Outsourcing to India
What is Outsourcing??
” Outsourcing” is all about farming your work out to have it done cheaper overseas. It’s a good way of avoiding the high prices charged for western services (e.g accountants, PA’s etc). In fact I believe that the Indians, being very entrepreneurial, will do just about anything to ‘make it happen’!
Timothy Ferriss discusses outsourcing your life in his book “The 4-Hour Workweek“. His is a very entertaining story told by his friend, AJ, involving a PA called “Honey.” I’ll let you read it for yourselves at his blog above.
Needless to say, we just had to try this method! The photo on the left shows our Indian Accounting Team in Bangalore! (Yes, our trip to India was a ‘business trip’!!) They do all our bookeeping and tax returns too. They seem to know what they’re doing and are certainly a lot cheaper than their USA and Australian counterparts.
One friend tried ‘outsourcing’ his web design business but quality control was an issue. Another friend has an Indian do a lot of groundwork for his real estate investing business and has found him very efficient. So, some are good and some not so good.
Also, you would’ve all seen the Commonwealth Games fiasco. Remember, India is different and it is a third world country. You can put up with the craziness when you’re there on holiday, but you don’t want those hassles when you are doing business.
If you want to try outsourcing your own life, see what Tim Ferriss has to say.
‘Leverage’ is the Magic Word
Do you want to accelerate your path to financial freedom? If so, you need to know about the power of leverage and how it applies to investing. Leverage is amplifying the power of your money, time and knowledge.
To illustrate this, let’s make a comparison between investing in the sharemarket using no leverage, and investing in positive cash flow real estate using leverage.
The difference is because the banks won’t normally lend to invest in the sharemarket, but will often lend 80% or more to enable you to purchase real estate.
Sharemarket: $100,000 invested is $100.000 of your own money in shares.
Returns- if the return is 5% your return is just that; 5% on your own money
Property: $100,000 invested, but $80,000 (80%) is borrowed and you put in only $20,000 of your own money.
Returns- 5% return on $100,000 invested = $5000. As only $20,000 of your own money was invested this is a 25% return on your own money.
Using the above figures, the return on your money invested in property (using leverage), is five times greater than the return on your money invested in the sharemarket (no leverage)!
Caution: with any leveraged/geared investment your gains can be increased, but so can your losses. Ensure your property is cash flow positive i.e creates you a profit before tax when all expenses, including borrowings, are included.
There are other types of leverage you might want to utilise. You can leverge your time by getting a good property manager and you can leverage your knowledge by using people who have already done it.
Read Robert Kiyosaki’s book “Retire Young, Retire Rich.” It’s all about leverage.
Disclaimer: this is not intended to be financial advice and is for guidance only. If you are interested in using leverage please consult a professional.
I Wanna Go Back To Work!
Retirement isn’t necessarily easy…
We thought it would be easy to retire. If someone questionned us …”what will you do?”…we would laugh at them and say “where do we begin?” We had a list of things a mile long.Robert Kiyosaki of ‘Rich Dad’ fame, was advised to take a year off after he had sold his businesses. It took him six months before he was even ready to start the year off! Until that time he bumped around the house; hung out in the kitchen (his friends were at work) trying hard to do nothing…
Most people must go through this when they stop working. It’s difficult to do nothing after a lifetime of work. You need a purpose..
Now is the time to pick up Tim Ferris’ book “The Four Hour Work Week“. Tim says on the back cover of his book; “Warning: Do Not Read This Book Unless You Want To Quit Your Job”! Amongst other subject he talks about “Filling the Void”; -Adding Life after Subtracting Work.
While you’re reading, pick up William Bridges book “Transitions; Making Sense of Life’s Changes.” My husband found this book especially helpful as it explained how transitions are a normal part of life. Don’t fight them. Expect a period of turbulence with any major change, and realise that it won’t last forever.
Photo by ted.sali
The Power of Leverage
“Retire Young, Retire Rich” – How to Get Rich Quickly and Stay Rich Forever.
- The Leverage of Your Mind; expand your reality, or context.
- The Leverage of Your Plan; how most people ride on the ‘slow train’ of life
- The Leverage of Your Actions; what to do to become rich.
For Kiwis’ Eyes Only
At last there is a decent New Zealand on-line bookstore; it’s called Fishpond You may have heard of it already..it was established in 2004.
So, does this mean cheaper prices for us antipodeans??
To give you some idea of how it stacks up against the giant Amazon, I thought I’d compare the price of one of my favourite books from Robert Kiyosaki…”Retire Young Retire Rich”.
Amazon first: A new copy of RYRR was selling for NZD$18.51; standard shipping cost a huge NZD$15.12 which gives a grand total of NZD$33.63. If you spend NZD$12.79 more you get free standard shipping.
Fishpond: A new copy will cost you more @NZD$32.33 but shipping is only NZD$5.99 giving a total of NZD$38.32. Fishpond also has free shipping if you spend over NZD$50.00..
There’s a lot of difference in delivery time; 18 – 32 days for Amazon standard shipping (I recently ordered a book from Amazon and it would’ve taken all of that and more), whereas Fishpond you only have to wait 6 – 10 days. Your package doesn’t go via the North Pole like I’m sure my one did. 
This comparison wasn’t very scientific and my maths aren’t that great! Prices change so it’s worth looking at both.
Happy reading!
My RSS Feed
-
