Getting into the habit of saving and investing is an important step we can take to improve ourselves and help others.
The 'pay yourself first' idea calls for saving a certain percentage of your income, starting as soon as possible.
Compound interest can then multiply that savings into a substantial retirement account.
We can start out by setting up several bank accounts for different purposes.
Set up an account in your local bank that will be your working account.
Deposit all your income into that one account and do all your spending from that account.
You may want to have two of these accounts, one for your business, and one for your personal finances.
Set up three other accounts with an online banking service, such as E-trade.
You will not have instant access to these accounts, like you do with your working accounts.
But you will be able to transfer funds from one account to the other.
So, you can set up automatic deposits into your savings accounts, and draw funds out of them into your working account when necessary.
The three accounts will include a retirement account that you will not want to withdraw any money from until you retire.
The second account will be a tax account.
Deposit the income taxes for the income you earn into this account, so that when you need to pay taxes, you will have the funds available to do that.
The third account will be your emergency operating expenses account, that can be used to cover any insurance deductibles, pay bills during recessions, etc.
, or any other emergencies.
You should have at least one year's worth of operating expenses saved up in your emergency account, as quickly as you can save it.
You may want to have your emergency operating fund and your health savings in two separate accounts.
Having a one year supply of food in storage is another good idea for building security into your free enterprise.
Make sure you design your house, or upgrade your house, to minimize its energy consumption.
Add insulation, plant shade trees, etc.
, in a way that maximizes energy conservation in the design and operation of your home.
Be mindful of the environmental impact of your family and the operation of your home and home office.
Build a green house and plant a garden.
Not only will this supply some good home grown food for your diet, it is also a healthy activity that compensates for the sedentary life style, that we can get into by working in our home offices.
Growing plants, and perhaps even some small animals, for food is a very healthy activity.
Living in harmony with an abundance of life is good and healthy.
Observing the plants and animals growing and living, will educate and influence your human consciousness about living in harmony with our natural habitat.
Get some exercise.
Taking walks or jogging around the neighborhood is one good way to get exercise.
You can listen to educational CDs while you're exercising.
There are plenty of exercises you can do without any equipment.
Getting an exercise machine of some kind is another good option, if you want or need that systematic incentive to exercise.
We should be able to get most houses off the energy grid easily.
Add solar panels and wind mills in order to generate the energy you use.
It's still kind of expensive and difficult to find.
Primarily, because utility companies are in the business of selling energy, and they don't want people generating their own energy.
So our economy has this culture of dependence built into it.
We can grow out of that.
The engineering is already done, its our economy and cultural habits that need to be educated and trained to live interdependently, instead of depending on big business and big government.
Big business is a valuable attribute of human nature and civilization.
We just want it to serve the people of earth, not oppress us.
Big business supplies many of the opportunities for our home offices to be profitable.
The Internet itself is supplied by big business.
The computers and many of the other technological tools and materials we use to build our ecological homes and profitable home offices, are supplied by big businesses.
My big idea for working at home is to develop a Site Build It website, an online store, offering these ideas, delivering my holistic healing and teaching system and recommending a diverse assortment of other people's products and services in order to help my customers live healthy and wealthy.
Another good idea that I am interested in investigating and reporting about, is developing an eBay business.
Buy, sell and trade a diverse assortment of products and services on an eBay online storefront.
Yard sailing would be an activity that can compliment such a business.
Go around to yard sales to find a diverse assortment of artifacts and then offer them on your eBay store.
There are several options for finding products online for sale on eBay as well.
Day trading on the stock market is another popular way to earn income in a home office.
It may be one of the most lucrative home office based businesses.
Its a high risk, high paying option.
Just like any of these options, it will require a considerable amount of independent investigation of how to do it right and successfully.
Buying real estate and either renting it out, or fixing it up and reselling it, is another good idea for a home office based business.
Network marketing is another way we can tap into a big business system in order to earn a living, working in our own home office.
We can specialize in any one of these and many other business opportunities, or we can work any combination of them, depending on our interests and abilities.
Spend a lot of effort improving yourself.
Prepare yourself to be healthy and wealthy.
Eat good healthy whole food, exercise and study and learn how to improve yourself, your family and your property.
Be spiritual.
Take the middle way.
Being greedy and materialistic is not healthy.
Being obsessed about religion or spirituality is not healthy either.
Human beings require both material prosperity and spiritual progress in order to be healthy and wealthy.
Have fun and be careful.