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Signal Vs Noise: Why I love working with family people

SvN just did a post called: Why I love working with family people

I wrote this as a comment but I thought i would post it here:

I am 29 with a wife and 3 kids and do web development and work at home. I started out as a 20 year old that would work for hours on end and I have been able to refine my process.

Really what this boils down to is 2 things.

1. Family people tend to be older and more mature. Kids do something to you and your maturity level skyrockets (usually). I always say that a guy is never ready to have kids and will never be ready until he HAS kids.

2. This is exactly what the 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss is talking about. The idea of if you have something ELSE you HAVE to get done then you will work more diligently and more focused to get it done.

Thoughts?

J.J. Merrick on April 25, 2008 | Filed Under ColdFusion, Personal, Technology, Web Worker

3 Comments

Erika  on May 13th, 2008

So you’ve read 4HWW? How did you like it? I loved it. My goal is to live life close to that book. I’m about halfway there …

J.J. Merrick  on May 13th, 2008

I did. I had a co-worker that was a big fan of his and pre-ordered it and read it in 2 days and gave it to me to read. It has a lot of great stuff in it. I think the biggest thing I took away from it was that in the end there is time to do what you love and to set things up so that you can do what you love. Wether it is a mini-retirement or just spending more time with your kids.

Pinnacle Trade Show Booths  on June 9th, 2008

hi JJ, I saw this post before but didn’t have time to comment. Your response to my comment on “I just got 500k, what can I do with it?” about term life rates (remember?) made me think of this, and I’m glad I found it (thanks to your search function).
You wrote in your post above: “Kids do something to you and your maturity level skyrockets (usually). I always say that a guy is never ready to have kids and will never be ready until he HAS kids.”
I laughed when I read that. It is so true. We have a 4 and a 6 year old. It was after our first one was a few weeks old that I came to the conclusion that one can NEVER be fully prepared to have a baby until you have a baby, no matter how many books you read or how much advice you get. Anyway, as you wrote, kids make you more mature/responsible (usually). Well, they did me. Three years ago (yeh, not until three years ago) I finally got around to writing a will and getting life insurance. I did it because of my kids. Never would have thought of it otherwise.
I think you have a great idea in writing one of your Friday Financials on term life insurance. I think it was already cheaper when I finally got it. My agent was a great help. I really trusted him because he steered me to the less expensive options. Go figure (perhaps I was too small of a fish to worry about, or he is just genuinely a good guy – I think it’s the later). Anyway, I got 500k each for me and the wife for 20 years. Why 20 and not 30? Because I just want it to be there until the kids are on their own, and not as an “inheritance” – I hope I never use it. Regarding life insurance and how much to get, I thing it’s important for people to remember that the amount is fixed and due to inflation, if you are unlucky enough to “use” it in say 17 years, that 500k won’t be like 500k today (inflation makes it worth less). Still, that’s no reason to spend more because in the meantime one’s assets should be going up (paying off the house, saving for retirement, etc) so that your survivors won’t need as much down the road.
Anyway, I’m sure you could write a much better post on what to think about when getting term life. If one has kids, one needs to do it! Plan for the unexpected and it won’t happen! ~ Steve

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