Originally posted by duncan_m
Perspective changes with 2 little kids, a 2yo and 3yo, the "just do it" line wears a little thin, I would never expose my children to the potential instability that such a move would bring.
So does anyone have any more realistic thoughts or stories to relate on the subject?
Duncan.
Actually Duncan I "just did it". I wanted to stay at home and look after my two youngest children full time and my partner had no formal qualifications. If I went back to work I would earn more than my partner but I decided I didn't want to miss my kids growing up. I have a 15 yr old son and I felt he missed out alot because I was a solo mother then and worked all the time.
My partner had a variety of jobs that paid minimum wage and was always getting laid off (not sacked). He got laid off from his last job because his boss didn't like his attitude (i.e. he was right). We were both really depressed, we had no money saved and a mortgage to pay, my Mastercard was ticked up to the hilt.
After about a week of both of us moping around I stood up one night and said "why don't we go into business and do what your boss was doing, but do it better, because I know we can.
There were all these obstacles in the way, put there by us. He's far more conservative than me when it comes to anything (I travelled around the world by myself when I was 23yrs). So I finally convinced him that we should do it. It wasn't as if we had any money to lose, we didn't have any money to spend either though. I tried to get a top up on my mortgage to start the business but they told me they wouldn't lend me any money because how was I going to service the mortgage (cos now there was no money coming in).
So then, that's how I discovered that you must think "outside the square to get what you want". The first time I rang the bank I had a gut feeling that they wouldn't lend me the money for a business so I had just rung up without telling them who I was. Because I had a plan in mind.
A week later I rang again, told them I wanted to put some new windows in my house and I needed $10k. That's fine they said, and 2 days later the money was in my account.
I must admit I did alot of research, found out everything I needed to know, and so we decided early on that I would run the business and he just wanted to go to work like an employee. That was fine with me. It's really horrible scarey when you first start, and there are some sleepless nights, and sometimes we have 49 cent spaghetti for dinner, (the kids love it). We just made sure that we didn't go into overdraft, and we got deposits for our jobs.
It's totally changed our whole outlook on life. We will never be the same people again, and even though sometimes, when we've got absolutely no money in the bank will still seem to fall on our feet. Our kids see more of us, my partner can now coach junior rugby for our sons team and we'll never go back to PAYE.
By taking that first plunge into business - it enabled us to quite easily take that first plunge into Investment Properties. Some friends were freaking out and others just thought that since we were in business we must be making sh..t loads of money to be able to buy property. They don't understand how you do it.
I don't feel that I was exposing my kids to potential instability - I was exposing them to life - I was exposing them to a better future - maybe a future where they wont have second thoughts about taking the plunge and "just doing it".
P.S. Since January, I've had another baby, paid off my own house and bought two IP's.
