Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes

[Vigilante]

Life moves in chapters. People come in, and people fade out. Jobs come, and jobs go. Kids grow up. People die. Babies are born. You are in debt. You're out of debt. You're into religion. You're out of religion. You work out. You get fat. You get skinny. If you look back on your adulthood, you will see that there were beginnings, middles, and ends of distinct periods, or chapters. Nobodys life is static. The day you started doing what you did today was the start of the chapter you're in. Is it interesting? Do you like where you are at? If you could choose it, would you choose where you were at today? Physically? Mentally? Geographically? Would you choose it? Did you know you DID choose it?

What chapter are you writing as you read this? Where are you at? Can you recalibrate? Can you start something new?

Should you move half way across the country because you can?

Anyone that says that they can't write their own ending doesn't get free will. Where do you want to be?

What did you do today? Did you work some suck a$$ job just because that's where the sum total of your choices through today found you?

Are you one of the people I am watching set up your chair on the beach because it's Friday?

I spent too many years of my life being one of the people setting up chairs on a Friday.

 

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[Vigilante]

I have friends that in their very young 20's decided they didn't want to live in the Midwest any more. So, with very little but the clothes on their backs, they headed to the West coast, picked an area, and built a life there.

I am convinced that the trappings of life ensnare people. You get a job (or two), a mortgage, your kids are in school... and suddenly you are geographically trapped.

If I could give any advice to my younger self, it would have been to sacrifice rushing into adulthood long enough to figure out what lifestyle I wanted before marriage, kids, "obligations," and more permanent lifestyle choices came into play. Mark Twain was right when he talked about setting sail.

My youngest son is in college. His choices were to do the responsible thing this summer and work a job for college level pay, or cast off for adventure. I am pleased to report that he opted for the path less traveled. There's plenty of time in life to play the role of a "grown up" if you really want to. Granted, he has a bit more of a safety net than most people, but none the less he's decided that there is simply too much of life to experience than to stand in one place for too long.

Do you like the mountains? Do you want to be in Arizona when half of the rest of the world is living in a deep freeze? Does the ocean wind calm your soul? Do you like to downhill ski? Snorkel? Mountain bike? Whale watch?

We had a lot of reasons for staying where we were, mostly as a result of life choices. We are a sum of the choices we make.

We were in a window of time where we saw the escape hatch, and we took it. It's there if you look for it.

A lot of people go on vacation, and wish they could stay. They could, really. Just like MJ talks about trading 5 days of work for 2 weekend days of freedom... so people trade 50 weeks of suck for 2 weeks of playing where they want to play. Why can't it be a full time life thing? If you love California, why can't you move there?

There's a happiness scale. Where are you at on it? The thread about moving to Scottsdale... pick YOUR Scottsdale. It's not about that town. It's about that concept. If you move to Scottsdale because it sounded cool in the book, you missed the point of why his personal relocation was even important. It's not the town itself.

People read the Millionaire Fast Lane, and MJ's journey to Arizona. They then want to move to Arizona. It's not about Arizona. It's about freedom. Your Arizona might be Boulder, Colorado. It might be Latvia. It might be Honolulu. It might be Jamaica. It might be Dallas, Texas.

You're running out of excuses as to why staying in your comfort zone makes sense. When you reach your breaking point, look for the escape hatch and take the exit. Life is short. Navigate yourself to where you want to be.

 

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[Vigilante]

Down the road I will be posting a "business accelerator" progress thread.

If you remember from the Millionaire Fast Lane, MJ's change in geography was simultaneous to the paradigm shift in his business. Physical geographical improvement accompanied a paradigm shift in psychological income generation. It was the catalyst to his launch of his Millionaire Fast Lane.

I am a paper multi-millionaire. Good cash flow, good strong business, but being a paper millionaire is very different than the Shark Tank crowd. If I sold the business today, I'd have to build another one.

So along with the change in latitude is coming a change in attitude. I am going to go through a paradigm shift in income generation, and down the road I will share that with you in my business accelerator progress thread. The geographical relocation was significant for quality of life reasons, but it has to be accompanied by a financial acceleration.

My son and I drove last night through an island area south of Tampa called Casey Key. It's a relatively private, Bentley filled drive with the Gulf of Mexico on one side and the intercoastal on the other. (http://www.visitsarasota.org/beaches-places/casey-key/osprey/nokomis)

Stephen King, Oprah Winfrey and Rosie O'Donnell made their homes there amongst the 600 residents. My son fell in love with it, leading me to ask the natural question : "What could keep you from living here?"

The answer for me personally lies in-between today and by business accelerator.

I am winding down my posts in this thread, going back underground for a while to drink in the new surroundings, reposition my company, and take a few drives down Casey Key. For those of you in the Tampa/St. Pete area, we will have a get together this Fall at Tampa Bay Downs.

I have enjoyed chronicling this journey with all of you. Hopefully the continuation thread finishes the story that started here.

My Best.

- Vigilante

 

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[Vigilante]

The headline to my intro thread to the Fast Lane Forum in October of 2011 was "Who The Hell Would Live in Minnesota?" Life intersected with an ironic detour (to those who know me personally, you know exactly what I am talking about...) that delayed our inevitable escape from the frozen tundra. I'd like to believe this would have happened sooner, but we all have excuses for inaction. It's time to set sail.

I watched a friend from this forum pack his whole life, his whole family, and his whole future into a U-Haul trailer and head south. He arrived to his promised land after a few months (!) on his journey, and never looked back.

We're about to do the same thing. Waiting on the final milestone event that will happen by mid-May, in early June we will be wheels up and heading south.

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain

Come along for the ride in our figurative u-Haul. I will chronicle as much of the journey as I can for you, here on the pages of the Fast Lane Forum. This is part therapy for me and a place to have a mind release, and part wanting to leave a bread crumb trail for those who come behind us. We're about to take an epic journey, and inviting you to come along with a front row seat.

Destination : Gulf Coast of Florida
ETA : Mid June, 2015

 

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[Vigilante]

Our ability to pack up and leave started with the business structure. From the beginning, we integrated MJ's commandment of TIME (separating your time from your income) so that we weren't required to be present for the business to operate. There are currently a couple of fast lane forum members snorkeling the great barrier reef in Australia while their business assets continue generating income. That is the ultimate exercise of the commandment of time. It's what enables me to sit in Maui for long stretches of time, and what enables us to pack up and move... where ever.

The business we have, for the most part is automated and outsourced. We've also grown to this point without building a huge physical infrastructure. The reason I am looking for distribution partnerships is so that the business can continue to scale, but I want to use someone else's infrastructure to do it so that I don't need to own physical assets that require maintenance and physical presence.

You've heard me talk before about the fact that we use a Regus office. We have an office currently in Minneapolis, and several months ago I triggered an office lease termination, that expires at the end of this month. So, at the end of this month, we will have no physical office. We still have a small warehouse in Minneapolis, but that may or may not be eliminated all together. 80% of your business will generally come from 20% of your activities, and that is true for our business as well. If I can automate and outsource the 20% of the activity that generates the 80% of the income... we might just cut the rest loose all together. I want to eliminate the dependence on any location that requires manual intervention. So, if I can't get some of the items to be less "hands on" manual intensive, we might just have to cut those and move on. They're not big contributors to the big picture anyway. Never fall in love with your "stuff..." because it's just stuff.

So, we switched with Regus over to a virtual office. http://www.regus.com/products/virtual-offices/index.aspx

Technically, we become location independent. There are several hundred Regus offices in North America, and now we can walk in and use any of them. In addition, we still have an "office address" for all packages, mailing, phone answering, etc... we have a business presence. It will sit in Minneapolis for a while, until I transfer it to Florida. Regus virtual offices can be transferred anywhere. So, when ever we want, we flip a switch, turn it off in Minneapolis, and turn all of it to Florida (or where ever). No longer tethered to an office.

In addition, we're currently using RingCentral for our phone system. It's a virtual phone system, which sounds and feels like a big company phone system. It will follow us where ever we go, whether I am working from an office in Minneapolis, or a boat in the Florida keys. So, from a perception standpoint, we're set with Ring Central. When I decide to, we simply disconnect the Minneapolis phone numbers, and build new ones with Florida prefixes. Half hour to switch everything over, and we're in business with Florida phone numbers.

So, the office tether is cut, the warehouse space is minimal (and I have one person staying back in Minneapolis that can run the minimal operations left here) and the phone system is virtual, as is the office.

Separated from time, separated from location.

 

[Vigilante]

Time for an update.

I made it to the destination. It was a tremendous pain in the a$$... more than I imagined. Our caravan consisted of me in a 26 foot uHaul towing a car trailer with a vehicle on it, and my son driving separately in my loaded down F350. The rig I was driving absolutely should not be legal for a normal driver to drive, as it was the length of a semi with no steering control. It drove similarly to a boat, where it would go in the general direction you want it to and you just have to hope wind conditions remain good, which changed with each passing semi truck. It was treacherous, dangerous, and arduous. The trip required three days of constant, undivided attention, with both hands on the steering wheel and both eyes on the road at all times. Driving the truck itself would have been OK, but the combination of the truck plus the hauler was completely unsafe, especially through the descent of the mountain ranges in Tennessee.

But alas we finally arrived. I hired a moving company on this side to unpack the truck, and they sent a huge fat guy and an old man as my moving crew. None the less, the truck was unpacked and I am currently adrift in a sea of boxes. My wife and kid will arrive in a week... meanwhile I have some furniture being delivered, got the Verizon Fios fiber optic cable installed, and even managed to spray myself in the face with reclaimed sewer water while I was testing out our in-ground sprinkler system.

Today marks a shift in the calendar back into work mode... need to get some stuff reignited on several fronts. Between Rachel (my daughter) getting married a few weeks ago, and then this road trip... the business has been forced to do what it was designed to do and that's run on auto pilot. However, for those of you who have a passive income business model, there's a difference between passive income management and an absentee owner. The business has been neglected for the past few weeks, so I need to blow the cobwebs off and get back into action mode.

I picked two movie clips from the Truman Show, and I am recommending you watch them both. They're both relevant to scaling the walls in front of you.

Many, many people from the north questioned why we would want to move to Florida. People like to stay within their comfort zones, and I have noticed an interesting phenomenon... they like YOU to stay inside their comfort zones as well. Think about the movie the Truman Show with Jim Carrey. Once he discovered there is a world out there much bigger than the artificial constraints he believed were there, he was able to go beyond the wall. You disrupting people's comfort zone by going beyond the wall tends to make people uncomfortable, because it eliminates the artificial barriers they constructed in their own minds to rationalize their own contentment in less than excellent circumstances.

What if the walls you perceive to be in front of you are artificial? What if they were constructed by you, or by someone intending to keep you chained?

What if this is the first time in your life you realize that like Truman... like MJ DeMarco...like Allen Crawley... like Biophase...like GlobalWealth... like me...like thousands of others... you discover you can go BEYOND THE WALL....

 

[Vigilante]

So we are on the eve of the scouting trip. We're leaving in the morning and heading south with a bag full of flip flops, swimsuits, and hope.

Life is generally what you make it. We're a sum total of the choices that we make, both large and small along the way.

We're looking forward to some time in the sand, hopefully finding a place that we'd like to hang out in for a while, and a recalibration.

It's somewhat surreal to put things into proverbial mothballs here, as so much of life happened where you were from.

In some ways, it is easier when a company moves you for a job, like when we packed up and moved to Arkansas. It's easier because it's less voluntary, and it's easier because it's financed generally by someone else. Less risk.

A friend that recently moved his family half way across the country had no regrets, other than the distance that it put in-between him and his first grandchild.

The challenge. The newness. Exploring. The weather. The beach. The economy. The breaking of monotony. Living what you preach. Freedom. Lifestyle. Health. Excitement. Unknown. Stretching. Becoming.

All reasons to take the step.

 

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[johnp]

@Vigilante

Just want to say thanks for this thread. I realized that we can change Latitudes, even if it's for a very short period of time.

After my wife got home from work on Friday we were sitting around trying to figure out what to do for the weekend. My suggestion was to just get in the car and drive somewhere..like Florida. She said that we can't do that because it's too far, there wasn't enough time, we didn't have a plan, etc... Then I said, "why?, what's stopping us other than all of those excuses?" So...

We got in the car at 8pm and headed 12 hours south driving all night until we finally arrived to the beaches. We didn't plan a single thing except for the hotel. Everything worked out, it actually ended up being our best trip ever.

We only stayed for 2 nights, then got back in the car and drove all of the way home, with two dogs. But in that short period of time I experienced a whole new culture, I learned that people actually boil peanuts (which I hated), I discovered a few business ideas, and I think that we found a new place to live someday.

I know that this isn't exactly what you're talking about because it wasn't a full blown move, but I realized that even a short-term change in latitudes can add a lot of charge back into life. And looking back, the journey was actually more fun than arriving to the destination itself. It was hard and I wanted to quit at times...It reminded me very much of the journey to the fastlane.

I added a pic of the beach at 7am after driving all night. Nothing beats the feeling of driving 12 hours to step out onto the beach in the morning when most people are still asleep.

 

[Vigilante]

It's Friday afternoon. It has been interesting to watch the weekend warriors this afternoon start to migrate towards the beach. They've worked all week to get to the weekend, and the weekend is finally here. There's triple the average beach chairs and tents up now as the weekend rolls in. They can crack a beer, dip their toes in the surf, and forget about their 9 to 5 for a few days. Life moves in slow motion at the beach. Monday is a world away.

 

[Vigilante]

We don't have a place to live in Florida. We're going on an expedition there in mid April. I rented a house that sits directly on the Gulf Coast, so we can walk out from the beach house directly to the ocean. We'll use it as our headquarters for a couple of weeks while we try and find a place to stay.

I have bought a few family members one way plane tickets already for June, and the plan is I will drive down with my son and one of the vehicles, and pick the others up at the airport in mid-June. We're going to tow a medium sized u-Haul trailer, as most of the furniture and all but critical belongings will not be making this trip. We will also be transporting at least one other vehicle using a car transport system, and having that arrive a few days before we do so that we'll have (at least) two vehicles there when we get to town.

We're not going to buy a place in Florida, so we're looking for a decent rental property for the time being (like a 6 month to 1 year lease). A lot changes in a year, and we're not even sure what area we want to live in. We need sunshine, alcohol, and ocean air to help make longer range decisions like that. So, for now, we need a place to crash and use as a home base.

 

[Vigilante]

Call me boring, but this is the most interesting part of the whole thread.. that what enables freedom.

You run e-commerce stores, right? Do your employees ship product, or is it all outsourced to third parties? How many employees do you have?

Why the Regus office though? Do you feel you need it to get things done, or is just to have an address?

Edit: I'm asking because I can see me/my business going a similar route not too long from now.

Thanks!

You run e-commerce stores, right?
Yes.

Do your employees ship product, or is it all outsourced to third parties?
We do both. 95% probably of what we ship is shipped by fulfillment centers for us.

How many employees do you have?
A handful seasonally. I would like to have zero. However, I don't count the fulfillment center employees, the Regus employees, the Fedex/UPS/USPS/DHL employees, the Amazon employees, the eBay international shipping employees, or everyone else's liability as my own. I can scale using their infrastructure. I also outsource a lot of things traditional employees would do. What we keep in house is sourcing, marketing direction, production scheduling, and social media. And customer escalations. The most I have had is a dozen W2 employees a few years back. I would like that number to be as close to zero as it can be. The reduction in pain-in-the-a$$ is directly proportional to the reduction in head count.

Why the Regus office though?
Convenience. No furniture costs. No IT costs. No phone systems. No internet contracts. No receptionist costs. 24-7 office access. Decent facilities for larger scale meetings. Professional services. Hard core equipment on a pay to play basis. Shipment destination cross dock/storage. Transferrable anywhere in the world. We just literally unplugged one in Minnesota and moved it to Florida. Business centers across the country in every major metro area, enabling you to "work" anywhere with no strings attached. And, free coffee. I have had my own office suites before (several) and every time I want to do something different, I have to liquidate conference tables, cubicle walls, and people. No mess. No hassle. No long term strings. Essentially... virtual.

 

[Vigilante]

Quick update.

I am writing this from my temporary office (aka a lanai overlooking the Gulf of Mexico). It's 2PM in Florida, and in my absence the company has already surpassed last year's sales (comparative days) with half the day to go. It looks like we will double last years sales today. Not bad for a Wednesday with an absentee owner.

Meanwhile, back at the office, they're shipping the largest wholesale order we have had year to date to a new customer, and they also launched a new sku today complete with a press release, some product video support, and a simultaneous Amazon launch. So, while that is not technically passive, it's passive for me today. The machine keeps on turning.

We spent the day driving around looking at everything from trailers to mansions. There's a huge dichotomy between the beach life, and the city life near the beach. We're likely to look inland, but then eventually have a cheaper escape to the beach (either through rental or a small condo or something). The entire gulf coast is littered with places, and they really hit most all income brackets.

We drove around BelleAir, Florida (I didn't even know that existed) but certainly at least parts of it would rival Bel Air, CA.

I'm torn. We need to put a more hard core press on finding a place to rent, but at the same time... I am super close to Tampa Bay Downs. What to do....

We spent some time looking in the SoHo area of Tampa. Flats, brownstone buildings, etc... but I think we need more space.

I haven't done shit for work over the last few days. One of these days, I need to get over to one of the Regus offices here in Tampa and at least spend some time cranking. As great as being able to work from anywhere is, having a bottle of Gray Goose holding hands with a bottle of Cabo Wabo on the counter and the waves crashing in the background isn't necessarily distraction free.

The good news is I have some major work to do for a client in town here, and in so doing a lot of the expenses from the trip are a write off, not to mention our pending business relocation to this area. My advice to you is save every single receipt, give it to your CPA, and let them figure out what a legitimate business expense is. Chances are, the Cabo Wabo is on me, not the taxpayers.

On the to do list... charter a boat, go see my family south of here, find a few awesome restaurants. And oh shit... find a house to move to.

 

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[Vigilante]

So why Florida?

When I wrote the original introductory post, we were on the front side of a new and promising business, most of which has been chronicled in detail for the INSIDERS. We spend an above average amount of time at the beach, mostly in Hawaii, as a result of a business that is location and time independent.

I am working diligently on positioning that business for much bigger things. We're expanding the distribution of the business, and looking at potential distribution partnerships. Eventually, the business will be sold. I am beyond the harvesting phase that James Altucher describes in the cycles of starting up and selling a business, and am entering the phase where it is time to look at exit strategies.

Minnesota has a 10% personal income tax on high income earners. If you have a large exit event as a Minnesota resident running a Minnesota business, in addition to the Federal income tax, you are looking at writing a check to the State of just over 10% of the net income from any large transaction. Several states, Florida included, are personal income tax free. Florida derives most of it's income from sales tax, a model that hopefully the country will embrace in the form of a "fair tax" eliminating the personal income tax all together, but I digress.

States with no income tax:

• Alaska
• Florida
• Nevada
• South Dakota
• Texas
• Washington
• Wyoming

States with nearly no income tax:

• Tennessee
• New Hampshire

North Carolina also gets favorable mention as they are moving in the right direction, lowering State income tax and trending towards making the list of low income tax burdens. As MJ may point out, that doesn't mean it is any cheaper to live in these states. They still collect the money... it just comes in to them in a different form than personal income tax. However, depending on your income projections for the next few years, it may matter to you how your state takes your money.

For us, we're setting up residency in a state with a favorable personal income tax anticipating down the road it will make a difference to us personally on how much money we are able to put in the bank.

We're not moving to Florida strictly for tax purposes. We're moving to Florida for a change in latitude. We'll end up contributing a ton to the local economy where ever we end up. We will, however, be in better control of how those contributions flow. So... Florida it is. We considered Texas also, but decided that the beaches, the proximity to the Florida keys, the attractions, and having some family in the area made a difference for us.

 

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[Vigilante]

So next week is D-day. This coming weekend, I have rented a massive truck. What started as just a plan to take a little truck and a few things and get there and buy all new stuff... has morphed into renting a massive uHaul, pulling a car behind it, and a second rig that my son will drive down for me with my F350 pulling his Mustang GT. The drive is going to take us three 9-hour days as we will be going slower than I prefer. We'll use about 300 gallons of gas on the way down. I think we will probably leave Monday morning at the crack of dawn, point the trucks southeast, and ease on out of Minnesota. I bought some FRS radios so we can play smokey and the bandit on the road. Unfortunately, my "bandit" is going to be in my F350 with a car trailer in tow, so we won't be outrunning anyone.

I probably should have hired a moving company. I didn't think we were bringing as much stuff as we are. Three days in that massive truck and my a$$ is going to be paralyzed. I did find a company here locally that employs military veterans that I am hiring to load us up. Hopefully they're not veterans of WWII.

My wife and young kid are not coming down for a couple more weeks, giving me some time to get stuff set up and acclimated. I need to do the critical stuff, like find a tiki bar for the back patio, find some Yuengling light, and watch the Belmont a week from Saturday. Oh and find a house full of furniture.

We've reached the point of no return. I have cleared out the Minneapolis office, shut down the storage facilities here, cleaned out our small warehouse, and got everything businesswise buttoned down. The only thing standing between me and the relocation is a couple of days on the calendar and a tremendous amount of last minute work.

 

[Bila]

Today marks the day i landed in Canada 11 years ago.
For those who are not sure about quitting everything ....I left with my passeport, a visa and 162 $ ( i remember the exact amount ) ....5000 km away from everything i knew.

Between a military oppressive regime ( arrested twice ) and scary bearded guys ( you know, the ones you see on tv ) ...I chose something else : Life.

If the shy, twentysomething who did not speak a word in English did it ( you can tell anyway ) , you better f...ing do it too and choose life

 

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[Vigilante]

By the way, the money we have does give us a little edge. However, realize that being "paper millionaires" doesn't mean we have money falling out of our pockets. The journey we are heading on starts with the intention to change the scenery. Anyone can do what we are about to do, once you cast off the bow lines. It's not about money. We're not poor, so it certainly helps in our quest that we don't have to worry much about that, but frankly... if you are poor where you live you will start poor where you are going, so what difference does it make? In fact, you might find that the move is the best thing you could do for yourself. We're packing our shit in a U-Haul and heading off for parts unknown. We'll live there on the same money we're living on now. If I had zero money, I could do the same thing with a suitcase and a one way bus ticket. In some ways, it might be easier.

We all have many reasons why we're stuck where we are stuck. Many of us are imprisoned by chains of our own selection. There are very few reasons why you can't make a radical change in your circumstances, and in your surroundings. Fear is up towards the top of the list of chains that people need to cast off.

That's all for now. Probably won't have many if any updates until the scouting expedition in mid-April. Thanks for riding along with us.

 

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[Vigilante]

Thanks for this @Vigilante.

Does that mean you actually let them go at that stage, or just that you tell them those are the options - stay on current salary, or strike out on their own?

I could understand that when someone gets to that point, then it's better to get someone else in.

That becomes sort of the point of no return. I don't fire them, but once it manifests itself (and human nature says it always will) that's the point that they are encouraged to go try something else.

Most people that have ever worked with and/or for me should have a unique skill set that they would be able to go replicate this type of business, but interestingly enough, most go take other regular jobs. Jobs with less transparency and less freedom. Maybe for more pay, maybe not. They just reach a point where they want more of what I have, and feel entitled.

Dick Schulze is the founder of Best Buy, and the richest man in Minnesota. At one point, he had 50,000 employees working for him, all making him and the shareholders and the corporate machine more money. On the day that each of the 50,000 people were hired, they were all happy to have a job, and all agreed to the wages they were making. Most of them were probably pumped up on their first day just for the chance to be part of Best Buy. One by one, they all got dissatisfied with their wage. They're McDonalds workers, thinking they are a bigger part of the success than they really are. One by one, most got envious of the modern day Dick Schulze for the wealth his ideas accumulated. They thought they were entitled to... more. They weren't there when he thought of the idea that created their jobs. They weren't there when he bet it all, taking a double mortgage on his house and putting everything at risk. They weren't there when he fought on the edge of bankruptcy twice. They weren't there when he decided to give all of his employees health insurance. They just wanted... more.

It happens. That's the $15/hour McDonalds discussion. It happens with every employee, in every successful business, in nearly every job. When I was 22 years old, I thought I should be the president of the company I worked for (which, ironically, was Best Buy.)

So, I just know the cycle, see the cycle, identify the cycle, and help people recognize what is going to make them happy along the way. Everyone loves their job and their boss and their salary on their first day. When that changes, for any reason... it's time to pursue what you think are greener pastures. We all know they are not greener, but that is the point when you shift from being an asset to being a liability for me. And that's the window when it is healthy for the employee... and the business... to make a change.

 

[Vigilante]

So, we leased a house. As usual, we broke most of the rules to do so.

1. We wanted a move in date that was later than the homeowner wanted
2. They asked for financials on us, we passed
3. They asked for tax returns, we passed
4. We did give them credit report access. That's about it.

A funny thing happens when you change the leverage in a negotiation. They wanted to lease us the house more than we wanted the house. There are 1,000 houses we could lease, but there's only one leasee that looks like us. Leverage.

We gave them mostly what they wanted. Most of their concerns center around money (as they should). So, we didn't fight them on money. We demanded the terms we wanted, and refused to play the game most people play regarding their absurd demands.

In the end, they get what they want (money) and we get what we want (a crash pad.) Nothing else really matters in this transaction.

If you can get to the HEART of what your opponent wants in a negotiation, and give them that or something close to that... everything else is just semantics.

We'll sign the lease tonight, and fly back to Minnesota tomorrow.

 

[SteveO]

I am heading to Yuma next week to look at a golf course that is for sale. That would be the ultimate for my wife and I to sail off into the sunset with. I could either pay money to become part of a club.... or could make money while being the club.

Not saying that we are purchasing this, just looking...

 

[Vigilante]

I just met with my tax accountant, and was reminded of yet another reason to change locations.

There are seven U.S states with zero state personal income tax.

Those include:

• Alaska
• Florida
• Nevada
• South Dakota
• Texas
• Washington
• Wyoming

In addition, there are states with minimal personal income taxes. Those include:

• Tennessee
• New Hampshire

 

[Vigilante]

Ah.

Day 1.

Moving company didn't show up. Complete NO SHOW. No call. No message. Not answering their phone. Jokes on them as they didn't take a deposit.

Serves me right for hiring discount labor.

I feel like a girl all dressed up for the prom, and no date.

So, tomorrow, the real, high priced moving team I have used in the past will be here to bail me out.

You get what you pay for.

So... don't be cheap.

Until tomorrow... see you at Day 2.

- Vigilante

 

[Vigilante]

I went to the Tervis Tumbler corporate store yesterday, and found these glasses :

That picture is shot on my back deck. Small tropical yard.

 

[Vigilante]

So many chances to do something new.

I wrote this in my private journal last night.

Current

Swam against the current for so long

Before I learned

It is easier to just let

The riptide take you in the direction you should have swam all along.

 

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[Vigilante]

Sunday. Heading off on a boat cruise to look for dolphins. We think we found a house to lock in to. Coincidentally, it ended up being a stone's throw from a horse racing track (go figure). 10 minutes from the beach, a few minutes from the office, close to the health club we are members of, and right by the mall my wife wants to live at. We'd never buy it, but it will make a decent crash pad until we decide where we want to be down the road. It's at least a destination I can point the UHaul towards in June.

 

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[Vigilante]

I have PM's disabled.

Panhandle is still too cold for me. Anything north of Tampa still gets more seasonal change than we want. We ended up north of Venice/Sarasota. I actually prefer the Atlantic side, but we picked the Gulf side for some other reasons. However, being within a few hours of Orlando, near Tampa, a day's drive to the Keys... we're anxious to explore.

We also intentionally came down at the worst time of the year per a suggestion from MJ. If you can handle the area in the worst of what it has to offer (and everywhere but Hawaii has some rough weather) then you should love it during the best of what it has to offer.

 

[Vigilante]

"So often times it happens that we live our lives in chains, and we never even know we have the key."

- The Eagles

Thread closed. To be continued...

 

[Vigilante]

 

[Andy Black]

@Vigilante

Just want to say thanks for this thread. I realized that we can change Latitudes, even if it's for a very short period of time.

After my wife got home from work on Friday we were sitting around trying to figure out what to do for the weekend. My suggestion was to just get in the car and drive somewhere..like Florida. She said that we can't do that because it's too far, there wasn't enough time, we didn't have a plan, etc... Then I said, "why?, what's stopping us other than all of those excuses?" So...

We got in the car at 8pm and headed 12 hours south driving all night until we finally arrived to the beaches. We didn't plan a single thing except for the hotel. Everything worked out, it actually ended up being our best trip ever.

We only stayed for 2 nights, then got back in the car and drove all of the way home, with two dogs. But in that short period of time I experienced a whole new culture, I learned that people actually boil peanuts (which I hated), I discovered a few business ideas, and I think that we found a new place to live someday.

I know that this isn't exactly what you're talking about because it wasn't a full blown move, but I realized that even a short-term change in latitudes can add a lot of charge back into life. And looking back, the journey was actually more fun than arriving to the destination itself. It was hard and I wanted to quit at times...It reminded me very much of the journey to the fastlane.

I added a pic of the beach at 7am after driving all night. Nothing beats the feeling of driving 12 hours to step out onto the beach in the morning when most people are still asleep.
View attachment 9784

I love this too. Best trips I ever made were on a motorbike with toothbrush and credit card and a vague direction in our head like "The South of France". It's liberating to forget "have to", "need to", "should do", and just do.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

the headaches that come from dealing with employees and people.

I didn't have many employees (5 at most) but it was one of the elements I least enjoyed of entrepreneurship. In the end, the decision to sell, versus grow, expand (and hence add employees) came down to knowing that adding more people would have added more of what I didn't enjoy. Glad I made that decision not too. Having been a solopreneur now for some years now, I don't think I ever would want to start something that would require a substantial workforce for execution.

 

[Vigilante]

I love this thread.

@Vigilante, @MJ DeMarco - just for clarification: do you mean "traditional" employees sitting in an office or virtual ones too? For instance, do you consider a personal assistant an employee or a contractor?

I know what a pain in the a$$ having an office with employees is, but when I hire virtual employees it feels different (they seem to be much more entrepreneurial than your typical desk jockey).

Virtual employees are the best. They're someone else pain in the a$$. And, you can fire them on a whim. No strings attached. Not employees. Virtual whatevers are contractors. Independent agents that serve at your pleasure. If they suck, you fire them. If they don't do what you want them to do, you fire them. If they bore you... you fire them. That's it. They serve at the total discretion of whom ever is paying for that hour.

I am talking about a virtual assistant, a bookkeeper or CPA out there in the world somewhere, or anyone else that you pay for a service that doesn't have the typical boss/employee dependency. Not a W2 employee, but a virtual outsourced task.

The simple distinction to tell which is which is this... if you could walk in tomorrow, terminate your relationship with them with no strings attached, and simply keep going without the bullshit (notice, unemployment, COBRA, etc...) they're not an employee.

By definition, they would be someone else's pain-in-the-a$$.

 

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