Scott Trench - Set for Life: Dominate Life, Money, and the American Dream

SET FOR LIFE

Dominate Life, Money and the American Dream

By Scott Trench

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Limit of Liability: Please note that much of this publication is based on personal experience and anecdotal evidence. Although the author and publisher have made every reasonable attempt to achieve complete accuracy of the content in this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. Your particular circumstances may not be suited to the examples illustrated in this book; in fact, they likely will not be. You should use the information in this book at your own risk. Nothing in this book is intended to replace common sense or legal, accounting, or professional advice and is meant only to inform.

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Set For Life: Dominate Life, Money and the American Dream

Scott Trench

Published by BiggerPockets Publishing LLC, Denver, CO

Copyright 2017 by Scott Trench

All Rights Reserved.

Publishers Cataloging-in-Publication

(Provided by Quality Books, Inc.)

Trench, Scott, author.

Set for life : dominate life, money and the American

dream / by Scott Trench. First edition.

pages cm

ISBN 978-0- 9975847-1- 4

ISBN 978-0- 9975847-2- 1

1. Young adults Finance, Personal. 2. Investments.

3. Wealth. I. Title.

HG179.T74 2017 332.024'010842

QBI17-348

First Edition

Printed in the United State of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Contents

Lets talk about the American Dream. Traditionally, for the majority of usat least for those of us in the middle classit means consistency. It means buying a nice home, in a nice neighborhood, and having a nice life. It means that after a thirty or forty-year career, we plan to retire using a formula that historically hinges on having saved 10 to 15 percent of our income and having invested in a 401(k) or other retirement vehicle.

The problem with this formula is that the working person following it will be forced to work for wage income for the better part of his day, during the best part of his week, throughout the best years of his life. At best, he will retire with a modest amount of wealth, late in life, and be forced to hope its enough to last.

How about a different formula for the American Dream? How about something capable of producing a retirement level of wealth in less than ten years? How about less than five? How about retiring in your twenties from wage-paying work?

Those who accomplish this financial result can laugh off would-be employers who ask them to be at work before 9:00 a.m. She can spend a sunny summer Tuesday at the park instead of crunching spreadsheets in a dusty cubicle. He can stay up until 3:00 a.m. binge-watching Game of Thrones on Sunday night, and head to the gym at noon on Monday. She can rent out her house and travel the world, living like a local. He can start a business funded with passive income, volunteer in his community, or focus on raising his small children. She can serve others without the red tape and bureaucracy of corporate involvement or the interference of a boss with objectives different from hers.

Early financial freedom enables this. Those who achieve early financial freedom build wealth and acquire assets such that they produce passive income in excess of what they need to live. And they expect to continue to generate that level of income for the duration of their lives. Regardless of whether you currently enjoy your work or not, early financial freedom is a worthwhile goal. Industries change, companies change, and coworkers change. Even if you love your job, wouldnt it be great to have the option to leave wage-paying work? Wouldnt it be great to know that you show up because you love to be there, and not because you have to be there?

This book will teach you how to make wage income irrelevant to your financial picture in just a few years. In this book, you will learn how to redesign your lifestyle, restart your career, and rebuild your financial position. In this book, you will save your money, earn more money, and use the cash you accumulate to purchase freedom and the ability to design your day-to-day life without the need for wage-paying work. This book is designed for someone with a specific set of circumstances. It is designed for the full-time median (around $50,000 per year) wage earner who has little to no initial savings but wants early financial freedom.

Three Stages of Wealth Creation

This book offers a simple, three-step approach to gaining early financial freedom. It is written with a specific audience in mind: the full-time wage earner starting with little to no wealth but aspiring to early financial freedom. Each step in the journey increases ones flexibility and exposes the individual to more and more opportunities. Each step increases ones financial runwaythe number of years that one can maintain their lifestyle without the need for wage-paying work. Many Americans cant survive for more than a few months without earning a paycheck. Readers of this book will rapidly develop a financial position capable of sustaining their lives for a year without work. Then theyll extend their financial runway to five years. Then forever.

Part I of this book will take Average Joe from $0 to $25,000 in personal wealth. You have to start somewhere, and the median wage earner with little to no accessible wealth will begin their journey by focusing on lifestyle design. Part I teaches readers how to make the necessary changes to go from little to no savings to preserving over 50 percent of ones middle class income. It teaches readers how to live well on less than $2000 per month and how to use the savings to pay down debt and extend their financial runway to a year or more. Executing this leaves the reader in a position to have a full year of expenses in after-tax wealth, ready to be deployed in pursuit of early financial freedom.

Part II of this book takes readers from $25,000 to $100,000 in personal wealth. It takes readers from one year of financial runway to a position in which they could survive for three to five years or more without earning a paycheck. While continuing to live efficient lifestyles, readers will further reduce their living expenses by purchasing a primary residence that allows them to live for free. They will also learn how to earn significantly more income by changing careers and how to develop habits tied to success. Opportunities to earn more income often develop out of careers in sales or technology, or are the result of joining a small company or freelancing. The financial runway developed in Part I will be critical to ensuring that readers can pursue these opportunities with little risk.

Part III of this book takes readers from $100,000 to early financial freedom. It takes them from several years of financial runway to a lifetime of permanent financial abundance. Readers will continue to scale their income and live efficiently, but our focus shifts to the purchase and creation of income-producing assets. Readers are exposed to an advanced discussion on the concept of financial freedom and taught investment philosophy. They learn what types of wealth count toward financial freedom, and what types dont. This background will enable readers to intelligently exploit the investment and income opportunities multiplying before them as their financial position improves and their financial runway lengthens. Readers also learn how to track their progress efficiently.