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Earlier I wrote about trying to break away from the office.  I wanted to report back that this operation has been a success.  I now work only 3-4 days a week with regularity.  I always take Thursday or Friday off, and I often leave the office by 3:30.  Whenever I have a task that can easily be accomplished from home, I make sure and save it until I get home, or until the next morning, so that I can do it in the solitude of my home office.  I find that work gets done a lot faster when I am not constantly being interrupted by coworkers. 

When I am at work, I always focus on only one, or two important tasks for the day.  I do them as quickly, and effectively as possible, then I get the heck out of there.  This scenario has worked out beautifully.  I now spend more time with my family than I ever have.  More “hunny do” tasks are getting accomplished at home.  And,  contrary to popular logic, I am more productive at work because I accomplish tasks in less time and I spend little to no time goofing off.  My boss is none the wiser to my new work schedule, as he rarely checks in on me, except for a report on my monthly performance.  If you have any desire to implement such an experiment, I highly recommend it.

I realized recently that time is my most valuable asset. I have made great strides in the past months to streamline my life by avoiding activities that don’t bring immediate results. For instance, I have stopped reading the newspaper. I find that by conversing regularly with well read people, I really don’t miss a beat. I have also stopped reading stupid emails that people send with the subject line “you have to see this!!!”

One of my favorite methods of streamlining to date has been the elimination of voice mail from my life. I recently subscribed to a service called phone tag ( www.phonetag.com ) and they answer all of my voice mail for me. They then transcribe the voice mail and send it to me via email with the audio file attached. My email is forwarded direct to my phone where I can see, almost immediately who called, what they have to say. This saves me a lot of time, and the frustration of dialing my voicemail everytime I miss a call. I highly recommend it.

When the summer began, my wife informed me that she was sick of the yard, sick of not having a fence, and sick of not being able to let the kids out to play. Our grass was nasty, and the sprikling system was very inadaquet. You couldn’t walk across the lawn without twisting your ankle, let alone spread out a blanket and lay down with any semblence of comfort. We decided that this was the summer of landscape remodelling. We planned it all out, complete with a fence that encloses the front, side, and back yards, a new porch, new sprinklers and, of course, new grass. We contracted out the concrete work, but I planned on doing the rest of the work myself. I must confess, that I really enjoy creating things with my hands. I love seeing my creations go from a vision in my head, to drawings on paper, to real-live creations, and I love working with my hands. There is a sort of satisfaction that comes from this that doesn’t come from sitting at a computer.

Anyway, to get back on topic, I decided to take this endeaver and use it as an experiment to steal time away from the office. I wanted to see if I could maintain my productivity at work, while spending less time actually in the office. If successful, this experiment would allow me to spend more time building wealth for my early retirement, while still enjoying the safety net of a full time income.

I have spent the last month working only an average of 3 days a week. I have spent the rest of the time tearing out grass, digging up old sprinkler lines, digging trenches, and raking dirt. (My brothers helped me put the sod down last saturday. It looks great, but I’m utterly exhausted!) Spending all of this time out of the office necessitated a shift in prioritization methods. I couldn’t be the slave to my cell phone that I have been in the past. I only answered it if it was one of my co-workers (who were informed to call me only in an emergency). I learned to work faster, and weed through (or eliminate) inconsequential matters when I was in the office. I was surprised that a good portion of what I did during the day actually is quite inconsequential. In the end, my productivity at work has actually increased. I had the best sales month ever, and I spent less time than ever spinning my wheels. I think there is a correlation.

In the auto industry there is a term called “power to ground,” or “horsepower at the wheels.” This refers to how much of a vehicle’s engine power is actually translated, and used to move the vehicle foward (There can potentially be a large loss of power in the transmission, driveline and axles.) Good “power to ground” translates into the ride exhileration you might expect from a high performance car. Some cars, unfortunatley, dissapoint in this arena, even though they boast high Horse Power numbers. In my life, I am learning to concentrate on “power to ground” instead of overall power output. It is here, where the rubber meets the road, that real productivity takes place.

Now that I have proved I can be more productive, without actually being in the office, the next step is to permanently implement a plan for being out of the office on a regular basis. This will allow me to utilize one or two days a week for getting rich, instead of wasting that time spinning my wheels in the office. I will let you know how this goes…

This is where I attempt to start reviewing products, books, and other things I come accross in my life that I find useful, informative, or otherwise worth mentioning.  I have read (or listened to on CD) many, many books about success, managing people, managing time, becoming rich, investing in real estate, investing in the stock market, etc, etc, etc…  I am always reading, and I hardly ever listen to music in the car anymore (even though I love music).  I am always listening to some new book on cd.  It seems I can’t get enough.

The other day, I was at Barnes & Noble looking for a new book to listen to.  I was thinking about another book on real estate investing, as I am getting close to making a move toward some real estate purchases.  I had my book picked out, when I noticed a title I had heard mentioned by a mentor of mine, Jim Cockrum.  The book is titled "The 4 Hour Work Week" by Timothy Ferris.  The name sounded a little cheesy, but I was mesmerized by the simple white cover with a green silhouette of a hammock strewn between two palm trees.  I also really respect Jim Cockrum, and I knew he had mentioned the book on one of his audio recordings, so I thought I would give it a try. 

That was at 10:00 am.  I spent three out of the next four hours burning $4.00 per gallon gas in my car, just so I didn’t have to stop listening to this awesome new book.  Several years ago, I fell in love with the philosphies of Robert Kiyosaki and the Rich Dad, Poor Dad
philosophies.  Kiyosaki has allowed me to look at work and money with a completely different perspective than most.  Since then, every book I have ever read about money has only confirmed the truths that Kiyosaki teaches about money.  I have not found any new and earth shattering perspectives about it.  Timothy Ferris changed all of that.  I, once again, find myself challenging reality, and changing my perspective (albeit slightly) in a way that I haven’t experienced since the first time I read “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” (I must clarify, that Tim does not debunk anything Kiyosaki has said, but he adds a major twist).

In “The 4 Hour Work Week”, Tim Ferris explains the concept of lifestyle design.  He describes it as a way to live the way you want to and not conform to the demands of a 9-5 job, without being insanely rich.  He agrees that the ultimate goal is to be rich, but he challenges the idea, that you need a lot of money in the bank to retire.  Tim says: “Forget the old concept of retirement and the rest of the deferred-life plan—there is no need to wait and every reason not to. Whether your dream is escaping the rat race, high-end world travel, monthly five-figure income with zero management, or just living more and working less, this book is the blueprint.” 

I know what you are thinking:  ” Is this guy for real?”  I know it sounds hokey on  the surface, that this is too good to be true.  Well, you have to read the book to be more comfortable taking Tim’s advice.  He really isn’t a quack, and he does have some excellent points, such as:

• Why work 40 hours a week, if you can accomplish the same tasks in 4-10 hours a week?
• Why delegate, or do your self, a task that can be eliminated?
• Why do yourself anything that a Virtual Assistant can do for you at a fraction of your hourly compensation (if you divide your income into hours)?
• Why not learn to automate your income, and automate your life, so you can take time off and do the things you really want to do?

Now, just to be honest, I don’t agree with everything Tim says.  I think he is a little ego-centric in some of his veiws, but I like where he is going with this.  I am going to listen to the book again, and again, because I know I didn’t catch it all the first time.  I suggest that you do the same.

So I discussed in an earlier blog, that I will be documenting my experiences in my quest for financial freedom, building wealth, and retiring early.  Allow me to summarize where I am at in my life, and what my immediate plans are for the future. 

Currently, I am married with 2 kids (a beautiful 16 month old daughter, and a super cool 4 year old boy who wants to do everything dad does), a mortgage, and a profession that I have been toiling at for almost 10 years now.  I have spent the last 6 years, or so, soaking up all of the knowledge and philosophies I could get my hands on about wealth building, and becoming rich.  At times it really had motivated me, and at other times it has depressed me, because I knew how far away all of this was for me.  Well, now I feel like my time is finally here.  I am at a crossroads in my sales career, and I either need to make significant changes with my current employment, or find a new job.  I have money put aside for a security net, and I have a driving ambition to do what I want, for a change.  I am excited

My plans consist of starting several online businesses, based on some of the information mentioned earlier, and implementing my stock investing plans that I have been practicing on paper for over a year now.  I will quit my job around the middle of August, 2008 (I have a few large sales deals that I am trying to button up so I don’t end up leaving money on the table).  I then will have “taken off the training wheels” as they say and we will see if I can actually ride the bike.  I am very excited for the ride.

For as long as I can remember, I have hated the routine of going to work everyday.  I have sold commercial and fleet vehicles for most of my professional career, and I can’t recall an extended period of time where I really, truly felt like that was my calling in life.  I started out in the auto industry working part time while I put myself through school.  I attained by BA in Marketing, all the time expecting that when I got out of college, my world would be wide open, and I could get a great job in advertising, or marketing.  The reality of it was, that entry level positions didn’t pay near as much as I had been making part time in sales.  I had become accustomed to a certain lifestyle, I was married, and we were thinking of starting a family.  It was not a good time to take a substantial pay cut.  I was sucked right back in to the car business, and this is where I have stayed, until now. 

I appreciate my education, and I wouldn’t change it, looking back.  However, it didn’t open the doors that I thought it would.  I believe my education helped form me as a person, and taught me to follow through with my plans.   But it didn’t lead to the career I had imagined.  In a way, this was probably good.  It forced me to be creative in a career that I didn’t love.  I learned ways to enjoy it, and to parlay it into a fantastic income.  Most importantly, I beleive that my education, and my career planning shortfalls have lead me to search for alternative means of providing for my family.  In this search, I have realized that traditional employment is not for me.  I now desire to save, invest, and build autopilot businesses that bring me streams of income whether I physically work, or not.  More on this later…

Welcome to my new blog.  My name is Ken Strong.  I created this site as a means of comunicating my thoughts and experiences relating to wealth building, financial freedom, and early retirment.  I have long been troubled by my job, and employment in general.  I have long thought that working for somebody else is a lot like slavery.  Yes, I have been paid handsomely for many of my efforts, but at the end of the day, I still have to get up the next day and do it all over again.  I feel that there should be a more long-lasting reward for my efforts.  I also feel that my employer reaps the greater part of my efforts.  This feels like a trap, and I know there is a better way.  This blog is dedicated to my education about, and experiences with attempting to exit the rat race and create a world of wealth and financial freedom for myself and my family.  I invite you to check back periodically as this proves to be an exciting and informative journey.  Think of me as your guinea pig, and learn from my successes and failures.