Ryan McLean : Slightly Unconventional

A Road Diverged In A Yellow Wood And I Took The Job Less Travelled By

One of the biggest dilemmas I am faced with today is how can I achieve financial freedom so that I don’t “have” to work anymore and can enjoy my life and focus on building my wealth instead of just getting by.

It is hard when you have so many different paths that you can take, all of which are good and could present a good outcome. Because of all these options I feel frustrated because I don’t know what to do and I don’t know which path to take. I feel like the person in Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Less Travelled”.

I have one goal, and that is financial freedom for myself and my family. But as we all know there are many ways to get from A to B. If I want to get from Sydney To Melbourne I can get there a variety I ways. I can fly, drive, ride a bike, walk or go by boat. I can go via perth, take a straight line or even go around New Zealand if I want. They all take you to the same place.

Different ways either take longer or cost you more. It may be cheaper to ride a bike than to drive, but it is quicker to drive than to ride a bike. So you have to pay in time and money. Generally speaking the more money you spend the less time it takes.

My Dilemma

I want to achieve financial freedom quickly, without the use of a lot of my own money.

A doctor can achieve financial freedom quite quickly as they earn a lot of money and can thus invest it to produce a passive income. I have chosen to take the path of not educating myself professionally and working/investing to become financially free. Instead I have decided to educate myself financially in the hopes that I can use that education to produce financial freedom with less time and less money. Sounds like a big ask doesn’t it.

What Are My Options?

Looking at my options is like looking at the beach. Every option is a grain of sand, yet when you look at the beach you don’t see individual grains of sand, you see a shoreline. That is how I feel sometimes. Completely overwhelmed by my options that I don’t really see the options of take advantage of them.

So what are some of my options?

1. Full Time Work + Property

I could go and get a full time job and earn $40-$50k per year and I would be happy to do this. It would allow me to invest in property more easily as I would have a strong standing with the banks and have access to more capital. However, the problem this forms for me is that I work have to work 5 days per week to earn the same amount I am earning now and I only work 2-3 days casual and do freelance writing (which gives me time with my family).

It is something that I have definately not ruled out, but something that is more in the back of my mind as an alternatie solution. If I worked full time I would probably stop internet marketing and I would focus on building a property portfolio to generate passive income.

2. Part Time Work + Internet Marketing + Property

I could get a part time job working 4 days per week, instead of working casual. If I did this I would stop freelance writing and focus on internet marketing with a slow entry into property once my internet marketing income grew. My internet marketing income is already on the rise and I am seeing passive income from my internet marketing.

For example, I have a check for a few hundred dollars in the mail and I get monthly deposits into my bank account from my internet marketing sites. I guess if I did this the focus would be to just work and spend my spare time to slowly build up my internet marketing business so that I could eventually work for myself. Then I would look at investing in property to replace my internet marketing income and thus become financially free.

So far this seems to be one of the highest ranking options

3. Casual Work + Freelance Writing + Internet Marketing + (maybe) Property

Currently this is what I am doing. I am working casually which pays the rent and then I am earning income as a freelance writer, and I am trying to fit in some internet marketing in there as well (which I am failing at). The great thing about this option is that freelance writing has SO MUCH potential.

I hated english in school and now writing and reading are my 2 favourite pastimes. I am a great writer and I can earn good money as a freelance writer (and I do). My clients are extremely excited about my high quality of writing and are willing to pay good money for it. Freelance writing has the potential to grow even more as I do more and more copywriting.

Copywriting is writing sales pages and when you can write copy like I can you can easily make enough money to live off. My current problem is A) Finding the time to write amongst everything else that is going on and B) Building up my client base so that I have a steady stream of income.

This goal here would be to try to replace casual work with freelance writing (which I would love to do) and then do freelance writing full time and internet marketing in my spare time. Then as my freelance writing career grew, and as my internet marketing income grew I would invest in property and become financially free.

The biggest thing holding me back from doing this is fear mixed with a little bit of tiredness. Fear that I won’t be able to earn enough and that I might fair and tiredness from the stress of the fear 🙂

As I Write This It Is Becoming Clearer

Remember how I said that sometimes I feel like I have so many options that I get overwhelmed? Well now that I am writing this down it is becoming clearer to me.

Before I was leaning more towards part time work 4 days per week, but now I am realising how much I LOVE to write and how exciting it would be to be a full time freelance writer.

Really option #3 would be the same as option #1 almost. Instead of working full time for a company and being paid as an employee I would be working full time for my clients and being paid for the work I do. I could keep this as a small business, or I could grow it and hire writers to work for me. There is so much potential in this.

Steps To Take

Now that I am starting to become clearer on my options I have a few steps to take. I need to firstly make the decision on the path that I am going to travel and I need to put all other paths out of my mind so that I can focus. I then need to say no to the other options so if more work comes up that doesn’t fit in with my chosen profession then I need to say no!

Then I need to focus. I need to focus on the job at hand and forget about all the other opportunities that are out there. I need to ask God to bless my decision and the path that I have chosen to take and I need to walk it.

I need to burn my boats as well. Burning your boats is an expression of burning all your other options so that you are forced to take the path you have traveled. Whatever I decide I need to burn my other boats and drive myself forward.

Thank you to my blog for letting me get all this out. Getting things down on paper (or in this case on my blog) really helps me clarify things. It is strange that I don’t do it more often.



2 responses to “A Road Diverged In A Yellow Wood And I Took The Job Less Travelled By”

  1. Fdc says:

    hope to learn much from you

  2. Alex says:

    Very interesting. I know what you mean. I’m trying to clear all the unnecessary gunk from my life too so I can focus on the work that’s most important and enjoyable to me.

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