Debt-Free Forever by Gail Vaz-Oxlade (best english books to read for beginners txt) 📗

build furniture, fix small engines, or do household repairs? Could you become a personal shopper? A driver? A companion for shut-ins? How about baby-proofing homes for new parents, teaching music, custom-making greeting cards? The options are endless. The only limits: your imagination, your willingness to work hard, and guts.

You may not end up making a million dollars from your hobby, as many a website is apt to promise, but you may not need a million dollars. If your budget is short $300, $500, or even $1,000 a month, could you generate that much consistently with your “hobby”? If so, then turn what you love into a way to supplement your cash flow and you may find that over time, more and more of your income comes from following your bliss.

MY EXPERIENCE

All my life I’ve been told I’m a lucky girl. Things just seem to fall in my lap. I have been lucky. But I’m not sure that luck has been the major player in my life, since some of my “luck” took a lot of hard work.

I started life as legal secretary, and a pretty crappy secretary at that. I just wasn’t cut out for that job. So I got fired, over and over. Then I switched to being a word-processing operator (yes, I’m that old!). My first big career move was joining a young consulting company that needed someone to process the manuals it was using for its training programs. I was hired for two reasons: I had great legs (luck), and I said in the interview that I’d take the manual home and be ready for work on Monday (hard work). They liked my legs and my chutzpah.

I worked for that consulting company for four years, learning and growing, internalizing all the crap they were teaching corporate clients for a bazillion dollars a pop. My education was free. I eventually went into sales because they wouldn’t pay me any more money if I didn’t (luck).

When I started in sales, I had to make cold calls. You’d call up some stranger and try to get their agreement to meet with you so you could sell them something. I hated making cold calls. I hated making cold calls so much that every morning for a year I would toss my cookies before I went to work (hard work).

I set myself the goal of making 25 cold calls a day. And I did it (hard work). Over time, it got easier to make the calls. Having been rejected 2,878 times, the next rejection rolled off me like water off a duck’s back. And when a body said yes to a meeting, I was elated.

I became pretty successful at selling. I learned to handle the objections shot my way deftly and with grace. I learned to take rejection in stride. But mostly I learned to feel the fear and do it anyway. I didn’t stop until I’d make those 25 calls each day. And I became happier and happier in sales as I realized just what I could accomplish.

Eventually, I started writing the training programs I was selling. I went from making $27,000 as a secretary to making $50,000 in sales and consulting (luck and hard work). And there was no looking back. I started a small business with a partner, and we worked together for about five years.

Then I worked on my own. And I worked hard. During one consulting project for a major bank (luck?), I worked 17 hours a day, 7 days a week, for about 7 months (hard, hard work). I dropped two dress sizes just before my wedding and my client laughed and said, “Hey, we’re not charging you for the weight-loss program!”

When I had my kids I knew I couldn’t do the 7 to 7 schedule anymore because my kids needed me, so I said buh-bye to my consulting career and found another way. I became a freelance writer, penning up to 27 columns a month (luck). I’d get up at 4 a.m. to write (hard work). I did that for 10 years.

I took two years off while my husband picked up the slack (luck). I was burned out big-time. And then the email came asking whether I wanted to host Til Debt Do Us Part (more luck).

In between it all, I found time to start a financial magazine for women, write 10 books about money, host a call-in show on a regional TV station, and do hundreds of media appearances (really hard work).

I could never have predicted where life was going to take me. Waiting until I was 34 to have my first child meant my career path changed substantially as I had to cope with being self-employed and being a mother. And when I went back to work after my self-imposed hiatus, I moved on to a career path I could never have predicted. I’ve come a long way from being a legal secretary. And it’s mostly because I’ve been open to new things, and willing to puke my brains out and work my nuts off.

BEYOND MONEY

Once you’re making enough money to live, work can be about a whole bunch of other things: doing things you love, making friends, making a difference, achieving success, pleasing your clients, feeling important, creating something new, satisfying a desire, making other people feel safe—there are a million reasons why people do the work they do. These are the things you can focus on, once your most basic needs for food and a roof are met.

If you’re not making enough money, today’s the day you sit down and create a plan for making more money. Set a goal, whydontcha?

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SHOP CONSCIOUSLY

Once upon a time, there were no cell phones, prepared meals didn’t exist, and coffee was something we brewed at home. Eating out was for special occasions. Nails were something we grew and food never had the word junk in front of it.

Now people spend money on energy drinks, buy 62 different versions