In order to build wealth effectively, we all have to be frugal to a certain extent. We have to watch our spending. We have to analyze our expenditures and cut back on the fat. We have to make sacrifices to make sure that we can save enough money for college and retirement.

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Fortunately, my wife and I both share the same principles when it comes to spending money (ie. we don’t spend frivolously). Otherwise, we would be seriously screwed. But after analyzing last year’s expenses using Quicken, I feel all frugalled out. We have pretty much cut back as much as we possibly can without drastically affecting our lifestyle.

If we look closely at last years expenses, we cut spending by another 4% over the year before. We are going out to eat less thanks to my wife’s desire to …

Many would be entrepreneurs hesitate to start their own business because they think it is too risky from a monetary perspective. In fact, most people don’t think starting a business is even worth trying unless they can come up with a grand slam profitable idea. Of course profitability is an extremely important factor with any business, but what if I were to tell you that you could save a decent amount of money every year with your business while only making a small profit or none at all?

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That’s right! Most people don’t consider the tax savings involved in running a business. Most people don’t realize that having a day job is one of the worst ways to save on taxes because Uncle Sam takes a huge chunk out of your paycheck BEFORE you pay for anything. On the …

As many of you know, my wife and I recently gave birth to our second child Kyle. It’s only been about a month but we’ve already discovered that taking care of Kyle has been drastically different from taking care of our first child. For one thing, we are much more confident this time around. We know what we are doing. We aren’t afraid of minor issues and we can usually recognize when something is truly wrong versus just a normal phase of childhood.

We are also much more proficient at reading our baby’s signals and figuring out what needs to be done. Because we have our own “baby care system” in place so to speak, it’s especially interesting because we are now more keenly aware of how hospitals, books and friends influence us into thinking that certain methods are the right and only way of doing …

Whenever I mention to anyone that I work a full time job, help my wife run our online store and maintain MyWifeQuitHerJob.com all while having two kids in the house, one of the first questions I always get is how I find the time to do all of these things.

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Believe it or not, even with all of these items on my plate, I still feel I have time to take on even more. The secret is being more efficient with your time and managing your day a little bit better. I know. It’s easier said than done. But I’m going to describe in this article how my wife and I organize our time to run our online business and and how we manage to cram a ton of activities into a single day. The reality is that there’s plenty of free time …

I’ve heard a ton of business ideas. I’ve listened to and read many business plans. And the one thing that always strikes me is how little most people think about the viability, profitability and end goals of their small business. Is the goal to become a millionaire? Is the goal to just make a living? Is the goal to just do something fun?

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Perhaps this explains why in just the past year alone, I’ve seen many brick and mortar businesses open up their doors only to close down just a short while later. Perhaps this is why I know of several acquaintances who are in limbo with their business. They don’t make much profit yet they are literally working their butts off for the equivalent of minimum wage.

Granted, a lot of this might have to do with the current economy and the …

“I have no idea how to create and manage my own website and I have absolutely no interest in learning either. I’m just going to hire someone or pay for a service.”

Believe it or not, most people that I encounter who want to create their own online store or business have this attitude. They are reluctant to learn basic web programming because they are afraid of the technical aspects of running a website.

To me, this attitude is contradictory. You want to start an online only business yet you have no desire to learn about the web? That’s

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like saying that you want to be a real estate agent but have no desire to learn about the rules and regulations involved in buying or selling a house.

Unless you have the budget to hire a full time web developer, you are going to have to …

When most people think about starting a company or business, they think of the Microsofts, the Googles and the YouTubes of the world. They tend to think big because the media focuses on these multi-million dollar success stories and over glamorizes the risks and rewards.

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In fact, the media tends to portray entrepreneurs like lottery winners because that’s what makes the news. Because the chances of creating a company like You Tube or Facebook are so slim, most people shy away from starting their own business because they think it’s just way too risky with very little chance of success.

Just the other day, I had one of my readers email me that they were afraid to go out on their own because they didn’t want to risk everything for a measly 1% chance at success. A 1% chance at success? Where the hell did he …

This is a guest post by A-ron who quit his job over 2 years ago because he decided that cubicle life was just not right for him. He now shares his wisdom over at his blog So I Quit My Job and I highly recommend checking it out.

I’d like to think that everyone on this planet has the ability to thrive running their own business. That everyone in existence, especially in the US, has the capability, resources, creativity, and energy to start and run their own business in a capacity that aligns with the lifestyle they wish to live.

To date, this isn’t the truth, it’s just a pipe dream. Everyone knows and feels that working for someone else sucks, but that’s where most people leave it, accepting their “fate” of being an employee for life.

That’s why we’re here, to change that, to break free …

For the past few years, our online wedding linens store has been a cash machine. The store website hasn’t required much work at all and sales have been more or less on autopilot. Each and everyday, orders come in, orders get packed and money is deposited into our bank account.

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In effect, our entire business has been pretty much on cruise control which is why for the past several months we’ve been neglecting many important tasks and just letting our business coast.

But just the other day, my neurotic side kicked in and I started feeling a sudden wave of fear like I was being chased. Is it really safe to assume that our online store will always continue to grow? Has the competitive landscape changed at all? Can we really depend and sustain this level of income in the long term while just coasting …

Every entrepreneur takes their own unique path and it’s always interesting to hear things from a different perspective . In this guest post by Jack Busch, Jack tells his story of how he became self-employed. Jack is a freelance writer and blogger specializing in debt loans, personal finance and credit cards and maintains an excellent blog over at MasterYourCard.com.

When I first discovered MyWifeQuitHerJob.com, I was thrilled. For years, my wife and I have been discussing ways to gain financial independence so we could spend less time at our jobs, which we didn’t necessarily hate, but simply demanded too much of our time and energy. The best plan that we came up with was to buy a Powerball ticket every Wednesday and Saturday and cross our fingers. With somewhat disappointing returns, we’ve ramped up our efforts and have taken to crossing our toes, too. Still no luck.

Fast forward …

Having recently finished writing 2 multi-part guides on how to start a small business and how to create a profitable online store, I must say that it felt good to get all of that information out on paper. Creating these guides was extremely satisfying for me on so many levels and allowed me to document the many things that I learned while starting our wedding linens business.

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But sometimes I wonder whether these guides will really make a difference. Sometimes I wonder how many of my readers will actually go on to start their own small business as a result.

Based on your emails, MyWifeQuitHerJob.com has readers from a broad spectrum of backgrounds and I’m just curious how many of you are truly serious about quitting the rat race? Hell, I received a strange email the other day from a random reader who recently unsubscribed …

I’m not sure why, but my stumbleupon toolbar has been sending me mostly articles lately on entrepreneurship. In just the past few days alone, I’ve probably read more than 5 or 6 articles focusing strictly on the traits of successful entrepreneurs.

Even though I love articles about entrepreneurship, after reading just a few of these they all started to sound generic and blended together in my mind. “Learn to fail”, “Learn from your mistakes”,”Understand your weaknesses” etc… Don’t get me wrong. These articles all offer great advice but it is difficult to truly comprehend and describe these character traits in words unless you’ve truly worked with and experienced them first hand with real people.

Over the years, I’ve had the luxury of working with and hanging out with many successful entrepreneurs, most of whom I became friends with in school or through various clubs and projects. …

“Oh yeah, I tried being an entrepreneur a few years back but it was just too hard.”
“I tried the whole blogging thing but couldn’t get it off the ground”
“I tried learning how to program PHP but I never could get the hang of it”
I don’t know why, but lately I’ve become increasingly sensitive to people complaining about how things are just too difficult. Whenever I hear statements like the ones above, I can’t help but think to myself

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How hard did you really try?
How much time and effort did you actually spend?
Did you just give up after encountering the first obstacle?

Call me a skeptic, but I honestly believe that 90% of the time people complain about their failures and give up because they don’t really give things a chance.
Case In Point
“Oh yeah, I tried being an entrepreneur a few years back but it never went anywhere” …

I never understood how the phrase “Time is money” could ever apply to my life. After all, no one was paying me 24 hours a day so how could my free time possibly translate to money? How could wasting time watching television or playing video games cost me anything when no one was paying me anything anyways?

It took me quite a while to comprehend the true meaning behind this statement. And after 10+ years of frittering away countless hours and taking my free time for granted, my business and my child finally made me realize how badly I was selling myself short.

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For example, I used to always try to save money whenever I could by doing things myself. I would try and save a couple of bucks by changing my own oil even if it took me twice as long as going …

This is a guest post by Kathryn Vercillo. Kathryn is a writer for Promotionalcodes.org.uk which gives away free coupon codes and also publishes a save money blog. She quit her day job long ago so she could work from home and discusses why she is now better able to cope with the recession as a result.

I started working from home nearly ten years ago. There were numerous reasons that working from home made the most sense for my life. However, earning a good income was not ever one of those reasons.

As far as the financial risks go, I wasn’t sure if working from home was a good idea. And I’ll admit that I made a lot of mistakes along the way which caused me financial trouble. Nevertheless the benefits outweighed the costs. And what I’ve discovered is that the financial lessons that I learned from deciding to work …

You may have experienced this pattern before. You start a brand new job and work extremely hard in the beginning to establish yourself and your reputation. At first, the nature of the work is extremely challenging. You are constantly learning and trying to keep up with your coworkers. You find yourself staying late at the office just to get by.

As time passes however, you become adept at your job. You find ways to do your work faster and more efficiently. You become proficient and an expert at what you do. As more time passes, you feel comfortable and at ease with your job. You find yourself able to finish all of your work in an 8 hour day. You have more free time to spend at home. Things become cushy. Is it time to leave?

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This particular reader was feeling a bit discouraged about her situation so I thought that I would try to lend a few words of encouragement. A, Thank you for emailing me. This post is for you.

I have been following your blog for about 3 months now, I work retail so I absolutely love the customer stories(I can relate). I have been working on starting my own business (it is very hands on in that includes sewing and screen printng) both of which I love. So much so that this has actually lead me back to school, and I know exactly what I wish to do. However I keep butting my head against the wall, now thanks to you I understand BHAG and have been working accordingly.

However I still get those nagging, you should be happy to have a job, you’re a bit old to start(really I’m 35!), you …

I’m not sure why, but lately I’ve been listening to a lot of people bitch about their jobs. And honestly, I’m getting a little tired of it. “I hate going to work, but I gotta to pay the bills somehow.” “I want to change jobs, but I’m afraid of getting laid off.” The complaint I hate hearing the most is “I feel lucky just to have a job in this down economy so I’d better stay put”.

Personally, I think “feeling lucky” is the wrong attitude to have. Your company should feel lucky to have you as an employee. Currently, one of my friends who is feeling “lucky” is getting taken advantage of by his employer. He’s worked weekends for quite a while now and even had to work over Memorial Day weekend. In addition, his company announced that there would be …

If there’s one thing that I’ve learned from starting our online wedding linens business, it’s that good planning can only get you so far. You can spend hours and hours putting together the most intricate and well thought out plan only to have it blow up in your face because of one false assumption.

In order to be successful, you have to be open minded. You have to be willing to change. You have to accept that your plans might be complete garbage and that you need to start over from scratch.

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Looking back, my wife and I had a ton of things that didn’t go according to plan. Come to think of it, if we had proceeded down the path of our well laid out plans, my wife would still be working right now and this blog probably never would have existed.

Recently, my wife …

A reader emailed the other day asking whether our business could continue to function if my wife and I took an extended vacation away from it all. He then followed up that question with a proclaimation stating that our business was really just a J-O-B disguised as a true business.

“A business is only real when it continues to thrive even with the owners not present. Otherwise, it’s just another job.” he exclaimed!

While there is some element of truth to his statement, it is the completely wrong attitude to have towards your own personal venture. If you consider your business as just a job, then you will never succeed.

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Every business has to start somewhere. Every business owner doesn’t have the luxury of taking time off especially in the early stages. Here are my thoughts on the distinction between a job and a business. …