Insurance as a Digital Entrepreneur

Posted on January 20, 2017 by money

Insurance is one of the important aspects entrepreneurs, even sole proprietors, must include in their business plans.

Insurance for freelancers
If you are starting a small business or simply going it alone, make sure you have insurance that will cover the unexpected. Many freelancers starting out believe their insurance needs are similar to those of any other individual, but there are business considerations that influence what kind of insurance freelancers should choose. It is important to be covered in case of lawsuits and unforeseen circumstances that could arise related to your business. You may need insurance in addition to the regular home, health and auto insurance that everyone needs (assuming you have an auto).

Indemnity and Liability Insurance
Indemnity insurance is a fundamental starting point for any business, including freelancers. Indemnity is also known as personal liability insurance and it provides protection cover in the case of lawsuits by clients and customers who allege negligence through error or omission. This is an example of how a simple mistake, even merely an alleged one, can land you in court and cost you a lot of money. Indemnity insurance covers cases brought in civil court but not a criminal court and operates on a similar principle to malpractice insurance. Even minor errors can end in lawsuits and can begin with a simple accusation of false claims or an allegation of misleading advice given by you as a consultant.

You may be familiar with liability insurance from your auto or home or rental coverage. Liability insurance could provide financial protection if someone is injured on your premises. If you feel you need guidance concerning whether liability insurance is for you, speak to local insurance agents if you have questions.

This coverage can often be purchase from the same company you purchased you homeowners insurance from. Often when you purchase multiple types of insurance from the same company you will get a discount. Still it is always wise to get several quotes from different insurers.

Check Your Existing Insurance Coverage
You may feel that your home, auto, and life insurance policy that you have now is sufficient to cover your needs as a freelancer. However, it is worth double checking whether your existing policies are sufficient if you change your situation (for example, open a side business or become a digital nomad). For instance, you may feel comfortable that your home office is covered, but make sure that all the contents of your office space are insured. If you use your car for driving clients around and marketing, make sure these work activities are covered under your current auto insurance plan.

Your life insurance policy, whether it is 10, 20 or 30 years, should reflect your income as a freelancer. If your income fluctuates, talk to an insurance agent about what kind of life insurance is right for you. As a freelancer, you should make sure you have your own health and dental insurance, and you may decide on plans designed especially for freelancers. In addition, disability insurance is a very important and often overlooked type of coverage.

Media Insurance
You may never have heard of media insurance, but it is becoming more popular in an environment in which a few bad reviews on social media can seriously harm a business. This type of insurance can protect you in defamation and libel suits which can involve expensive legal fees.

As you branch out with your career and decide to freelance, keep in mind that not only are your finances taxes different, but your insurance needs will change as well. Consult with an agent concerning the best insurance solutions for you and your family.

USA Expat Tax Advice and Services

Posted on January 12, 2017 by money

Taxes for USA expats can be complex. The USA is one of less than a handful of countries that tax citizens on worldwide earnings no matter where they live.

If you are employed by a foreign company and stationed overseas for the full year (in qualifying countries) you will pay tax on your earnings where they are earned and have the first $100,800 (in 2015) of earnings excluded from USA income tax. However earning above that level will be taxed where you earn them and by the USA. Learn about the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion on the IRS web site.

The IWantOut and USExpatTaxes SubReddit are forums to search for more information and learn from others. Taxes for Expats is one service many USA expats use and have been happy with.

image of the front of the current USA dollar

Like banking, taxes (at for USA citizens) are one of the more difficult issues of an overseas (including nomadic) lifestyle.

6 Tips To Help You Achieve A Better Retirement

Posted on December 2, 2016 by money

Many people are already planning on working for a longer time because they don’t have enough money for retirement. Those reading the blog and focused on taking a different approach from the common one (either FI/RE or digital nomad or something else) already understand the traditional mindset of working hard and buying what you want (even if you go into debt) is more and more difficult. Some specifics of this post use terms that make sense in the USA (like IRA) but the ideas are universal.

The economy is no longer as robust after the financial crisis in 2007. While the recession is over, the cost of living has gone up. What’s more, there aren’t as many options to earn a high income unless you work in the technology sector. There is so much competition for even high skill jobs that it’s easy for employers to pay less than they used to in the past.

Those focused on FI/RE do consider retirement (obviously) but digital nomads for all the other ways I think this lifestyle is appealing often don’t consider the long term at all. And this is a serious problem.

For traditional employees and digital nomad and other freelance type employees one of the biggest challenges with planning for retirement is not the economy. While the economy certainly is a significant factor, it’s not the only one. You also have to take a look at your money management skills. There may be many ways that you are paying too much and saving too little. If this is the case, then it’s vital that you learn new ways of making your money go farther.

Photo by John Hunter in Langkawi, Malaysia. Prepare so you can retire to this, or even combine FI/RE and digital nomad ideas and work here (with lower expenses) while working toward retirement.

With that in mind, here are 6 ways to save your dreams of retiring at age 65 or even earlier.

Are You Adding to Your Retirement Savings With Each Paycheck?
Direct some of your paycheck to a 401(k) or IRA and you will soon be above average in preparing for your retirement.
One of my favorite tips to nearly painlessly greatly improve your retirement life is to put some of every raise you get toward retirement savings. For example, if you get a new job (or a raise) that gives you an extra $5,000 a year in income set aside $2,000 into a retirement account (every year). As you get further raises do the same thing.
Where are you spending your money?
You may have more control of your money than you think. Take a look at your recurring expenses. Can you spend less on cable? Cable companies make millions because of the fascination people have for entertainment. Is it possible that you could spend the same amount of time sitting in front of the TV doing something else — like starting a new hobby that will be more personally enriching?
Do you need to upgrade your car, phone, TV, laptop so often?
In the past, buying a car every three years made fiscal sense because you would save on repair costs. However, cars are now made much better and will run well for many years. By buying a car less often and looking after it better, you could save tens of thousands of dollars because every time you drive a new car off the lot, it depreciates in value. Computers used to become painful to use (as the new software took advantage of and thus required the big gains made in hardware to work well – this is much less true today). This money could go toward your retirement.
Do you have money leaks?
It doesn’t take much to spend money on small inconsequential things. An evening with friends, a latte when you’re tired, an extra few boxes of your favorite snacks when grocery shopping… all these things can add up quickly. You can also save thousands every year by skipping the convenience of eating out and learning how to cook nutritious meals at home. While it isn’t necessary to become a tightwad overnight, wincing when things are a few dollars above your comfort level, increasing your awareness of how you’re spending your money will help you realize that many of the things you buy aren’t giving you that much satisfaction in the first place.
Do you use your credit card almost reflexively?
Paying with your credit card is convenient, but you do have to remember that even if you keep up with your monthly balance, you are still paying more for the things you bought because you’re being charged interest, perhaps even high interest. Since it’s so easy to whip out a credit card then to carry cash or try to figure out if you have enough money to use your debit card to make a purchase, it’s only too easy to buy more things than you intended. I pay for nearly everything that I don’t buy online in cash.
Do you postpone money management?
Since you are busy most of the time, it’s easy to shrug off the basics of money management—keeping a budget, living within the budget, and saving a little every month. You use excuses like promising yourself that you’ll start your retirement savings when you earn a little more or pay off your credit cards. Unfortunately, life doesn’t stop long enough to give you enough time to plan everything perfectly. Even if you have started to budget, are you sticking with it? And if you have stashed away some cash, are you now looking for ways to keep that money active?

Changing Habits is Challenging
While these six ideas are easy enough to grasp and won’t require any financial wizardry to put into action, the challenge is breaking bad habits and replacing them with good ones. It’s uncomfortable, of course, but if you do, it will be rewarding in the long run. The earlier you get started, the better your retirement options will be.

USA Proposes Rule to Welcome International Entrepreneurs

Posted on October 4, 2016 by money

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is proposing a new rule, which would allow certain international entrepreneurs to be considered for parole (temporary permission to be in the United States) so that they may start or scale their businesses in the United States.

Read the advance version of the notice of proposed rulemaking: International Entrepreneur Rule. To submit comments, follow the instructions in the notice.

“America’s economy has long benefitted from the contributions of immigrant entrepreneurs, from Main Street to Silicon Valley,” said Director León Rodríguez. “This proposed rule, when finalized, will help our economy grow by expanding immigration options for foreign entrepreneurs who meet certain criteria for creating jobs, attracting investment and generating revenue in the U.S.”

The proposed rule would allow the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to use its existing discretionary statutory parole authority for entrepreneurs of startup entities whose stay in the United States would provide a significant public benefit through the substantial and demonstrated potential for rapid business growth and job creation. Under this proposed rule, DHS may parole, on a case-by-case basis, eligible entrepreneurs of startup enterprises:

Who have a significant ownership interest in the startup (at least 15 percent) and have an active and central role to its operations;
Whose startup was formed in the United States within the past three years; and
Whose startup has substantial and demonstrated potential for rapid business growth and job creation, as evidenced by:

Receiving significant investment of capital (at least $345,000) from certain qualified U.S. investors with established records of successful investments;
Receiving significant awards or grants (at least $100,000) from certain federal, state or local government entities; or
Partially satisfying one or both of the above criteria in addition to other reliable and compelling evidence of the startup entity’s substantial potential for rapid growth and job creation.

Under the proposed rule, entrepreneurs may be granted an initial stay of up to two years to oversee and grow their startup entity in the United States. A subsequent request for re-parole (for up to three additional years) would be considered only if the entrepreneur and the startup entity continue to provide a significant public benefit as evidenced by substantial increases in capital investment, revenue or job creation.

As is always the case when rich countries seek to attract entrepreneurs they are seeking those that are already fairly well off and successful. And despite the difficult hurdles for entrepreneurs and business people to get working visas to the USA there are still many seeking to do so. This would be a good step, even if it leaves many people without an opportunity.

Making Money as a Nomad in the USA

Posted on September 13, 2016 by money

There are many posts about how to make money online as a nomad. Some ideas work pretty well for some people (freelance work – especially as a digital nomad, writer, bookkeeper, etc.). The biggest problem isn’t learning about these options (they are repeated all the time in many different places online) but actually making them work for you. It can be done and is actually easy for some people, for others it is a very hard (the biggest challenges are having the right skills, marketing and establishing a base of clients).

I have been paying much more attention lately to nomads in the USA which opens up income possibilities in addition to online income. More than I ever saw in digital nomads there are some people making a decent amount from YouTube (documenting the vanlife/RV-life and their travels) – still this is likely a crowded market and being successful will be hard (but aiming at providing a small bit of additional income may be an option for a larger group of people).

In this video Kev provides a good recap of some of the nomadic and location dependant options: getting day jobs through craigslist and temp agencies. Another popular idea is workcamping. These are essentially temp jobs specifically targeted at nomads (campgrounds, farming help often at harvest time) and some that get lots of interest from workcapers Amazon… seasonal hiring, etc. These often don’t pay a large amount of money but for people that have very low fixed expenses (no “sticks and bricks” to pay for as they travel and live in the RV/van) it can work.

Another potential source of income for earning money providing services to other nomads (work on vehicles, install solar/electrical, haircuts, etc.).

Another idea that can work is an etsy store such as the one Driving and Vibing have earned most of their income from.

Kev also mentions a digital nomad income source in his video: human intelligence tasks (mechanical turk). Find some of the better options; though these usually don’t pay very little.

Getting Started Early on FI/RE

Posted on August 16, 2016 by money

I started adopting the mindset that set me on the path for FI/RE (Financial Independence/Retire Early) when I was very young. I collected baseball cards when I was a kid and added comic collections when I was a bit older kid.

Early on I was paying attention to the investment potential. I enjoyed not just the collecting but also the idea of making money by buying something and then selling it later for more money (which is the fundamental idea of investing). It came naturally to me.

I never much liked spending money on something that lost its value. For some things, like ice cream, I could happily spend my money even though I would soon have nothing to show for it. But more often I would rather buy something I could enjoy and also believe I would be able to sell later at a higher price.

When I started actually trying to sell baseball cards for money I learned about he difference between reported “value” and the ability to get cash for what you owned. Not only can’t you sell items to a store at the “value” reported in pricing guides you often couldn’t sell them at all (they didn’t want the items at all).

In high school I started renting space to sell at shows. There you were selling to the public (or other dealers). I learned vivid examples of the challenges of turning assets into cash. And I also learned about the weaknesses in the economic ideals such as the market being efficient. I saw how often the very same product (the same baseball card) for sale in the same hall would have very different prices (over 100% more was not uncommon) and the sales were often not close to the best buys. The friction in this situation was much smaller than the typical purchase (all the items were in the same room, just a little bit of walking created the friction).

Continue reading →

Becoming A Self-Sustaining Freelancer

Posted on July 26, 2016 by money

Despite the advantages of freelancing, few people understand why it’s one of the best decisions you could make in your career.

Working for other people brings many challenges. Sadly, often that can take the form of being micromanaged. In organization heavily weighted toward bureaucratic decision-making, you have to conform to corporate policies to keep your job even when the rules are outdated or don’t make sense.

Freelancing allows you time-freedom, allows you to make up your own rules on how to use the day, and allows you to focus on what you do well to the point of mastery. In addition, there is no cap on your income, no office politics, and nobody to ask permission from to go to the bathroom because you’re leaving your desk unattended.

Design Your Lifestyle

As a freelancer, you also get to make lifestyle decisions that thrill you. You can pick and chose what works for you, you can chose to call Directv, HBO and/or Netflix. If you’re a gourmet cook, you can spend time in the kitchen making your favorite meals. And if you’re a health enthusiast, you can stick to your special diet to build muscle and burn fat and then go to the gym when it’s less crowded to sculpt that perfect body.

As a freelancer, you get to choose your own lifestyle. You don’t have to be tied to a cubicle in a corporate maze to earn your living. You also don’t have to hope for a shred of cheese to be tossed your way now and then by your overlords, because you can pitch your work far and wide and get as much cheese as you like.

How to Flourish as a Freelancer

While there is much more that can be said about the pleasure of doing work you love all day long and the freedom to create your ideal lifestyle, let’s take a look at 3 ways to flourish as a freelancer.

Choose your weapons

In a duel, the combatants get to choose their favorite weapon because this gives them the greatest chance of winning and saving their own lives. Similarly, in freelancing you get to work at something you do naturally well to win at the game of money-getting.

If you love to write, create graphics, take photographs, design websites, write code, and so on, there is someone willing to pay you to do it for them. They either don’t know how to do it for themselves or they know how to do it, but don’t like doing it. What you find easy, they find difficult. In fact, what you love to do is probably more like play than work.

Master your craft

Whatever you’ve chosen to do as a freelancer, you probably have long aspired to do it better. Consider your work as a trained apprenticeship.

Let’s suppose you love to write blog posts.

When you set up your own blog, you probably won’t get paid for it until you’ve spent a considerable amount of time establishing your reputation as a blogger. However, other people don’t have the time (or inclination) to write for their own blogs and will gladly hire you to keep their content schedule on track so that they can build their brand.

While you can certainly get plenty of practice writing blog posts, which will make you a better writer, you can take it one step further. Reinvest some of the money you earn as a blogger to take a master class or two from top bloggers to learn how to create viral posts.
Meanwhile, there is nothing to prevent you from building your own blog while you work.
Similarly, you can upgrade your work as an author by ghostwriting books or as a photographer by doing photo shoots for clients and using photos to spice up your blog posts (like this one I took).

view of large lake, mountains and clouds

View from my room at Prince of Whales Lodge, Waterton International Peace Park, Canada

In other words, whatever your talents, you can use freelancing as a way to get really good at it.

Working at a job you hate is a recipe for unhappiness.

Think like a business person.

Even if you do get to do what you love all day, get generously compensated for it, and can get the experience and the educational opportunities to master your craft, freelancing is still a business. Besides mastering the golden rules of making money, you should also get good at building your platforms, growing your portfolio, collecting proof, and consistently pitching.

Let’s take a closer look at these four components to freelancing success:

Platforms. You build your brand through your website by creating a blog and by establishing a social media network.
Portfolio. As you work for clients you will be adding to your portfolio of work to show new clients
Proof. How do prospective clients know that you can deliver what you’ve said you can on your platforms? You have to show proof based on past work. Collect testimonials from clients whose business you’ve helped improve through your contribution.
Pitching. While people will come to you because of you brand name and referrals, you also have to get good at pitching. This means actively soliciting work.
Think of freelancing as a combination of farming and hunting to sustain yourself. For long term food supply, you can plant crops. This is what taking classes in your craft, building your platform, adding to your portfolio, and collecting testimonials will do for you. Meanwhile, you don’t want to starve while your crops are growing, so you also need to do some hunting. This is where pitching helps out.

Some people are happy working for others and that is fine. But for those that are constantly frustrated and unhappy there are alternatives to explore. It isn’t easy but it may be that it fits your personality and desires more to design your own job. If you are willing to meet the challenges it is a path that many have found to be very rewarding.

Vanlife in the USA

Posted on July 12, 2016 by money

I have been reading about the possibilities of living in a van (customized to be a small RV) for several months. I am getting more interested in this idea. The cost of living in the USA is so high, especially if you want to travel – which I do.

The combination of where I want to travel (National Parks, National Forest and nature largely) and the cost effectiveness for van living works out very well. You can often park for free in US National Forest and BLM land. Also the cost of campgrounds is much less than any form of lodges, motels or hotels; so even in the instances you pay for lodging the costs are greatly reduced.

Another option for free parking are many Wal-Marts across the country actually don’t mind RVs and vans parking overnight. Many other businesses are hostile to just using their parking lot overnight when it isn’t being used. I must say this is something that greatly increases my opinion of Wal-Mart. I am not a huge fan in general but this is a very real positive action they are taking. It definitely encourages me to shop there.

Stealth parking on city streets or parking lots is another option with van living. Often cities seek to stop such living which is why the stealth part is important. Some cities and residents are more apposed to the practice than others. Obviously if there are negative externalities from you parking your van for a long time that will encourage people to seek to stop that. But if you don’t make anyone’s life worse there is much less likely to be an issue.

Even if you don’t it can make residents, police or security guards nervous (which I understand is possible in some instances) and that is something that again makes it more likely you will be bothered and maybe not allowed to park. I am still in the early phase of learning about all this but it does seem a tactic of driving to a sleeping spot at night and leaving early in the morning is a good idea. And moving around so you don’t park in the same spot (that people will notice anyway) for long periods of time.

[removed embedding video that no longer exists]

One of the words I learned recently is boondocking, which is free camping and at least when I have read about it means also off the grid (no electrical connections, water…) for your RV (or a van that is able to plug in to services). I knew that this was somewhat available on USA Federal Government lands (BLM and forests) but I think it is much more available than I thought (I am still learning so…).

Continue reading →

Reporting on the Noise Level of Lodging Options

Posted on May 23, 2016 by money

I would love a service that reports on the noise level of hotel rooms, apartments for rent etc.. I am far more sensitive to noise than others. And in my nomadic existence the most annoying thing for me was noisy places. Even in renting out apartments on a regular lease I had serious problems with extreme noise issues.

Reading reviews will provide some level of noise warnings when past travelers complain about noisy conditions. But this is time consuming (reading through lots of reviews to try and see) and not very accurate. Technology could provide a better alternative, even if it still isn’t perfect.

No solution is going to be perfect but it would be nice if there was a device that you could put in rooms and it would measure the decibel level and record loud noises. I would image smart engineers could design it to automatically categorize many noises. The device could then provide a report of how noisy it is and what kind of noises were recorded.

The idea is the device could be placed in empty rooms/apartments and create a record. That record could then be shared with prospective renters. I realize there are issues with making this work. But I think the market is significant.

One big market to consider (likely the biggest by far) for selling such a device and service to would be large hotel chains. They could gather data on noise issues in their rooms. They could make improvement and measure the improvements. They could gather data on what measures work and which don’t. They could use data to guide reservations for those expressing a desire for a very quite room to the rooms that best fit their needs. I also think for apartments there could be a bit market.

I realize the number of people that noise is as big an issue as it is for me is small. But there are a reasonable number of people that are bothered by noise that such a service would be worthwhile I think.

View from my homestay room in Yangshuo, China.

I sure hope someone fills this need. And if someone is already offering such a product and service I hope the market adopts it quickly.

Noisy fans are good for providing white noise to cover distracting noise. That is very helpful in many cases. It isn’t so great at covering up loud hallway noise (though with the right room setup and fan placement it can be ok in some rooms). The integrated units in the walls can be decent but for example are usually not good for dealing with hallway noise. And also some are designed so you can’t run the fan all the time (it only goes on if cooling or heating is needed): if you are creating a hotel (or the heating and AC system) make sure the fan can be set to run at all times.

Continue reading →

Golden Rules for Making Money

Posted on May 12, 2016 by money

P. T. Barnum wrote the Golden Rules for Making Money in 1880. He provides a few paragraphs on each of the 20 golden rules:

1. Don’t mistake your vocation
2. Select the right location
3. Avoid debt

Money is in some respects like fire; it is a very excellent servant but a terrible master. When you have it mastering you; when interest is constantly piling up against you, it will keep you down in the worst kind of slavery. But let money work for you, and you have the most devoted servant in the world. It is no “eye-servant.” There is nothing animate or inanimate that will work so faithfully as money when placed at interest, well secured. It works night and day, and in wet or dry weather.

4. Persevere
5. Whatever you do, do it with all your might
6. Depend upon your own personal exertions
7. Use the best tools
8. Don’t get above your business
9. Learn something useful
10. Let hope predominate but be not too visionary
11. Do not scatter your powers
12. Be systematic
13. Read the newspapers
14. Beware of “outside operations”
15. Don’t indorse without security
16. Advertise your business
17. Be polite and kind to your customers
18. Be charitable
19. Don’t blab
20. Preserve your integrity

From the introduction,

Those who really desire to attain an independence, have only to set their minds upon it, and adopt the proper means, as they do in regard to any other object which they wish to accomplish, and the thing is easily done. But however easy it may be found to make money, I have no doubt many of my hearers will agree it is the most difficult thing in the world to keep it. The road to wealth is, as Dr. Franklin truly says, “as plain as the road to the mill.” It consists simply in expending less than we earn; that seems to be a very simple problem.

The thoughts are worth reading today. You can update things a bit, from read the newspapers, to read the websites, but mainly it is sensible advice today.

"A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so." - Mahatma Gandhi

Continue reading →