do it yourself FREEDOM

Impacts: Mind, Money, Community, Time

“The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life.” – Theodore Roosevelt

The desire for instant gratification may be our biggest cultural weakness. Americans love it fast, especially when it is money. In fact that may be why we like to gamble and the idea striking it rich. No wonder it’s so easy for us to fall victim to things that offer quick rewards for little effort and why its hurts so much when it’s finally time to pay the piper.

Schemes take on a variety of shapes and sizes. A simple scheme might be something like buy one get one free. In fact that simple phrase is a marketing tool used so commonly we often mistake it for something other than a scheme. But if you widen your definition of scheme to include all things that promise a quick benefit for what seems like little effort, you’ll quickly realize that schemes surround us.

Should all schemes be avoided? You should definitely be on the lookout for them all the time, avoid the gimmick and reap the rewards when it makes sense. For example, should you avoid buying stuff on sale simply because it’s a marketing scheme? No, of it’s something you need then by all means buy it on sale. If the sale is buy one get one free and you don’t need two then pause and carefully consider the purchase.

Get rich schemes are the easiest to spot because they make outlandish claims and promise gigantic rewards. Avoid these at all costs. The only people with any chance of getting rich quick are the people running the scheme.

The most important reason to avoid schemes isn’t the money you loose but the mental distraction they create. They will cause you to loose focus on your real pursuit of happiness and replace it temporarily with an artificial instant gratification high. If you find yourself getting caught up in schemes often you should try asking yourself some tough questions about instant gratification and what really makes you happy.

Take Action

• Watch out for anything that promises quick rewards for little effort.
• Watch your wallet. Schemes are easily spotted because they always ask for money up front.
• Avoid buying lottery tickets.
• Avoid gambling.
• Focus on long term goals and make every step count.

Impacts: Work, Money, Time

“Money is like manure. You have to spread it around or it smells.” – J. Paul Getty

Many people have a single source of income, their job. Finding additional ways to make money can help relieve your financial dependence on your day job. The more sources of income you can find the closer to financial freedom you get.

You might think this is just for rich people with money to invest. I would agree that the more money and time you have the easier it becomes to diversify but the first steps aren’t impossible to take, just hard.

Before you begin be careful of opportunities that sound to good to be true. The old saying is true, if it looks too good to be true it is. Real opportunities tend to be the ones you make for yourself doing things you know best, not the schemes cooked up by others.

Most of us have hobbies or interests and have built some level of expertise. It might even be something you thought could never make any money on the side. Start by looking for examples of people making a living in that field. Look carefully to see what they are doing to make it work. Ask questions, talk to people online, continue to explore this area of personal interest with an eye for business opportunities.

Before jumping off into a business venture be careful and take on little risk. Remember you’re trying to make a little money on the side to remove burdens, not add them. If your plan includes taking out a loan, spending a lot of money, or a lot of time, rethink your plan. Instead start small. Test the water. Have fun with it and don’t gamble.

Some people may tell you that taking risk is a requirement of any business venture but if you’re not an experienced business person any risk may be too much. Once you get the hang of it taking on more risk for the potential of more gain may seem like the right thing to do, but by then the experience you’ve gained will tell you how much risk is acceptable.

One simple example of a young entrepreneur I met illustrates what I’m taking about. He was trying to run a little eBay business online. He’d buy and collect things to sell. Often he wouldn’t make any money on things and sometimes I suspect it cost him in time and money. It’s easy to get caught up in the adventure of the venture. Try not to loose sight of the real goal like he did.

Taking on more jobs might also seem like one way to diversify your income. The trouble with jobs is that you’re essentially selling your time. Your time is really the most valuable thing you have. Instead look for things that continue to make money without your constant direct involvement.

A simple example that has popped up in the last few years is blogging. When people write about things they know, other people want to read it. Sharing ideas online through blogging has become an effective way of connecting with other people and sharing ideas.

Google and others have made it easy to monetize blogs with ads that are relevant to the content. These ads provide some value to the reader because they usually compliment the topic of the web page. They benefit the writer by providing a small steady source of income. As the popularity of the blog increases the revenue from the ads tends to increase.

The blogger end up spending time writing about something that interests them and the writings live on indefinitely, drawing more readers and more revenue without any more work. So every quality post you write can be considered an investment in a sense.

You could think of writing books in the same way. When an author writes a book they receive royalties over time as more people buy the book. The revenue fluctuates with the popularity of the book but until it goes out of print the author receives some side income.

Finding alternative ways of making money shouldn’t be your top goal by any means but it can give you more flexibility to do the things you like to do especially if you can find ways to automate making money.

Take Action

• Make a list of the things you like doing.
• Looks for books on these topics and research the author online. Try to imagine their life and how they might be spending their time.
• With a grain of salt, read the The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss.
• Learn more about Google Adsense.
• Learn about self publishing at Lulu.com.

Impacts:  Money, Community

“Waste is worse than loss. The time is coming when every person who lays claim to ability will keep the question of waste before him constantly. The scope of thrift is limitless.” – Thomas Alva Edison

Normally when someone says something like conserve energy you’ll assume that the primary motivation is about the environment or something equally as green. Green reasons  are excellent reasons but conserving energy will also have immediate positive impacts on your bank account. Don’t get me wrong do it for the environment first but don’t forget the great win-win, especially with energy costs are so high.

As more and more people conserve energy the need to generate more power will be reduced which will in turn reduce pollution and the need for foreign energy sources. Every time we remove a reason to deploy our military our nation saves money and increases our national security. In fact you might even want to think of conserving energy as a patriotic act.

Using more energy simply takes money from our pockets and sends it offshore. It’s a service most people need but by using less you make big immediate impacts and contribute to a much bigger impact.

Take Action

• Drive less.
• Carpool more.
• Buy a greener car.
• Use public transportation more.
• Be sure your home is as air tight as possible.
• Investigate other home improvements and look for tax and energy incentives.
• Downsize your home. The less you have to heat and cool the less you pay.
• Move to a place with a moderate climate.

Impacts: Mind, Money, Community, Time

“It is neither wealth nor splendor; but tranquility and occupation which give you happiness” – Thomas Jefferson

This is different from want less. Consume less is more about changing your actual behavior and I’m going to take a slightly different angle on this topic from the majority that suggest that consumerism is a bad idea.

Most people tend to focus on the environmental, economical, and human impacts as the the primary reasons that consuming less makes more sense. In fact I personally agree with those strong arguments but I think there might be stronger argument that could help more people adopt an anti-consumerism point of view.

You see being an active consumer costs a lot of money and for money to be spent it must be earned or borrowed. Earning and borrowing money usually means that more of your time must be spent making money which in turn limits your choices. Compounded on top of that is the simple fact that many people tend to spend up to and beyond their income, no matter their income level. So while keeping up with the Joneses might be status quo and virtually second nature to many of us these days it’s a behavior that also tends to land us in trouble.

For example, imagine yourself right now with absolutely no debt and a small but livable steady source of income that requires little or no effort or time. How would that make you feel? Would you keep your day job? Lets say you decide that you’d rather quit your day job and enjoy your new found free time. What would you do? Would you start a little business? Would you travel? Would you write a book? What would you do?

Now let me ask you a harder question. If you knew for a fact that you could have that life in the next few years, what would it be worth to you? What is that kind of freedom worth to you?

I’ve been asking myself that question for over a year now. I’ve realized that there are literally thousands of ways of generating alternative income streams that don’t involve get rich schemes. They all take time to develop and not all of them work out but with persistance it is absolutely an achievable goal.

If I tried to replace my current income that would be very difficult and take a long time. But If I worked it from both ends by adding a little side income and reducing my spending I’d get their quicker. The more I add and the more I take away the faster I move toward my goal.

Choosing to consume less, like choosing to make more money, is simply a choice and hard work. The hardest thing to overcome is the baggage in our own heads. When many of us were young and didn’t have things we assumed that things would make me happy. As we get older we begin to realize that it’s not the things we aquire but people and time we make for ourselves that makes us truly rich.

Take Action

• Watch The Story of Stuff.
• Buy what you need.
• Buy more value.
• Avoid buying things that don’t help you achieve your goals.
• Look for free stuff online first; you’ll be amazed what people give away. See craigslist.org and freecycle.org.
• Pay with cash or debit and avoid using credit cards.
• As you carry things you’ve bought into your home consider their physical weight. When you take out the trash consider the weight again. Ask yourself if you’re just throwing away the things you buy?
• Avoid packaging. Reward companies that use reusable packaging or  little packaging by buying their products. Recyclable packaging is better than non-recyclable but it’s still added to the cost of the product and you paid for it.

Impacts: Community, Money

Literally make some electricity from renewable energy sources and push it back onto the grid. I know this one might sound a bit hair brained to the uninitiated but it’s actually easier to do that you might realize. Before the power grid existed everyone who had electricity made it themselves. Americans have been innovating in this space for generations.

If more people invested in the equipment needed to generate some electricity and began contributing power to the grid, less power would need to be generated from burning stuff. More people would learn that conserving electricity saves them even more money and doesn’t significantly reduce the quality of life. The grid wouldn’t disappear it would simply become decentralized. Power plants would eventually be shut down as more and more people added electricity to the grid. Energy companies would probably still exist but as the keepers of the infrastructure. Our dependency on carbon based fuels would be reduced and the cost of energy would drop as well as the cost of generating electricity.

The most reasonable option today is solar photovoltaic panels. These panels can be mounted to trackers that follow the sun for maximum efficiency or less visually obtrusive alternative can be used like photovoltaic shingles that look almost exactly like normal roof shingles.

Another fairly reasonable option are wind turbines. Not all wind turbines look like giant propellers or water pumping windmills from the farm. Some actually have a much smaller visual footprints and can even be used in urban areas without attracting much negative attention.

If you live near a year round creek or river and have some water rights to it you might find it possible to divert a small portion of the water to run through a small hydroelectric turbine. This is actually one of the best ways to generate a lot of electricity because these turbines run day and night and as long as the water flows. Hydroelectric systems can also be less expensive to install than comparable photovoltaic systems simply due to their efficiency and reduced technical complexity.

Making your own energy reduces your dependency on another external force. It reduces everyone’s dependency on carbon based fuels. It changes the way we all think about electricity, efficiency, and conservation. The positive impacts are not always immediate but in the long run it tends to pay off big.

Take Action

• Learn more about grid tied photovoltaic solar systems.
• Join other Americans at We Can Solve It and help end our addiction to carbon based fuels.
• Research the tax benefits to grid tied photovoltaic solar systems at irs.gov.
• Learn more about other alternative power systems like wind, micro-hydro, passive and active solar systems at homepower.com.
• Learn more about vehicle to grid (V2G) systems and how they can act as a battery for the grid at rechargeit.org.