Know When to Get Out. Have an Exit Strategy in Business.

I admit I am a bit of a miser and a greedy miser at that.  When my wife and I first got together she brought a special present to the table - $20,000 USD worth of debt.

Now if you listen to her – it’s not her fault.  Banks just kept offering credit cards and every time she maxed one out… she just got another.

Time for a serious chat I thought.  I got the ceremonial scissors and like I’d read in every self help book, I got her to cut up the lot.  Oh there were tears!

We – or rather I agreed that we would live off my wage (which wasn’t large at the time) and her wage would service the debt.  We paid off the twenty grand in a little under a year.  Whilst it was immensely satisfying to pay it off – we had lived like paupers for that year.

I – and more significantly she - never wanted to go through that again.  So we began to save.  She asked how much should we save.  I reasoned, 5 grand would keep us going for 5 months ( 10 years ago) if we got into trouble - so a figure of 5 thousand was set.

When we got to 5k my green eyed monster raised its ugly head and I pushed on without telling her that we had reached out target. 6k, 7k, 8k… and then she asked.  I spilled the beans – expecting her to be upset.  But no… she was overjoyed and said – “hey if we save another 2 we will have 10 thousand in savings”.

I had created a monster.

So my tip to you is – have an exit strategy.  You need to know when enough is enough.  I recently spoke to a very successful marketer and he said he would give up when he had made 20 million.

Well to be frank – my aspirations are not that high.  But you need to set a figure – so you have something to aim for. 

If you want $60,000 a year income you need £1,200,000 in the bank earning interest at 5% to achieve $60k

If you want an income of $100,000 per year you need to stick £2 million in the bank.

Decide how much you want per year and work towards that – then get out - and enjoy it…

Have an exit strategy otherwise you will work on and on and won’t ever enjoy your money.