Black Swans

What is a Black Swan?

In his landmark book ‘The Black Swan’, Nassim Taleb introduced the concept of a Black Swan.  A Black Swan is an unpredictable event that has a massive impact on our world.  Examples of a Black Swan are the emergence of the Internet, Google and 9/11.

Some potential Black Swans

Black Swans are hard to predict and the actual Black Swans that eventually changes our lives, won’t be predicted by many, they are ‘the unknown unknowns’.  The following examples illustrate waking up in the morning to read the newspaper headline of a Black Swan breaking.  Think about what impact this would have on humanity and how you living an unbound lifestyle could benefit, prepare yourself, or take advantage from such Black Swans.  We will see many such Black Swans over our lifetime and I believe being mini retired will best prepare you to face and take advantage of Black Swans.

They following headlines are to illustrate the impact of Black Swans, not actual predictions.

THE DAILY NEWS

THE WORLDS BEST NEWSPAPER SINCE – 1877

SETI RECEIVES ALIEN MESSAGE

 

THE DAILY NEWS

THE WORLDS BEST NEWSPAPER SINCE – 1877

SUPER COMPUTER BECOMES SELF AWARE

 

 

THE DAILY NEWS

THE WORLDS BEST NEWSPAPER SINCE – 1877

NEW MEDICINE STOPS HUMAN AGEING PROCESS

 

 

THE DAILY NEWS

THE WORLDS BEST NEWSPAPER SINCE – 1877

ROBOT’S ATTEMPT TO ENSLAVE HUMANS

 

 

THE DAILY NEWS

THE WORLDS BEST NEWSPAPER SINCE – 1877

NEW LIFE FORM DISCOVERED ON MARS

THE DAILY NEWS

THE WORLDS BEST NEWSPAPER SINCE – 1877

ASTEROID HEADED TO EARTH

 

 

THE DAILY NEWS

THE WORLDS BEST NEWSPAPER SINCE – 1877

VIRTUAL REALITY WORLD MORE POPULAR THAN INTERNET

 

 

 

 

 

What is an Unbound Lifestyle?

An unbound lifestyle is a lifestyle choice of working 6 months a year and being ‘retired’ for the other 6 months of the year, this can also be known as a mini retirement.  A unbound lifestyle includes the best of both worlds; you can still work for six months of the year, earning cash to add to your financial safety net, investments, superannuation, and 401k’s.  Then we spend the remaining six months of the year chilling out pursuing hobbies, business ventures, traveling, studying, and other lifestyle goals.  I will term the two phases of the unbound lifestyle as:

• Freestyling phase 
• Rat Racing phase

Benefits of an Unbound Lifestyle

Affordable travel has been a big breakthrough in recent times.  The only problem is you can only travel occasionally, and all you’re left with are some photos and distant memories.  Mini retirements, will make travel part of your lifestyle, you will be constantly planning and looking forward to your next destination.

Start a Venture

We all have good ideas, to start a business or a community project.  But who has time to follow such dreams?  The mini retirement lifestyle will create more free time to pursue any venture ideas you come up with.

Hobbies and following a talent

You may always have wanted to learn a musical instrument or develop a talent that you have, but work always got in the way.  An Unbound lifestyle will enable you to pursue these activities and devote the time necessary to develop these talents.

Health

“The brightest flame burns quickest”

James Hetfield

The old model is we work for 40 to 50 years paying off a mortgage.  But, what’s the point of working 50-60 hours a week only to burn out or get a heart attack in your 40’s.  Many workers’ health suffers from sitting in an office for 40 years, or constant repetitive hard labour, this will simply limit people from working past a certain age.  Meaning we have a lot longer in retirement and are required to fund this financially.  The unbound lifestyle makes sense, as it keeps you fresh throughout your life and is a lifestyle you can continue when others have long since burnt out and no longer able to work.

Family and Friends

The rat racing phase has another benefit, you can return home and be with family and friends during this phase, this is great for keeping in contact and maintain your interdependent way of living.

Work when and where you want to

The knowledge that you have arranged your lifestyle and finances, to know work is not a compulsory part of life, will give you a much less stressed outlook on life.

Other Variations of an Unbound Lifestyle

Really, the thing that will vary most is the length of time in either the retired phase or the rat racing phase.  You may choose to be retired for a year or longer, or your rat racing phase will be shorter or longer.  The main point is that by switching between the two phases we get the best of both worlds, and this enables us to distribute mini retirements throughout our entire life.

It’s better to be cool than rich, but, you can do both

One of the biggest financial mistakes you can make is to buy a new car, or an expensive used car that will quickly depreciate in value.   If I was planning to get a car, I would go for the cheapest reliable car possible with excellent fuel economy.  The only problem is a small, fuel economical car is kind of boring and may not suit your personality.  Well, you can still have your cake and eat it, and here’s how.  All you need to do is think outside of the square.  In the following example I will show you how I found a car that was cool, cheap, and an investment that may increase in value over time.  Although I’m not specifically recommending the following purchase, it illustrates with a little thought, what you can achieve with your money.

Whilst researching Japanese culture and my interest in scooter’s, I stumbled across the following vehicle.  It is a 50cc Honda motocompo scooter.  The unique thing about this vehicle is that it was designed to fold up into a compact ‘suitcase’ size for storage in the back of a Honda City.  Next, I researched a cheap Honda City and found one with low kilometers for $1200.

The following shows an ebay advertisement for the Honda Motocompo Scooter.  Although, quite expensive at around $US3000 US, it is a rare vehicle that is fast becoming a collector’s item.  I think this is something that would be worth quite a tidy sum in 10 years time, certainly more than what you bought it for today.

Next, I researched a Honda City.  These cars were pretty popular, so it should be possible to find a well maintained example.  With no effort at all, I found the following advertisement,

“Honda city 3 door, rego till early November. Comes with roadworthy. Honest little car, owned by mechanic for 17 years. Mechanical a1”

Asking price $1200

So there you have it, with a little research, I’m sure you can come up with many more great ideas for a car purchase.  I challenge anyone to say a $100,000 BMW comes close to my $4200 Honda scooter and car.   Just remember to get something that’s economical to run and in good mechanical order.