The Finance Castle

So I recently came across a fun tool called  billsIQ, part of the bills.com website. It promises to give you a quick financial checkup based on a fairly brief quiz-like assessment. It’ll ask you about your current financial situation, how well you keep track of your credit, whether you’ve declared bankruptcy in recent history, etc.

According to the site, I’m in pretty good shape! My score clocked in at 95%. While my credit and debt scores were my high flyers, of some concern is that my “life plan” was a 91%, dragging my average down.  Overall I’d say that the tool, while pretty basic, was still an educational experience. Maybe I have some more thorough life planning to do! Regardless I highly suggest hopping on and giving the site a whirl, it was fun!

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I’ve noticed a paradigm shift in my approach to work and productivity since I started working for myself. I’m not sure if this is common amongst entrepreneurs or if I just happen to be in a lackluster job previously, but my view of work has changed quite a bit since leaving my job. Lets take a look at one important before and after.

Getting Through The Work Day

Before: I’m here and I need to be productive so that my boss notices and I get a good raise or at least a good review that I can use as fodder for my next position. If I go the extra mile, the company will profit and I, by association, will as well…hopefully. My efforts won’t be directly compensated, but if I work hard enough I’ll get promoted or paid better, maybe.

After: I need to make X amount of money today. What is the best way to do this before the end of today? I can do A, B, and C, and that should generate Y amount. Let me prioritize my tasks by profitability, doing the most profitable activities first as thoroughly as possibly, then work my way down the list. If I run out of things to do, that means its time to brainstorm and come up with new sources of income. I have to keep working, because for every hour I’m not working towards additional income, I’m not getting paid.

This has been a huge change. Whereas I’m sure for most people, there is some leeway in your professional responsibilities and sometimes things are just slow. However even if you don’t have anything to do, you will still be paid for being there and “working.” Once you’re on your own however, if you decide to slack off or avoid work, you simply won’t be paid or bring in revenue. Conversely the harder the work, the better you will be rewarded (depending on the activity and task). Everything you do well and get paid for goes directly to you. There isn’t some superfluous entity (the company) you’re expected to help out for some sort of vague benefit like a promotion or raise. If you don’t do the work, you don’t earn revenue.

Another big difference in working for yourself is that there is no value in face time. No one cares if you can do your work in 4 hours, 6, or 8, they just care if it gets done. If you’re writing for a site, the site doesn’t care how much time you spent on an article, all that matters is if the article meets the site’s standards in terms of quality and length. This gives you a lot more potential to work smarter, not harder. Your earnings potential is based on how many sources of income you can create, via passive (our adsense portfolio) or active (my freelance writing) work.

Its fascinating and frightening at the same time. On one hand I’m excited by the prospect of having it put all on me. My success or failure isn’t based on corporate politics or the company’s bottom line, only my own. We’ll see how things turn out, especially if the interviews I have lined up go well and I end up tossed back into part time work or a 9-5 once more. Will I want to go back?

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Many popular bloggers, such as DoshDosh, have written on the benefits of building up alternate income through sponsored posts on your blog. Izea is one of the most popular and reliable sources for blog ads, sponsored posts, and even product sampling!

Izea’s flagship services, Payperpost and the newly launched Socialspark, help bloggers to earn more revenue. Payperpost serves as a wide ranging marketplace for sponsored content, connecting bloggers and potential advertisers.

Socialspark, on the other hand,  is a place where “Bloggers can make money by either placing display advertisements on their blog or by writing sponsored content.” Both of these have been a great income source for me and other bloggers, and may be worth looking at if you’re generating new sources of revenue from your blog.

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I’ve always been interested in alternative energy technology. From hydrogen powered cars to tidal power generators, I think there’s a lot of untapped, renewable sources out there that we as individuals as well as nations/societies can take advantage of but thus far haven’t due to the abundance of fossil fuels. As our resources continue to deplete, one such ray of hope is from a start up called BlackLight.

Supposedly, the startup has derived a way to alter hydrogen atoms, which can then be used to generate heat, turning water into steam to power turbines. How far have they gotten?

“The working models in his lab generate 50 kilowatts of electricity - enough to power six or seven houses. But these, Mills says, can be scaled to drive a large, electric power plant. The inventor claims this electricity will cost less than 2 cents per kilowatt-hour, which compares to a national average of 8.9 cents.”

Color me skeptical, and I’m sure there are plenty of critics that echo my views. Still the ultimate test lay ahead. If they can successfully commercialize the product, I’d expect to see cheaper energy available in all of our futures!

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 At first it may appear that I picked a bad time time to be laid off. Joblessness continues to increase, and it appears the U.S has cut about 62,000 jobs in June. This doesn’t show any signs of slowing either, and the trend continues as per below:

“The Conference Board’s Employment Trends Index fell in June. The index, which combines eight separate readings that track the job market, has now declined in 11 of the past 12 months.”

What to do? I do have some interviews lined up, but I’ve also been increasing my freelance work on the side. With my site portfolio and freelance writing gigs, I’m en route to make about $15,000 annually. Obviously this isn’t enough to live comfortably on alone, so I may take up a full-time job again or work part time in Finance and cover the rest via freelance. It might be an interesting experiment, deriving a steady pay check and benefits working part time while still giving myself quite a bit of flexibility and let’s face it, fun, through writing and Adsense.

I’m definitely torn, given that the jobs I’m interviewing for promise a much higher salary over my old full time gig. In the mean time I’m strapping on my work boots and hitting the ground running. We’ll see where things take me.

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