Use the Big Stick

I was thinking about using leverage the other day and had in mind the simple see-saw playground ride. On both sides the leverage is equal, two small children having fun alternating a ride up or down on the ride. Probably the only time you might have enjoyed the see-saw ride of going nowhere but up and down.

Then the fat kid gets on. Plump! Ride over.

Only longer leverage on your side will continue the ride. That is what we as travel nurses must look for. We need to make sure we have hold of the big end of the stick. The old adage for leverage in business is time, money, and talent. Yet for the travel nurse who earns a paycheck for time worked, this doesn't strictly apply. So I have changed the basic business principals to the ones below.

• Information
  
• Earnings
  
• Talent
  

About nine months before moving to my first travel assignment I had a meeting with three individuals, I promised coffee and they agreed to help me out. The individuals were a personal estate lawyer, a mortgage broker, and a real estate agent; another person unable to attend was my accountant, though I met with him later that same day.

I had drawn up a personal financial statement and listed prioritized personal goals to share with them, after reviewing the information, the three went to work advising how I could accomplish these goals. In less than a year the direct results from that meeting reaped tens of thousands of dollars and continue to save me money every month.

In contrast a travel nurse recently shared with me a story about the thousands she owes in taxes this year after failing to comply with the IRS rules of travel exemptions. Turns out she stayed on at one assignment for a year to win a large completion bonus only to find out that paying taxes on her travel stipend would far exceed the bonus amount.

"Her recruiter should have warned of that", some might think, and most likely the story will make the rounds on internet forums. I will grant you that a few nurses may read a forum and learn a lesson or two but to really leverage your ability to acquire information go to professionals.

Use an accountant to help you prepare for taxes a year in advance, not a tax preparer for the past year. Get legal advice from a lawyer that you have paid for, not a relative who knows one.

Keep in context who is giving you advice. Go as close to a direct source of information as possible. Need rental car information for a city? Call rental companies in that area; don't talk to a used car salesman in your town. Sounds silly, doesn't it? Yet it is amazing how often we rely on information from relatives, travel nurse acquaintances, internet forums, and recruiters.

Leveraged information is most often costly information, but not nearly as costly as free information. Be willing to pay for information and advice that increases your leverage.

Earnings leverage is something I have posted about several times on this blog. In business, financial leverage is achieved by using other people's money. As a travel nurse, earnings leverage goal is to break dependence on a week to week paycheck, thus opening up options and opportunities rather than needing to take the first position available.

Ideally, earnings should come from multiple sources of income. A topic best left up to others to write and post about, as they can vary by as many readers of this blog.

Lastly talent is a leverage the travel nurse may often neglect. The talent may be your own, such as expanding your experience in other nursing realms in order to enlarge your scope of practice and job opportunities. Yet I want to suggest looking for opportunities to use other people's talent.

How about using a professional to prepare your resume', a travel agent to book your trip, or have you considered a VA, virtual assistant?

A virtual assistant can assist with all kinds of research and online work, they are available for as little as five dollars an hour and the amount of routine chores they do can proves invaluable. For more info simply use Google and I could also suggest the Tim Ferris book "The Four Hour Work Week" for a comprehensive study into optimizing virtual assistants.

How much leverage do you want on your side? It's up to you to decide. In adult life don't let the "fat kid" have the advantage in the real playground of life.