Most people are familiar with the compounding power of money. For example: Assume you invest $100 a month in a plan that allows you to defer the taxes when you’re 35 years old. You plan to retire at 65 (30 years from now). If you earn a 6% return (conservative by historical standards), your retirement portfolio will be almost $102,000. Not bad on a total investment over the years of $36,000.

A small amount of money, invested wisely over time, turns into a BIGG sum.

Time compounds like money

What about time? Does it compound? You may not have money to invest. But everyone has the same amount of time every day. Time is the great equalizer.

Time, our other resource, compounds similarly to money. If you invest time, over time, you can create BIGG success. It may come in the form of money or in some other form (e.g. a better life for you and your family).

Here’s the challenge:
If you invest your money in the wrong thing, you may lose all or part of it. Or you may not earn as much on it as you should.

The exact same principle applies to time. If you invest your time poorly, you won’t reach your full potential. You’ll miss opportunities. You must focus to reach BIGG success!

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Just a generation or so ago, entrepreneurs weren’t highly regarded. The thought was that they were people who no one else would hire.

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Now it seems that most people want to be an entrepreneur. People think that climbing the corporate ladder robs you of your individuality. You become a mindless worker bee.

People associate owning your own business with freedom. It can be liberating. Picture your typical day owning your own business …

You’re the last one in every morning. It’s not like anyone’s going to fire you. Of course, you’re the first one out the door at the end of the day. You’re the boss! You take long lunches. Most days, when the weather’s nice, you’re out on the golf course.

If only it were true!

The reality for many entrepreneurs – especially those with an early stage business – is you’re the first to arrive in the morning and the last one out the door at night. If you take lunch at all, you may eat it at your desk while you keep working. You’re not out playing golf most afternoons. In fact, you’re doing well when you can squeeze in a little play time over the weekend.

Do you remember the BTO song, Takin’ Care of Business? They said that self-employed people “work hard at doing nothing all day. Obviously they had never spent time with a start-up entrepreneur!

It can be very stressful, particularly when you take on employees and have to meet payroll. You have fixed costs to cover every month. There are so many hats to wear, so many things to do, so much to keep up on. It’s easy to feel like you’re buried in work.

Not exactly the fairy tale we often think about.

We’re purposefully painting a bleak picture. Owning your own business definitely has its upsides, but it isn’t for everyone. Some people are much happier keeping their day job.

However, we think there are synergies between the two. Here are six tips to become an entrepreneurial employee:

Select the right career

Bigg success is life on your own terms. It starts internally. Think about the three P’s – passions, preferences and proficiencies. We have a great personality test in The Bigg Success Store that will help you with this. It’s free!

Now you’re ready to look outside yourself. Entrepreneurs look at 2 C’s – customers and competitors. As an entrepreneurial employee, your customers are potential employers. Your competition is other people who do what you do. You’re looking for a mismatch – too many employers and too few potential hires.

Add value

Don’t settle for being average and ordinary. Set yourself apart from all the other potential hires by becoming an expert in your chosen field. Consistently deliver superior results and you’ll become invaluable.

Solve problems

Take on projects that no one else wants. Be positive. See solutions where others see only problems. If you solve problems, money will follow.

Work!

Entrepreneurs work long hours, especially in their early days. Entrepreneurial employees do the same. If you can’t work a little longer, work a little harder. Spend less time chatting and more time being productive.

Embrace change

Change creates opportunity. So welcome change. Continually reinvent yourself. Think about yourself at this time last year. If you don’t have any new skills, if you can’t add anything more, if you aren’t producing better results … why should you get paid more?

Retain earnings

Save means safe so save and invest. Entrepreneurs retain earnings to fund growth. You’ll save to give yourself the liberty to get out of a bad situation as a last resort. And to help you survive through the inevitable downturns and associated layoffs.

You can choose to be entrepreneurial in the traditional sense or by going the corporate route. You choose because bigg success is life on your own terms.

Do you think employees can be entrepreneurial?

Let us know by leaving a comment below, calling us at 888.455.BIGG (2444) or e-mailing us at bigginfo@biggsuccess.com.

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Thanks for reading today’s post. Please join us next time when we’ll discuss a new trend that may affect your retirement. Until then, here’s to your bigg success!

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Part of the American dream is to own your own home. And there are good reasons to do so. For instance, a Federal Reserve study[pdf] shows that the average family that owns a home has a net worth of nearly $625,000 while families who rent have a net worth of just a little over $54,000.

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Homeowners on the move

We’ve seen an interesting statistic bantered about, but we haven’t been able to pin down a reliable source. If this statistic is true, American homeowners move once every five years or so, on average.

So we thought we’d consider what that does to the buy vs. rent equation. We’ll use some averages and national statistics to create an example. However, what really matters is your own situation and your local real estate market. Only you, working with your financial advisors, can determine what’s in your best interest.

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When I was younger, one of my bosses in radio told me that I was just throwing away money by renting. I remember thinking that it made sense. I’d reached an age where maybe I should consider buying. So I did. As often happens in the radio business, less than a year later, I lost my gig. So I had to sell my house to move to a different market. I lost a lot of money by buying. If only I had had a crystal ball!

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Putting buy vs. rent to the test

We created a fictional purchase to see if we would be better off renting or owning a house for five years. We assumed that:

• We bought an average-priced house for $314,000.

• We put 20% down (approximately $63,000).

• We financed the rest with a 30-year mortgage

• The interest rate would be 6.50%, slightly above the current rate.

• Our house would appreciate 4% per year, slightly below the recent average.

• Property taxes would cost us 1% of the value of the home.

• Insurance would run 0.50% of the value of the home. (Renters and homeowners have to insure the contents. We have the added burden of insuring the building.)

• Repairs & maintenance would consume 1.50% of the value of the home.

Over the first five years, 83% of our total mortgage payments would go for interest. In other words, for the most part, we’ve traded renting property for renting money. If the interest rate is higher, the portion that would go to interest would also be higher. Of course, the reverse is also true.

During this period, we would pay $2,171 per month as “rental costs” for our home. We call them rental costs because they have no value once they’re paid. They only allow us to keep owning. So if we could rent a similar property for less than this, we would be better off renting instead of buying.

Of course, if we had made a down payment of less than $63,000, our cost would go up because we would be paying even more interest.

Where’s the break-even?

We also looked at how it would take before we would break-even. After all, it costs money to sell a house. We would have to pay commissions to our realtor, closing costs, and the like. We assumed these costs would total 8% of the selling price.

Given our assumptions, we looked at what would happen if we sold after one year. Our house would now be worth $326,560. From that, we would pay $26,125 in selling costs. After a year, our mortgage balance would be $248,392.

So we would be able to take out $52,043 in cash. But remember, we invested $63,000. So we lose about $11,000 if we sell after one year.

But that’s not the whole story …

We haven’t yet considered the opportunity cost of tying up that $63,000 in a house. Because if we didn’t invest it in this house, we could have invested in something else. We assumed we could have earned 6% by investing in some portfolio of financial assets.

That would have returned nearly $3,800. So by buying this house and selling it in a year, we would put ourselves in the hole nearly $15,000.

Even after 2 years, we’d still be about $3,500 behind, given our assumptions. Of course, one of those assumptions is that real estate prices are rising. It’s almost certain they will in the long run, but will they rise in the next year or two? They may not in some markets.

What’s the bottom-line?

We concluded that if we didn’t plan to own a house for at least two years, we’d rather rent. We also saw that the longer our holding period, the better we would do. For instance, in the last five years of the mortgage, only 15% of the mortgage payment would go to interest. It seems like buy-and-hold is rewarded in real estate investing.

How to get around it …

We have two friends who have been able to get around the short-term ownership problem. One of them is in the military, so he moves frequently. He only buys a house that he knows would make a good rental property. If he gets transferred, he hires a local property manager and rents it out. Until he decides where he wants to retire, he plans to hold a number of his houses.

Another friend doubled-down on this strategy. He moved quite frequently as he climbed the corporate ladder. Not only does he own houses in a number of cities, he bought additional rental properties, so he has a diversified portfolio across a number of cities. Now he’s retired living off the rents!

So you can get around the disadvantages of short-term ownership by having an alternative exit strategy!

Next time, we’ll discuss how a toy that you probably played with as a kid can help you manage your time. Until then, here’s to your bigg success!

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Bigg Challenge
Jeff’s job took him several states away from a rental property that he bought about two years ago. He bought the property and fixed it up. Now his tenant is moving out and the place is a mess. So he’s going to have to invest a bunch again. But he feels he has no choice since he has so much in it already. Besides, it’s a bad time to sell real estate. He wants our thoughts on his situation.

Bigg Advice
It’s been said,

Properties can be managed across cities and states, but for the most part, real estate is a very local business. And, a lot of people don’t understand that you’re in business even if you only have one rental property.

Consult with a good attorney
You’ve treated this like a business, Jeff. You had your tenant sign a lease. But a lot of landlords feel like there’s little recourse if a tenant tears up the place. However, you can take legal measures against a tenant who causes damage beyond normal wear and tear.

So consult with an attorney to explore your options. There’s a good chance your attorney may handle your case on a contingency. Of course, you’ll still have to cover the courts costs.

Sell!
Check with a realtor, and even other property owners, to get an idea of what to expect if you list your property. Of course, you won’t know until you actually put it on the market, but you can probably make a reasonable guess with some more information.

Sure, we hear news reports that the real estate market is down. However, you may find it’s not as bad as you think. And here’s the thing … isn’t it better to fix it up and let it sit empty than to fix it up just to fix it up again if your next tenant does the same thing?

Distance makes the difference
Every landlord risks bad tenants, but since you live so far away, Jeff, it seems like the best move for you. The only other thing you might consider is contracting with an experienced local property manager to handle the leasing and maintenance.

You sunk my battle ship!
Picture a ship that’s sunk. You can invest money to try to make it float again, or you could just leave it on the bottom of the ocean and get a different ship. Hopefully, you quickly see which one of those two is better.

George said that, unfortunately, he’s learned this the hard way. It’s not easy when you’re the one in the middle of the situation. But the money you’ve already invested is a sunk cost, like the sunken ship. Don’t base your decision today on money that’s already been spent. Base it on what kind of return you can get on the money you will invest. If it’s better elsewhere, cut your losses and move on.

We hope this helps you with your bigg decision, Jeff. Thanks for sharing your Bigg Challenge with us!

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The batboy was Eddie Bennett, who was 19 years old in 1919. He began his career with the Chicago White Sox, who went to the World Series that year.

The next year, Eddie moved to the Brooklyn Dodgers. He had the Midas touch. They also won their league title that year. Two in a row for Eddie.

But once again, Eddie saw a better opportunity. So he joined the Yankees in 1921. They won their first pennant ever. Eddie knew he was in the right place so he stayed put. The Yankees won five American League titles in the next seven seasons. 

What did this mean to Eddie? He made as much during the World Series as he made all year. So by choosing the right team with whom to associate, he doubled his income.

And he became perhaps the best known batboy in baseball history.

5 lessons Eddie Bennett teaches us

#1 – Sometimes it pays to switch teams.
If you’re with a team that doesn’t look like a bigg winner, and you see a better one, then go for it!

#2 – Don’t have a scarcity mentality.
People who think like this can’t work with others because they don’t think there’s enough to share. Eddie shows us that we may actually make more money BY working with others than we could on our own.

#3 – You don’t have to be the star to be a star.
Eddie became famous in his own right. He’s written about just like Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. In fact, he’s the first of that great trio that we’ve blogged about!

#4 – Every job is important.
A supporting role is just as important as the starring role. Eddie knew his place and the importance of what he did. He knew that if he did a good job in his role, other people would thrive in theirs. And he would reap the benefits along with them!

#5 – He had a passion for what he did.
The fans knew it and the players knew it. They respected him for the role that he played. It’s reported that Eddie and Babe Ruth became good friends because they were both at the top of their game.

What Warren Buffett learned from Eddie

In the annual report we referenced earlier, Warren Buffett describes himself as the batboy for Berkshire Hathaway. He turns the heavy-hitting over to the leaders of the businesses in which he invests. He plays a supporting role so they can step up to the plate and hit home runs.

It’s a lesson in management and leadership – give your people the tools they need when they need them and watch them succeed bigg!
 

Speaking of giving your people tools, share Bigg Success with them. Just click on “Share This” below to E-mail, Digg, Stumble, Mixx and more

We thought it only fitting for our bigg quote today to come from Warren Buffett.

Otherwise, you risk striking out!

Next time, we’ll discuss tips for spotting your bigg opportunity. Until then, here’s to your bigg success!

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