do it yourself FREEDOM

Impacts: Mind, Money

“Heroes are not known by the loftiness of their carriage; the greatest braggarts are generally the merest cowards.” – Jean Jacques Rousseau

Many of us would be lost without our cars. We need them for our modern life. We also tend to spend a lot of money on them. When you consider that in addition to your car payment you pay for insurance, fuel, maintenance, loan interest, parking, and so on, a $300 monthly payment can easily turn into a $500 or $600 monthly expense. Many families have more than car too and the overall cost of transportation can become a very large part of your monthly budget.

I’m not advocating walking everywhere but if we simply chose to drive cars longer, buying fewer new cars, we’d save ourselves money and the average monthly cost would decrease. In hard economic times it’s easy to figure this out, but as times get better keep frugality in mind before rushing out and taking on a new car payment.

Some say the prolonged economic impact to the automobile industry could have permanent negative effects to the automobile industry and economy. This is most certainly a real cost but consider the offsetting benefit for the millions of people who will save money by choosing to keep their cars longer and lower their monthly transportation expense.

For those that begin to drive cars longer the economic benefit is felt immediately. The elimination of ant monthly payment immediately frees up money to be spent on higher priority items.

Take Action

• Maintain your car regularly.
• Keep your car clean inside and out to help you feel good about driving it.
• Buy reliable classics or cult cars that don’t go out of style.
• Pay off your car and enjoy the extra money each month.

Impacts: Mind, Home, Work, Money

“Taxation which lessens the reward of the producer necessarily lessens the incentive to production; taxation which is conditioned upon the act of production, or the use of any of the three factors of production, necessarily discourages production. Thus taxation which diminishes the earnings of the laborer or the returns of the capitalist tends to render the one less industrious and intelligent, the other less disposed to save and invest. ” – Henry George

“To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.” – Thomas Jefferson

“Certainty? In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes.” – Benjamin Franklin

Today we accept that income tax is a fact of life, but this has not always been the case. Over the years there have been those to point out the simple obvious truth, that taxing income  counter productive and puts us virtually in the employment of the federal government.

There have been many alternatives presented to our elected representatives but for some reason taxing income before our employers can pay us has become normal. Unfortunately for us it also seems to be the most effective way to take our money. For example when you talk with friends during tax time do you focus on the total you paid or how much you got back?

Henry George (1839-1897) was an American economist that made great progress during his day on setting up foundations for taxation and helped defend the working class from early corporate impacts. In more recent years others have stepped up to take on the issue of unfair taxation.

One organization, FiarTax, is pushing for a national sales tax to replace income tax. The idea is simple. We still get taxed but we don’t get money taken from our paychecks before we see it Instead we are taxed when we buy things.

The effects are controversial because it is not known how this will help or hurt the economy. Would people stop buying because the tax is higher? Would large and small companies feel even more economic trouble? Would an end come to American consumerism? One thing is for sure, there must be hordes of lobbyists and politicians running all over Washington DC thwarting any impact serious tax reform movements like might make.

In the mean time, until some kind of serious tax reform is found, each of us can make it a point to take advantage of every tax credit and deduction we can. I’m not advocating tax evasion. I’m suggesting that with a little extra effort and possibly some professional tax advice each of can discover ways of lowering our tax exposure though our choices.

With some digging, research, and careful planning you’ll find that some consumer choices actually pay you back at tax time, like buying a hybrid vehicle, metal roofing, or solar systems for your home. Educating yourself and choose wisely and find those tax breaks so you can keep more of your money at tax time.

Take Action

• Learn more about the FairTax plan. www.fairtax.org
• Read  FairTax: The Truth: Answering the Critics by Neal Boortz and John Linder.
• Visit the IRS website and read the sections on tax credits and deductions. www.irs.gov
• Gather your tax documents and seek professional tax advice before tax time for planning advice.
• Keep good financial records of all expenses especially if you have a small business or work out of your home.

Impacts: Mind, Health, Home, Work, Money, Community, Time

“A house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body.” – Benjamin Franklin

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” – Leonardo da Vinci

The space you occupy will bring you more peace if it’s clean and organized. This can be physical space like your home, metal space like your calendar, and virtual space like your computer. In fact you can apply the concept of space to anything around you that you have some control over. If you spend time in places you have no ability to control it’s even more important to focus time and energy on spaces that are not in chaos.

When your space is chaotic it’s much harder to focus and you’ll find it more difficult to relax and feel at peace. Organizing more helps you think clearer and be more proactive in moving your life in the direction you want. Chaos will work against you.

Time is well spent when you organize more because it pays you back dividends in quality time. You’ll find yourself working more efficiently. You’ll find yourself wasting time less. You’ll feel better and be able to think clearer.

Take Action

• De-Clutter -  It’s easier to organize when there is are fewer things to deal with.
• Downsize – We’re like fish, we grow to the size of our tanks. Unlike fish we can shrink our possessions and fit into more efficient spaces.
• Organize – Find a place for everything. Put you stuff away after every use.
• Avoid Storage – Even free storage comes with a mental tax.

Impacts: Mind, Home, Work, Money, Time

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that don’t work.” – Thomas Alva Edison

“Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.”  – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Innovation is a strange animal because it can’t thrive when we’re working a hundred miles an hour. It likes the peace and quiet of an outside perspective.

Some major corporations actually understand this simple truth and give their teams members time to innovate. For the past decade I’ve been working in technology and marketing roles in corporate America and from my perspective I’ve noticed a simple trend. The companies that are able to strike a balance between innovation and delivery succeed. Those that focus too closely on the tasks in front of them without the occasional moment to look up and plan for the future find themselves running out of steam and opportunity.

When you take the time to innovate at home or work you are giving yourself permission to be creative. Not necessarily in an artistic way but in a puzzle solving sense. The feeling you get from finding a new or better way of completing a task or approaching a problem pays you back ten fold. How we feel about ourselves is often the most important part of of lives.

Taking time to innovate gives you the opportunity to take a leap forward and reap the rewards. If your boss doesn’t give you the time to innovate at work find a way to take the time because the best employees are the people who take it upon themselves to be proactive and do a better job. If that’s not rewarded where you work look for a better job.

Short Example

Back when I was a starving artist I discovered a little truth about innovation and getting work done. I was making pottery and every weekend I loaded up my little car and hit the road to make enough money to get through the next week.

I was working seven days a week and found that the I just had to give myself a break on Mondays. Instead of really taking a break I let my self play with new ideas in the studio. Over the weekend I would get a lot of feedback from customers and it would inspire me to try new ideas that I could test the following weekend. My innovation Mondays were essential for my peace of mind. The rest of the week I focused on production to make the things I knew I could sell.

Take Action

• Give yourself time to innovate at work and home.
• Look for ways of doing things faster.
• Look for ways of doing things cheaper.
• Give yourself permission to think outside the box and try not to squelch any brainstorm. You can always discard ideas later.
• Separate innovation time from production time especially in the beginning.

Impacts: Mind, Home, Work, Money, Community, Time

“Remember, time is money. He that can earn ten shillings a day by his labour, and goes abroad, or sits idle, one half of that day, though he spends but sixpence during his diversion or idleness, ought not to reckon that the only expense; he has really spent, or rather thrown away, five shillings besides.” – Benjamin Franklin

When you choose to live life strategically you quickly realize that time is not on your side. In fact if you’ve ever taken economics in school one of the first things you learn is that time is our most limited commodity. Once you realize that achieving any goal requires a plan, action, luck and time, you’ve already burned up one of those ingredients and there’s no way to get more of it. Since much of our lives are spent doing things that don’t move us forward, making the most of every moment should be a priority.

As you go through your day take a moment from time to time to ask yourself if what you’re doing is moving you forward. I’m not suggesting that you run yourself ragged being proactive all the time; I’m simply suggesting that you take the occasional reality check. I personally find it useful to kick myself in the butt when I’m slacking off. My usual answer, to myself, is that I’m relaxing, or this is important. Sometimes I give in but lately I’ve been realizing that if I really want to accomplish my goals I need to spend more time moving forward.

Take Action

• As you do necessary work let your mind drift to brainstorming ways of working more efficiently.
• Consider the end goal of every task and the actions required to complete the task. Do only what is needed, cut your own red tape.
• If tasks involve multiple people make an effort to improve communication. Red tape and procedure often surfaces due to a lack of good communication.

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: Mind, Money, Time

If you have a storage unit, garage, or attic filled with stuff you never use choose to lighten your load and get rid of it. At the very least cull through those old things and dump all but the good stuff and then start using it again. No matter where your stuff is stored is it costing you money, time, and a certain level of stress.

Most people hold onto things for sentimental and financial reasons. The memories associated with stuff and the memory of how much you paid for it when it was new somehow justify throwing good money after bad. Fold you cards, this is loosing hand. Once stuff is stored it will begin to degrade and loose value. If the stuff has so much sentimental value it should be in your home. Prioritize and keep only the best stuff.

Stuff ties us down. It’s hard to move and it requires a lot of time to manage. For example, it seems easier to simply leave the stuff piled up and finding the time to deal with it is always difficult. But now imagine your house clean and clutter free. Imagine your work space organized and efficient. Imagine your garage, basement, or attic empty except for a few precious items carefully wrapped and stored. Does that idea make you feel less encumbered or does it make you feel empty?

If stuff makes you feel complete, safe, or successful you might want to do some serious thinking about why. I’m not trying to suggest that there’s some right or wrong way to think about stuff I’m simply suggesting that many people get caught up in accumulating things for reasons they never considered.

In any event when it comes to possessions, less can be more and less is definitely easier to care for, manage, and move. Choosing to reduce storage will save you money, time, and stress.

Take Action

• Visit your stuff in storage more often.
• Remove the most important stuff.
• Remove all the stuff and sell it at a garage sale. At the end of the sale post a free stuff ad on craigslist.org with a photo of the stuff. If your comfortable posting your address and leaving the stuff in your driveway this can make it much easier to get rid of stuff.
• Find local charities that are willing to remove everything from your storage once you’ve collected the stuff you want to save.
• Post an ad in craigslist.org and a photo of the left over stuff in your storage. Be sure to say they must take it all. This will save you time and multiple visits to the storage.
• Stop buying new stuff you don’t need.

Impacts: Mind, Health, Home, Work, Money, Community, Time

“Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I know because I’ve done it thousands of times.” – Mark Twain

I don’t think anyone can honestly say that smoking has more benefits than draw backs. When you choose to smoke less you instantly remove several external limiting forces.

Your bank account will instantly have more money in it. Your health with start to improve. The second hand smoke you are not exhaling will also help to improve the health of people around you. I could go on but you get the point.

Like most addictions smoking is hard to kick, but like most addictions, overcoming them tends always seems to give us back something we’ve lost. Any addiction for example, no matter how mild, will always have an affect on the decisions we make. Some are grosely visible to the naked eye, others more subtle. But on our minds they all take a huge toll. Smoking less is simply one of those things that can instantly improve life.

Also notice that I’m not saying quit smoking. Sometimes going cold turkey is the only way we can really change ourselves but I think more often slow change works better in the long term. So the next time you light up think about that cigarette and smoking less. Try choosing to smoke it later. In any case every small step you take that moves you forward is a step worth taking. Don’t get discouraged if you can’t take big steps, just keep taking small ones.

Take Action

• Cut back. If you smoke two packs try one. If you smoke during breaks, try doing something else during breaks like a walk around the block.
• Pick up cigarette butts you see on the street. Don’t forget to wash you hands. Yuck!
• Get professional help.

Impacts: Health, Money, Time

“In general, mankind, since the improvement of cookery, eats twice as much as nature requires.” – Benjamin Franklin

Americans probably have the largest selection of food choices of anyone on the planet, and it shows. We’ve got the best and the worst. Ironically it all costs about the same so choosing to eat better has very little to do with money.

For example I probably ate the healthiest food when I was a starving artist. I simply couldn’t afford to eat out or buy a lot of meat, cheese, desserts, sodas, or booze. I ate a lot of rice, beans, soups, breads, vegetables, and fruit. As I became more successful my diet ironically went down hill. It’s only recently that I’ve started to realize the benefits of eating better again.

Like most living organisms change in our bodies happens slowly. But we’ve grown accustomed to instant gratification which is probably what’s made dieting and fast food so popular. The idea of simply choosing to eat better gradually over time seems ineffective on the surface. But when you take a step back and realize that succumbing to instant gratification tends to distract your attention from long term benefits you begin to realize that dieting doesn’t work and that long term lifestyle change is the only thing that works.

Your health is a major key to protecting your personal freedom. Food is simply one of the little things you can control that significantly impacts your health. Eating better means making a conscious shift in the way you think about food and choosing to adopt a healthier diet for life.

Take Action

• Avoid hydrogenated oils (including partially hydrogenated oils), sugar, high fructose corn syrup, enriched and bleached flour.
• Avoid processed foods especially those with ingredients you can’t pronounce which tend to be preservatives.
• Avoid meats grown with hormones.
• Avoid over eating.
• Avoid fast food or at least avoid the worst stuff on the menu.
• Avoid eating out, cook more at home.