Fernwood for sale

It's been more than a year since the Bushkill Group bought back the shuttered Fernwood hotel and conference center in a Monroe County tax sale.But, the organization which owns more than 500 nearby timeshares, a golf course and snow tubing hill, has found it difficult to flip the property."The property is closed and listed for sale," said Gina Bertucci, vice president of sales and marketing for the company. "We are not using it for anything. There is nothing to update at this [...]

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Major businesses projects gain steam in Chestnuthill Township

Four Chestnuthill Township commercial development projects are another step closer to reality.The Mount Effort Shopping Plaza, the Mastermind SR 115 Land Development project, a professional building at the intersection of routes 209 and 115 and a new production facility for a high-end audio components maker have all submitted land development plans to the township for review. The plans are in various stages of completion, according to Township Manager Dave Albright.The Mount [...]

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Crisis or speed bump? What UK vote means for economy sectors

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Britain's vote to leave the European Union adds a heavy dose of uncertainty to a world economy that is still struggling to reach full speed years after the global financial crisis.The most immediate pain will be felt in Britain. But economists say the ripples could be felt much farther afield.Companies will wonder whether to invest or locate in Britain during the yearslong negotiations to define new trade conditions with the EU, its [...]

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Deeds Done

Chestnuthill TownshipProsell LLC to John P. Levis and Lourdes Josefina Garcia-Levis, Lot 39, Stamford Heights, $265,000Coolbaugh TownshipRobert D. and Kelly McClellan to John J. and Amy Nosta, Lot 19, Section 4, Timber Trails, $275,000Hamilton TownshipKenneth J. Horen to Allison R. and John David Greminger, Lot 512, Section B, Buck Ridge, $307,000Wesli M. Confer and Corey C. Confer to Steven J. and [...]

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23 Low Cost Things You Can Do to Minimize the Expense and Suffering from the Biggest Health Risks

According to the CDC’s 2015 health report, the top ten leading causes of death among Americans are as follows:

Heart disease: 614,348 reported deaths in 2014
Cancer: 591,699
Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 147,101
Accidents (unintentional injuries): 136,053
Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 133,103
Alzheimer’s disease: 93,541
Diabetes: 76,488
Influenza and pneumonia: 55,227
Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis (kidney diseases): 48,146
Intentional self-harm (suicide): 42,773

If you separate out deaths due to auto accident, those add up to 30,800, the largest portion of the accidents group.

So why am I bringing you these grim statistics?

First of all, virtually all of these causes of death are preventable through simple means. While many of these diseases can’t be completely stopped, there are a lot of simple things you can do to reduce your chances of being among the more than a million Americans who die from those causes each year.

Second, even if these causes aren’t fatal, they can result in significant life expenses. There are many, many people who suffer from these conditions without dying, but that experience results in an enormous financial cost, big enough to bankrupt many people.

Taking simple actions to prevent or reduce the impact of these diseases is one of the best investments you can make in terms of the reduction in health care costs over the length of your life – let alone the improvement in quality of life that comes from minimizing or entirely avoiding these diseases.

Here are twenty three such steps. Many of these are absolutely free – they just amount to minor changes in lifestyle. Others have a tiny cost involved.

Taken altogether, they add up to some of the best investments you can make due to the huge financial costs they’ll help you avoid.

General Strategies

These first eight strategies are ones that apply to many of the conditions on that list at once. If you’re going to apply any of the strategies from this article, these are the ones to use.

Don’t smoke. The health benefits of not smoking are tremendous. Avoiding smoking not only provides better outcomes for most of the diseases on this list, but it also improves quality of life even outside of diseases. Add on top of that the fact that smoking is an expensive habit and the case for dumping it is clear.

If you’ve never smoked, don’t start. If you’re currently a smoker, do everything in your power to stop. Many health insurance packages offer a lot of benefits geared toward helping people to quit smoking, so take advantage of them!

Don’t consume non-prescribed drugs or over-the-counter drugs beyond their recommended usage. Drugs of all kinds can have untold effects on your health, both in the short term and over the long term. Many drugs are habit-forming and the addiction can be incredibly hard to break – and they tend to be expensive as well. Self-medication is a temporary fix to a longer-term problem and you’re far better off seeking solutions to whatever drove you to self-medicate.

There are lots of resources available to help you overcome an addiction to drugs. Overcoming that addiction will have a profound positive effect on your finances, your long-term health outcomes, your professional life, and your personal life to boot. It’s well worth kicking the habit if you have one (and it’s a smart idea to never pick up such a habit, either).

Eat a plant-centric healthy diet. Almost every dietary recommendation out there tends to point to the same type of diet, one that’s centered around fruits and vegetables rather than meats, dairy products, and grains. Not only are the health benefits tremendous (it helps you to lose weight and helps you to keep your blood sugar levels in line), it can actually be substantially less expensive than a diet focused on meat or dairy products.

You don’t have to become a vegan or a vegetarian, either. Just strive to fill at least half of your plate with unprocessed fruits and vegetables every time you eat. For most Americans, that’s a reasonable switch, but it’s one that will have huge health benefits and will probably save some money to boot.

Get regular exercise. Regular moderate exercise yields surprisingly large benefits in almost every aspect of personal health, from disease prevention to sleep quality, from weight management to energy improvement. Moderate exercise – the kind that gets you breathing a little heavy but isn’t killing you – done a few times a week offers benefits in all of those categories and it costs virtually nothing to do.

Go take a brisk walk at a speed that’s high enough to get you breathing a little heavy. Watch an exercise video and follow the routine. Go for a swim at the local public pool. Carry some heavy things around the garage. Walk up a steep incline. Do some yoga poses. Play soccer with your son. All of those things qualify as moderate exercise, all of them cost nothing, and all of them have wonderful health outcomes.

Maintain a healthy weight. Obesity is one of the biggest factors for increasing your likelihood of many of the diseases on this list. Maintaining a healthy weight pays dividends in a bunch of different dimensions – your appearance, your confidence, your mobility, your energy level – but it makes a huge difference in your health outcomes.

The most powerful tool you have for maintaining a healthy weight is portion control – making sure you don’t eat too much. Put less food on your plate and put less food in your mouth and you’ve already taken a huge step toward maintaining a healthy weight.

Limit alcohol intake. Alcohol consumption isn’t a bad thing and has been shown to have some health benefits in very small amounts, but once you move beyond a drink or two a day, not only are you bumping up your caloric intake (which can challenge your weight control) but you’re also putting a great deal of stress on many of your organs. You’re also impairing your ability to drive and to interact with those around you.

The best solution when it comes to alcohol is to either avoid drinking entirely or limit yourself to at most two drinks a day. Anything beyond that has significant health consequences, in terms of the direct effect on your body, your impairment, and your long term health, too.

Manage stress. A high level of stress has many negative effects on the body, both short term and long term. Many of the long term effects contribute greatly to the life-threatening conditions listed in this article, both in terms of causing them and in terms of making the symptoms worse.

There are many things you can do to de-stress, from getting regular exercise and getting plenty of sleep to simply enjoying music or other personal hobbies. Meditation and prayer also tend to be great remedies for life stress.

Get your flu shots. While influenza is one of the causes of death on that list, simply getting the flu can exacerbate many of the other conditions on this list as well, causing further complications and even accelerating the disease.

One of the best responses any of us have to the risk of getting influenza is to simply get an annual flu shot in the fall. While this isn’t a perfect protection, it does go a long way toward keeping yourself from getting influenza, which is a pretty nasty illness that can really tax your system.

Wash your hands frequently. Washing your hands frequently can prevent many common illnesses, such as the common cold, minor digestive illnesses, and even influenza. While those illnesses typically aren’t life threatening, they absolutely can work in concert with other conditions to become life threatening. For example, a person with a heart condition or a lower respiratory condition can exacerbate it with a cold.

Simply washing your hands thoroughly several times a day can make all the difference in the world by greatly reducing your chances of picking up an illness.

Cancer

Cancer is the number one killer in America and, as with most of the other conditions on this list, has no known cure for most of its varieties. However, along with the general strategies listed above, there are a few things you can do to help prevent it and increase your chances of surviving it.

Wear sunscreen when out in the sun for any significant length of time. One of the leading factors in developing melanoma, one of the most common forms of skin cancer, is prolonged sun exposure. That can be a problem if you enjoy outdoor activities.

Thus, one of the best strategies for avoiding melanoma is to restrict your outdoor time under direct sunlight and, when you choose to go out there, apply liberal amounts of sunscreen to your exposed skin, preferably sunscreen with a high SPF rating. While it won’t eliminate risk, it will definitely reduce it.

Get regular cancer screenings from your doctor. Don’t be afraid to go to your doctor for every routine cancer screening available to you. Many cancers can be detected early, and when you detect a cancer early, it’s usually very treatable.

Just schedule an appointment with your general practitioner / primary care physician and talk about cancer screenings that are appropriate for your age. Doing this is covered under most flavors of health insurance (as this is far cheaper for the insurer than cancer treatment), so the cost won’t be too high for you.

Auto Accidents

Driving a car is an act with a lot of risk, even though most drivers don’t perceive that risk on a daily basis. The vast majority of the time, nothing goes awry, but when something bad happens, it’s often devastating. Here are some simple things everyone should be doing to reduce the risk of auto accidents, both for their own sake and for the sake of those around them.

Obey traffic laws. Traffic laws are almost universally designed to keep traffic flowing and keep the roadways as clear as possible, which means that the goal is often to minimize accidents. As long as you follow those laws, you’re doing your part to minimize accidents as well.

Just follow the traffic laws. Keep your speed at the speed limit, follow the directions on the signs, know how to appropriately signal what you’re doing (and do so – your turn signal is there for a reason), turn on headlights when it’s dim outside, don’t gun it when the light has been yellow for a while, and just generally be aware of what’s happening around you.

Wear your seat belt. I’m separating this out into its own strategy simply because it’s so important and also because I still sometimes see people without their belts on while driving around.

Seat belts save lives, period. They keep you from being thrown about the car in the case of an accident. Things like slamming forward into the windshield are prevented by having a seat belt on, and it’s so easy to do. Most people have trained themselves to do this automatically – if you haven’t, do so. Not doing so is both a health risk and a financial risk.

Don’t text or make calls while driving. The less attention you’re paying to the road, the more likely it is that you’re going to get into a serious accident along the way. Texting is a huge distraction while driving, but so is making a phone call.

While you’re driving, just set your phone to auto-respond with a text saying that you’re driving and you’ll respond when you get there and then ignore the calls and texts. Or, better yet, just turn your phone off entirely and give that battery a rest.

Don’t drive when tired or intoxicated. This is similar to the logic behind not texting or calling when driving. When you’re tired or intoxicated, you’re not as focused on the road as you should be and your reaction times are slowed, which drastically increases the odds of an accident.

If you’re tired or intoxicated, ask someone to drive you home and pay for them to get an Uber ride back to their destination… or else just get an Uber or taxi ride yourself. Don’t get behind the wheel, because the cost of doing so can be quite high.

Lower Respiratory Disease

Lower respiratory diseases are typically the result of lung damage due to a number of causes, usually long-term exposure to pollutants or a history of smoking. Such diseases can seriously impair breathing and cause undue stress on other bodily systems.

Avoid pollutants. While washing your hands is vital, simply avoiding pollutants in the air is another useful tactic. Try to avoid areas with a high degree of air pollution, particularly during humid periods.

Having known several people with lower respiratory illnesses, visiting areas with high pollution can be a real problem for them, as can humidity. You’re almost always better off just avoiding such situations entirely by avoiding smog and staying inside on really humid days.

Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s disease is a horrible illness that strips away many aspects of your personality along the way. It’s hard to treat, but there is one thing that seems to be universally recognized as a good prevention tool.

Give yourself mental stimulation through cognitively challenging hobbies. Exercise your mind as much as your body. Try to take on cognitively challenging hobbies, particularly ones that stretch your mind in different ways than your job does.

Read books, particularly on challenging subjects. Solve puzzles. Play games that force your mind to work. These things, if done regularly, can keep Alzheimer’s and other neurological conditions at bay.

Stroke

A stroke is something that can strike at any moment, causing a wide range of long-term and short-term effects. It’s a condition that is partially prevented by many of the general tactics listed above, but there’s one more that can help with stroke risk.

Lower – but don’t eliminate – your salt intake. High salt intake is linked to stroke risk, so simply lowering your salt intake lowers your stroke risk.

At the same time, one does need at least a little bit of sodium in their diet, so a purely salt-free diet using only raw vegetables and meats isn’t a perfect solution, either. However, most modern Americans get plenty of salt in their diet from even eating out occasionally, so there’s really no reason to be adding additional salt to your dishes at home.

Diabetes

Diabetes is a subtle killer, bringing on an array of negative health effects that can lead to death. Again, most of the general strategies listed above are great responses to diabetes, but there are a couple more things you can do.

Eat more whole grain bread and cereals. This tip should almost be in the “general” section above. There’s a strong link between reducing the risk of diabetes by switching to whole grain bread and cereals, but there is some evidence that doing so can help with heart disease and even some forms of cancer as well.

It’s really a simple switch. Stop eating white bread and white pasta and substitute whole grain versions of those items. It’s a flavor and texture change, sure, but once you’re used to the change, you won’t want to go back.

Consume less soda and sweets. Refined sugar is another major cause of diabetes in our diet, so simply eliminating the biggest sources of refined sugars – sodas and sweets – can really help out.

One technique that really works for many people in reducing their refined sugar intake is to switch to eating fruits to sate their sweet tooth. Instead of gobbling down candy bars, eat bananas and apples and cherries and raspberries.

Self-Harm

Many people harm themselves in response to internal challenges and difficult situations, sometimes even ending their own life. While such conditions can be difficult to handle, there are things that you can do if you’re driven to self-harm.

Cultivate strong relationships with friends or family that you can trust in difficult moments. This can seem difficult or even impossible. Many people who self-harm don’t want to cultivate relationships in the short term.

However, having friends and family who will help you and stand by you in your low moments can make a huge amount of difference. They can provide an ear when you need to have someone to talk to. They can be a person nearby when you’re really struggling. They can be a shoulder to cry on or a person to hug or even someone to help make you a meal during a down moment. (But never forget that relationships are a two way street – it’s about “giving” as well as “getting.”)

Find different outlets for your strong emotions such as punching a pillow. If you find that you harm yourself in response to an extreme emotion, seek out other ways to channel that emotion.

Punch a pillow. Cry your eyes out. Take a kickboxing class. Run sprints. Tend a garden. There are many things that can serve as an alternative emotional outlet. Explore them.

Remove items from your environment that you may use for self-harm. Many people who self-harm gravitate toward certain things to cause that harm. Knives. Pills. You get the idea.

One way that you can reduce the opportunity for self-harm is to remove those items from your local environment. Just get all of the knives out of your home. If you have pills in the cupboard, get rid of them. Whatever it is that you use for self-harm, get rid of it.

Final Thoughts

The strategies in this article won’t guarantee victory over every kind of ailment or bad situation that can take your life or cause severe illness. However, all of these strategies can significantly reduce the chances of those adverse affects – and most of these strategies are free and some even save you money.

There’s little reason not to adopt these strategies into your life. They extend your lifespan, improve your quality of life, and can save you a ton of money along the way.

Good luck.

The post 23 Low Cost Things You Can Do to Minimize the Expense and Suffering from the Biggest Health Risks appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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Depression, Spending, and Bad Money Behaviors

Can you imagine walking through your entire life… in two feet of water? You’re commuting to work in water, walking up the stairs to your office in water, and struggling to take care of your kids and the house with the resistance of water adding stress to your every move. And the only time you get a break is when you lie down – tired from you’re exhausting day. You’re technically able to move forward, yes, but you’re using a lot more energy to complete even the most basic tasks.

Your limbs feel twice as heavy as they normally do, and everything you do is an all-consuming hassle. Even making a phone call or getting showered can exhaust you for the day, which leaves little stamina to do much else. And when you’re wasting so much energy just to live, it’s easy to let bills and even friendships fall to the wayside. It doesn’t mean you’re not sad about it – or that you don’t care; you’re just too tired to feel anything.

You’re so weary that you’re numb.

This is how Abigail Perry, author of “Frugality for Depressives,” describes life with the constant ache of depression in the background. It’s hard, she says, and it’s something that outsiders don’t always understand.

But after living with depression and bipolar disorder for a lifetime, Perry learned to channel her frustrations and creative energy into her writing — including her blog, I Pick Up Pennies.

On her website, Perry covers topics that range from her husband’s journey with chronic pain to her own battle with depression and anxiety. And true to her website’s name, she seamlessly relates many of their battles to the financial struggles that inevitably arise when money and depression collide.

Writing ‘Frugality for Depressives’

Approximately 14.8 million American adults (or 6.7% of the population) suffer from Major Depressive Disorder, and that’s in addition to the myriad other mental health issues that afflict others. According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, Persistent Depressive Disorder, for example, affects another 3.3 million American adults each year.

And you can find ample books that cover mental illness and its side effects  – a gaggle of self-help books, books for family and friends, and medical text meant to explain these conditions. Yet, the books that talk about money in relation to frugality are basically nonexistent – and that’s absolutely bizarre. With millions of people suffering from some stage of depression or mental illness – and all of those people having to manage money in their daily lives – one would think that money management and mental health might be the topic of a book or two.

But this topic hasn’t been covered much in the mainstream; at least not yet. And that’s why Perry wrote her new book – because there is nothing else out there like it. Too few financial help books are aimed at people with the challenges that Perry and others like her face.

“Too much personal finance advice assumes perfect-world scenarios,” says Perry. “Plenty of people – even healthy ones – live in a very different reality,” she says.

Q&A with Abigail Perry, author of ‘Frugality for Depressives’

To learn more about the challenges of being frugal when you’re depressed, we wanted to open the floor to someone who deals with these unique challenges, yet overcomes them every day.

While Perry’s book is aimed primarily at depressives, she believes her commentary and advice might prove helpful for anyone having trouble with the classic frugal hacks – and people who might be too intimidated to get started. Here are some additional insights into Perry’s book from the author herself.

On why depression makes it harder to be frugal:

“Depression makes everything harder. During my worst spells, there were days the mere thought of a shower made me want to weep,” Perry says. “Remember in cartoons how something that had been normal-sized a minute ago is suddenly huge? That’s depression. Something that should be simple, like a phone call, is too much to even contemplate. So you end up stuck in another month of gym membership or subscriptions.”

“Even functional depressives can struggle,” she adds. “Their energy and coping abilities tend to be lower than healthy people’s. It takes more to get through their day, which means less energy and mental wherewithal to focus on money-saving tricks.”

Advice for people who are depressed but still want to get ahead financially:

“You need to start small,” Perry says. “If you try to take on every frugal hack at once, you’ll burn out quickly. Focus on one area until it feels natural. Then move on to the next one.”

It’s also important to acknowledge your condition – and cut yourself some slack, Perry says. “Remember that even healthy people have trouble sustaining radical change. You’re not healthy, and your approach to frugality (and life) has to take that into account,” she says.

“That brings me to the other key ingredient: forgiveness. Depressives are our own worst critics. We look at ourselves through a funhouse mirror – usually the one that makes us look fat. We’re much more likely to beat ourselves up over failures, which keeps us from wanting to try again. It’s also a huge waste of our already-diminished energy.”

Finally, Perry says to accept mistakes. “Understand that you will make mistakes. If you accept that, you’ll be better equipped to accept ‘good enough.’ You can always improve on your results in the future. For now, it’s about seeing any progress. That will keep you going on the path to frugality.”

On the cycle of depression and frugality that leaves people unable to make progress financially:

Depression presents a number of obstacles to improving your everyday finances, but one in particular stands out. “I think that the biggest hindrance is the convenience tax,” Perry says.

“We can’t handle the thought of cooking, so we buy prepared food or order in. The supermarket feels too overwhelming, so we opt for the drugstore or even the convenience store. We’re not sure when we’ll have the energy to go out again, so we buy an item on site rather than wait for a sale or comparison shop,” she says.”

“All of these things cost extra, which is obviously the opposite of our frugal intentions. This usually makes us frustrated or even ashamed. And that sucks up more of our energy and lowers our ability to cope, thereby making life even harder. Which then increases the chance that we’ll pay the convenience tax even more often, making us feel worse. It’s what I call a shame spiral, and it ends with us paralyzed by exhaustion and self-reproach.

“Of course, the second issue is comfort spending. When we feel awful, we may try to buy something to feel better – whether that’s candy or a new dress. Once the euphoria from the purchase fades, we feel even worse, which could cause another round of comfort spending. That only makes us feel worse in the end and… cue the shame spiral.”

• Related: Throwing Away the ‘Retail Therapy’ Crutch

On her personal battle with depression:

“Looking back, I’ve had symptoms of depression most of my life, but I was diagnosed at age 21,” Perry says. “Then, I was correctly diagnosed at age 30 as being bipolar II. I still experience severe depression, just like normal (unipolar) depressives. I just also experience manias – though they’re significantly tamer than ones that normal bipolar people have.

“Before I was on the correct medication, I went through a lot of dark times. Usually, it was just that life was even more difficult to get through than normal. Still, there were a few times I thought of suicide.

“Life is much better now that I have the right medication (mood stabilizers). But there are still days that I struggle. Sometimes I can’t bring myself to do something very simple (for healthy people) like make a phone call or leave the house. I just have to accept that and find ways to work around it.”

Her advice for someone who’s depressed, yet wants to live a more frugal lifestyle:

“It’s really all about learning workarounds for and baby-stepping your way into frugal hacks,” Perry says.

“Even for healthy people, frugality is a marathon rather than a sprint. It can take years for money-saving routines to come naturally. So it’s important that you set up realistic expectations. It’s better to succeed at a small goal than to fail at a large one.

“Obviously it’s all easier said than done. It’s something I’ve been working on for years. Even now, my husband and I experience a mix of successes and failures. Rather than castigate myself for the failures, I try to learn from them and move on.”

Final Thoughts

If adopting a frugal lifestyle were easy, everyone would do it. But it’s not easy, and it can actually be close to impossible for those who deal with depression or other mental health issues.

Still, there is light at the end of the tunnel – and there is hope for those who live with depression but still want to get ahead financially.

But it’s important to be patient with yourself; and to be kind. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and anything worth doing takes time. Fortunately, the strategies Perry suggests could help someone get to a better place emotionally as well as financially, she says.

“Changing the way I think about and approach frugality has made a huge difference in my mental health,” says Perry. “I hope my book will help people do the same.”

What is your experience with frugality and depression? Please share your stories below.

Related Articles:

• 12 Things I Do When I’m Feeling Awful
• The Emotional Effects of Debt
• Why Bother? Digging Into the Purpose of Personal, Financial, and Professional Success

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This Guy Quit His Job to Build Tables… and He Earned $44K Last Year

Matt Lebel was ready to quit college by the time he was 20 years old.

He had always been a good student and studied the promising areas of engineering and math, but he was miserable in school and hated being broke all the time.

“My bank account was negative and I couldn’t even buy myself something to eat one day because all my cards got declined at a fast food drive-thru,” he says.

A new retail job was the tipping point.

“I was already getting bitter about school, and working hard was giving me tangible results,” he says. “A few weeks went by and I at least had enough money to put gas in my car and buy food again.”

At the end of that semester in 2010, he quit school. He didn’t have a solid plan for his next steps. He just knew being in college wasn’t his path, and he was going to find a better one.

“I was convinced that I could figure it out and I had a ‘prove them wrong’ kind of attitude.”

Trying New Ideas

He spent the next few years working full time to continue paying down student loans and a car loan. And he started to experiment with creative ways to make a living.

“I really enjoy pushing boundaries and doing things differently,” Lebel explains.

He started a blog, from which he earned ad revenue that, he says, “wasn’t even enough to buy a cup of coffee.”

Like many creative entrepreneurs, Lebel has a notebook filled with unrealized business ideas, like an outdoor gear company and a nutrition bar company, he told Studenomics.

He even started writing a book at one point.

“I always found a reason to back off from them,” he explains. “Mostly I was afraid of the startup costs and failing. I didn’t have a lot of resources at the time, so I was afraid of picking the wrong idea and having it fall apart.”

Launching a Business That Worked

At 23, Lebel started making furniture for himself. He learned as he went and enjoyed the hobby.

When he built a dining room table out of old pallets, his friends and family loved it and encouraged him to do more.

“It took me forever and it was a huge pain, but I needed a damn table. When it was done I said I’d never do it again,” he says. But, “it did look pretty cool.”

He also had no woodworking experience, let alone any knowledge of furniture design. He used the dimensions from his parents’ dining room table to guide his early designs.

“You don’t have to be an expert to start something,” he says, “and you might have to fake it for a while, but eventually you get the hang of it.”

After about a year of faking it and learning the trade himself, he finally decided to launch a website and offer to sell custom items. This would make a nice side income, he figured, maybe an extra $1,000 per year on top of his full-time job.

He opened Back Burner Designs for business on April 10, 2014 and made his first sale on May 31.

“A year after that,” he says, “I was quitting my job.”

He became enchanted with the promise of freedom he could have working for himself.

“The change happened when I experienced what it was like to be an entrepreneur and I decided that I was going to do anything to live that life all the time,” Lebel told Studenomics.

“I was meeting great people, making money, going on trips and I wasn’t reporting to anyone – until I went to work the next Monday.”

Though he’d only made $7,000 that first year running his business on the side, he decided sales were steady enough to take the risk.

“Looking back, it seems kind of nuts to have quit my job when I did,” he says, “but it was just one of those now-or-never moments and I went for it.”

Another year later, he doesn’t regret the decision.

He earned about $44,000 in the 12 months since taking the business full time, and it’s growing quickly. The first quarter of 2016 was his best by a landslide, and he’s started hiring employees.

How Much Does His Business Cost Him?

Lebel launched his business on Etsy with very little money, no outside funding and no debt.

“I actually wanted to get a business loan right after I quit my job,” he explains, “but it turns out they won’t let you get a loan when you do that.” The business is still entirely self-funded.

He estimates he spent less than $50 to open the Etsy shop, buy a domain and order business cards.

He used deposits for orders to buy supplies. All the money he made went towards buying new tools for about the first six months.

He uses free social media to promote his business, jumping on Instagram, Facebook and an email list to connect with his audience. He has also invested in local print ads and traveled to trade shows to get in front of new customers.

“I drop business cards every place I go, and I tell everyone about what I’m doing.”

In addition to his growing Etsy business, he started testing a number of other side hustles.

“Making money became addicting,” he told Studenomics. “I found opportunities to make money all over the place. In addition to Back Burner Designs, I sold things on eBay, shoveled snow and did odd jobs.”

These various streams of income brought in more money than his full-time job, and he was working far fewer hours each week.

“I live well, and I don’t stress too much about money, which I was never able to do at my old job,” he says.

Out of the profits from his business, he takes what he needs to cover basic expenses like rent, groceries and bills, which are around $1,600 a month.

Everything extra goes back into the business for recurring costs like rent and electricity for his shop, insurance, payroll, internet, design software and blade sharpening, as well as miscellaneous costs for marketing and supplies that occur as the business grows.

Though his business expenses vary wildly month to month, Lebel estimates they’re about $1,400 a month now.

The Benefits of Working for Yourself

“Sometimes I wake up in the morning and send emails while I sip coffee in my slippers,” Lebel says.

“Other times I’m driving to a customer’s house or photographing a table, and many days I’ll spend a whole day in the shop working. I’m sure it adds up to a lot (of hours), but I don’t keep track.”

What he does know is the business is enough to keep him busy.

He’d like to eventually build a stock of inventory, but right now he spends all his time keeping up with custom orders.

“The really valuable part is that I can choose when and how I work,” he says of entrepreneurship. “If the weather is nice, I can take some time to enjoy it. I could work outside on my computer or take a few hours off to go do something fun.”

Lebel also appreciates that entrepreneurship doesn’t discriminate. “I’m just a normal person who dropped out of college and spent a few years being broke while working at a retail store.”

Starting his own business, he didn’t have to prove to anyone — except himself — that he could do the job. He simply had to do it.

He accepts his earlier failures in stride, as any business owner must. He learned a little from everything he tried — from dropping out of college, to working in retail management, to launching and closing a blog.

“Brainstorming, researching and learning,” he says, “gets your brain in the habit of recognizing opportunities and developing ideas, even when it doesn’t feel like it.”

Because he was open to the possibilities, he was able to embrace his accidental table-making business. He wasn’t discouraged by quitting college or discarding earlier business ideas.

“I paid thousands of dollars for college classes that I gained nothing from, but the day I spent $60 making my first pallet table changed my whole life,” he explains.

“You might have to spend that $60 or $100 (to try something new) a few times, but eventually you’ll hit the right thing.”

Your Turn: Are you still searching for the right business idea?

Dana Sitar (@danasitar) is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She’s written for Huffington Post, Entrepreneur.com, Writer’s Digest and more, attempting humor wherever it’s allowed (and sometimes where it’s not).

The post This Guy Quit His Job to Build Tables… and He Earned $44K Last Year appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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