an account just for that, and never ever mix your business’ expenses with your personal ones.
Do you have more than 2 checking accounts? What is your opinion on multiple checking accounts?
Just like myself, many people I got in touch with regarding financial freedom suffer from some type of condition that makes them pursue financial freedom. I have CFS as you know, but from my experience, the vast majority of these fellas suffer from adrenal fatigue.
I decided to take a look at this condition and find out how it relates to CFS and treat myself as if I had adrenal fatigue myself.
The first thing is to understand what Adrenal Fatigue is.
Let us first go with big channels and known people. Dr. Axe does a good job at explaining that in this video, while providing some initial tips to fight it:
The takeaway is that if you’re sleeping a lot and still waking up tired, struggling with major fatigue issues and other signs (such as feeling overwhelmed, stressed, you feel poor memory, etc), chances are you’re suffering from Adrenal Fatigue, according to Dr. Axe. Some other signs can be storing extra fat.
I realised that this person he is describing is me.
Plus, he says that if you consume a lot of caffeine (and sugar, for that matter), that will burn out your adrenal glands.
Now, let us talk about what is important to improve adrenal function and overcome adrenal fatigue. Of course that reducing stress (both directly and indirectly – such as by exercising) and get good quality sleep at night, and do stuff you like are key to start the recovery, but it goes way beyond that.
Let us have a look at what other people has reported helping with adrenal fatigue.
Dr. Axe partnered up with Jordan and hashed that out in this video:
In this video, Dr. Axe and Jordan recommend a few things that generally help with Adrenal Fatigue:
Foods: remove sugar, carbs, use bone broth (mostly because of collagen), clean sources of protein (such as salmon), dark colour fruits and vegetables. Also, sour and fermented foods are the best. I LOVE sauerkraut – and I actually do it myself.
Herbs: here’s a major help for supporting adrenal rejuvenation. Adaptogens such as Ashwagandha, Holy Basil, Liquorice root, Ginseng and Rhodiola are the most popular ones.
Spices. Jordan and Dr. Axe recommend stuff like Licorice and Nutmeg.
Essential oils. Holy Basil, Rose Mary, Lavander (for relaxation, anxiety and good sleep) and a few others. Dr. Axe says Rosemary and Lavander work even better together. I’ve used Lavander myself before, but maybe because I used it alone, I didn’t notice good results.
Mushrooms. Reishi and Chaga are popular on various sources talking about recovering from Adrenal Fatigue. Reishi is often said to be the most powerful substance known to men!
Supplements. Probiotics and digestive enzymes top my preferences too!
Thomas DeLauer has also come up with what he calls an “Adrenal Cocktail”:
This cocktail is composed of 4 ounces (10cl) of Orange juice, a 1/4 teaspoon of Cream of Tarter – because is incredibly high in potassium – and pink salt – which according to him relieves stress from the Adrenals and the kidneys.
Thomas also recommends Ashwagandha – as it increases GABA – which in turn reduces the impact of cortisol on nerves. His third recommendation is taking fish oils, which also reduces cortisol.
Finally, Thomas recommends to lay off stimulants, such as caffeine.
If you are unsure how to test yourself for adrenal fatigue, check out this video:
And here is a totally different approach to heal your adrenals, which I found excellent:
Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum’s suggestions are: increase water, increase salt, and take vitamin C, B5 and Licorice. Multiple small meals throughout the day and high protein. This is it!
And finally, three first-person testimonies, which are concise and that go against some of the things listed before:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NsaWretnhs
I loved them.
Let us then sum all this up:
Cut off every stimulant you’re taking. Coffee, sugar, etc.
Start getting your cortisol levels normalised. The first single most important thing that people referred in this direction is fixing your sleep patterns. Go to bed early! I will try to go to bed before 11 pm every single day, and meditate for at least 10 minutes so that I change my brain to a beta state faster.
Get into a freaking awesome diet and drink lots of clean water. Some of the videos did a great job at explaining what that means. Find what works out for you.
Get plenty of sleep and stop physical stress. One thing is your sleeping patterns. Another one is sleeping more than usual. Your body is recovering, so it makes sense to give it more than it usually needs to function.
Take adaptogens. I’ve done Ginseng cycles before and they were super effective. I am excited to get into others. Many people referred to them as scams, but I believe they will do well because I’ve used Ginseng many times before, as I said.
Stop all harmful/toxic stuff that goes in or on your body.
Address emotional stress. Most of your daily thoughts are recycled from the previous day. Meditate. Enjoy life. Be grateful. Go into nature. Whatever works for you.
Stop activities that produce cortisol, because you’re already having too much of it. Sex and masturbation included, sorry.
Many people ask me how the can set up a Real Estate business as I did. Just to be clear, I am not talking about my Real Estate company or my consultancy business; I am talking about a Real Estate business composed of many properties that you buy and rent out (typically kept under an LLC). This is comparable to your own Real Estate Trust. Currently, my Real Estate includes 10 units and generates about $1400 in passive income every month.
How to set up a Real Estate business
You can certainly set up a Real Estate business in many different ways. However, what I explain in the following is the way I used to set up my own business. Not only my business is working fine, as I also witnessed at least one of my clients to experience the same degree of success. So, without further due, let us get to it.
Step 1: Save some money
I would attract way more viewers from Google if I wrote: “buy Real Estate without any money down” or “invest in real estate without money”. However, I will be pretty honest with you… You’ll need some money to set up a real estate business as I did. I personally bought my first property (a condo) all cash, after liquidating my stock portfolio. It was about 35K for me. However, I invest in Portugal, where properties are cheap (especially if you compare them to most markets in the US).
Say you don’t have a good pay and you really have to struggle to save some money. Well, I am not going to lie to you, this may be time-consuming. If your salary is low, you need to find other ways to increase your income and save money aggressively.
If your salary is high enough, you’re all set. Simply throw money to a savings account every single month. The minimum you need to spend is 20% of your first property (for the down-payment to the bank, assuming you need 20% down) plus the closing costs on the property. Those you need to check from property to property.
Step 2: Get credit approval first
I’ve seen a lot of people making this mistake: going out for shopping without credit approval. This is a big mistake because you may never get approval, which means that the entire period you were looking for a property is wasted. It may also mean that you submit an offer for a property which you don’t have enough money to back up.
Don’t waste time, or even worse… get yourself into trouble. Simply get your letter of approval from the bank before anything else.
Important note: in many countries like Portugal, you must have a property under contract before the bank gives you approval. Talk to me if you have questions about this process.
Step 3: Find great, honest contractors
I always invest in distressed properties because typically rehab costs are not priced correctly in distressed properties.
As such, I need to surround myself with great contractors. I always get to know if contractors are legit and honest. The truth of the matter is, there are many dishonest contractors. Their job is simply favorable to report extra hours or extra materials: nobody is there to really check how long they worked and what materials were in fact used.
My recommendation is not to go shopping without getting to know two different contractors. Here are some great tips to hiring contractors.
Step 4: Make friends with proactive Real Estate agents
I can’t stress this enough.
Unlike the stock market, where pricing rules don’t really depend on the brokers you know, Real Estate is not like that. Real Estate is a much more personal business, and most of the aspects of your deal depend on other people. But it doesn’t end with the tenants…
Knowing proactive Real Estate agents is the key to finding great deals. At least it has been for me. I made sure I got to know many real estate agents and became friends with them. Eventually, I was offered many deals before they were actually released to the public. I highly recommend you to check local legislation and check whether this is legal in your state or country. This is absolutely fine in my markets, according to the local legislation. Make sure you don’t get yourself into legal problems.
Step 5: Find deep value deals
This is probably the hardest step to accomplish. It also shows why you need to be good friends with Real Estate agents: this will accelerate and make the process a lot simpler.
If you check my real estate and previous posts, you’ll see that I focus on multi-units that I can buy at a huge discount. For instance, I explained my strategy to find awesome multi-units for low prices. I am not saying you should necessarily go for multi-units. I am simply saying that for me, they are like a sweet spot in my markets. Maybe they won’t be the sweet spot for you, I don’t know. But my point is… come up with a sound strategy and test the market until you find your sweet spot. Your corner. Once you do, stick to it.
Regardless of what corner you choose, make sure you always go for the deep value deals. What is the most effective way to make money through Real Estate. I always buy properties that are worth 2-4 times more. How can I possibly lose money that way?
The trick to finding deep value deals? Seeing value where nobody does. A distressed property that looks like the last place where you want to live is likely to be undervalued. The reason for that is because people look at Real Estate emotionally. They wouldn’t live there, so it is must be worth little… they won’t do the math and sum whatever they would have to spend to make it look good.
You, as a Real Estate investor, have that ability. Just find those properties. Instruct the agents you work with you to find them. Look for them yourself. Relentlessly. That is the secret.
Step 6: Always inspect the properties before closing
Remember I advised to get to know good, honest contractors? They will come in handy in this step: just call them up and let them know you are considering a property. Asked them to visit the property with you and estimate rehab costs. They may be wrong because contractors won’t be able to accurately estimate the costs unless they usually check the foundation (which is not always checkable without damaging the property). However, this will give you an idea of how much you should look at. My advice? Increase the estimate by at least 20%. Play safe, no surprises.
OK – you’ve got the numbers. Run them. Is it a good property (I use the 7-year rule to check that)? Close, then!
Step 7: Remodel the properties… intelligently
Renovating a rental is a heck of a whole new topic. You can simply remodel the property and throw a lot of cash into it, or you can do things intelligently. The truth of the matter is that you can rehab one property in various different ways with the same budget, but some make it look much better. I provided several examples on a different post, which show that 10 dollars worth of tiles can make a bathroom look way better:
Any investment has to yield a return. Unlike stocks and bonds, in Real Estate, it is up to you to monetize it. Your properties won’t return any money unless you monetize them, that is the cold hard truth. There are some tricks to monetization, though.
The first thing I recommend is to use craigslist (and craigslists competitors) to advertise your properties. Note that there are many housing scams on craigslist, so do not strange if people ask too many questions and double check data often. I like to use facebook pages. The big advantage to Facebook pages is that you can invite your friends to like it and you can ask your friends to invite their friends. I talked about this in my series of tips to Real Estate investors).
The key trick is to have as much exposure as possible. If a lot of people see your property listed for renting, you’ll rent it out eventually. This is not rocket science.
Remember… always create value!
If you follow my blog you already know my philosophy, when it comes to Real Estate investing… above-average quality for below-average prices. In fact, that is my philosophy for every single one of my businesses, including my consultancy business.
The truth of the matter is that if you want to buy and rent one home, you don’t have to be concerned with value markets. However, if you set up a business, you’ll have to make sure that you know the market numbers and you pay with them. Setting above-average quality to below-average price is really how great businesses are built. If you wonder why this is sustainable, be aware that I recommend you to find deep value deals. That means that you will have huge margins to play with. And what I suggest is to leverage those margins to offer great products at great prices. This will not only make you find tenants quicker – it will also make you have tenants for longer periods. And vacancies must be taken into account when calculating ROIs too!
Over the years, I changed my philosophy as far as spending money is concerned. Today, I think that it makes sense to invest money, but it wasn’t always like this…
The first question that everyone who wants to retire early should make. It is also one of the first questions that I analyze with my clients… How much square footage (or square meters, if you’re European) do you really need?
I’ll try to answer it from a not so explored angle…
How much square footage do I need to live the good life
Most people fantasize about a huge home (and a nice car). This is in fact what trapps them into a mortgage that they need to work their entire lifes to pay off.
However, if you are asking yourself how much square footage you need, you’ve probably arrived at the conclusion that a small home is a smart decision…
So, this month I moved to my new home. My net worth is about a quarter of a million dollars, but as always, I like to look at spending money based on the amount of happiness it brings me. If having lunch out will boost my happiness on that particular day, you bet I am going to go grab that 10 buck lunch!
This follows my philosophy that you should spend your money based on the amount of happiness it will bring you. ALWAYS make that question before spending any money. “Do I really want to drink an espresso right now, or is this rather an impulse buy?” “Does having lunch out today will make me happier and more productive?” “What will make me happier? A big home and a big mortgage or financial comfort and a passive check in my mailbox?”
Think about life as a game, where characters have those fancy “happiness bars” on top of their heads. Something like this:
OK, these are what I am talking about. Imagine those next to you. You’re in the game now – you’re the main character and you’re trying to maximize your happiness. If you look to the other side, you’ll see a number, that is your money. Now go out there and try to get the best case scenario: spending as less money as possible, you want to maximize your happiness bar. Note that in this game you don’t have to impress people you don’t like. Stop now. Ask yourself. What is my perfect home now?
Chances are you’ll say you don’t need a big home because there is a sqft where your happiness levels actually start to decrease. Instead, you’ll trade a few square feet for a few (a few != many) other things, including a nice chesterfield where you can relax and a fast internet connection to read From Cents To Retirement or any other nice site out there (although you know that this is the best). You’ll probably buy plants or something that connects you to nature because we are naturally connected to nature. Or maybe you’re a city guy and nature doesn’t turn you on. Maybe an espresso machine and a shelf of books (this is sooo Ben Davis).
Have a look at the property I chose to live in (which is actually one of the units of my 6-plex), since the beginning of the month:
This unit is about 500 ft². Yes, that’s it. It has a small kitchen, a room, a living room and a small bathroom. I will live alone, so that is more than enough for me.
Would my happiness bar increase a lot if I moved to a much bigger home? Probably not. Would yours?
Today, I want to bring you something I’ve been working on and I am really excited about! I decided that I will try a certain technique for 30/60/90 days, and I will report the results on the blog. I will cover pretty much everything, from money to personal development. For the most part, I will cover health and personal development techniques, though. This will go hand in hand with my new diet, which I expect to maintain throughout the year.
I will try to report everything in a scientific matter (or at least, as much as possible). I will try to record every single time I apply the technique and on what day. Then, I will report the results. Some techniques may produce results after 30 days. Some may only work after 60 or even 90 days. Either way, I will report after 30 complete days of a given technique. Every time I report the 30-90 day experiment and the results, I explain thoroughly why I decided to do it and the meaning of the technique.
Here’s a few things that I am eager to test:
#1: 30-90 days of Deep meditation
I have been meditating for a while, but it is easy to forget about it. Honestly, on most days, I feel I didn’t have time for anything I wanted to do (and I could only do what I had to do). I want to meditate for at least 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes before going to sleep, for 30 days, and assess the results.
#2: 30-90 days of Visualization
Visualization is a very powerful tool that, put roughly, takes advantage of the fact that the brain cannot distinguish between what we are thinking of and what is in fact happening. Logically, if you accept that bad thoughts affect your overall health, then we could use visualization to affect our health in a positive way. That is what I want to do. This is the best video on visualization I ever saw:
the most important part of visualization is focusing on the feeling that you experience when visualizing.
#3: 30-90 days going to bed before 11.30
I will use the time until 00 to meditate and visualize and get to sleep at midnight or even before. The crucial thing is to be on my bed at 11.30, the latest. Ideally, I will try to be there at 11 and use 30 minutes to meditate and visualize.
#4: 30-90 days on Ginseng every single day, twice a day
Ginseng is known to be an excellent adaptogen, which helps with memory and fatigue. I’ve personally used Ginseng with great success, but I will report on it again. I personally like Ginseng from Now Foods as I said many times before.
#5: 30-90 days being grateful for everything I have
In particular, I want to be grateful for what I have every day in the morning, and before bedtime. My research has shown me that our mind is really the catalyzer of life, in the sense that I personally think that a strong mindset it is the most powerful and quick way to change your life for the better. Some scientific evidence has shown that being grateful can translate into things like sleeping better and having stronger immune systems. This source also reports that there is Research by UC Davis psychologist Robert Emmons (the author of Thanks!: How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier) shows that keeping a gratitude journal can increase well-being and life satisfaction.
Does it look obvious of why I want to do this now?
#6: 30-90 days being super kind to others
…almost to the point where they think it’s fishy, I don’t care. Many people have told me that this works beautifully in making friends and having others being kind to you. You remember the commercial with that guy who waves to those who are pissed and insulting him? That is also part of the experiment. I simply want to check what result this will have on me.
#7: 30-90 days acknowledging and complimenting others
Same thing as #6.
#8: 30-90 days with irreprehensible posture
Living is learning and I am always trying to learn more and more. I recently learned that your posture affects your spine’s health, which in turn affects your well being. I wonder how much this could affect my personal situation. To maintain a really good posture, I will use a posture vest and remember myself every single day to sit straight at the computer – if I dominate that, I will pretty much be on a correct posture 95% of the time.
In this context, this is a pretty good exercise you can do at the gym:
#9: 30-90 days forcing myself to feel
Feel the smells, the air against my skin, the water falling on my body (in the shower), the sensation of success, etc.
In this context, I’ve found 5 things I can do right away to improve and harnessing the power of feeling good now. This challenge is tightly connected with other challenges (#1, #2 and #5) and they all boil down to having the part of our brain that experiences the best pleasures and emotions turned on.
#10: 30-90 days forcing myself to relax
Very connected to #9, and yet a heck of a different one… We live life so up close that it is super hard to appreciate the small moments. When I sit on my couch I do not feel that I am relaxing, yet I am. Feeling the relaxation – noticing it and letting it go through your body – is key! At least I suspect it is. Let me do 30 days of this and report the result back to you!
#11: 30-90 days going for a walk every day, for at least 10 minutes
Just forget about the routine, problems, and simply go for a walk (and enjoy it). I suspect this will free my mind, get my muscles to work and have a positive effect on my day. I am only able to do this during the Summertime (which in Portugal is pretty much 9 months in the year) LINK MISSING, but I am super curious to assess the results.
#12: 30-90 days without Facebook
Being constantly on is clearly preventing my body from relaxing. Facebook is a big part of that – although certainly not the only on. Maybe I will actually cut everything all along, including Whatsapp and other social media I use. As a hard-work blogger, I also check google analytics quite often (and Amazon affiliate/book fees), and I think that I will also refrain myself from checking those.
BTW, you can friend me now, I just created a profile: Facebook.
#13: 30-90 days without coffee
I love coffee. I absolutely love it. A good Italian or Portuguese espresso (which mean great Cameroon’s or Bolivian coffee) is certainly one of the most enjoyable parts of my day.
Coffee has a myriad of health benefits, in case you don’t know. However, coffee worsens my dizziness and therefore I would like to try out a period without any coffee whatsoever and assess the results.
#14: 30-90 days without chocolate
Actually, this is almost part of my new diet, but I want to completely remove chocolate for 30-90 days and assess the results.
Chocolate is another big pleasure that I have, but something I tend to overuse. I typically buy 70-95% cacao chocolate bars (meaning with as little sugar as possible) but this is still something I’d like to use less and less. Usually, raw cacao is preferred over any form of processed cacao for health benefits.
I figured that starting with 30-day chocolate periods is the best start to eventually eat less and less of it.
Lately, I’ve been having some trouble losing weight and I think I am overeating chocolate (really one of my favorite things to eat). Let’s see what comes out.
#15: 30-90 days focusing on others
Someone told me that the best way to feel better – especially if you have a health problem that is tightly connected to your emotions – is to focus on others. This topic has actually gotten quite popular on Quora.
I must admit that I am really going through some of the worse periods of my life. I feel quite sick and dizzy for more of the day, which are two symptoms of CFS. However, I know that this is a tight connection with my emotional status. In fact, I tend to think too much about my problem and I often have thoughts of “this is my worst phase ever” or “I will never be healthy”. Focusing on others (probably together with visualization) may be a good way to flip the switch, and I am willing to give it a shot.
#16: 30-90 days stretching every day after waking up and before going to bed
If one gallon of water is too much or ideal, no one knows. What I know is that, back in the day, I’d drink close to a gallon a day and feel great, so I will give it a shot. If you think about drinking one gallon a day yourself, consider that a few things may happen in the transition.
#18: 30-90 days doing acupressure every single day, especially before going to bed
I am not a big tea lover, I must confess. Coffee turns me on way more. However, I know that tea is a healthier alternative and can be used very effectively to treat anxiety and dizziness. I will pretty much drink chamomile and ginger tea in this experiment.
#20: 30-90 days preparing each day the night before
I think that the main point for me is that I won’t be anxious to make a break or something similar to that. I will be in control and know what I am supposed to do. I am curious to see how well this will work for me.
The goal of this experiment is quite intuitive, right? If something produces results in 30-90 days, then it will have a heck of a result if we apply it throughout my life. And habits compound too! We’re creatures of habit and I honestly feel I work better if I follow a specific routine. I will test out all these and adopt those that work better.
Let me know in the comments down below if you have any suggestions on what to try out!
During the last two months, I’ve been receiving a few e-mails asking about my consultancy business and whether it is replicable, what are the costs, etc. I figured it would be helpful to write a post on it, showing you the nuts and bolts of my business so that we clear the field here. My blog is getting known for being totally transparent and I would like it to continue like that.
If you checked my online income report from April, you’ll see that I’ve made about $1000 on consulting. I actually turned down a lot of work because I can’t fulfill, due to my part time research position. Should I have more time, I would have made at least $3000. I received all kinds of messages regarding how I set up the business, how clients get to find me, etc.
Just so you know, I actually went through all consulting opportunities I had from January until the beginning of April, and those would sum up to over $10k. I turned down all that work, but I honestly didn’t realize it would sum up to more than $10k. If we set taxes aside for a while, this calculates into the nice sum of $40k/year. Needless to say, this income is declared and I pay taxes on it. I explain how in the following.
Note that consulting itself is not where the pretty bucks are. Some of my clients ask me for products that cost thousands of dollars. This is made through my Real Estate company.
…wait, so what is the difference to the Real Estate company?
My consultancy business operates under a small consulting company, which is a different entity than my Real Estate company (which again is different from the entity that holds my Real Estate). My Real Estate company only sells Real Estate and looks for properties to investors, on a 1:1 basis. This service costs thousands of dollars, and can also be sold to the people that consult with me. I have a partner in this Real Estate company.
In essence, none of the money I make through these businesses goes directly into my pocket. They go to the checking accounts of their respective LLCs, into the books, and distributed at the end of the year, as dividends, or kept in the company to grow the company. I cannot keep detailed reports on the checking accounts of the companies in my net worth updates; However, I will keep you guys posted regarding how they do.
The bottom line is that I have 3 businesses, all of them hosted on different entities. My consultancy business, whose income is reported in my online income updates because I find my clients through From Cents To Retirement, is separated from everything else. As I write on the income reports, the figures I present there don’t represent the actual net profit as I have logistic costs to keep the company going. I do most consulting work out of my living room:
In case you wonder, I’ve gotten people contacting me through From Cents To Retirement that could have been served directly by my Real Estate company (although I have turned the work down because I didn’t have the time to fulfill). However, most leads I have from From Cents To Retirement are served by my consultancy business. Either way, this is transparent to the clients, as the only difference is really the bank account they transfer the money to, and the company that issues the receipt.
Licenses
I always get questions about licences upfront, because to consult on finance you usually need to be a licensed advisor. Well, not exactly accurate because… that highly depends on where you’re located. Being (now) located in Portugal, I could leverage the local legislation and get away as a financial consultant who doesn’t have any license. I could charge $200/h and still get clients. I’d make so much money I could actually set up a real company (by real I mean with offices and stuff :-P) and hire people at $8/h to do most of the work.
Yet, I prefer to go a much more honest (I am not as much profitable!) way: 1) I am not a licensed financial advisor and although I promise to provide tons of value, I will charge affordable rates and 2) you should see my “consultancy” as mere “sharing of experience and knowledge”. This is a much more honest way to portray my services, and people appreciate my honesty. I am not the ultimate investing guru. I simply acquired so much knowledge (both by reading and practicing what I learned) over the last years that I can put people way ahead of where they are. From my experience, this is in fact what people are looking for.
If you want to have a better idea of what you’d learn from me… Just ask yourself what you could learn from a guy who bought 10 units in less than 2 years and is able to generate great returns on those investments. Or a guy who needed a few months to hit 65k monthly views on his blog. Or a guy who read over 100 books on personal finances and investing. I am not bragging at all – I am writing this so that you could think of you could learn from me.
Services of my consulting business and pricing
As I said, in my consulting business, my work revolves around sharing my experience. That may mean:
structuring personal finances,
investing in different asset classes,
general things about investing,
starting an online business
and much more.
I’ve had people paying me exclusively to learn from me how to negotiate real estate or buy and manage real estate abroad. I’ve had people paying me to successfully negotiate a 30-year fixed rate mortgage in Portugal, when “the bank told them they couldn’t”. And the list goes on and on.
As for pricing, I started low. My partner in crime (just so I don’t get problems, I must say that I mean business) charges €30/h. I learned a lot from him, so I figured that at most, I’d charge as much as he does. He has already achieved financial independence, so he does it exclusively for fun. I am still trying to retire in my early 30s, so I did start at €30h and slowly moved the needle up.
Currently, I don’t consult for less than €50/h (= $60/h) and if I continue to have this volume of clients, I will soon set the price to $100/h. I’ve seen other bloggers charging between $500/h and $5000/h – so please don’t think that I am stretching the game like nobody… For example, John from Simple Programmer charges a minimum (and “minimum” is actually in bold) of $500/h but if you want 1:1 consultations, it can cost you $2000/h.
I hate translating my time into dollars. I think that my time is worth way more than $100/h, but I am taking clients at $60/h and I spend hours and hours writing posts for From Cents To Retirement that are not returning anywhere near what I invest in them (time-wise). However, I will make From Cents To Retirement a reference in the context of Early Retirement and if this is what it takes (or part of it), then heck – let it be!
Why do people contact me?
I’ve been approached by many people lately. Should I have a perfectly working firm with a few employees and I’d turn all those contacts into revenue. Sadly, I can’t do that because I would be overwhelmed pretty fast.
The channels I get most of the contacts from are my blog (people usually shoot me an e-mail directly, at fromcentstoretirement [at] gmail [dot] com), Quora and a few other sources. Ever since advertised on Quora that I started to consult on REI, I’ve got many requests for consulting services.
Right now, I think that I have a pretty good idea of what it takes to start your an online consulting business. I would also promote it in similar ways to what I am promoting it now, but it would essentially happen much faster are more effectively.
Philosophy
My philosophy revolves around keeping my clients as happy as possible, regardless what problem they have. The key idea is to provide tons of value. I always put myself in my client’s shoes and think “do I think this was a good investment?” and obviously think that the answer is yes.
The obvious benefit is to have a lot of referrals, but this is also who Ben Davis is. I believe in creating standing out value in any business. That is for example what I do through my Real Estate business: have above-average homes renting for below-average prices. Same thing on my consultancy business. Yes, at some point I may charge more (especially with demand going higher and higher) but I will probably be able to help my clients (or at least some topics) in a much more effective manner. Either way, I’ll be above-average charging below-average, regarding my market is the $40/h range or the $400/h.
But why consultancy?
I always loved to coach people, as I said. Consulting was sort of a natural step: I am working part time for a university, and I need to make extra bucks. The blog is growing (although I projected way more) but I felt I needed more money to execute my plan to retire in my 30s. To be quite honest, my third rental property sucked way more money than I thought, as I said over the last months, and I felt that I needed to feed the beast. At the same time, my relatively big pay from Germany was about to finish and I had to reason to believe I would get a contract so fast.
If you’ve been following my blog since the beginning, you know that coaching people is something I like because I actually plan to do it after my retirement. We all love certain things and seeing others succeeding by following my advice is something I love. In fact, I think this is why my consulting business is being successful. At the end of the day, I love doing it and I try my best so that my clients succeed.
My advice for you, regardless you’re planning to retire early, is to do what you love and enjoy life. Always chase your dreams – there is nothing to stop you. I decided to consult because it was a way to make some extra buck, but also because I love it. If I could, I would definitely escalate it and turn it into my full-time job until retirement. In fact, I can see myself becoming a self-employed blogger, who makes most of his money consulting. Let’s see what the future holds!
