Your ideal lifestyle must have a dollar figure attached to it.  It’s not okay to say, “I want to be rich”; or “I want to be comfortable”; or “I want to own a house”; or “I want to travel,” etc.  Your ideal lifestyle must have a price tag in a monthly amount.  If you want to live in a certain house, how much will it cost to own and maintain?  How much would you need to set aside for annual holidays; for someone to clean your house; for you to drive the car you want; to wear the clothes you like to wear; for you to give the money away you want; to do the things you like to do, etc.

How? Start shopping – not to buy – but to do research, to become informed.  Go to open houses, visit travel agents, sit in cars, look in stores you wouldn’t normally shop in, research charities, go online, talk to people, go places, write notes, keep files, and do what any informed buyer would do.  If you have an idea, you’d like to take a year off with your family and live in a foreign land, then find out the cost.  Find out who and how you’ll have things looked after at home; where you’ll go; where you’ll live, and all the prices if you were to do it today.  Even if you think you won’t live out your vision for five to ten years, you can find out the costs today, then update your figures later, or learn to apply financial math calculations to project likely increases.  You need to know the price of your dream, of your desired lifestyle, of your life outside of your current working and income situation; otherwise you’re giving up control and working with “averages” at best.  Is your life just average, or is your life unique and personal?  This is not a hard step unless you make it about lack, regret, fear, and self-pity.  This is about making it happen.  Without this step, even if you won a lottery, you wouldn’t know how to use the money.  Enjoy this process.  It’s far easier than living a life of “coulda, shoulda and woulda.”