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The 5 am Club

Started by Sam, December 22, 2019, 08:01:30 AM

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Koidragon

I'm in!
My goal and ongoing project is to develop a system/business that will generate a consistent and reliable passive/residual/royalty-driven income that is scalable and centered on what I love to do  ;D

Integrity

I'm in!  Thank you for creating this forum.  I've started a land use consulting and property management business but need to focus on growth. This is my goal for 2020.

novarealtorMNM

I got home late yesterday and so wasn't able to go through nightly routine, but I was able to plan today's 5am tasks.

Accomplished 05.00-07.00:
- swept main level floors
- gratitude journal
- Rebus University Real estate coursework (45mins)

Field8

I'm up!!

I've been sooo worried about my ability to get up at 4:30 this whole week (and after New year's no less), and yay I made it!  I'm going to go get some water and process some receipts.  Good luck to us all this year.  I'm already grateful for this accountability group.

Shannon

Good Morning and Happy New Year 5 a.m. Club!

It's been a good week leading up to the New Year. Here's my landscape of recent financial-related events:

1. From the "something old" category -- meaning something I was already committed to do but needed to kick into gear: I rented one of my vacant apartments. The demand was brisk (probably could have raised the price) and I landed on a tenant who paid the entire year upfront. Love that! We had to hustle to get the lease done yesterday since this was a biz expense for the tenant that they wanted sealed up for FY 2019.  I worked all day New Year's Eve but got it done.

2. From the "something new" category -- this one makes me  SO happy: we bought a property about an hour away from home that is going to double-duty as a vacation rental and weekend retreat for my family. If I told you how many YEARS I've wanted to do this --- let's just say I was stuck in a fear-based cycle that I couldn't seem to break until last week but now that I have it FEELS SO GOOD! It also instantly increased our net worth about 40K since we negotiated a below-appraisal price on the place. For the next couple weeks I'll be putting it together, which feels so much more like play than work. I'm in love with real estate all over again! I still have work to do to get the cash flowing in coming months, but it's work that I'm looking forward to. I'll be posting updates here.

3. Something for others: I tried to tip generously in tipping situations that arose in the last week. I'm trying to generally be more aware and greet with gratitude all the many people who show up in my life to help. Yes, they're being paid, but there's also this genuine desire to help each other that I strive to be more aware of and grateful for in these interactions.

Sam

Happy 2020 everyone! Love that more folks are giving this a go.

Jan 2, 2020 log: 3 am awake. New very long post is out: https://www.financialsamurai.com/why-i-failed-at-early-retirement-a-love-story/

Will do some work until my boy wakes up around 7:30 am. Things still quiet as many people are away until Jan 6. But now is no better time to get things done.
Regards,

Sam

novarealtorMNM

Struggled to get out of bed until 5:15.

I was able to make an edit to my podcast (dropping hot tomorrow!) and continue working through the Rebus University listing agent course.

Field8

Bombed this one and slept in.  Still got up relatively early (for being on holidays) and blogged. Off to buy cleats for winter running and sparkly stars to put on calendar when I get up on time.  Are we checking in every day? 

randomselection

I've been transitioning to an earlier schedule since seeing this group. I got up a few hours earlier than average and ended up having a really productive morning. Aimed to write one page and ended up getting through four. Once I start my new job I'll likely shift to the 5 am schedule so that I don't feel pressed in the mornings.

Cheers to a productive year and keeping each other accountable! Reading everyone's comments here provides a boost when I feel like slacking off or hitting snooze.

Sam

#29
Quote from: Field8 on January 02, 2020, 09:27:21 AM
Bombed this one and slept in.  Still got up relatively early (for being on holidays) and blogged. Off to buy cleats for winter running and sparkly stars to put on calendar when I get up on time.  Are we checking in every day?

I think we should check in 2X- 3X a week on average and provide an update.

Only once a week makes it easy to slack. Everyday may be too much as life gets in the way.
Regards,

Sam

JARoss01

After failing om New Years day to wake up at 5 am, I have successfully accomplished changing my sleep pattern to awaken at 5am the last two days.  I have set my meditation routine and morning notes the past two days. I have successfully plotted my swing trades. Now looking for a way to find a property to flip.  Sam if you have any ideas on how I can be more successful in identifying real estate investment properties, please share with me.

Thanks James

Sam

Quote from: JARoss01 on January 03, 2020, 06:39:11 AM
After failing om New Years day to wake up at 5 am, I have successfully accomplished changing my sleep pattern to awaken at 5am the last two days.  I have set my meditation routine and morning notes the past two days. I have successfully plotted my swing trades. Now looking for a way to find a property to flip.  Sam if you have any ideas on how I can be more successful in identifying real estate investment properties, please share with me.

Thanks James

I like buying into a real estate fund or REIT with a great track record. Choosing individual projects without knowing the location and area inside and out is dicey.
Regards,

Sam

novarealtorMNM

Woke up at 5 and:

- read my daily devotional from a Spurgeon book and St. Teresa of Avila prayer book
- Gratitude journal entry
- completed two hip hop beats I've been sitting on for a couple weeks
- Began my HARD THING FOR 2020: Learn Spanish - did 10 mins of Duolingo and 20mins on the duolingo podcast
- 20 min walk on the treadmill


newalker0407

I like Sam's suggestion of checking in 2-3 times per week. It was pretty rough getting up at 5am quite a few times this week. :D That said, I was able to work on a Machine Learning and Data Analytics certification course I signed up for. I also started reading some great recommended material on how to write, publish and distribute a blog effectively.

J.R.

I haven't been perfect at getting up at 5am.  Nonetheless, it's gets easier and easier.  Even on a couple days where I opted not to get up at 5am, I still woke up without an alarm around 5:00.  So I'm clearly succeeding in changing my sleep patterns.

So here's an interesting (at least to me) observation.  I'm the type that likes to make a to-do list and then gets the satisfaction of checking those off the list.  So by getting up at 5:00 (or at least more often than not) I have achieved a feeling of "being caught up."

In the past, I always had too much to do.  I thought that's what it feels like if I want to get more done.  I've got work stuff, a long commute, rental properties, stock investing, all the family's personal finance, household maintenance items....the list never ends.  I suspect most people experience something similar.  Overloaded, a backlog of tasks, always having to prioritize what task to work on.

By getting up earlier I'm knocking out a lot of the tasks.  Personal finance stuff is caught up.  Work stuff is mostly caught up.  I've got a handle on the other to-do's.

The result: By feeling caught up, I can sit back and really start doing some thinking.  Really start thinking about what I'm doing, why I'm doing it and figure out what I want the future to look like.

I'm starting to believe getting up earlier has the potential to be so much more than just getting a few extra tasks done.

-JR

Sam

Quote from: J.R. on January 05, 2020, 05:15:38 AM
I haven't been perfect at getting up at 5am.  Nonetheless, it's gets easier and easier.  Even on a couple days where I opted not to get up at 5am, I still woke up without an alarm around 5:00.  So I'm clearly succeeding in changing my sleep patterns.

So here's an interesting (at least to me) observation.  I'm the type that likes to make a to-do list and then gets the satisfaction of checking those off the list.  So by getting up at 5:00 (or at least more often than not) I have achieved a feeling of "being caught up."

In the past, I always had too much to do.  I thought that's what it feels like if I want to get more done.  I've got work stuff, a long commute, rental properties, stock investing, all the family's personal finance, household maintenance items....the list never ends.  I suspect most people experience something similar.  Overloaded, a backlog of tasks, always having to prioritize what task to work on.

By getting up earlier I'm knocking out a lot of the tasks.  Personal finance stuff is caught up.  Work stuff is mostly caught up.  I've got a handle on the other to-do's.

The result: By feeling caught up, I can sit back and really start doing some thinking.  Really start thinking about what I'm doing, why I'm doing it and figure out what I want the future to look like.

I'm starting to believe getting up earlier has the potential to be so much more than just getting a few extra tasks done.

-JR

The feeling of "being caught up" is a great benefit of starting early. You can get so much done that you're never starting a race from way behind, which is what it feels like when you have a baby and toddlers to care for.
Regards,

Sam

Austin

I got up 3/4 days by 5am for week #1. The day I missed was the New Year and didn't roll out of bed until about 7am.

So far with my morning time:

-I finished a bunch of accounting that I was putting off for a side business. My friend / accountant is reviewing my numbers to make sure everything adds up. If everything looks good I will be sending it off to the IRS.
-I bought a new domain name for a website I am going to build out this year
-Spent one of my mornings from 4am - 7am caring for one of my babies that had a rough night and she was finally sleeping by the time I had to head out to work
-I started my "52 Love Letters For My Wife" challenge because I realize that I haven't been the most romantic guy in the world and I want to keep the flame alive. I bought a pack of blank cards and envelopes and started writing notes on them. The plan is to hide a card with a special note on it once a week somewhere around the house where she will find it. She's received one card so far that I left at her bedside which explained that she will be getting 52 love notes this year and already I can tell our relationship has improved. She has been way more affectionate and in good spirits this week. She keeps excitedly asking on what day I'll hide the next card and I have been keeping it vague.

So far I've really enjoyed getting up early. I tend to waste the last two hours or so of my evenings watching shows, playing with my phone, etc because "I'm just too tired to do anything else." Now I just go to bed instead of waste time. So I gained two productive hours and eliminated two hours that never held any value.

I'm excited to see how much I've already gotten done after four days of the 5am challenge.

Sam

Nice job Austin!

Jan 6, 2020: this is the true start of the new year folks! Time to rock it!

Up at 4:15am. New post published on our new early retirement master plan: https://www.financialsamurai.com/just-say-no-to-angel-investing/
Regards,

Sam

newalker0407

Up at 5:05 am:

  • Started researching and compiling a list of REITs and MLPs.
  • Worked on my machine learning for data science and analytics course.

Sam

Did the night shift taking care of my baby: 9 pm - 8 am. Published a new post on mortgages and updated some old posts and pages.

Need to do research on sleep patterns during the day by those who do regular night shifts.
Regards,

Sam