No More “Can’t”

I’ve mentioned before the thought leaders who have helped shape my mindset toward financial independence and simple living, and one message that really has stuck with me and led me and my family to make a radical change is Robert Kiyosaki’s emphasis on never saying “I can’t,” but instead figuring out how you can. It is very easy to dismiss an opportunity or challenge by saying to yourself, “Oh well, I don’t have the money/time/energy to do it.” But as Tony Robbin’s notes, you get your Musts – meaning you will prioritize what you think is necessary, while your wants and wishes will continue to languish. So to the rut of “I can’t” or want to’s, you need to focus instead on figuring out how to make it possible and your “why.”

We started off in 2020 hoping to finally achieve our goal of buying some land and building our dream house. But we soon realized that in order to buy a new property we either had to sell our current one or rent it to get financing since our debt-to-income ratio could not float both. The thing is, we really didn’t want to sell our current house, and for a few reasons:

• Real estate investing was an important piece of our path toward financial independence.
• We could get really good cashflow from our house as a rental, plus depreciation and likely appreciation.
• Because we originally did not plan to rent the property, we renovated it quite a bit, which over-improved it for the neighborhood, so it was very possible we would lose money selling it.

Not knowing how long it’d take to rent our place in the height of COVID, we decided to do something a little extreme to ensure we could secure a new home: with two small kids and another on the way, we moved into an approximately 450 sq. ft. studio above a garage at a family member’s house. This way we could get our home rented, save some money, and spend more time with extended family. What could go wrong?? It doesn’t hurt that I’ve been a tiny living enthusiast for years.

Now, while extremes can be an effective motivator, you do not have to make moves so radical. Small but consistent steps toward your goal are right where some people are. It depends on your urgency and the size of your goal. What do you need to do to hit that mark or stay on track to hit it over X period of time? All I know is that I wanted–no, needed–to find a way to make progress toward my goal of financial independence and simple living, and this is just the way I went about it. In that spirit, I encourage you, next time you want to afford or do something that seems out of your reach (ideally something that helps you progress toward your goal), to think instead about how you can make it happen without resigning to what you consider your current limitations. It might require some serious creativity, grit, and sacrifice; but focus on why you are working toward your goal, and don’t quit before you even start.

In the end, we didn’t transition straight to our end goal of living in a farmhouse with some land with this move because we were not quite ready for the commute that would have been required, so we prioritized finding a place closer to my work with a long-sought-after garage in the meantime. As I advocate throughout my posts, take smart small consistent steps toward your goals rather than one big risky leap. We did not give up our pursuit of a homestead, and within a few years we got pretty close!