Your dreams and goals may seem like a tough mountain to climb, but you’ll never know the feeling of fulfilling that dream if you never get started! Photo by Carol.

Many in the personal finance blogging community are laser focused on achieving one goal: early retirement. They write of saving a high percentage of their high salaries, set the countdown clock, and let the world know when they’ve cut loose from the chains of the cubicles. That’s great! For them.

What if that’s not your goal?

For many years, my husband dreamed of starting his own company. He came close to doing it back in the 90s, shortly after we had started our family. The previous year, I had downsized my job to part-time hours after the birth of our first child. The following year, our second child would be born.

The uncertainty of launching and growing a new business didn’t seem prudent for our family at the time. It’s a lot of work. It takes a lot of time. It takes a financial investment.

Instead, he formed a team and opened an office to expand the market for an existing company. The funding was provided by the existing, financially solid company.

Business at the new office grew quickly. He opened two satellite offices in additional cities. My husband and his team were successful. He didn’t regret his choice, but he knew he could have grown his own business in that market.

Fast forward about two decades and you find a man who has relocated to be nearer to extended family, and someone who is successful and well respected in his company and industry. He has a nice salary and he still enjoys his work.

But the dream of building a company from scratch never left him. With the passing of his father and a good friend within a two-month period, he realized more than ever that he wasn’t getting any younger and time waits for no one.

My husband is always up for a challenge. At age 50, when others have already retired early, he decided it was time to quit working for someone else. Everything he did at work – business development, networking, team building, project management – could be done under his leadership at a small business.

Funding His Dream of a New Business

Throughout those two (plus) decades, we didn’t make an intense effort to save large amounts of pre-retirement cash as you would if planning for a financially independent early retirement. Honestly, doing so never really crossed our minds. We enjoy working and we enjoy our careers, even mine with part-time hours.

Throughout those years, we focused on financially responsible living and were intentional with giving charitably; maintaining an emergency fund; and saving for retirement, to help our kids with a portion of their college costs, and other shorter-term goals. We took reasonable family vacations (with some travel hacking) and invested in home improvement projects (to include our own sweat equity).

He had a nice six-figure salary, but the paychecks would end two weeks after resigning from his employer. Any opportunity to save to fund this dream was already gone. What was our strategy to pay for this new venture?

In his industry, revenue comes AFTER you prepare and submit proposals and WAIT to be selected and WAIT for the work to begin and then WAIT to be paid for the work. What was our strategy to weather the undetermined length of time he’d go without income as he built a new business from scratch?

Business Partners

My husband selected business partners for their expertise and abilities. Instead of choosing a sole proprietorship, he formed a management team with go-getters who were just as excited as him. The partners all contributed to the initial investment, reducing our personal contribution and risk.

Actionable item: I don’t know what your dream is. You may not even know it yet. Be open to let others in on it. Choose carefully but know there can be others who share your vision and are willing to go for it.

Opportunity Fund

Early in our marriage, we had met with a financial advisor who catered to military clients. He related personal finances to a three-legged stool comprising life insurance, retirement savings, and non-retirement savings. If the stool is missing a leg, it will tip over because it’s unstable. He had a sales pitch, and it was enough to get us started with automating our investment contributions.

We automated our monthly contributions of $166.67 to a jointly-owned mutual fund. We were in our twenties, earning lower-end military and government salaries. This was before we had kids and before we had identified a future use for that money.

At some point, we stopped contributing to that mutual fund but had never moved the money. There it sat, and it had grown, shrunk, and grown with the ups, downs, and ups of the stock market. But there it was, ready when we wanted it. The money allowed my husband to fund his dream in cash. We didn’t have to incur debt.

Actionable item: Start your opportunity fund today! Big or small, start saving an amount monthly so it can grow over the years and be there when you want it.

Accrued Paid Time Off (PTO) Payout

My husband had several weeks of PTO saved up. By rationing his PTO payout, we could cover our regular monthly expenses for a time without feeling the pinch of him giving up his salary and without dipping into savings.

Actionable item: If you are intentionally planning a significant life change that involves leaving your job, consider not using your paid time off (PTO) in the months prior to resigning. Let it build up (as your employer allows) and then be compensated for it in your final paycheck. It can help build up your cash reserves as you head into a period of uncertainty.

Life Insurance Swap

For many years, we heard Dave Ramsey and others criticize whole life insurance policies, in part because you don’t need a cash value savings account within a life insurance policy. And, at some point in the term of coverage (age 70 for ours), the cash value disappears. Also, your heirs do not receive the cash value AND the policy’s face value when you die.

That information finally penetrated my skull and we called an insurance broker in pursuit of a less expensive type of insurance – a term policy. AFTER completing the required basic medical exam/bloodwork and getting approved, we signed up for term insurance and cashed out our whole life policies. I stress the word AFTER because we didn’t want to be without life insurance coverage.

We both got a lump-sum payout of the cash value, which we banked until needed. Even though we were more than 20 years older than when we signed up for the whole life policy, we both reduced our premiums for the same amount of coverage, which lowered our monthly expenses. Being in excellent health helps you qualify for lower premium rates.

Actionable item: Get creative and evaluate your life, car, home, etc., insurance policies and other recurring bills as you may find ways to free up cash or reduce a monthly payment. In our case, switching our life insurance policies was a significant help, but simpler acts such as canceling cable or other discretionary purchases can also benefit your monthly cash flow.

Health Insurance

Our family was already covered by my employer’s medical insurance. Our vision and dental insurance was through my husband’s previous employer. Changing jobs is a qualifying life change event, so I was able to add vision and dental insurance coverage to our plan with my employer. Some of the partners needed health insurance coverage, and the company was able to find a provider through a professional organization related to their industry.

Actionable item: Research professional organizations within your industry to see if there are any additional resources you can access as you consider your and your employees’ medical insurance needs and choices.

Why do I share this story with you?

Because my husband finally implemented an idea that he’d been considering for more than 20 years. I’ve never seen him happier in his professional life.

The business is growing and has employees. The partnership is intact and strong. The excitement is still there!

I also tell you this story because my husband modeled two important things to me, our children (two were in college at the time), and others:

Pursue your dreams!

No one is going to do it for you.

Take a risk!

A calculated risk, not a careless risk. If you’re successful, like my husband, you will find fulfillment that you would have otherwise let slip by, and even if you’re not, you’ll have tried and will no longer have to wonder, “What if?”

Join the conversation in the comments below! What big dreams do you have? Have you already tackled one? Did you get creative to fund it? Let us know!