However I have been able to accomplish a number of my longstanding goals in 2008 and 2009 bringing me closer to my financial freedom.  Most notable of those goals checked off my list was the purchase of my first condo.  I started researching the Chicago real estate market before even arriving in the Windy City, and spent the majority of my free time doing so ever since.  It was a bumpy ride for a while but everything ended up working out, and I bought my first bit of real estate near the bottom of what looks like ended up being one of the largest real estate sell offs in history.  It was mostly dumb-luck.

Buying a condo was an important part of my financial strategy.  My short-term goal was to save on rent every month, from my research of the Chicago real estate and rental market I knew that I could purchase a condo and pay less per month than what it would cost to rent a comparable apartment.

My long-term strategy was to build equity by rehabbing an undesirable unit, and rent it out while I pay down the mortgage.  Based on my research, my target was a to keep my monthly expenses below $1150 for a two bedroom condo on Chicago’s north side.

My research methods were a bit sneaky, more on that in another post, but they were validated upon moving in.  Two guys were moving in across the hall at the same time and as it turns out they were paying $1150 a month!

The second major goal I accomplished was to set aside a rainy day fund equivalent to 6 months living expenses (which I handsomely surpassed).  This was quite a bit harder than I had expected as I was pouring a significant amount of money into rehabbing my condo each month.  However I achieved this goal, though not in the way that I had hoped, by re-financing my condo and taking out a “lump-sum”.

Even so, this refinancing was an important step in it’s own right.  As a first-time homeowner, I had trouble coming up with a 20% down payment for my condo.  Subsequently I was stuck paying PMI with an outrageous interest rate of 7%.  Refinancing my house, not only allowed me to take a fairly large chunk of change, but more importantly it actually decreased my monthly expenses, by lowering my interest rate to 5%, and removing the Private Mortgage Insurance each month.

In the end, looking back over the past 18 months since I layed out my goals for this site and my life, I have marked a few major items off my list, however, I still have a lot of work left to do.

I have made little progress in the way of developing additional streams of income. I have not devoted enough time developing any single idea, to fully vet its merits to really see if any of them are a viable business, before moving on to something new.  I am still constantly coming up with ideas, jumping around from one to another like a lunatic. I have not been able to sustain the motivation, to keep pushing myself foreword, I have struggled with inspiration, I have lost interest, given up, and started over countless times. I have not held my self accountable for my goals, dreams, and passions, and that is what truly matters.

I have begun to realize that there is more to life than checking goals off a list, life is more than the destination, life is the journey, and that realization may be the biggest achievement yet.  In fact that is what this whole idea this whole website,  set out to capture, and as a result succeed itself by documenting that journey in spite of the acheivements or failures.

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The vast Majority of people falsely assume that working for a large corporation is the safest way to make a living, but what happens when your employer downsizes and you get laid off?  What will you do then?  You have no control and no say in the situation, your only option is to accept it and move on.  Becoming self employed puts the power in your hands, quite literally, you will fail or succeed based solely on your own actions, abilities and determination, rendering the above scenario inconceivable.

However regardless of the source, relying on a single form of income is risky business.  Whether it is a paycheck from an employer, profits from a business venture, or passive income from an investment property you are putting yourself in harms way.   Again, what will you do when something out of your control goes wrong, the economy slows and your business starts losing money?  Or your investment property requires unforeseen repairs that break the bank?   A single source of income is a single point of failure, and only one step away from financial disaster.

Diversification is the answer and is just as important to your financial freedom as it is to your stock portfolio.  Diversification is a  back up plan for when things go wrong with one piece of the puzzle. Diversification gives you the peace of mind to know you can rely your other profit centers until the problem has been remedied.  As a result I have decided to focus my attention on three activities I am very passionate about, The Three Pillars to My Financial and Personal Freedom, are small business, real estate investing, and… blogging.

Everyone has their own individual passions, dreams and ideas, and it is absolutely imperative that you follow the dreams you are passionate about.   Achieving personal and financial freedom is essentially being the business of you.  You have to love what you do, and let the money follow your passion.  There is no separation between work life, and real life, there is just life.  The goal is to live the life I want to live, without worrying about how I am going to support that kind of lifestyle.  It will just happen, Why?  Because I am in the business of me, my life is my business, and the rest will take care of its self.

For the most part this website will be focusing on the he Three Pillars to My Financial and Personal Freedom; small business, real estate investing, and… blogging.  I will be documenting my experiences in an attempt to convey the lessons I have learned along the way, both good and bad, and will shine the spotlight on other inspiring entrepreneurs in an effort to learn from their successes and failures alike.

I hope that this exercise will not only prove to be a valuable tool for my climb down the corporate ladder to financial freedom, it is my hope that KirkHatesWork will provide you with an immensely useful resource for you on your own personal journey to financial independence.

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