It's been 3 weeks since my last post, which was about Freedom - from a personal perspective - financial freedom, setting myself free from slavery. The reason I haven't posted anything is because I've achieved the exact opposite! I'm more enslaved now, having to earn more to survive. We borrowed money from a bank to buy a small business, a DVD store, with the ultimate aim of achieving freedom. Now we have the loan to repay, as well as rent at the store, and whatever we make over and above that is supposed to set us free from working to enrich other people.
Sounds very dramatic, but facts are facts, and I'm desperate to find a way out of this financial quagmire. There is always pressure from people who insist that we must hold on to our jobs, and not complain about the hours spent achieving nothing except lowering our quality of life in order to survive. At 60, I shouldn't be in this situation. Bad decisions, bad planning, all my own fault. I love editing, proofreading, so how to do this as an independent?
My 26 year old son is without a job right now, and it's become a real issue ... family applying pressure saying he must get out there and take any job, work as hard as is demanded, accept a low wage - I used to think like that, but I've changed. FTS! I would like him to enjoy his time on earth. Sure, hard work can be rewarding, but why not work hard for yourself? Why become a cog in someone else's machine? The biggest challenge now is how to achieve this. He loves online gaming, just as much as he loved playing hockey and cricket at high school where he was the senior player of the year. He loves scuba diving, but unfortunately it's a seasonal thing. Should he emigrate? Buy his own boat and tanks? Money money money.
How to have liquidity and freedom. Any advice, ideas, input, suggestions would be absolutely appreciated!
One life ... choose freedom!
How about renting games also in that shop? ps4, xbox etc, take it a stage further and put in a few of each, at stations, lets say 1 station with a ps4, 1 with a xbox, then let people pay to try the games out inside your shop, charge by the hour, employ your son cash in hand if possible, to advise on good games. Any good?.
Diversifying he business could work but does require an additonal finacial investment.
It is a good idea, I've actually spoken to my son about it, and hopefully he'll give it a go. The shop is quite small, let's see what we can do. Thanks for the advice, much appreciated.
More than welcome, let me know how it goes, I can throw some finances over, should you need it.
Very generous of you @deliberator, but South African prices for PS4 is about R5 or R6000 and XBox around R4000.
Rate of exchange just to give you an idea, R10000 is 650 Euro. My job as preschool administrator only pays R6500 (422 Euro).
You are one in a million just to even consider it!
The question you are asking is how do we break free from wage slavery to become self-sufficient? A question many are asking. I believe the first step is to eliminate debt. How does one do that? This seems a simple enough question but the path can be long and difficult. I sense that steemit can help but unless you have a niche there is considerable competition. Freedom comes with responsibilities, cooperative collaboration may be a path. People working together towards mutual benefit.
Hang in there.