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Can You Plan for Unexpected Expenses?

October 7, 2008 by Lazy Man 8 Comments

When I think about the unexpected financial expenses the first thing that comes to mind is emergency funds. Most of the experts agree that having 6 months of income set aside for a financial emergency is necessary. In my head, that financial emergency is almost always the loss of a job. Perhaps that’s because I’ve been there when I lost my job in the dot com melt-down of 2001. (In many ways, I think that’s where the “work smarter, not harder” attitude of Lazy Man was born. I had worker pretty hard and rose up the ranks in the company – until the company was bought by another. All the social capital I created was worthless with the new management.)

While job loss is certainly a very valid reason to have an emergency fund (especially so in today’s economy), lately I’ve been thinking about bigger problems. What about health care? I have very good health insurance, but many aren’t so fortunate. What if my mom’s health care is lacking and I have to take care of her? What if my brother hasn’t listened to me about getting life insurance to ensure that his two newborns are provided for in the Worst Case Scenario? These costs can transcend the costs of 6 months of income.

Perhaps I’m becoming a worry-wart, trying to figure out all the ways that my hopes (and plans) for early retirement won’t be derailed. I can’t possibly cover every scenario, can I? I can’t have insurance for every possible occurrence, right? Yet, accepting defeat doesn’t right either. There are people who can withstand unexpected expenses.

I’m starting to realize that I not only have to plan for the security of myself and my family, but I have to plan for others as well. Does anyone else spend time thinking about this before it happens or do they simply react after the fact?

Filed Under: Insurance Tagged With: early retirement, emergency funds, financial emergency, health care, life insurance, worst case scenario

The Power of The Dream

June 14, 2008 by Lazy Man 15 Comments

dream-girl.jpg

“I’m the assistant to the traveling secretary. I’m going on the road trips with them! I’ll be on the plane… I’m working in Yankee Stadium! This is a dream, I’m busting, Jerry, I’m busting!” — George Costanza

I’m excited… like George I’m busting. A friend and I have a business idea that we think simply can’t fail. Like of the best ideas out there, it just fell into our lap. We’ve sat down and crunched the numbers about 30 different ways and each time, it’s profitable… very profitable. Our costs could potentially be low. The value we add would be great. The barrier to entry for other competitors is not huge, but it’s enough. That’s about all I can say for now – I’m not going into specifics while we are in stealth mode.

I haven’t felt like this since college. A good friend and I would stay up all night dreaming about business plans. We thought about putting on a mini-Woodstock at our college. We figured there would be no way we couldn’t clear a lot of money. We later found that there were a lot of difficulties in running a concert – we simply didn’t have the industry knowledge to know how much work there was. One of our other ideas was a premium vodka bottle – with cheap vodka inside – sold at a premium price. Our theory was that the bottle would convince people that the vodka inside was actually better than it was. I’m not sure it was the best idea, but you see a similar thing in the wine industry sometimes.

The result of this new business opportunity has me extremely excited. It’s amazing how much energy I’ve found. It’s night and day versus the time I was working full-time looking at another 35 years of the same routine each day.

Maybe the idea will flop. There is always the chance that our potential customers won’t understand the value we can provide. We believe we can build a very compelling case with oodles of independent research. Even in this worst case scenario, I’ll look back to what I’m feeling now and realize how successful it was. The power of a dream is priceless.

Photo Credit: Elfeda

Filed Under: Psychology Tagged With: business, business idea, business plans, cheap vodka, dreams, george costanza, independent research, industry knowledge, power, premium price, road trips, vodka bottle, wine industry, woodstock, worst case scenario, yankee stadium

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