$100,000 Net Worth: The Haleakala Of Your Financial Journey

I crossed the $100,000 net worth threshold when I was 27. 

I've coached a lot of people across that finish and I've helped some people realize they were already passed it. I've read books and studied millionaires and billionaires and it all comes down to this...

$100k net worth is the most significant financial milestone there is.

I will die on this hill...and this hill I will call Haleakala. But more on that in a second. What matters is why this is important.

The Most Important Financial Milestone

The billionaire Charlie Munger once said "That first $100,000 is a bitch, but ya gotta do it."

Millionaires across the world agree with him. So do I.

So why is it so important? There's 3 reasons:

1. You can't normally invest your way to $100k
2. It has to be attained primarily through labor
3. The biggest obstacle is behaviors, not knowledge

Angela Duckworth wrote in her ground-breaking book Grit, "Everyone knows effort matters. What was revelatory to me was how much it mattered."

The first $100,000 requires you to:

• Learn valuable skills
• Master your spending impulses to a certain degree
• Create a plan and stick to the plan
• Resist lifestyle creep (spending more as you make more)
• Get aggressive with your debt

These are not things people tend to do well. There must be purpose and effort behind them over a long period of time. And that is why the first $100,000 is so hard.

The 5 Levels Of The Journey

Through my studies around the difficulty of this milestone, I have created levels of certain activities to achieve your first $100,000 that I've detailed in my course, Momentum.

I've sorted them based on the time required and difficulty of each.

• Level 1 - No Excuses
  • Budgeting
  • Eliminating Expenses
• Level 2 - Control and Expand
  • Tackle Debt
  • Build Your Professional Network
  • Time Audit
• Level 3 - Improve Your Superpowers
  • Upskill/Reskill
  • Get A Raise
  • Tax-Advantaged Options
• Level 4 - Go Forth And Conquer
  • Promotion
  • New Income Stream
  • Investing
• Level 5 - The Final Boss: YOU
  • Maintain Existing Lifestyle For 5 Years

Through all the data, opinions and personal experience I have, I truly believe that if you live in a capitalistic economy, there is no reason you can't achieve $100,000 net worth in 5 years or less if you focus on raising your capabilities within these 5 levels.

There's a lot of ways to accomplish it, but they ultimately fall into this order of difficulty.

An important note is that these are NOT chronological.

You can get a promotion before you ever put a budget together!

This is about level of difficulty and the approximate time it would take to accomplish if you were starting from scratch.

The next few weeks will be devoted to each of these levels and we will get more specific on how to enhance our capabilities to start increasing our earning potential.

$100,000 = Haleakala

I've been to Hawaii three times but I've only been to Maui once.

On that island is an area called Haleakala (Hal-ee-ah-kah-lah). It's a famous stretch of road that makes bikers sweat at the very sound of it.

In the cycling world, it is considered one of the toughest stretches in the world.

It's not the steepest and actually comes in at a doable 5% gradient. What takes people out of the race is how long it is. 

10,000 feet to climb. 36 miles. Thinning oxygen the higher you go.

But what happens when you make it?

You experience one of the most spectacular views on the entire planet.

As a cyclist, its an ultimate achievement. You will never be the same. The world will look different to you.

I did not cycle up Haleakala. I had a much more pleasant drive up it in a convertible Mustang.

But I won't forget the awesome beauty I experienced sitting up there for hours. 

Coming from the flat lands of Florida, it changed how I saw things.

That's what reaching $100,000 net worth will do for you.

It'll change how you see opportunity. You'll develop behavioral muscles that will take you anywhere you want to go. Things won't be the same once you cross it.

So, if you want to start your journey up your financial Haleakala, be sure to follow along the next few weeks.

It's going to be an exciting ride.