How Much is Enough

First off, I swear when I write a post on my phone it looks so much longer than it does when I look at it on the screen. Maybe it's just that it is so much harder to write on the phone or just the size of the screen tricks me into thinking that I've written more than I have. Anyway...

This week I'll get the biggest pay that I've ever got in my life. I am pretty happy with how much will go into the bank this week, not so happy about the amount of tax coming out of it but I guess that's what happens unfortunately.
This evening I was playing a silly game on the computer where you have to do this repetitive task to earn money. To unlock the next level you have to spend the money that you've earned. Each level costs more than the previous to unlock however you can earn more money per task at the higher levels although I don't think that it is proportionate, meaning that you have to do a lot more tasks at higher levels to earn enough money to unlock the next level.
As I was playing this game and seeing my savings go up and up so I could get to the next level, I started wondering just what my true earning potential was in real life. Just how much money could I make each week and would I ever reach a point where I'd think that I was earning enough and that I didn't really need to earn any more.
I was thinking a similar thought earlier in the day too as there is an $80,000,000 lotto jackpot that could be won tonight. I have a couple of tickets in it but that also got me thinking, just how much is enough to retire on.
If I don't really see the point in retiring whilst the kids are still in school and if we need to support them going through University, then we probably need to still be working until they have finished their education and are living out of home self sufficiently.
That makes me think that I have at least another fifteen years of work ahead of me.
I'd love to travel with my wife at some stage, but again it is really expensive to travel with the kids when we have to pay for everything for them. I think that we'll probably do at least one big family holiday overseas where we take the kids with us, that will probably be in a few years time so we have the chance to save up for it and the kids will be old enough to remember it for the rest of their lives. Other than that I'd like to think that my wife and I will travel a little in our retirement, that's the other reason for wanting to retire as early as possible. I don't want to be too old to enjoy travelling, too old to spend an entire day walking around seeing the sights. Somewhere around 55 to 60 is when I think I want to retire but if I can earn enough to retire earlier then I will certainly consider it. The unfortunate thing is that I really don't think that we'll be in a financial position to retire until closer to 70. That means that we will be getting too old to spend an entire day on our feet.
This all ties back in to what I think my earning potential is. I am quite well paid for what I do currently, a few years ago I wouldn't have said that but I've worked hard and earned a few pay rises along the way to the point that I now think that I am getting paid what I'm worth for the job I do. Could I earn more? Possibly, it would take another few years to get to the next level and then I'd actually be in more of a managerial role and not as hands on as I currently am so although I would be earning more, I don't think that I'd have much job satisfaction. I could possibly get paid a little more for a similar role at another company, but the conditions I have at the moment are pretty good and I don't think I'd find another company that would allow me to have the flexibility that I currently enjoy.
This all comes back to earning more money from a second job, or a hobby. This is what I forget sometimes, I need to look at the bigger picture. Sure I'm happy with what I'm earning and yeah, I've got a good job. We have a nice house, I have a great wife and a couple of awesome kids; But if I want to retire in my 50's I need to earn more money. I think that I can build a YouTube channel that attracts an audience, I believe that I can do that and from what I know about myself, if I believe I can do something then most likely I can and I can probably do it quite well.
It's been almost a year since I started this blog and it has changed focus a couple of time but now I'm going to start to focus it back on YouTube and focus myself on getting on with it. I have a few ideas on where to start and a few things that I want to change about my initial plan but I'm going to do it and I'm going to do it well.
I don't expect to earn enough money to be able to rely on it as my sole source of income, but I believe that I can earn enough money to allow me to retire in my 50's and most likely continue making videos to supplement my retirement and fund greater adventures.

Bomber
I must suffer from cabin fever in the Winter.