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Seven years ago I got this wild idea to chase an absurd net worth goal. At least it seemed absurd at the time to the outside looking in. We had just ended the year (2014) with a net worth of $181,364 and I published my $10M goal in early 2015.

In that moment, we were only shy of hitting that goal by $9,818,636. Yeah. Crackpot or not, I allotted 20 years to hit this goal by the time my wife and I would be 48 years old. Spoiler alert: Not only did we exceed that crazy original goal, we did it in less than seven years.

In the original blueprint, I had called out the fact that I believed that the income assumptions were conservative and that the growth rate from investments was a bit aggressive. I can say definitively that the income assumption has proven to be ridiculously conservative and can’t really comment on the growth rate for our investments because I don’t track them at that level of granularity.

What I can say with confidence is that our ability to condense a 20-year goal down to less than seven was due to an extremely intense and intentional focus on income paired with the x-factor of equity from the business I started and sold.

No doubt, we still would have hit the goal had I stayed on my corporate path, but I found an accelerator and diverted course onto the “get rich faster lane.” I still believe you CAN get rich working for someone else but the faster lane is found when you can create equity from your own blood, sweat, and tears.

Let me punctuate this further. In six years and eleven months, we were able to grow our net worth from $181,364 to $10,347,106. In 2012, the first year we started tracking net worth (before we set the BHAG), we had a net worth of $42,424. Of the total gains achieved over the last decade, 91% of the gains have been realized over the last three years and eleven months.

That is the power of equity!!!

Since starting this blog, I have been committed to sharing and tracking my journey to $10M and will be closing this chapter when I write my final financial update to close out 2022 with the Q4’22 financial report. From 2023 forward I will be transitioning to an annual report. The plan is to model it after some of the great annual letters and reports I’ve read to investors from the likes of Warren Buffett, but with my own personal spin of course. 

I was very intentional in setting a numerical goal and choosing the milestones that would lead us to both Financial Independence and Financial Freedom, committing to the goal without moving the goalpost. I’ve documented the path and the possibilities and have provided proof that I have found at least one recipe that works. Along the way, I had to remind myself (repeatedly) to not get too consumed in building wealth that I forget to build a life. Money and the accumulation of it (wealth) has always been a means to an end to provide the ultimate optionality for my family to live life by designto live well and give well

I’ve written myself letters (see below) from the perspective of the future to keep myself honest and on track to evolve into the man I wanted and needed to become…to make my vision palpable and inevitable. 

  1. A Letter I Wrote To Myself From The Future – A 10 Year Vision Of My Life
  2. Letter to Executive Coach – Planning Success for Year One in Business
  3. A Letter I Wrote To Myself From The Future – A 10 Year Vision Of My Life

Through a collection of posts, I have created an autobiography of sorts that charts my journey and has helped me articulate and document my beliefs, philosophies, successes, and failures. This blog has been invaluable to me over the last seven years and I see it playing a continued part in the path that lay ahead.

Thanks for reading along!

I wasn’t a great writer when I started the blog and I still wouldn’t consider myself a great writer, but I know I’ve improved (thank you, Linda – my editor and good friend – for all your help over the years). Although the frequency and volume of my posts on the blog has decreased over the last couple of years, my writing in other areas has consumed that slack – particularly my long-winded emails and memos to my team. I constantly joke with folks that brevity is not my strong suit but thoroughness and transparency are! (For those of you who have never had a conversation with me, you should know that I make up for my lack of brevity by increasing the speed at which I speak – giving me the ability to speak 500 words per minute when the average is 120 or so).

Cheers,

– Gen Y Finance Guy

p.s. For those wondering, I will go into more detail about how we went from a net worth of $7,933,251 in October to $10,347,106 a month later (with an additional 7-figures of upside between now and the end of the year) in my last and final financial update for Q4’22. Stay tuned…


Gen Y Finance Guy

Hey, I’m Dom - the man behind the cartoon. You’ll notice that I sign off as "Gen Y Finance Guy" on all my posts, due to the fact that I write this blog anonymously (at least for now). I like to think of myself as the Chief Freedom Officer here of my little corner of the internet. In the real world, I’m a former 30-something C-Suite executive turned entrepreneur turned capital allocator. I am trying to humanize finance by sharing my own journey to Financial Freedom. I believe in total honesty and transparency. That is why before I ever started blogging, I decided that I would share all of my own financial stats. I do this not to brag, but instead to inspire motivate, and also to hold myself accountable. My goal is to be a beacon of hope, motivation, and inspiration, for you, the reader, by living life by example and sharing it all here on the blog. My sincere hope is that you will be able to learn from me - both from my successes and my failures! Read More

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22 Responses

  1. Congratulations Dom! It’s been eye-opening following your journey these past number of years. Watching in near real time as your goals and proactive planning pan out has been insightful and instructive.

    I appreciate you sharing this all with us, I’ve gained a lot of value from it!

    1. Thanks, Keenan!

      I’m curious what have been the three biggest takeaways that you’ve gotten from following along? I’m always curious what others get and do as a result of my transparency – if you’re willing to share.

  2. I’ve really enjoyed reading your journey throughout this time! It always helped keep my eyes open toward abundance thinking and was always a pleasure to look through. Excited to see what’s in store next.

  3. ????????????

    Congrats. Have very much enjoyed reading about your journey into the 8 figure club!!! ????

    Beautiful example of dreaming, planning, execution and self-awareness.

    Next question, what will you and the fan do to celebrate achieving the BHAG?

    1. Thanks, HH. It’s certainly nice to not only see a plan come to fruition but also to realize it on an accelerated timeline.

      It’s a good question in terms of what do we do to celebrate…probably not the answer you’re expecting but we celebrate by living live with intention and on our terms – seems like the ultimate reward.

      It’s a funny feeling in that it doesn’t feel like much has changed, while at the same time everything has changed dramatically over the last couple of years.

      Nothing specific planned at the moment. I did recently buy a new car after three consecutive years of hitting a milestone I had set with the reward being the new car – an electrified Genesis GV60.

  4. Huge congrats my friend!

    Watching your journey these past several years has been awesome and fascinating. So happy to see you rewarded for your blood, sweat, and tears. You’ve earned it by creating value for others AND most importantly, you’ve never lost sight of what matters most for you in life.

    So… now that you’ve reached this incredible stepping stone, what’s next? I look forward to reading your next 10-year letter… or maybe… your book?? 😉

    1. Thanks, Michael.

      A new 10 year letter is way more probable than a book.

      Please note that you were an early inspiration in my journey and was have always been impressed with your journey.

  5. Congrats on the monumental accomplishment Dom! I will look forward to the Annual Report, but have to say will miss the ongoing updates. Needless to say, you’re in inspiration, keep up the great work!

    1. Hey SOM – although I’m confident that our net worth will grow over time, I don’t want to set a new target and move the goal post. The goal going forward is to stay wealthy and use our wealth to live well and give well. Is that crazy?

      Dom

  6. Congratulations! Welcome to the 8 figure club! Told you you were sandbagging… ;-D

    Now comes the hard part… What’s next for you? Continue to push hard, be content with what you’ve accumulated, or pivot to a higher purpose?

    1. Thanks, Joe. You did indeed tell me I was sandbagging and I’m happy you proved to be right ????

      I’ve gradually taken it down a few levels in terms of how hard I push and have no plans to move the goal post. I’m working 4 days a week and enjoying a chapter of life with more balance than I’ve ever had. That said, I still like working and have unfinished business in terms of helping my partners hit their wealth goals.

      I’d say I’m going to push smarter not harder. I am certainly taking more time to enjoy the fruits of my labor.

      Ask me again in a year or two as I think that will be more telling.

      Dom

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