Quote:
Originally Posted by Shap
LOL you aren't married are you? 
My success came very fast. I remember when i started I made $3000 a month very quickly and then within 10 months I was making more than $30,000 a month. I'm very logical and reasonable in my thought process. There is no way I should have been making that money. I didn't deserve it. So based on that thinking I always felt the end was always very near and I'd wake up one day and the dream would be over. I always wanted to be in a situation if that day came I could walk away and say I Crushed It, saved enough to never work again and I have no regrets. I see so many guys that have blown it all and have nothing to show for it. The most important thing to me isn't houses, cars, trips, it's 100% the amount I have saved.
I have to admit I'm like you. I'd love to know how much people have set aside for the future. When I have industry friends who blow money I try to pull them aside and share with them my thinking. There are a lot of people that should have a few million set aside and set for life. Instead they are in debt and have NOTHING but memories to show for it. |
My success started pretty quick as well and like you I wondered how long it would last, and wanted to bank as much as I could for as long as I could. I also felt like I didn't do much to deserve it. My first year 99' I spent 1/2 my time building and updating membership sites and the other 1/2 promoting it. After a year of doing that i remember coming across an affiliate program and thinking, why would I want to do that and make only 50% when I could send it to my own site and make 100%... Thankfully, I tried it out and logic set in.... I was spending so much time creating and updating the damn site it didn't leave that much time to actually advertise it and make sales. Being an affiliate I could focus 100% of my time on advertising. With in 6 months I was generating about 3K a week with sexkey, then I noticed someone promoting the shit out of clickcash and figured it must be good if someone else was promoting it so I signed up and tried it. Over night I tripled my revenue with the same traffic.
I peaked in about 2005 averaging about 30K a week in sales just to clickcash and did 1.4 million with them that year. I was working hard but not 1/2 as much as I do now. I was smart enough to know to invest the money I made and to diversify knowing it might not last for ever, but unfortunately I was not smart / unlucky with the investments I made. I also neglected my online business which dropped in sales since I was once again splitting my time up and not focusing as much on traffic. I got back on track 100% on traffic a year or so ago and building it back up, but i now work 4x harder to make a lot less then I had in the past.
I did sock away a good bit for retirement, but that is age 65 money, as a worst case scenario. If I can't retire before then at least I know I will be set in later life and not working at walmart
When the money was coming easier, I was more agressive with my investing... i have learned a LOT from those mistakes and now have found investments that are very secure that offer the highest returns and doing well with them. Just need a few more years of pumping money into it and I should be done. One other thing I am doing just a little of now that is a passion of mine in helping people plan financially. I've seen so many people make mistakes there over the years, who have made millions and have nothing to show for it and are already working at walmart. I want to help people avoid that.
BTW, I am married for about 8 years, but no kids. The wife understands and lets me do my thing working a lot. I couldn't imagine having kids. I would lose a lot of productivity and/or be a terrible dad. At least now I'm just a semi terrible husband.