This is the most difficult thing I have ever written.  You’ll understand if you stay with me.  I’ll deal with this topic in somewhat of a chronological order.  Here goes….

Other than family, time and money are two of our most important wants, needs…. or combination of both.  Mostly, they are not mutually exclusive, though.  You usually have to give up one to have the other.  You can give up your job to have more time, but then money becomes an issue… and, unless you can find a job that pays you twice what your making now for the same amount of hours, in order to make more money (legally), many people get a second job, and, thus, have less time.

How to make TIME — fire your boss:

I fired my boss 9 years ago because, as I told him, he was getting in the way of me traveling to Indiana to visit my grandson. My wife actually suggested it… I had been unhappy with my job for years, we only had one house payment left and we had a 2^nd grandson on the way.

With all this free time, three years of bicycling, hiking, hunting and fishing took its toll on my left knee leaving me with a less active lifestyle.  Not really bored, but extra time on my hands had me thinking of a part time job or volunteering, but I never was the volunteering type.  The Army had something to do with that.  Anyone that has served knows that those who raise their hand, when asked for volunteers, get the cr@p jobs.

So, that left me thinking more about a part time job.  I performed a reality check on myself and the results were… I liked my current boss (me) better than any other during my 37 year career in computers and I didn’t miss not having to fight rush hour traffic, so I decided not to rush into anything (retirement is great that way).

Two years and a total knee replacement later, I was hunting and fishing again and even took up golf at age 63.  Then, my wife saw an ad for a free seminar from an internet hosting company on website building and attendees would get lunch and a free MP3 player, so she signed us up.  She wanted an MP3 player.  You need to understand that my wife is technically challenged and it shocked me that she wanted one, but who am I to argue.  She had no clue how they worked and my best guess was she expected to be able to just turn it on and it played music.  Simple…. right?  Needless to say, she attempted to use it, after I showed her how to load music on it, and it was put in a drawer and I can’t remember which drawer.

How to make more MONEY – start your own business:

The seminar got me thinking about possibly earning a couple hundred dollars extra a month working for my current boss (me).  The seminar talked about different types of websites; Information, Service, Sales, etc.  The speakers told us to try and identify a Niche that has little or no competition on the internet. They covered many other things that I either forgot about or is too much to get into here, but I saw a lot of people, at that seminar, getting excited about becoming rich using the World Wide Web.  I wonder how many actually got one going and, if they stayed with it to make a profit.

Another venture my wife and I tried during my years of trading 8-5 for a paycheck, taught me that making money, other than trading that time, requires devoting the time and hard work.  Back then, time was the thing I didn’t have to make it work.  In retirement, I could take the time.  So what was going to be my niche?  My daughters would send us different things, from time to time, with my grandsons’ and granddaughter’s pictures (Oh, I failed to mention our precious granddaughter was born a year after our youngest grandson), like coffee cups, Christmas ornaments, etc.  So, until that Niche jumped up and smacked me in the face, I decided to start an Affiliate Marketing website called Simply Unique Photos.  My website contained advertisement links to sites that allowed customers to upload photos and have them printed on mugs, shirts, canvas prints, jewelry, etc… and if someone ordered something, I would get a small commission. Well, you may be familiar with the saying about a “Fart in a Spacesuit”… enough said!

How to make MONEY (idea 2) – expand your floundering business:

Website idea number 2 (at least until I can scratch that elusive Niche) was to create a business around one of my recreational passions…. Fly Fishing. Niche, market this is not, but I thought if I could find well known fly rod and reel manufacturers, that would allow me to sell their products and I paid all the shipping costs rather than my customers, I might be able to make a little money.

Phone in hand, I started calling every manufacturer asked for the sales manager and gave them my sorry pitch.  Oh, BTW, and I couldn’t afford to stock inventory, so they would have to agree to drop-ship directly to my customers for me… remember the Spacesuit saying?  One after another, after the next, to the very last, told me they only dealt with “Brick and Mortar” stores and I would have to purchase 5-20 thousand dollars’ worth of their product in inventory. NO is only a small word letter-wise.  There was one company, though, that didn’t say no but also didn’t say yes… file that one away for later.  This was going to be an internet business so I started doing some search engine research, more calls, more no’s.  Back on the phone to the “non-no” business.  “Brian, I really think I can help you make some money (that got his interest).  Here’s the deal, I can’t promise I’ll ever sell one of your rods or reels.  If I don’t, you haven’t lost a cent, have you?”  “I’m listening”, he said.  I continued, “but if I do make a sale, we’ll both make some money. Worst case scenario is I’ll be advertising your products on the internet and I promise to represent you and your products in a professional manner.”

Brian is a business man.  He is not a corporate sales manager that has rules to follow, so he said “OK, I’m willing to give it a try”.  We worked out my discount, the fact that he would drop-ship to my customers and bill me for my cost plus shipping.  SCORE!!  I’m in the Fly Fishing business.

Now I need a domain name… one that automatically tells people the type of business I’m in, is short enough to remember and captures their attention right from the ‘get go’. Let’s see now… larrysretirementflyshop.com… nah… flyrodsandreelsintherockymountains.com… nah, nah… FLYFISHINGCRAZY.COM… Eureka!  I resemble that (crazy) and furthermore, I represent that.

So now I have one vendor and domain name.  I googled “’fly fishing manufacturers” + “drop ship”’ and found other potential vendors.  My sales pitch on cold calls must have evolved, because now I was getting yesses instead of no’s.  Enough that I could actually take my website live in May of ’09 and got my first sale in July of ’09, another in Aug., several in Sept. and ended the year with about 15 sales.  Off and running.  FYI… I’ve met my goal of a couple hundred bucks a month.

Volunteering:

Remember I mentioned I served in the Army and that I am Crazy about Fly Fishing? I came across this organization called Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing (PHWFF) through a contact on Facebook. I went to one of their fly tying classes for the vets down at the VA hospital in Denver and I was hooked.  I’ll come back to this in a little while.  First….

Caring for Cancer:

As I am writing this post, I just got back from my wife’s visit with her oncologist.  This is where, when you get knocked down, you have to try to get back up.  It’s hard when your heart is breaking.  We’ve been married over 46 years.

I digress… 18 months ago, my wife was diagnosed with what we were told was an inoperable, incurable form of bile duct cancer.  Best guess life expectancy 6-12 months.  I’m not going to go into the horrible details of her treatment.  Suffice it to say, we spent months in radiation and chemo treatments and during that time, had many visits to the ER (some resulting in hospital admission). While working with PTSD veterans at the VA, and now helping my wife in her battle, made me realize that PTSD is not reserved for wartime military personnel. I was dedicating all of my time to her while she was awake; listening for any ‘out of the ordinary’ sounds from her while she slept. Where do I find the strength?  I don’t have a clue other than unconditional love.  While being trapped in this mental cell of caring, I had to find time for responding to my website orders by forwarding the orders to my vendors to be shipped.  I even had to; somehow, find time to pay my vendors for those orders.

From last spring, when she finished her chemo, until now, she has had a good quality of life and we have been able to do a lot together.  She encourages me to volunteer on a regular basis with PHWFF and has attended some of our fishing events with the vets.

Today, though, it sounds like she (we) will be starting anew with a different type of cancer that is growing in several lymph nodes.  We don’t know what the future will bring, but she has vowed to fight on.

Continuing on:

I have to find whatever balance I can.  Being consumed by all this free time and some extra money while trying to care for a loved one is not going to happen.  Certain things are no longer in our control, but we need to control the things we can.  I enjoy my business… it is Fly Fishing related.  I care very deeply for my fellow soldiers and veterans.  But first and foremost, I will love my wife, unconditionally, until….