Non-organic feed lots devise highly sophisticated system to make sure that every cow is getting her ration of food. Some heifers run the show, and those that aren’t the bosses wouldn’t get their fair share of corn according to the farmers.

Cows are just like us–not that we diet on corn and antibiotics, but that the leaders push everyone else around.

A boss doesn’t want to give you a raise. Big business doesn’t want to give you extra time off. You’ve heard the complaints about WalMart employees who try to form unions, gain health care, and get raises–can’t happen.

The funny thing about these farmers who notice the little guys getting pushed from the food is that small farmers don’t see how they’re getting pushed around, too. Their purchasers demand cheap meat. And so do we.

Todd and I established Aridni as a base for ideas on ethical money making. After all, we grew up next to one of the world’s largest superfund sites, an area so polluted that the acidic waters kill any animal that ventures near. The soils even dissolve a miner’s boots!

Sometimes I get so caught up in counting my net worth that I forget the worth I have the potential to bring. Saving ten bucks on a shirt made through child labor. Or buying twice as many eggs for half the price because the chickens were molted (ie starved for 10 days so they could produce 3 more months of eggs). Is it worth the addition to my net worth?

In Germany, everything is recycled–from your cardboard and candy wrappers to your dinner scraps. Figuring out the system is tough at first. But tying your shoes was tough at first now. Who think of that process any more?

What ethical choices are worth the nickels and dimes that you can add to your net worth? I guess I’m finding worth in different choices.

Last year, Todd and I ran a rather successful and valuable column called “Weekend Homework” every Friday. We wanted to educate our readers on the basics of personal finance and development, ranging from calculating your net worth to reducing redundancies. Today we’re proud to announce that the column is back by request.

* * *

When I was young, my little sister would snap at anything. I could antagonize her without even trying. Most of the time, in fact, I didn’t even know that my actions stressed her out. My dad would turn to her and ask, “Do you need to read ‘Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff’ again?”

She’d grumble, “NO.”

Do you find yourself grumbling? The little details of business driving you bonkers? Sometimes I want to go crazy. I’m letting details that don’t even matter control my perspective.

I’m not going to lecture you on how to let things go because the solution is different for everyone. For example, I start baking (maybe even crying). Something tells me that Todd doesn’t do that stuff. Maybe he goes out and shoots tin cans. We all have our own ways of dealing with stress. In any case, check out the Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff website. They have a few quick-read articles that you might find refreshing. Plus you can get your mind off of work for a few minutes.

Then throw your rants and raves into our comment box of this article. Get those silly frustrations out before your weekend really starts.

How often do you find yourself wandering to your computer to login to your e-mail? Do you walk by the computer, only to stop and check to see if anyone’s written? You’re curious, and it’ll only take a second.

The problem, of course, is that you and I open that e-mail account far too often. E-mail isn’t an urgent form of communication, so why are we willing to drop everything else to use it over and over? Nothing communicated to you by e-mail is a life or death situation. So how do we curb this addiction?

You have to break the pattern:

1. Make a schedule.
Being curious isn’t reason enough to check your e-mail. I’m willing to bet that an easy 30 minutes a day is lost to curiosity, which usually results in a fairly empty inbox. Decide how many times you’ll check your inbox. Be as strict with yourself as you need to be.

Check a specific number of times each day. When you’ve reached your limit, you’re done.
Open your account on a specific schedule like once in the morning, at lunch, and after work.

2. Limit the number of e-mail addresses that you use
Every time you check your mail, you’re spending twice as much time as you check multiple addresses. I used two addresses and cannot check one without checking the other. By combining the two, my wasted curiosity instantly decreased by 50%.

3. Replace e-mail checking with purpose
Remember that every minute matters. E-mail is abused because it’s easy. We all feel a sense of victory after something is achieved; e-mail is the fasted way to cross things off of our list.

It doesn’t always work. Architects and construction companies cannot communicate the fine details of a drawing over e-mails. They’ll be back and forth for hours without achievement. You and I grew up on instant messengers; we know how efficient these programs make our communication. Online chatting has made me a faster typer… but at the cost of how much time? I can still talk on the phone faster than I can type an e-mail.

Do you ever crawl into bed, thinking of all of the things you should have done during the day? Had you not checked that darn e-mail so much, could you have crossed off something on that list?

4. Define that purpose
When you’re away from a computer, do you think of checking your e-mail? No–only when the computer is nearby. Many weekends, I don’t check my e-mail because I simply don’t have access. So far, I have never opened my e-mail program to find something important that required my immediate attention. During the week, I don’t have anything needing immediate attention, yet I keep checking anyway.

When you do have access to the computer, focus on things that matter more in the long run: passive income, net worth… family. It’s easy to keep walking when you have something that is more pressing on your mind.

You don’t check your post office mailbox over and over, so this week, try to reduce the temporary victories you get in checking e-mail.

Yeah, some people will get mad when you don’t respond immediately. Let those people know that urgent communication with you cannot be addressed in this manner. Tell them to do what your mother does–pick up the phone and call you.

1. A degree doesn’t mean you deserve the job

The unfortunate truth is that while you were busting you butt to learn anthropology, science, and statistics, many of your peers were getting jobs. A degree will help land you the interview. But a few years of work experience will probably land the other guy the job.

The textbook rules I learned in my human resources course are nothing like the procedures of most businesses. In fact, most businesses don’t have written procedures. School is nothing like the working world. No one at work revolves around you. In fact, you’ll find that success means you have to revolve around them (and it’ll drive you crazy!).

Your job won’t be glamorous.

My poor cousin dreamed of saving dolphins and marine life, so she went into environmental engineering. She was hired by a huge engineering firm that specializes in treatment plants. Can you imagine being the low man on that totem pole? Talk about the s_its! All she wanted to do was save animals.

But just because she earned the degree doesn’t mean she–or you–is entitled to a corner office with a huge salary, a month of vacation, or an amazing retirement plan. Work hard, and you’ll eventually earn those positions. The problem is that most of us college grads walk in with a sense of entitlement. Some day my cousin might be able to land her dream position, and you will, too. Just know that no one will hand that opportunity to you on a silver plate.

How many people do you know that are getting degrees at the same time as you? How many people are getting degrees at your school this year? Now how many new college grads are there entering this country’s workforce along with you?

You’ve got to prove why your lack of work experience makes you better than (a) everyone who didn’t go to college and (b) everyone else who did go to college. Why should an employer pull your name from the hat?

For me, the edge came from one thing: my senate internship in Washington D.C.. Know your edge over the competition, and push it.

The experiences have to set you apart. Working at summer camp is a blast, but if you’re not going seeking a profession with children, you’ve got to reach a point of saying goodbye to summer camp. Do internships, make contacts, and try different things. What makes you stand above the line of other applicants?

2. Make it a job you love

Many people develop a professional skill set by accident. Art students run pet shops. Women’s studies majors become construction management experts. I think it’s pretty hard for anyone to know exactly where he/she is going to end up. And the people who know from age twelve that becoming a doctor is the perfect profession often find themselves hating their work. After all, a 12-year-old chose their career.

So now you’re walking from that stage with a diploma. Where do you go? My dad always told me,
Katie, make sure your first job is one of two things: something that interests the heck out of ya or something that provides the stepping stones for the career direction that you want to pursue.

I didn’t take his advice, of course. My first job looked like a dream to most people with some great perks–four days a week, flexible hours, discounted international travel… The job didn’t strike me as fascinating, and it certainly had nothing to do with my self-vision twenty years from now. But I pushed to land the job. I nailed all three interviews and won the job over 300 other candidates. I felt so proud… I also felt so miserable.

You have to find a job that you love… or at least like enough to give your best. A full time job is nothing like school or a summer job. Every day for eight hours a day is a lot. It wears you out. And your boss isn’t going to let you leave early to go camping with your buddies.

Don’t pick a job because it’s secure, because you’re parents think it’s great, or because you’re afraid you won’t find another job. You’ll hate getting up. You’ll hate working. And worse of all, you’ll ruin your spirit. You won’t want to do anything but mope during the evening.

3. Make a million dollar money plan

The worse part of life after graduation is all of the bills. You can’t stay on your parents’ insurance, student loans have to be paid, and you’ve got expenses like garbage pickup that you didn’t even know existed. Your friends will be trading in their cars, buying new furniture and houses, eating out more, and spending gobs of money. Live as frugally as you can. And remember this:

if you want to make a million dollars, you have to put in a million dollars worth of work

Life is only going to get more expense as you grow older, so you need to have a plan. Do you want to work six years or 60? Most people chose to work sixty, relatively easy and relaxed years. They’ll patiently work for vacation days and save until they can retire.
You, however, are reading Aridni, which leads me to believe that you’re willing to work like crazy for six years. You’ll give up your weekends, evenings out, and most free time today. You’ll probably collapse into bed most nights. But isn’t it better than 60 slow years? When I work weekends on my own projects, I often want to quit because I feel so tired. Then I think, “If I want to make a million dollars, I have to put in…”

You don’t need to update your net worth every month. But if you really want out of that rat race soon (and believe me, once you enter that race, you’ll probably want to leap out as soon as you can), figure out what money means to you. What do you want money for? Who do you want money for? And what do you want with your time?

4. Think about today.

My last tip is something that I try to ask myself every day:

What can I do better tomorrow to reach my goals that I learned from today?

It was about a year ago that Katie and I started Aridni, and in the last year we have had some all kinds of articles. Some good ones, some Great ones, and of course some lousy ones. Today I want to highlight what I think have been some of the years best articles for each month in 2006.

1. January - Investing: When can you start? How can you start?

One of the earlier articles from Aridni to help get you going in the stock market. What are the issues and skills you need to be aware of and possess?

2. February - I’ve got a Big Sky Booya coming at ya!

Watching Jim Cramer is like jumping into the stock market. It isn’t easy for the novice, but here are some tips to getting started.

3. March - “Acey said ten percent.” – Why less is more.

I still really like this ideology about investing less to learn more.

4. April - Weekend Homework: Define ‘Value’

What is important to you? How are your actions stacking up to what you hold important?

5. May - Marketing with MySpace

While this approach works out well in theory, it’s a lot harder than my article makes it look. I’ve been trying things out and will certainly post some new ideas about it.

6. June - How you might destroy $1,000,000 dollars or more today.

Do you keep track of your ideas? Tomas Edison didn’t either, until got fed up with losing to many. From then on Tom and ‘the boys’ filled up thousands of notebooks with all kinds of ideas and discoveries.

7. July - Expand your business with “The Three C’s”

What’s the best way for you to set raise the capital needed to increase the output of your business?

8. August - An employee finds a second job. An entrepreneur finds an opportunity.

Katie takes a moment to ask just what exactly is she working towards.

September - Have you ever considered that you are not good enough? With Billions of people in the world, you might not be good enough. By no means does it mean that those who are won’t be willing to work with you.

9. October - Is real estate calling you?

This is an article Katie wrote about some of here experiences and thoughts after spending some time in the real estate market.

10. November - On hiatus for the month!

A little break before it’s back to the grindstone.

11. December - Step back from the obsession with $

Katie gives us some reflections about money and the desire for wealth. What is money, and how does it work?

Katie found some of her favorite posts from the past year and put them in an article called Seeking Goals and Reaching Objectives - THIS YEAR

I hope that we can provide another great year of ideas and inspiration. And as always, feel free to leave a comment or even send a message with our Contact form

This weekend, I want you to collect all of your bank statements, credit card bills, Quicken reports, net worth statements, and piles of loans; hand them to a complete stranger. Let him read over everything, sift through your budgeting, and throw in a lot of hmms and mmms. What will he think? Are you spending money intelligently? Are you earning money intelligently?

I feel like I am always nitpicking at the financial behaviors I see in others—one friend spends too much on cigarettes and Mountain Dew. My cousin eats out too much, and my old roommate buys expensive furniture on credit that she’ll be paying off for years along with the newer, cooler car she just upgraded to.

Then I see people making money by selling plasma. Others spend their whole lives working to make their bosses rich (note to self: stop doing that!).

Yet I look at my own financial situation and find nothing wrong. I’m perfect! And I suppose that you are perfect, too!

The truth is—I attempt to admit to myself—is that it’s easier to find faults in the spending and earning habits of others than pin down problems in ourselves. But imagine handing over your finances to a complete stranger. He might find you and I have similar silly spending habits.

I’m not trusting any stranger. I’m pasting a fake mustache on myself and calling this new guy “Mr. Frank”. Mr. Frank is examining my habits. Heck, he’s already bombarded my kitchen to report an exceeding abundance of pasta and corn. He’s still trying to help me pinpoint illogical financial decisions. Has he found anything to report to you?

One year ago, my husband and I established a budget for ourselves. We were going to pinch every penny so that we could walk out ahead in a year. Our only source of income would be his 9 to 5 job as I finished school.

I found our old calculations last night, and you know what? Our plan equaled a negative net worth. Between student loans, wedding expenses, and other elements of past life, one year of penny pinching would have equaled a net worth of about negative $4,000. How could that be? So much hard work…

Our problem was that we lacked multiple streams of income. If you want to make money, you have to increase your earning power outside of 9 to 5. We chose to use our weekends. Our efforts make our net worth something exciting to look at. In fact, our weekend work has been the equivalent to nearly TWICE my husband’s salary. Plus our hard work this year will continue to pay us in the future with small effort on our part.

When you work for someone else, the rewards are instantaneous. Of course, it took months before our efforts were rewarded. We juggle with little spare time, large credit card loads, and a whole lot of loans. But we have something bigger and more valuable to back each of those expenses today.

So this weekend, I challenge you to find something outside of 9 to 5 that can increase your wealth in the future. The sense of accomplishment will, I guarantee, far exceed any thrill that your paycheck might provide.

Make money off of cash that you don’t even have. Leverage is this wonderful ability to borrow a percentage of your investment purchase. You obviously can’t take out a bank loan to buy stock… but real estate is a banger leverage opportunity.

You can buy a $100,000 home with as little as $5,000; the bank finances the other 95% for you in exchange for a specific rate of interest. So you’re making money off of the bank’s cash that you never even had. For this reason, real estate makes a great investment–it usually appreciates over time.

Therefore if you have little money, a real estate investment could be a fantastic way to increase your net worth.

Right now where I work there are a lot of extra steps in order to check someone out. The system was not built with usability in mind at all.

Let me take you through the steps to help someone with the register. For this example we’ll say they are buying a bottle of perfume for $37.50.

The Keys you would press would be as follows

F1
-enter your user number-
enter
enter
-enter where they are from-
enter
-enter the customer’s name-
enter
Scan barcode on perfume – or type in product number
Enter
Esc
F3
1
enter
-perfume seller’s user number
enter
enter
37.50
enter
PR
enter
A
Esc
US
40.
enter
F5

Now I have seen systems before that take extra steps to make a sale before, but never twenty seven of them.

Checking someone out should be as simple as scanning a product and entering the cash amount. Granted because of where I work I have to take the customer’s information and name, but that should not entail a huge plethora of steps.

So you’re homework for this weekend to identify the places where your business could benefit from a streamlined operation.

As a kid, I thought that people had two choices for financing their homes: 30 year or 15 year amortizations (meaning an equal payment every month until the loan is paid). And how often do you ever hear of any other financing options?

You have gobs of choices.

Todd has been asking me questions about property financing, and while I’m no expert yet, the two of us have talked about some things you might like to know. Therefore, we’re taking a break from weekend homework; it’s summer after all. Every Friday will feature “financial Friday” articles where I share my knowledge and findings.

Next week, we’ll kick things off with a discussion on assuming sellers’ loans.

Surrounded by my family for the past week, I have witnessed their immediate acceptance to my husband because of one thing… he made people feel important. People love to share their accomplishments, praise their passions, and most importantly, have someone take note of them.

Success in any avenue of life can come this way. Network with these people. My uncle Bill is obsessed with sailing; my husband asked him about sailing. My aunt Jan is paranoid about property issues around her land; we own land next to her—my husband talked about that. On and on until my husband had conversations with gobs of my family on topics he probably didn’t even care about. Sure they didn’t learn much about him at all. Yet the way into a person’s heart isn’t to boast about yourself. If you want to get with the big guys, talk about what the big guys love to talk about. The big guys in my family seem to love my husband!

Bottom line: make people feel important.

I remember all of those dreams I had. Go back to school, learn to paint, buy an airplane, work for a charity for free, travel to Tikal… I feel like the dreams that I had will never happen at this rate. I’m stuck, and my bed is that you are, too. Are you really achieving the big picture goal yourself?

We remind each other to take risks every day on Aridni, and I’m trying to be a daredevil. The truth is that my husband and I realize we aren’t trying hard enough. We’ve asked ourselves: How do we establish a million bucks? Are we willing to make the sacrifices?

I think we’ve found an answer, or at least a start. It’s time to take the plunge.

In six months, we are throwing away job security, health insurance, and an outstanding rental contract of six months. We’re going to pack ourselves up and revert back to those days of Ramen noodles if we have to. We’ll buy a rundown, cheap house in desperate need of TLC that we’ll fully provide. I’ll find a job in a town where jobs are scarce (at least I hope I will!), and devote my weekends to our project. My husband will be engaging in our project full time.

It’s scary to think about. Throw away everything? Yeah. But we’re taking the risk when we have nothing to lose. I’d rather look back and know we failed than be still sitting around, waiting and wishing in a lifestyle where we’ll never get ahead for sure. I can’t live this way!

This weekend, I challenge you—not to risk everything, rather to risk.

1. Ask yourself how you can establish a million bucks.
2. Think: are you willing to make the sacrifices?
3. Start thinking of the possibilities as we celebrate freedom this 4th of July weekend—the freedom to chose, the freedom to gamble
4. Don’t spend a potential fortune on fireworks (Todd!)