Why my finances are different

When I was younger I used to read lots of personal finance books, but as time went by I stopped doing so for two reasons. One was that they were all starting to sound the same to me. The second, and more important, reason was that I was finding my situation too atypical to be really covered by even the niche books.

Here are some things that I think are unique about my financial situation:

1. I am self-employed with an incorporated business. My assets therefore include both my business and personal assets. (same with liabilities but my business doesn't really have any of those)
2. I have always been financially "ahead" of my same-age peers. So the advice for my age group never seemed to apply to me.
3. I am in my 30's and happily single, so many of the critical issues that affect the majority of my age group and older do not pertain to me. (eg. life insurance... I have no dependents and enough assets to cover my funeral so I consider this to be very low priority)

With so many uncommon characteristics it becomes very hard for me to find any value at all in a one size fits all approach. So it's time to roll up my sleeves and become a financial do-it-yourselfer.

Finding my way to $1 million

I have been struggling for some time now with how to cope with my finances. This has been hard for me because I can't talk about it with friends and family: My problem is that my finances are going too well and I am not prepared for the next steps. Ironically, it would be easier to talk about things going poorly, but an improving net worth is positively in poor taste as dinner table conversation.

Then in surfing tonight I found some really nice personal finance blogs. How neat that the anonymity of the internet allows honesty about finances in a way that isn't possible except perhaps with your accountant. So I've decided to give this a try as a way to put my thoughts in writing, explore the issues and hopefully reach some conclusions. I called myself The Money Diva not because I am but because I would like to be. I have more questions than answers right now and I perceive a long path ahead of me. But I think that by writing it out and possibly with input from the net community, I will find my way.

As a beginning, I would like to set out my goals:
1. Reach $1 million net worth
2. Generate passive income sufficient to stop working
3. Have a sensible asset allocation with appropriate risk level
4. Do this in a way that does not require microscopic monitoring or multiple advances degrees to understand

I plan on refining my goals as I revisit my situation and my vision to add timelines, details and perhaps even change direction. But these general ideas will start as a pointer in the basic direction.