A Palestinian farmer collects damaged strawberries at his field in Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza Strip, December 16, 2013. Gaza’s agricultural sector suffered devastating losses during four days of severe weather conditions in the coastal territory, Gaza officials said Monday. Photo by Ashraf Amra
My Dear Extended Family and Friends,
I want to thank you for the outpouring of your inspiring emails. I am very pleased and profoundly gratified to keep sharing this information according to your questions, comments and concerns. Although it is challenging to be totally financially independent, you can move toward that goal. Many of you are concerned because you are dependent on employment income in an uncertain economic environment, or have concerns about your retirement or other benefit income. These are appropriate concerns. I hope to address a solution with the following article. I urge you to consider the suggestions for being more financially independent and self-reliant as I share with you a means to that end.
Respectfully yours,
Jim Sinclair
Be Prepared Financially – Self-Reliant Income
A requisite part of being prepared has to do with planning and alternatives. In looking at alternatives, more options are usually better. Where income is concerned additional income, or the ability to create additional income helps you to be more flexible and therefore more secure. Being able to have additional income and create it when needed can be very important.
Most people are dependent upon a single or specific income stream for their daily lives. This can be employment income, retirement income, disability income, or income from their business. Being completely dependent on one source of income can leave you in a precarious position if for any reason that income source is diminished or vanishes.
It can be simply losing your job, or having the funding of a benefit eliminated or reduced. It can be the failure of your primary business. Diversification of income is as important as diversification of investments, if this seems like a foreign concept.
We could discuss the things in your life which you could eliminate to help you make ends meet, but the aim of this article is toward prosperity, not austerity. Still, it is important to understand that prosperity and austerity are just different sides of the same coin. We want to focus on prosperity so that extremes of austerity can be avoided.
It is important to look at yourself, your financial security, your fixed costs of living (mortgage, rent, taxes, insurance, utilities, etc.) and where you live. What you are able to do for additional income will be significantly dependent on your skill sets, what resources are available and where you live. Also, some jobs are more secure than others it difficult times. Areas of historically secure employment are:
government work (working in government/public positions), quasi-public employment (jobs which average people are particularly dependent upon like utility workers, medical professionals, and are any private sector jobs with a public mandate, etc.) If you live from paycheck to paycheck or on retirement benefits or dependent on public assistance, this article is most important for you. You will be among the most significantly affected in a ‘feces hits the oscillator’ scenario.
You can start to protect yourself and your family, right now by considering a home based business. If you have a stable income stream with future income security, the home based business can be a little more cash to supplement your income.
If you have an income stream which may be interrupted in an unsure economic landscape, this will give you something already in place to jump to in order to help support yourself and your loved ones, if needed. If you start now, you will have something to fall back on. It will do no harm, and may be extremely valuable if our/your economic situation becomes unstable.
It is best to already have something in place than to try to shift into something if your world changes. This doesn’t have to be a national or global phenomenon, it can be you, losing your job, becoming unable to work, or a public benefit interruption. What we are really discussing here is about you becoming more self-reliant when facing the unknown.
It is challenging to introduce this topic, and the above introduction is to aid you in looking at yourself, your needs and your family’s needs, where you are in the scheme of things, and what you can do.
Acting now will be helpful. Doing something by choice is preferable to doing something because you have no choice or have few options. This can be a fun exercise in which you can involve your family, and friends who are trustworthy and closely aligned with you. You can create opportunities you had not previously considered and make money or gain needed resources from your home based business.
It can be small in starting, but have the ability to grow over time. A home based business would also help you with a fall back income, even if it starts out small. It will give you something to work with to be self-reliant, or more self-reliant, and that is the real goal here.
Now is the perfect time to start a home based enterprise. The beauty of a home based business is that you already have and are paying for your overhead – mortgage, rent, utilities, etc. This will make your start-up costs much smaller no matter what business you choose. When considering your start-up costs, look first at your skill sets.
If you are rendering services, you won’t be as dependent on having an inventory of stuff. If you are rendering services, the inventory of materials you need to keep will likely be smaller, but your need for tools and equipment may be greater. For example, someone who repairs a lawn mower will need less inventory than someone who makes clothing.
Start out by looking at your hobbies. These are things you already know and do. When undertaking a home business is it best to stick with what you know, otherwise you need training and mistakes are more likely. If your hobbies are sewing, or cooking, or furniture repair, computer web design/graphics then these are the endeavors you ought to consider. You can do the start up of your business with what you have and what you know. Look at businesses which started out at home based or very small and became world renowned like the Collin Street Bakery in Texas, the Vermont Teddy Bear Company,
Facebook. You don’t need to be the next Zuckerberg, you only need to maintain your daily life. The
Vermont Teddy Bear Company started out selling their bears at a flea market, now they sell half a million bears per year. The Fuller Brush Company was a home based business started in a Boston basement. Brushes were made at night and sold door to door during the day. The business started with a $375 investment. Look at Burt’s Bees, Tom’s of Maine, and Jason Products and a host of others.
Some went from small businesses to become Fortune 500 companies. Hobbies are a great place to start. Do you tinker with small machines, build things, make jewelry, work on micro machines like mechanical watches, enjoy cleaning or love to be with and care for children, the elderly or pets? Look at what you already do and enjoy.
In any undertaking, bear in mind and be aware of any licensing or regulatory compliances which may apply to your endeavor, if in force and effect.
If you need some training, find someone who will teach you the basics, possibly mentor you, or apprentice with someone in exchange for your time and energy. Find people who can help you with your skill sets. Advertise on Craigslist.org, look at bulletin boards (virtual/Internet) and at places like churches……More Here