Your New Life is Waiting ...
Dear Friend,
Time to talk about family finances.
Working for money sucks.
There, I said it. Life sucks when you spend most of it trying to gather lots of numbers in your bank account. It really sucks when that bank account never seems to grow much.
You were meant for better than this. And you can have it.
Yes, I know. Family finances are on your shoulders. You have a family and bills and responsibilities. These days you may feel your barely keeping your family out of the homeless shelter.
Perhaps you have spent a lifetime getting your career to the place it is now. And perhaps you are getting older, and fear you may not be able to compete against younger, cheaper upstarts if you find yourself out of a job – voluntarily or not.
Obviously, you aren’t going to make a substantial change in your lifestyle if you don’t know where your next paycheck will come from. Right? That may be OK for 20-somethings with little invested and no responsibilities to speak of. But for us family folks, there’s a lot riding on that steady paycheck.
So, what can you do?
Financial Security in the 21st Century
How do you get your family finances into a position that you can live life the way you truly want to? How can you possibly get from working at your current job to having no fixed job at all while living an awesome family lifestyle?
Win the lottery, perhaps? I have a better idea. And the odds are much more in your favor.
It’s Time for a Bit of Creative Family Lifestyle Design
How about we figure out a way to make your work skills portable? You know, where you make the money you need as you need it, wherever you might be.
And I’m not talking about moving your boring job to a spot with better scenery. I mean crafting a way to use your skills to generate money on-the-go. Like your own, little ATM.
Think that sounds like one of those corny Internet get rich schemes? Well, that’s just it. I never said anything about being rich. But you don’t want to be poor, either.
What I suspect you really want is real financial security. That’s the knowledge and comfort that comes from knowing that you can always pay your bills, no matter what.
In the past, most people have believed that you had to be rich to have financial security. But nowadays, there’s a better and faster way to secure your family finances.
Instead, you need to design your own business or work skill that you can use when you need it to generate money as you need it – no more, no less.
This just-in-time phenomenon is overtaking every aspect of modern life.
It’s a product of the knowledge age.
Be a Financial Commando
Be a Financial Commando
The just-in-time phenomenon has impacted the military in a big way.
In the old days, military tacticians believed in amassing huge armies in order to overwhelm their enemies in battle.
The US military has often been criticized for continuing to build massive war machines in an age where this approach is likely to be obsolete.
Advanced military strategists say that modern military technology and skill sets must be designed around 21st century-style warfare. This means the use of Special Forces. Highly trained experts with very specific skill sets. Commandos.
Today’s militaries utilize these small, concentrated special forces commando units to attack strategic targets for maximum impact with minimal expense in lives and money.
In the business world, in order to sell a product, you used to make tons of stuff, store it in a warehouse, and then send your army of salespeople out to sell it all.
Today, manufacturers have borrowed a page from the military’s manual. Now they use “just-in-time” manufacturing. They wait to make a product until just before it is needed. Ever bought a Dell computer? Each one is built for you, after you place your order. Dell only buys the supplies they need moments before they need them.
This commando approach to war and business is extremely efficient and effective. It works.
Today, the same technological forces that made these changes necessary in the military and business worlds are influencing the way we all make money and finance our lives.
Living a Rich Man’s Lifestyle on a Modest Income
For most of us, the goal isn’t really to get rich, though we wouldn’t mind a few extra bucks. Instead, we want to live the kind of lifestyle that we think being rich will bring to us.
If you are still working with the idea that you need to amass giant sums of money, you are living in the past.
What you need to start doing, immediately, is to develop your own, unique strategy for generating the kind of money you will need at those moments you need it. You need to be a financial commando.
So, enough of this analogy business. What does it all mean to you?
Financial Commandos Have Portable Work Skills
Everybody Has Portable Work Skills
Can you be a financial commando?
Well, you have skills, don’t you? Something you know how to do that others need?
Your skills may not be sexy, like being a commando or a “lady of the night,” but if it can pay bills, it’s on the table.
Perhaps something you already do at work can be transformed into a portable work skill? Or maybe some old skill you learned as a kid, or as a hobby?
There may also be unique work opportunities in the places that you travel to.
Can you teach English? Can you wait tables? Can you do secretarial work? Can you sell stuff on eBay? Babysit? Drive a cab? Be a consultant? Design web sites? Be a travel writer? Or a copywriter?
These examples may seem beneath you at this stage of your life. But, remember that you probably won’t need to make as much money in your new lifestyle as you thought you had to make in your old life.
You may also find that skills you today take for granted could be quite in demand in other parts of the world. So if your new lifestyle has you traveling the globe, you may be surprised at how little you need to do to pay your way.
Perhaps your portable work skill will be teaching other families how to transform their lives, just as you are learning to do now? You could very well be learning today what you need to know to make a decent living in the near future!
What Now?
It’s time to put your thinking cap on. The sooner you can develop ideas of how to support your new family lifestyle, the sooner you can ditch the day job and start living.
I’ll dip into this subject in more detail at a later date. For now, I just want to get you thinking.
Remember, there is always a way. You just have to put your mind to it. Commandos can do just about anything. But they don’t grow on trees overnight. Your new skills will take time to perfect. The sooner you get started, the better.
Until later, all the best,
Hugh
What portable work skills do you have? List your ideas here! I am curious of what you come up with!
Brilliant post Hugh!
The real world of two-income families with houses and cars and all that extra stuff demands big incomes to keep that giant snowball rolling.
The moment we quit our corporate jobs and began shedding the necessary accouterments we found that out-of-control snowball melted down to the size of a marble we could flick with our thumbs. Suddenly we needed – and were happy with – far less stuff because we were no longer using our possessions as a representation of ourselves.
Our portable skills…. fitness instructors, writers, website designers. We had never made a penny doing these things before we quit. Necessity is the mother of invention.
Thanks so much for your terrific comment! 🙂 People need to hear this because many find it hard to believe. They fear a substantial decline in their quality of life if they get off the corporate rat wheel. In fact, the opposite is true. Hopefully we’ll reach them!
Hugh
Have you been able to practice law since you have been on the road?