Sunday, April 19, 2009

Sorry for the lapse!


Howdy all, been flat out at work (yes this is still the 4 hour work week challenge) and been away.

Much has happened since we moved out of the van. We went down to Victoria for Easter to hang out with family and saw some of the Bells surfing comp.

The other big news is we are having a baby! Mrs Smith is now 14 weeks pregnant and so as you can imagine, there have been distractions :) Our businesses have stalled and my work has been hectic in the extreme despite the break.

Obviously these things have slowed our progression a little. However we are now settled in, in Glebe and will be moving to Bondi (again) in May so much going on. I will give Mrs Smith a nudge to give an update.

Until next time...

Monday, March 23, 2009

Challenges



Well although the caravan has provided a fantastic insight into living with less, I must admit it can be difficult sometimes when you are working 12-hour days and leaving when it's dark and returning in the dark. Sometimes you just want a familiar environment to come home to when you're tired and exhausted. It certainly has given me more motivation to continue with our quest for the 4-hr work week, as we are currently a long way from that yet!

Having said that, Mr Smith and I spent our first weekend together at the Caravan Park and with no housework or tidying up to do, it allowed me to truly relax, go for a swim at the beach, read my book and watch the goings on at the park.

Bring on work efficiency and time reclamation!

Friday, March 20, 2009

Cashing up!

Well Mrs Smith and I have decided to buy an appartment. We figure that it will be great investment. We are really enjoying our new found liquidity as our current lifestyle means our outgoings are very small. No credit card debt means there is cash burning a whole in my pocket and it is an amazing feeling.

We will buy something in the back half of the year when the first home buyers grant disappears. My preferred option is in Freshwater Beach in Sydney - we can stay there for a bit and then move out and positively gear it. As part of our 4 hour work week challenge, this will become one of our passive income streams.

Until then we will continue house sitting which I am really beginning to enjoy. It takes a little organisation to begin with but once you are set up it rolls very well. Onward and upwards!

Monday, March 9, 2009

Aloha!



Well we've just booked a trip to Hawaii for 2 weeks with Jetstar for $1300 return for 2 x adults (incl. taxes!). The beauty of being transient is knowing that your accommodation is essentially your rent/mortgage for 2 weeks.

The caravan is going well and we survived a significant rain storm. It will definitely give me an appreciation for smaller spaces, which we'll need when purchasing our properties at the end of this year.

I have also realised that I don't need to live with as much stuff as once had. My wardrobe has been halved again with the majority of my clothes/shoes now in storage. It challenges your creativity with outfits but makes decision making that much easier!

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Outsourcing and caravan parks


Well, a lot has happened in the last little while. First of all we moved into Narrabeen Lakes Caravan Park and I have to say it is excellent. Walked across the road and had a surf on Saturday and Sunday morning (no shark sightings) and the weather was awesome. With 5 weeks to go - it looks like it will be a lot of fun. Too early to say if we will get sick of it but so far so good - that represents the elimination section of our 4 Hour Work Week challenge.


The second great result has been the initial response from my outsourced work to India from my previous post. The quality has been excellent and I am very impressed! I will be definitely using them again. For those of you who are interested their website is http://www.brickworkindia.com/


Signing off in the annex :)

Monday, February 23, 2009

Outourcing, outsourcing, outsourcing

We have been using Elance.com to do design but today I briefed Brickworkindia.com to do a whole bunch of desktop research for a client prject I am working on. It is the first time I have used virtual assistants in India to do work for me. I written a brief and am hooking up with them by phone today to talk scope and rate.

Will keep you posted on how I go - If it works it could change my life at work!

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Muse creations aplenty!


Well Mr Smith and I have been brainstorming muse creations. These are what Tim Ferriss argues is the tool by which you can fund your lifestyle redesign.

I have started work on one muse in the coffee industry. Once the site is up and running, I will reveal what it involves. After briefing my designer via Elance http://www.elance.com/, she has come back with some fantastic logo concepts and we have almost chosen the final version. Her Elance profile is under ohSnap. The next step will be briefing in the website which I will also do via Elance or Guru.

Mr Smith and I have also come up with another idea around house-sitting. We have had frustrations with trying to find suitable places to house sit and have resorted to friends. This has made us realise there is a gap in the market which we can fill. I have again briefed the same designer (she is highly creative, quick and efficient) and looking forward to seeing her concepts.

Mr Smith is also using her for his muse logo which has just been finalised!

The ultimate aim by the end of this year is to have 3 online businesses up and running so that we can have multiple streams of income and apply E Myth principles http://www.emyth.com/ to them to ensure we have an efficient organisation that frees up time for us to focus on fulfilling our lifestyle dreamlines! E Myth by Michael Gerber is a fantastic how to book for small businesses to run your business more efficiently by working on your business rather than in your business!

Not only are we going to have more flexible income streams but also I'm learning how to set up a business from scratch and adopting skills along the way i.e. web design briefing

Lots of fun to be had!

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Planning

One of the things you do when you have more savings is begin to plan. The reason for this is that the possibilities begin to be real. Things like buying an apartment, a ducati :), a holiday. Yesterday we began planning and it really gave us focus for this challenge.

We came up with a whole lot of ideas for online businesses. Most of them won't every make us unbelievably rich but they will generate good incomes for not too much effort. We have already begun to engage designers for our new online businesses. Mrs Smith briefed a designer on http://www.elance.com/. The designer came back with some great stuff and was very cost effective. It is a lot of fun when you can see your ideas taking shape though a logo.

Also we began to plan a trip. Surfing from south of France through Spain and maybe onto Portugal if we have time. That looks like being in August.

Next we have begun t think about property. Not our dream home yet but a series of places that are in great locations for us. It is all getting very real and we have only been going 6 weeks. I really do not want to waste this year. It is something that generate real momentum for us for our lives in the future.....

Monday, February 2, 2009

Muse creation has begun!



Well after putting out a project brief for our coffee muse we received multiple responses from both Elance (for the logo design) and Guru (for the web design). I (Mrs Smith) set up a spreadsheet to go through all the bids and compare what I was going to get for my money. Although we want to do it cost effectively, I don't want to skimp on quality. Some of the bids provided rate packages, which is the easiest to work with. Others required you to send more details in to get a quote back.

One obstacle I found is that most of the bids are in US dollars which of course for Australians is not great at the moment! Thus I think I will end up going for a local firm Magic Dust http://www.magicdust.com.au/. Not only are they local but they also provide a very competitive package for both logo and web design. I was impressed by their quality of work as well and they are highly experienced in building ecommerce sites. What more could I ask for!

Next I have to put together a creative design brief for both the logo and website. Who knows we might be up and running sooner than we think!

Saving begins


Today we got our bond back and our aggressive savings plan has begun in ernest. This year will be the year of building a warchest plus a few adventures along the way. The plan is to save a house deposit (20%) by the end of 2009. With both myself and Mrs Smith in very good jobs and our muses coming along nicely we should be in a great place.
As we have eliminated much of the costs of living in a rental property as well as the associated costs we have already got quite a lot of momentum. We are also keen to do a trip/s overseas. Keen to drop in a surf trip to Fiji soon and maybe a trip to Europe later in the year. It is truly amazing to discover how much money you actually have when you don't pay rent or a mortgage!

Moving to Bondi this weekend


Well, I have lived in Sydney for more than 10 years and this is the first time I have ventured to the eastern suburbs. This house sitting gig is not bad...this will be the 3rd beachside suburb I have lived in this year. Maybe we should change our goal to living at every Sydney beach in 2009 :) Somehow Mrs Smith might think I have a different agenda!
Anyhow, Gary, a good friend has opened his house to us. His wife Jen and his daughter Poppy have gone back to the UK for a stint so we are going to hang out with him. Looks like fun. It will be a hell of a lot closer to work than Newport. Early morning Bondi surfs look like part of my lifestyle next week.

Friday, January 30, 2009

My muse


Briefed a creative mate on Friday to come up with a logo and a visual identity for my muse. Coming together well actually - been planning it for a while but this challenge has been the catalyst for me to get of my arse and get started. We will see a logo in a week or so....I suppose I should reveal here so stay tuned. The picture is just a little hint of what the muse will be all about.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

May has just been filled!


It also looks like we have a place to house sit for May/June, also in the Northern Beaches of Sydney. We are looking good til at least August now!
This frees up both time and income to devote to our muse creations and experimenting in Lifestyle Design!

A muse has been born!


Well after a relaxing Australia Day weekend down south in Gerringong (and recovering after my rather ugly bout of Gastro), we came back energised and ready to start the muse creation. As mentioned in previous posts, a muse is the tool by which you create a passive income or close enough to it. This is one of the key methods Tim Ferriss uses to work his '4 hour week', travel the world and still have an income.

To start off the muse creation process, today I (Mrs Smith) registered a domain name at http://www.crazydomains.com.au/ for $24 for 2 years, which is one of the cheapest ones I've found. I used to go through ttp://www.melbourneit.com.au but they now seem a little expensive. I have also signed up for an email package with 20 accounts for $2 a month also at CrazyDomains (again very good value for money!).

My next mission is to outsource the website and logo design. I have posted a job description on both http://www.guru.com/ and http://www.elance.com/ which are both global freelancing sites where freelancers bid for your work from web/graphic design, transcribing to report writing!

Once we have decided on the best supplier we will put together a creative brief and write some website copy. We then have to decide on a hosting package and ensure that we can easily update the website from anywhere!

Watch this space!

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

High drama


Well we got to day 4 of our new abode when things got a bit mental. Mrs Smith was struck down by a bout of gastro. I am praying I don't get it. Luckily we have the place to ourselves but it was pretty crappy not being in your own home when you (or your partner is sick).
After being a wake all night, pitching for new business at work, I fell into bed last night at about 8.30pm. Can only get better....

Monday, January 19, 2009

Not bad for our first place!



This is the view from our first place of residence as we begin this interesting journey of ours. We don't feel we've done too badly this time round. We have rented out the bottom floor of my sister's place for a month and are in the process of working through what are essential items and what more can go into storage!


In the meantime we have come up with an idea for an additional muse (Passive Income Generators that require little or no set up costs - 'PIGs'). Mr Smith's brother is involved in the coffee industry and we are going to work on a joint project with him and his wife. Lots of fun that could turn into an effective muse! Watch this space...

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Stuck in the office on Sunday


Got the opportunity to test my new route to work today, unfortunately it is Sunday:(

The good news is though we are fully out of our house and now in a new house. Things to do:

Disconnect phone, internet, gas, electricty and cancel contents insurance - that should save a fair bit! We are gearing up now for the next phase: Development of the muse.

The muse is an online business that will generate income for us with little or no work - the ultimate goal being the 4-hour work week. In the short term it means a bit of extra pocket money!

I sat down for a couple of hours this morning with a mate to go through our plans - still much to do but it looks great!

Long day....

Well we are done (and buggered). We moved out of our house today and moved to Newport. It is funny to think our whole house fitted into a storage cage at Kenards.

It didn't help that we had too much red wine last night. We must learn some restaint in our new life :) Off to bed, more details tomorrow zzzzz

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Location Independent Living


Well today I found this wicked site http://locationindependent.com/blog/ that described the ultimate lifestyle - living and travelling anywhere in the world and still earning an income. The principles are based on those found in the 4 hour work week around lifestyle design and I love it! First stop North Narrabeen Caravan Park - next stop - the world!
Here is an eBook that has been written by the author of the blog - definitely worth a read for all those wanting to begin their journey in Lifestyle Design!

Surfing up a storm


Well Mrs Smith booked us into the North Narrabeen caravan park yesterday and I can't wait. We don't move in until the end of March but I am excited. I will be living opposite one of Sydney's best waves with a goal of surfing every day possible.

I think I have tricked her but she seems ok with it! Bring it on :)

Living in a Caravan Park!

Well today me and my in-laws went and checked out North Narrabeen Caravan Park and signed up for 5 weeks! We put the word out to friends, family and acquaintences via Facebook and SMS to see who might have a caravan they could lend or rent out and found a hit. We now have a caravan for 5 weeks at $500 and a site for 5 weeks with ensuite bathroom at $1700. Thus for $2200 we have 5 weeks accommodation - not bad! The caravan has 2 double beds so we can even have guests!




Here is a pic of our future home...

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Cleaning out my cupboard - 6 days until our first move

Big day today. Mrs Smith and I went through our clothes and stuff and dropped them off to St Vinnies. One suitcase full and another 2 bags, some books, a whole bunch of wedding magazines and a filing cabinet. Quite cleansing really. Then friends came over and I cooked scrambled eggs, they took some books and my beloved poker table - will be dropping in monthly to their place to use it. Ross, the recipient was very willing but I am not sure if Deb his wife was as keen to be hosting monthly poker nights for the boys :).

Next we went to Howards Storage World and got vacumn packs for our bedding and winter clothes - it is all coming together. Mrs Smith's sister came and took a DVD player, a VHS player and an old shelf stereo so there is not much left to sell on eBay. I have an old LG Flatron TV I need to sell but will get to that.

Finally, my parents arrived today from Victoria. They have arrived all gung-ho to pack up our house. They are staying until Friday. It will be great to have them here, not only for their help but also so we can drink all our good wine before it goes into storage!

Getting excited now!

Friday, January 9, 2009

Plan in place!


Well Mr Smith and I had a very nice beachside lunch over a couple of Peroni's and planned our move. As Mr Smith posted yesterday, it was done in a very orderly fashion...long term, medium term, short term and then what to sell/donate/giveaway.


We now have our list in place. Mr Smith's parents are flying in tomorrow to give us a hand packing up the house. They are intrigued by our plans and keen to help our where they can - very sweet!


Mr Smith is now ready to get his creative juices flowing to write up the Ebay ads. We have found in the past the more creative your ad, the better it sells!


After we start packing we're then off the Sydney Festival - fun.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Friday afternoon day dreaming

Its Friday at work so the mind starts to wander. Things to do tomorrow to get ready:

Plan pack up for things to go into storage in order

a) Long term - things to put at the back as we can do without them

b) Medium term - things we might need access to

c) Short term - things we will need so they must be accessible

Next what to sell on eBay - I can think of a TV, Mower and a few other things - need to be ruthless but also need Mrs Smith's permission :) It is all in the name of elimination.

See Step II in The 4-Hour Workweek

Well we have started!


This is a bit of retrospective post as we started on the weekend prior to the blog going live. One of the things The 4-Hour Work Week tells you is to eliminate. So that's what we plan to do. We are moving out of our rented house. We are currently spending a lot of money on rent ($900) per week - ouch.

We went to Kennards Storage and booked our space. We are moving our whole house into it. We are moving to Newport with Mrs Smith's sister and her bloke. We have our boxes and we start packing. We are continuing the elimination process - we are offloading all our unwanted stuff. Some to friends, some on eBay and some to the Salvos.

Getting excited and nervous at thre same time....

So, what is the 4-hour work week?

Taken from Vive Magazine Issue Oct/Nov 2008

"We're in the middle of a lifestyle revolution. Leading the charge is the New Rich (a modern derivative of nouveau riche) a group of people who have amassed independent wealth within their own generations. Most commonly, this group comprises of entrepreneurs who have found their fortunes on the internet's new frontier. With technology on their side they have effectively put lifestyle and work methodologies under the spotlight - and they are keen to spread the word. Tim Ferriss's thought provoking The 4-Hour Work Week discusses the concept of Lifestyle Design, questioning society's long held expectation that chronologically, work comes first, followed by retirement."
This is our story of bringing the 4 Hour Work Week to reality downunder!