What to do now to succeed in 2021
I don’t know how you feel these days, but for me, there is a strange duality happening frequently in the last few weeks.
On the one hand, I feel like a ton of stuff has been happening in 2020 and I did more forms-filling than I can recall for any of the last 5 years. The good news from that is that most of the programs that were developed by the government were approved. There were EIDL, PPP, SBA loans, etc. The banks wanted all kinds of forms and scans, etc. It feels like a ton.
On the other hand, it somehow feels like the beginning of the year just ended and I can’t believe we are 80 days away from the end of the year.
What should you do to prepare for a successful 2021? Naturally, I am looking through the residential real estate investing lens because that is my focus.
You have the best chance for successful change by asking and answering questions and in those cases where the answers are “No”, you should take the remaining time this year to get ready for 2021.
- Are you keeping track of every penny that comes into your accounts? If you aren’t, start doing that and realize what inflows you have.
- Are you taking 10% of every penny and Dollar that comes in and transfer it into your accumulation account? If not, start immediately. That is the quickest way to establish a foundation to invest or accelerate your savings. You might be afraid that you will miss the money but it is amazing how we have conditioned ourselves to manage the funds we have to last till the end of the month. If you start with a little less you will still apply your established, well-practiced budgeting skills to reach the end of the month.
- Do you have to go to work every day or has that changed in 2020? Will it likely change back or probably remain as it is now? If you re in a field where work from home is an option, plan for that. If you have been told that it might go back to work onsite, check your specific industry and see if other companies in your specialty have published what they plan to do. Some companies have already decided to keep work from home around long term, others haven’t.
- Have you looked at your cost of living in combination with your living location? If you think you are going to work remotely or have a good chance to find a position in another location for your kind of specialty, begin looking at geographic locations that have a lower cost of living or provide you with more value for your money.
- Have you checked your credit score recently? If not, do so immediately. Pay particular attention to any entries about forbearance you may have asked for, any sign of missed rent, delayed car payments, delayed credit card payments. Apply your particular situation to know if any f these might apply to you. The banks and card companies are not supposed to report anything negative for any of these measures, but we have caught some doing it, anyway. You want to be aware and begin making sure that you have the best possible, clean score to be ready for investments in 2021.
- Have you looked for and read articles about the reaction of the public to the pandemic? People are trying to get away from dense apartment complexes. They try to get out of overpriced inner-city accommodations, etc. If you study where people move and maybe combine it with where to move, you can find places that would be nice for you and great to invest.
- Have you reviewed how close you have come to the goals you set at the start of 2021 and what to do to still reach most of them? If you find that you still have work to do, I suggest finding a friend or confidant to talk about it or, work with a mentor and coach. That way you can make up time and have a very successful final quarter for 2020
- Have you asked yourself if your BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) has changed at all in 2020? Normally these longer-term ambitious goals don’t change a lot but 2020 hasn’t been a normal year. You may have realized that you could live in another location. You may realize that the economy is much more fragile than you thought. You may realize that you want to change your approach to money or the work you want to do or the capabilities you will need in the future. All that has an impact on the BHAG. If you like help, get the free mindset manual on our website and review the GROWER section as well as the videos on the YouTube channel.
- Have you reviewed your behaviors regarding health, eating, exercise, etc? In the past, we often heard about the theoretical approaches that some people adopted for themselves. The 2020 pandemic has shown that the way you take care of your body has a massive impact on its ability to fight off infections. You want to come up with a scheme that allows you to get healthy so any remaining or new infection has little chance to affect you significantly.
- Have you asked yourself how your life could or look like if you had enough passive income to no longer have to exchange time for money and be employed? If not, please think about it and determine how a great life on a daily basis would look for you. A great exercise is to write a letter to yourself in which you take at least 1 week and describe it hour by hour, event by event, pretending you have reached your economic freedom point. That’s the point in time where you no longer have to work. You could work or do something that others might call work even if you don’t do it for the money but because you love it. Living of passive income in your mind is helping to imagine how life would look like and it will become a great motivator for 2021.
I know these are not all the questions one can ask for 2021 or to finish 2020 strong. Making a list and then going through it will be a really helpful activity.
Don’t underestimate how revealing it could be. An additional benefit is the first step in establishing a great habit of regularly reviewing where you are right now, what you accomplished, and what’s coming next and then determining how much you have advanced towards your BHAG.
Please don’t sit back and wait. Those remaining 80 days of 2020 will be gone in a blink.