My 12-year plan (beta)

I went on TV last Monday, sharing about the Landmark Forum. Too bad I don't have any video recorded. I would have loved to post it here. There are so many things going on that I want to blog about, only that it involves so many people - and a lot of what I now know have been shared with me in confidence.

I have a 12-year plan that officially starts on January next year. I'll be 30, which means my plan takes me all through 2019, when I'm 42 years old.

Some background details: I work as a manager in a corporation, and I'm getting married in December to a corporate (and military) lawyer. We will have a dual-income household that is higher than most Filipinos, though very far from being considered wealthy.

The goal of the plan is to achieve financial freedom. My ambition is to become wealthy. For that to happen, I need to be able to generate income from assets and reduce my expenses from taxes. I intend to be an owner of businesses, as well as an astute investor.

I intend to remain an employee for the next five years, getting paid to learn the workings of a corporation. With an income goal of Php X/month by next year, even if I only get incremental increases over the next 5 years, I will have had saved Php Y by 2012 (only computing for base salary and monthly cash allowances, but excluding 13th month pay and variable cash incentives/bonuses, and any severance/retirement package income; and not counting compound interest applied to savings until such time).

In 2012, I will set aside a budget from my savings to cover all household expenses for the year, as well as a budget for my daily overhead. This is important because I do not intend to jump into entrepreneurship right away. I intend to find an entrepreneur and make that person an offer he or she can't refuse.

I will find an entrepreneur, preferrably running a business 3-5 years in operation, and apprentice with that person. I'm going to ask that person to hire me as her apprentice. I'll make her coffee, answer her calls, call on her clients, close deals, run her HR department, and whatever it takes to run her enterprise. She'll get 15 years (by then) of work experience from me, 7 of which would be management experience and OD expertise.

In return, I get hands-on education on entrepreneurship, during the make-or-break years of an enterprise. I intend to learn how she manages her finances, accounting practices, small-business employee relations, investor relations, family/professional relations, sales and marketing on shoestring budgets, and anything else I may discover on entrepreneurship.

After a year, I'll have to be clear on the enterprise I want to venture in. My network must be large enough and of high enough quality for me to start up my own shop. As early as now I have some options and considerations, but I haven't identified the industry/product/service I really want to get into.

I'll be a 37-year old entrepreneur. And I intend to drive my business past the 5th year milestone. I've read that most or almost all startups fold within 5 years. Getting my business past that is my goal. After which I will have done most entrepreneurs fail to do.

My next move is to hire a professional manager to run things and for me to relinquish control of the business. Why? This is because I want to own more businesses, making different things. I want to have excellent people managing them, making me lots of money. I also want to shift my attention to managing the income that the business have been making, making sure that the money is being as productive as it could be (in investments on financial instruments, etc. as well as re-investment in the core business).

This will take me out of the day-to-day operations, giving me more time to enjoy the fruits of 12 years work. I will have been 42, enjoying my time with my future children, and perhaps afforded some of the privileges of wealth.