Tuesday, November 17, 2009

My 50k challenge

I've recently completed my 50k challenge. What's that? In the beginning of the year, I wanted to save money to complete a few short term goals that will commence in 1-2 years time. It's stated in this post here. Well, a few things had changed since then, but the challenge of saving 50k by 31st Dec 2009 remained.

I'm very proud to say that I've done it already, and it doesn't take 12 months to complete that. It took only 10 months. This is not a post to hao lian how much I can save, but rather, I wanted to share the idea that if you really set out a goal that you wanted to, planned to get it, you'll reach there.

I've never saved so much in my life in a span of one year before, so setting a goal of 50k is really out of my reach when I challenged myself at the start of the year to do so. Heck, I might not even earn that amount, much less save it. This is so crazy. These are the thoughts that ran through my mind throughout the months. But the driving force that pushes me to do it is that I've said it to everyone and I'm therefore accountable for what I've said. I must do it and well heck, I do not know how to get there, I'll try my best to reach there.

I set out to do a plan of how much I need to save to reach my goal. A simple calculation will show that I need to save $4.2k to hit 50k in 12 months. It's impossible for me to do this consistently for 12 months because I do not have a stable income every month. My peak season is towards the 3Q of the year and the 1st and 4th Q are usually much more free (and therefore lower income). Therefore, this is how it should be done:

Month---------Amt to be saved
Jan----------------2,500
Feb----------------3,000
Mar---------------3,500
Apr----------------4,000
May---------------4,500
Jun----------------5,000
July----------------5,500
Aug----------------6,000
Sept---------------6,500
Oct-----------------6,500
Nov----------------1,800
Dec-----------------1,200

Total amt=====50,000

If you're staring at it and wondering how can I ever do this when I don't even earn that much - well, I had the same thought as you. I remember telling my gf that this is so f**king insane BUT I'm still going to do it nevertheless. Armed with this suicide bomber mentality, I toiled month after month. I'm going to die trying it if I have to.

When you announce to the universe that you wanted this so badly, things will bend over backwards to make it happen for you. I cramped some much work in a single day that I broke all records in my 7-8 years in my career. I had the longest amount of work hours in a day (10 hrs of pure work, meaning 13 hours out of home), had the earliest lesson ever (7am), had the latest lesson ever (1130pm). I'm not out to set records, but if I really wanted something, I really have to do it. Whatever it takes, for as long as it takes.

All this takes a toil of course. I was very stressed especially over the Aug to Sept period. When I'm out pak talling with her on weekends, I'll sometimes whip out my black organiser and start to plan out the work for the coming week. I remembered confiding to her how am I ever going to save that much. I must have been quite a pitiful sight, because she gave me 1k to tide me over my darkest hours. Love her.

And so, when I mean that I've done my work for the year and I've earned enough, I freaking mean it. Nobody can say that I didn't do my best. This 50k challenge is especially sweet because there's a lot of people out there who care for me. When I feel like shit, they take me out for a drink and listen to my ranting. Hey, brothers and sisters who are followers of my blog, a big salute to all of you. I'm honored to have known you.

19 comments :

CreateWealth8888 said...

Not many people out there is earning that kind of money. Congratulations!

3m said...

congrats LP...am very inspired to start a saving target by you...

LP gogogo

Anonymous said...

Congratulations LP!

Indeed it is doable. I set my target @ge19-27. Such is the life for self-employed; u can save alot if you want and quit after that.

High achievers of corporate success met these targets easier/earlier but harder to get down the ladder because of power and status. They enjoy it tho. :) So key point is to enjoy what we do..

Keep it up LP! Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us..

HH

dream said...

so good...so rich. hosayliao can borrow money from lp liao. congrats!

Musicwhiz said...

Wow LP, impressive!

My target was about S$3,000 per month (S$36,000 per annum), which I have exceeded through dividends and rental income. But I guess I should have set the bar much higher to push myself to save more. The difference is that you have a "variable" income, whereas mine is fixed from a full-time 9-to-5 job. I am already quite happy to be able to save this amount, and I shall strive for higher amounts in subsequent years.

That said, please please do take some time off to chill, relax and enjoy life! 10 hours a day sounds really hectic, make sure you have enough rest and plenty of water (Singapore's weather is so hot).

Cheers !

Musicwhiz

Derek said...

Got to hand it to you bro. The achievement is testament to the amount of effort and time that you put in.

Congratulations!

Touzi said...

*salute*

Lemizeraq said...

Congrats :) You are very disciplined.

la papillion said...

Hi all,

Thanks for all the kind words and encouragement piled up here :) The point of the post is to inspire, to show you that if you have a goal and a clear plan as well as the discipline to hammer at it till you succeed, the heavens will bend over backwards to make it happen for you.

If there's a few pple out there who kick-start their plan after reading mine, I've done my job already :)

Anonymous said...

For LP --

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard-home/article-23715502-good-value-reflections-on-money-morality-and-an-uncertain-world-by-stephen-green.do

An alternative view?

HH

la papillion said...

Hey HH,

Sounds like a good book. In the newspaper, there are reports of stephen green, so I got to read more about his background.

Seems like an interesting person with strong religious and moral values.

PanzerGrenadier said...

Hi LP

I totally agree with the power of goal setting.

I've given myself the goal of being financially free in 6+ years time.

I may make it, I may not. But I'll try hard to get myself there through savings, investment income and occasional punting.

So far, the result has been that I've managed to achieve 7% realised returns on my investible capital. Going by rule of 72, it'll take me 10.2 years to double my investible capital, so I keep pushing myself to achieve higher investment returns within my portfolio.

One note of caution though, you need to take time to destress and take care of your health.

Money has no meaning if we don't have health.

Take care and be well and prosper always.

Anonymous said...

Hi LP,

Thanks for starting the post! I set a new goal tonight!

Actually, I don't feel quite right after my first posting. (I mean, what msg am I conveying?) Then, I came across that write-up on Stephen Green.

I live a simple life and have excess monthly. But what I intend to do with this excess? :) I told you I wanted to buy a massionete next yr or maybe punt on chinamilk?

I came across this in doing my homework today: "one of the reasons we work is to give away to those who needs it more".

Quite different from my "I, Me, Myself" mentality(which I am still still guilty of).

See you soon!

HH



HH

la papillion said...

Hey PG,

You're very right. Wealth is nothing without health. Must do something to maintain my health too, otherwise no pt planning for a bright future when your health don't even support that :)

Indeed, be well and prosper.

la papillion said...

Hey HH,

Enlightening :) Haven't reached that stage yet though :)

financialfreedom said...

Well done. Congrats and keep it up!

JK Holdings said...

I have few words to say, first of all, you save hard towards buying car and property (nothing wrong of course)

but actually TIMING is the most important for this 2 items. as for cars, COE was hovering around $2 -$4000 for dead months, and now it is $18,000.

Not to mention 600K to 800K condo, you can only get 2 bedrooms apartment in rural area, and 1 studio apartment in good location, and this price has going up, no doubts.

My key point is, sometimes, you work towards a target, say $60K... by the time, you reach saving of $60K, the ticket value of the itmes have gone up to $60K value too, end up, we are just paying extra....

At least, it is the situation now..

Createwealth8888 said...

If someone want Car and Condo, then must work harder and save harder. No choice.

la papillion said...

Hi JKfund,

Well, a lot of things had changed since I last posted it. First of all, no cars for now. Secondly, no condo, just hdb :) I think my goals changed too, not only the value of the things I wanted.

I know what you mean though, thanks for the comments!