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Picking the Life You Want to Live

September 7, 2020 by Paul Edwards Leave a Comment

COVID-19 has produced changes in our lifestyles and for the first time since the industrial revolution produced a majority of Americans saying they prefer to work at home.

Survey after survey show:

Metova’s April 2020 survey analyzed the responses of over 1,000 consumers. finding that 57% of respondents would prefer to keep on working from home. Almost half (48%) said they are more productive working from home.

An article in the New York Times asked “What if You Don’t Want to Go Back to the Office?

IBM surveyed 25, 000 people to gauge changes in perspective about work and found 54% of adults want to work remotely most of the time after the pandemic.

Other studies have shown that those who work from home full-time report being happier in their job 22% more than their counterparts who spent no time working from home.

Forbes magazine reported on May 20 that three out of five surveyed who had been working at home said they would prefer to continue working from home.

The Gallup Poll which tracks worker attitudes found three in five U.S. workers who have been doing their jobs from home during the coronavirus pandemic would prefer to continue to work remotely as much as possible.

Here are the reasons people prefer to work at home:

One study found 79% of workers say the quality of their work has improved.  Many other studies come to similar conclusions.

  • Cutting back on commuting time. The average American who drives to work spends 54 hours per year stuck in traffic, according to an analysis by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute.
  • Less pollution. American cities are less polluted because of reduced traffic.
  • Better health as people are exposed less to communicable diseases and have more time to exercise and stay physically fit, have fewer respiratory problems that come with driving
  • Global Workplace Analytics estimates that people can save, on average, $2,000 to $6,500 every year by not spending on things like gasoline and daycare.
  • Tax-wise, people who work at home can come out ahead. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 eliminated the home office tax deduction for employees (anyone who receives a W-2). However, if produce self-employment income at home, you can still deduct home office expenses.

One of the rewards of working at home is spending more time with your pets. Here’s a link to an in-depth guide for working from home with a dog.

If you are seeking a way to spend more time working at home for an employer or wish to produce extra income, take a look at whether the opportunities of becoming a Digital Document Creator.

Filed Under: Ways to Earn a Living, Whatcha Gonna Do to Stay Afloat Personally Tagged With: COVID-19, Digital Document Creator., self-employment income, tax cuts, work at home

Health and Well-Being for the Self-Employed and Small Business

January 25, 2017 by Paul Edwards 2 Comments

Most people’s  health is on the line. Each day’s news brings headlines dimming hope for the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, and Social Security.   People have begun asking themselves, “What will we do about Grandma?” How will I get my medications and will I be able to pay for them? A recent article was headlined, “160 million Americans can’t afford to treat a broken arm.”  When former Vice-President Biden’s son was dying of brain cancer, the Vice-President and his wife nearly had to sell their home to pay their son’s medical bills. Better than one out of every two Americans (55%) worry they will not get the health care they need.

Most people in the middle class find themselves running ever faster just to stay in the same place economically.  Not only are people fearful of what they may lose, millions now are without the ability to get medical care they need.

What has taken a half century to accomplish could be wiped out despite the fact that more than 1 out of 2  Americans – 58% -want the Affordable Care Act be replaced with Medicare for All. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of Americans say they have a positive reaction to the term “Medicare-for-all.”  People are realizing having health insurance is like requiring auto insurance to drive. Healthy people can work, have fewer problems that consume tax dollars, and public health is protected. Being On the other hand, recent polls indicate people are now no longer in favor of repealing ACA.  in the same polls indicate just over half favor repealing Obamacare.

Medicare is popular with 77% of Americans saying it is “Very important,” just below social security at 83%. 57 million Americans – 1 in every 6 people – depend on Medicare.

The total administrative structure for administering and delivering this is in place and billions of dollars would be saved, This is because Medicare’s overhead is 3%; HMO’s and private insurers’ overhead ranges from 15-30%. Families can expect to see the cost of health coverage decrease by one-half or more.

ACA reduced the number of people who were uninsured by an estimated 20 million people from 2010 to 2016. The funds will no longer available to help pay their premiums and deductibles. With many fewer people buying coverage, many insurers will stop offering policies, and the remaining customers are likely to be sicker than current Obamacare buyers, a reality that will drive up the cost of insurance for everyone who buys it, and force more people out of the markets. The Urban Institute estimates that the change would cause a total of 22.5 million people to lose their health insurance.

At stake are popular provisions of the Affordable Care Act like enabling young adults to stay on the family plan until age 26,  closing the drug cost loophole, assuring coverage for people with preexisting conditions, which alone represents 52 million Americans, and providing health coverage for children on Medicaid and CHIP,   Republicans are discounting the fact they will be alienating many of the people they look to for support.

Now is the time to advance “Medicare for All” as the best solution for developing popular support to arrest the Republican momentum seeking repeals and rollbacks in ACA and then go on to damaging Medicare and Social Security.  Even voters who supported Trump nearly 13 to 1, view Social Security as something they earned.

Your Pocketbook

Millions of voters have received benefits from ACA but discounted this when they voted and still discount what its loss will mean for them will be angry and arguably motivated to act in their self-interest. You are apt to find you can only buy sub-standard policies with little or no consumer protection and are paying more out of pocket.  The cost of individual policies purchased through the exchanges would rise 20-25% in the first year, and 18 million people would lose their health insurance. However, taxpayers whose average incomes were $318 million/year in 2014 would get their taxes cut $7 million a year. Two taxes support the popular provisions of ACA – taxes on persons with incomes above $200,000 year. Eliminating them would give the 400 richest Americans a tax cut worth around $7 million each.

The Economy

Reducing federal spending on health care takes so much money will be taken out of the consumer economy, nearly three millions of jobs will be lost. Nurses, health technicians, and other medical personnel will be out of work. Then there will be ripple effect – people with less money to spend on food, clothing, real estate, retrial trade, finance, insurance, travel, dentistry, and then less construction, and on and on. States will have less income to tax and less in sales taxes. This alone could trigger a recession, reducing the economy by 1.5 trillion dollars, according to the Center for Health Policy Research at the Milken Institute.

The U.S. national debt is sitting at 19.944 trillion dollars. During the past eight years, a staggering 9.3 trillion dollars was added to the national debt. It’s been estimated that the total savings by passing Medicare for All could slow the growth of national debt by 80%. This is important because “foreigners are dumping U.S. debt at a faster rate than we have ever seen before, and U.S. Treasury yields have been rising. This is potentially a massive problem, because our entire debt-fueled standard of living is dependent on foreigners lending us gigantic mountains of money at ultra-low interest rates. If the average rate of interest on U.S. government debt just got back to 5 percent, which would still be below the long-term average, we would be paying out about a trillion dollars a year just in interest on the national debt. If foreigners keep dumping our debt and if Treasury yields keep climbing, a major financial implosion of historic proportions is absolutely guaranteed within the next four years.” Source: Monetary Watch, January 23, 2017.

What you can do

First, stay informed about the changes that will be affecting you and your family. Second, let your Congressman and Senators know how you will be affected. The best way to do this is by phone, not letters, social media, or their websites. Phone messages get attention.  Third, mobilize with the people in your community being willing to demonstrate your views. Fourth, share this message and your own with friends around the nation.

Congressman Representative John Conyers Jr. introduced his Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act, H.R. 676, into the current session of Congress. It is co-sponsored by 51 other congressmen, but more are needed, so asking your Congressman to co-sponsor will be most helpful.You can find contact information for your congressperson here or by calling the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121. When calling, ask to speak with your representative’s Health Legislative Assistant. This link will give you more information.

A Pennsylvania business man, Richard Masters, has produced a movie that is worth watching and he is forming a national organization to put forward Medicare for All. This link will take you to the movie, which is worth watching and sharing with others.

Filed Under: Changing The Economic Direction, Sustainable Home Businesses, Whatcha Gonna Do to Stay Afloat Personally Tagged With: ACA, Affordable Care Act, health insurance, Medicare for All, national debt

Take Off the Badge of Exhaustion

August 12, 2014 by Paul Edwards 1 Comment

Everything worth doing takes energy. A passionate desire for a better life can keep our dreams alive, but it won’t keep us alive. We’ve got to do that. But we can’t do much of anything for long if we’re exhausted. To live our dreams we need to be good energy managers. We need to pace ourselves so we have the energy we need to do what needs to be done. Yet, exhaustion seems to be a badge of honor these days.Young women sleeping with her head on a laptop

Author and seminar leader Chellie Campbell does a lot of networking with other professionals and business owners and she’s observed an interesting pattern you also may have noticed. “I went to meetings with colleagues and found that everyone was competing to see who was the most exhausted, overworked and stressed out.” Campbell fell into this routine herself for a while, but quickly realized that the more she talked about how overworked and stressed she was, the more worn out she felt. “What we focus on expands,” she concluded. “If we focus on how tired and exhausted are, we just become all the more tired and exhausted.”

Now when Campbell goes to such meetings and people start trading war stories of how overscheduled and burned out they are she pops in to point out how relaxed and rested she feels. Next thing she knows everyone’s talking about how energized and relaxed they are too.

            So, when you hear yourself saying “I’m so tired,” take a moment to think about the things in life that bring you joy and excitement. Unless you’ve really been overdoing, you’ll find a wellspring of energy awaits you and you can tell yourself with confidence “I have plenty of energy.” Should you find you’re so tired that no wellspring awaits, don’t talk about it; take a break and get some sleep, You owe it to yourself … and to your dreams.

Comments and questions on the substance of this blogs are welcome. If you have other questions about this website, please contact me mail://paul@elmstreeteconomy directly for a consulting appointment or book an appointment through Google Helpouts.

If you think we can help you, we offer webinars and consulting.

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Author and seminar leader Chellie Campbell does a lot of networking with other professionals and business owners and she’s observed an interesting pattern you also may have noticed. “I went to meetings with colleagues and found that everyone was competing to see who was the most exhausted, overworked and stressed out.” Campbell fell into this routine herself for a while, but quickly realized that the more she talked about how overworked and stressed she was, the more worn out she felt. “What we focus on expands,” she concluded. “If we focus on how tired and exhausted are, we just become all the more tired and exhausted.”

Adapted  from a prior column in Connection Connection.

Comments and questions on the substance of this blogs are welcome. If you have other questions about this website, please contact me mail://paul@elmstreeteconomy directly for a consulting appointment or book an appointment through Google Helpouts.  https://helpouts.google.com/home

 

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Adapted  from a prior column in Connection Connection. http://www.costcoconnection.com/connection/

 

Filed Under: The Future, Whatcha Gonna Do to Stay Afloat Personally Tagged With: Energy, energy. I’m so tired

Top 5 most affordable new cars

July 27, 2014 by Paul Edwards Leave a Comment

When looking for an affordable new car, there are several factors that are worth considering; such as fuel efficiency, practicality and reliability. If you can find a car which meets all of your transportation needs yet still offers a respectable fuel economy, you can make both short term and long term savings. To help you find a cost-effective method of transportation, listed below are five of the most affordable new cars currently on the market.

1- Fiat 500 Pop With a starting price of $16,995 and a fuel economy of 31/40 mpg city/highway, the Fiat 500 Pop equips motorists with a stylish new car that is fun to drive as well as being affordable to run and insure. You are also provided with a respectable array of standard interior features including; a CD/MP3 player, electric door-mirrors, remote central locking, electric front windows and stop/start technology.

Fiat 500 Pop

 

 

 

2- Kia Forte LX By purchasing a Kia, you are covered by their reassuring 7 year/ 100,000 mile warranty. Moreover, for $16,700, you can benefit from a 1.8-liter 148bhp 4-cylinder engine that is supported backed by a 6-speed manual transmission. Subsequently, the Kia Forte LX offers a cost-effective fuel economy of 25/37 mpg city/highway. As well as these practical aspects, the Kia Forte LX also offers motorists a comfortable interior which is fitted with; air conditioning, power windows, power door locks, heated side mirrors, tilt-and-telescoping steering wheel, cloth seats, driver’s seat height adjuster, a 60/40 split-folding rear seat, 4-speaker stereo with Bluetooth connectivity, satellite radio and USB port as well as an auxiliary audio input jack.

Kia

3- Honda Fit

The Honda Fit is compact and cost-effective; for $16,215 you receive a 1.5-litre engine, 5-speed manual transmission, 117 bhp and a respectable 27 /33 mpg city/highway. Although the Honda Fit’s interior is fairly modest, owners are still equipped with comfortable, informative and entertaining technological features including; CD Player, power locks, air conditioning, satellite navigation and Bluetooth connectivity.

Honda Fit

4- Mazda CX-5

For families who are seeking a cost-effective new car, the Mazda CX-5 is an ideal choice. For $21,545, you are equipped with a 148bhp 2.2litre diesel engine that only emits136g/km of CO2 emissions. What’s more, the CX-5 has an incredibly spacious and elegant interior; with a 503 litre boot, dual-zone climate control, Bluetooth connectivity, and a state of the art touch screen infotainment system. As a result, you can enjoy the financial perks of a fuel efficient vehicle, whilst relaxing in the comforts of a new and spacious family car!

Mazda

5- Ford Fiesta S sedan

For many years, Ford have provided motorists with stylish yet practical vehicles. The same can be said for the Fiesta S sedan. From a practical perspective the Fiesta S sedan delivers an eminently affordable fuel economy of 27/38mpg city/highway for $15,580. This proficiency transitions to the Fiesta S sedan’s stylistic features; wherein motorists can enjoy a four-speaker AM/FM stereo with an AUX input jack, air conditioning, power door locks, 15-inch steel wheels with hubcaps and a four-inch multifunctional display with an LCD screen. Furthermore, from this LCD screen motorists are granted access to Ford’s innovative SYNC technology system; a Bluetooth-based connectivity system which permits you to make calls and stream music via voice commands or steering wheel-mounted buttons.

Ford Fiesta

 

 

 

 

 

 

Authored by Bradley Taylor, Guest Writer Comments and questions on the substance of this blogs are welcome.

If you have other questions about this website, please contact me directly for a consulting appointment or book an appointment through Google Helpouts.  https://helpouts.google.com/home [maxbutton id=”11″] If you think we can help you, we offer webinars and consulting

Filed Under: Whatcha Gonna Do to Stay Afloat Personally Tagged With: Affordable new cars, transportation needs

Over 40 but Not Over the Hill

May 24, 2014 by Paul Edwards Leave a Comment

Over 40 but not over the hillHave you or someone you know lost a job due to age discrimination. While this is not easy to prove in court, a recent survey by AARP of people over 40 found 64% reporting they have experienced or seen age discrimination. 92% say it is common.

While many people find another job, “more than one-third of older workers are not confident that they would find another job right away without having to take a pay cut or move (37%). Of this number, one in five (19%) say the reason they are not confident is due to age discrimination, while 21 percent attribute their lack of confidence because they feel limited in some way because of their age.”

In writing The Best Home Businesses for People over 50, we interviewed over hundreds people who started their own businesses. Overwhelmingly they reported that they consider their age an advantage as this communicates experience. In fact, we know women who are allowing their hair to grow in gray.

While becoming self-employed presents challenges, it offers the flexibility to control your time and to produce income proportionate to one’s choice of how to make money and the effort one can put into it.

If you’re over 40 and  exploring working for yourself as an option, many sources of help are available from SCORE and SBDC programs in many communities. You can also contact me (Paul) directly.  I offer coaching through Google Helpouts and as a SBDC consultant.

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Comments on the substance of the blogs are welcome.

Filed Under: Whatcha Gonna Do to Stay Afloat Personally Tagged With: age discrimination, Over 40. second career

Believe in the Signs of Change and Be Proactive

March 12, 2014 by Paul Edwards Leave a Comment

In the course of writing books describing hundreds of livelihoods that people can pursue,    we’ve been able to repeatedly interview leaders in over a hundred different fields. Most of these industries have undergone the most dramatic transformations in their histories. Some fields, like typesetting and word processing services have virtually disappeared. Others like executive search and various medical services are so different in nature as to require entirely different skills to do well. Careers become obsolete – sometimes replaced by Changing directions Old Life to New Lifetechnology, sometimes in the way people live.

Think what’s happening to retail stores like Sears, Radio Shack, and J.C. Penney. One thing has remained the same, however. Established industry leaders can often be the least likely to grasp the scope and scale of the changes going on around them. Too often they’re like the horse trader who asserted horse-less carriages would never put him out of business because they scare the horses. They just don’t believe they have much to worry about.

That’s precisely what happened to Clarissa. Her referral business was dwindling, but she attributed it to an extended seasonal down turn. The point came when she did acknowledge that people could get services like hers for free on the web but for the longest time she was convinced that if she just cut back on her expenses she would be OK. “There will always be people who want a live human being to talk to,” she told herself. As the days passed before she had to close her business, she vacillated between feeling out of control and becoming overly perfectionistic for fear that if she made even one slip up she would go under.

What Clarissa needed is what we all need in times of change, clarity about what’s really happening and what aspects of it we can and can’t control. If she had been clear as to what was happening, like Annette did in realizing that first the fax machine and then the Internet would change how businesses got information about upcoming events, Clarissa might have been able to use the referral service as the basis for an app that she might fund through crowdfunding on a site like Kickstarter.com or Indiegogo.com. Or she might have morphed it into a web marketing company, helping the subscribers she had been providing referrals to for so long to establish their web presence. In other words, clarity about what was going on would have enabled her to be proactive, and prevented her from concluding, as she did after her business went under, that her fate was out of her control.

Limiting or short-sighted beliefs about what is happening can also prevent us from making changes we want to initiate ourselves. Donald had misgivings about his work as a marketing executive for some time, but he didn’t believe that there were any other options unless he gave up the lifestyle he wanted to preserve. After his wake-up call of being unable to continue an important presentation, however, he knew he had to change and soon left the company he’d been working for. Eventually he saw that he did have options. He started his own marketing company representing socially conscious companies and ultimately his annual earnings exceeded that of his previous salary!

Gaining clarity means distinguishing what we hope will happen, fear could happen and are programmed to think will happen from what actually is happening. It’s the ability to observe objectively what needs to be done.

What beliefs are preventing you from looking at your current situation objectively? What trends are you hearing or reading about that you’d just as soon not believe? What changes do these developments suggest you consider making? What beliefs are causing you to conclude you can’t do what you know you want and need to do? How could you see your way to concluding differently? How have others made the kind of changes you want to make?

For an initial free consultation to explore a sustainable livelihood that bests suits your personality and your community, contact us.

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Filed Under: Whatcha Gonna Do to Stay Afloat Personally Tagged With: career obsolescence, change, livelihoods

What to do if you are 45 and unwillingly out of work?

January 31, 2014 by Paul Edwards 1 Comment

Are you over 50 and without a job or reasonable prospects of getting one, particularly doing work that you enjoy and feel competent to do? If so, you’re one of nearly 2 million people over the age of 55 looking for jobs.  One in three people over the age of 45 is unemployed. What to do?

If  you are one of these folks or have a relative or friend who is, you are aware of the growing anxiety and sense of loss that accompanies finding yourself forced to retire early, finding your field becoming obsolete, overcrowded, or what work is available, going to younger people  without the obligations you have and are willing to work for less.

Particularly hard hit are people who worked in wholesale and retail trades, professional and business services, leisure and hospitality businesses, and manufacturing.  For the nation, not using the brains and skills of millions of experienced people is a loss and for an individual, it’s too often a tragedy.  A significant number of my wife’s counseling practice is composed of people who find themselves in situations like this. Adding to this burden are often times dependent relatives.  

Man Looking At Job AdsThe upside of this troubling reality is three out of four people over age 55 say they don’t want another job, according to the U.S. Labor Department.  Sometimes this comes about from age discrimination, or feeling limited in some way, usually physically, to hold a full-time job. Finding a way to produce income  may mean commercializing  ideas that took years of training and experience to develop, like making jewelry.

For others, producing income means finding a need – that is something that people will pay for – and then creating a business to fulfill that need.  In consulting with people, we work to find niches for products or services for which people will pay. Increasingly, I am seeing news stories about people over 45 who are doing this. They are able to set their own hours and define the types of clients and customers they serve and the kind of services they offer.

Comments and questions on the substance of this blogs are welcome. If you have other questions about this website, please contact me directly for a consulting appointment. [maxbutton id=”11″] If you think we can help you, we offer webinars and consulting.

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Filed Under: Counseling, Whatcha Gonna Do to Stay Afloat Personally Tagged With: anxiety about job loss, out of work, unemployed

We’ll Gain More Through Shared Interests Than Turning on Each Other

January 18, 2014 by Paul Edwards Leave a Comment

I spend a lot of time reading, both because I like to do it  – not surprising from someone who had a dream as a young boy to write a book – and because I need to do it in order to give my consulting clients and what I write and talk about to be current.

In growing up, we learned to respect and care for our elders. In contrast, I experience anger from  many younger people, sometimes directed against the boomer generation. You see this in comment sections of blogs and articles as well as sometimes experiencing verbally. Other times younger people, facing difficult life situations themselves, express their anger, living off their parents. This anger is not an accident. First, we’re experiencing a change of generations as boomers retire and Millenials are coming of age. Both groups are Generation Gapexperiencing significant problems.

This change of generations has historically produced tensions. Think of how the boomer generations dissented from the prevailing cultural norms of their parents – hippies, the demonstrations at the 1968 Demonstration Convention in Chicago.  Generations have different personalities – some generations are more activist like boomers and today’s Millenials. But both have common interests, though it’s sometimes hard to think of this when this generational change is complicated by additional forces, such as:

  •  The rapid change in technology and trade that is affecting every sector of the economy and life: interconnectedness from smart phones to all kinds of devices, changes in health care, robots replacing workers, food supply and energy. Changes in retailing are apt to result in the closing of stores that have been household names for generations.
  • Big-money backed foundations have been stoking anger at social security for years, setting for the idea that it won’t be around for the Millenials.  Millenials blame the boomers for too many wars, overusing the nation’s resources and having a Congress that 9 in 10 people do not respect. A dangerous situation for a nation based on consent of the governed.
  • Expressions of anger can be felt and seen in flash mobs, the Occupy Wall Street and Tea Party movements. the actions of individuals like Edward Snowden,

Generational anger has happened before. The noted authors of Generations and other titles, William Strauss andNeil Howe, after analyzing 500 years of American history and the histories of a number of other nations, find patterns repeating themselves. This is expressed in ideas, attitudes, dress, music, wars, and in every facet of our lives.

The fact of the matter is that the deep interests of Millenials and Boomers are not different – if we eliminate the blaming game. It’s not in anyone’s interest to allow the problems we face together are simply a matter of the young versus the old. After all the overwhelming majority boomers have had no or little role in the problems this nation now faces. While Millenials are burdened by student debt, older people are being pushed out of jobs and careers as businesses change the technology of work. According to the National Academy of Social Insurance , only  one in five seniors have incomes more than $58,000 a year.  The other 80% rely on Social Security as their primary income source.

The upshot is we’re all in this together. As Richard Eskow wrote in a recent article, “The generational war is a hoax.” Bridges need building that will foster cooperation, not competition among generations.  People of all ages have common cause in finding solutions that will enable a new era in this nation’s journey.

Comments and questions on the substance of this blogs are welcome. If you have other questions about this website, please contact me directly for a consulting appointment.

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If you think we can help you, we offer webinars and consulting.

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Filed Under: Changing The Economic Direction, The Future, Whatcha Gonna Do to Stay Afloat Personally Tagged With: anger, Boomers, flash mobs, generational war, Millenials, Occupy Wall Street movement, Tea Party

Help Yourself Keep Away From the Economic Brink

January 11, 2014 by Paul Edwards Leave a Comment

Unkind understates the impact of the economic changes aWomen running thriftffecting the middle class of the United States and Europe.  While the stock market is “up” from 2008 ninety-five (95%) of the economy’s growth has gone to the wealthiest 1% of Americans.  2 out of 3 Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.  Many are not only are they not catching up, including the students saddled with college debt to seniors.

More than one in four adults (27%) say they’re going deeper into the hole, according to a survey of 8100 adults by Peter Novelli Styles. Only 20% of seniors do not rely on Social Security as their primary income source, according to the National Academy of Social Insurance.

Keeping afloat in this ongoing Jetstream of economic trouble, stemming from companies closing entire divisions or adopting new technology from software to robots that make existing jobs skills obsolete, requires being resourceful to keep afloat and even get ahead.

Developing a sideline or full-time business makes sense as people of all ages are learning.  Nearly one in four new businesses (23%) are started by people aged 55 to 64, according to a Kaufmann Foundation report.

To make a living that will sustain you means finding something you can do that taps into a passion of yours and that hits that sweet spot of making a business of it so that people will gladly pay you for what you enjoy doing. Of course, not every mission or passion we have can turn into a business. If what you do is provide a direct service locally, then your local market must be one that has a demand for what you do.

In most ways, it’s costs less and is more feasible to start a business than it ever has been. The trick is taking a start-up through the hurdles of getting a business underway. It’s like riding a bicycle – you have to pump and pump – until you get enough momentum that the business takes on a life of its own.

Other blogs on this site provide profiles of livelihoods you can pursue – from repairing items to robots.

Comments and questions on the substance of this blogs are welcome. If you have other questions about this website, please contact me directly for a consulting appointment.

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If you think we can help you, we offer webinars and consulting.  mailto:elmstreeteconomy.com

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Filed Under: The Future, Whatcha Gonna Do to Stay Afloat Personally Tagged With: full-time business, sideline, staying afloat, Tags: Economic Brink economic changes middle class. Livelihood

Does Working with Your Partner or Spouse Make Sense for Everyone?

October 1, 2013 by Paul Edwards Leave a Comment

Sarah and I have worked together for more than 25 years and here are some of the most important things we’ve discovered.  Try these tips for working with your partner or spouse:

1. Adapt your communication style if necessary. If your partners’ styles differ, then one or the other is going to have to make changes to accommodate the other person’s style. For instance, if one of you is expressive and the other isn’t, this can be disconcerting to both of you. Recognizing how each deals with Man and Woman Working at Home Using Laptop with Coffeedisagreements is the first step. To learn more about communication styles, read John Gottman’s book The Science of Trust: Emotional Attunement for Couples.

2. Don’t interfere with each other’s work. It’s important to allow each person to take full responsibility and perform his or her work without interference. That means no unsolicited meddling, coaching, Monday-morning quarterbacking, backseat driving or peeking over each other’s shoulders.

3. Learn how to handle thorny financial and legal affairs. When a couple disagrees about or doesn’t know the full implications of choices like changing the form of business organization, handling nondisclosure agreements or seeking investors, one partner may be reluctant to act, and it can paralyze the business. Be ready to discuss major decisions that confront you with specialists like lawyers and accountants. If problems arise that involve your relationship, seek the help of a professional business or family counselor. The number of counselors and coaches specializing in partnership and family businesses is growing

4. Give yourselves time for a private life. When family members work together, it’s easy to allow your work to consume your entire relationship. For some this means taking separate vacations; for others, it means just taking time out from work so you can do something different together, like taking a walk together for half an hour at lunchtime.

We believe from both our experience and from couples we know who successfully work together that when it works, it can be one of the most satisfying parts of your life.

Comments and questions on the substance of this blogs are welcome. If you have other questions about this website, please contact me directly for a consulting appointment.

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If you think we can help you, we offer webinars and consulting.

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Excerpt

We’ve worked together for more than 25 years and here are some of the most important things we’ve discovered.  Try these tips for success working with your partner or spouse make sense.

Tags: working with your spouse, working together, Monday-morning quarterbacking, backseat driving or peeking over each other’s shoulders, separate vacations.

Filed Under: Localization, Whatcha Gonna Do to Stay Afloat Personally Tagged With: backseat driving or peeking over each other’s shoulders, Monday-morning quarterbacking, separate vacations., working together, working with your spouse

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About Me

Paul with his wife, Sarah Edwards, are award-winning authors of 17 books with over 2,000,000 books in print.

Paul provides local marketing consulting through the Small Business Development Center. He is co-founder of a new website: DigitalDocumentPros.com.

Prior to becoming an author, I practiced law, served as CEO of a non-profit, and operated a public affairs consulting practice. [Read more...]

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