monkey!

October 31, 2007

The beauty of putting your eggs in many baskets

You’ve probably heard the phrase “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket“. It’s a very cliche statement, but it makes so much sense. After a discussion a few days ago with my girlfriend about how she hasn’t purchased food in over a month because she just gets it from multiple sources I came to a realization how much I live my life in the same way, and how it makes things so much easier.

The phrase generally applies for financing. You don’t want to put all your money into a single stock, or bank account. Having multiple credit cards is always useful (If you’re smart about it), and it’s always good to have savings for the rough times.

Of course, this rule can apply to so many other things. Take the food example I described earlier. In my case, I also have not purchased much food (Except dining out) in the past few months. Food for myself comes from a variety of sources including work, parents, and friends. Obviously, I pay for my own food as well, and buy others, but it makes things easier, and adds a twist to eating the same boring stuff all the time (Protip: Parents make good food!)

Another example is jobs. I have never held a single job by its lonesome. It just doesn’t work for me. If you can get an easy sum of cash from doing something else, then why don’t you do it? When you’re done you’re daily 9-5 job and you have the skills for it, do something else. For me, I make a bit of extra off web advertising and freelance development. For you, it may be creating some art and selling it for a small fee digitally or in print. You would be surprised at how many people will pay $5 for a nice drawing that you did in your spare time, for fun and learning.

This way of living extends to more avenues as you dig further down. Even simple tasks like the RSS Feeds you read. I doubt you read just Digg, it’s just much more interesting and convenient to read 10-20 separate blogs and have Digg as a supplement for your reading.

I guess this is all common sense, but so are many other articles on the web. Sometimes, even the best of us need a simple dose of common sense, and it’s good for us. Try looking at how you live your life and see if you’ve spread out resources. If you haven’t, why not?