Your Neighbors

Now that I am starting to have a solid base of articles published on this blog, I think it is a good time to explain exactly what it is that I am trying to convey. If you have read my posts you will probably notice that I cover many popular topics that are addressed by much bigger and more successful bloggers. Those ideas include: lifestyle design, productivity, outsourcing, travel, simplifying our lives, technology, teaching English abroad, economics, history, investment, entrepreneurship, idea economy and probably many other topics yet to come.

Out of that hodgepodge of ideas I hope an underlying theme will start to emerge. That central belief is that our lives are just a bunch of ideas and those ideas are rapidly morphing into things we can’t yet fathom. Every one of us has the amazing opportunity to work and live almost anywhere on this planet. Every barrier of age, education and race has been or is being pummeled deep into oblivion. America has a black president. Philippine outsourcers are working for $2 per hour as virtual assistants to ordinary people around the globe. Millions of people are collaborating and sharing online in ways that still astound me every single day.

We living in amazing times with huge opportunities. Yet the pace we are destroying our planet is also frightening. It is likely that ocean fish will be extinct in 50 years. Think about that, no more wild fish in the oceans. We are polluting the environment so badly that in the next couple of decades, water will be scarcer than oil. Think about that, no clean drinking water. In addition, how many cities, even countries will be submerged with the melting of polar ice caps? These catastrophes are not fiction. They are facts.

We live in both exciting and foreboding times. Technology has brought the world closer together, just in time to watch its collapse. There are still great opportunities ahead, I just hope there is something left for our grandchildren to enjoy.

JetSetCitizen.com is about pursuing personal excellence in our own lives while making a contribution to our fellow global citizens. Artificial barriers of nations, politics and religions matter less and less. We need to celebrate humanity globally. Stop blaming the politicians and corporations. Vote with your wallet and curtail consumption of physical goods. Buy knowledge and experiences, not things. Contribute your time and money to causes you believe in and strive to leave the world in a little better place because you were here. Turn off your TV and do something, do anything. We need to stop turning off our brains. This is such a great time to be alive, yet so many of us are lost in a stupor in front of our new flat panel TVs.

Success is not measured by the size of your house, cars or possessions. It is measured by your contribution to family, friends and fellow citizens of the world. New and better tools are constantly improving to help us connect and engage with the entire world. The world is truly at our feet. We can choose to use, abuse and discard the nature and beauty around us or we can take the time to see what we have been missing. JetSetCitizen.com is an examination into living life at its fullest, while minimizing our environmental footprints. It is a hope that some of our greed and over-indulgence can be channeled into something more positive, exciting and rewarding.

A Penny Saved is More than a Penny Earned!

I have been considering investing in government bonds. I would like to diversify my investments and government bonds are completely risk free. New Zealand and Australia both have relatively high interest rates, so bonds can pay as much as 5 or 6 percent per year. The problem is that 20 percent of the interest income will be deducted for taxes and with other exchange rate risks and fees, it is likely that I would make less than 3 percent. This is comparable to what US government bonds are currently paying.

Therefore, if I invest $100,000, I will make $3000 per year or $250 per month. $250 per month on $100,000 tied up for at least a year. So basically that means, making an extra $250 per month is equivalent to having $100,000 in bonds. In order to make an extra $2500 in passive income, you would need to be the government bond equivalent of a millionaire. A million dollars in bonds would only provide you with $2500 a month of income.

How about looking at this from a different perspective. Every $250 you could save in your current living expenses would be the equivalent of having $100,000 in government bonds. Let’s say you currently make $3000 per month in take home pay. If you are saving $500 per month now, and you increase your savings by an extra $250 to make a total of $750, you have increased your monthly savings by 50%. If you could cut back your expenses $500 per month, you could actually double your monthly savings, a 100% increase. The equivalent of having $400,000 in government bonds. ($400,000 X 3 % = $12,000 per year or $1,000 per month.)

Just for fun, look at it another way. What if you could find an extra $250 of income. Remember an extra $250 is like having $100,000 in government bonds. Can you find ways to add some passive, recurring income with minimum time and upfront investment? I don’t think it is so hard and I am currently working on a few ideas myself.

One of my passive income ideas is a website of PDF downloads for English teachers. (www.englishfrog.com)

Time investment: 200 hours. (For the creation of the downloads and setting up the website)
Money Investment: $3000. (For artwork and design)

If I value my time at $20 per hour (200 X $20 = $4000), the total investment will be $7000. (Plus a nominal amount of time every month for marketing, admin etc.) $7000 invested at 3% per year will yield $210 profit per year. This is only $17.50 per month. So if I can generate more than $17.50 per month in ongoing income, I am better off than investing in government bonds.

Of course, learning how to make money online also has its own benefits. I will certainly learn more and make more money over time if I invest in myself. Undoubtedly, I will make far more than 3% per month by investing in myself. Forget the bonds, build yourself a business!

Until Someone Better Comes Along

We live in a world of unlimited choices. A visit to a local supermarket is clear enough proof of the age of abundance we live in. Dozens of breakfast cereals, soft drinks, cheeses, meats; whatever you can imagine, there are likely tens or even hundreds of products competing for your attention. A century ago, even royalty lacked such a diversity of offerings. This plethora of choice is not limited to the things we consume. We have the opportunity to choose any occupation we want and live almost anywhere in the world we want.

Choices are great, everyone can get exactly what they want. The corollary to increased choice, is that it becomes harder to choose. Think back to the beginning of the last century when Henry Ford offered his model T automobiles in any color, as long as it was black. “Okay, I’ll take the… black one. Good choice, ma’am.” Choosing is easy when you have no choice. Choosing becomes near impossible when there are too many choices.

Every good salesman knows not to present too many choices to customers, because they will choose to think about it and not buy. Present two or three different products and it is very easy to compare and find the one best suited to your particular needs.

With so much variety in all aspects of our lives people are afraid to commit to anything. You don’t want to accept a job opportunity because you are not sure if you want to do that for the rest of your life. You don’t want to marry your long time partner because, who knows, maybe someone better will come along, someday. You don’t want to start a business because you don’t want to get locked into anything.

People are afraid to commit to anything. Commitment means forcing yourself to choose one course of action. The wrong choice will invariably bring lots of regret. So the easy thing to do is never commit. Never choose. The only problem with that is you have made a choice. You have chosen to not choose. Not choosing means you chose to be mediocre and put a half-hearted effort into your life.

It is easy to be afraid of making the wrong choice. No one wants a lifetime of regret. The problem is that we tend to over-exaggerate the consequences of making a bad decision. People are so afraid of wasting a few years of their life by going down a wrong path, that they end up wasting their whole lives by never choosing any path. Dedicated and focused effort towards something that fails miserably is far more rewarding and challenging than just playing it safe.

You know what? Great failures are far more impressive than living a mediocre life and never trying anything remotely risky or challenging. And another thing, people who fail greatly today are not necessarily going to keep on failing in the future. Someday one of their choices might bring great success. Even if it doesn’t bring success, they will have experienced life more fully and authentically than all of the people living in their suburbs, driving to jobs they hate for 40 odd years.

Choose! Commit! Set your mind on a life partner, project, task, business, cause, or charity and give it 110% of your effort. No concentrated effort is ever a failure, regardless of the result. The only failures are those who could have done better and didn’t.

One with the Rock

Speed has been the mantra of the business revolution since the 1990′s. Do more and do it faster is the way to personal and business success right? What better way to accomplish many things than to just do them all at once. We talk on mobile phones while we drive, eat while we are walking, listen to audio books while we run. There is nothing wrong with that type of multi-tasking, right?

Many of us juggle multiple projects and tasks thinking that we are getting more done. In fact, many people are proud of their multi-tasking prowess. Doing more things shows that we are more successful and important. The problem is that doing more things reduces the quality and quantity of each individual task. There are inherent costs of multi-tasking;

Switching costs
Every time you switch to another project you have to re-acquaint yourself with the work previously done and catch up on where you left off. For more complicated projects like writing, programming and legal work these switching costs can be very pronounced. It can take an hour or more to catch up on previous work.

Costs of Delayed Revenue
One completed project that you can bill for or can start earning revenue from means cash in your pocket faster. For example, imagine you are working on 4 projects at once and all take an equal time to complete. If each project takes four weeks to complete, after 16 weeks all will be completed if multi-tasking. Only after the full 16 weeks will you start earning money.

Now consider if you focused on one project and finished it in 4 weeks. That means that you can start making some revenues or bill for the first project after only 4 weeks, instead of 16. If this is recurring income, in this four project example, it would mean a total of 24 extra weeks of income that you wouldn’t have earned if you were multi-tasking.

Costs of Depression
It can be very hard to maintain levels of motivation when working on too many different projects. It can seem like nothing is progressing and that the work is impossible to complete. Completion of projects and individual tasks is self-motivating. The more you finish, the more you want to finish. The converse is also true, the less you finish the less you want to finish. All the projects and tasks can seem insurmountable if there are too many.

Costs of Lack of Focus
Putting all of your energies into one project encourages all your attention and ideas on a single project. You creativity will be enhanced because you will be thinking about this one and only one project. It is impossible to dedicate this much mental energy to a specific project if you are working on many things at once. Try reading a book while you are watching TV, chances are you will not be fully engaged in either and will miss out on both. Your thinking doesn’t stop when you stop working. Knowledge workers cannot turn off their brains when they are not working, ideas and insights come at all hours. If you are working on a single project, your mind will be focused on solutions and opportunities at all times. You will likely come up with insights and improvements to the project, even when it is not the focus of your attention. Some people are most creative in the shower, others when they are exercising. Your subconscious will help you discover solutions to your problems, provided it is not overwhelmed with too many things.

Costs of lack of quality
If you are doing many things at once, you cannot possible do everything at such a high quality. Top performance needs focus. Top athletes and musicians understand this. They can’t deliver peak performances if they are thinking about what they are going to eat for dinner, and the shopping they need to do. World class performances in any area require intense focus. The same is true for your work.

Cut off distractions and focus on completing one thing at a time. Once you are finished the most important task or project, go to the next one. Multi-tasking is not productive.

Goodbye Television!

There are two resources that you need for anything you want to do in life: time and money.  Time and money are often  mutually exclusive. When we have a job we have money but not much free time. When we are unemployed we have lots of free time but little money. Time and money are often the key constraints people see as holding them back from the lives they want.

I want to start a business, but I don’t have time and/or money plus [add your favorite excuses here].

I want to travel, but…

I want to lose weight, but…

I want to write a book, but…

I want to have my own blog, but …

Here are some secrets to get more money and time now.

Get More Money NOW!
If you want more money, spend less. Curtail your consumption and you will have more savings guaranteed. This extra savings is not taxed and you will not have to work more for it so it will not cost any extra time. You are not your possessions. You are what you do. Are you writing everyday? Then you are an author. Are you playing the piano everyday? Then you are a musician. Be a doer not a shopper and you will have extra money and time to pursue your goals. Live with less. Downsize your house. Don’t upgrade your car, furniture, electronics, or appliances until it is absolutely necessary. Don’t buy designer bags, shoes and clothes. Only buy durable but relatively inexpensive belongings that you really need. Eat healthy food at home more often. Assuming an interest rate of 3%, saving an extra $250 per month is equivalent to having $100,000 in government bonds. ($100,000 X %3.0 = $3,000 per year or $250 per month)

Get More Time NOW!
If you want more time, stop watching TV. The average American watches about 28 hours per week of TV. There are 168 hours in a week. How does the typical person spend their week?

56 hours: Sleep
40 hours: Work
10 hours: Commuting to work
12 hours: Eating and food preparation, shopping, etc.
10 hours: Household chores

128 hours TOTAL

168 hours per week minus 128 hours of occupied time leaves 40 hours a week for exercise, friends, family, hobbies and time to work on personal goals or dreams. If you are watching 28 hours of TV a week, then you are spending about 70% of your free time in front of a box with your brain turned off. Sell your TV and cancel your cable subscription. You will save money and likely double the amount of time you can devote to the important things in life.

Low cost computers and Internet access have put the power of creative expression in the hands of the masses. Any one can start a blog, write a book, publish their photographs and music or sell their services online. Lack of money or time are not the problem. It is an issue of priorities. Do you value your flat screen TV more than saving money to start you own business? Do you value re-runs on TV more than quality time with your family and friends.

It is not necessary to quit your job to create the life you want. You can create more time and money just by focusing on the priorities in your life. Focus on the ONE, the one thing that will have the greatest impact in your life. In fact, quitting your job will likely be detrimental. You will be preoccupied about where and when money is going to come in that you will not be focused on doing what you know you need to do. If you can’t make the time to pursue your dreams and build the life you want now, quitting your job is just going to give you a lot more free time to waste vegging out in front of the TV,  browsing the Internet or drinking beer in the backyard. You have the time and money now if you decide to cut out the slack in your life and focus on what is important.

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A couple of years ago an old friend of mine, laughed at the fact that I was regularly driving to the gym to run on a running machine.  I have often thought of how ludicrous  that idea was and have since given up my gym membership.

I used to get my gym clothes ready, drive to the gym, search for a parking space, go to the locker rooms to change, stretch, run, maybe do a little weights, take a bath (I live in Japan) get dressed, drive home. A 30 or 40 minute run often took me a couple of hours.  If I met up with an acquaintance or friend, I might be talking for another half an hour or so.  Friendship and socializing are certainly important but it does still strike me as as foolish way to live.

For the most part, our working lives have become so physically undemanding that we actually have to pay a company to provide machines to exercise on. Isn’t that a little silly?

It gets worse, I have noticed that same pattern in all areas of my life.

Buy a new car >> Drive more >> Exercise Less >> Get out of shape >> Go to the gym.

Buy a bigger house >> Waste time and money shopping for more furniture >> Spend more time cleaning and doing yard work >> Requires more work, to make more money, to buy more things

I would have been much better off without a car. If I cycled everywhere like my university days, I would still be in shape. Money has afforded the luxury of a car and taxi rides when needed but at the cost of physical deterioration. These equations do not even factor the environmental footprint I have left in the wake of my wanton consumption.

I should have never moved to a bigger house. All the time and money I have wasted in in acquiring the house and all the new furniture could have been much better spent with friends or on cool projects.

All the conveniences of modern life that I have consumed haven’t made me a better person. Quite the contrary, they have made me physically and intellectually slothful. I want to consume less and I want to live more. I want to have excellence thoughts and excellent experiences. Excellent things do not happen in shopping malls.

Here is another cycle we commonly experience.

Work in the city in a job you hate>> Go out for lunch everyday >> Eat something unhealthy >> Drive more and spend more money >> Get out of shape >> Live like a zombie throughout the week >> Feel unhealthy and unsatisfied.

What would happen if the process were reversed?

Consume less >> Require less money >> Work less >> Use the free time to gain more skills >> Work on higher paying but less time consuming projects >> Keep expenses low >> Invest more time into personal experiences, training and relationships >> Enjoy life more!

Grow my own vegetables and herbs>>Eat healthier>> Have regular relaxation and meditative time>>Feel better physically and mentally

Ride a bicycle for transportation >> Stay in Shape at virtually no cost >>Appreciate the commute much more.

Success is not a fancy house with a wine cellar and a BMW in the garage. Success is more time with friends and family and working on cool things that excite me.

What happens when you go out and buy a new car? You have this beautiful thing that is your identity. You drive a blankblank. Your blankblank is the newest and coolest on the block. You wash it more than your old car, you inspect it for scratches whenever you approach it and you do your best to keep it out of harms way. No parking next to other cars or leaving it on the street for some neighborhood kids to hit with a ball or a hockey stick.

Your blankblank is your friend. You caress it and love it like you would a pet, or maybe even a spouse. Not only did you spend a whole whack of cash on your blankblank, you are also paying higher insurance premiums and spending more of your free time taking care of your little blankblank. Even when you are in your office or at home in bed you worry if your blankblank is safe and protected. Blankblank is costing you money and time.

Your car, your house, your clothes, your toys; are all costing you time and money.  Consider the fact that billions of people live on less than you spend on a non-fat, tall, double latte each and everyday. Huge numbers of people can survive on a few dollars a day all over the globe. Certainly you can do with a little less. There are many ways to simplify: maybe downsize your house, drive your old car for a few more years, cycle to work so your family doesn’t need two cars, or don’t buy that fourth television.

If you want to live like the Jet Set without being rich, learn to simplify your life. Buy less things and experience life more. Bigger houses, faster cars and more toys are for rat race slaves that always manage to spend beyond their incomes. It is possible to travel the world and do the things you really love doing if you are willing to purchase less. There are basically two ways to put more money into your pocket; earn more or spend less. Earning more is important, you certainly want to work smarter and make more money. However, spending less is immediate and often easier than earning more. Saving $100 is worth more than earning an extra $100. Any extra money you make will be taxed so your take home amount maybe only $80 or even less if you are in a high income tax bracket. $100 in savings is $100 extra in your bank account.

Why should you save and sacrifice? We are all entitled to the good life, right? Perhaps. It is certainly your right to consume, but at the end of the day do you want to be known as a shopper or as someone who lived life? The time and money you spend on goods and unnecessary services would go along way to funding your dreams and creating something that will make a lasting impact on your life. Not having enough money is not a particularly convincing  excuse in this day and age. Anything is possible for anyone. It is not only the money your are sacrificing, all possessions require real and mental maintenance. The biggest cost of your possessions may very well the brain power you expend shopping for things, caring for things, and worrying about things. How much of your life is spent thinking about your possessions? Probably, too much.