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By Kevin M
You may be employed at the moment; in fact you may even be well-employed. But look at many others around you and what do you see? With millions unemployed, millions more under-employed, and hundreds of thousands of jobs being outsourced to lower wage countries, what does the future of employment hold? Is it possible that the sun is setting on the traditional one man/one job model of employment and income?
Before dismissing the possibility, consider that only 40 years ago tens of millions of workers were employed in largely high paying, mostly unionized factory jobs. Just over 100 years ago the majority of Americans were employed in agriculture. Where are all of those jobs now? And if one man/one job is going the way of the factory job, what are our options?
Developing multiple income streams may become a necessary reaction to an environment where the unemployed often return to the work force in lower paying jobs.
Continue reading Multiple Income Streams to replace One Man-One Job? →
By Kevin M
We’re not going to talk today about the best deals on widescreen TVs or the most cost effective cable packages. Instead, I want to focus on what I’m certain are the far larger affects of TV on our finances in the form of time, opportunity cost, and influence.
Time. According to Adweek adults in America average 309.1 minutes watching TV each day. That works out to be more than five hours per day! If we spend eight hours each day sleeping, another eight working, plus five hours watching TV, that eats up 21 of our 24 hours, leaving just three hours each day for virtually everything else we have going on!
Continue reading What TV REALLY Costs Us →
By Kevin M
What if the economy isn’t turning the corner? What if the “Great Recession” isn’t a recession at all, but the early stage of a longer term economic devolution?
I consider this as more than a reasonable possibility. As much as we might cling to the notion of “business as usual”, the history books tell us that long term cycles are periodically broken by the onset of a new eras. The fall of the Roman Empire was one such turn; the onset of the Industrial Revolution was another. Closer to our own time and place were the Civil War and the Great Depression. All of these events changed not only the rules of the game, but also the way the majority of people lived. And they were hardly isolated incidents.
I’m reading Survival+, Structuring Prosperity for Yourself and the Nation, where author and website host Charles Hugh Smith spells out the “Great Transformation” that we may well have entered already. The evidence to support his claim isn’t hard to find.
Continue reading Radical Self Reliance in the New Economy →
By Kevin M
Starting a new business is often a process of navigating a series of challenges. The greatest ideas can land in a ditch for unforeseen reasons. In fact it’s often not a bad concept that causes a new business to fail, but a lack of staying power. Starting a business should be thought of as a long term plan and not a get-rich-quick scheme.
Motivational author and speaker Robert Ringer provided a user-friendly re-definition of the concept of positive thinking as positive thinking through assumption of a negative result. You don’t assume failure, but you anticipate problems and prepare for them.
There is a constructive difference between true optimism and blind optimism. True optimism is based on solid planning—it springs from preparation and planning. The more common blind version rests on vague concepts like an idea that’s “too good to fail” or “I’ll succeed because I’m me, and I believe in me”. That kind of hype can quickly vaporize in the face of an empty bank account or a failed business deal.
So what kind of preparations will stack the deck in favor of your new business venture and generate a sense of true optimism?
Continue reading 7 Ways to Improve the Success of Your New Business →
STRATEGY #5 TO SURVIVE A DOWN ECONOMY
By Kevin M
In the dreary job market of the moment, people are having difficulty with two major areas in particular: keeping a steady income flow and increasing that flow. The increasing level of unemployment is not only eliminating jobs, but it’s also putting a lid on raises and promotion opportunities. This is in large part, the driving force behind the credit crisis and the epidemic of foreclosures and bankruptcies. Is there a way to deal with it without taking unnecessary risks?
In 10 Ways To Survive a Down Economy (published on Christianpf.com June 1) we listed ten strategies to help us deal with the bad economy. Our topic for today, Strategy #5:
Be prepared to cultivate and balance multiple income sources. You may have a full time job and a part time business, or vice versa. Think of your work in terms of an investment portfolio, in which diversification adds strength. There are probably several jobs you are potentially good at; always be on the lookout for new opportunities.
Why increasing income or broadening the income base matter
Continue reading Cultivate Multiple Income Sources →
By Kevin M
If you’re living paycheck-to-paycheck, and struggling just to get by each month, that situation won’t improve until you reach the point where you have a cushion to back you up. You might think that the pressure would be eased by an additional income source, but the problem with higher income is that in a short time it tends to get swallowed up by Lifestyle Inflation—the more we earn, the more we spend.
Some financial types recommend paying off high interest credit cards before beginning a serious savings account. They cite math equations pointing out the numeric absurdity of carrying high interest credit cards (13% or more) while earning close to nothing in interest (1-2%) on savings. On paper, backed up by numbers, this looks very compelling.
Continue reading Start and Grow Your Nest Egg, Even if Your Broke →
By Kevin M
This is a weekly open forum dedicated to increasing income, cash flow and customer base, for anybody who needs to increase business or supplement a paycheck. Salaried employees, homemakers, small business owners, commissioned sales people, entrepreneurs, retirees—this is FOR you, and we’d like to hear FROM you. What works in one household or business may not work in another, but then again it might. Or it might be modified and adapted to different situations.
In Can You Barter For What You Need? we discussed using your skills and services to barter for products and services you need. You can take the same principle however, selling your skills and services direct for a cash income, and nearly everyone has one or more skills to do this. You can do this as a side business, and eventually make it full time.
”What skills could I possible sell?”
Most of us don’t think that the skills we do at work would be of much value to people on the street. Think again. Right now a lot of small businesses either can’t afford to hire someone or have had to let people go. Even though staff is reduced, the work is often still there and needs to be done.
Continue reading Selling Your Skills on the Open Market →
By Kevin M
You didn’t read that title incorrectly—that’s the question I’m asking, What Career Will You Have in Retirement? For most people the answer to this question should be given at least equal weight with the more popular focus on retirement savings.
I’m not saying that we should de-emphasize retirement savings—quite the contrary. Most of us probably need to be saving more for retirement than we are, and that’s the basic problem. How much can we save between now and retirement while navigating the cost of living in an uncertain economy, and in unpredictable financial markets? Can we ever know for sure that we’ll have enough?
Continue reading What Career Will You Have in “Retirement”? →
By Kevin M
A few weeks back a comment was placed on this site by a visitor who’s url address included the letters “tv”. Since I’m always on the lookout for new and interesting career and business ideas, I had to follow up on this profile. If he was involved in television in any way, that might be a career profile worth looking for a story in. But upon following up through his website, I found out he certainly does have a most interesting career, but one that has absolutely nothing to do with television.
His career? Day trading.
It never crossed my mind to consider day trading to be a career of any sort. I’ve mostly tended to think of it as an investment scheme of some type, and not one for the faint of heart. (That part is most definitely true—see the “Disclaimer” from his website below if you have any doubts.)
Continue reading Day Trading: Investment Program or Career? →
STRATEGY #6 TO SURVIVE A DOWN ECONOMY
By Kevin M
If there’s ever been a time to adopt flexibility as a strategy, it’s now. The certainty we knew only a few short years ago is currently failing us, and our progress and even our survival may rest on our willingness to adapt to change and to new rules as much as anything else.
In 10 Ways To Survive a Down Economy (published on Christianpf.com June 1) we listed ten strategies to help you deal with the bad economy. Our topic for today, Strategy #6:
”Be flexible in your plans and ready to adapt to changing circumstances. If your job is eliminated, offer to contract or to work part time for the same company. If you develop multiple income streams, a shift to a part time arrangement may be to your advantage on a number of fronts. Be prepared to convert a negative development into an opportunity.”
Continue reading Be Flexible in the Face of Changing Circumstances →
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General: Any information in regard to money, credit, personal finance, or in regard to any other monetary topic, provided or shared on OutOfYourRut.com is presented for information and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. It is intended to provide general information only and does not constitute personal financial advice in regard to your specific circumstances...MORE-->
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Radical Self Reliance in the New Economy
By Kevin M
What if the economy isn’t turning the corner? What if the “Great Recession” isn’t a recession at all, but the early stage of a longer term economic devolution?
I consider this as more than a reasonable possibility. As much as we might cling to the notion of “business as usual”, the history books tell us that long term cycles are periodically broken by the onset of a new eras. The fall of the Roman Empire was one such turn; the onset of the Industrial Revolution was another. Closer to our own time and place were the Civil War and the Great Depression. All of these events changed not only the rules of the game, but also the way the majority of people lived. And they were hardly isolated incidents.
I’m reading Survival+, Structuring Prosperity for Yourself and the Nation, where author and website host Charles Hugh Smith spells out the “Great Transformation” that we may well have entered already. The evidence to support his claim isn’t hard to find.
Continue reading Radical Self Reliance in the New Economy →