Comments on: The Income Snowball & Funding Your Freedom: A Four-Part Guide

By: Greg Gardner

Greg Gardner — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 15:32:29 +0000

I listened to the podcast on PC and have been reading your blog for a while. I’ve been a student of personal development for 20+ years. What a refreshing and liberating perspective!

My wife and I have been baselining and taking small steps to decrease our “stuffprint” — (I just made that up!!)

I work for a Fortune 500 company but I have to tell you that the Life Design idea has not gone unnoticed by them. It seems that allowing employees to create their own reality makes sense for them as well. I now work from home and have almost total control over my schedule.

Because of that transition I’ve had the space to share my own voice on certain issues. Sufficed to say that I appreciate your voice. You’ve helped me and my family.

By: Jake @ Silver Coins

Jake @ Silver Coins — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 08:35:30 +0000

great post. everyone should have various sources of income

By: Blake@YoungDough

Blake@YoungDough — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 20:11:54 +0000

Oops, sorry about the last comment! Had several posts of yours open at once and wrote in the wrong tab!

By: Blake@YoungDough

Blake@YoungDough — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 20:04:50 +0000

This was a much-needed jolt to get me back on track! Have you heard of the song ‘Real World’ by Matchbox 20? It reminds me of this so much, since the real world seems to put up a good fight as we try to escape, but it’s completely worth it.

By: resonanteye

resonanteye — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 19:34:12 +0000

had to subscribe; this was helpful as f^ck. Nice to finally have a name for what I’ve been doing all these years.

By: Chris Kirk

Chris Kirk — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 02:17:00 +0000

Thanks for the post, man. My wife and I just walked through your post here as a framework for discussing an impending life change. Very helpful.

By: Lila

Lila — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 17:56:04 +0000

In 2000 I had a baby at the age of about 30. I had a pretty solid career in a very specialized IT related field. Luckily my boss let me go to very part time, but about 3 1/2 years later (and a couple of years into a second baby) we suddenly parted ways. I panicked for about a month, but amazingly work just started coming to me. 5 years later, it still just comes to me (knock on wood). I’ve been able to stay at home the entire time and keep the outsourcing of motherhood to a bare minimum (an average of less than 18 hours a week since their birth) Although they do go to school now, I’m able to pick them up and help them with their homework before they run outside to play with their friends.

Just about the time I start panicking that a current consulting job is about over, someone else calls. I have a dozen projects I’d love to do (including advertising my consulting “shingle” and blogging) but haven’t been able to swing it yet.

When people ask me what I do for a living I can never really say because I do so many different things so I’ve made up some line about computer consulting.

If it hadn’t been for the sudden change in employment I don’t think I would’ve had the nerve to jump off of that bridge, but I’m very glad I did. Now if I can just figure out a way to make the money come in automatically so I can do more traveling… I’ll have to read part two!!!

By: The Financial Philosopher

The Financial Philosopher — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 14:24:25 +0000

I’ll provide testimony that starting your own business or a new career with children is quite possible. I started my own business two years ago with two young children and a stay-at-home wife…

The only financial advantage I had was equity in my home (but not a large amount) to finance the business.

For me, the ability to make the change came from a combination of frustration with constantly hitting dead-ends and glass ceilings working for “the man” and an attitude that money is abundant. In my first year of business, I gave money to charity even though I was not profitable; my wife and I never changed our lifestyle; I continued my masters program; I started a blog; and the newfound freedom opened new doors as my creativity exploded.

Now I see that the possibilities are only limited by my imagination…

My advice to others is that “being responsible” can actually be counter-productive and the quest for discovery is limited without adding adventure to our responsibility…

“We have to recognise accident, i.e., the fact that there is no formula, no ‘principle’, which covers all things; that there is no totality or system of things. And this recognition at once supports a life of ‘responsibility and adventure’ and leads to scientific discovery.” ~ John Anderson

Great post…

Kent (The Financial Philosopher)

By: Clay Collins

Clay Collins — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 10:34:04 +0000

@Kenny: Thank you so much for this very thoughtful comment. I’ll go ahead and email you offline.

–Clay

By: Kenny

Kenny — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 01:39:27 +0000

I’ve tried to consistently read productivity blogs for over a year now and just can’t seem to do it. And though it’s difficult for me to do anything consistently, I’ve found myself coming back The Growing Life and listening to the Precision Change Podcast in my car on the way to work (on a burnt CD, because I’m too poor to buy and iPod).

So, now that that unrelated to the post part of the comment is over, I really enjoyed this post though there is one theme I find that always places me outside the scope of the productivity circles… it always seems that everyone is employed, and makes a decent income at an office type job and they’re trying to get out of that. However, I have a shitty job, working at a security monitoring company (I don’t get a flashlight) making barely enough to get by (my fault entirely).

I do, however, have a plan, and I’ve been studying and implementing many ways to make money online and I believe I’ve come to a point where I can make enough to quit my job (which would make me freaking amazingly happy in just that).

So, I’m just going to lay it all out there. I’m in moderate debt, make about 23k a year and I have very few expenses (the biggest one is my debt). I hate my job and feel like I work and sit around and work and sit around… etc. I’m very inconsistent but I’ve seen results from very small amount of work online. I know if I worked online (which I love) I could make enough money to support myself.

This is probably a stupid question that only I can answer, but hey, it’s good to hear what other people have to say.

Should I quit my job and just work my ass off on my online business…

Or, should I keep my job and try to work my ass off simultaneously to make enough money to quit (which I’ve been trying to do for years).

This comment is way longer than I expected. Sorry. And thanks for the post.