#nextbigthing #technology #gamechangers #anthroposcene
Perhaps you wonder what your work life will be like in 10 years, or 20 years.
Perhaps you wonder what kind of business someone will invent that will change everything.
Well, there’s probably a group of well-funded thinkers that are wondering the same thing.
Elizabeth Preston, a correspondent for The Boston Globe, tackled this topic in an article published July 30, 2015.
Elon Musk, founder of Tesla, which makes electric cars, is among those funding studies that will help us prepare for the technology crises of the future.
Technology has changed many workplaces, and will continue to do so.
Uber has changed the way many people get around.
So what will be next?
“Real world scientists are thinking apocalyptically. Many believe that humans – sometime between inventing agriculture and reshaping the global climate –have created a new, global epoch,” Preston writes.
This age, informally called anthroposcene, will be the subject of a new section of the National Museum in Washington, D.C., Preston says.
We’ve already seen the world go from dinosaurs to robots, double-wings to drones. But what’s next?
You may be hearing things from investors that say they know what the next big thing is going to be, but they are only telling a few of their closest friends. To become such a friend, you have to pay money.
So what is it worth to you to have insight into a serious game-changer before everyone else does? As we all have seen, things we thought would be game-changers didn’t turn out as hyped. Some of the things have even become a pain to live with. For example, do you have a love-hate relationship with your smart phone, or computer? These devices have helped people do more things more quickly, but they also can, and have, complicated many lives.
The next big technology breakthrough may save lives, but may cost jobs.
The next big breakthrough could help us alter nature, but should we fool with nature like that? It may help us better prepare for bad weather, but bad weather is an everyday occurrence somewhere. Can we stop ALL such destruction?
So, are you, like these Musk-funded think tanks, obsessed with what technology will do in the future? Perhaps so, perhaps not.
If you want a simpler life, yet want to make more money than you are making now, without affecting what you are currently doing, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. You see a way to put money in your pocket without having to invest in the next big thing.
Though we may reminisce about simpler times, few of us would care to go back there. In fact, it’s virtually impossible to go back there.
We merely take what is, adjust our lives accordingly and aim for something better. It’s certainly OK to dream, or think about, what can be. But it’s much safer to keep our thoughts in line with what we want for ourselves, and what we want for others. Finding ways to help others is perhaps the most virtuous of thoughts. Make that your next big thing.
Peter
Monthly Archives: August 2015
THE GREATEST TIME IN HUMAN HISTORY
#dreamers #focus #BrianTracy
We are living in the greatest time in all of human history.
That’s how Brian Tracy, author of “Eat That Frog,” starts his other book, “Bulls-Eye: The Power of Focus.”
The phrase may give one pause, especially in light of fighting in the Middle East, an economy still unkind to many and the many signs of hatred rearing their ugly heads.
Tracy also says, “there is no reason for you not to be earning twice as much as you are today, or even five times as much.” It’s all about clarity, focus and concentration, he adds.
Some may wonder what Tracy has been smoking. After all, the trend in wages is stagnant, or heading downward. Some people had good jobs six or seven years ago, that are now gone. Some are working part time when they want to work full time.
But Tracy says if you are clear about what you want, you focus on your most important goals and activities and concentrate single-mindedly until you have completed your tasks and achieved your goals, there’s no stopping what you can do.
Certainly, as Tracy points out, those who succeed by and large work harder than most, stay committed to what they want to achieve and put most other things aside. But here’s the thing: most of those successful people started out with no special skills or talents. They learned necessary new skills and didn’t give up when others might have.
In short, these folks were no different from anyone else at the beginning.
The next logical step: anyone can be one of those successful people.
Some are dreamers. Your parents may have criticized people they believed were dreamers, equating them with, say, drifters. But really successful people have big dreams, and are confident enough in themselves to do what they need to do to realize those dreams.
Others, as Tracy points out, are merely wishers. They wish they had more money, better looks, more power, but don’t have the wherewithal inside them to go after it.
Wishers give up when the going gets tough. Usually, they follow with blaming someone else, or circumstances, for their lack of success.
Wishers bail on their dreams when others tell them they’ll never accomplish them.
Dreamers keep at their dreams, because those dreams are more powerful than anyone’s opinion of them.
Perhaps you have a powerful dream, the drive to achieve it but might lack a vehicle to get you to your destination. There are many great vehicles out there. For one of the best, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. You’ll find some big dreamers like you who’ve done what they needed to do to get where they want to go, from a place similar to yours right now.
It’s been said that there are those who watch things happen, those who make things happen and others who wonder what happened. When things happen, make other things happen that will get you back on track toward your dream.
As Tracy points out, one can start out with nothing. Dreamers will get what they want eventually by learning the skills they need. Wishers will give up along the way, complain of their fate and make fun of the dreamers. Dreamers never quit.
Peter
CHOOSE YOUR WAVES CAREFULLY
#surf #waves #financialplanning
If Jeff Hall could do one thing every day for the rest of his life, he would surf.
Hall, partner and senior financial adviser with Rather and Kittrell in Knoxville, Tenn., wrote a column about surfing and financial advice in the July 12, 2015, edition of the News Sentinel newspaper of Knoxville.
His main point: the ocean can be tricky. You have control over some things, but not others. But, you can control to whom you listen. Despite the financial crisis in Greece and other places, there is no substitute for setting realistic goals, making a plan and following it and, as he writes, learning from every wave.
Financial planning requires good advice from someone you trust, to be sure. But it also requires discipline. It requires watching where your money goes and resisting the temptation to put it in the wrong places, i.e. spending frivolously when you should be saving vigorously.
A good financial plan involves putting off some purchases until you’ve paid yourself through saving.
Simple? Of course. Easy? Not so, for some. Success comes from doing what isn’t so easy.
You might respond this way: But my job, or my income, doesn’t allow me to save.
There are many ways to overcome that problem. For one of the best, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau.
Here’s another caution: emotion. Hall says that emotion sells. If you know what you are doing is right for you, don’t let others’ emotion get you off track. Don’t stray from a good plan for emotional reasons. Sometimes, news reports can enhance some bad emotions.
Know, too, that there will be ups and downs. Nothing goes up in a straight line. But good advice and careful planning can make the path a little less rough.
If you have children, it’s important to teach them about money. It’s also important to show them a good example of financial prudence in your behavior. Certainly, kids can be more focused on having fun at the moment, as opposed to postponing getting something they want now.
Still, if you can teach them that every decision has a consequence, ultimately they can set better priorities as they get older.
It’s OK to inject fun into your life. But be realistic in what you spend for “fun.” It could cost you later.
It takes a little effort and a lot of discipline to gain financial independence. It also can take time.
There is no greater satisfaction than retiring comfortably because of decisions you had made when you were younger.
Hall points out that oceans, as well as the financial world, contain sharks. You have to watch for them, for they won’t go away.
Some waves are worth riding. Others, not so much. If you choose your waves carefully, the ride will be less perilous and destination will be sweet.
Peter
DIFFER WITH YOUR SPOUSE ABOUT HOW TO RETIRE?
#retirement #retirementconflicts #retirementlifestyle
Most of the talk today is about whether a person, or couple, has enough money to retire.
That determination for a couple may ride on what they would like to do in retirement.
USA Today writer Nanci Hellmich discusses why couples should talk about each’s visions of retirement prior to retiring. She took on the subject in a June 26, 2015, article in The Tennessean newspaper of Nashville.
“Couples don’t always have the same dreams for retirement,” Hellmich writes. “It usually takes some negotiating to come to terms with what they’re going to do.”
Hellmich’s article illustrates the point: He imagines summers fly-fishing in a cold mountain lake and winters by the fire reading his favorite books. She envisions summers playing with the grandchildren in their back yard and winters volunteering for her favorite charities.
If we take it further, let’s presume they don’t have a place near a cold mountain lake. They would have to buy or rent one. Let’s also presume that their grandchildren already live near them. To satisfy her, they merely need to stay home – probably a less expensive alternative.
“For lack of a better word, couples need to do some horse trading… You really have to negotiate in good faith,” Hellmich quotes Pepper Schwartz, AARP’s love and relationship expert.
Hellmich’s article gives some talking points for couples: create a list of characteristics for retirement that each spouse wants; talk to family and friends who would have an interest in your decision. If your kids want to have you around, presumably not as just a free baby sitter, you have to talk about it with them. If you don’t live near your children, and they want you to move closer, you have to think about that, too.
Other talking points the article cites include prudently pruning your retirement dream list. Figure out areas in which you can compromise. If the man is a golfer, for example, and wants to play a lot, and the woman is not, make sure, before you move to that golf resort that you vacation there first. Perhaps the non-golfer will be miserable in a golfer’s paradise. The article points out that couples should carve time to listen to each other, and tell each other, after some discussion and compromise, how much one appreciates the other’s give and take.
Of course, it would be best all around if money were no object. He could fish or golf, she could volunteer for charities and hang with the grandkids. There are many ways out there to secure a good retirement income, one in which compromise may not be necessary. For one of the best, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau.
If you are young, it’s never too early to talk about these things. If you are able, take some types of vacations you might not otherwise take to see how you like them. Your doctors will probably tell you that staying active will be very important as you get older. Just lying on the beach with a book or tablet may not be as nice at 60 as it is at, say, 25. Besides, it may not be the best thing to do for your skin.
Don’t make retirement life a reason to fight. If you love your spouse, this is an issue that likely can be worked out with good, heartfelt conversation. Then again, if you are single, you have the ability to do whatever you want, wherever you want, in retirement. Make sure you have sufficient pennies put away, or coming in, to make whatever you want to happen, happen.
Peter
PURSUE HAPPINESS AND BE HAPPY IN THE PURSUIT
financial independence #takechargeofyourfinances
We’d all love financial independence.
But, what is it? Our parents taught us that financial SECURITY was the most important thing.
Security means a good job, with good benefits that will last you for as long as you want, or are able, to work.
Security is a fleeting proposition. Good jobs, those that might allow you to attain financial independence eventually, are hard to find and hard to keep. In other words, if you have a well-paying job, you will probably make so much money well before you retire that your company will want you gone, because it can hire someone younger and cheaper.
If you want financial independence, keep that good job for as long as it will have you.
There’s something else about today that is different from when your parents or grandparents were young. More people are losing track of their spending, and how much they have saved. So says Tom Coulter, president of Meridian Trust. Coulter wrote a column headlined, “The pursuit of happiness via finances,” that appeared in the News Sentinel newspaper in Knoxville, Tenn., July 5, 2015.
“While few people believe that money alone can make us happy, we do know that people who are confident about their abilities to realize their financial goals report higher levels of life satisfaction than those who aren’t,” Coulter writes.
In other words, to quote colleague Ronnie Paul Waldrep, “Money can’t buy happiness, but it can sure help you work out your problems in style.”
Coulter suggests taking inventory of your finances and making a plan. Determine how to align your actions with your priorities. Buy books, surf the Web or hire a financial planner, if necessary, he says. Most of all, take charge of your life.
As you go through life working toward financial independence, which, for argument’s sake, we’ll define as being able to do what you want, when you want, enjoy the pursuit. For example, Chris Guillebeau reached his goal, or, as he calls it, his quest of visiting every country in the world before his 35th birthday. He discussed his travels and his book, “The Happiness of Pursuit,” in a 2015 interview with Success magazine publisher Darren Hardy. The interview was recorded on a CD included in Success magazine.
As you work toward your goal, or quest, for financial independence, find joy in the journey. Many successful people will tell you that achieving success was not as much of a delight as working toward it. Sure, everyone has ups and downs in whatever journey he pursues, but by keeping the finish line always in sight, the downs become less of a burden and the ups become more of a reward.
If you don’t believe your job alone will give you financial independence, or your best money management efforts won’t get you everything you want to be financially independent, there are many other ways to augment work and discipline. For one of the best, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. You’ll find ways to bolster your money management efforts as well as ways to provide an income that has nothing to do with a “job.”
With Independence Day 2015 now passed, create your own independence day. Make today the day you get hold of your finances, start pursuit of your financial quest and find ways to enjoy the pursuit every step of the way.
“Baseball is ninety percent mental. The other half is physical,” says Yogi Berra. Financial independence is largely created by how you think, not what happens to you. Think good thoughts. Take charge of your life. Take enjoyment from your journey. Independence awaits.
Peter