About LI

Introduction:

Lifestyle Investing is just what you imagine it would be! Taking a hard look at your life and making clear decisions about how you choose to spend the only asset of value we all have…our time.

You have probably heard it said that “no one is guaranteed a tomorrow” and that is completely true. Yet most people not only take tomorrow for granted they take next year for granted or their golden years of retirement for granted.

The fact is, by far the most important asset we all possess is our time.   In modern life we trade our time for everything else.

We sit in class trading time for an education.  We sit at our desks trading time for a paycheck.  But is our expenditure of time, our investment and use of that most precious resource…is this method providing us with the best return?

A true Lifestyle Investor understands the value of time.  Time spent generating income and time spent with your family, loved ones and doing other things that are most important in your life.

The term Lifestyle Investing is one which has penetrated the lexicon in the first decade of the 21st century. The use of the term is rapidly gaining momentum as priorities shift based on signification global events.

Background:

Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Work Week is often credited for his use of the term lifestyle design though he is not believed to have been the first. Ferriss’ approach to life and what he calls the ‘new rich’ revolves around breaking the paradigm of the traditional application of time where a person works until retirement and thus postpones many plans until later in life. Lifestyle Investing builds on this notion can be compared to ‘carpe diem’ or seize the day approach to both life and income generation. This allows subscribers to this approach to enjoy the flexibility necessary to create a lifestyle of their choosing, or what Ferriss describes as lifestyle-by-design.

In recent years the Internet has provided millions of people with the opportunity to create both active and passive income streams via the world-wide-web. This has allowed many people to pull-back from both the traditional employee lifestyle as well as the traditional small business owner model. This new breed of entrepreneur is what Richard J. Goossen called ‘e-prenuers’¹.

As the world slowly climbs out of the economic downturn which began in earnest in 2008 an increasing number of people are reassessing their behavior with respect to finances, their time, their health and the environment. More and more people are choosing a more balanced and holistic approach to life which includes assessing how their time is spent and what their impact is on society and the planet. Often this mindset is referred to as Lifestyle Investing.

Lifestyle Investing Defined:

The term refers to the pursuit of an increase in overall quality of living through four major life components:

• Personal Income

• Control of One’s Time

• Longevity

• Giveback (environment/community)

The Lifestyle Investor will focus on having maximum control of their time while sustaining or increasing personal income levels thus freeing more time for other endeavors. The Lifestyle Investor also seeks to increase their longevity by leading a healthy, active life. A sense of pride and responsible user-ship is achieved through giveback activities focused on the community and/or environment.

Also, see Phil’s post here on what a Lifestyle Investor is not!

Real Estate

Many real estate investors refer to Lifestyle Investing as a type of investing which sees the purchase of a home or property in a tropical, often offshore, luxury location. The presumption is that owning rental property which is located in an in-demand tourist location has the double benefit of offering both a financial return on investment as well as the opportunity for the owner to enjoy its use with family or friends.

¹ Richard J. Goossen’s book titled: epreneur: From Wall Street to Wiki: Succeeding as a Crowdpreneur in the New Virtual Marketplace.