Do you have a plan or destination or are you just running amok?

As pilots we usually have a destination, well before planning for the actual trip begins.

It's essential. How else will you know what variables go into the flight planning?

What's your payload? How's the weather? What's the best routing? How much fuel will you need? What are your alternates, just in case things don't go as planned?

You can visualize the differences in flight plans between a flight from New York to Paris, compared to a flight from New York to Florida.

The timing and effort spent before for the longer flight reflects more extensive planning.

Your money works the same way.

Planning for a life of luxury will differ from planning for an “average” lifestyle. If you don’t aim for Paris, you’ll never get there. If you don’t aim for a comfortable retirement, you won’t get there!  

Unfortunately, most people don't plan for the endgame. They're barely making ends meet, or they're saving a little, but have no plan for the endgame.

It's essential to know what you want before you go and get it.

Following 9/11 and my last airline furlough, I knew my endgame was to never rely on one source of income and that I needed to fine-tune my endgame.

Next step was to devise a plan what Financial Freedom means - to me! I adopted the philosophy of Robert Kiyosaki of "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" fame: Financial Freedom is reached when your passive income exceeds your cost of living.

That number differs for everyone depending on your home city, occupation, style of living and personal goals.

If you’ve ever played “Cash Flow,” Kiyosaki’s board game, I would win more often being the janitor than being the Airline Pilot! Why? The janitor’s cost of living was lower and the number to reach to win Financial Freedom was lower.

But the lifestyle of the janitor may not be the lifestyle you choose. Most of us have already chosen the Airline Pilot lifestyle. Many of us have the Airline Pilot income, but also the Airline Pilot expenses.

Until you understand your Numbers now, you can’t plan for Financial Freedom.

In my case, October 2001 marked the loss of my entire airline paycheck and the loss of all of my income. It also marked the start of my journey into real estate and creating additional sources of income.

I kicked off that month with a freelance writing contract (I was a business editor in a former life before airplanes.) I then signed up for real estate school. The freelance contract provided immediate income; real estate revenues still had to my bottom line still to this day.

It wasn’t an accident; it was planned. In my case, it was planned out of fear of not having money to support my then-growing family. In 2020, when many Airliners were grounded and other carriers closed their doors altogether, my income outside the industry continued to grow.

There was peace knowing that despite my airline’s adoption of a 35 percent pay cut for my seniority level, my lifestyle was not in jeopardy.

If you don’t know where to start creating that additional income CLICK HERE.

If you want to avoid the anxiety when your airline job take a nosedive, join the Success Flight Path Academy. CLICK HERE to reserve your seat to six easy-to-follow modules will take you from anxious to creating your own abundance.