Dreamline worksheet: a follow up to the Four Hour Workweek
Update, March 2008: A new version of this spreadsheet is now available here.
You can subscribe to this blog to find out when new versions come out and discover other 4-Hour Workweek hacks/lessons-learned. You can also skim through my 4-Hour Workweek articles here, as well. Enjoy the spreadsheet and best of luck living your dreams!
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As I previously wrote (1 2), I’m a big fan of Timothy Ferriss’ Four Hour Workweek approach. Just a few chapters in he mentions what he calls a Dreamline, which is a chart designed to calculate how approachable and within reach your ideal lifestyle is, in terms of finances and time. On the book’s website there were online calculators for filling out the Dreamline, but I didn’t find them to be as helpful as I’d like…so I’ve come up with my own.
I emailed with Tim to get his thoughts on this, mentioning that my company frequently creates attractive and functional reports in Word & Excel, and he figured it’d be worth a try if I could improve on it. As such, all the prose in the spreadsheet I created is directly from his example and used with permission. Anyhow, here it is (with assistance from Keith, SET’s awesome designer) as a Microsoft Excel download:
Dreamline Worksheet 1.2 [old version]
Some usage notes:
- It was tested on Windows Excel 2002, 2003, & 2007 as well as Mac Excel 2004, and should work fine on all versions of Excel as it doesn’t use any macro code
- To begin using it, use the Tab key or the arrows to navigate through the cells. It behaves like an ordinary form
- There are two pages of the workbook–a “Dreamline Worksheet” and a “Monthly Expense Calculator.” The total from the Expenses is entered automatically at the bottom of the Dreamline. You can switch between them by clicking “pg 1 of 2″ or “pg 2 of 2″ at the top right of the worksheets:
- Both worksheets should print well to 8.5×11 in B&W / Color (the stars may be a bit dark in B&W)
- In addition to calculating the total cost of all your items on the Dreamline Worksheet, you can also keep a running total of your highest priority items by “starring” them. Simply choose ‘Y’ in the Star? column to keep a second total:
Please feel free to leave comments and questions below. Thank you, and I hope this proves helpful to you all!
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Update, March 2008: A new version of this spreadsheet is now available here.
You can subscribe to this blog to find out when new versions come out and discover other 4-Hour Workweek hacks/lessons-learned. You can also skim through my 4-Hour Workweek articles here, as well. Enjoy the spreadsheet and best of luck living your dreams!
Filed under: 4-Hour Workweek, Business, Productivity, Tools I Use
June 20th, 2007 at 3:21 pm
I’ve been making my way through the book and this is a helpful companion. What a beautiful spreadsheet, too! Thx
July 2nd, 2007 at 12:32 am
[…] Finally — a beautiful Excel spreadsheet for Dreamlining! I owe a special thanks to Jared Goralnick and SET Consulting for putting together a beautiful free spreadsheet that all readers can use for automatic Dreamlining. Download it here and be sure to read the instructions. Too cool. Thanks, Jared! […]
July 2nd, 2007 at 1:30 am
Awesome, awesome, awesome.
July 2nd, 2007 at 8:12 am
Would you share the password for this file, so we can learn from your example? Thanks.
July 2nd, 2007 at 8:42 am
Hi Michael,
I just now uploaded a version with a new password. That password is ’setconsulting’. Anyone is welcome to play around with this for their own uses so long as they don’t distribute it without permission. Enjoy!
Jared
July 2nd, 2007 at 10:53 am
This is great, I will send a link out to my list and my new blog for people to visit you and look at this great tool. Congrats on being so creative!
Dr. Wright
The Wright Place TV Show
July 2nd, 2007 at 3:48 pm
Thanks Jared & Tim!
I skipped over the homework for that chapter because the calculations seemed like a lot of work (and I just hate spreadsheets.) BUT THIS one is so neat and pretty. I’ll give it a go!
Thank you kindly for sharing it.
July 3rd, 2007 at 4:01 am
I’ve really enjoyed playing around with your spreadsheet. However, I have noticed 3 things (the first being a genuine error I believe).
1. F38 should equal ‘=(HAVING_TOTAL+BEING_TOTAL+DOING_TOTAL)+(MONTHLY_EXPENSES)’
At the moment it equals =(HAVING_TOTAL+BEING_TOTAL+DOING_TOTAL)+(MONTHLY_EXPENSES*1.3)
However, MONTHLY_EXPENSES (in cell F36) has already been multiplied by 1.3
I think my reasoning on this is right unless there is some reason to multiply this number by 1.3 twice (taxes?)
2. In F39 and F42, it would be more accurate to divide by 30.4 (or even 30.42) since 365 days divided by 12 months comes out to an average month of 30.41666 days. Right now it’s dividing by 30 days which is fine too and gives an extra buffer anyway (and it’s less anal) but just thought I’d mention it. Anyway, people can change this themselves by using the password ’setconsulting’.
3. Are taxes figured into this? Does the 1.3 multiplier cover taxes?
July 3rd, 2007 at 7:07 am
Thanks for the QA work, Hayden. Can I hire you for other projects ;-). I’ve released a version 1.1 that addresses your points 1 and 2 and that is available at the download link above. To further clarify the point, I indicated on the dreamline spreadsheet that a 30% buffer is now included in the monthly expenses total.
As for #3, you’d have to ask Tim whether the 1.3 multiplier is specifically to address taxes, but for an employee that would be a good way to estimate. As an employer or self-employed individual that number ought to be higher, at 40-50%, though it would be more gray if some of the numbers were business expenses.
July 3rd, 2007 at 10:59 pm
Hahaha… sure. I need a job that’s 4HWW friendly. :)
July 4th, 2007 at 12:04 am
[…] Technotheory.com - Dreamline worksheet: a follow up to the Four Hour Work. Brilliant tool for charting your goals and where you’d like to go, and what it would take to get you there. Plus, the Excel file is about the prettiest form I’ve ever seen. Nice.. […]
July 4th, 2007 at 1:02 am
Send me your email, Hayden : ). jared at technotheory.
July 4th, 2007 at 4:08 pm
[…] Via Tim Ferriss’ blog, a link to Technotheory’s Spreadsheet for Dreamlining. This is a very useful way of implementing the “Dreamlining” concept explained in Ferriss’ The 4-Hour Work Week. An excellent, practical, yet mind-expanding, goal-setting process. […]
July 5th, 2007 at 1:34 am
[…] Technotheory.com - Dreamline worksheet: a follow up to the Four Hour Workweek A Dreamline is a chart designed to calculate how approachable and within reach your ideal lifestyle is, in terms of finances and time. (tags: definition dreams goals ideas money resources social tools 4HWW templates excel 4hourworkweek) Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. […]
July 8th, 2007 at 12:23 am
Love this spreadsheet! Thanks so much for posting it. One note…I would love to be able to date the worksheet somewhere, at the top, so I could refer back to saved versions and know when I had filled it out.
Thanks again!
July 9th, 2007 at 10:55 am
This is a great resource. I’ve done a little dreamlining and Tim is absolutely right that a lot of the “millionaire” type-experiences I’ve dreamed about don’t take a lot of money. For example, I found I can charter a sailboat in the Caribbean for about $3600 for a month next June. Your spreadsheet makes my planning much easier.
July 18th, 2007 at 6:08 pm
Hey there Jared. Thanks!
What a great resource and such a fab thing to do to share it.
Regards
Martin Haworth
August 1st, 2007 at 9:40 pm
Thank you so much. This is fantastic!!
August 17th, 2007 at 12:51 pm
[…] I highly recommend Tim Ferriss’s method of dreamline. Read more here. Here is an electronic version.[…]
August 27th, 2007 at 8:53 am
Gorgeous spreadsheet–great job!
September 4th, 2007 at 6:50 am
[…] to redistribute retirement throughout life. There’s an excellent Excel spreadsheet here for […]
September 6th, 2007 at 9:48 pm
Thanks a lot! I’m going to play around with it!
September 11th, 2007 at 12:32 am
[…] Dreamlining Worksheet The Technology Theory has another dreamlining spreadsheet located at Technotheory.com - Dreamline worksheet: a follow up to the Four Hour Workweek Good notes to have:It was tested on Windows Excel 2002, 2003, & 2007 as well as Mac Excel […]
September 24th, 2007 at 7:45 pm
[…] is where to find the Dreamline Worksheet which ties into the 4-Hour […]
January 19th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Great job with this spreadsheet! I have just posted my content and feedback on this spreadsheet on my Four-hour Work Week tracking blog at http://www.fourhourworkweekdiary.com.
However, there’s something that confuses me. After calculating the costs, shouldn’t the total monthly income be the sum of the costs divided by the number of months that you are setting out the goal? Right now, it’s using the full amount to calculate the TMI, but that doesn’t seem right. If I have a goal to have something worth $120,000 in six months, wouldn’t I need just $20,000 of monthly income to get there (less if it needs to be financed)?
Rex
January 19th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Rex,
That’s a very insightful point, and I was taken aback by it as I put a lot of thought into this spreadsheet.
All the calculations are identical to the ones Tim uses in his book. However, one of his calculations doesn’t quite fit the rest–that is, in his example, all of his expenses are monthly except for his trip to the Croatian coast which is a total cost, not a monthly one. As such, it really shouldn’t be listed that way. Over the next few days I’m going to think about this and if I’m still in agreement I’ll contact him.
Depending on the outcome of that I may very well revise the spreadsheet to be able to calculate both fixed and monthly prices.
Thanks, Rex!
January 19th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
[…] of the great tools to assist in Dreamlining is the Excel Spreadsheet version that was developed by the folks at the Technotheory blog. Using that spreadsheet, I developed my Dreamline goals as such: Six Month Goals: […]
January 20th, 2008 at 6:37 am
Fantastic - thanks for providing this valuable resource! I’ll make sure to recommend it to my readers as well.
January 28th, 2008 at 6:18 pm
[…] he shows how he made an automated empire that he maintains off a mere 4 hours a week, making more money than most high paid professionals. This is done by a Dreamline Calculator […]
February 15th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
[…] ways to improve the value of the time audit without increasing inefficiency. I was pointed by Jared Goralnick to a good software tool called TimeSnapper (http://www.timesnapper.com) that I’m going to […]
February 27th, 2008 at 10:29 am
(Soft Whisper) I see CORPORATE people…
So many comments about the attributes of the form, exactly what Tim in his book teaches NOT to do. Just do it!
But some good comments and suggestions.
February 27th, 2008 at 11:18 am
Just to help clarify, I’m in finance, any spreadsheet dealing with numbers should have one unit of measurement (i.e. boxes, each, monthly, daily, etc.) in a single column. So when I completed my form I used monthly only, it gave me the correct figures I needed to write my actions steps, and act.
March 3rd, 2008 at 9:04 am
[…] been almost eight months since the first 4-Hour Workweek Dreamline spreadsheet; it’s been both an inspiring (many success stories) and […]
May 12th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
[…] example from someone applying to my company: “The design/experience on your Dreamline spreadsheet was awesome; I do a lot of Excel VBA and would […]