Faisal Hassan, Author at Automate Your Follow Up | Close More Business

How To Work Remotely in This Economy

The Sharing Economy Is Growing

I think we are in a really exciting time for all generations as the sharing economy is growing. In this post, let’s look at companies that allow you to work remotely instead of for one employer and predict How to work remotely in this economy.

Traditionally, you would graduate from college and be at the same job for 30 years. Consequently, you would then retire at age 65. You would then go down to sit on the beach in Florida until you die. I think that is changing. I see both baby boomers and millennials getting remote, freelance jobs.

Uber: The ‘Work When You Want To Revolution

Look at Uber. The majority of my drivers are either split into two categories, one, retired and do it for extra money. In fact, in my hometown, there’s a gentleman that used to be a dentist that is retired that Ubers and has the nicest Acura I have ever seen. It’s got to be an $80,000 or $100,000 four-door sedan. I’m a very tall guy. I can sit in the back with no problem, leather interior, gorgeous car. He was a dentist and he does it because it forces him to get out of the house and it brings in extra income for his family in retirement.

The other group that I see in working with Uber are people who already have a 9 to 5. They are picking up extra ways to make money at night and in the evenings and on weekends that can also bring in additional income. Hopefully, they’re not using it to keep up with the Jones’s. Hopefully, they’re using it to pay down debt or to increase their savings rates.

The Traditional Model is No More

But this idea that you can work when you want to, where you want to, is very fascinating. I think if you blend this into the tiny house movement and minimalist movement. You could live wherever you want.

You go back to the traditional model of getting a job at the same company for 30 years, a lot of our parent’s generation, the baby boomers, stayed within the same town for the majority of their life or were forced to move to towns that they didn’t find appealing only to continue to have that job. That does not sound like something I’m interested in at all.

You also have companies like Upwork and Freelancer that allow people to work from anywhere in order to make a living. They work on their own time. The job turns on when they want. They can accept a job when they want, and when they don’t, they can turn off their phone or the app on their phone and they do not need to go work.

Freelance Opportunities May Help Your Retirement Goals

I look at my dad who wants to retire and I think that he and his wife could if they were willing to do some type of freelance work, but they didn’t make great savings choices during their working years (not their fault, job changes, and layoffs and low paying jobs), so now they are strapped for cash in retirement and they do not want to get a part-time job at a physical location where they have to drive in.

I think the idea of working remotely, being a freelancer, traveling to their grandkids’ house, they can turn on and off when their grandkids are at school, that flexibility is really appealing and I wonder why we don’t see more of this.

Learn How To Work Remotely in This Economy

To wrap this up, does anybody have any business ideas that would help the sharing economy? If they do, please contact me, I would love to explore these ideas with you.

Selling My First Startup: Lessons Learned

Creating My First Company

I take startup a company eight years ago. We grew sales for the first five years, and then it plateaued or I got bored. I kept hitting roadblocks with partners, I should have been more adamant about my vision, lesson learned. It’s probably the first feeling I get when I know I need to change something or refocus on the vision. I get bored.

I started two more companies, one of which I still have. When I took my eye off the ball, it slowed sales quite a bit. What did I learn from selling my first company?

Three years ago, it was a very tough time. There were some government laws that changed, and it cut our revenue almost in half. We had to lay off a couple of people. We had to cut another person back to part-time. I started working 80 hours a week, six days a week, just like when I started the company.

We (my partner and I) also had to make up the difference between the revenue and our expenses, and so that came out of my pocket and my co-founder’s pocket. We took on a bunch of debt, in other words, we both held notes to the company.

There are many more lessons that I will be writing about soon.

Selling My Startup: What I Would Have Done Differently

When I sold the company, it was based on net income. Looking back on it, we spent the last two years before the sale paying off the debt which lowered the net income.

If I were to do it again, I would’ve left the debts on the book, financed it at 5% or 6% with a bank, taken our capital back out of the business, had an interest write-off, and would’ve had net income of four times what we had over the last two years, because of all the debt we paid down.

This was a SaaS company, software as a service. These types of companies usually sell for a multiple on revenue. During negotiations, I did not add back in, or think about, all the debt payments. These should’ve been added back in over the last two years. As a result, it would’ve accounted for “net income” or cash flow. Consequently, I should’ve taken a multiple on that, which I did not. So, another lesson is in the books.

Keeping Up With The Jones; Will Break The Bank

The Consumption Economy

I listened to a podcast that my friend Jones’ made. It’s called every day Saturday. Sam is out of Cincinnati, Ohio. He talked about how recently he watched a documentary called “Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things”. Sam had a large house, 3,000 square feet, four bedrooms, and four baths. He has four daughters so he does have a large enough family to justify that square footage, but he is putting his house on the market in order to downsize so that he can be more financially stable.

Keeping Up With The Jones’: Not Being Satisfied

I recently watched this documentary (Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things) with my wife and she thought I was absolutely crazy, which is true. The opposite of the minimalist idea is keeping up with the Jones’s. The majority of our culture revolves around keeping up with the Joneses and not being satisfied with what you have.

I liked the documentary because it explored how these guys were able to live on less money, be able to travel and be able to spend more time with family/friends, and not be a slave to their jobs, or for that matter, money.

I fantasize about the idea of moving into a tiny house and paying cash and not having a mortgage payment, starting a couple of new companies which I’m working on (more soon) and I’ll have to start writing about the new ventures, quitting my job and being able to have more time with the family to where I’m only working 30 hours a week instead of 80 hours a week.

The Most Important Thing: Spending Time With Family

I currently work for a large corporation where I’m on the road all the time in an industry that is very macho, egotistical and loves to show off materialistic items. It’s in the finance industry. It is all about keeping up with the Joneses and being better than the Joneses. It sometimes makes me sick. N o wait, all the time.

After watching that documentary I spend evenings after the kids and my wife goes to bed thinking. I think about that tiny house and being able to move it all over the United States. I’d show the kids different cultures and raise the kids in different cities. They would learn how to start different businesses. My kids would understand how to look for certain opportunities and how to gauge the market. I’d teach them how to run and read a balance sheet. They’d even learn how to read a profit and loss statement. Those are the things that I think about.

Keeping Up With The Jones’ Will Get You Nowhere

As of right now in the spring of 2017 I am realizing and conscious of the fact that keeping up with the Jones’ will get you absolutely nowhere, in fact probably broke, and I’m refocused now on dialing it down and being more of a minimalist. How about you? Does anybody else struggle with this?

Saving Rates Are Decreasing

Younger people in the workforce are not saving as much as the baby boomer generation did. We, as young people, millennials, do not have a high enough emphasis on saving for the future. We live more for the right now and we have a huge issue with instant gratification.

I am at fault for this myself as right after we moved we already had one TV. It was big enough for our family. I needed to go out and buy an even larger TV for the new house. Now, the kids had one TV and we had another TV. Instead of investing $1,000, which is what I should’ve done, I turned around and bought a flat-screen TV. Even worse, I put it on a Best Buy credit card for 0% for 18 months. I didn’t use my own money, which was probably smart. I put it on a credit card only at 0%. It was the only way I could reason with it and justify spending that kind of money.

Priorities Have Changed: Baby Boomers vs. Millennials

I don’t feel as bad as I should because there’s cash in the bank to pay for that, but if I get 0% why not use it? Although I still feel incredibly guilty because it is going backward. It’s not helping our family move forward. I wonder what the baby boomer generation would’ve done if they had an opportunity to buy a $1,000 TV. Would they have done it or not? I would like to think that they would’ve passed on the opportunity to get a larger TV and saved the money for retirement.

If you read another article that I wrote on RMDs and the pressure that’s going to have on the market, you will see that the RMDs will be drawing down investible assets across the United States over the next 20 years. I am fearful that our younger generation and myself will not be able to backfill the amount of money needed to maintain the market.

Spending Habits Can Change: Lessons Are Learned

I read a blog on consumption in America called Mr. Money Mustache where he lays out how he only lives on $27,000 a year and rides his bike everywhere. They have one car. It sounds amazing.

I need to decrease this spending personally so I don’t make the mistake again of buying a large-screen TV or the next toy that goes down in value. That money would’ve been much better spent going on a vacation with my three kids for three or four days and having quality family time instead of a TV that hangs on the wall. The lesson is starting to be learned.

What will you change as it relates to your spending habits and are you saving enough?

Pension Funds and Assumed Rates of Return make an A** out of You and Me

Last week I had an interesting conversation with my client regarding our fears about pension funds and assumed rates of return. I mentioned that two of my biggest fears are this year’s seven-year bull market and the market’s correction. My client agreed with me, but I was left confused and intrigued. I wanted to know more. What are pension funds and assumed rates of return?

Most pension funds assume a rate of return to get the target value into their funds. For example, If you have an assumed rate of return of 10%, you’ll need a certain number amount to pay for all employee pensions. You’ll double the amount, however, if you assume a 5% rate of return. Most pension funds currently have 7-8% assumed rates of return.

I eagerly injected as my client is explaining the assumed rate of return. “Shouldn’t there be a 5% assumed rate of return because of the low growth mode?” My client laughed. He answered that the pension companies would never change because the very structure of the system would be dismantled.

Who would have thought that the assumed rates of return were such a realistic fear? This is scary.

What The Experts Are Saying

Global chief economist for Vanguard Group, Joe Davis adds, “Global growth has been frustratingly fragile. In the last three years, it has been significantly lower than the cycle a decade ago, and there is little acceleration in any economy of the world right now.”

Therefore, assumed rates of return should be closer to 6% or lower. As a result, the state would have to come up with the money to fund the deficit created within the pensions promised to employees. For example, Hawaii just lowered the assumed rate of return from 7.75% to 7.50%. The 60% funded ratio was ranked the ninth worst in the country (2013 statistics). Only two states, South Dakota and Wisconsin were 100% fully funded. Illinois (39%) and Kentucky (44%) were the worst. For more information visit this link.

You can learn even more here.

The Inverse Relationship Between Rate of Return and Your Pension Fund

It is imperative to understand the inverse relationship between the rate of return and pension fund money.

If you lower the rate of return, you will consequently need more money pushed into the pension fund because the capital demand must be met in the future. This is based on the assumed rate of return. So where will states get these funds? The public sector, the taxpayer.

What can be done in the public sector to help this situation?

What if Marijuana Was Legalized?

Did you know that the tax rates for marijuana are 25-40%? Think about it in terms of generating funds from taxpayers.

I would argue that the state pension fund shortage could be offset by the legalization of marijuana. Visit this link for more information.

Medical Marijuana Is A Valuable Asset in Legalized States

I never knew how much money there was in medical marijuana until I had a phone call with a Medical Marijuana Dispensary owner. I was blown away. If you haven’t seen it, please check out the CNBC program that highlights the medical marijuana dispensaries and their business model. Learn more here about the effects of marijuana on tax income growth.

Marijuana tax rates generated by its legalization can effectively mitigate this frightening circumstance, especially after contemplating the fears of the assumed rate of return.

Legalizing marijuana would allow its consumers to pick up the tax burden, which would enable states to conservatively decrease their assumed rates of return. Makes sense.

What Happens if the 10-year Treasury goes to Zero? The Decline of Interest Rates & The Rise in Bond Prices

Over the last thirty years, the trend of interest rates has been declining. As interest rates decline, the price of bond that consumers can pay goes up.

The Inverse Relationship between Bond and Interest Rates

I will give you a quick example.

If interest rates are 5% and bonds are $100, say the interest rate decreases to 4% or 3%, or 2%, then the price of bonds increases. Let’s say the rate goes down to 4%. The cost would then be $105. If the rate goes to 3%, the bond could be worth $110. If it goes to 2%, it would be $115, and vice versa. So here is the problem that I see with bonds: We are at our lowest rates ever. The 10-year treasury is at 2.20 and is now down to 1.70, at the time of this writing. They have had a 30-year bull market.

Where can interest rates go from here if they are already at 2%? I only see three options;

Interest rates continue to go down to zero, and if that is the case we are in for a global recession and the cost of your bonds increase is not going to make you happy. This is because everything else will start to collapse. Visit the following article here.

Could U.S. 10-Year Yields Turn Negative?

It’s an inevitable question: Could U.S. 10-year yields turn negative now that German 10-year yields have fallen below zero for the first time ever? Not to mention Japanese 10-year yields have dipped to record lows of negative 0.17 percent.

According to Dennis Davitt, partner at Harvest Volatility Management and a noted options market veteran, it may well happen.

“I think you could see negative rates in the U.S. If Germany and other countries in the world go even further negative. It turns into a number line game. So where zero lies on the number line, who knows?” Davitt said Tuesday on CNBC’s “Trading Nation.”

He sees rates being driven lower by two factors in addition to overall slow global growth: Stimulative central bank policies and regulations.”

Option number two is interest rates can go up, now as I said before when interest rates go up, bond values go down. So if you are holding that $100 bond, and interest rates go from 2% to 3% to 4%, that bond now goes from $100 to $95 to $90 that you are holding. That is not good for our retirees that are trying to live on this income or for consumers trying to buy houses or cars.

Option number three is most likely what is going to happen and there are ramifications on this as well but there is no change. We kinda bounce along at the bottom for the next five or six or seven years. Where the 10-year is fluctuating between 1%and 3% so we kinda keep just going up and down and kinda hugging that 2% line. If that’s the case, that doesn’t impact us as consumers directly right now. This is what the fed says into 2017.

Fixed Annuity Vs. Bond

To summarize I would actually opt for a fixed annuity rather than a bond. Because I know if interest rates rise, my value cannot go down (full disclosure if you buy individual bonds and hold them until they mature they will not go down either, but read this article for bond risks).

When buying a fixed annuity I know, regardless of what interest rates do, my rate is locked in for that term of the fixed annuity.

Corporate America and the Fear of Getting Fired

The motivation to write this post stemmed from a meeting I had with a client where I noticed dumbfounding characteristics about corporate employees. The meeting was about a presentation on which I’m currently working. How can Corporate America continue to be profitable when it seems like not getting fired is the primary focus of the majority of corporate employees?

How do you spend your time? Is your time or motivation being soaked up by gossiping or the fear of getting fired? I searched Google for “how do I not get fired”. As a result, it came back with 64 million articles, blogs and websites lol. What is wrong with people?

Beating Around The Bush in Today’s Corporate America

Corporate employees literally spend so much time dancing around conversations and trying not to commit. They’re simply trying not to get fired so consequently, they don’t express sometimes pivotal facts and ideas. I see this more and more and it has become prevalent to me because I come from a “noncorporate” background.

While creating a presentation that was consumer-facing (for the general public), the presentation had to be reviewed by compliance. This presentation was for a client in the financial services industry. The people in compliance kept pointing fingers at each other, rather, and no one wanted to answer my question. They didn’t want to tell me exactly what they wanted. It blew my mind.

As I was putting together this presentation, I had compliance tell me that I shouldn’t use certain phrases that talk directly about an issue. They said that I should instead use words such as, “may we suggest”, “for example”, and “as a suggestion”. This is instead of just coming out and telling them what you want them to do and what you want them to know. Pair this with a coworker of mine, who is a brilliant person. He’s much smarter and more analytical than I am and he tells me, “I don’t think you can really say that. I don’t think you should really put that in your presentation”.

Blending in & The Lack of Motivation

When I got up the next day, I decided to go on a run. I was in Georgia by a river, and doing sprints on the river walk. I thought to myself during my ‘unplugged time’, “Everybody is spending half of their time in Corporate America just trying not to get fired, not having an opinion, and not telling people what they really think. They’re not commenting directly and instead, they’re talking behind people’s backs.” It made me feel sad.

To think that employees can try to work NOT too fast, or work NOT too slow. The employees think, “I don’t want to stick out” and “I don’t want to get noticed”. WTF. Most of all, blend this slow “Steady Eddy” mentality with all the “water cooler” talk. They are probably only at 30-50% production for that corporation. Seems like the corporation has a skewed perception of what factors can boost revenues.

I don’t understand this. Please explain to me how people can get a job and then how that job gets away with motivating them to be “complacent” or lazy!

I can sit down and work for four hours and the only reason I will even stop and get up is that I need to use the bathroom so bad that I could literally pee my pants!!

Misinformation & Deception in Corporate America

I walked into an office today and met with one prospect but the office had 7-8 prospects that needed to hear what I had to say. On my way out I ask the office manager, “Do you hold group meetings? Which is a blatant lie. She went on to explain that they are NOT part of a larger organization with any sort of hierarchy, furthermore, she does not have a boss. This is all BS. The company that employed her hired me to help them lol. She was happy not to help, which meant she was not committing, not going out on a limb, and not going above and beyond. She was just doing barely enough. It was mind-boggling to me. It was dumbfounding.

How do you spend your time? What do you focus on? How do you treat others?

What’s your working style? Do you stand up straight and walk tall?

What’s your thought process in the workplace? Do you motivate yourself?

A New Take on the To-Do List

Here is how I work: I will make a to-do list at the end of the day for what I want to accomplish the following day. A lot of people talk about making to-do lists, and I know there are a lot of mobile apps out there that can help you make a to-do list. I use a pen and paper. I do feel that as scattered as my brain is, and as many things as I have going on, I have to, HAVE TO, keep a to-do list. At the end of the day I will re-organize that to-do list to ensure that I am effective and efficient. It also helps me sleep at night.

A New Take on Time Management : The New To-Do List

Wikipedia’s definition of time-management discusses the origin and organization of your typical, as-you-know-it, to-do list. “Task lists are often tiered. The simplest tiered system includes a general to-do list (or task-holding file) to record all the tasks the person needs to accomplish, and a daily to-do list which is created each day by transferring tasks from the general to-do list.”

That said, I came across an article that talked about a new way to do, To-Do lists. This author, Josh Linkner, The Road to Reinvention: How to Drive Disruption and Accelerate Transformation states that we should make our To-Do lists and break it up into three different categories: More, Less and Stop.

What Do You Need More Of?

Under the More, “what do you need more of in your life”. Where are your efforts that deliver the highest value. These should be the items that you know you should be spending more time on because you are delivering the highest value (ie. Money, or simply you should focus more of your time and energy on this item because you value it). For example, more strategy meetings, more coaching clients or more reading to your kids, more feeding your brain!

What Should You Focus Less On?

The second category, Less. What do you need to spend less time doing? Less time surfing Social Media, less time gossiping, and less time texting your friends. Fortunately, I have no time for any of these but I do see a lot of people pissing away a lot of time. I probably need to do less of the smaller tasks on my personal side and more of picking up the phone and calling prospects.

Minimize Actions That Are Not Productive

Third, what do you need to stop doing? I thought this was really interesting, none of us really have a stop-to-doing list, as everything on our to-do lists is an actionable item, so on the stop is “what is unproductive”. What are you doing that is unproductive? You know what this is, it’s your excuse!

What You Need To Do More Of: Maximize Your Time

At the end of the day when you think “I should have called 12 more clients, stopped by 3 more offices…..”, “I should have scheduled more meetings”, “I should have read to my kids”… okay, great, what did you do that took up all your time that you should have not done? Then write that down.

For the first thirty days – I welcome you to the Hugo and Marie 30-Day Challenge – make three lists. In order to produce the highest value, what do you want and need to do more of? What do you need to do less of (which you know better than anyone else)? What do you need to stop doing? Send us your list and your story and I will give you a free 2 hours of consulting!!!

I would guess that the workflow would be that the “what do I need to do less of” would move to “what do I need to stop doing” and thus free you up more time for your more to-do list.

Call it a hunch lol.

Baby Boomers Forced to take Required Minimum Distribution

Baby Boomers are a very large portion of our population. They’ll be taking their first RMDs this year. RMD stands for Required Minimum Distribution. The Government forces us to pay taxes on our retirement account when we turn 70 years of age. This is only on qualified plans (IRAs, 401Ks, and other qualified accounts).

Consequently, only the people who have needed the income have had to take money from the market. That’s only up until this year.

Edward Shane from BNY Mellon adds his own sentiment. “As a result, throughout the next 20 years, billions of dollars annually will be forced from retirement accounts through distributions. These distributions will, in many cases, be taken in the form of a single large annual payment.”

The Required Minimum Distribution & The Bull Market

Our whole population will be forced to pull out their first RMD for the first time this year. The RMD percentage goes up every year to force people to draw down their account value. As a result, the government gets tax revenue. Kristen Grind from WSJ said, “Assets held by 401(k) plans ballooned to $4.6 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2014, up 171% from $1.7 trillion in 2000, according to the Investment Company Institute, a trade organization for mutual funds.”

Currently, We are sitting in a 7-year bull market. A bull market means it keeps going up and up. I think if you pair the expectation of an increasing market with a forced RMD, probably any drop in the market would be crushing to Baby Boomers. Consequently, this is good for the government and taxes, yes. What about the market and the young people investing in it? Assuming the average size of a retirement account is 250,000, here are the numbers:

In this case, the resulting withdrawal of $9,124.09 represents 3.65% of the retiree’s retirement balances at the time of the calculation. Note that, over time, the formula results in a growing distribution percentage. However, it is eventually applied against a declining balance as withdrawals (likely) begin to exceed earnings in the account.

Source: IRS5

Edward adds “The impact of these events will be substantial and will pose a challenge to the retirement industry. After decades of asset accumulation, this unbridled exit of funds is poised to have a material and adverse impact on the retirement companies that manage these accounts. “

Converging Elements

While the actual valuation of current RMD outflows and projections of future distributions are inexact in the absence of hard data, consider the following statistics:

The value of retirement assets for all RMD-eligible plans currently totals an estimated $16.2 trillion.
The current population of 50-69-year-olds who will reach RMD status over the next 20 years will increase by more than 27 million individuals. As a result, by 2035, the total number of retirees taking RMDs could swell to 58.7 million individuals according to census projections.
It is estimated that more than 65% of current traditional IRA investors (and their assets) will enter into the RMD strata in the coming 20-year period.6 As a result, if projections are correct, up to $10 trillion in assets will be subject to mandatory withdrawals over the next two decades.
A first-year withdrawal, based on the current IRS formula, requires a distribution of 3.65% of eligible assets. Furthermore, the percentage grows as the retiree ages and jumps to 5.35% for that same individual at age 80. As a result, at age 90, the mandated withdrawal percentage leaps to 8.77% of the account holder’s balance.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/will-retiring-baby-boomers-lead-to-a-stock-market-bust/

http://awealthofcommonsense.com/2015/06/will-retiring-baby-boomers-ruin-future-market-returns/

http://www.wsj.com/articles/net-outflows-befall-401-k-plans-1434408836

http://time.com/money/3922594/401k-millennials-baby-boomers/

Can the Gen Xers, Gen Ys, and Millennials replace those lost funds in the market with their contributions to their retirement accounts? I don’t believe they can.

In conclusion, our younger generations are not savers, rather, they’re spenders. Look at how much housing has gone up and how much they are spending on student loans. That does not leave them enough. Just my thoughts – what are yours?

Rich Dad, Poor Dad: The First Book I Read That Got My Mind Tweaked…

Sometimes a book can really change your outlook and your perception of your opportunities. In 2002, I was working at Home Depot, assisting a friend in starting a painting company. Additionally, I was going to college full-time. I had some extra time on my hands lol. I had also just bought my first rental property. During this time, I went to a multi-level marketing event. They were selling a website portal where you could purchase groceries online. This was well before the time of Amazon. The business model was to have each subscriber pay a monthly or yearly fee, like Costco or Sams Club. Consequently, the subscriber would have the ability to purchase items online for delivery like paper towels, soap, and other household items.

One of the guys at the event gave me two books: Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki and Cash Flow Quadrant by Robert Kiyosaki. Are you looking for a book that will help you take the LEAP? These are probably my top two books that tweaked my mind! Start your business today!

Cash Flow Quadrant: If You’ve Never Read It, You Must

The “quadrant” is broken up into 4 parts: E (employee), S (subcontractor), B (business owner), and I (investor). The premise behind the whole book is that if you’re an employee, you trade your time for money. A Subcontractor (meaning a trade job – Lawyer, Doctor, Painter, Carpenter, etc.) you’re trading your time for money, but there is no real way to scale this. For example, if you are a doctor and you don’t show up, you make no money, because you have no billable hours. At the time I was painting houses so it really resonated with me to say, “Hugo, the only way that you can make money, is if you show up and paint this guy’s living room”. That, I understood. It changed the way I started to think.

If you are a business owner you are still working in the business and on the business and have to be there to manage that process. But you can scale, grow and make more money.

As an investor, you are looking for passive income opportunities. Such as real estate, where you can make the purchase once, and the amount of money you make is disproportional to your time spent. For example, if it takes you an hour a month to manage the property, and you are making $200-300 per month in passive income, your income is disproportionate to the amount of time spent on that property. If you purchase stock in a company and get a dividend and do no work, you are making more income with less effort. Both of these can be scaled.

Rich Dad, Poor Dad: New Ideas That Inspire Entrepreneurs

The second book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad, is about the author as a boy. He watched two dads (a friend of the family and a biological dad) work their whole lives. His own father was a schoolteacher and worked every day. His friend’s father was an investor. He saw how much wealthier this friend’s dad got. As a result, he started to work less and less.

I have always remembered this. How can you think bigger? Think outside the box and look for new opportunities. For instance, with a SaaS (software as a service business) you probably spend a ton of money and a ton of time marketing it, growing it, and getting businesses to sign up for a monthly service fee. Furthermore, once you build it and build the client base, you are charging everyone throughout the month for the service. As a result, if you need to have Monday off, you can take Monday off and the world still turns and you still get paid. It is a great business model. But it does take a lot of work and time to get it to that point. (As a side note if you are interested in building your own SaaS platform, I am happy to advise you, to click here)

Right now, I am back to being an employee, a business owner, and an investor. I get most of my income from the “E” quadrant but my goal is to start and grow more businesses so that more of my income comes from the “B” quadrant so that I can invest more money and time in the “I” quadrant.

You can fit yourself into many different groups. I see the goal as getting to a place where you have enough passive income to be solely in the “Investor” category.

Both of those books helped me see that there was more to life than just a job for 35 years. These books helped me take risks and explore new opportunities.