A billion is the new million
We may not consciously think about inflation, or the devaluation of the dollar but we feel it everyday.
Interest rates are the highest they’ve been in 20 years.
Every monthly subscription you have has increased at least once in the last year
New mysterious fees are being added to your service receipts every time you go out, or order in
and Cheesecake Factory is no longer an acceptable first date. That one still baffles me.
Yeah. Things feel different.
I went to the Bureau of Labor Statistic’s CPI Inflation Calculator just to confirm that my day to day experiences aren’t figments of my own imagination. Turns out, having $1 million in 2010, is the equivalent of having $1.42 million today. If you’re not good at math, let me help you; that’s not the same number.
Put another way, the buying power of a dollar has decreased roughly 30% in the last 14 years when many of us were just entering the workforce.
A mindset shift for 2024
It’s time to redefine what it means to be financially savvy. It’s no longer just about having three times your monthly expenses in an emergency savings account. If you do, that’s awesome, but you’re potentially missing out on thousands of dollars each year while it sits in a checking account. In a stable (non-recession) economy, inflation is estimated at roughly 3% per year. So if the dollars you earn don’t grow at least 3% per year, you’re actually losing money.
Have you ever heard the phrase, “shoot for the stars and land on a cloud”?
It’s unlikely that we’ll become Billionaires in this lifetime. But if you only aim for a million, and it takes you 5 years to make it, by the time you get it, is it even a million dollars anymore? Here’s a hint: it’s not. Not unless it’s been appreciating over time.
You have to think big and create lofty financial goals in order to build wealth in a way we rarely see in our communities. My aim is to do that here.
What we appreciate, appreciates
Building up your knowledge of time, money and the time value of money, will always keep you ahead of the curve. Luckily, you’re already taking the lead simply by being a CSDI subscriber.
Next week, I will begin to share some of the strategies I used to go from a $70,000 annual salary, high-interest debt, no savings, and renting in 2017, to now having close to $1 million in assets through multiple streams of income and investments in 2024.
Your homework (yes, I said homework) is to write down 5 things you’re grateful for each day over the next week and recite them out loud. I won’t know if you’ve done it, but this exercise isn’t for me. It’s for YOU. What you appreciate, appreciates. Once you begin to acknowledge the abundance surrounding you, your radar for more abundance opportunities will become sharper.
And we have to be on our “A” game if we’re shooting for the stars. ️
