Back to basics

 It's been almost two months since I'm back, and almost every day is like winter in Cape Town. The weather is guiding my holiday plans for next year, as the goal is to escape this cold. It seems that June, July and August are the cold months, and these months will be the perfect time, next year, to take a break, head to the northern hemisphere, and to please my lady this time, explore more of what Thailand has to offer.

Again, I had a client wait on my return from holidays to give me her house to sell, and I sold it in 3 weeks. A second house is also in the process of selling, and while I'm above my target for this time of the year, I feel inspired to just keep going. 

I saw the upswing in the market coming, and my financial goals for the year is reflective of this. As the first part of the year exceeded my expectation, I'm now targeting my best year ever in terms of turnover, with the new goal now to get 9 more houses to sell before the year is out. I just got one; 8 to go!

With my dept now almost paid off, my tax obligations are increasing, and finding the best way forward on my road to retirement lead me to invest in a new book, "Your Ultimate Personal Finance Guide", by Johan Gouws. The reading is a good way of doing the right thing while I have time on my side.

I have been thinking of doing a coarse in the field of artificial intellegence - AI - through Cambridge University starting in October, and will decide on this when I'm back from my next break at the end of September. I need to be stay ahead of my competition, and it is just so much easier when you are your own boss. My limited knowledge of AI and choosing the correct coarse are my challenges for now. 

Whereas I'm not exactly due for another break, but my house is getting new floor and it needs to be empty while the contractors are busy. This investment in my home gave me an opportunity to go out for 30 days to find a nice piece of land to retire too, or to invest in - I'll be travelling by car to explore more of the Western-, Northern-, and Southern Cape. My ultimate goal is to find a property where I can add value to it during the years of my retirement, and then generate an income from it. Thinking about it, while I'm reading this, should I not be looking at buying a property where it is summer while we have winter in Cape Town.. thinking thinking. I have another two years and 6 months to decide, so no pressure. It is at 65 years of age that I wish to have a property out of the city.

After 7 weeks away, and with no-one calling and no new properties to sell, the best way to get going is to get back to basics. I've just moved my office to make space for a massage room in my house. This opened an opportunity to get rid of anything not needed, to find things that need doing but that was hiding or forgotten under piles of paperwork, books, in cupboards or boxes; in short, I'm getting more organized. Whether it is pole to pole, or door to door marketing, status updates on WhatsApp, or finally packing my 2024 diary away, I'm making progress. I'm back in business, and excited to take on the rest of the year, and end it on a high note.

My new book, as the ones before this one, continues to remind me to invest in myself, to eat healthy, to stay fit, to continue to educate myself, and to do the things I love. I know it works, as I can testify of the productive day that always follows a run in the morning, or the satisfaction you get when you finish a day with the targets you set out for yourself, achieved. I'm not always on the ball, but I know what it feels like to be on top of the world, and how to get there.

With my desire to record my progress on my road to success more regularly, and by writing this blog post, I am boosting my confidence and getting closer to my dreams. Thank you God for giving me desire and strenght to live life to the fullest.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

On the go

It is now exactly a month since I'm back from Brazil, and my working life is starting to take shape. With the sale of only one small little house since the start of January, the stress should start building up, but with me striving for happiness rather than money, life is completely different from what it used to be. Even though I have unexpected aches and pains, my exercise regime is taking shape with now 2 or 3 walks up Lion's Head in the morning, and a regular run on the beach in Noordhoek over weekends. I'm trying to adjust my eating habits and making good progress with only a small meal at night, and a good and healthy breakfast in the morning and a hearty lunch, usually a bit later than normal. My visiting friend and holiday partner was such a big smoker, that I thought of learning from the experience of having her around. I have cut out smoking during the week, with only a puff now during weekends. It is boosting my self esteem, and giving me now more time to catch u...
Read more

Holidays in Thailand

 So, I've been invited on a holiday to Thailand with a lady I met on Tinder and with a further offer that she'll pay for half of my flight ticket; how could I say no.. My first holiday overseas was also an offer from the parents of a girlfriend; we could go anywhere, and we decided on a package called 'Razzle in Rio' at the time, a week in Brazil. This time around, it was the first time that a 'girlfriend' invited my on a holiday. The timing could not have been better as I've been freezing in this Cape Town winter. I also still had a month of holiday time left for the year, and we left about 3 weeks later, on 4 September, for 3 weeks.   I could understand about 30% of my new friend's English, so the Translator application was going to come in handy. It was the first holiday that I did zero planning, and left it all over to my lady. From the day we arrived, she took control. She could speak the language of the locals, knew the customs, she had a local SIM...
Read more

When the going gets tough

 When it feels like you are getting stuck, then nothing comes easy. The lack of regularly doing a blog is one of these manifestations.  At first, my reasoning for not getting a new post published was that I wish to remain positive in reporting my progress. When I realized 5 days ago that I may be able to start writing a new post without immediately publishing it, I finally got down to work. I blame my being stuck on the lack of progress with my work, my lack of anticipated income. This happened because I've lost touch with the market in that I didn't foresee a recovery take place as quickly as it is happening right now. I fell into some kind of a depression, but as my life now is not centered around income, other factors were also at play. My goal to get new clothes and have a summer break in Europe was also not to be. I've been procrastinating for too long, and had to postpone this plan to next year. The good part about this is that I will continue to wear my clothes until...
Read more