I messed up this week.

It’s like I wasn’t hungry last week so I decided not to buy any groceries for this week either. Of course, now I’m starving. I’m angry that the cupboard is empty, and now I’m kicking myself. Why didn’t I think ahead last week? Why didn’t I buy anything to eat?

We make these dumb mistakes all the time. Instead of thinking about tomorrow, we neglect it. For example, every week that you put off investing $20,000 at 5%, you miss a gain of $84. (How long does it take you to earn $84 at work? Probably less than the time it would have taken to invest that money.)

The most ironic part of procrastination is the loss – inflation means you’re actually losing that money.

How many groceries could you buy with that?

If you and I want to play with the big dogs, we have to be thinking like them. They’re the people that are always a buck ahead, a step in the lead, and forever laughing at our lags… unless we change. In whatever financial avenue you’re hoping to strike it rich in, I’m making some adjustments in my strategy that you might want to consider, too.

1. Get networking – ‘someone’s always going to know something before you. In my case, my husband is always hungry before I am, and he reminds me. Buddy up. And if you have to pay them a little to invest your money and sell your property, I still think it’s worth it.

2. Get your paperwork together – ‘if you want a stock, have money ready to invest ASAP. If you’re buying a huge investment, establish pre-approval with a bank before the deal pops up. Update your income statements, cash flow statements, balance sheet, checkbook… you want to be ready to go by knowing what you have and showing others what you have, too.

3. Get persistent – don’t let one slip slow you. Yeah. I’m frustrated with myself. But pouting isn’t the solution. Better strategizing is.

4. Get ready to drop everything NOW! – Good deals disappear in minutes. You’ve seen how the stock market fluctuates throughout the day. Other markets do the same. Waiting until the time works for you doesn’t work when you want a deal…tomorrow…next week…

Some people obsessed with Cramer on “Mad Money” dump all of their money into each stock he recommends that day. The stock price shoots up because everyone has the same strategy. These people don’t make money, of course. They’re buying groceries after their stomaches grumbled.

Meanwhile, the prompt grocery shoppers who bought Kramer’s suggestions before Kramer suggested them are getting good and fat. They’re stuffing their faces and smirking at every starving stock shopper.

Wouldn’t you prefer to pick out your own dinner tonight?

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.

Have you ever noticed that every time you get an idea, it is more than just one idea. You get a vision for an entire system. Of course all of the exact mechanics are not quite in place, but you can visualize them. And while you are thinking about one part of your idea, it seems to multiply and your options expand at an alarming rate. This is because ideas breed ideas.

I am sure that you have heard the phrase ‘success breeds success’ and that is fairly straightforward. If you have done something successful and proven yourself it will be easier to do another project that is successful as you will have much more recourses at your disposal.

Ideas can work in a somewhat similar way. If you have one idea, it can lead to many more if you would let it. And a great way to come up with more ideas is to work on one that already exists.

If you are listing ideas, have you ever noticed that you come up with around half of them on the spot while you are writing down the first half? Or simply by explaining a current idea to someone, not only will you come up with more as you clarify and expand, but the other person will generally have input.

If the person you are talking with is willing, your conversation will greatly expand your project idea or refine it until your idea has grown into a plethora of ideas that is still growing.

So write down your ideas. Let them evolve. Let them multiply. And of course, let them be developed before it is too late.

When I quit my job last month, I felt pretty uncertain of where life would go, especially because my husband quit his job the month before. I never expected to find such satisfaction in setting and accomplishing my goals instead of my employer’s.

Living without a constant paycheck is tough. When working for someone else, you start to depend on this little burst of wealth every two weeks when a boss gives you a check. When you don’t get that check, I think that you fight a little harder. You don’t clean your house as much, but you keep working when you get home after a long day.

My husband and I can only keep up this schedule until December when he starts graduate school, so I’m trying to make the most of each day. Freedom spoils you, though. I feel like I’ll be like the new college graduates with skewed perceptions of how work and life should be.

But then again, I think college grads believe in something that we long ago forgot:

1. Work and pleasure can be the same thing.
I don’t mean that you have to love every moment of everything that you’re doing *that’s impossible. But shouldn’t you be just as eager to start your work day as you are to finish?

2. Little favors can lead to big favors. Sometimes you can accomplish a lot more when you team up with others who have different skills and ideas. We’ve really tried to build good connections. While we were in Germany recently, our real estate projects kept developing. Our real estate agent was willing to serve as our emergency contact. My sister was depositing monies at the bank. And several great contractors and handymen tackled a few of our dreaded projects while my dad stopped in during his lunch breaks to follow up. With the exception of family, everyone else helped us along because we’ve helped them in the past, and they know we’ll have work for them in the future, too. Bosses can’t be feared, and as a boss, you can’t always appear so fearful.

3. Life is about living.
My last boss was a workaholic, and it made him furious that I wanted to leave at the end of the day. My memories of college often involved doing the least amount necessary to generate the most pleasing results. You figured out exactly what score you had to get on final exams to maintain your grade. And how many people actually read every text that they were supposed to? School was about more than what you learned in class. Work shouldn’t consume you when life holds far more.

4. Money isn’t everything.
I’m not thinking of reverting back to Ramen Noodles. But whatever happened to the thrill of a free meal or cheap living? How about riding that bicycle even when you can afford the gas now? We work to make money, and suddenly we don’t know what to do without the huge sums of money. You become entrenched by growing “necessities”.

5. You don’t have to be an expert to give it a shot.
In the workplace, it’s easy to see the people that are better than you and become passive. Sometimes it’s even easier for the boss to literally remind you of how unknowing you are because you lack the experience, the knowledge he has, or just plain common sense (HIS point-of-view). In college, we were fearless – what’s the worse that could happen? The sense of adventure vanishes at work, I’ve noticed. Don’t just stick with what you’re good at. Take a leap at the things you’ve never tried or don’t do as well.