My dream ever since my childhood was having my own horses and dogs, and the most important part of the dream was always, having them close to me, living where I was living as well.

Today, I have my 3 horses living around my house, and whenever I go from my office to my kitchen to make a cup of whatever, they will leave their hay and walk around the house, showing up in front of the kitchen window to see if it is their lucky day and mom tosses out an extra carrot or apple.

I also have 3 dogs who follow me wherever I go and give me a lot of love and companionship. They were all “rescue cases” when they entered my life, one was so tiny and underfed she was about to die and has now grown into one of the dearest animals I have ever had in my life, the other two were both up on “deathroll”, convicted without trial by their owners who claimed they were too dangerous or impossible to handle. They both turned out to be amazing creatures who atmost will lick visitors to death.

I have lived in this place for 3 years now, and when I first found this spot I was in a real hurry to find a place to live, having only 2 weeks to find a place suitable to have horses and dogs, close enough to my new job and most importantly, affordable. It was a real lucky break the moment I walked in the door and I felt at home straight away.

I finished moving only 1 day before I had to start working my new job (yep, as a car salesperson) and lived out of unpacked boxes for months, just not having the time and umpf to finish unpacking after the long hours I was putting in.

I must say, I have been really happy here, even though it is a rental place, but lately this nagging feeling won´t stop telling me it is about time for me to move on again. This time hopefully to a place I can really call my own. You see, many years ago all I dreamt was living in a peaceful place with my animals near me, but never did it occur to me that it should be on my own property. I got what I thought I wished for, but time has come to dream bigger.

Last week I was talking about it with my mom about different possibilities, maybe even running some holiday premises off of a property to bring in extra money, and only the day after I was sifting through a local magazine where I saw this “finca” (Spanish country home) announced for sale. I hesitated a bit since my financial position isn´t really ready to take on a mortgage at the moment, but picked up the phone anyways and made a call to inform about the place.

An hour later and a lot of information richer I had learned about another location available in my favorite area which just sounded too good to be true (and way over my budget, that is probably why it sounded too good to be true) but the guy on the other end of the phone offered to send me some pictures anyways so I could think about whether I wanted to have a look at the property or not.

A few days later I was having breakfast with my friend and when talking about this property she happened to know the owner and suggested to go and have a look since we were nearby, but she also said the property really wasn´t what I was looking for, the main house being in need of a lot more than just some TLC.

When arriving at the finca however, again I had this instant feeling of being at home.

There was a lot of damp on the walls, cracks, ugly tiles against the walls (something typically Spanish), a really awful tiny old fashioned kitchen and weird layout of all the rooms, but somehow I could just see through all of it and see real potential.

There was a huge terrace outside though and I could just see myself sitting there, in the shade, enjoying the absolutely fantastic views with my laptop in front of me, working away on my websites, having the occasional dip in the pool and picking fresh fruit from the trees or having a nice barbeque with my dearest friends and laugh the night away.
So we went on, looking at the rest of the property which also included another small house, reasonably new, two floors containing two apartments which were the main source of income for the current owner, functioning as holiday rentals with their separate entrance and own terraces. Things were already starting to look a bit brighter and we went on, down a little road to another house, a wooden one, which in the future was going to form part of the income as well and set in a beautiful spacious location, with several fruit trees and many plants, flowers and the occasional palm tree.

If that wasn´t enough yet, there was this huge area of flat land with trees offering shade on those hot summer days and I could already see my horses having an amazing time eventhough they would not be able to show up at my kitchen window anymore.

When leaving the property we started talking about the place and its ups and downs and my friend was really summing up all the negative sides of that particular finca, especially the part about the main house that she felt just wasn´t my style and I was almost agreeing with her, she made some very good points.

So why am I writing this, at 3.30 am while I should really already be sound asleep?

Simply because I can´t get that place out of my head, making calculations and going over all the things which need to be changed in order to make the investment profitable and even run a small business on the premises. To me it felt like much more than just some property, it felt so peaceful and quiet, so full of potential and vibration and just waiting there for me.

And the more I think about it, the more I start looking at the possibilities and options, the more I am becoming convinced I should really give it my best.

It is Time to Dare and Accomplish Bigger Dreams!

When opening my email this morning there was “A Note from the Universe”, little inspiring messages I receive, this one I wanted to share with you because of it´s spot-on relevance and kind of freaky coincidence:

Remember you once told me, Mirjam, that if ever all of the circumstances in your life were aligned just so, your soon-to-be friends were in all the right places at all the right times, and the financial markets, social climate, and global energies had all reached optimal points… you´d want to be gently nudged as a subtle sign that it was time to start doing new things, saying new things, and visualizing so that you might catch these gargantuan waves of change and surf to dazzling new heights?

TODAY IS THE DAY!

Hang ten!

The Universe

PS. Oh, Mirjam, I also wanted to remind you something about a fabulous large property with planty of land and Cadbury Fruit and Nut Bars… go figure. 

For the last few weeks I have been thinking about an investment idea of mine. Now, I must admit, none of my ideas so far have been very successful but I just refuse to give up on trying. This idea though is different. It has to do with one of my passions in life, and is related to a niche product. I had been reading in the past about starting online businesses and e-stores but never really came across anything that I felt would be a good product for me to promote.

A few weeks ago however, while navigating different sites to buy something for myself, within my passion, I came across a wholesaler in China, offering products which I personally wanted to buy, at only 5-10% of regular prices I had seen so far. After writing back and forth (in the beginning I did not realise it was a wholesale company) I found out that I would have to buy at least 10 units of every product I would like to order, which kind of has put me back for a bit.

Initial step would be around 110 euros for buying 10 units plus having them shipped to my home, which would set unit cost at 11 euros. I have been looking around at eBay and other shops selling this exact item and the lowest I have been able to find so far was 40 euros. Now, I would not want to go as high as 40 euros, I would rather set the price at 25 euros, seeing that I am passionate about my niche and believe products are way too expensive, making it too complicated for the “regular man” to buy them. Buying just 1 product at the time, something I would really want to have myself, so I would be passionate about promoting it both on another website of mine and on eBay and then when having sold at least 4 of them, having gained my initial investment back, I would buy 1o units from another item and so on.

I am 99% convinced this would possibly be a great investment with many possibilities of future growth, but …

I know, many online gurus recommend not investing any money you can’t afford to lose, and I am ashamed to admit that right now, I don’t even have the 110 euros to spare.  Maybe a good thing because it really pushes me to both think and rethink this idea, plus search advice from others while scraping those 110 together.

But, since I do not believe in coincidences, I decided to go ahead and publish this post, which I had already written last week, after reading Terence Chang´s Show me the Money and China series.Any comments and/or advice would be highly appreciated!!