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In 2015, social media gurus referenced 300, a 2007 film.
In 2020, it was The Wolf of Wall Street, released in 2013.
Now? It’s The Matrix, which came out in 1999.
If this trend continues, expect Casablanca references flooding your timeline by 2045.
I was reminded of this after reading an amusing tweet suggesting that you only need to deposit $600,000 into a bank account yielding 12% APY to “escape the Matrix” forever.
Technically, that’s true—sort of.
At 12%, your $600,000 would generate $72,000 per year in passive income. Banks offering yields that high do exist, but they’re typically outside the United States and don’t pay interest in USD. Though, admittedly, earning 1,893,162,528 Vietnamese dong per year does sound more impressive.
Which brings us to today’s topic: breaking large goals into bite-sized steps.
Suppose you want to build a business that earns through ad revenue or streaming payouts—something common for musicians, YouTubers, or websites using Google AdSense. To generate $50,000 per year, you’d need to earn about $0.10 per minute, every minute of every day.
At $0.25 per minute, you’d clear $130,000 annually.
For ecommerce or tangible goods, you might have a lower number. You might also consider how much room you have to raise prices, how much that would add to your bottom line, or whether introducing a high-ticket product or upsell could move the needle.
In either case, you can also set “expense benchmarks,” ranging from something small like your daily coffee to larger costs like a car payment or mortgage, to measure your progress.
It sounds embarrassingly silly, but when I got serious about writing last year, I tore out supermarket flyers and compared my daily royalty earnings to the price of items like boneless chicken breast or ribeye steak. Watching those numbers slowly climb kept me motivated.
The same principle applies to investing.
The U.S. federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour.
Yet earning $7.25 every hour of every day through dividend income would equal $63,510 per year.
Depending on your qualified dividend tax rate, that income could even be entirely tax-free.
Ultimately, how much you need to achieve financial freedom depends on your lifestyle and personal goals. Some people may only need $50,000 or $60,000 per year. Others might require $250,000 or more for fixed costs like property tax or sending children to private school.
Whatever your number is, breaking it down into small, manageable numbers can help you better visualize your goal and take actionable steps to move the needle in a way that actually feels like you’re making progress.
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Disclaimer: This article is for entertainment purposes only. It is not financial advice, always do your own research.
