Opportunity Wherever You Live

I'm often ask what it take to be an entrepreneur.  My answer is always the same:  looking for the opportunity and then having the persistence and follow-through to make it happen.  Know yourself and follow your passions.

When looking for the opportunity, you want to solve a "pain point." Can you create a solution to a problem that other people don't want to do or can't do ...can you eliminate their pain. What are some things that are causing you pain and that you would be willing to pay other to solve?  The more of a pain, the more valuable your solution. Can you be innovative and creatively solve the problem.  The answer may be just around the corner.

The find pain points, you need to become aware of others and what others are experiencing.  Observe, interact and interview others as to what things they don’t like and what they would like to be easier or simpler.  You don’t have to solve the pain point at this time; just make a list of your observations and interactions.

By writing these ideas down you are allowing your conscience and subconscious to percolate on these problems, looking for solutions.  You can later evaluate you list to see which are most viable for you to solve, given your strengths, passions and networks. Keep that notebook next to your bed so in the middle of the night, you can write down your solutions.

Keep up on social and technological trends.  Read newspapers, magazines, listen to public radio, podcast, and what the news looking for trends and inventions.  Imagine the future and how this new technology will be used in the future to solve problems.  Can you combine two or more existing technologies or product to help ease the pain of others?

Think outside the box and say yes to all possibilities.  Suspend your current reality and create a reality where anything is possible.  Do not limit yourself by self-imposed constraints. This will help you spur on your creativity to come up with solutions.  Write down your solutions so you can research the possibilities and evaluate the probable success at a later time

Entrepreneurship requires dedication, persistence, long hours and an uncertain future.  You have to know your strengths and weaknesses to be successful.  Hire or partner with people who complement your strength, not people with the same strengths.  Tom Rath’s StrengthsFinder 2.0 is a great source to help you uncover your strengths.

Know your passions and what drives you.  Your passions will help you overcome obstacles and keep you going when others say no and think you are crazy. You passions will keep you working 60+ hours a week. To discover your passions, what would you do if money was not an option? What do you currently do where time flies by? Pay attention to your daily life to find your passions and strengths.

Entrepreneurship is turning your passions into profits by solving other’s pain points and creating a product or service of value.  When you turn your passions into profit, you never have to work another day in your life.

Personal Finance and Passion

My passion is farming and people and writing and creating. This month, we ventured into a dream of mine; starting the Walker Homestead CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). Bob will remind me that this is a business and we need to be making money at it. And I remind him that this is a passion and we need to be having fun with it; creating, experimenting, and sharing the goods and trials with our new extended CSA family. That in itself has a lot of value, and I would argue much more than a pile of money for which to select an investment option.

 

Yes, I could make much more on an hourly basis, exercising some of my other learned skills, but I earn so to keep me and my family secure and happy and so that so I can do things I want to do. Starting up a CSA -planning the events, sharing ideas between members, creating the gardens and the orchards and working with hens, thinking about milk goats (and maybe a few piglets) is joyful. And at the same time, we are earning money and reducing some of our tax liabilities.

 

Which speaks to the principle: If you find an occupation that you love, you will never have to ‘work’ a day of your life. It is graduation time. Good luck to all seniors in pursuit of your passion.

http://walkerhomesteadcsa.blogspot.com/

Maynard

This past Saturday we lay to rest my neighbor’s father. He was a famer, rancher, cowboy, gentleman, and a friend to all. He died doing what he loved doing best, checking on his cows and spraying fences. He was teaching this 50 something city boy professor how to become a farmer and I kind of think he enjoyed seeing an old dog try to learn some new tricks; a desk jockey work a field and get cow sh*t on him.

His untimely death got me thinking about balance and how we live our lives each day. Personal finance is about planning and saving for the future, but it is also about living for today. How do you find balance in your personal finance life? Do you save every penny so you can retire like my roommate from college who just retired after 30 years of teaching? Do you plan on working until you are 70+ and therefore not need so much in retirement to still afford your lifestyle? What do you plan to leave to your heirs? Someone said you lived your life right when the check to the undertaker bounces, meaning you just outlived your savings. Do you agree or disagree?

I hope you all find your passion and that you are able to do what you love to do; that you find balance in your finance goals to support that passion. Personal financial success is your definitions of success, whether it is to retire when you are 53 or never retire. The important thing is to have a plan and be proactive at that plan.

I hope we all find that balance.

- From a green farmer who is happy learning how to work cattle and smell like a famer after a hard day’s work

4th of July Financial Freedom

Today is the 4th of July and time that we celebrate our freedom as Americans and those who have given so much to keep us free. Thank you to all who have served.

The celebration gives us pause to consider our financial freedom. What is your definition of financial freedom? One definition of financial freedom (financial independence) is when your passive income exceeds your expenses. You no longer have to work another day in your life for money as all of your financial needs are met from the income of your investments.

For many of us, we work the greater share of our life to save for retirement – hopefully the point of our financial freedom. Our retirement savings, along with social security hopefully provides enough income that we don’t need to supplement our income with another job.

When you think about retirement and financial freedom, how much money do you need to live the life you want? Are there avenues to reach your financial freedom sooner? Increase your level of investment? Do you have options to reduce spending? (i.e., reduce living expenses and improve your overall health by eating fresh produce from a home garden, using public transportation or riding your bike to work or school). Maybe your financial 4th is sooner than you think. How much do you really need to be happy?

Financial freedom and independence can be reached sooner by saving more, spending less or a combination of two. Can you reduce your spending and increase your savings to reach your financial 4th of July sooner?

Let us know your secrets to reaching financial freedom and happy 4th of July.

Prenuptials for All?

‘Kobe Bryant's Wife to Get All Three Houses, Worth $18.8 Million’, ‘Mel Gibson Loses Half of His $850 Million Fortune to Ex-Wife in Divorce’. As these headlines spam the news, it gives us pause to consider, should prenuptial agreements be made a requirement prior to granting a marriage license? No one goes into a marriage thinking this has a 50-50 shot. Hurt is the last thing you want bring onto this special someone—but unfortunately, 50% of the marriages end is divorce – so many suffer significant financial distress in dissolution. It is especially difficult to stay civil during this time which is unfortunate to each other as well as impacted children, family members and friends.

Sweetheart day is just around the corner. Looking for the perfect Valentine’s gift? Just as every business partnership goes into a contract agreement with a dissolution (sell out, buy-out) clause, should every marriage engage in a prenuptial agreement? Do you state up front in an agreement the steps you will take to keep your partnership strong; but if all else fails, maybe the greatest gift you can give the one you love is a commitment to an elegant, fiscally responsible exit so you can remain friends (at least civil) after dissolution of the marriage. So much emotional and fiscal hardship takes place during a divorce. How much of that pain would be spared if in the bliss of every-lasting love, both parties contractually agreed to a fair dissolution option?

Your partner is your friend. Making a pledge to keep your partnership fiscally fit through thick and thin, could be considered a loving, caring Valentines gift --along with a small token in a Tiffany blue gift box. Something to consider.

Keeping Resolutions

How are you doing on your New Year’s resolutions?  Did you decide to make a budget?  Having a hard time sticking to it?  Here is a short video that we hope will help.

So Many Priorities, Never Enough Money

80-10-10: That is the budget we strive to achieve in our household. Live on 80%, save 10%, give 10% of our time, talents and treasure. We are not there yet but every year we get closer. Coming to the end of this year and heading into the next, we find that we have had, and will continue to have, more priority family fun than we originally budgeted for. How do we balance our priorities and our income?

• Want to pay for it in cash and continue to keep our credit card balance at zero each month? -Yes
• Want to take out of our savings or reduce our savings rate? -No
• Consider backing down on our giving? -No.

Ideally, we should bring our life style within the limits of that 80%. Selling off an asset, such as an extra automobile, is one option we discussed. We have three vehicles (car, truck, van) between two drivers. For the most part, the truck and the van sit in the garage as we typically car pool. Why is it hard to part with assets we seldom use even though they cost us money? Even if a vehicle is paid for, it still costs you in maintenance, license, insurance and depreciation.

It’s hard. Yes, a van is handy at times and we love ‘Chitty’, with her ‘Truly Scrumptious’ navigation voice and leather, heated seats, back-up camera and warning sounds when her bumper gets close to another object – which makes parking in tight spots such a breeze. We named her ‘Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang’ because with her laser speed control, we felt she practically drove herself.

To balance our budget, do we:

Take from savings? Take from giving? Carry a credit card balance? Sell Chitty? Change spending habits elsewhere?

Whether you are striving to live on 90% of your income and save 10%, or aiming for the 80-10-10 split --how do you keep an every changing lifestyle balanced and in budget?  What recommendations do you have?  Thank you for sharing.

Rebalancing

It’s the end of the month and time to assess how we are tracking fiscally into the new year. As we continue to reassess our spending habits and values, we still crave for a more simplified lifestyle. Not so much about spending less time at work, we both love our careers. But we both feel the need to spend more time with our family, our extended family and our friends. We love meals at home, movie night with homemade pizza and popcorn, playing dominos, cards or watching the boys take on marathon nights in the game of Risk, soccer games and story-time with our grandchild. Those times are starting to seem more few and far between.

It is difficult to keep a healthy balance between work and time for family and friends. There is always one more report to write, another meeting to prepare for and another e-mail to answer. We have to consciously make family and friends a priority. We know that balance is important in reducing stress and maintaining our health. How convenient that doing the simple things at home with family and friends is also better on the budget and living within your means.

Fresh New Year

New Year, New Resolutions, New Expectations. New Years is time to de-clutter. Clutter is physically and mentally exhausting. Following all the commotion that comes from the end of the year frenzy, I long for quiet, peaceful, at rest January. It is a time to de-junk my house, my office, my closets and my life. Doing so brings about clarity and energy. Steps of this process:

1. Assess priorities and establish a plan on how you will give focus to your priorities.

2. Choose the objects, obligations and activities that align with your priorities. Say no to the things that don’t matter. Saying yes to things that are not a priority will drain you.

3. Eliminate the non-essential. This frees you from having to tend to things that aren’t important to you and reduces clutter both physically and mentally.

4. Make sure every physical item has a place. Being disorganized is a waste of your time as you look for lost items as well as an irritant. By being organized, you gain control over your space and time.

5. Create a schedule where every priority is allocated it’s time. Dedicating time to your priorities assures you are working toward achieving and maintain your goals and will keep you in control and on top of your world.

6. Review and update your budget for the new calendar year. Make sure it reflects your priorities and that you are living within your means.

7. In setting up a budget, follow the 80-10-10 rule of living off 80%, saving 10% and gifting to others 10%.

Following these steps kicks off the year with focus, clarity and new energy.