Our Wedding Anniversary

My husband and I are pretty bad at remembering anniversaries and events. Also, neither of us is very materialistic, so when I ask him, “What do you want for your birthday?” he usually says, “I don’t really want anything.” So every year, I just give him a Porsche T-shirt.

And when he asks me, “What do you want for your birthday?” I reply, “Hmm, I don’t really want anything, so I’m good,” which makes him say, “Well, that’s a bit much…” and then he books a nearby inn for us to stay at as a family.

That’s just how we are, but last week we celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary. Has it really been nine years already? We’ve forgotten and skipped celebrating our anniversary several times before, but this year my husband posted this tweet on Twitter:

“Today is our 9th wedding anniversary. When we first got married, we couldn’t even dream of buying a Porsche, but I told my wife, ‘I want to reach this level of income someday,’ and she listened carefully—I remember that clearly. And now, I’ve far exceeded that goal. I think it worked out because my wife believed in my potential and gave me freedom.”

今日は9回目の結婚記念日。結婚当初はポルシェなんて全然買えなかったけど、『将来、このくらいの年収にはなりたいと思う』と妻に話し、妻もちゃんと聞いてくれたことをハッキリ覚えてる。そして、今、その目標は優に超えた。妻が僕の可能性を信じ、自由にさせてくれたから上手くいったのだと思う。

— Hiro@ポルシェがわが家にやってきた (@boxster_gts) October 14, 2021

“My wife believed in my potential and gave me freedom, so it worked out.”

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Wow!! He actually thought that (ﾟдﾟ)!

My husband usually doesn’t say things like that, so I was really surprised.

Why I Could Embrace My Husband’s Ambitious Income Goals

Nine years ago, we never imagined we’d be living a life with a Porsche. My husband had always said, “I want to buy a Porsche someday,” but I never thought it would actually happen.

Recently, during a Twitter Spaces audio chat, my husband looked back and shared this story:

When we first got married, my income was much lower than it is now. I could support my family, but buying a Porsche was totally out of the question. At that time, I told my wife, “I want to reach this level of income someday.” A normal wife might have responded, “What are you dreaming about? Be realistic. Stop talking nonsense and get some sleep so you can work hard tomorrow.” and not taken it seriously. But my wife said, “Oh, really? Maybe you can do it.” She didn’t dismiss my income goal but accepted it, and that meant a lot to me. Because our values matched—we didn’t think “That’s impossible,” but believed “With the right effort, it’s achievable”—I’ve come this far.

I never expected to hear such words from him, so I felt both happy and embarrassed, and my mood got a bit weird at that moment. (By the way, here’s the replay of that Twitter Space.)

I was really glad he felt that way, and just hearing those words made me feel like I could keep going for another 10 years… well, maybe that’s an exaggeration lol.

When my husband talked about his income goal, I didn’t consciously think, “I have to support him” or “I have to believe in his potential,” but rather I just naturally accepted it.

There are three main reasons why.

First, my husband spoke as if he had already achieved that goal.

It wasn’t a pipe dream like “I hope I can get there someday,” nor was it a tough-guy “I’ll work my guts out to make it happen!” kind of talk. Instead, it felt like, “He probably already has a clear path in mind.”

Previously, in an article titled “What’s Important When Buying a Porsche: Visualize the Process!,” I wrote that “If you want to make meat sauce spaghetti, it’s important to imagine the process of making it.”

Similarly, my husband’s way of talking back then showed that even though the goal was high and there were many challenges, he could see “what’s needed to get there and what actions to take.” That’s why I could accept it so naturally.

Second, I believe that “my husband aiming high has no downside for me at all.”

From my perspective, if my husband works hard, grows, earns more, and we can live a richer life as a family, there’s no reason to hold him back.

Of course, that might mean he comes home late, works weekends, or can’t spend as much time with the kids. But challenges come with risks, and we can always talk and solve problems as they arise.

Actually, I get irritated when people settle for “this is fine as it is” or get too comfortable being pampered and stay put. So I’m happier when my husband keeps pushing himself to reach higher.

This applies not only to my husband but also to friends or anyone—I prefer an environment where we challenge ourselves and motivate each other. But for those who aren’t like that, I’m probably a pretty annoying wife (lol), so I’m grateful to my husband in many ways.

Third, I’ve witnessed firsthand how steadily my husband has been stepping up.

When we met, he had just started his business and was renting space in a senior company’s office. Then we got our own office, moved to a bigger place, hired more employees, and his income rose—I’ve seen all that up close.

Because of that, I unconsciously felt, “This is someone who makes things happen.”

So even if the goal seemed huge to others, inside me there was a kind of baseless certainty that “He’ll achieve it.”

Our Future Goals

Now my husband often talks about new goals, like “I want to be like this” or “I want to live this kind of life.” People like that might be rare in the world, but I vaguely feel he can make it.

Also, even if his goals change along the way, it’s natural for people to evolve as they grow, so that’s fine too.

By the way, my future goal is “Once the kids grow up and become more independent, my husband and I want to travel abroad, changing our place of residence every few months, living in various places.”

I mainly want to live in Europe—countryside towns surrounded by beautiful fields, seaside cities, nature-rich areas, sometimes the city—driving a Porsche, working while gently rocking in a wooden deck chair, enjoying a relaxed and free lifestyle. (Though I don’t speak any foreign languages at all.)

To make that happen, my goal for the near future is to “build a system that lets me earn solidly from anywhere in the world with just a laptop or smartphone, and create streams of income.”

Of course, that will require effort, self-transformation, and overcoming many obstacles… but life is only once, so I want to choose the exciting path whenever I can.

Next year will be our 10th anniversary. I wonder what stage we’ll be at then. My husband will probably be way ahead, and I might not have changed much—but I’ll do my best not to be left behind!