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Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Middle Class Incomes: An Endangered Species-How to put more dollars in your pocket


Poor Man Survival

Self Reliance tools for independent minded people…


ISSN 2161-5543

A Digest of Urban Survival Resources

 


   Middle Class Incomes: An Endangered Species-

How to put more dollars in your pocket-even if you’re retired…

As I’ve written since the early 1990s-America's middle class is literally vanishing. For the most part, wages have not kept up with the cost of living.  Millions have already been squeezed out…aside from the stupidity of government or the greed of many on Wall Street-most people seldom adapt or grow.  I’ve started up a dozen or so businesses.  Most of them successful.  I get bored and sell them or I get divorced and lose them or sell them to business partners who cheat me.

  Sometimes, I come up with ideas that I feel should do great.  That happened last year and I flew to AZ to pitch a non-profit group on buying the concept and to hire me to help them get it off the ground.  Despite supposed interest, I never got the courtesy of a response.

That’s the way it goes today.  Many of today’s so-called professionals, are un-professional.  I still made $1500 off the concept simply by flying out to Phoenix and was able to enjoy one of my favorite cities while visiting my many friends and family.

I have made thousands of dollars simply by hearing of a business practice from one industry and with a few adjustments, transferring the idea to another industry.  I’ve done this for my own business and for others…all it takes is opening your ears.  The hard part is getting other people to open their ears.  Most people don’t listen.  [Ask any teacher].

Oh and I also read. A lot.  


I read people like Arthur C. Clarke, the futurist and author of books like 2001: A Space Odyssey who also famously said "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

 
 Here’s how to supplement your income.  [And why being entrepreneur in the US has become more difficult]

A Perfect Storm of Misfortune due to the cost of government overregulation, too many laws, & too much bureaucracy at every level of government…this is why the US has dropped to 13th place internationally in terms of free enterprise.  Nations such as New Zealand now exceed the United States in terms of fostering economic freedom as does Hong Kong and Singapore!

Just look around. Millions who were once comfortably in the middle class now fight to keep their heads above water. Retirees struggle to make ends meet... former execs stock shelves... people work two jobs to stay afloat... families forgo vacations, new cars, even buying a home.

Good jobs are obsolete or outsourced. Wages stagnate. Yet we pay more for just about everything.

A recent study confirms that this has been the worst decade for the middle class in more than 70 years.

As wealth guru and Bottom Line Personal expert Suze Orman said: "Sooner or later, the middle class will cease to exist."

"Sooner or later, the middle class will cease to exist"

And It's About to Get Worse…We’ve all seen the effects of inflation at the grocer and for our health premiums, insurance costs, the cost of a new car, etc.


Think the government will take care of you if anything happens? What is going to happen to our safety nets like welfare, Medicaid, Obamacare and food stamps?
 
 

But the good news is:

Thousands Become Millionaires Every Day


This “Great Middle-Class Squeeze” is sure to continue.

The rich will get richer. But not everyone else will get poorer.

The 5 Ideas to Creating More Cash Today-Even if You’re Retired


These 5 simple steps have enriched the lives (and bank accounts) of countless Americans and can easily add thousands of dollars to your net worth.

STEP 1: MAKE MORE MONEY


The one sentence that can get you the job of your dreams


Would you like to have hundreds, thousands of extra dollars coming in every year? Prospering during the Middle-Class Squeeze starts with making more money... A lot more money. Whether from a part time job, your own business or both!

When writing to a potential employer, take a tip from our expert David Perry, author of The Guerrilla Guide for Job Hunters.

Here’s what he says to do to make your cover letter pop right out of the pile…

Add a riveting one-sentence P.S. Because a reader’s eye automatically goes right down to the “P.S”. That’s why a good P.S. will hook them and reel them into your letter. For example: “P.S. I’d like to tell you how I can increase your productivity by 25%.”

Want to start a home business for less than $500 and bring in $100,000 a year?

Consider credit repair.

Because credit requirements are higher than ever, demand for credit repair is exploding from people who have been rejected for home or car loans.

People need someone they can trust to help with credit disputes and payment schedules.




 


Be a tour guide.

If you live in an interesting home town, perhaps you know it like no other.  Why not create a local tour that people can sign up for at Vayable.com.  Have a niche interest; consider making it a themed interest such a wine or food tour.  For instance, at FoodTourPros.com you can sign up to learn everything about creating food tours in your city.  [I once owned an historic Civil War hero’s home which I turned into a B&B and offered gourmet dinners.  We offered group tours and were featured on PBS!].

Rent Out Your Space – Or Yourself

If you live in an area where parking is at a premium or where sporting or entertainment events making parking hard to find, consider renting out your driveway or front yard at sites such as JustPark.com or Parklee.com. 

Rent your practical services out at RentaGrandma.com, where folks hire you to do everything from babysit to take care of their pets while they’re at work.  [When vacationing at high-end resorts we’ve used such services when my boys were young and it worked great].

In fact, more and more retailers and service businesses are hiring 50+ folks due to their reliability and appearance.  This is something Costco, Walmart, and Uber have all picked up on.  We have several older friends who earn extra income by distributing free samples of food products via Kroger and other supermarket chains.  They earn some pretty decent money from what they tell us.

Chase Dream Jobs

FabJobs.com is a great a great source for in-depth information about an amazing variety of jobs ranging from how to become a cake decorator to a party planner.

Other places to find ideas for income streams include your areas of interest…almost everything has a professional association linked to it [I once gave a speech in Washington DC to the Association of Associations!].  For example, there is an National Association Professional Pet Sitters and one for Mystery Writers of America.  You can easily get a crash course in nearly everything you need to know.

Work from Home

FlexJobs.com lists tons of fun work at home jobs from remote editorial assistant to writing blog posts for businesses; listing run the gamut paying anywhere from $25 an hour to as much as $84,000 annually!

Go with Growth Modes

The senior services sector is booming [as many employers discover the reliability of the age demographic].  Find out more at such organizations as AARP, or the National Association of Senior Move Managers [NASMM.org].

Home health care is increasing as our nation ages.  If you have a background as a RN or LPN there are many firms willing to hire [plenty of established hospital chains and life insurance firms make use of such programs as well] jobs are plentiful and you can often set your own schedule.  Check online or with your local hospital chain.

We live in an Idea Economy, or if you prefer, a Leadership Economy.

As Taylor Pearson, author of “The End of Jobs” mentioned to me on our podcast: you either are going to have to “exit up” or “exit down”.

That sounds dire and scary. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

I don’t think it’s that hard to “exit up”. I think it’s a matter of always making yourself indispensable through the ideas we discuss in this newsletter and the daily newsletter.

 But this brings me to an important point: fear.

It’s one thing to say “you might have to ‘exit down’.”

It’s also another thing to say “the world is going to hell”. Or to spread fear-mongering by talking about how the economy is going to crash forever and everyone is going to die poor and hungry.

But the Myth of America’s decline has been around since 1776 and won’t go away.

Why?

·         It’s in our natures to believe in Declinism.

·         We’re always nostalgic of the older, easier days.

·         And here’s the real trick. Ideas evolve faster than humans.
·         A human generation is about 20 years.
·         An idea generation might be just a few years.

·         3D Printing, Synthetic biology, Sensors, Robotics, biotech, are all evolving at incredibly fast rates right now.

Here’s what to do now: be the first, be the expert, and you can start thinking of ten ideas A DAY on how to make money off of them.
OK, so you have a brilliant idea for a new product, but don’t have the cash—or connections with the cash—to get started. Ten years ago, your idea would’ve fallen by the wayside where brilliant ideas go to die. Bringing a new product to the market was incredibly risky and expensive. But that’s all changed. Today, it’s easier than ever to test the market’s want for that product for free and receive funding to bring it into the world.
Whether your product idea is a film, book, line of jewelry, nifty gadget, or lifesaving device, there are two companies that can help you get the money you need—provided the market thinks it’s a good idea.

 
These companies are called Kickstarter and Indiegogo.

You’ve probably heard of them. They are a simple way to fund creative projects you resonate with—and get your own creative venture funded by like-minded people. You decide how

much money you need, tell potential investors why you need it, and if you raise your requested amount, you get to use the money to develop your product.

The backers of projects, in return, will receive an agreed-upon gift. Normally the gifts range from a public ‘thank you’ if they pledge a few dollars to the full product if they pledge enough to:

Start Your Own Business For Free…cover the cost of production. It’s your choice what gifts you’ll give to your backers.

Kickstarter: www.kickstarter.com

 

Indiegogo: www.indiegogo.com

 

Starting a campaign is insanely simple. But executing a wildly successful campaign, in most cases, requires finesse.

Here’s where you can gain that extra edge.

Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Workweek has posted a step-by-step explanation on how one entrepreneur raised $100,000 in 10 days to launch his project.

How to raise $100,000 in 10 days:

www.fourhourworkweek.com/2012/12/18/hacking-kickstarterhow-to-raise-100000-in-10-days-includes-successful-templatese-

mails-etc.

Never stop looking, reading, observing and learning, and finally, ADAPTING!

Resources:

MyLifeStyleCareer.com – sign up for their free newsletter

Retirement-Online.com – online coaching for retirees

http://www.jamesaltucher.com/   -  Ideas for a world out of balance

 


Escaping the Rat Race with Your Own Business-CD ROM


 
Yours for another revolution,

Bruce ‘the Poor Man’

 

Post Script…

Contributors and subscribers enable the Poor Man Survivor to post 150+ free essays & free reports that I provide annually. It is for this reason they are Heroes and Heroines of New Media. Without your financial support, the free content would disappear for the simple reason that I cannot keep body and soul together on my meager book sales & ecommerce alone.  You can make a donation at top of this page via PayPal.

 

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3 comments:

Frank said...

You're 100% right-incomes have not kept up with the cost of living. Our purchasing power has nosedived during the past 20 years thanks to the government which demands more and more of our money-every one nickel and dimes us to death and frankly, I'm sick of it. Obamacare was the last fricking straw for our family. Premiums rose 114% and the deductible is now $5500! Those lame idiots in Congress meanwhile are getting a free ride-those Dems who came up with this plan should have to get the same plan and pay for it out of their pocket.

Marybeth said...

Some really nice idea-starters here!

Ranger said...

You always provide a wide range of useful resources. Too bad so few seem have their eyes open however. Sadly, that seems to be the way of life for many.