Hi from Cape Town, South Africa

[lobstu]

Hi. I'm from beautiful Cape Town, South Africa. I'm a husband and we have a 1.5 year old daughter - also beautiful .

So I've just finished reading the book. I am SUCH a Slowlaner!! And I definitely carry some Sidewalk bullshit too. I am fortunate enough to know this, now.

The issues I have are:

- Nothing saved. Living from paycheck to paycheck.
- No assets. Unless you consider a paid off car an asset - I don't!
- Non-trivial amount of unpaid taxes.
- No surplus cash from primary income. It all goes to living expenses.

The advantages I have are:

- No debt, beyond a credit card with a minimum credit limit (R1000, or ~$125), which is paid in full every month. I have this so that purchasing in-store and online is simple and traceable.
- Optimised expenses, due to Slowlane advice to live within your means, and reduce your expenses. Everything we buy, we need. We live modestly, no consumer cancer. We don't need anything else.
- I work from home - I have a day job, to which I need to contribute 40hrs a week. More about my job below.
- I have plenty of free time I can make use of.
- I am healthy, and slowly achieving physical fitness. Don't drink, don't smoke, and I no longer depend on caffeine.

I'm a career software developer, 15 years in. Mostly freelance, but in a stable job for the last couple years.

My job: I work for a tech-based startup. As it is a startup, my salary is limited. I have minor equity in the company (awarded as sweat equity). I am senior in the company (I am involved in strategy and policy decision-making). I LOVE my job. I'm doing awesome stuff with great folks, and I don't want to stop. What we're doing is deeply aligned with my interests AND my vision for changing the world. And, if it goes well, it'll turn into good money for me down the road.

Up to now, I have been freelancing in my spare time to bring in extra cash (to cover expenses until we were able to reduce those), and I'm busy with a small project at the moment. Once that's done, I'll have around a month's salary in the bank to my disposal. That'll form our emergency fund.

I no longer want to sell my (extra) time for money. Instead, I want to work towards building passive income, initially to fix my tax situation, and ultimately to create real wealth so that my family and I can enjoy everything life has to offer us.

In summary, although I have the tax issue to solve, I realise that I am incredibly fortunate to be in the situation that I am. I have disposable time, skills to build web sites and apps (mobile/web) from scratch, and a stable financial situation. I can execute.

Right, so that's what IS.

However.

I read other forum posts from folks who have loads of ideas. I don't have any. Or, put another way, I'm too damn quick to dismiss them. I self-edit waaay too quickly. I'm going to work on this by brainstorming lists of ideas every day, regardless of my opinion on their viability.

Also, I'm thinking that I can put together a quick'n'dirty web site that allows anyone to fill in a template:

I wish someone would make/build _____________. 
It'd be like ________ (existing product or service) except ________ (how it's different). 
I would pay ____ for this.

Then anyone could fill in what they want to see built (because we only have so much we can do ourselves) and everyone can see all the needs. It'd all be open for everyone to read.

Would anyone use such a thing? Either to share their own ideas or to see what needs are out there? I guess if it took off, I could add up/down votes to ideas and allow folks to comment on them, perhaps to list existing products/services that fulfill the need.

Thoughts?

Finally, thanks MJ, for a great community and a great book. You totally didn't have to share your brain with us. I'm glad you did.

 

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