My Past, Present, and the American Dream

I used to have a lucrative job at which I was rather good.  Then the economy changed, but my debt didn’t.  Now I am in the unenviable position of being deeply in debt and under-employed.  The last several years has seen my financial situation deteriorate. I am now to the point where enough is enough, its time to make a life change. But, I’m too old to make the wrong change. The challenge is to find the right change to make.  Wasn’t it Confucius that said, “Do something that you love and you will never work a day in your life”?  That, in a nutshell is my ultimate goal: to find my “passion” and turn it into a financially rewarding career.

I am a believer in the American Dream. Okay, so I guess I need to clarify. I believe in the more traditional view of the American Dream.  Unfortunately, that concept has been corrupted and watered down to mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. What I’m talking about is the idea that through your own efforts and merit, you can accomplish what ever you dream, or become who ever you want. That no matter where you were born or who your parents were or weren’t, success, influence, and fulfillment are no further way than your own determination and commitment. So often now, the “Dream” is just the idea of becoming as wealthy as possible. I believe that wealth is a by product of the American Dream.  Do what you do well.  Do it with integrity.  Do it with commitment.   When you do that...the wealth will follow.

I have set myself the goal of finding a career that I love, and the arbitrary goal of using it to generate one million dollars in earnings.  The reason for these goals is several fold. The first goal is obvious.  The second goal will accomplish three things. One, that level of earning will prove that my “passion” will provide, and that I am, in fact, committed to it. Two, one million dollars of income will allow me to pay off my considerable debt. I hate to say it, but between my wife and me, we owe around one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. One hundred and fifty thousand may not sound like that much debt.  However, considering that we have few remaining assets, the absolute difference between where we are, and where we need to be to have a reasonably comfortable life without financial stress is well over a quarter million dollars.  Figure in taxes, and using some of the income to financially help our six children and aging parents, add a nest egg......suddenly the amount is quickly pushing one million dollars. In addition, one million dollars is a nice round number, and it has a “ring” of success to it, (it also helps make a great blog title).