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Welcome to the Carnival of Careers #5, back at brip blap for the week!  There were a lot of great submissions below, and I highlighted a few as my picks.     Enjoy!

photo credit: Daquella manera

Editor’s Picks:

Kristie presents Bored with your job? Work overseas for the summer! posted at Norway - An American In Oslo.  It’s a cool idea from someone living in a cool place…

mbhunter presents The most important thing you can do for your job posted at mbhunter.   A good reminder for anyone who grumbles about their job regularly.

Mark Butler presents Why Everyone Should Experience a Sales Job posted at The Butler Project.  I have done a tiny bit of selling but it’s always been business-to-business selling rather than trying to sell to individuals; Mark has a good idea why everyone should at least attempt sales.

work-life balance
Will presents Sample of How To Write A Condensed Work Week Proposal posted at Your Finish Rich Plan.  This is a great starting point for trying to convince your boss to give you a condensed work week - flex time, telecommuting, job sharing, etc.

MoneyNing presents A Dollar Saved is Two Dollars Earned but Two Dollars Earned is Twenty Dollars Saved posted at Money Ning. A new look at savings and income!

career management
Silicon Valley Blogger presents Traditional Jobs For Men And Women And The Gender Divide » Money and Personal Finance Blog In Silicon Valley posted at The Digerati Life.  It’s surprising to think that there are careers in which 99% of the workers are one gender, but there are quite a few.

Andrew Heath presents People Forgive Mistakes, Not Personalities posted at Rants of a Gay Lunatic.  Spending time focusing on others’ mistakes makes you look petty, and nobody likes petty.

Phil for Humanity presents Everyone has a Boss posted at Phil for Humanity. Most of us even have more than a single boss. This is a fact of life that no one can escape.

The Baglady presents The Importance and Benefits Non-Profit and Public Service Jobs posted at The Baglady.  This was an interesting article for me, personally, since my brother just made the leap from a corporate behemoth to a governmental job, exchanging a big salary for benefits out the wazoo.   That’s not ALL the article is about, because it focuses on the positive rewards non-profit and public service jobs can give to the individual.

career advice
Carrie presents The lucky 7: Lessons in entrepreneurship, courtesy of my father posted at Our Common Cents.  Entrepreneurial mindsets do teach people not to rely on the supposedly-safe paycheck, and I think that does help in their financial lives, as well.

Raymond presents My List Of The Top 5 Most Overrated Careers and Jobs posted at Money Blue Book.  I can’t say I disagree with the list, but it’s missing corporate consultants!

Dereck presents How to become what you want to become, in about two days posted at I Will Not Die.  The biggest obstacle to achieving your goal is usually (unfortunately) you.

Rich Leverage presents How to Work Less and Make More Money With Multiple Streams of Income posted at Rich Credit Debt Loan. About diversification of income. Diversity reduces risk. Eventually the goal is passive income covering living expenses, then working for anything other than fun is no longer necessary.

Akemi presents Successful Entrepreneurs Are Great Problem-Solvers: Laura Bennett posted at Yes to Me.   I’d say that the skills successful entrepreneurs have would also make them successful employees, too!

Ted presents The Ultimate Graduation Resource List posted at CampusGrotto.  A good list of career resources for new grads.

Ian Lurie presents HVAC Training: Starting a new career posted at HVAC Training.  If you want to learn about an HVAC career, this is your chance to start.  Right now.

job stories
Michael presents Law Student Leaves Gang Life For School Life posted at International Law News.  Just once, though, I’d like to see a “lawyer leaves corporate office to lead a life of crime.”  Oh wait, they don’t have to leave the corporate office for that, do they…

TheLifeLessTraveled presents How to Start Your Dream Company, Founders of Fred Flare Share Their Story posted at The Life Less Traveled.   That’s a good point; don’t just think about starting a company, think about starting your DREAM company.

The Financial Blogger presents When It Doesn’t Make Sense; Don’t Be Afraid to Speak Out posted at The Financial Blogger.  This is a story about a classroom situation that would apply equally in a work situation.

That’s it for this edition of the carnival! Thanks to everyone who participated and I hope you found a few interesting articles here. Remember to submit an article for the next edition which will be July 14 at Money Smart Life. I’m skipping next Monday simply since it’s going to be a busy weekend (both for me and everyone else) .  If you’re interested in hosting, there are spots available in August!

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Yet another week gone by! Hard to believe. If you’re looking for part 3 of my location-independent family posts, don’t worry, it’s coming next week. The Carnival of Careers will be here, too. And in the meantime I’ve managed to work a heavy-overtime week (the extra money wasn’t necessary but is nice after taking a 5-week break from work) and running around after the kids every evening. All good, but obviously it messed with the posting frequency. I’m probably going to drop back to posting three times per week from now on, just to keep on top on the blog.

I also made it to Playing The Building today, since it’s near my client’s office. It’s a piece by David Byrne, of Talking Heads fame. All I have to say is wow. Not so much for the exhibit - although it was amazing - but for the bottomless pit of creativity that Mr. Byrne has. I wish I had even a bit of that creativity. It’s a cool idea, and hearing a building artificially groan and creak out music is an eerie but pleasant experience.

I’ll also make a brief digression into politics/the economy and say that all of the horrendously stupid blathering about oil speculation and lowering oil prices and whatnot is really getting to me. America’s had a free ride for a long time. Gas is going to be expensive, no matter what, and all the political preening and pouting in the world won’t change that. It’s time to get more fuel-efficient cars (not just hybrids, a LOT more efficient) and it’s time to rethink how much driving we need to do. Plenty of blogs deal with this, but at the end of the day this is not a personal finance issue. Gas is still cheaper than it SHOULD be.

photo credit: mugley

A Reminder to Keep Your Beneficiaries Up-to-Date: This is one of those things we’re willing to let slip through the cracks, but it’s critically important to keep it updated.

State of the Economy: Investing in one of the greatest companies in American history nets you a 0% return over 53 years. Nice. The last eight years have really been wonderful for our country, haven’t they?

Stop Whining & Start Making Some Money: Amen to this. I see immigrants in NYC every day breaking their backs to get ahead, while my coworkers whine about how they can’t afford a Wii because gas is over $4.

RBS Predicts a Global Market Crash: Yeah, more good news… if America’s woes spread to the rest of the West (and the signs are crystal clear that they are) then it’s going to be a fun few years for all of us.

Rate Your Job, Company and Salary At Glassdoor.com: Compare Work and Pay: I heard about this site and I love the idea - once their database builds up a bit this will be a site I’ll hit a lot. Actual information about salaries would be VERY interesting, even for a consultant…

Stocks Fell Like a Rock: Just because you’re not on the mat yet. Stay down!

PopTop Ranks Replaces Personal Finance Site Rankings: Ah yes, another ranking site for us bloggers to agonize over… subscribe to brip blap and make me rise! rise! rise in the rankings! For the Emperor! Excelsior!

Three Requirements of Great Investing: Well, I’m not 100% sold on the index-fund theology but then again, it works as well as anything for the part-time investor, so read this, grit your teeth and pray (or better yet, vote) for a sensible set of political leaders to start creating some reasonable fiscal policies in this little country of ours.

Free Ebook: Memoirs Of A Gaijin: Hunter’s got a book about his experience as an American in Japan - I’ve started it and it’s a good read so far. Best of all, the price is right, people.

Law Of Attraction, Million Dollar Check, And Business Growth: People are skeptical about the law of attraction, and it all boils down to this: it’s not about thinking you’ll get a million bucks just for thinking about it. It’s about putting yourself in a positive mindset that says I AM going to get it, and I’m going to keep myself open to possibilities to earning it. I have been pushing and pushing myself to do it, and it’s worked - money is flowing in far faster than I would’ve expected two months ago when I started trying to attract it. Not because I wished for it, but because I am now concentrating on staying open to new possibilities.

Simple Credit Card Advice For Everyone, Yes YOU!: This one is truly GREAT credit card advice from a site that about, well, hard-core progressive politics. I hadn’t visited it in months and when I did, this little gem jumped out at me. Owe a lot? Read it. Pay off your balance in full every month? Read it. Good tips from a former credit card company employee.

That’s it for the links. I’ll leave you with a quote for absolutely no reason other than the fact I found it apt:

“Women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition. ” — Timothy Leary

Popularity: 2% [?]

A while ago I was reading Location Independent Living, and I came up with three questions that I had about actually implementing it with a family. Most of these questions probably would arise reading the now-famous Four Hour Work Week, too, but I have yet to read it.  In my last post, I asked the question “what does that really mean”?  Now I’m going to answer my second question:  could you live a location-independent life with children?

photo credit: Sukanto Debnath keeping busy

I have a toddler son and a newborn baby girl. My son is already speaking in both English and Russian.  He’s not toilet trained - mainly since we haven’t encouraged it too much - but he’s largely able to eat adult foods, sleep reasonable hours and so forth.  Traveling with him is primarily a question of keeping him entertained.  Going on a plane is tough because he gets bored, but we’ve already made four round-trip flights with him and one one-way - all before he was two!  So I know he could handle travel.

An infant is another question entirely. I’m not saying it wouldn’t be possible, but I would be significantly more nervous about moving from location to location with an infant.  You’d have to find pediatricians, carry a fairly comprehensive bunch of medicines/foods/etc. if you were going to a more remote location, and frankly be able to put up with a fairly nervous infant.  The biggest upside to traveling with an infant is that they seem to sleep on plane flights!

So travel would be possible, although maybe difficult. That’s just the travel aspect.  What about on arrival at your location?  I think the age of your children then becomes fairly significant.

Until recently Little Buddy attended day care for a couple of hours per day, mainly for socializing. Formal education is still a long way away.  I’ve talked about education and I have a growing sense that at least for some portion of their lives my children will be homeschooled, for a variety of reasons.  I am not a fan of the ridiculous test-based/homework-based education system we have in America.  I think the emphasis on facilities and sports and equipment (think: computers) over personnel such as teachers make American schools weaker every year.  American education has become largely geared towards producing minimally educated graduates suited for cubicle attendance.  Finance, classical languages, and the arts are neglected subjects while rote reading, non-practical mathematics and sciences are encouraged (I will have more to say on these subjects in the future).  Suffice it to say that as the children got older, I would not mind at all doing a year or two of home-schooling.  Resources are available and I am willing to do it.

Probably the larger question would be socialization. Would a child home-schooled in St. Petersburg or Singapore or Dubai have a social life?  Would a child home-schooled in New York have a social life?  I think where you live matters less than Where you live, if that makes sense.  What does that mean?  I mean that even in New York if you live in an apartment building and never go out, you won’t have any meaningful socialization for yourself or your child.  If you throw yourself into the local community there will always be activities and opportunities for your child to learn and grow.  People are people.  It may be harder to form connections in deeply different cultures, but because of that it can be all the more rewarding.

I think being a location-independent professional with children would be exciting. I am sure there are risks - my young (slightly older than Little Buddy) niece recently suffered through a very dangerous and frightening illness while in Southeast Asia.  Yet illnesses occur at home, and if you allow fear of “maybes” to keep you from chasing your goals, you won’t be happy and that unhappiness will be passed down to another generation.    So what would be the main tips for living as a location-independent family with children?

• Be prepared to homeschool.
• Always make sure you are stocked with basic infant medicines.
• Make identifying health care facilities and practitioners one of the very first thing you do on arrival in a new location.
• Keep your children’s emotional and developmental needs in mind.  Moving once every four months might not be too traumatic, but children need some sense of stability.
• Make sure you’re happy traveling with your family.  If you feel tense or unhappy or nervous, no-one is going to enjoy the travels.

I think it could be done. I’m not sure you could do it easily, but I have known at least one guy whose parents raised him that way, traveling around the world - and he seemed to end up more or less OK.  The biggest question you have to ask is whether your whole family is on board with the idea - because if anyone’s not happy, the whole experiment will be shot.

Popularity: 3% [?]

A while ago I was reading Location Independent Living, and I came up with three questions that I had about actually implementing it with a family. Most of these questions probably would arise reading the now-famous Four Hour Work Week, too, but I have yet to read it. First, a lot of people say they want to travel but what does that really mean? Second, is it really possible with children? And finally, what kind of financial situation do you need to be in if you do it? I’ll address each of these questions in a separate post.

What Does Travel Really Mean?


photo credit: Joshua Davis (jdavis.info)

Take a look at this list of “travels” that I’ve done and think about which of them would appeal to you. This is not an abstract question, but an attempt to try to make you think about what kind of traveling you would prefer to do if money and time and commitments and so on were no object.

- A cruise to a generic Caribbean island.
- Camping in the hills, living in tents and eating food cooked over the fire.
- A hotel in a shabby part of Paris, but near a subway that gives you quick access to the heart of the city.
- Staying in simple accommodations in a small town in central Europe.
- Primitive hotel accommodations in distant Siberia; no shower, minimal heat, no TV.
- Visiting relatives in a town about 7 hours away by car.

Travel usually means one of two things to most people: a desire for new experiences OR relief from day-to-day routines. I don’t think there are many other reasons to travel, because almost any motivation can be put in one of those two categories, or both. If you want to become a location-independent person, though, you should be motivated by the desire for new experiences. If your motivation is relief from day-to-day routines - nonstop - then you may be disappointed eventually. Even if you travel constantly, routines will develop. As I’ll discuss in part two, routines may even be necessary. If your idea of perfect travel is staying on a cruise ship or in a luxury hotel where maid services take care of making the bed and the minibar magically refills, you will eventually grow tired of this new routine.

On the other hand, if you are looking for new experiences, traveling as a location-independent family would be liberating. You can stay in a location until it gets boring for you, then move to the next location. Your routine may be the same in each place (doing your remote work, schooling the kids, going grocery shopping), but the experience will always be new. You can do this by learning your timeframe for change, and planning ahead. Obviously if you have a routine built into your daily life, but your location changes once every six months, you will have new experiences. Grocery shopping in Irkutsk will be different than grocery shopping in Surabaya. However, you will have to do it. You will not have concierge service everywhere you go that will allow you to sleep until noon and party all day long.

Traveling in general, though, is liberating. As I said, I have made all of the trips I listed above and each has its own appeal. However, going to a new place for the first time is always tremendously exciting for me. I would rather go to Croatia than France, simply because I’ve BEEN to France. Similarly I would rather go to a small village in France, though, than go to the same city in Croatia twice. Some people enjoy one place; they have a timeshare there, or friends, or simply love it too much never to visit again. If you are like this, maybe you don’t really want to be location independent: maybe you just want to MOVE. It’s a critical difference, because they are two very different lifestyles. If you love France, for example, just move there and live there for a few years. Don’t move there planning to move on in 3 or 4 months; you’ll regret it.

I think the biggest part of this lifestyle would be making sure that you are doing it for the right reasons: for experience, not for escape. You can find escape without traveling - by getting a different job, exploring a new hobby or even learning something new. Experiences, though, have to be sought after, and being a location independent family would be a great way to continually invite those experiences into your life.

In the next part I’ll talk about traveling with children.

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It’s not possible.

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