What is spirituality to me? Being able to flow with the Universe and manifest what my heart desires. And what my heart desired from early age, but it took different shapes throughout years, is freedom, and desire to live the life I want, be my best self and reach for highest potential. That's why I got into personal development years ago. And as I realized I wanted to be free financially and time wise after reading "4-hour work week" book by Tim Ferris years ago, it defined my goal to create financial freedom. That's what motivated me to commit to it and reach my milestone of retiring last year. In different times in my life different goals took place, and excitement around learning and growing changed focus. At some point it was around life purpose exploration and tools in life to create overall happiness (when I overall felt unhappy, trapped and uninspired), which took me to transformation and life coaching. Then it was relationships that drew my attention, which inspired me to learn about everything that makes them successful: getting clear on purpose for my relationships, communication, sexual chemistry, tantra, love, mom/dad healing that minimizes projections on romantic partners, being real and vulnerable (yes, there is science and 10 super effective tools for that too :) ). Then it was financial freedom. I wanted to do what I wanted to do when I wanted to do it, be the master of my time, and not depend on a job, or a boyfriend/husband, so mastering financial game became my goal for years. That motivated me to learn about business, investments, taxes, corporate structures, until I found my journey to where I am not (having passive income coming in from website investments that allow me to live my life without a need for a job or business to support my lifestyle.)

I also had some realizations and flash backs, while talking to another friend of mine later yesterday on the same subject. I remembered I used to have a belief that spirituality and business success are two separate things. And another belief that people who are really good at business have no interest in spirituality, and vise versa: people who are really good about spiritual matters are bad at and have no passion for business and finances. Years back, while I was searching for "my tribe" (people that I click with for friendships and romantic relationships, my kind of people), I realized success  and entrepreneurial motivation is important to me in the people I clicked with. But I also was fascinated by spirituality, energy, the magic of manifesting things without direct "action-result" link. So seeing those as separate put me at a fork in the road, I kind of felt like I have to choose what was more important  to me then. So at that time in my life my journey took me to Sedona AZ, a very spiritual place where regular coffee shop talks were about charkas, angels, energy work etc. At a time before Sedona due to my project management job and my techy circle of friends, I was surrounded by lots corporate people so I had no lack in people motivated by success but I craved more of the unseen, magical parts of life, so the spiritual woo-woo Sedona was so perfect for me to fill that cup. And by the end of the year I lived there, when it was time to move away, I realized something. In my experience most people I've met in Sedona were very spiritual in their own unique ways, with lots of gifts, but not many of them were "practically" spiritual. Yes they talk about energies, and transformations, but didn't necessarily applied it to their lives, especially to the financial matters, or if they "tried to" apply it, not so many of them were successful. And many of them had inspiration and trust in the universe, but lacked commitment to their goals and taking action towards it. So it seemed a bit off balance, and I realized I didn't click with that any more: spirituality is great, but without a tie to the real world and having an impact on it, when those intuitive insights through some action can make a real difference, it wasn't enough for me.. But I got exactly what I needed in Sedona at that time: I got my "spiritual" fix, and more clarity towards what people are my kinds of people. Neither corporate people who were climbing the career ladder without a clear purpose, nor spiritual people who are constantly broke were my tribe. I needed not just people who were spiritual and value personal growth, and not just people driven for success, but the ones that master both and balance them well. Now the quest became: where do I find such people?

The answer came a few years later :)

When I attended Digital Footprint conference in Atlanta this past April, where I was invited to speak about my financial freedom journey, I had a huge a-ha. I was blown away by the quality of people there. Organizers, speakers and attendees. They blew my mind. Never in my life I came across such a high concentration of people I admired, respected and clicked with, totally felt like my tribe, my kind of people. People with purpose, integrity and success. I was surprised that most people I met there who "made it", who achieved a huge level of success doing what they love are deeply spiritual, and also surprisingly to me humble, compassionate and very relatable. And I had a huge realization/shift: business success and spirituality are not separate at all. More so: successful people practically proved that their spirituality "works" by manifesting and creating something amazing, that people value in many ways including $$. And I realized: maybe to look for my tribe, instead of finding a big group of spiritual people (like in Sedona) and among them look for few driven ones, I can instead meet entrepreneurs on their journey and most of them (who are driven by purpose of course and not just by money) turn out to be very spiritual and committed to their growth!

And thinking further on the topic: none of our areas of life are separate. We can't really separate finances and spirituality. Yes we sometimes compartmentalize them by focusing of finances, relationships, health etc… But they are deeply connected, and part of the same whole: who we are, our life, and how we move through it. If we expand, learn and grow as people, we have to attend to all those areas with equal priority. We cannot expand far in life if we are focused on just some of the areas of life and not the others in the long run, as it becomes off balance and not harmonious (we all know people who focus one-sidedly on work for example, and that negatively affects their health or relationships)… I read a book few days ago about raw food, and the author said how we can't just focus on food by itself, we have to pay attention to food, exercise, managing stress, purpose in life etc. if we want to achieve Health with capital "H", we have to master all those elements. For me for example my current passion for raw food, detoxes and such is also deeply connected with me wanting to be my best self and strive to achieve my full potential, to expand my awareness and intuition, to keep my body vessel in best shape possible to live my purpose, at some point give birth to healthy kids etc..

And that brought it full circle for me: my passion ultimately and always was and is to be my best self in all areas of my life, and by that create ultimate freedom and self-expression (by manifesting the life of my dreams), inspire others do that same and create magic all around. To do that I have to grow and expand all areas, skills and learnings in balance with each other. Not necessarily all at once (I notice I take turns in time): financial aspect of my life (that I feel I pushed far in the last couple years), health (that I am moving forward by now being 1.5 years fully raw, fasting etc.), relationships (friendships, business, romance, family etc), creative self-expression (dance, art, jewelry making, writing etc.).  Sometimes I focus on one areas more than others, and then a switch comes that other areas take priority and have more passion and excitement, which I follow to maintain that balance.

Good old "wheel of life" coaching tool comes to mind (google it if you must): where you rate yourself on the level of satisfaction on each areas of life. That usually shows best visually which areas are balances and ok, and which were neglected and need attention.

I noticed I don't define my next area of growth and expansion logically any more (decide which area I need to focus on), but rather intuitively following my excitement, and do what I feel excited about. Bashar has a great video on following your excitement, how it works, and why we can just follow it without trying to always logically make sense of it. At different times I felt excited about different things: coaching, dancing, business/finances/investments, personal development in different aspects etc. Currently I am most excited by two areas of life: raw food/health and everything to do with it (I am studying the theory, reading books and watching courses, watching youtube raw food recipes, recreating those and creating my own in the kitchen, doing cleanses etc) and relationships (love and sexuality aspect of it, that goes so deep and I feel I am barely scratching the surface).

Following excitement is one way to define what to focus on next. But sometimes we don’t hear it, or we hear it but ignore it for whatever reason (fear, discomfort, unknown, feeling trapped, etc… ). Sometimes when we ignore what we need to expand, motivation might be not excitement but rather pain which, if not attended to, usually increase in time (can take shapes of depression, drained energy, stress, etc.). Sometimes when we ignore something for way too long, then we might just get a kick in the butt from life helping us to propel forward in a shape of job loss, illness, break-up etc., which we may dislike and resist when it happens, but looking back we are always grateful for it. We all have experiences like that. In those moments it's important to remember that everything happens for the better, and stay positive, to create the most expansion with least friction. And once the growth is created,  life becomes balanced again and life usually takes a leap to another level.

I will leave you with this: when we go through big changes (positive or painful), there is no need and it’s usually not most effective to do it alone. Besides supportive friends or family members, there are always professional resources that can help. If you need knowledge, tools or skills, it can be books, courses, trainings etc. If you need emotional support, change in perspective or just want to feel better, there are people who are professionals and specialize in what you need. If you don't know such people, reach out to others and ask for referrals. Find the people who are professionals that deal with your specific area of growth, find who you click with and learn from them. I am a coach myself, and I regularly hire and get support from other coaches, intuitives, healers, consultants, mentors and other advisors when I feel like I want to get to the next level. For me I also learn well through books, so when I come across the challenge or something I feel very excited to learn more about, very often I come across a book that gives me what I need. Your learning style might be different. In the past I used to do a lot of group workshops, seminars and trainings in transformation and business that worked great for me, now I found I mostly hire people 1:1 and get most results that way. It's not a sign of weakness to get help when you need it, it's a sign of strength, smartness and courage to ask for it. Most people who created something awesome in this life didn't do it alone.

And of course it all starts with intention: what do we want next in life? Clarity on that plus commitment to find the way usually attracts the right tools and resources, then our job is to follow the path, the yellow brick road of excitement and take inspired action. The main trick is to not wait to commit to the goals and intentions until we see a clear How (I am guilty of that sometimes too), as then it may never happen. The How is usually revealed in the process, after you already commit to your goals, very rarely before. And if it's the right goal for you, it's very often magical and synchronistic. 

FINAL RUN

I bought my first site with Income Store and started making my first fully passive income in December 2014. A year later (from what I saved up in that year from my salary) I bought another one, and mid 2016 I knew I would buy one more and I am done. Each year investing more, and in different types of websites as they evolved with their offerings, bringing bigger returns. And in the process I actually loved what I did as a PM! My boss was the best manager I've ever had in my life (that we no joke had great telepathy with, that gave me enough freedom to be at my best and was just a great person altogether!), work was fun (I had lots of fulfillment in managing people, being effective and organize things in the best way), and of course very fulfilling part of it was that it allowed me to get to my goal of retiring soon.

So my plan was to keep working there till the end of 2016 and then quit, but life had a different plan for me in store. July 2016 I went on a two week trip to Russia, and when I came back I knew something was different. I couldn't focus any more, I was sitting in front of the computer but couldn't concentrate or being as productive as I know myself to be. For couple weeks I tried to putt myself together and nothing I tried was working. I even had a chat with my boss telling her I am not at my best and not sure how to fix it. She said she noticed, but we didn't really find any solutions. Maybe a week later it got very clear to me: it was time. I had to go, I was done. Logical part of me didn't like that. As I didn't make enough money yet for the third site, and if I quit now I won't make it by Dec 2016 as I planned. But I knew as many of those other times: it wasn't logical, but it was clear on so many levels, and yet again I had to trust. 

I gave notice end of August 2016. We worked it out as the best win-win possible: I stayed for another couple weeks onsite, then sometime remote part time (while I travelling in Europe) while they found me a replacement. I finished my knowledge transfer and then in early October I was fully complete. Right around by 34th birthday.

And talking flow: usually for my website investments it takes 3-5 months to get the site and start receiving monthly distributions. And yet again I got a synchronistic miracle. I reached out to Ken and Bill saying I am getting ready for my next investment site and asked what new and great options they had for me, to which I got the perfect answer: they had a website, in the new mix of regular site and facebook advertisement, that has the best growth potential they found so far. Plus they just bought the site for someone else, and that person all of a sudden wanted a different topic, so they were looking if someone wants to take this one over. As the acquisition process was almost done, it shaved off months for my timeline. With a little bit of creative borrowing from my friend to get the full amount needed (that I paid back within couple months), I got that site mid September with my first payment being in November! 

So technically, I was done with my job fully by mid October and my income coming up to my goal in November/December. I retired even ahead of my planned date by December 2016! :) Universe again showed me a solution, when I stepped with trust following my intuition.

LESSON: when you get a clear intuitive hit, acting on it even if it doesn't make logical sense, follow it! It very often pays off. :)

LAST "GLITCH"

So I retired even earlier than my planned two years! Crazy awesome, I thought. And then in November I went to my calculation to double check my numbers for whatever reason. And I realized I made a little mistake in the formula, and I was actually $2K a year lower a year on my income than was my goal. Interesting how our minds think. All of a sudden I went from celebrating the magic of my early retirement to "wow, I missed my magic mark by $2k. I failed", and I felt crappy. It thankfully took me little time to collect myself and get back into positive thinking and flow. First of all, I didn't fail yet as it's still November and even if I don't see how else I can create more passive income, I know it's possible. And second, even if I am $2K less by then, I didn't fail! I missed my $$ goal, but still retired and have my freedom! :) And of course then I remembered I lent some money to a friend with $200 monthly interest payments, which added up to a little over $2K a year. :) and it is passive. So I met my goal after all! :) And this year one of my sites made $1K more last month than guaranteed minimum, so I am sure I will even exceed my target goal before the end of the year in many other ways:)

As crazy as it seemed to a lot of people, as much doubt I saw around me. With my internal knowing that anything is possible that feels right and exciting to me, it only motivated me.

LESSON: Whatever you put attention on grows. When you focus on achievements and celebrate your successes, there will be more, going down the rabbit hole of worry and focusing on the negative isn't very productive and is not worth it. And anything that you truly want is possible, even if you don't see the how yet.

BONUS CREATIVE INVESTMENTS IDEAS

Other things that helped me along the way to create some $$ towards my investments was real estate.

I started renting my house on Airbnb many years ago when most people didn't know yet what it was.
I just got a thought one day: if I rent my house for the week-end, it will cover the cost of me to go on a trip somewhere. So I can travel for free :) That's how it started. I rented a few week-ends and went for weekend trips. Then I got someone who wanted to rent the house for the whole week for the amount equal to my monthly mortgage. Then it started to fill up more and more. Sometimes I rented the house and got out, sometimes I rented a room or two and stayed in. But very soon I got to the point that airbnb was covering my mortgage, and sometimes more. So I didn't need to come out with mortgage expense out of pocket, that very much helped with saving.

In a little while I was tired of being in and out of the house, as well as of sharing my personal space with strangers. Plus I wanted to get into remodeling.
So I got an old house which I remodeled to have two separate spaces and two entrances (like "mother-in-law). That way I thought I could live in half of the house all by myself, rent the other half and let that pay the mortgage, while I have my own private space. It totally worked out! I got an older house, remodeled it with this in mind. I of course invested significant money into remodeling but equity grew even more than that, and I got all my money back out through cash out refinance. I lived like I planned for some time (living upstairs, renting downstairs), until of course I realized that renting the whole house is making more money, plus I took off travelling, so I started renting it as a whole too haha :)

I did couple regular flips since then. As I am writing it, one has already offer accepted and in the process of closing, and another one just got on the market. Another chapter coming to completion.

THE END. OR THE BEGINNING :)

So now I feel like a big chapter in my life coming to an end. I retired from work. I am completing on my two flip projects. 
I moved to live in Playa del Carmen Mexico for some extended time. I realized I LOVE hot weather and sunshine, and now that I don't have a job in Seattle, no reason for me to stay there. 
Will I stay here for long? I don't know yet.
Do I plan to do nothing forever now that I am retired? Definitely not! It's just now I got to a place that there is NOTHING I have to do (well, maybe except taxes haha), and can now start focusing only on things I want to do! And that to me is freedom! :)

Do I have a plan? Nope, I don't. I am yet again at a point when I have no answers what I want to do next.

BUT this time is so different. I have no financial or time pressure to figure it out. Sure, the achiever part of me wants to set the next goal, but I get to tame this horse this time. :) Doing my best in taking this time to rest and recuperate, and celebrate this freedom I created for myself instead of getting into my habit mode of being busy haha. Enjoying the present moment. Having no expectation or plan for "the next thing". Having fun, meeting great people and enjoying amazing food!
Did I mention that a little town of Playa del Carmen has 5 restaurants that I discovered for far with dedicated raw vegan dishes?! (I am raw vegan since January 1 2015, but that's a topic for another post :) ). And fresh coconut water here costs $1.5 for liter!!!! Heaven on so many levels :)

Sure I still do things, like researching real estate investment opportunities in Mexico, finishing taxes for last year, dancing kizomba, but they are all on the back ground of space, joy, flow and freedom. I am looking forward to answers to my questions "what's next" revealed to me in perfect timing and in the flow.

Did retirement solved all my problem: heck no! Like the other day, I started to get stressed that I have nothing to do in the hottest hours of the day 12-3 (beach is off the table, and I can only do so much facebook and youtube haha, and I felt lazy to do anything else, even reading books or learning Spanish). I felt really off not being able to figure out where to direct my energy and do something forwarding for my life and other people. And then I reminded myself, other people would be jealous to have problems like that :D So I let it go, and decided to write some blogs ;)

CREDITS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Lots of people, books, trainings and workshops contributed to my journey here. Too many to mention.... But I will list the ones below that I think might be most supportive for your path, if financial freedom is on your list of goals.
I can't tell you what will be the path for you or what you should do (only you can know that). 

Below are resources I that I think might be helpful, use the ones that resonate for you and ignore the rest :)

Mind expanding books:

• Tim Ferris "4 hour work week". A must read! Expanding your mindset and potential of possibilities, as well as smart tools and strategies.
• David Wood "Get Paid for Who You Are". Similar to 4 hour work week and yet different, they complement each other really well. If Tim Ferris describes the path to create a "cash machine" to pay for the life style to create the freedom to do what you want, David Wood shows the path how you can share your gifts of what you are already good at and love and get paid for that. 
• Vadim Zeland "Reality Transurfing" Best book I found on figuring out your true goals and navigating the reality to achieving them. Very practical tools, and amazing results when applying them. Law of attraction on steroids. :)
• Loral Langemeier "The Millionnaire maker": great book to read if you don't know where to start with your financial freedom. Loral does a good job and describing all elements of financial success, and showing how for different people order of the steps might be different. Highly recommend!

Workshops:

• Peak Potentials: Millionnaire Mind Intensive (Free week-end event which is great for inspiration as well as helping you uncovering your beliefs and blocks around financial freedom) and Never Work Again (multi-speaker event about different ways to create passive income). One caveat though if you go to any Peak Potentials event (including the free one): they are MASTERFUL at selling you other workshops, so make sure you only sign up if it feels right on all levels, including financial :)
• Workdworks: most life changing experiential workshops I've done back many years ago (which inspired me to be a life coach later) to have you experience your power, have a clarity around your belief system that is creating your live and a space for breakthroughs for you to be the person you want to be and live the life you want to live. Worldworks site here. Calendar for core trainings here. Lead trainers Lisa Kalmin and Lynne Sheridan (as well as the remaining Worldworks staff) are amazing at empowering people to live their highest potential, own their lives and create magic. :)
• Accelerated Evolution (aka Harmony Integration, which I am certified in): https://acceleratedevolutionacademy.com/ great tool set of dissolving charges and create inner transformation fast. https://acceleratedevolutionacademy.com/ I trained with Satyen and Suzanne Raja for more than a year as in a master coach program for Harmony Integration, "Dreams into Reality" coaching program, as well as other side trainings and retreats in tantra etc. Satyen also does private coaching for CEOs and prominent world leaders... Very fortunate to have trained with him.
• Coach Certification trainings. I've done a couple :) Invite Change and Erickson college. For me Ercikson college worked amazingly well! Great trainings programs, amazing trainers and lots of practical processes and tools as well as "intangible" skills of connecting with the client, holding the space etc... If any of you are thinking to become a coach, highly recommend to check it out. They have free Explore Coaching online webinars where you can get more information and experience.

Coaches (I worked with at different times in the last few years):

• Lynne Sheridan: amazing transformational trainer, personal coach, relationship coach and marriage/family therapist. She does great work through transformational trainings (Worldworks), couples retreats and 1:1 work. I worked with Lynne years back on relationship issues, as well as figuring out my life direction/purpose.
• Nora Herold: intuitive guidance and chanelling. Question/answers type sessions, mostly to get clarity on your life, what's going on, what's the purpose behind it, and how to move forward best. I use it periodically when I don't understand what's going on and just want to get my burning questions answered. :)
• Marcia Wieder: Marcia is amazing! I've only done a one couple hour session with her, and a three day workshop. She is amazing, creates massive shifts and clarity very fast. If you feel drawn to work with her privately or have a chance to attend one of her events, highly recommend! And did I mention, we have the same birth date, just different years :)
• Sky Blossoms: my friend, an amazing relationship coach, as well as overall life flow, staying in alignment with your best self, manifesting life you desires,  and breaking through blocks and "obstacles" when they come up and getting back into the flow. She is also very intuitive and and 3rd generation healer and a best selling author (check out her book "Best Thing Ever", it's great! I work with Sky as 1:1 coach for more than a year and a half now, she also has an amazing Effortless Relationships Blueprint program that she runs periodically, as well as retreats for men and women on different topics (I heard a rumor, a retreat for women here in Playa del Carmen might be coming up shortly ;) ). Highly recommend working with her in any way!

​
Investment vehicles (that I used):

• Income Store. My main vehicle for early retirement. You can do passive investments (if you want to just put in the money and do nothing, or if you are a techy or have a passion for it, you can learn and do it yourself. They actually have a conference coming up in Altanta April 20-23 where I got invited as a speaker to share my story. :) I might have a very good discount code if you want to go... Message me if interested ;) If you choose to invest with income store, feel free to share you learned about them from me, they'll take good care of you ;)
• Airbnb: great platforms to rent your home as a whole, or just a room. I know friends who rent 1-2 bedrooms in their house and that pays their mortgage. Or rent your second home. There are other sites for similar purpose too: VRBO/Homeaway (I currently use that one as well), Tripasvisor, booking.com etc.

Ahh life is so amazing!!!
Good luck on your journey, wherever you are and wherever you are going! I wish you the best, lots of magical moments and synchronicities, enjoy and have fun in the process! 

Read the previous part of my retirement story here: Part 1, Part 2.

SEATTLE. ROUND 2.

End of 2013 I came back to Seattle. And actually faced quite challenging times. First time in my life I found myself in debt that I didn't see a way to pay off. I took some 0% credit cards (that offer you zero percent interest for a year) to pay for those business trainings and didn't keep track when 0% period was running out. I also counted on the income from my job which now ended. I have never been in debt in my life, nor did I ever struggled with paying my bills. Asking my family for a loan was off the table (I had too much pride then haha). Getting more 0% cards was off the table too as by then my credit wasn't perfect with those ones maxed out. I was in the situation, where for once I didn't have a plan or way out. I was looking for a new job but nothing was coming up as fast as I would like.

Luckily at that time I met a man, who really supported me, and not financially :) He kept reminding me that I have all I need to resolve that challenge, that I created miracles time and time again and this will be no different. And that I need to enjoy time off while I can haha :) Even though our lives went different directions, that relationship was one of the most transformational ones I had in my life on so many levels, and I am so grateful for live bringing me that person in that time in my life.

I did my best to stay positive, and take any inspired action I felt (sending out resumes etc.). Eventually all the financial puzzle got resolved, and even better than I hoped for! :) I went through a dept consolidation, and bank agreed to forgive me half the debt if I pay the rest in full (which I didn't have the money for). And my previous client company asked me back in couple months (on a different project, but same area, and almost same manager). And because this time I went with a different consulting company (and they were taking much lower % cut than my previous one), my salary almost doubled me doing almost the same job! And I sold my house in AZ and made some $$ even while owning it for less that a year. A buyer came to me and made me the offer that I couldn't refuse even without me putting it on the market. 

Now very shortly not only I was out of debt, complete with my Sedona phase of my life, back to Seattle and had a job bringing me good $$. 

LESSON: Set the intention, stay positive, do the best you can, take inspired action and trust the solution will present itself.

FINANCIAL FREEDOM. PLAN REVEALED.

All this time I still had financial freedom on my radar. The way I thought I get there didn't flow (doing coaching full time), but the goal stayed, and I was certain I still want it. 

Sometime in that coming year, when I was working at my project, feeling grateful for being out of debt, I had a genius thought that set my plan in motion. I realized I somehow thought I need to figure out what I love to do (i.e. something like coaching) that will allow me to make $$ and create the freedom I desire. Then it dawned on me: what if it's not the only way, or what if it's just not my way? I was still being attached to the HOW. And it was unnecessarily sequential: first I need to figure out my life purpose and what I love to do, then do that, and that brings me financial freedom. And since I didn't have full clarity in my purpose at that time, I felt powerless to create my freedom until I figure that out. And then in one of those monents questioning my beliefs in dawned on me: what if instead of trying to make a living doing what I love (which may take a while to figure out) with the freedom of doing it from anywhere, why don't I make $$ doing what I am really good at and like well enough, then invest that money to create passive income, that will bring me all those freedoms, and then I can take time to figure out my purpose and mission. That felt wayyyy better! And in the flow. I was already making good $$ and saving well. Now it was just the time to find the right way to invest them and a strategy to produce enough passive income that will replace my "comfortable" amount of salary.

Then also kind of out of the blue (like best intuitive insights) I started playing with numbers and thought: what if I find some investments that can bring me consistently 20% ROI a year, with low risk, how much time will I need to retire (aka create enough passive income to pay for my comfortable lifestyle). And surprisingly plugging in the numbers, I realized it will take me a little over two years after I start investing there, to get to that place! I liked that a lot!!! I always have been "out of the box" kind of person, and the strategy to take decades to retire didn't really resonate with me. This felt right along my alley :) And I started looking for investments that would bring me 20% or more, low risk. People who asked me and I shared it with said I was crazy, there is no such thing as 20% returns with low risk, but my intention and the intuition was clear, and I told them: "This is your reality, not mine. I respect it, and I believe differently. I know I will find it." And inside my head I said "Watch me" :D

When I have that "knowing", belief is not necessary, and somehow with this I was 100% convinced it was possible, and so it was.

In December 2014 I went to my last business seminar called "Never work again" which was all about different ways to create passive income. It was a multi speaker event and I learned a lot of possible ways to do it (starting with traditional real estate, stocks, tax liens and deeds, etc. and going into other avenues like owning ATMs, opening your own bank, and other ones I wouldn't even think of! Many of them sounded good, but none of them really resonate with me. Except one.
It was a company called "Income Store", and they offered investments in websites. Simple business model: an investor gives them $$, they go and buy a website that is already making money, take it over, keep maintaining and growing it. Investor provides initial cash, they provide website search, acquisition and ongoing support and profits are split 50/50 between Income Store and the investor. And they offer you a guaranteed minimum (that if for whatever reason (within their control or not) income drops lower, they still pay you no matter what and they either fix the site to bring it back up or replace it with another at their own expense). So far it met two of my criteria (low risk with no downside, and completely passive (I give them the money and do absolutely nothing after that). I came to the back table to talk with the co-founders of the company, Ken and Bill, to get more details. And it immediately felt right. I loved their vibe and got and intuitive yes on them as people and their integrity (very important), and on the amount of money I saved up by then and was planning start investing, their deal was 20% guaranteed minimum. When i heard that, I knew I was in. :) 

And that my 2 year clock has started. In December of 2014 I set my goal to retire by December 2016.

LESSON: when you have a goal, you need to commit to it first without knowing the how, and then the perfect HOW for you will be revealed in the process.

To be continued. Final run in the next blog post....

Read the previous part of my retirement story here: Part 1.
Read the last part of my retirement story here: Part 3.

Ahh I am sitting here, in my sunny apartment in Playa del Carmen. Why am I inside you ask? Avoiding sun today, because I got really burned couple days ago having too much time on the beach hahah :) ahh the challenges of being retired. you know, we still have them, they are just different ;)

4-5 months ago I retired from my corporate endeavors. And by retired I mean I created enough passive income to give me the comfortable income to live so I don't need to work. Ever. Unless I want to. But then it's not work, is it? :)

First things first.

HOW DID IT ALL STARTED.

First seeds were planted many years ago when I read a book by Tim Ferris "4 hour work week". That book changed my life, as when I read it I realized that what Tim describes is exactly what I want to do. He talks about freedom lifestyle, how it's so unnatural to work the whole life deferring your fun life till retirement and retire when you are old and your health is not the best, so you can't even enjoy much of it. He on the other side suggests mini-retirement throughout life, conscious lifestyle design and creating a source of income that gives you enough $$ to sustain the lifestyle you want without having to work 40 hours a week (hense the name).

Having read that book, I knew without a doubt this is what I want to do, and this fits my free spirit much more than 9-5 job forever..

But... nothing changed overnight :) for many more years I worked as a project manager consultant, and not much changed. I had the inspiration but nothing further....

FIRST BREAKTHROUGH

Couple years passed by. I grew a lot in many ways, attended lots of personal development workshops, even got certified as a life coach and started doing it as a side business. One day I woke up and a thought crossed my mind... I achieved many goals in many areas of my life (moved to US from Russia, became a project manager, had a house, a car etc etc. Tremendous progress in relationships, finances and career achievements but not much movement as I could see in creating freeedom lifestyle. And then I asked myself "Why?". And it got so clear to me! I "wanted" it very much, but i never really set it as a goal with a timeline, and haven't really COMMITTED to it (be and do whatever it takes, thanks Lisa Kalmin and Lynne Sheridan :-)). Then I asked myself: if I were really commit to it, what would I do differently and how do I BE different to create a different result?

The answer that came to me was a bit scary (as anything would be that stretches comfort zone), but I also knew I had to go for it. The answer was: I had enough savings to sustain me for a few months. I need to quit my job, unplug, go with the flow, travel around, have lots of free time, and pursue my life coaching as a full time endeavor. That way I can do coaching on skype or phone, will have my locational freedom (live anywhere), time freedom (choose my own hours) and financial freedom (make enough money to sustain my lifestyle). If it works, great! If not, I can always come back to consulting and find another project. So next day, I told my boss in my consulting company and my boss at the client company. They were both shocked but understood me. And then I got a surprise offer: my client boss wanted me to stay working for them, even if it meant me working remotely and work less hours so I can do what I want. That was unexpected and was so delightful! As that meant I didn't have a timeline to run out of money and can really do it for longer. 

So I took the step towards my dreams, and the universe supported me with surprising creative "how" that I myself didn't think of or plan.

Lesson 1: Trust your gut, take inspired action and don't be attached to the "how" or specific outcome. :)

A YEAR OF RESET

I packed my Audi with essential things, rented out my townhouse on airbnb and took off travelling in US. I didn't have a plan, just woke up every day and asked myself what I want to do, where I want to go and followed it. My car was perfectly equipped for sleeping there: when I lowered back seats it created flat sleeping space, plus I had tinted windows and also membership for 24 hour fitness for restrooms and showers :). So if I stayed at places were I had friends, I stayed there, and if not I was perfectly fine in my "mobile home" :D I drove around quite a bit through western US coast (Seattle, crater lake, Oregon, San Francisco, LA and Las Vegas and Sedona, AZ.
It so aligned that I decided to stay in AZ for longer. I rented a place with a friend, then also unexpectedly met a guy and ended up just having fun, sleep, rest, hike, and not doing much coaching at all LOL :D I thought I would enjoy my freedom, but surprisingly for myself I felt very stressed not knowing my plan, even waking up in the morning and not knowing what I want to do felt stressful, I also put pressure on myself to be productive and to pursue my coaching (since I felt like I quit my job for it). But also I realized in a short time that pursuing coaching full time didn't feel right. I didn't want to depend on getting clients to be able to pay my bills. It took me many months to release that pressure I put on myself, let go of predetermined plan and go with the flow and actually enjoy it, replace stress with fun and amazement.  I even bought a house there. It made good financial sense and buying monthly was waaay cheaper than renting. I bought a beautiful spacious house, rented part of it, and lived in it as well.

So as I figured if coaching is not my way to financial freedom, some other business might be. And I really knew not much about it. 

Another discovery I had around financial freedom attending their free Millionaire Mind intensives was my internal block that was in the way. I noticed that no matter how much or how little I worked, I always kept the same amount of savings.. I knew very well by then, that my belief system as my comfort zone creates my reality. So I wondered why didn't I save more?  Thinking about that, surprisingly I felt stressed! And I realized that I felt fear and heaviness around investing. And my smart subconscious decided that if I don't have much savings I won't need to deal with that :D So then I figured the only reason I am afraid of it is because I don't understand it. So all I need to do is to learn more about it, and the fear would go away, and I can start saving move. Then I dedicated that year to learn all about it. I took courses in business in general, marketing, real estate, stock market, tax liens and deeds, you name it....Little that I know that in one of those courses I will come across my retirement strategy only couple years later...

And around the time that I finally started to get used to it, enjoy my life, and let myself be lazy when I want to, universe threw me another curved ball: my project that I was working on remotely was ending. I got a generous two months notice, but this was it. I had a choice: stay in AZ without a job (in a small town with no IT PM gigs whatsoever), or come back to Seattle and look for another job. It actually felt right to come back. My time in Sedona AZ was magical, nurturing and transformative in so may ways, and I also felt very complete. 

LESSON: it's important to have a clean slate before inviting something new into your life. And being lazy is not a bad thing :D

To be continued...

Read the follow up parts of my retirement story here: Part 2, Part 3.

Have you ever been in a place that you want to figure out what you want to do next in life and feeling frustrated that no matter what you do you can't see it? When you have this feeling that you want to do something meaningful and maybe knowing the general direction, but not clear on the details and being stuck in that place for a while? 

Well, on and off I've been in this place for the last 5 years. I got glimpses of what I want, but never the full picture. And every time periods of clarity were followed by the periods of disillusionment and back to now knowing.. Once I figure out what i want, it's usually pretty easy for me to get it, but it's that phase of figuring it out that has been the most challenging for me.

And now, about a month since my last job, my over-inflated desire to know what's next and not having that clarity created a big discomfort. I noticed that I was in this loop of resisting this "not knowing" state that I was in and so being stuck in it. Remember the old saying "what you resist persist"? Well, me as a life coach and knowing it very well, I was in double resistant: feeling resistance, and than feeling bad about having the resistance. 

After I got back to Seattle on Wed, I decided to try an experiment: only focus on and do the things that feel excited to me. Listening to Bashar on the drive reminded me that excitement is what shows us what is ours to do and if we just follow it to the best of our ability in small things and big things, it will lead to the path that brings fulfillment and satisfaction as it will be our unique path.

Yesterday I got glimpses of what I might be interested in: helping entrepreneurs move on the dreams and projects where they know what they need to do but not doing it. I even drafted a questionnaire that they would fill before having a strategic session with me and drafted the outline of the program, and after showing it to a friend and getting some feedback from him, where in an intent of helping me to make it better he mostly focused on what needs to change or isn't clear, I noticed the feelings of deflation, like nothing I am doing is good enough, and wanting to give up coming up. I didn't let them take over, but my energy and excitement went down for a bit.

Today reading "Reality Transurfing" book reminded me that if we are dissatisfied with something, we are transported tot he life tracks where we just get more things to be dissatisfied with and it's not the place at all where satisfaction or clarity might be available. He wrote: "“The more you want, the less you’ll get.” When you want something so much that you are ready to risk everything you have in order to get it, you are creating a huge excess potential, which upsets the balance. The balancing forces will throw you onto a life track where the desired object doesn’t exist at all."

I know two ways to dissolve this excess potential when simply lowering importance is not easy: to find the good in where I am at right now and accept it, and to take some action.

So I decided to do two things: write about "what's good about it" and to walk my talk and reach our to my Harmony Integration coaching community with the request for a 5 session journey to tackle this resistance and create a space for clarity once and for all. The request for coaching has already been granted, we start next week. And here are my thoughts on why this is perfect that I don't have this clarity right now and struggling about this:

• Not knowing what I want has been my biggest struggle throughout my life. And I know many people have it. So now I have a chance to do my inner and outer work, discover what it is and then I will be able to help others do the same.
  
• now knowing what it is right now gives me the motivation to dig deep into myself to connect to what's truly important
  
• now is the perfect time to have this burning desire and clarity as I don't have a job and have all the time I need to focus on this discovery
  
• I have the best tools I've ever had to tackle any "problems", now it's time to prove to myself and others that they may be applied to this situation as well
• I have the community of coaches and friends who can support me
  
• I realized I am responsible for creating this clarity, and if I am committed, I will figure it out. And if I don't know how, it's up to me to take action and reach out for support  
• it's a great reminder how positive thinking and finding good in everything and trusting that everything is perfect even when it doesn't look that way is a daily practice and I get to be present to it every day
• We all have blind spots, and seeing myself dropping into the negative perspective and resistance after years of practicing the positive responsible perspective gives me more compassion for other people
• this gives me the opportunity to practice loving and accepting myself unconditionally, when I catch myself in self-judgement
• feeling not clear on my direction, I can finally be in a relationship with a man who got a stronger sense of direction in life than me, so he can be more masculine, and this is what I wanted for a long time
• the fact that I tried a lot by myself without creating a desired outcome of clarity gives me the opportunity to reach out for support and let go of the habit of doing everything myself
• this allows me to practice authenticity: can I allow myself to feel lost and show myself that way to people instead of the need to always appear all together
• this gives me the opportunity to practice following my excitement every day and discover more of my passions and joys
• following my excitement lead to enjoying life more and having fun rather than always wanting to be productive
• through following my excitement I discovered the joy in cooking (that I haven't really experienced before), especially when it's cooking more than just for myself
• focusing on following my excitement has me question automatic things I do every day and bring more awareness to what actually brings me joy

Next steps: working with my coach, and enjoying life and following my excitement. 

Off to some kizomba dancing tonight.