Tag: alternative income

how to make money without a job and why you should

 

Spend less than you earn is the wrong way to think! Your time will be much better spent thinking of more ways to make money than it will be thinking of ways to save money. Chances are good if you read this blog that you’ve already given some thought to alternative income, but let’s back up.

“It is better to have a permanent income than to be fascinating.” - Oscar Wilde

Everyone has a primary source of income. Usually it is a traditional job - an employer who asks them to show up from 9 am to 5 pm, file a TPS report and pay an ungodly amount of taxes for the privilege of being laid off in a restructuring when the company misses earnings estimates by $0.01. Income can also come from self-employment, a small business, unemployment checks, a pension, or hundreds of other primary sources. Alternative income - which is sometimes referred to, incorrectly, as passive income - can come from rental properties, royalties, investments or other sources. All of these sources could also be primary income to someone but usually these are income streams that people receive in addition to their primary income. To be truly rich one thing is certain: for every ’stream’ of income you have, you should have an alternative. Alternative income is the key to wealth.

Most people have a single source of income. They work for employer Megacorp or Wal-Market and receive a paycheck. Some people may have a trickle of investment income, or occasionally sell something on eBay and then give up after a few sales, but a large number of people consider catching up on the final season of NBC’s beloved quirky comedy “The Office” a better use of their time than trying to earn more money after a tiring day in the office. Their goal is to get by on minimum work, minimum income and maximum “down-time.” Alternative income seems like a lot of extra work to these people, and extra work isn’t what anyone wants.

However, there are many advantages to finding alternative income, not the least of which is being able to get rid of your primary income stream. Having alternative streams of income means that no one stream can direct your life. Do you think you could tell your boss you were going to quit at the end of the month if your wage is your only source of income? Not unless you had an offer letter from your next ex-boss ready. But what if you had 15 streams of income? What if no single stream accounted for more than 10% of your total income? You could do a constant analysis and drop underperformers. You could drop streams that were inefficient, or frankly just made you blue. This is why being a consultant is better than being an employee, and why owning a business is better than being a consultant, and why creating content is better than owning a business - ease of adding and dropping income sources. Consultants and businesses and especially content creators can have more than one ‘employer’ at a time. No one ‘employer’ becomes critical for putting food on the table.

There are two more advantages to alternative income besides diversification of income sources. First of all is the expansion of skills. Creating an income stream from a website you create or eBay sales or a small business is a completely different skill set than being a financial analyst, for example. Not better, not worse, but different. Even blogging about financial analysis is a different skill set than being a financial analyst. Every time you create a new revenue stream, you are expanding your skill set. You are learning something new, and making it that much more likely that you’ll be able to add further income streams.

This leads to the greatest advantage of alternative income streams of all. This is the viral nature of alternative income. For the first 10-12 years of my working life, I never thought there was any point in worrying about income past my wages and a quarterly trickle of dividends from my stock holdings. The truth is that when you start thinking about creating alternative income you’ll find out that something funny happens. Your ideas will snowball. That first idea will spawn two more, and they’ll each create two more. You’ll get excited the first time you make a few dollars that didn’t come from your employer. You’ll see opportunities everywhere and even though many won’t work out, some will. The one that does will give you a lead to another stream. That stream will inspire you to create another. You won’t be content to sit back and wait for your corporate payroll department to mail you that never-changing check every two weeks. You’ll want more, and by wanting more you’ll find more. Once you understand that alternative income is the only way to real, long-lasting wealth every idea you have could be the start of something amazing.

So even if you come up with an idea for generating an extra $10 a month, don’t sneer at it. That $10 a month idea may someday serve as the basis for a $100 per month idea. That $100 stream may help you gain the skills and experience you need to have for a whole new stream that generates $1000 per month. If you see where this is going, you see the possibilities. Keep an eye out - you never know when you’ll come up with the next small idea that could turn out big!

This post originally appeared, in slightly modified form, as a guest post I wrote on Lazy Man and Money. He’s all about alternative income, of course, which is the subject of this post, so his blog is a great place to brainstorm.

Photo Some rights reserved by stevendepolo

updating my financial goals, July 2008

Back in December, while participating in the Carnival of Financial Goals started by Patrick of CashMoneyLife.com, I gave my 2008 financial resolution. I’m pretty happy about where I’m at with it now.


Creative Commons License photo credit: Tigr

Here was my resolution and how I intended to accomplish it:
I will average $1000 per month in alternative income in 2008.

More specifically, these were the SMART measurements I came up with to measure this.

  • Specific - I’m going to expand my alternative income through this blog, through writing freelance articles, through my investments (although those will be reinvested) and through my other blogs.
  • Measurable - In December I will look back, take the total of my non-wage income for 2008, and divide by 12. That number will be higher than $1000.
  • Actionable - I’m already started on this goal - this blog is earning nearly $0.03 per day, I have some dividend-and-interest-producing investments, and I have started submitting a few freelance articles here and there. I just need to increase the intensity of all of these actions!
  • Realistic - If you’ve read this blog for a while you know I believe that just setting a goal down to (figurative) paper means that you can achieve it, but even without that belief I’m sure that if I work hard enough at 10 different income streams I can manage to generate that much, or more, if I make it a resolution.
  • Timely - I will have a good idea if I’m headed in the right direction by February 1, but even if I earn $10 in January it just means I have to average $1090 for the next 11 months. I’ll have a moving target each month, and I’ll know on December 31 if I hit my goal or not.

I followed it up a couple of months later, pointing out that I had come up far short of that goal. I interviewed myself (yes, I actually did - it’s a slightly disturbing one-person two-sided conversation). At that point, I had made far, far less than my original goal.

Well, as Jack Nicholson said in Wolf, “The worm has turned and it is now packing an Uzi, Mary.” I spent some time focusing on this goal and a surprising thing has happened. I am now close to halfway to my goal of earning $1000 a month on average. Considering how badly I did for the first month of the year you can imagine that things have really started picking up. I’m not even counting dividend or investment income at this point.

So how did this happen? I’ll attribute it to three specific actions:

  • My network, The Money Writers, has provided some help with obtaining revenue (namely advertisers) but far more importantly they’ve helped with ideas, tips and support. This is a perfect example of the mastermind concept in action. I wouldn’t be where I am without these guys (and gals).
  • I reengineered the blog and its advertising. Instead of my previous throw-everything-at-the-wall approach, I stuck to about four categories of ads and studied what worked. I tried to eliminate some of my in-your-face ads but put more ads on older posts. I deemphasized or removed ads that didn’t work, rather than hoping they would generate trickles of income; the purpose was to keep the overall experience of reading fun.
  • And I am sure this final point appeals to half of you and disgusts the other half, but I really concentrated on attracting success; not just for this alternative income but in my overall financial life. I decided that from being positive and writing more about what I feel needs to be said - from my gut - success would follow. I hope it has, in the sense that I hope what you read continues to deliver more value to you (in terms of ideas and maybe even just some fun reading it) than it takes from you (in terms of time). Only you would know that! Otherwise, you’d go read CNN Money.

So I’m halfway there, after an awfully slow start. Later in the year I’ll also pull in other alternative income: totally independent (rather than contracting) consulting in a slightly different field, my work-in-progress book, dividends, referral fees that I mentioned before (I have “headhunted” some former colleagues into positions this year - one 60-minute phone call netted me a $2000 fee for one of them, for example). I have a lot of plans, and the only constraint I have is time. Scratch that… I watched 45 minutes of Star Wars II: Attack of The Clowns, er, Clones last night, so I have time. The only constraint I have is myself, and I’m working hard on not constraining myself in anything!

And to quote again from my interview article update: “Well, the playoffs WERE good. 17-14, baby.” Anything is possible, even beating “The Greatest Team in History.” Nothing is impossible. Nothing.

David Tyree New York Giants Super Bowl XLII

try something new, and links

I’ve been working on something with my son. It’s “try something new”. I have made an effort to convince him that he should try something new, and if he likes it, great, if not, fine. I’m mostly applying this concept to food but it’s relevant to things like trying new sports or ideas or so on. I realized this morning - while I was talking to him about the concept of trying something new - that it should apply to all of us. None of us should ever settle for stopping learning, trying, tasting, etc. But it’s easy to do. I quit REALLY trying new things years ago. Hopefully I can shake myself out of that pattern soon…

Here are a few of my favorite reads this week:

A Frugal Daughter’s Guide to Back to School Shopping: Always interesting to get a different perspective - like a daughter’s, for example.

Should You Refinance Your Mortgage? Rates Are Low, But It Is Still a Tough Decision: I’m leaning towards doing a refi. I’ve got a good rate but the rates are so low now that the benefits to refinancing seem almost too good to believe.

To mini-retire or not to mini-retire? Escaping the Mundane: Great tips on how to break out from the “ordinary” life.

New UK Kindle a tax on literature?: Interesting take on the Kindle. My Dad LOVES his Kindle. I plan to get one soon - basically once the WiFi version hits $100.

7 Habits of Highly Frugal People: I’m working my way through this book for the second time (The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People). I didn’t like it so much the first time I went through but now I appreciate it more.

Why 99% Of Financial Advisors Should Be Shot Out Of A Cannon Need Extra Cash? There Are Only 4 Ways To Get It: The fours ways to make money are: * Start a business * Work more * Passive income * Spend less This is a great summary to clarify your thinking. Alternative income won’t just materialize. YOU have to DO something.

And a few more links that are worth reading:

work-life balance is a false choice


Creative Commons License photo credit: pshutterbug

Everyone understands that being engaged in your work, life, family and self is key to a happy life. Nobody thinks that you’ll be perfectly fulfilled without a balance - everyone needs to be happy with their family, but you also need outside interests. Everyone needs to feel like they are a contributing member of both a family and a society. It’s not an easy balance for most of us.

I struggle with it - I make good money but I still have less free time during the week than I’d like. Bubelah struggles with it, too - she spends a lot of time devoted to child care now that we have two kids, although having my son in preschool has helped. This imbalance is something many single-income families face, because the roles end up being so sharply divided.

Yet at the same time most of us feel that we have to struggle with work/life balance. You will not gain financial independence quickly as an employee. Employees are performing a straight-up swap of their time for money; the possibility to increase the money-to-time ratio is at the employer’s discretion, never the employee’s. If you want to be rich and therefore gain some measure of independence in your financial choices - and therefore in your life, you have to start a business or buy real estate or become a person who understands the market in its current sickly state. Alternative income is key to building wealth. But I am not just talking about figuring out a way to get rich.

Why is it that we view work/life balance as a struggle, a conflict to be resolved? I worry about it more than I worry about most things in my life - and I’m a worrier by nature - but I am trying increasingly to focus not so much on work/life balance but on how to move towards integrating work and life together in the future. I don’t think balance is truly possible. If you work a long commute away from home, most of your waking time is spent away from “life.” If you spend all of your time at home, it’s hard to develop your career or interests. Again, figuring out a way to get away from selling your time for money is key. The key is not to strive for balance, but to find work you enjoy and can integrate with your “life,” instead of working hard then retiring early, or thinking that working an eight-hour day with a three-hour commute and having a few hours at home is balance. Figuring out a way to do it in a blended way is better than trying to figure out a balanced way - because if you sell your time for money, there will never be balance.

how much emergency fund is enough?

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The term “emergency fund” is misleading. Is a new tire for the car an emergency? Is a new TV, when your last good one dies? Most of us have a good idea what an emergency means when we consider the extreme case: a sick child, a roof with a gigantic hole allowing the rain to come in, a car that won’t start. When you get to the more “iffy” emergencies it gets a bit tougher. Is it an emergency when you need a new dryer? I mean, you COULD hang clothes out to dry for a while.

I’ve read many times that you should have $1000 in an emergency fund, or that you should establish a three month or six month or eight month emergency fund before investing. Should you start thinking about Roths versus traditional IRAs as soon as you have $1000 in an emergency fund? Should you even be thinking about paying down your credit card debt that quickly?

We just went through seven months of a “zero-income” household, although we did have a few sources of alternative income. Neither my wife nor I were working jobs or earning money in our fields, and although we had to tighten our belts to a small extent, we were able to live more or less normally the entire time. Why? Because we had an enormous “emergency fund”, equal to more than a year of expenses.

I know there are people who can live on the razor’s edge, dancing around on margin and leveraging their next income-generating venture. If you’re that type of person, more power to you. I’m not. I’ve been able to rest easy and take my “mini-retirement” thanks to saving whenever we could in our emergency fund. It’s a lifestyle choice, but I’d argue that if you’re the type of person who gets nervous when the money runs out, you’re better off having an adequate stash laid by when times are good. When times are bad, you won’t be sorry you have enough - or even more than enough - saved up.

The argument against this might be that you can’t build wealth by keeping your money in cash (or “almost cash”). You need to put that money to work. True - but nothing is more of an impediment to building wealth than hitting a hard patch that causes you to go back into debt. In this economy it can happen quickly, and the length of time without income can be extensive. Nothing would derail your future prosperity worse than going into debt during a sudden but protracted unemployment.

So think twice before accepting the idea that a three-month or six-month emergency fund is enough. It’s never really enough. I’d love to have a three or four YEAR emergency fund. Cash in the bank is, well, cash in the bank.

photo by Paul Keleher

the four(ty) hour workweek

beachhouse

After reading Timothy Ferriss’ book The 4-Hour Workweek I was struck by what I viewed as one of his main concepts: work is something to be avoided. The book explains how to set up a business that (largely) runs itself. His idea is to have a passive (for lack of a better word) income stream and then use that stream to back away from work altogether in favor of visiting new parts of the world, learning new things and enjoying what he calls “mini-retirements.” His point that far too many of us hammer away at difficult jobs with long hours during the best years of our lives simply to grasp at “freedom” once we are too old to enjoy it.

I have written many posts about my desire to generate “passive income” or “alternative income.” After reading Robert Kiyosaki’s “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” I spent years wondering whether I, too, could ever achieve financial freedom. I’ve worked my way through a steady progression of what I’d loosely lump together as “financial freedom” books: Your Money or Your Life is one of the best examples. What Ferriss’ book helped me realize is that based on my recent “mini-retirement,” I am in no way ready for the four hour workweek. If you don’t have a sense of what you want to do with the other 164 hours of the week a mini-retirement can be long and unproductive.

Curmudgeon, a frequent contributor to brip blap, wrote this a year ago:

As young adults, we try on various persona, defined by our behaviors and job roles. Not surprisingly, some fit better than others. Hopefully, we gravitate into the roles that fit, gaining an understanding of our own preferences and character in doing so. In doing so, we’ll likely find that we don’t have a true taste for large and fancy homes, luxury automobiles, fine clothes, and corporate ladder-climbing. But many people engage in these behaviors, perhaps because others around them do so, or because of some ill-conceived notions of the meaning of success and belonging.

link: guest post: who am I?

Focusing on lists and goals and “things we’d like to achieve” can be a trap. You may think that “trekking across the Gobi on camel back” is a more admirable and exciting goal than “re-read the Lord of the Rings at least one more time,” and you may tell others (and yourself) that you want to do the former. What you really want, though, is to do something else - because that’s who you really are. You need to understand who you are before you can set goals - I didn’t think this in the past but now I do.

Maybe you want a four-hour workweek so you can “play” at writing a book (which is hard work). Maybe you want financial freedom not because you want just enough income to live a moderate existence, but so you can quit your corporate job and concentrate on making “big money” doing something else so you can buy a Mercedes. Maybe you want financial freedom to sit on a couch and complete watching every episode of Doctor Who ever made. Just be honest about what you want. I suspect that dreaming about a fancy car means you are really looking for some other sort of meaning in your life, but for all I know some people might be truly passionate about cars - learning about them, driving them and owning them. I’d like to have an ocean view home - which doesn’t come cheap - but I don’t need that home to be 4000 square feet.

I often dream of “freedom” - but now that I’ve had freedom for the last half year, I’ve started dreaming more of meaningful or interesting work; for lack of a better word, let’s call this a “purpose.” I have fooled myself for a long time into thinking I want free time to do what I really “want to do” but I don’t want free time - I want my time occupied. I think too many people confuse freedom with indolence and that’s why they can’t achieve it - freedom isn’t achieved by lazy people (unless they have the good fortune to inherit it). Laziness may actually guarantee that you’ll work very hard - you’ll just be working hard at something you don’t want to do. Someone who buys a book with a guy swinging in a hammock (as Ferriss’ book does) hoping to find a shortcut will soon realize that a lot of hard work is needed to get to that hammock. I doubt that Ferriss spends his days watching Flintstones reruns.

Ferriss’ idea of work, or purpose, or whatever you would like to call it would simply be learning and traveling. For someone else it might be accounting, or animal husbandry, or selling custom t-shirts. Nobody really wants a four-hour workweek. They want a forty-hour income off four hours of effort, so the other 36 hours can be spent doing what they would do if income was no issue.

photo by Jesse Wagstaff

linklings, finally, again

I doubt they have been sorely missed, since link roundups are not always the most exciting parts of a blog’s weekly schedule, but I am finally back into the swing of roundups. Roundups are a little tougher than regular posts, simply because they do have to be created “real time” - you can’t create them weeks in advance. But I do appreciate being included in other blog’s roundups and I therefore feel I owe it to do the same.

I made a bad mistake in yesterday’s post -I should have thought that one out a bit more before posting it. That’s what you get for writing too quickly, before researching.

Our recent move has been a slight disappointment in one sense - I haven’t found that grocery store prices are much lower than they were in New Jersey. Prices are a little lower here and there, but not enough to reduce our bills any significant amount. I thought they might have been a bit lower. That’s really the only negative, so far. Otherwise, the change in our daily lifestyle - nice weather, pleasant surroundings, good public services (parks and libraries) couldn’t make for a more dramatic change.

Time sensitive contest: » Win a $100 Home Depot Gift Card for Father’s Day!

We’re Moving: Another one of The Money Writers gets ready to flee New Jersey…

How To Do a Mid-Year Financial Checkup - Things to Think About This Summer and Seven Ways to Save Money on Your Summer Family Trip: I don’t know about everyone else, but I can’t concentrate much on personal finance once summer comes. I am easily distracted by biking, wandering around outdoors and lazy evenings. I guess I’ll have to get over that now that I’m in Florida, won’t I?

Alternative Income Streams - June 2009: As always, interesting to take a peek at other people’s finances…

The Prepaid Funeral: Advantages & Disadvantages: And yikes, back down to earth. I have wondered about whether planning your own funeral is something we should do just as seriously as making a will or buying insurance.

Extreme Saving When You Are Young: How Much Is Too Much?: You have to live your life. Save 15%, 20% of your income but after that, please, spend. Just don’t spend it on “stuff” - spend it on a nice house, a life-altering trip overseas, your education, your kids. Don’t buy an iPhone or a Wii.

The One Thing that Makes a Winning Resume: I need to update mine. My resume is not nearly “punchy” enough. I have a lot of accomplishments in it that are weakly described as “led implementation of…” etc.

Can Stock Trading Software Make You Money? versus Stock Market Technical Analysis - Loads Of Bull Crap And Bear Crap. If you want to judge for yourself, try 4 FREE Videos for INO TV by clicking here. That’s an affiliate link, by the way. INO’s an interesting site, particularly if you’re a blogger or interested in stock trading.

Readers Share Lending Club Returns: I have been a proponent of P2P lending for a while and Prosper (where I was a writer for their blog) and Lending Club in particular. I’m not sure where P2P lending is going, but I think they are a definite investing niche for investors who want to diversify.

And finally, another great article from one of my favorite blogs: How to spend very little money. I can’t say I always think the same way - I do spend money on things. I bought a bike trailer for my kids, for example.

linklings, packin’ and movin’ edition

1/3 finished packing


We’re less than two weeks from our move now, so most of our days are filled with packing, throwing out and cataloging our stuff. It’s a weird experience. Removing yourself from a place in which you were so deeply entrenched is a jarring experience. I can’t say, even now, that I’m going to be sorry to leave, because I’m ready to go on many, many levels. Yet at the same time it is a little odd to start packing up the home in which two children were born, and the first home I ever bought. It was a new home, and Bubelah and I put a lot of sweat equity into painting every square inch of the place, hanging blinds and curtains and making a million small improvements. But we’re still more excited about new experiences than we are about hanging onto rooms we’ve painted.

A few links:

Alternative Income is a Form of Insurance: Patrick’s family (soon to grow a little larger) is going to be better off thanks to his alternative income - worth remembering.

The Miser’s Peril: Why You Should Save for Tomorrow AND Enjoy Today: We wrestle with this question quite often: as heavy, heavy savers, at what point do you cut loose and just spend?

Financial Freedom in Five Years (and the Difference Between Rich and Wealthy): Rich vs. wealthy - there is a difference.

Fleeting Wants vs Genuine Wants: I think a lot of people struggle with their wants, and learning to distinguish between a fleeting want and a genuine want is tough - but it’s critical in order to manage your money.

How Will You Spend the Money From Your Parents’ Estates When They’re Gone?: Nobody likes to think about this, and the simple fact is that for many of us we won’t have much to consider, health care costs being what they are. My grandparents on my mother’s side saved a huge amount and watched it all evaporate thanks to health care costs at the end of my grandfather’s life. It’s OK - it was their money to spend on themselves - but just because your parents have some money now doesn’t mean you can look forward to inheriting a dime, frankly.

Going Off The Grid Once A Week: This is a cool idea but I’m not there yet. I like the idea of backing off one day a week, but I like lights for reading and cooking in the kitchen, etc. Turning off the TV? OK. Turning off the lights in the bathroom? Not there yet.

Consider the Impact On Your Finances When Taking a Paid Leave of Absence, FMLA, or Disability From Work: Paid leaves of absence are a luxury. I didn’t get one. The state of New Jersey guaranteed me unpaid leave, but my company didn’t offer 1 day of paid leave when either of my children were born. And you know what? It’s fine. Staying home was worth the loss of income.

A few more links worth checking out:

photo credit: buniqa

linklings, I like to move it move it edition

Ringtailed Lemurs in Berenty

If you don’t have kids and don’t know the Madagascar movies, you won’t get the reference. My daughter has been exposed to many more TV shows and movies (unfortunately) than my son was, simply because when he was younger he didn’t have an older sibling watching movies around him. Little Buddy loves Cars and Madagascar and the music that accompanies both - including the “I Like to Move It, Move It” song. Pumpkin just began to walk this weekend, haltingly, and three days later is careening about the house. She likes to move it, move it - she likes to wobble around in time to the music.

When you’ve been in the position we’ve been in for the last few months - struggling with finding a new place to live, new jobs or other sources of income, and assorted other stressful incidents - watching children toddle and dance gleefully is a gentle reminder that as long as you have your health most things are all right. There will be music, there will be sun, there will be laughter. My family is victim to the recession, deeply. We’ve been a zero-income family for four months now, and if it weren’t for our (relatively) frugal lifestyle, alternative income and large emergency fund we’d be suffering much more than we are - but we still have the future, and we can still have a few laughs dancing to music sung by a dancing lemur.

About the site:

I really want to ditch the current design of brip blap. If you’ve been reading since the beginning, you’ll know that I’ve gone through several redesigns. I am tired of the current layout. I am completely open to ANY suggestions about design. Too busy? Too white? Like/hate the layout? Any comments are appreciated…

Some links:

Ask the Readers: Is Your Home an Investment?: I don’t think so - your home is a place to live and hopefully, coincidentally an investment.

Self Employment Tax Lessons Learned: Ugh - another tax lesson I am learning too late, as well.

Exclusive Interview - CEO Reveals Thoughts on Executive Bonuses: Those fun-lovin’ CEOs - they deserve every buck they pull in.

Here’s Another Broke Multi-Millionaire: Another person we should feel sorry for… or not.

Save Money on Medicine: A few good tips on saving money on medicine, always worth considering.

Living In A Small Home: Pros and Cons of Downsizing Our House: You can downsize your house, or you can read…The Final Decision on Downsizing.

What Happens to Your Car Warranty if GM or Chrysler Goes Bankrupt: I haven’t been too worried about this since my Pontiac’s easing into “post-useful” stage anyway (and long, long since out of warranty), but it’s worth considering if you have a newer car.

April is National Financial Literacy Month: I forget, sometimes, that financial literacy isn’t something many people grow up with. I was lucky enough to have lessons about financial literacy early and often in my life, so it’s been something I never had to think about as something to learn.

fringe benefits of being employed: The socialization, however annoying at times, is worth a lot - Western society seems to lean on “work friendships” quite heavily these days. Since my college years, most (if not all) of my friendships have been acquired through work.

Do or do not, there is no try: Yoda on the scene, 900 year fiend smoking Dagobah green! (Yah, Empire beeyotches!)

photo credit: DavidDennisPhotos.com

linklings, the stimulus effect on the job market edition

World Class Traffic Jam


An unscientific observation here: it seems to me that the job market is perking up. I don’t know if the activity is picking up because I’m trying harder (doubt it), the seeds I planted months ago are finally sprouting or whether external factors (like the stimulus) are kicking in. I am getting more calls and more leads and finally starting to talk directly to some companies, rather than just headhunters (and recruiters are starting to call me rather than the other way around). Signing up for TheLadders may have helped a lot.

One of the things that I’ve hoped for that hasn’t seemed to materialize is a pickup in the consulting market. I’m resigned to the fact that if we want to move to Florida and buy a home I’m going to have a far easier time securing a mortgage and building our somewhat-depleted cash reserves back up with regular job. In addition, finding consulting work is tough in a new town. Taking a job would be a lifestyle shift, but since my alternative income remains stuck at about 10-15% of my “real income” I think it may be necessary. Of course, in a lower cost of living town my alternative income (which will travel with me, being mostly web- or investment-based) might be more like 20% of my necessary level of income. It will be interesting to see.

Save Money on Television: Bubelah has started rolling her eyes when I mention this, but between Netflix’s Watch Instantly feature (and the Roku Digital Video Player, the nifty device that plays both Netflix videos and Video On Demand), hulu, youtube, and digital TV (get a coupon if you don’t have one already) I am wondering how much longer we need cable or satellite at all.

Investing in Your Most Valuable Asset - Invest in Yourself: At this point it seems to me that money “invested” (i.e. spent) on anything other than improving yourself is a risky venture. Education and health will always be good bets, though.

A Frugal Diet, Or A Frugal Lifestyle: I never thought of frugality in exactly this way, but it’s a good metaphor: making little tweaks here and there that can be reversed once times are better is more like dieting. Deciding to live a more frugal lifestyle is a lifestyle change, not something you do until you have a little bit more free cash flow.

Preparing My Income Tax Return: How I Organize My Tax Documents: Some good tips for next year, although if you aren’t organized for this year it’s probably too late to get started now.

Credit Karma Free Credit Score Service Can Help You in This Economic Environment: An Interview with CEO Ken Lin: It’s good to see a new player in the credit score market. Watch the only movie that ever featured the credit score companies as villains here.

Save Money by Not Flushing the Toilet?: Our common bathroom is right next to our kids’ rooms, and we got in the habit of not flushing overnight once they are sleeping (at least as long as it’s, ah, #1). I don’t know how much difference it really makes in terms of savings on the cost of water, but it can’t hurt. Skipping a flush here and there - as long as it doesn’t stink up the bathroom - is no big deal.

The Great Homeowner Bailout: A few highlights of what’s coming up in bailout world. CNBC must be frothing.

Getting Started in Real Estate Investing: Now is probably the time to do this, but I think people will enter this world much more soberly and cautiously this time around.

Six Places to Spend More Money: Similar to the point about investing in yourself above, there are times - even now - when it’s OK to spend a little bit of money.

And here’s a disturbing article:

…Jefferson Duarte of Rice University in Houston, Texas, and his colleagues are suggesting that one of a person’s most telling moral features, his creditworthiness, can also be seen in his face.

photo credit: joiseyshowaa

middle age is realising you’ll never realise your dreams?: Having just crossed over the halfway hump myself, I certainly don’t think that I’ve given up on my dreams, but I do realize that at some point I’ll have to quit dawdling on some of them. Riding horseback through the Gobi, drinking mare’s milk and sleeping in a yurt is something I would rather do when I’m a bit younger than, say, 75.

alea jacta est

A throw of the dice

“Alea jacta est (the die is cast)”

Julius Caesar, January 10, 49 BC as he led his army across the River Rubicon in northern Italy.

If I wasn’t pompous enough with that opening quote, forgive me, I tried. The events of one’s own life are monumental in the extreme. We entered into a contract to sell our house this weekend, so I can truly say now that I will be putting into practice a lot of what I’ve written here: we are changing our lives, uprooting ourselves and seeking to make our life conform to our desires rather than allowing the winds of fate to push us willy-nilly throughout our lives.

Selling a house also makes me think how strange it is that amounts like we have been discussing (in the halves-of-millions ranges) can be thrown about so casually and yet require such quick and firm decisions. It took me months to agree to buy a new dishwasher. I had to decide on a selling price for our home in 24 hours (actually less). As it was when we bought the house, it has been an interesting lesson in learning how to make large decisions and live with them.

I have thought for 30 years that life is unpredictable, and I have yet to be proven wrong. When I was 10, I could never have imagined living in Germany by the time I was 16. When I was living in Germany, I could never have imagined that by the age of 27 I’d be living in Moscow. While living in Moscow, I would have scoffed at the idea of living in New York, a city I detested the first time I visted it. After living in Manhattan for years, I could not have imagined living in New Jersey; and after living in New Jersey, I had often dreamed of living in a warmer clime but never expected that to happen. Life prods you forward and defies your expectations.

On a more down-to-earth tone, we have a massive amount of personal finance to organize, and I’ll be concentrating on that work as we do it. My search for contract work and alternative income will continue, and thanks to the internet and location independent living I’ll have some options to move my work along with me - like this blog. I have made my first tentative steps towards a total career change, too. I hope that reading about it will be as interesting as living it will be!

photo credit: Thunderchild tm

how I made a courageous decision to become an entrepreneur

…except I didn’t.

With the advent of a deep recession, or depression, or whatever the experts choose to call it today, the traditional and new media are running story after story about freelancers or entrepreneurs or similar types. I read a dozen blogs by people who left the corporate world to become freelancers, or start their own companies or some other entrepreneurial venture. I am taken aback by how few of the people who claim to have made a brave leap into entrepreneurialism did so voluntarily. Some are open about the reason - a layoff followed by a time without finding a new job forced them to improvise. Fair enough. Others look back and claim that a brave moment of clarity prompted them to leap into a new lifestyle - when in reality they, too, were forced by circumstance. Not as honest.

If you get laid off and can’t find a new job, the venture into freelancing or entrepreneurialism or whatever you’d like to call it becomes a necessity (let’s call it entrepreneurialism for now, even though that’s not exactly the right term). Someone in this situation can, of course, look back ten years later and pretend that they did it out of a suddent insight or burst of bravery. Maybe at a later date that person had a chance to go back to a full-time job and chose to stick with their new path. Maybe circumstances changed and that person enjoyed their life better after changing to an entrepreneurial lifestyle and adjusted in other, less visible ways - a spouse went back to work, or the family relocated, or the lifestyle was downsized. But if you were forced to do it, and adapted, say so. Don’t pretend you were Bill Gates, dropping out of Harvard to follow your dream.

I don’t think that entrepreneurialism is for everyone. I see some famous “lifestyle bloggers” or whatever you choose to call them decrying the cubicle life - the language on the blogs can be bitter, and on twitter some can be downright condescending (if you ask me). I’ve seen some derogatory language used towards people who aspire to the employee lifestyle. Hell, I do it. I’ve done it a lot, in fact. But not everyone can be a web designer or blogger working out of a coffee shop. Some people may choose to live a less “free” life in exchange for the lifestyle. This lifestyle is addictive. It’s nice having money that comes in regular bursts (until it doesn’t). Chasing down freelance work is difficult. What’s close-minded and feeble is calling people fools for making the choice, one way or the other. I have a friend who gets a kick out of untangling complex corporate accounting problems. He likes what he does and has never expressed a second’s interest in going it alone. Calling him a desk jockey or a cubicle troll would be silly - he’s happier than a lot of people I know.

I have had four working experiences in my life. I was a teacher (substitute grade school and a graduate teaching assistant), I worked for large firms and corporations (the bulk of my working life), I did contract consulting (the last five years) and over the last few months I’ve been attempting to forge an “alternative” work pattern. Each of these four experiences have had plusses and minuses. I moved from teaching to corporate life for money, from corporate life to consulting for the lifestyle, and from consulting to freelancing out of necessity. I might have chosen to freelance eventually on my own, but despite the best intentions to do so I only did it once I was forced to do so. It feels like a proper evolution, so hopefully the recession will turn out to be the kick in the butt I needed. But if I ever claim with a smile and a giggle that I took a bold and courageous step to seize my future, please give me a thwack in the ear. Choose a path, but be honest about why you chose it. Own your decisions - or lack thereof.

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