From the desk of Victor Pride
Location: Bangkok
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There is one little secret you need to know if you want to make an income without a 9-5 job.
It’s a secret that everyone knows, an open secret, but is just so hard to grasp for some reason.
What is the secret to making it without having a 9-5 job?
The secret is you must live below your means.
Far below your means.
That does not mean you need to live in filth like an animal, it means you need to pay as little money as humanly possible for you to live. If you can live for free, so much better.
Typically, when someone gets a job, a “good job”, their life expenses increase as well. They will usually rent a nicer apartment or “buy” a nicer house (with a mortgage) and they will typically purchase or lease a new automobile. These are big expenses and they come with many hidden expenses like higher insurance premiums.
As the income goes up their spending goes up to match it.
Bills, bills, debt and more bills. More money, more stress as they say.
With so many bills there is no way a normal person can just quit their job and focus on an entrepreneurial endeavor.
I hear that all the time. “I can’t quit my job, I have bills to pay!“.
The secret is to get rid of the bills.
A car payment isn’t necessary when an automobile that will get you from point A to B can be purchased with cash. An expensive home isn’t necessary if you wish to achieve more.
You need money to live. There is no way around that but if you spend the majority of the money on your home and auto you have a tiny, tiny chance of ever breaking free and making money as an entrepreneur.
Buy what you need and only what you need and don’t buy luxury. Save the luxury. Standing in line for the new $400 phone is a waste of your time and money.
The right time to buy luxury is when luxury seems cheap to you.
You need to keep your money as a padding in case in those inevitable lean times you need a place to live that will not be too hard to pay for. You don’t want to spend all your time and energy just working to try and pay rent. Your time and energy should be spent on other things, like building your business.
I know what it’s like to have a hefty mortgage during the lean times. It’s like a noose around your neck. It’s anxiety and stress and it’s no way to live.
I am able to do a lot of things and visit a lot of places precisely because I live damn near for free. My rent is $500 per month presently and fully paid up through the end of my lease. It is a very smart to move to pay up your living arrangements in advance, as far in advance as you are able to. It’s a stress relieving feeling to say to yourself “Well, now my home is paid up for the next year, how should I spend my time now that I’m not worried about paying rent?“.
The answer, of course, is to spend your time making more money and buying freedom. The answer isn’t to slave away for your boss man, making him rich so you can barely get your mortgage paid.
I’ve been on both sides of that coin, and I’ll tell you my way is better.
A lot of people can’t get by without buying all the new toys and digging themselves deeper into debt. Fine for them. But not fine for me, and I damn sure know it’s not fine for a lot of Bold and Determined readers.
Live below your means. Live Spartan. Make the money, put in the work. When the new luxury home seems cheap to you that is the right time to buy.
And if it isn’t cheap, hey, just make more money until it is.
Your man,
-Victor Pride
Victor,
Thanks for another great post. I purchased The Spartan’s Entreprenuers Guide to Making $100 Online on Monday. I took immediate action and started my blog. I follow the instructions in the book 100 % but have yet to see any traffic.Of course, I know this requires patience and that my blog still needs a lot of work. I’ve only writtten one fo the articles our of the 3-5 that you suggest. My questions to you is, what do you recommend we talk say when we post in a blog to try and get traffic to our site. Also, if we post the direct link to the website that we are an affiliate with, does that work just as well as when I post the link to my blog? Last, are there any additional books or materials that you recommend to me that will help my my success with this process? Any feedback would be much appreciated. Keep up the great work with this site, it’s really helped me and others.
Holy shit, you bought the book on Monday and have EVERYTHING up and running by Wednesday?
Alex, send me an email for Q’s about Spartan Entrepreneur method.
Good advice.
It’s a major reason to ensure all your friends are winners.
As you said, people tend to increase their living expenses when their income increases. Part of this is driving influence is from peers, who also don;t have that winning mindset.
Most of us are reasonably content with out existing lives. With a pay rise, maintain your existing lifestyle, thus the gap between your pay and expenses increases for your benefit.
The friends you want, the friends you NEED, understand this. They should be living the same way, the ones that drain you think a pay rise means a more expensive brand of beer to drink on weekends, or one more big toy (a toy that needs petrol, maintenance, insurance, etc.).
Another ass kicking article about kicking some ass. Love it.
Spot on! I devoted an entire chapter of my book to this very subject. “Maximize income, minimize overhead.” It’s the path to great wealth in the long run.
Just paid my rent a year in advance (600 square foot apartment in Offtheradarstan) in exchange for a discount: $400. And no, usd$400 is not the discount, it’s the rent. For twelve months.
The key is to move to a low-GDP country, get situated far from the large cities, and pay what the locals pay.
@ John: Sick rent bro.
@Victor: Great point. Living below my “means” is a big part of what makes me able to live the lifestyle I live too.
Amazing. I would ask where Offtheradarstan is (and I am VERY curious) but there are many places around the world like that. The cheapest I have been is $1200 per year but in a mid sized city, downtown location. There are many, many, many young entrepreneurs living for about $1500 per year in SE Asia in places like Saigon, Phnom Penh, Chiang Mai, the Phils etc.
Where I am is a particularly extreme example of cheap, but yes, there are lots of low-cost places for a man to live. And of course one can spend lots anywhere, to keep overhead low requires iron discipline. The metals and mining stocks are near the bottom of an interim cycle now, so for me at least it’s a pleasure to squeeze pennies. Within a year or two, the better silver miners will be up ten-fold from where they are now, *minimum.* Watch.
Another big thing that’s helped me is coming up with a budget for my expenses and then living by it like its the freaking Holy Bible. I track my income and expenses religiously and run my personal life like I’m running a business. Tends to keep the money flowing easier, relieve stress.
Good post, man.
Great article once again. We appreciate the fact that u are writing more frequently. U should write an article on health and disability insurance for the internet entrepreneur. Some people don t leave corporate america because of the health insurance and disability insurance that their jobs or careers provide. Any suggestions? U don t want to end with cancer or get into any accidents and end up broke…
Just bought a cheap ass prepaid tracfone for business and play. SO MUCH EASIER than a damn iphone.
I did that for years, so easy, so simple, no headaches and no hassles.
Yep. Have never owned an internet-capable phone. Paying just under $13/month for home broadband, and have a *very* comfortable overstuffed chair-with-ottoman nice and close to a 32-inch 1080p monitor suspended at eye level. Life’s good.
This article makes me feel better about selling my car to buy a domain name, which is on the way. I bought it through godaddy auctions.
A few weeks ago I was up ’til 3am trying to snag a domain at auction, but it got a tad too expensive (about 210k) so I called it a night. IMO domains are great, great investments IF! you pick the right one(s).
Wow! 210K That is a huge amount but if it drives enough traffic I could see it paying off big time.
The problem with domains is that they are one of a kind. It’s hard to put a real number on their value. And the real value is really driven by Google’s algorithms which can change at any time.
So at the end of the day it’s if you’re willing to pay a little more than the next guy for the domain.
Do you know of a way to attempt an accurate estimate of the value of a domain?
Hey Victor,
great article! But I got a normal question, which has nothing to do with this subject: Are you a racist or do you have something against black people to some degree? And if yes, tell me why.
It would be great if you can answer this question.
Honestly could not agree with this any more “The right time to buy luxury is when luxury seems cheap to you” So incredibly correct. Been telling my girlfriends this for a long time now! Keep up the killer work, keep inspiring me!
Jordan
Also Vic, have you ever thought of getting a donations button for your site?
Sounds annoying for numero uno.
From what I’ve observed… Donations don’t work very well. The times when they do, are actually sales with a good cause being a selling point. This is as true for donating to that quivvering voice on tv asking for aid for diseased children (and offering awards such as photographs to enhance your feelgood) as it is for kickstarter.
I don’t remember what band(s) have done pay what you want songs, but it turned out well for them. What I can point you to, is http://www.cardsagainsthumanity.com/holidaystats/ this crazy experiment and https://www.humblebundle.com/ both are freely boasting their statistics and give some food for thought.
Oh, Wikipedia apparently made nearly 30mil in donations last year… It is a household resource and claimed it would die without the money, so it’s more like the public television drives than paying out of pure appreciation.
Your attitude is light years ahead of what you see in Rich Dad, Poor Dad and similar “get rich” advice books. For the last two years I’ve lived below my means and for most people on the outside, there is no difference.
Shit just blew my mind Victor.
I read your shit all the time and you have a lot of good stuff, but this really opened my eyes.
I’ve been spending the last month looking at bmw’s and apartments, you just may have saved my life. I don’t plan on sitting behind a desk in a year and this may a big key.
-Sean
Victor what can someone in the states do to get less taxes taken out of their check legally if they work?
This won’t help if you’re tied to a job location wise, but there are still US states with no state income tax. Texas is one example, and its economy seems to be doing pretty well.
Great article. A few of my other favorite blogs have hinted at this already.
My question is when is the time for luxury? The upgrade to the loft apartment you always wanted, the C-Class Mercedes loan you always thought was fucking awesome. Is it a certain percentage of disposable income you save or when you can buy everything in cash?
When you say to yourself “Wow, that’s so cheap”, that’s the right time.
IMO the key is to zig when others are zagging. If you look at the history of monetary inflations, people end up dumping their luxury goods to raise cash for food, fuel, and rent (described in Chapter Two of my book, which is included in the free abridged version). That’s the time to buy. So the trick, as I see it, is to buy investments now that will rocket in an inflationary environment, at which time you’ll be able to pick up Beemers and Rolex watches for pennies on the dollar…but then, maybe by that time you’ll not be so keen on status symbols and will be more interested in using that money to travel around, as our esteemed host does. Screw stuff, go for enriching experiences. But it means disciplining yourself to wait. Patience is key. IMO this is the time to earn and wait. The time for enjoying the fruits of present postponement of gratification is at least a few years away.
The right time is when the car price is max. 10% of your savings! Not enough savings? Buy a used car. I have bought my car this way (in cash) and it is the best feeling in the world - buying things in cash!
Victor the reason I asked about the taxes was because u wrote once about a guy who u met who paid zero taxes legally by doing certain things. I wish I can do that. Any tips…I know there are ways out there but this info is hidden from the public….
The guy that did that was very smart, very calculating and very meticulous. He had been audited by the IRS 2 or 3 times and beat them each time. He would do things like pay his kids $100 to do yard work, and with that $100 they would buy their school clothes, but he would write it off as home expenses. He would do EVERYTHING like that.
I did it the simpler way. Visited the US embassy here in Offtheradarstan and filled out the requisite forms.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/30923462/American-Expatriation-Guide
If you think about it, we’re bred to be consumers and debt slaves since birth, what with watching Saturday morning cartoons and seeing hundreds if not thousands of commercials a week. Plus we aren’t taught the value of money and leveraging money. We’re taught “I WANT IT NOW”.
Btw I had a feeling I would get on the featured comment with that last comment I made, thanks for the honor Victor!
Congrats on 5000+ subscribers as well and I love your new affiliate program. Your products will be on my website for sure.
This is just so much straight forward common sense, it’s hard to imagine why so few people get it.
I love this post, its so incredibly true. I’m actually headed back to your archives right now. I’ve softened a little recently. Things have bitten me in the ass and I know where now, but thank god I have some hardening tools in your back posts.
Congrats on your 5000 subscribers. With articles like this one I only see those numbers increasing.
Victor what do u think is better buying a house or condo or just renting an apt? My biggest expense is rent which is 1425 in NY. I want to do what u said in this article so that I can quit my job forever but the rent is preventing me from taking that risk.
Renting is better UNLESS you A) pay cash and B) Plan to stay in your house for a very long time or C) are using it as an income producing property (a rental). If not one of those 3, renting is better.
Hey Vic,
Would you take the time to give me some tips on how do you protect your website from hackers?
I was hacked twice during the very beginning and progress of my blog and it pissed me off to that extent, that I thought I wouldn’t mind going all the way to hacker’s country, finding him and breaking every bone in his fucking body to teach him some manners, if I had the opportunity to find out their adress.
I’d like to know if there is any special plugin, software or anything you’re using to save yourself from being bothered by shit like that.
Appreciated.
Thanks,
Mike.
I use a plugin called “limit login attempts”.
Victor when following the steak and eggs diet to get big or ripped have u ever suffered from high cholesterol? I want to eat that everyday however I m afraid of developing high cholesterol and not being able to get it up later. Also where did this whole idea about eating every 3 hours and 6 meals a day come from since u have said in your body of spartan ebook that it s all bullshit….ty
It came from supplement companies who want to make money from you. They sell you the idea you need x amount of protein per day (you don’t) and no one can eat that much protein but, here’s a solution, buy our protein powders to get your “required” protein in.
If you’re eating 2,500 kcals a day and getting only 20% of it as protein, that’s almost 2 pounds a week of protein intake. Muscle tissue is 3/4 water, so that’s enough protein for 7-8 pounds of lean muscle mass. No one is going to gain that much muscle mass in one week, not even a beginning juicer. If you’re already built up you’ll be doing well to gain a couple of ounces of lean mass per week. That’s a tiny fraction of your protein throughput, especially if you are eating a high protein diet and working out hard. You don’t need protein supplements for that tiny extra margin that goes into new muscle tissue.
ifyou are worried; Seek medical help first if you have history of high cholesterol then a keto diet mightnot be for you; you can have your physician prescribe statin for you if that is the case. Statins help you build muscle as well by increasing muscle damage rate. combine that with hi choles diet when you know that choles is the foundation of testosterone production; it is a win win situation for your choles worries and muscle gain.
again, domesticated people who don’t get any exercise have NO RIGHT to eat a high cholesterol diet!
WE on the other hand - bust our ass in the gym almost everyday-need cholesterol for muscle repair
Thank you
Dietary cholesterol has jack shit to do with serum cholesterol. Your body makes its own cholesterol and adjusts the amount to compensate for your intake. Every single person I know who tried to control their cholesterol by diet saw their serum cholesterol go up, even when they didn’t a drop of the stuff. If you want to keep your cholesterol down, don’t get fat. Period.
Get sunlight. Turns cholesterol into testosterone and vitamin d. consume things like saurkraut or other fermented vegetables to get vitamin k2. D3 makes you absorb calcium, but k2 makes sure it goes where it should, instead of your joints and organs.
Has to be fermented to have k2, if your ingredients are just cabbage and vinegar, it wasn’t fermented.
Looking into it a little further, turns out meat and egg (yolks) are sources of k2. One website claims there is a study that shows k2 reduces risk of prostate cancer by 35%.
So there you have it, more proof that meat is invaluable for men.
Vic, God how I wish I could adopt these beliefs and put them into practice!!!! My problem is my wife and kids, trying to convince a woman to live like this is like getting blood from a stone, just doesn’t work!!! The stepdaughter has an iphone, wife has her BMW, and I with my 95 Cherokee sport(which I’m actually happy with) I want so bad to downsize some things, but trying to get it through her head is impossible!!!
Yeah. One reason among many why I live abroad, where the women are not so spoiled and entitled. I keep a concubine here, my word is final, and it costs me the same as owning a dog back home.
Live below your means-while increasing your means-VERY VERY REAL! Same thing I learned from
Rich dad poor dad- he mentions there comparing his rich dad to his poor dad; when his rich dad was staring out when they were kids, their house was really really small and at first glance the “rich dad” doesnt seem to be going rich. You see rich dad want really his dad but a mentor-his frien’d dad to be exact).Therefore Rich dad lives below means while his real or “poor” dad has a career and sees their fancy house as an “asset” which he argues with him as being a “liability”.
Moving forward rich dad’s investments flies and becomes “automatic” while his “poor dad” becomes unemployed left with nothing -died poor.
One thing he noticed is while rich dad worked hard at first- as he gets richer and richer he gets more time with his family-
his real dad on the other hand while getting promoted gets less and less time with them- its senseless pursuing tthe corporate ladder- which his poor dad climbs while the rich dad builds his own.
Anyways vic what you say and preach is correct- because where it gets started is with changing the “values” to the values of a rich man; which poor dad never had the chance to do and is incapable of. That made the difference
Women are too expensive in the states. Most of the time it s just cheaper and better getti.g a prostitute.
loot post. . . Nice adress- very good on the “coming soon” press release part. When will this be active what will it be about? just curious
Stay tuned. U won t be disappointed. This is a brand new service that will change the way people do business and no one has.
That’s gonna be great
One Little Secret for Becoming Successful: Taking action
1. There’s one reason I don’t pay my lease a year at a time: fire. If my place were wiped out it would be difficult or impossible to recover what I paid in advance, so I limit it to a couple of months liability.
2. The way to keep your expenses down is to never give a woman ANY control over your life. This is by far the most important thing, so much so that no other financial choices matter by comparison. Women exist to spend money, and they will spend everything you have and everything you ever will have faster than a lawyer can spit doubletalk. There’s not one woman in America who earns more money than she spends and not a single “equal” marriage that isn’t (at best) perpetually teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.
I agree. When u pay your rent for the entire year in advance landlords don t bother fixing anything if it s broken or damaged.There s no motivation for them to make changes if needed since they got their money Victor.
Not if you live in the States. Threaten to take them to court, they’ll fix it. It’s illegal for you to withhold rent just because the landlord didn’t fix the dripping sink and you can be evicted. Option #2: Keep your rent money in a separate account, pay each month but never touch the money for anything else.
I recommend option #2, if you really have that much difficulty holding money back for rent. Don’t count on judges enforcing laws in favor of tenants; judges are usually landlords themselves and are unlikely to be sympathetic. I have been in court when I heard a judge tell a person (in an eviction case, and in so many words) that he didn’t care what the law said. Also, the landlord knows very well that it will take at least several months for your case to be heard, if you even have the resources to bring a suit; if you do file, he’ll find an excuse to evict you.
One thing I have done (successfully) to coerce a landlord is to threaten to call a plumber out myself and then tell the plumber to bill the landlord. This puts the shoe on the other foot, because the plumber gets a lien on the landlord’s property, not yours.
Option #3: Stay single and you will never have to worry about making rent, unless you’re made of 24 carat solid loser.
Bonjour Victor,
Is it possible to buy spartan entrepreneur ? I arrived too late to buy it, as i just came back from vacation.
thanks
Victor so what s the most number of hours that we can go without eating before our muscles breakdown since we don t have to eat every three hours?
Unless you plan on spending time on a concentration camp eating a piece of bread per day or you go on a total starvation diet you don’t need to worry about losing muscle. The mania is completely overblown.
Hello Victor,
Would you agree to add spartanE available for me to purchase if i buy your 2 actual books ? I could buy the 3 as a pack
Living below your means is common knowledge, but no one seems to do it.
Glad you pointed it out to your readers, Vic.
Another good post, boss.
Victor any good fat burners that you know of to burn subcuteneous fat besides cla, l-carnitine, coffee asap to get ready for the summer?
I just discovered your blog, read some of the content and god damnit does it have some good information on it. Going to read a lot more in the following weeks. Much respect for your work.
bloody great article Victor.
My wife was giving me shit earlier about how much my next job will pay. She assumed it should be loads, but my view is that it should be the minimum amount to give our family great life. Simple.
Who ever said on their death bead that they wished they had worked harder in that office?
no-one. thats who.
laters.
BC
Hi Victor,
Seems you have an extensive experience of Southest Asia, I’m sure you know a lot of Westerners teaching English in those parts or “TEFLing”, as some call it. Many teach for little,however that gives you an opportunity to live and work in exotic places, and provides a comfortable enough income by those countries’ standards. Would you say that option is (at least a temporary) answer to those who wish to escape the mad life in the West? What’s your opinion on that? (After all, yo’re in Bangkok now!)
Best,
Sure, teaching will pay the bills and if you want to leave the west it’s a reasonable TEMPORARY gig, I don’t personally know any english teachers though. Aren’t you in Cambodia?
Yea,I’m doing a temporary 5 month stint in PPenh.
Prior to that,I spent 3 yrs in Bangkok doing exactly the same. So I’m hopeful to eventually start an internet-based business. Was unable to purchase your “Business of a Spartan” book on June 10 unfortunately. Will you have it available again at any point this year, or is it the end of trade?…..
Best
“The right time to buy luxury is when luxury seems cheap to you.”
Pure genius.
I started to simplify my life and cutting the expenses about 2 years ago when I was 21. Back then I didn’t read such “kick ass” articles and didn’t have a clear idea why I am doing it. I came to this “enlightenment” through minimalist blogs. So it was kind of delight to read your post. Because sometime I have doubts about living “like dog” (now I will use the word Spartan!).
My story: after finishing apprenticeship I got a quite good 9-5 job. I had a girlfriend, I moved out from my mom, rented a flat, got a car (was a gift from my father) and started to buy furniture etc.
But then something inside me said that this is not the right way. It felt like all this stuff tied me down. Like I already “arrived”. What next? Marry? Make babies?
Over a year I sold everything, quit my job, quit all contracts I had etc. and moved to London after getting a job.
My motivation was not just monetary, but also to detach from as much material things as possible. To simplify everything to the extremes. To see what is really necessary for a man to live. It was more “spiritual”…?
Here a couple of things:
- No contracts (mobile phone, internet, sport clubs etc). Everything prepaid or pay-as-you-go when possible
- I don’t have a long term rent contract. I either live in hotels (which is paid by the company I currently work for) or use airbnb to book rooms for short periods. That means, when I go on a trip, I don’t have to pay for an empty flat.
- Whenever possible, use digital instead of physical things (eBooks, music online, no movies on DVDs, no installed software on your notebook - just web apps)
- Only few but good pieces of clothing. Believe me, you can live with 3 pairs of jeans/pants and still look OK.
One of the biggest expenses for me is the rent and living costs in London. Last week I quit my permanent job and am going to work as contractor for a couple of years. On side I am building a web application which I hope will bring me passive income some day or at least experience or “fame” to build next product.
But another thing is: I like London. I can’t imagine living somewhere on a island in Thailand. There are so many fun things to do. But also I think it is important to meet people face-2-face for networking and promoting/developing your business.
This post is truly an inspiration. I just signed up with htp://www.netcashking.com and I need all the inspiration I can get because being successful is hard. Especially online. And you are right, mistakes will be made but that is with anything in life. All we can really do is just learn from them and venture into the unknown gateways of success or sometimes may not be successful in which we will at least acquire wisdom in our journey.
Hey Victor, just bought your two books and i’m loving them already, any chance that The Spartan’s Entreprenuers Guide will make an appearance again?
awesome article btw