5 Things I Did in 2023 to Continue My Path to Becoming a Millionaire
I’m still far away from becoming one, but I continued
Last year I wrote about the 7 steps I took in 2022 to start my path to becoming a millionaire.
And as promised I keep you updated on my journey.
2023 I had a lot of ups and downs, and at the moment I’m happy but having a financial down.
Here are the 5 things I did:
1) Consistently Wrote Online
I am still consistently writing online. I didn’t give up.
I wrote one long-term story for Medium every week and published it also in my newsletter.
I can see the improvement I made and my subscribers, followers, and income increased.
December was my best month yet with more than 8$ on Medium.
I’m proud of my improvement, not just my writing skills improved.
But also my overthinking and overworrying got less, and I’m more positive.
Writing in general has a lot of positive side-effects to life.
You can just write down all your thoughts, and your brain will love you for it. By writing you let go of worries and false beliefs because you will see them more clearly. And you will see that some are wrong.
2) Created 2 Freebies to Get Subscribers
This year I published something online for the first time. Now I know how to publish on Gumroad and Amazon.
Even though I didn’t get any money from them, I still learned a lot from the process.
I procrastinated a lot and figured at the end that it was done way faster than I expected.
I published the first one in February and I gained a lot of subscribers because of it. I tried a lot of different titles and strategies and made a lot of mistakes.
the title was too complicated at the beginning
I tried out Gumroad and my website to deliver the guide (stuck with my site now)
I added it to Amazon but nobody bought it yet
had some linking error on my site where the guide should be
marketing strategy on X (get the link to the guide by writing a comment) failed
Even though my second freebie failed (only 2 downloads), I know that it will be a great story in the future and I will learn from it.
I made the first steps of publishing something online and I learned a lot, and I will improve my strategies for sure.
3) Consistently Invested in ETFs
This year had a lot of ups and downs financially.
I did a semester abroad in Ireland (rent is crazy expensive there) and I saved for that in advance.
But I’m very proud to say that I still was able to continuously invest in ETFs. It’s not as much as before (now it’s around 70€, and before it was 280€) but I’m glad that I kept going.
I’m proud of it.
To diversify I also invested a little bit of money in Bitcoins, as I’m young and can risk a little bit more.
(this is no investment advice, it just works for me and my goals)
4) Invested in Myself
But the biggest investments I made this year were in myself. This was a huge mindset shift to “I’m worth getting invested in”.
I invested in the Ship30-for-30 course by Nik Cole and Dickie Bush, and I finished the challenge of writing 30 days in a row. I connected with a lot of great people from diverse backgrounds with a wide variety of goals, and it was amazing.
But I didn’t just invest my money but also my time.
After I was done with my volunteering in August (my period of being the President ended) I had a lot more time so I invested it in watching videos by Robin Sharma and Dan Koe.
I consistently watched them every day and it influenced my life immensely. The positivity of Robin and the great insights of Dan changed my view of the world.
Investing in yourself (either with money or time) is the best step you can take towards your successful future life.
There are so many possibilities to invest in yourself:
online courses
books
university courses
coaches
You just have to stick with it because at the beginning it doesn’t seem like something is changing. But you are.
5) Made Use of the Advantages of a Welfare State
I’m not sure if this title is the right way to say it in English. Anyway.
As I had to quit my job to do my semester abroad (my bosses are not really into remote work, and I also wanted to enjoy Ireland), I found the possibility of doing “educational leave” (in German Bildungskarenz) and I’m getting money from the state for it (because I worked at least 2 years before).
I’m so grateful for having the opportunity to get something like that, and it helped me to stay out of debt and enjoy my semester abroad more.
My educational leave continues until next Summer as I’m finishing my Master’s degree.
The money I get is not enough to cover all my costs but it’s better than stressing at work for half a week and then the other half at home finishing my master thesis.
If you have financial problems or need help, check out local or other opportunities. It’s always good to know what is there if you need it (and also if you don’t need it).
Conclusion
I’m not giving up and I learned a lot this past year.
Even though working on my online business was boring and uneventful sometimes, I’m still not giving up and I will consistently put in the work.
Every year I’m helping more people. And I can’t wait.
And my success story continues in 2024 with finishing my Master’s and improving my online business.
Status December 2023:
Assets: around 10,000 €
Emergency fund: 4,000 €
No debt
Newsletter subscribers: 42
Medium: over 500 followers
Medium: best month Dec23 with 8$
“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty”
— Winston Churchill
Reading of the Week
This New York Times bestseller is a huge pile of information about our brain and how we work.
I’m halfway done and I learned so much about things I didn’t even think about yet.
It’s really interesting what they found out through all kinds of studies from our brains.
You learn why you do things that are easier and subconsciously done, and it takes willpower to do other things.
It’s crazy to read how much our subconscious is deciding on how we interpret and see stuff.
A book to read through multiple times to understand everything.
Gratitude of the Week
Grateful for the ability to visualize and dream
Without it, life would be really boring. Do you agree?
I'm visualizing my future goals every day and it helps me to stay motivated and creative
Tweet of the Week
Thank you for reading my newsletter!
After a few first days of January, I’m now starting again to get into my writing routine and master thesis research.
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All the best and I wish you a nice week,
Karina
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