This is a great thread as it exactly reflects the mid life crisis any urban man goes through .  As far as I am concerned these are my thoughts.

 

a) One can start chasing his dream and try out anything he wants to, provided he does not have any dependents and he is the only one who will suffer it there is a  downside and he has the perseverence to withstand pain and the grind.

b) If one has dependents who look up to him to earn the livelihood, then there is no other option but to first financialy secure the future of his family and then start chasing the dreams. Age should not be a bar for chasing ones dreams, passion is the only criteria. If you have passion then you get the energy to do it no matter what ones age is. Eg. KFC and Colonel Sanders.

c) How much is required to achieve financial security depends on the inviduals current spending needs and the income stream that is available. Basic idea is there should not be any change to the living standard when one stops working the regular job. Any market fluctuations should not affect this income. Eg. Interest from bank, house rent etc.  If one already owns a house and its fetching income the he needs to only invest a lesser amount in bank based on the shortfall between the average monthly expenses and the rent earned.

d) Any other surplus fund should be allocated towards capital appreciation like stocks and mutual funds which can gyrate in the short term viciously but in the long term are the best capital appreciation. They are the best hedge against inflation. Periodically, when big profits are booked, some amount should be moved from this to the secured return investments if there is requirement to take care of higher monthly spending needs as well as other planned needs like kids college or marriage. One should not wait for the last year to take out money from this as we do not know what the market situation would be in that year. This may force one to sell when one should be buying..(opportunity cost) which would have a huge dent to the portfolio.

e) By following this strategy one can not only chase their passion or dream, they can also ensure that they have not sacrificed their family interest in doing so. Once we are financially free we can keep trying all the dreams that we have in mind to stick to the one that we think is the purpose for which we are born.

 

I am not sure if this makes sense to others.. but that is the way I look at it as every individuals position and dream and thought process is different.

 

Cheers

Ravi

 

 

Hi,

 

Again, this is my personal view point.  I think one should take a call based on what they cherish and where their goals are. Its very difficult to be focussing on too many things and try to achieve great results everywhere.  We would become jack of all trades and master of none. I was chasing career growth in the beginning of my career having goals that I should make it big in my life in my career which made me move from defence force to the  corporate world and I had some successes too. But, I stopped for  moment and thought where I was going.  I felt I was getting sucked into a rat race which would never end. Call it mid life crisis or whatever.  So, I took this conscious decision to concentrate more on my investment portfolio to gain financial and personal freedom and I have to let go off my career goals which was harming me than helping me. Now as you mentioned I have conciously taken a path where i get paid well but does not have too much responsibility as I dont care about promotions anymore and would like to stop working for someone in the near future. There are lots of people who take exactly the opposite route like they want to go very high in the corporate ladder but dont care about their family or thier investments. There is nothing right or wrong in it until the person goes and achieve whatever their goal is. Irony is when people do not achieve anything. Like they may have a very high flying career and they never thought or took care of their investments or their family and when they retire they realize that they are screwed with nowhere to go. All those great things that they achieve while working vanished into thin air as they never knew how to keep money or handle family relationships.

 

Regards

Ravi