We’re always looking at models here at BIGG success. Recently, we’ve been thinking about our prehistoric ancestors.

Here’s the progression: BIGG success is life on your own terms. You own your life. You’re the entrepreneur in charge.

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Our ancestors had well-defined roles for their family business.

The men largely hunted. The women gathered. The children didn’t just play; they helped. They contributed. They learned about their future jobs.

Everyone was involved in the family business. And there was a genius to its organization.

Hunting

Hunting was a risky activity. If the right thing went wrong, you could pay the ultimate price – your life.

The returns were intermittent. Some days, there was a BIGG payoff. On other occasions, there was none.

But make no mistake – the payoffs had to come frequently enough for the family unit to survive.

When they came, the family feasted. When they didn’t, the family survived on the gathered items.

Gathering

Gathering was a low-risk activity. You may get hurt, but you weren’t likely to lose your life from it.

It yielded steady returns. These returns were a nice addition to the family feast when the hunt was successful. On days when there was no kill, the family could subsist for a period of time on what had been gathered.

Two types of income

Modern finance theory works much the same way. It suggests that investors should allocate a portion of their portfolio to riskless assets (i.e. treasuries).

For the rest of it, hold risky assets (e.g. stocks).

Like the family unit of the past, modern investors use this hunting-gathering mindset. Risky assets hunt for intermittent, high returns while the risk-free assets steadily gather income.

The rationale for this is to optimize your money stream. You earn more money given the risk by balancing your portfolio between the two types of assets.

It’s also a clue to optimize your money stream now.

4 strategies to optimize your money stream now

As we said before, BIGG success is about entrepreneuring your life. As the person in charge, you can use the hunter-gatherer model to optimize your money stream now.

Here are four ways you can do it:

• Keep your job and start a part-time business
  

  While holding down a job is not risk-free these days, it provides a steady money stream. It’s gathering. You do the work. You gather the income.
  

  In your spare time, start a business. It’s the hunting side. The income you make may be intermittent until you get established. But it will allow you to feast once it takes off!
  

• Build a portfolio career as a business
  

  This is a ramped-up version of the first one. It seems to work particularly well for people in mid-career and beyond.
  

  Instead of trading time for money as you would with a job, turn your expertise or talent into a business.
  

  Instead of only having one customer (your employer), build a business with multiple clients.
  

  Just be sure to not just sell time for money. Sure, it’s a career but why not think BIGG and build a business, too!
  

• Start a business full-time while your spouse holds down a down
  

  Another alternative if you have a supportive spouse is to start a business full-time now. Your spouse can provide the steady income from his or her job.
  

  This is how many couples get started in business. Once the business takes off, the other spouse can work in the business too or start their own.
  

• Do one of the above and invest in businesses
  

  This is the BIGG play. Combine this strategy with one of the others to put your progress on steroids.
  

  Money and time are two of the five elements of BIGG success. They are your two resources.
  

  You only have so much time. You can leverage your time with money.
  

  Instead of working a business yourself, invest in one with someone who does the work. Get your money working as hard as you do. That’s BIGG success.
  

Want to optimize your money stream but aren’t sure where to start?
Maybe we can help!

Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file | podcast:
http://traffic.libsyn.com/biggsuccess/00779-020812.mp3

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A friend of ours recently said something you may have heard before. If you want something done right, get a lazy person do it.

BIGG success is life on your own terms. The first part to reaching that dream is to make sure you’re working on the right things.

But the second part is making sure you’re doing things right. That’s where the lazy factor comes into play.

We often suggest that hard work is a key to reaching BIGG success. It’s a characteristic which the public admires.

But is hard work overrated?

Work is one of the five elements of BIGG success. But so is play.

Life on your own terms may mean more leisure for you. If that’s the case, you better learn all you can from lazy people!

Procrastinate

We’ve all heard the old quote, “Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today.”

But lazy people have a different version: Why do it today if you can put it off until tomorrow? And you know what, they’re at least partially right!

If it truly isn’t important, don’t do it. Focus on the few things that will move you forward to BIGG success.

Eliminate

Are there things on your things-to-do list that you roll forward day after day? Why?

Cross them off your list once and for all. If you’ve gone this long without doing them, do they really need to be done at all?

Prevent

We know that prevention is the best cure when it comes to our health. The saying holds true if you want to take the lazy way to success.

When you find yourself in reactive mode, don’t settle for just resolving the issue at hand. Think about how you can prevent it from happening again.

Invest

What you do is part of the equation. But how you do it is important as well.

Lazy people can’t stand wasting precious resources. Invest time, effort, and energy upfront. Figure out how to do the tasks you need to do most efficiently.

Audit

We’ve written this post somewhat tongue-in-cheek. But lazy comes with a stigma which may cause you to miss an opportunity.

We value hard work. We believe that BIGG success comes with a price. However, underlying the points above is a larger point:

Periodically audit your to-do list.

Question everything. Question why you’re doing something. Question how you’re doing it. You may find that playing more leads to BIGG success!

Here we sit on the cusp of a New Year. Is it just us, or does time seem to go by faster as we get older?

We heard a theory about this that we want to share with you. We wish we could remember who told us this so we could give proper credit!

But it was some time ago and we’ve forgotten. Maybe we’re too old to remember!

But the answer seems particularly insightful. And helpful in understanding how time works.

Here’s the theory:
One year in the life of a 10-year old represents 10% of his or her life.
But it’s only 4% of a 25-year old’s days.
And once you hit 50, it represents just 2% of all your time on Planet Earth.

Ten percent is a pretty sizeable chunk. But 2% isn’t so large.

Imagine a game

To think about this in more tangible terms, assume you’re playing a game. The goal is to maximize your happiness.

The rules state that you have to work 50 hours a week, no more and no less. The rest of your time is for play, sleep, etc.

You fill the 50 hours with activities. You find equilibrium – just enough of each activity to maximize your overall happiness.

Then opportunity arises.

In the first case, the opportunity will require 10% of your time. So you have to give up 5 hours of your current activities. Otherwise, you won’t be able to capitalize on this opportunity.

That’s a lot. You may find it difficult to find 5 hours.

In the second case, the opportunity only requires 2% of your time. So you only have to give up 1 hour of current activities.

It’s a piece of cake compared to the first case, right?

It’s all downhill from here

BIGG success is life on your own terms. There are five elements of BIGG success – money, time, growth, work, and play.

You’re familiar with the saying, “It’s all downhill from here.” It can be interpreted two ways.

The first way is that things will only get worse. The second is that the worst is over.

The chart above illustrates how the game we just described is exactly how life works. It shows what we’re calling the Experience Factor over time.

The downhill curve is steep for the first decade of life. Then it starts leveling off. By the time you hit 40, there’s barely a noticeable change at all.

The good news is that you have so many experiences on your side. Ultimately, life comes down to relationships and experiences.

You have so much more to remember. So much more to cherish. So much more wisdom. So many more reasons to be happy!

So instead of lamenting another year, instead of bemoaning getting older, celebrate! Experience happiness by celebrating your experiences! Celebrate your life!

Here’s to your BIGG success next year! Happy New Year!

BIGG success is life on your own terms. One of the five elements of BIGG success is play.

Leisure. Rest and relaxation. Recreation. Down time.

We often make a mistake when we think of play: When we envision play, we picture others.

Do you do so too?

It’s a trap. You’ll be much happier if you reserve a portion of your play time just for you.

Time to converse

You need some time to yourself. Just like any other relationship, you have to invest in your relationship with yourself.

You need to listen to yourself. You need to learn from yourself. You need to talk to yourself.

Not out loud. Unless you’re alone!

Time to refresh

You need time to refresh. Physically, of course. But you probably do okay with that one.

You need to make time to refresh your spirit. To feed your soul. And one way to do that is to spend some time alone.

Quietly. With just your thoughts.

Time to dream

To refect. And to dream. To envision BIGG success.

To live out in your mind what you will live out in real life. Because every victory is first won in the recesses of your mind.

And so, you need to make time for yourself. So you can tend to yourself. So you can refuel. So you can keep the flame burning.

Now, we know that this is a scary proposition to some people. But give it try.

It may seem strange at first. You may be uncomfortable. But most growth is uncomfortable.

In time, you will grow to appreciate this time. To treasure it, even.

Go someplace that inspires you. Get out in nature, if that’s your thing. We like to be near water.

It’s okay to be around other people. Just try to find a place where they’re not likely to be people you know.

Make time for you. Time to converse, to refresh, to dream. It leads to BIGG success!

Do you make time for yourself?

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Money is one of the five elements of BIGG success. When you really think about it, there are only two core paradigms when it comes to personal finance:

The more money you have, the more you can do.
The less money you need, the sooner you can do it.

The more money you have, the more you can do.

Money means options, options to do what you want.

To buy what you want. To spend your time how you want.

Time is another one of the five elements of BIGG success. You can exchange money for time.

You can pay people to do chores for you. You can pay people for tasks outside your strength.

Money can buy time. Money can buy things.

Money means freedom, at least to some extent. So focus on accumulating more money.

An attitude of “more” propels you forward. The desire for “more” makes us grow. For us humans, growth is where we find meaning. Be happy, not content.

The less money you need, the sooner you can do it.

But there’s another side to personal money management. It’s the second mindset of personal finance.

This is the one people often don’t think about. Or talk about.

But BIGG success is life on your own terms. If your definition of BIGG success requires less money, you will likely reach your destination sooner than someone who requires more.

In other words – if you can be happy with less, you can enjoy it longer!

An attitude of “less” also has other benefits. “Less” may very well mean less stress. Because you need to protect your nest egg once you accumulate it. So more money often means more worries.

Another benefit of “less” is perhaps the most important one of all. “Less” helps you stay within your boundaries. It stops you from crossing the line. “Less” helps you get to your vision of BIGG success with your values intact.

That’s it. The essence of personal finance in two sentences.

How much is enough for you?

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