Cool Links for Week of October 6th
Are you new to this website? Sign up for the RSS feed
Follow me on twitter
This week’s Cool Links is dedicated to our super cool dog, the former Lady Charles (isn’t she cute?). The picture above is Lady at her best.
I’m going to participate in the 10 Day Give. It’s basically a way for me to “Pay it Forward”.
The Art of Getting Off Your Ass by Lyved - I think a lack of success can be summed up in a quote from this article, “you are your greatest enemy”.
Self-Employment: One Selfish Way to Financial Independence by Billionaire Woman - I love reading anything about financial independence. There are a few topics that really get be going and this is one of them. Nathalie gives great incite on self-employment.
When the Dollar Shrinks by Tapan - Very interesting article. Will the shrinking Dollar make the U.S. less competitive?
Eight Tips for How Money Can Buy You Happiness by The Happiness Project - My favorite quote from the article:
The hedonic treadmill means that buying STUFF isn’t very satisfying, but there are ways to spend money that are likely to help give you enduring happiness.
I was fortunate enough to have articles posted at a Carnival and another blog, Gather Little by Little. Check them out!
My Guest Post at Gather Little by Little: Real Estate Investing 101
Article at:
Don't miss the next article, add our RSS feed
If you enjoyed this article, please Stumble it!
Follow me on twitter
Do You Like Money as Much as I Do?
Are you new to this website? Sign up for the RSS feed
Follow me on twitter
I’m not sure why I’ve always had a fascination with money. I’ve always liked making money and I’ve always been careful with spending it.
It all started when I was in the 4th grade. I do not recall why I wanted money, but I tried to figure out how to make money. I assume it was for baseball cards or the like. I started selling candy to other kids at school. The bus driver even gave me the nick name, “The Candy Man”. I would go with my parents to Sam’s where I would buy laffy taffy and blow pops, then mark them up 100%. Looking back, I was proud that I was able to pull in $40 a week, which is a lot of money to a 9 year old in the 80’s.
Between the age of 9 and 16, my quest for money became more urgent. Once staff at my elementary school told me to stop selling candy to other kids (they didn’t like the competition 
), I started mowing lawns. In middle school and prior to turning 16, I also worked at my dad’s baseball card shop. I usually had to work for credit so I would use the credit to buy packs of baseball cards that were of high value to other collectors. I had the inside scoop on whether the good cards had already been plucked from a box or not and thus I was able to tilt the chances of opening a pack of cards with a valuable card. I then sold the valuable card either to my dad or to friends.
Once in high school, my first “real” job in was at a dollar theater. I started out asking people “would you like butter with that”. Yes, it was lame. I was covered in all sorts of neon colors because it was owned my Cinemark Theaters. My starting pay was $4.25 per hour which was enough to pay for gas and insurance on my car (which was REALLY expensive ~$200/month). I quickly moved to projectionist which was more up my ally. During my second summer of work eligibility, I had 3 jobs. I worked at the movie theater (my main job), at Winn Dixie bagging groceries and at RGIS as an auditor (REALLY boring).
That fall after I had maxed out my “potential” at the movie theater, I left Cinemark to bag groceries at Tom Thumb. I quickly became a cashier where I was pulling in $5.25/hour. I was only there for 6-9 months before starting at Flashnet (a 1995 internet provider) where I was a salesman. It was actually my best job during high school. I made $8.oo per hour plus commission. With commission and my base pay, I was making $12.00-$15.00 per hour. I’m not much of a salesman, but it made the job a lot easier since the calls were inbound and therefore the callers were already interested in signing up. It was just really a matter of services provided.
I had various jobs working for professors in college. My next business took hold in 1999. I started selling Pokemon cards through my website and Yahoo! Auctions. I had originally wanted to start a website for my dad’s business. Everyone, especially a business, NEEDED a website. It was the big thing. Well, my dad wouldn’t commit to move forward on a website, so instead I asked him to could order more cards than usual so that I could buy the excess (at the time a seller had to have a store front to be able to buy Pokemon cards from the manufacturer). My first internet business was born. I did fairly well considering I had a part time job and a full load of engineering classes. I pulled in around $12K in about a year. Unfortunately, I jumped into the business towards the peak of the short-lived popularity. It was interesting that most of my customers were overseas. That business lasted about a year prior to dying out. It was an interesting ride though, and thankfully that entrepreneurial spirit has persisted.
Do you have any childhood or college money-making adventures? I’d love to hear them!
photo by theritters’
Don't miss the next article, add our RSS feed
If you enjoyed this article, please Stumble it!
Follow me on twitter
Can You Say Success?
Are you new to this website? Sign up for the RSS feed
Follow me on twitter
Photo by Tsechuen26
Carey Wickum was nice enough to spend time telling us about her business and what it means to her. Let’s see what she has to say!
1. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? What are you interested in? What you do for a living?
My name is Carey Wickum. I enjoy staying busy and doing many things such as traveling, photography, flower gardening, scrapbooking, playing frisbee with my puppies, watching movies, working out, and hanging out with Jason (my fiance). I’m a registered nurse and work at Oklahoma Heart Hospital and recently started my Mary Kay business in March of ‘08.
2. What interested you about joining the Mary Kay family?
I initially started my business to get the 50% discount on products and to sell to friends. After attending seminar in Dallas, I was energized and had found a new goal: to become a director in Mary Kay. The Mary Kay leaders all believe in God first, family second, and career third. This is inline with my own values. After listening to their inspirational stories of how they started they business and how they became successful while balancing their lives I too was inspired to go for it all. In fact my first few months as a consultant I mostly sold through catalog sales and samples. I wondered what could happen if I truly tried to be successful. So, that’s where I’m at now. I’ve been booking facials and skin care classes in addition to the catalog sales.
3. What are some of the challenges you’ve faced in your business thus far?
I think with any business there are going to be challenges and one is that people are so busy these days and things come up and they have to cancel and reschedule. About half of the facials and classes have canceled. My director did tell me this and suggested double booking and then if both do hold to have one of your Mary Kay consultant friends to do the facial for you, but I don’t feel comfortable doing this. Also, another suggestion was to utilize the time anyway for Mary Kay business if you need to make phone calls, etc. This can lead to discouragement, but attending weekly meetings helps so I don’t get discouraged.
4. What goals do you have for your business? What strategies have you implemented to achieve these goals?
My goals this year are to be in the National Court of Sales by selling $36,000 in retail product and to be in the National Court of Sharing which is recruiting 24 new consultants. I’ve divided this up and need to sell approx. $750/ wk and get 2 new recruits each month. So, far I have 1 recruit and have interviewed about 6 people who all are interested in the opportunity but not at this time. Most say they are too busy right now. I’m trying to hold 3 classes or facials a week and trying to interview 2 people a week. One director I listened to said she prays about the kind of person she wants as her recruits, so I have listened to her advice and been praying about that. My recruit I have is exactly the kind of person I prayed for. She is young, energetic, motivated, and beautiful. What a great asset for me as I begin to build my team!
5. Tell us something that not many people know about you.
Some people might not now that I was born in Chester, MT and moved to Oklahoma when I was only 18.
6. Last thoughts?
Mary Kay is fun! I really enjoy helping people that’s why I became a nurse and in Mary Kay you show women how to care for their skin and apply make-up. When you leave a skin care class or facial you have made a women’s day. You’ve made her feel good about herself and therefore you feel good. That’s probably why a lot of nurses and teachers are in Mary Kay. My website is www.marykay.com/cwickum
Thank you so much to Carey for her interview!
If you enjoyed this post, consider subscribing to my RSS feed.
Other Posts of Interest:
Getting Closer to Being Debt Free
13 Questions For Your Next Realtor
Dealing With Difficult People
Don't miss the next article, add our RSS feed
If you enjoyed this article, please Stumble it!
Follow me on twitter
Cool Links for Week of September 29th
Are you new to this website? Sign up for the RSS feed
Follow me on twitter
How Much Extra? by Seth Godin - This is a post by Seth Godin. Very interesting post!
Transforming Your Blog into Big Business by Skelliewag - If you are an entrepreneur or a blogger that is interested turning your blog into a significant source of income, Skellie provides some good points to consider.
How to Be Outstanding by Thing Simple Now - This is a thorough post on how to be outstanding. There are lots of tips, examples, and resources in this gem.
You Can Literally Think Your Way to Success and a Good Life by My Super Charged Life - I really enjoyed the quote that the author shares in the post: “A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts.”
Photo by IngridTaylor
Don't miss the next article, add our RSS feed
If you enjoyed this article, please Stumble it!
Follow me on twitter
Will Your Ambition Beat You?
Are you new to this website? Sign up for the RSS feed
Follow me on twitter
I recently read an article by Jacob at Early Retirement Extreme entitled Quo Vadis? He briefly mentioned issues with retiring early and the lack of social opportunities. Jacob discusses that a lot of the people who are able to achieve financial independence are really ambitious and will continue onto the next project instead of “enjoying retirement”.
Financial independence, in my opinion, is a state at which one has the option for paid employment or not and still has the ability to meet his or her financial obligations excluding welfare recipients. That being said…
If you had the opportunity to retire early and be financially independent, would your ambition beat you? Would you continue working and starting yet another business or career to continue challenging yourself and feeding your desire to succeed? This is a topic my wife and I have spoken about. She contends that even if we were able to “retire”, that I would try to start some business or start a new career. I’m not going to disagree. For example, as a little kid at a skating party, instead of having fun with the other kids I would skate as fast as I could around the roller ring to make sure I did the most laps. I look forward to the opportunity to be in such a position, but I have a lot of work to do before that is a reality.
If you are the ambitious type and are lucky enough to be financially independent, or maybe just looking for something to do, here are a few suggested possible outlets outside of starting a business or career.
1. Help Others Reach Financial Independence
If I were financially independent, this is one of the areas I would target. I would want to help other people achieve the same goal. You would not only be helping other people, but it would most likely make you feel good.
2. Volunteer
There is a tremendous need for volunteers around the US and the world. You could fulfill your ambition by taking on any number of understaffed volunteer projects that would surely challenge your ability to succeed. A lot of people volunteer their time to very noteworthy causes, but I think there is another level of success that one can achieve if they are not worrying about money and financial obligations.
If you are interested in volunteering, here are a list of websites that may be of interest:
- International or Overseas Volunteer Opportunities
- Directory of Volunteer Centers
By the numbers, it appears as if people in the US are volunteering less and less (Bureau of Labor Statistics) so whether you are financially free or not, volunteering is certainly a good thing to do.
3. Become Part-Time Teacher
I’ve never taught, but have always heard that teaching can be very fulfilling. I know when I was in school, I had some good teachers and some not so good teachers. Teaching is not known for being a high income or flashy profession. I contend that it would be much easier to become a good teacher if you are not worried about making financial ends meet.
If you were not exchanging your time for money and you were set financially, what would you do with your life?
Photo by Greencolander
Photo by Wandering Angel
Photo by WWFCanada’s
Photo by Striatic
Financial Independence (FI) Articles Around the Web:
FI Articles by Jacob at Early Retirement Extreme
FI Article by Nathalie at Billionairewoman
FI Articles by Trent at The Simple Dollar
FI Article by J.D. at Get Rich Slowly
Don't miss the next article, add our RSS feed
If you enjoyed this article, please Stumble it!
Follow me on twitter
