Change the way you think – what a short sentence and what a big impact to me. On 5th of May I published the first post here my blog. So it is more or less a kind of birthday I am celebrating today. The way is still far to go, but I am quite pleased to reach this first milestone. For me personally today is a good day, because I am able to write about something I reached: six months of blogging as a financial blogger!

Change the way you think in Cape Town

In the beginning of 2019 I was in Cape Town for a conference. Every six months the Citizen Circle organizes a meeting somewhere in the world. The Citizen Circle was founded as a community of digital nomads and entrepreneurs to connect to each other – and maybe a bit to hold contact while travelling the world.

Meanwhile it grew to a community of a lot different people, not just digital nomads. I really enjoy those short meetups to at first meet with likeminded people and secondly travel the world. So I headed to Cape Town this year in January and experienced Africa from a very special point of view.

After this event I went home again with a lot of ideas, which inspired me the next. But in February Lars came around and asked me, whether I am interested in writing in partnerblog in English. Two big task in one challenge, wow. Writing in English and blogging with my face in the front – quite a big task for me. Also the decision felt very uncomfortable I felt it was the right direction and a big chance for me.

First connections in Riga

I already wrote some books together with Lars about financial topics, so we were not wondering about finding the right track for this blog very fast. But committing on milestones and keeping it on the track was something new for me. I was used to the work of a ghostwriter before, where every projects was usually finished after one or two months.

And to be honest: working on something and staying with it for a longer period was not my strength until then – maybe also not until today. The first months were easy as this was very new to me. Additionally there was the P2P Conference in Riga, where I met a lot of interesting people. Beside the P2P platforms I also met some german bloggers. It was great to talk to each other and get to know about their troubles and challenges.

I knew Thomas from Sparkojote before, but I was not following him regularly. Still today I am not watching everything of his content due to the fact, that he is publishing a lot of content. He is great in giving advices about the start and the first of financial knowledge. Additionally he shows a lot of insights about his reselling-business and also his way of investing money.

The will to stay strong and reach my financial freedom

About Thomas there was another fact, which really influenced me: His will to stay on his track and to reach his goals! I do not want to compare bloggers with each other, as everyone has his own way of doing things. But watching Lars, Kolja and Thomas made me think about my way.

There must be something in their life, which makes them successful in their own way. Something, which I can adopt and bring it into my life, because everybody can. It seems like it is this: “Commit and staying on the track!”, what makes people successful.

After Riga in June I decided to change my way of working. My family and I are having a good life, but there was (and is still) something I was not really happy with. Until today I am not able to point on it, was I do not really know what it is. But since the mid of this year I am working in a different mode and I am tracking a lot of numbers, which I have not done before.

Numbers and the level of reaching the my goals made me working on my way to financial freedom. I concentrate more on those numbers and I commit on my goals. And no, there were no millions coming to account since then, BUT I can see them. I am able to think about an idea how I will reach this goal.

Change the way you think – my own vision of 2025

I mentioned it somewhere in a post, that in October I was doing the budgeting for 2020 in my main job. Beside this planning we also had to work on the long-term planning until 2025. Have you ever asked yourself how your days will look like in five or seven years?

Right after I finished that work I sat myself down at home and made my own ideas about my personal vision of 2025. There are several models for planning. I decided to adopt the planning from my company with a so called 7-3-1 plan. This is quite simple as you describe, what you want to achieve within the next year (1), next three years (3) and next seven years (7). In origin you have to plan in downwards from the 7-year-plan.

And this is exactly what I did. I add another step at five years to it, because 2025 is very important for me, as I want to reach my financial freedom there. Of course I am not able to plan today, what I will have as a meal in 2027, but based on the numbers of today I am able to calculate.

And what do you think was my main realization? Right, if I stay on my track and go for the goals I have set myself, I will be financially independent in 2025.

Carry on and work like hell

I am working in a leading position there are sometimes situations where employees come around and ask for a salary rise. My answer is always: Of course, you are welcome. How much are you willing to give to the company to realize you salary rise? Sometimes they get me, but very often they get me wrong.

And this questions I have to answer myself in private: How much am I willing to invest into myself, so make myself pay my expenses from passive income to reach financial freedom?

I do not know if this is the point which counts in my life, but since the mid of this year a lot changed. I learned to focus more on those things, which pay my financial freedom. There were quite a lot of books I read about discipline and the power of habits. And I tried to install them. I am not ready yet and presumably this is just the very beginning. Constantly learning and implement new habits seems to be the key for me until now.

Everything seems the same, but it is not

Still I am going to work every day. But afterwards in my leisure time things changed. I have a plan and I am working on it. Until today there are always things hampering my plan for the day. But since I am working with my 3-things-to-do-schedule, I am easy with those troubles, as long as I was able to tick my 3 to dos for the day.

Waking up every morning is still the same. It is still very early every day, but I do not have any bigger problems with getting up. The feeling is like “Freedom is coming, when you get up” and in the opposite, it will stay far away if I am not getting up.

Just like watching Lars, Thomas or Kolja. They are not working 20 hours per day, if it is not necessary. Those guys are also going for a beer, playing games or watching movies. The difference: they to it AFTER they have done their topics for the day. I guess this is they key: Keeping yourself on the track by doing the most important to dos of the day.

Is there anything special to do?

Last week David Dawkins published a post on forbes.com with the title: “Billionaires Are ‘More Talented’—UBS Claims Billionaire-Led Businesses Nearly Double The Performance Of The Market”. The fact for me in this article are the following lines from Josef Stadler, UBS head of ultra high net worth:

“They [billionaires] are masters of risk-reward. They have the ability to take massive risks provided the outcome will [also] be massive. … They are not afraid of failure. Many, many people on this planet are afraid of the downside. For [billionaires], the downside is an opportunity to buy.”

Do not get me wrong, I do not see myself as a billionaire, also I would of course like to be one soon. I do not even think I have this “billionaire breed”. But I think everyone is able to get wealthy on its own. It is just a change in the own behavior.

How many people are billionaires in the world? If you follow the article it is around 2.200 billionaires on that planet. What do you think how many millionaires are on this planet? The Capgemini World Wealth Report 2017 says it were 18,1 million millionaires spread all over the world.

My way as a financial blogger

The average wealth of people in Germany is about 230.000 Euro (per household) This is quite a big difference. And if you put into relation, that people with the average wealth still have to work and are not able to live in (financial) freedom, this average way can not be the way I want to go.

I mentioned it before, but once again: staying on track and constantly growing your knowledge is the key! I do not need the “billionaires breed”. Everyone of us is able theoretically able to get more wealthy than the average.

Therefore my task is to stay exactly on my track and keep pushing it. That sounds quite easy, but in my eyes it is not. We are living on the right place of the planet with the biggest chances, but convenience is our biggest challenge. You can stay on the sofa, but this is average.

Getting up and doing something is not average and will lead to wealthiness within time. Not tomorrow, not next week and even not next year, but if you write it on a piece of paper you are able to calculate it yourself.

First milestone: 6 months of blogging!

I was not constantly blogging every week, but almost. As I present for myself I wanted to write a blogpost about the first six months and what influenced me. Additionally this is my part of a blogroll from Thomas, who made a post about it on Facebook. I do not know whether I qualify, as I am writing in English. But nevertheless, I liked to idea of the intention from Thomas.

He posted the blogroll, where I try to translate his intention in my words:

“Currently I am very thankful for how things are running and I am able to do, what I love to do. With those things I can pay my expenses and live from it. This is why I want to give something back to my community, as it was the point what made starting and keeping on the track since three years now. Therefore I want to help somebody today.”

The winner of this blogroll will receive the prize of 1.000 CHF. Do I want the money? Of course, it would be another step to financial freedom. But is this money worth the 10% of investing it into P2P lending or anything else?

What to do with the prize from the blogroll?

Well, Thomas liked anyone to answer this question in his blogpost. So here is my answer: I would not invest it into P2P lending, shares or something like this. I was thinking about inviting Thomas for dinner anywhere to talk to him and experience more of him and his way.

I do not know whether this is possible or not, but in my eyes this win, which would be more a present to me, is supposed to be invested highly effective. To answering the question I would like to invest the money in meeting with inspiring people. I guess the outcome is much more in value than investing the money into P2P lending.

Thank you guys, I really appreciate it

And following the intention of Thomas I would like to thank those guys, who influenced me the last months and years. I would not be there, where I am now without you. And I am absolutely convinced, that I will not be able to stay on my track, which I found for myself.

I am incredibly thankful for your help, also we maybe do not know each other or have never met:

Lars from Passives Einkommen mit P2P (some content like interviews in english available on his Youtube-Channel)

Kolja from Aktien mit Kopf (just german content, but absolutely great)

Thomas from Sparkojote (again inspiring content, but also just in german)

Alex from Dividenden Alarm (the english website is here: dividend-alarm.com)

Mitch from MitchsMasterMind

Julian from 10Wochenprogramm (again just in german and just for fitness-lovers)

Pat from SmartPassiveIncome

Bodo from The Winners Laws – 30 Absolutely Unbreakable Habits of Success

This would be imaginary entry list for my birthday party, also I am sure I forgot about several guys, who are not coming from financial topics. Let’s see were I send my invitations to next year in May.

Wishing you all the very best and thank you everyone for your visit on my website, your stay and your support. I really appreciate it and whenever I am able to help you, just let me know.