There's so much low-hanging fruit
Over the last couple of months, I've been saying that there was some energy bubbling around inside to 'create' something - I don't mean the creation of another lifebeing here. But the desire to actually make something*. Hopefully something I enjoy, something that I could 'put out' as another source of income so I can stick it to the man and not be forever dependent on the system.
I thought about handicraft but I'm aware my aesthetic and fine motor skills are lacking. It crossed my mind to be author I wanted to be but then the stories I wanted to tell then, arn't the stories I feel for anymore. I thought about cooking and I really enjoying making stuff in the kitchen but I've seen my mom start up shop and it requires way too much of my time to devote away from the work I have to do now. Moving further away from the concept of creation, I thought maybe I should separate the two ideas of money-making with creation... I don't have much creative perseverance lying around.
I don't want to earn money because I want more money - I want to make money so I don't have to spend all my time working so that I can devote that time to more valuable things and relationships.
So here are some mental notes I'm piecing together.
1. Andy lost his job, money has been tight, prices went up. We try to make sure our utility use has been as efficient as possible. A also had some stocks from his previous company. Many a times, the dividends had help tide us through.
2. I was reading an article about 'How to make money as a writer'. The most interesting takeaway was to keep your day job, find time to write like you would any other hobby. Not because one sucked being a writer but because if you can manage, the job provides the benefits your job as a freelancer can never. Like medical. A has a bad tooth but we can't take him to the dentist because he doesn't have dental cover and we're tight enough to have to wait till more comes in.
3. I've been following the articles in the 'Money' section of the Straits Times Saturday papers and the one constant I realize is to invest in yourself by starting and owning your own company.
4. I thought about starting some kind of company, but then I don't know what I would the company would do, and if we did decide what our selling point was, I don't know the intricacies of business. I am even leading 4 teams of students as part of my Research & Dev project to start up a sustainable magazine/website business. So, I was still lost.
5. Yesterday, standing around the printer in the office, I was reading another article on 'How to retire early'. All the usual stuff... except my takeaway this time was 'if you can't start your own company or don't know how to, buy into someone else's company' and if you don't know how to do that, do something about the Index-linked ETFs. I made a mental note to find out what they were.
6. Lastly, on the way to town after work, I read another good article about carbon-footprinting and alternative, renewable, clean energy sources. And the sentence that jumped out on me was
"I don't know anyone who has failed to make money at energy efficiency. There's so much low-hanging fruit, it's falling off the trees and mushing up around our ankles.' I remembered another article I read about how when the Bush administration began, the Nordic countries took to investing into renewable energy. Al Gore lost out because he pushed for that. Bush won and pushed for real estate. More houses were built further and further away, the need for transport went up, they sent troops to the middle east to protect their oil investments that they keep paying the middle east for and now everything is falling apart for them. (This is a extremely simplistic summary from my perspective). Meanwhile, Norway is making profits from their energy investments. I really believe energy efficiency and renewability is the way to go.
So, start a company, go into energy - but I don't even have the money for that. But now I have some ideas and am thinking more in that direction.
*Babies don't count since I'm not really the one responsible for the 'making' - God is.
I thought about handicraft but I'm aware my aesthetic and fine motor skills are lacking. It crossed my mind to be author I wanted to be but then the stories I wanted to tell then, arn't the stories I feel for anymore. I thought about cooking and I really enjoying making stuff in the kitchen but I've seen my mom start up shop and it requires way too much of my time to devote away from the work I have to do now. Moving further away from the concept of creation, I thought maybe I should separate the two ideas of money-making with creation... I don't have much creative perseverance lying around.
I don't want to earn money because I want more money - I want to make money so I don't have to spend all my time working so that I can devote that time to more valuable things and relationships.
So here are some mental notes I'm piecing together.
1. Andy lost his job, money has been tight, prices went up. We try to make sure our utility use has been as efficient as possible. A also had some stocks from his previous company. Many a times, the dividends had help tide us through.
2. I was reading an article about 'How to make money as a writer'. The most interesting takeaway was to keep your day job, find time to write like you would any other hobby. Not because one sucked being a writer but because if you can manage, the job provides the benefits your job as a freelancer can never. Like medical. A has a bad tooth but we can't take him to the dentist because he doesn't have dental cover and we're tight enough to have to wait till more comes in.
3. I've been following the articles in the 'Money' section of the Straits Times Saturday papers and the one constant I realize is to invest in yourself by starting and owning your own company.
4. I thought about starting some kind of company, but then I don't know what I would the company would do, and if we did decide what our selling point was, I don't know the intricacies of business. I am even leading 4 teams of students as part of my Research & Dev project to start up a sustainable magazine/website business. So, I was still lost.
5. Yesterday, standing around the printer in the office, I was reading another article on 'How to retire early'. All the usual stuff... except my takeaway this time was 'if you can't start your own company or don't know how to, buy into someone else's company' and if you don't know how to do that, do something about the Index-linked ETFs. I made a mental note to find out what they were.
6. Lastly, on the way to town after work, I read another good article about carbon-footprinting and alternative, renewable, clean energy sources. And the sentence that jumped out on me was
"I don't know anyone who has failed to make money at energy efficiency. There's so much low-hanging fruit, it's falling off the trees and mushing up around our ankles.' I remembered another article I read about how when the Bush administration began, the Nordic countries took to investing into renewable energy. Al Gore lost out because he pushed for that. Bush won and pushed for real estate. More houses were built further and further away, the need for transport went up, they sent troops to the middle east to protect their oil investments that they keep paying the middle east for and now everything is falling apart for them. (This is a extremely simplistic summary from my perspective). Meanwhile, Norway is making profits from their energy investments. I really believe energy efficiency and renewability is the way to go.
So, start a company, go into energy - but I don't even have the money for that. But now I have some ideas and am thinking more in that direction.
*Babies don't count since I'm not really the one responsible for the 'making' - God is.
posted by The Chilibuddy @ 10:45 am ::
1 Comments:
keep thinking and working on this, his is a topic we have been thinking about a lot recently too...and send me a children's story or two for illustration if you are so inspired...
http://project77.org
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