Good morning, and Happy International Women’s Day!

A question I often ask new clients is,

Imagine you wake up tomorrow and have $100 million in the bank…

• How would you live your life?
• What would you spend the money on first?
• What would you start doing differently?
• What would you stop doing altogether?
• What would you do that you never had the courage to consider in the past?
• Who would you become?
• How would you feel?

It’s an interesting and valuable thought exercise and one of several “qualitative” questions I like to ask people.

If you’d like to know the other 2-3 similar questions I ask new clients, hit reply and let me know. I’ll be glad to email them to you.

Also, if you’d like to jump on a call and discuss any of these questions, I’m happy to. Again, just let me know.

For most of you, a figure like $100 million is likely a large multiple of your current accumulated savings and investments.

And that’s OK.

There’s no magic to the number $100 million.

It’s just an exercise designed to help you consider what your life would be like if you had all the money you’d ever need and money was no longer an obstacle to living your best life.

But I’ll ask again in a different way…

What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting more money is the answer to all of life’s problems.

Quite the opposite, in fact.

But money is a necessary ingredient in our lives.

And if we can dismiss - for a moment - the additional challenges and problems $100 million might introduce into our lives, I’d like you to seriously consider these questions:

• Who would you become?
• How would you spend the money (including giving it away)?
• Would you go back to school and study something you’ve always been passionate about?
• Would you have the courage to start that business you’ve always thought about?
• Or maybe you’d finally start writing that novel you’ve been dreaming about for the last 30 years?
• How would your typical day’s schedule change?
• More of a focus on your health & wellness?
• Where would your first travel destination be? And who would you take with you?
• What else?

You don’t need to reply with your answers to any of the above, but you’re welcome to. 😉

In fact, if you really want to get the most out of this exercise, write down your answers.

Yes, all of them.

No matter how crazy or selfish or weird they seem to you. You’re doing this for you and you don’t have to share this with anyone else.

Once you’ve written all this down, set a reminder to look at them again in the future. Doesn’t matter if it’s 6 weeks or 6 months from now.

And if you review them in the future, consider how it makes you feel?

And ask yourself again, why not?

OK, let’s come back to your current reality.

Regardless of how much money you’ve accumulated so far in your life, what’s stopping you from doing everything you thought about and identified in the 100X exercise?

Seriously, why not you and why not now?

Sure, many things are easier to accomplish with deep pockets.

But as the Live Big List I shared a couple of weeks ago can attest, there are loads of things you can do and experience that require little or no money.

But even if your aspirations are a little bigger (and more expensive), why wait?

Sure, you can’t detach from reality, click your heels together, and magically transport yourself to a perfect existence.

But you don’t have to settle for a mediocre existence either.

And your financial plan should reflect all these aspirations, dreams, and possibilities as well.

Not with the assumption that you can achieve them.

But with curiosity and exploration and a willingness to ask “what if?”

Ultimately, it’s your money and your life.

And there’s no more capable expert about your life than the person looking back at you in the mirror.

But that doesn’t mean you should simply settle for a life of inertia where you continue to do what you’ve always done just because you’ve always done it that way.

Let me know if this is a conversation you’d like to have as it’s one of the most enjoyable and rewarding parts of my work.

Want to dream? Want to reach for something more? Want to imagine what your life could be?

And this exercise isn’t just financial…

• What if you had 100X more time?
• What if you had 100X more happiness?
• What if you had 100X better relationships?
• What if you had 100X more energy?
• What if…?

Get started!

Links & things

How Would You Invest $35 Billion?

Instead of multiplying your current savings and investments by 100 or 1,000 - as in the exercise above - what if you were responsible for managing $35 billion of other peoples’ money?

Where would you start? Who would you hire?

Well, if you’re like Steve Edmundson, Chief Investment Officer for the Nevada Public Employees’ Retirement System, you keep it simple.

And inexpensive.

Similar to how I invest my own money as well as the money of my clients.

Read more in this 2016 Wall Street Journal article:

• What Does Nevada’s $35 Billion Fund Manager Do All Day? Nothing

Note: I’ve shared this article before, but it’s relevance and lessons are evergreen.

And as you can see at the bottom of this web page, Mr. Edmundson is still serving as the fund’s Chief Investment Officer.

And per this page, you can see the fund is now worth over $54 billion and is still primarily invested in low cost total market index funds.

A good reminder that simplicity works whether you have $500 thousand, $5 million, or over $50 billion.

Self-Talk

Here’s another worthwhile Joy Lere article on our internal dialog. And often we’re not too kind to ourselves.

Here’s a quote:

If you're like many people, you spend your days talking to yourself in a way that you wouldn't dream of speaking to anyone else. Yet, you expect yourself to perform flawlessly while your self-critic screams at you with little reprieve.

And this idea absolutely ties into the 100X exercise above. Because our reality is based on the stories we tell ourselves. For better or worse.

Read the entire article here:

• Chatter