Fearless Money

Wow, it has been too long since I wrote here. Sorry about that, I let myself get overwhelmed with work, and so didn’t feel like I had time to blog.

That is really quite foolish, and I think I’ve learned the lesson I need to from it. Blogging is a habit, an outlet and a necessity for me to grow my business.

It is a habit, in that ideas for blogging come much more easily to me when I’ve been writing regularly. Also, the words flow much more easily when I write more often.

It is an outlet since it requires me to think about how I can be of use to others outside my immediate circle. This perspective shift is good for me, it helps me see the big picture and to keep my skills fresh. Not only that, but blogging is a good way for me to break up the day. I’ve missed it.

It is a necessity for me to grow my business. Possibly not so much for this blog, but my programming blog regularly gets me business leads. There’s nothing better than people who write and are already 75% sold or simply offer me jobs.

Technorati Tags: blogging

Wow, I just got back from pitching my biggest prospect ever. My web consultancy is growing by leaps and bounds.

This is a multi-billion dollar publicly traded company, which makes it not only the biggest job, but the biggest company we’ve ever had on our radar. This final pitch was a half hour in-person presentation before 3 VPs. We’ve already made it though three preliminary rounds, so this was it, and we’ll know within a day or two if we got the job.

I am so grateful to my Toastmasters club for helping me grow in my speaking skills. I’d never have been so comfortable making such a presentation before all the experience I have had in that excellent group.

If we get the job, which I’m thinking there is a great chance we will, then we have the rest of the summer covered for work, and a crown jewel of a connection into the Portland business scene. Woop woop!

Technorati Tags: consulting

I was listening to a Kiyosaki CD today while taking a break from programming. I find his stuff mostly too simplistic, but I was liking it today for some reason, when I heard Kiyosaki make a really funny and interesting point.

He says that some few people can get rich by scrimping and saving. Do it for long enough and you might technically be rich. But you’ll still be a cheapskate. He then points out that all the world hates a rich cheapskate.

That’s true! Some books take pains to point out the (strangely similar across books) tale of some guy (usually blue collar or low paid white collar, like a school teacher) who always counted his pennies, and no one thought he had much money, but then when he died he left millions to a charity.

Ahh…that doesn’t sound like the life I want to live. It really sounds like some sort of pathology, actually. I mean, if you want to contribute to a charity, do it. They love money and they love your time. Do it while you are alive, get involved. But to scrimp and pinch pennies for an entire lifetime so that you can contribute on your death? Not the life for me or hopefully for my children.

There has to be a better way, and I think that way is to get involved with the world. To serve as many people as I can. To build real value for myself and for others. That seems like the way of freedom, and a hell of a lot more fun.

Technorati Tags: frugality, kiyosaki

According to Your Credit Advisor, this site is ranked 60th in the top 100 finance blogs in the world.

Ladies and gentlemen of the Academy, all I can say is that I deserve the award. Thanks. We’re number 60, we’re number 60, woot!

I did think that the site described Fearless Money in an odd way, ‘Fearless Money takes the approach that the "Universe truly is a benevolent place" and recently quit his job to sample the ambundance of other opportunities.’

I suppose that is true, it just seems strange to hear my site described that way. It sounds somehow flakey when put that way. Oh well, I can survive being thought to be kind of a flake, especially when I increased my income by a easy 50% over my previous salary immediately upon going out on my own.

Still, I’d have thought the blurb I put on my about page was better at describing my attitude.

I’m a guy who used to always ignore his finances. I was afraid, but I’m not anymore. My new perspective is very simple, consumer debt is bad, saving is good, and fortune favors the well-prepared.

Straightforward and honest, that’s how I like it.

As I mentioned in my previous post Getting help=more time to make money, it is time for my family to get a maid.

Both my wife and I spend far too much time taking care of the routine cleaning tasks generated by a household of two adults, three children, two dogs and two cats. That time is quite literally stolen from either our family time or our personal time, and we want to get some of that back.

In fact, when I was talking with Dustin last week about goals and dreams for the coming year, she said that was the single biggest dream for her. Anything else, even her long dreamed-of trip to Paris, is less important to her.

Well OK then, what are we waiting for? This morning I made an appointment for an estimate from a maid service that comes highly recommended by a friend. Hopefully we can start next week.

One person whom I told about this plan said with honest puzzlement in her voice, “But then you miss out on the little rituals of life.” I was struck dumb by the statement/question. What?

Now that some time has passed, I can answer that I believe life is so much more than scut-work. Yes, you can find meaning in such work, it is part of the human condition that absolutely anything, if focused upon hard enough, will be found to have some deep meaning it can yield. I certainly don’t judge people who find meaning in rote cleaning tasks, I simply choose to find my meaning elsewhere.

Technorati Tags: maid, household

From “The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich” (Timothy Ferriss), page 33:

For all of the most important things, the timing always sucks. Waiting for a good time to quit your job? The stars will never align and the traffic lights of life will never be all green at the same time. […] Conditions are never perfect. "Someday" is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you. Pro and con lists are just as bad. If it’s important to you and you want to do it "eventually,&quot just do it and correct course along the way.

Technorati Tags: timothy ferris, 4-hour workweek

This weekend I finished reading "The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich" by Timothy Ferriss. I just got it last week, and I read it straight through, putting aside all other books for a couple days.

I’m not going to give it an in-depth review. I think David Seah has done a better job of that than I’d do. I do wholeheartedly recommend it to almost anyone, although I doubt many will take him up on his challenge.

I wish I wasn’t pessimistic about that, but I am and it is based on what I read in blog comments whenever anyone reviews Ferriss’ book. The review is generally very positive, and then come the nay-sayers in the comments. "I’d be happy to get my job to 40 hours, much less 4.", "Outsourcing is evil and he is evil for suggesting it.", "He’s sleazy, he sells vitamins.", "He mistreated xxx by doing yyy."

I don’t want to be an apologist for Mr. Ferriss, the fact is that I loved the book and I intend to use many of his suggestions, I’ve already started in fact. However I think it may be too radical for many. The book advocates such concepts as: "Take charge of your life.", "There’s a much bigger world filled with more options than you were taught growing up.", "You can design a lifestyle you want if you choose to do so." "You can and should have others do the repetitive tasks that will free your time." (Those are all my paraphrases, not quotes.)

The problem is that many, especially geeks, would rather isolate and not have to interact. They’d rather the path to freedom was possible without having to stretch or grow or take any risks.

For example (sorry geeks, I used to be one of you but I’ve changed), It is hard to make much money if you think all sales is sleazy. Your ability to make money is in direct relation to the number of people you know and to whom you bring value. That’s why blogging, when done by connectors who can build a community like Steve Pavlina can be so profitable.

Many of the nay-sayers seem to be trying very hard to come up with any reason possible to discard the threatening message/challenge implicit in the book. Feel free to do so, and to continue working those 60 hour weeks.

Technorati Tags: 4-hour workweek, timothy ferriss

In a momentous move for me, I’ve finally actually paid someone to do something I really could’ve done myself. This is a huge change for me, and I can’t believe it took me until almost 40 years old before I could get comfortable with it.

I paid a strong young guy $250 to rip out about 30 feet of shrubs and blackberry brambles. It took him two days in the sun, and two or three pickup truck loads of hauling. That’s quite a deal for me, and he seemed pretty happy with his pay, though perhaps he underestimated the work a little.

Basically, my house was looking too scrubby, and despite my best intentions I just could not find the time to rip out the ugliness. Nor do I have a truck to haul away the debris. But despite that, I was working steadily away at the task until I realized a simple truth. I make $100 to $150 an hour. Brush removal is not worth $100 per hour. It would be different if I enjoyed it, but … ahhh … no.

On one level, I know it is no big deal. Lots of people hire lawn services, maid services or personal assistants. But for me, it was a line I simply hadn’t ever felt comfortable crossing. It is one thing to pay for an expert to fix your car, and an entirely different thing to pay someone to do what you could very well do if you weren’t so lazy (so says my Protestant work-ethic).

It was a good first step, but I actually intend to hire many more such services. I’m simply too busy with my new business and the work is too readily available for me to not take advantage of the obviously financial advantages I’ll reap by doing so. If I liked washing dishes or clothes, I suppose I would keep doing it. I don’t, so a maid is next on the list, along with a regular lawn service arrangement. Wow, it’s like I’m becoming a grownup or something.

A few weeks ago, I talked about discovering Charter Schools in Portland. We’d applied for both of our school-age kids after a very impressive visit. It is a lottery system to get into the schools, with a preference for existing students’ siblings. We were fairly sure Ian would get into the highschool, but much less sure that Mia would get into the first grade.

They both got in! Woohoo! They’ll start in the fall, and we are all so excited. Ian went on a "shadow day" at Trillium the next week, and came home pumped up about the change. He declared "All the kids are like me!"

It is going to be a difficult transition, having to get the kids up and out of the house much earlier, not to mention schlepped across town. We’re going to try the city busses to see how it works out, but if we end up having to drive, so be it. It is worth it to all of us.

Technorati Tags: charter schools, portland

In my third year of successful (25% or greater profit) stock-picking, I thought it was time to add a sidebar widget to show my current investments.

On the right you’ll see where I am currently invested. Most of them are International ETFs and all but one have been making double digit gains for years. Please refer to my disclaimers before making any investment decision. I am not licensed as a financial professional, and your risk is your own, as it should be.

If I have a moment, I’ll write a better plugin to actually show my portfolio holdings and current returns. Oddly enough, such a plugin doesn’t seem to exist in the Wordpress World just yet.

Technorati Tags: stock market, etfs, investments