I am back and it feels great

It has been more than a year and a half since I havee posted anything here.

Funny thing is that I started this blog because I was interested in becoming nomadic. And when I did, I stopped blogging.

Now that I have been mobile for more than a year, I feel it is time to get back here and start sharing what I am doing and what I have been up to.

It is time to get back to what I enjoy the most. Sharing my adventures and inspiring others to create their own adventures.

I have just returned from an eight week road trip and I will be sharing more about that along with the lessons I have learned in the last 18 months.

So hang tight and get ready for the ride.

I would love to hear from you, if you’re still around, and I would like to know what you would like me to write about.

Posted in Adventure, Nomadic Lifestyle, Travels | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

How to Fire Your Boss – A Follow Up

When I wrote about how to fire your boss, I didn’t realize that it would become one of the most popular post on this blog. Obviously it is something a lot of people are interested in.

So I asked on Twitter and Facebook, “What is the number one concern you have that stops you from firing your boss?”

The number one answer was “How would I pay my bills?”

And I thought, how would you your bills if your boss fired you instead?

Most people, when faced with the situation of losing their job, will find a way to pay their bills one way or another, sooner or later. So why can’t they do the same when making the decision themselves, instead of being forced?

Because there is no pressure to fire your boss. You are on cruise control and there is no immediate threat. It is easier to go on. But when you are let go and are faced with the dilemma of how to pay the bills, you find a solution. Most likely, the solution will put you in a worst scenario than you were in before, but it might also light the fire under your butt to start that business you always wanted to, or pursue your passion. It will all depend on your financial situation.

If you are in a position where getting fired would not get you to scurry on to take the next job you can find and you can evaluate all your options, then you really don’t have anything to worry about. you can fire your boss and take your time evaluating your options, or better yet, evaluate all your options and decide on the best one before firing your boss.

But what if I am not in that position?

Well, then now would be a good time to evaluate your options, before it becomes a pressing issue.

Start with an honest assessment of your financial situation.

Do you have savings that you can rely on? If so, for how long?

I knew that I can survive for six months or so before I would have to go crawling to ask back for my job or before my wife kicked me out. :) That gave me sufficient comfort when I decided to fire my boss. That was three and half years ago.

Do you have any non-essential or discretionary expenses that you can eliminate from your life?

For me, that meant giving up on the junk food breakfast at the Mickey Dee every morning. That was a savings of almost $200 per month. Every little bit adds up. Be brutally honest.

Can you be a part time self bosser?

Is it possible for you to start something on the side that can generate additional income, or can you take a part time job to help with some of the bills and extend the comfort period while your business becomes profitable enough to replace or exceed your current income?

Is it even necessary for you to replace or exceed your current income? Some people have found that by re-evaluating their life priorities have made it possible for them to live with less income and be happier.

The Bottom Line

If you are not happy with your work situation, then get proactive. Determine what you want to do or get from your work experience, and take the steps that will move you in that direction.

One more thing. When I talk about firing your boss, I don’t necessarily mean to become self employed, if that’s not your cup of tea. You can always fire one boss and hire another better one. It is all in the perspective.

Posted in Life's funny lessons | Tagged , , , , | 9 Comments

The New Millionaire

Tim Ferriss, in his book 4HWW introduced the term The New Rich. These are the people who enjoy the lifestyles that were traditionally linked to the rich people, without having the assets of the rich people. The New Rich enjoy the lifestyles of the rich because they have created passive incomes that allow them to fulfill their obligations and cover the expenses of their desired experiences. In other words, the New Rich have learned to live rich without being rich.

I want to introduce the term The New Millionaire.

Traditionally, The Millionaire is someone who owns a Million Dollars worth of assets. These assets allow them enough leverage to live a certain lifestyle. For example, if you own 10 homes, free and clear, worth $100,000 each, then you have assets that are worth a million dollars. If you rent out these homes to generate cash flow, you may expect to earn, after paying out expenses and taxes, a 10% return, or $100,000 in annual income.

If you were to leverage the real estate, you can own more homes (and more headaches) to net a million dollars in assets and after paying for servicing the debt, taxes and expenses, you can expect to earn about the same returns on your assets.

Let us be generous and say you can earn a 12% return, or $10,000 per month in income using the real estate model, which is probably the most common one amongst the millionaires. I don’t believe the stock market will yield that kind of returns and owning your own business will give you better returns, but it will most likely not be passive income.

So, I would define The New Millionaire as someone who is generating $10,000 per month in passive income. I further define passive income as income that is not proportional to or dependent upon the time you spend on its generation. In other words, there is no such thing as purely passive income Though it is possible, it is very unlikely. After all, even billionaires like Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and Sir Richard Branson are all involved in their “work”.

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My Intentions for 2011

I didn’t realize that this was going to be my 100th post on this blog before I sat down to write it.

Wow!!

I know, I know. What is the big deal? but, WOW!!

I guess, I have been having second thoughts about continuing this blog a lot lately, so it kind of hit me as a surprise that this will 100th post. Hey, if I made it to 100 then I must be doing something write, or is it something right? ;)

So, here it goes.

You might be thinking, well, Rasheed, aren’t you a little late in declaring your New Year’s resolutions? But, you see, these are not resolutions. I am not resolving to do anything, okay, maybe I am. But not in the traditional resolution type of the way. I am not declaring my goals, which is to say, this is what I will accomplish. I am just declaring my intentions. Intentions, as I see them, are guiding principles that will determine what I will do and/or accomplish in the coming year.

  • Connect / reconnect with 25 people I’ve met online via telephone, Skype or in person
  • Establish a minimum of five profit centers resulting in a passive income of $10K/month by Dec 2011
  • Live out of my van for at least three months while traveling across USA
  • Have a lot of fun
  • Take lots of pictures

So everything I do or plan to do in 2011 will be geared towards making these five things happen.

What are your intentions for 2011? Feel free to share them in the comments

Posted in Adventure, Nomadic Lifestyle, Passionate Pursuits | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Inspired Action

Last week I wrote about inspired writing, or more accurately, writing when I am inspired.

I mentioned Steve Pavlina, who uses this method to produce his best work. Steve did something awesome, something totally mind boggling the other day. He put up almost all of his work in public domain. No, it didn’t inspire me to do the same, but it gave me some ideas about making money. No, I don’t intend to take his work from public domain and create e-books to sell, though he himself suggests that you can do that. It opened up my mind in a way that I can’t really explain, but it certainly did.

This morning I woke up around 4:15 and sat down to meditate. I usually try to do this everyday, and try is the key word here, but today, it was different. I really enjoyed myself. I didn’t try to meditate, I just had fun sitting there observing myself, and not fighting with myself trying to meditate.

In that state of having fun, I had a marvelous idea for doing something ridiculously extraordinary, as my friend Karol Gajda would put it. Details on that later. It will be my project for 2011, which is just around the corner. The idea itself is not new, even for myself. I had this idea about three years ago, but I was not ready to take it to its fruition. This time I feel I am ready to make it happen.

So, what does this have to do anything with inspired writing? Well, I haven’t done much posting lately, and I know I let one opportunity to write when I was inspired earlier this week. I didn’t want to let it slip away again this morning. I will be talking more about inspired action in another post, because it relates to this new project that I am not yet telling you about. For now, all I can say is I am ready and I am inspired to take action, and I am taking action.

Just hang tight for the details around New Year.

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