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How to Select a Limit Switch – 9 Things to Consider

Written by Corey Rasmussen in Control Systems Last Updated June 21, 2021

So there I was again; standing at a machine that I designed replacing a limit switch for the fourth time in a month. This time it would be different. This switch was used to detect the end position of a cart that rolled on rails. The limit switch had a lever with the roller on the end and was activated when a plate contacted roller.

The switch kept failing because the impact from contact was loosening the 2 screw pattern for the actuation head and eventually broke the plastic housing.

This time it was different because I was using a steel body design with 4 screws mounting the head. I haven’t serviced this switch in the nearly 2 years since. Small and seemingly un-noticable details in the switch can be the difference between years of service life.

Limit switches are an important component in almost every industrial machine. Here are a few basic pointers on selecting the right switch for your application.

Most engineers will pay attention to the body material, contact types and actuation method when selecting a limit switch. For the switch to last a long time, there must be considerations for the IP rating, wire sealing, and how the switch is mounted. Never allow water to pool against a seal.

Side Roller Limit Switch
Image by John R. Southern

On a recent application, I selected a limit switch where the head was only held on by two screws. This led to repeated structural failures in the switch from the cart that was rolling by it. The long term fix was to upgrade to a switch that had the head held on with 4 screws.

1. Cycle Limit

These are mechanical switches with moving parts. They will wear out. The cycle limit is usually given by the manufacturer in millions of cycles. This is usually the number of cycles to average failure.

Find out how many cycles per day, week or year your machine will plan to see and find out how long your machine is expected to last.

Many times, you will find that the switch will outlast the machine. If not, you will want to stay well below the average cycle failure. I suggest replacing these around 75% of the estimated life and always have a spare on hand.

2. Wire Exit

An IP67 rating on the switch is all lost if your wires are not sealed correctly. There are a few things that can help you be successful here.

  1. Electrical conduit is not water tight. If you need your switch to be IP rated, don’t run the conduit right into the switch. Have a short amount of ‘exposed’ wire, but protect it with spiral wrap, split loom, or a larger diameter conduit.
  2. Use a sealed strain relief. Yes, if you want to maintain your IP rating, you must use sealed strain reliefs for your wires. There are many kinds available; make sure the one you select is rated for the wire diameter and the IP rating desired.
  3. Select NPT strain reliefs. NPT (Pipe thread) is the most common form for strain relief in electrical devices. There are other’s types of connection out there and they can be pricey. NPT offers a wide selection of conductor size and number. If preventing water intrusion is a must, be sure to seal the threads with some Teflon tape or pipe dope.
  4. Add droop in wire. Unless your switch is mounted vertically with with the wires pointing down, adding droop to your wire is a must.
    1. If there is no droop, water will gather on the wires and run down to the strain relief. Over time, water pooling on the seal will eventually get inside. This happens even with potted electronics. Adding droop prevents water from pooling near the seal.
    2. Never mount your switch with the wires coming out vertically upwards!
  5. Don’t bend the wires too quickly – When designing your wire exit, make sure that you allow plenty of room for the wire to make any turns. If the wire turns too quickly, it can lay crooked in the strain relief and not seal properly. A distance of 8-10 times the wire diameter is adequate for most applications. Consider using an angled strain relief if this is a problem.
  6. Beware of Multi-conductor Wires. Multi-conductor wires are difficult to seal.
    1. On wires with a thin jacket, there may be bumps that prevent a good seal.
    2. There is space between the wires where water can collect. Even if both ends are properly sealed on the jacket, cuts in the jacket along the length can allow water to intrude into the switch by means of the space between conductors.
    1. The best way to ensure a good seal is strip the jacket back so that only the individual conductors enter the switch. Then protect the wires from damage.
Image by Glen Bledsoe

3. IP rating

An IP rating is a way to know how well an electrical device will stand up to its environment from water and other contaminates. It is not a rating of how well things like paint or other corrosion protection will hold up.

An IP number has two digits each number representing something. The first digit represents the ingress of solids into cavities. A rating of 0 is no protection and 6 will be “dust tight”.

The second number is the intrusion of liquids. The ratings for this digit go from 0 to 8. Zero is no protection from liquids. The tests get more intense as the numbers increase ending with 8 which no harmful water intrusion when immersed deeper than 1 meter.

Image by Dmitry G

Most switches we are concerned about will fall into the range of IP65 to IP67. Here are the tests:

  • IP65 – Water projected by a nozzle (6.3mm) against enclosure from any direction shall have no harmful effects.
  • IP66 – Water projected in powerful jets (12.5mm nozzle) against the enclosure from any direction shall have no harmful effects.
  • IP67 – Ingress of water in harmful quantity shall not be possible when the enclosure is immersed in water under defined conditions of pressure and time (up to 1 m of submersion).

For indoor applications, I recommend a minimum of IP65 unless the switch is protected from direct spray of water. For outdoor applications, I recommend an IP67 or higher switch. I would still add covers that will protect the switch from direct spray from a pressure washer.

4. Body Material

Plastic switch bodies are prevalent in the market. For your light to medium duty applications this may be adequate. Adding protection from contact and water intrusion will ensure that your switch lasts a long time.

Cross Roller Type Limit Switch
Image Courtesy of Automation Direct

Aluminum switch bodies are generally the my go to. They are robust enough to handle some misuse, but light and cost effective.

For your heavy duty applications, stainless steel is the way to go. Stainless steels are strong, weather resistant and have an excellent fatigue life. However, they will be more expensive.

Look for versions where the plunger is attached to the body with 4 screws rather than 2.

5. Contacts

Most switches come with a normally open (N.O.) and a normally closed (N.C.) set of contacts. Usually the two sets don’t use the same common wire. Some switches are available with 2 NO or 2 NC contact sets. If you need more, you can always run the signal through a relay with as many contact sets as you like.

“Fail Safe” Design

One thing to keep in mind when selecting a switch is safety when there is a failure. We always want our device to “fail safe.”

For example, if we have a rail system, but we never want the cart on it to go past a certain point we could install a switch at that point. If we wire the switch to be NO and give us a signal back when the cart is present the system will work fine.

However, if the wire has been cut, the switch will never send a signal and the cart will cruise on past the intended point. Not good!

Plunger Type Limit Switch
Image Courtesy of Grainger

However, with a simple change to use the normally closed signal, we will look for a high signal all the time to allow the cart to move all the time. When the cart reaches the switch, the signal will drop from high to low and signal the cart to stop.

Most importantly, if the wire is cut, the cart will think that it is at the stopping point and not move. This a fail safe! As a side benefit, the symptoms should prompt maintenance to look for cut wires and not faulty switches

6. Actuation

The super sweet thing about limit switches is that they come with a variety of actuators that can be used to sense almost any object or motion type. You should be able to find the perfect actuator for your application. Here are some of them:

  • Plungers- This is a linear pressing of the switch. You can buy these will various amounts of travel before and after the switch is activated. Some have rubber boots to protect the switch from ingesting dirt. These switches are intended to handle actuation in line with the plunger direction.
  • Ball plungers – Ball plungers can handle lateral motion very well. However they are very precise and don’t handle misalignment well. These are commonly used in valve systems to determine if a valve spool has shifted. Be sure to use these will lubricants in metal to metal applications.
  • Cross roller plungers – This version of a plunger has a roller mounted in it rather than a ball. They handle lateral motion very well and don’t need lubrication. As the roller diameter increases, the greater the misalignment can be.
  • Rod or Wand Actuation – These are great general purpose actuators and not for precision use. It is a long stem coming out of the switch. It works much like a breakaway torque wrench does; where it builds resistance and then snaps to indicate the switch has been made. They are robust and can sense objects in and direction perpendicular to the shaft.
  • Lever Action – These can come with or without a roller on them. Generally speaking they can be used as a plunger or a cross roller plunger. When used for lateral motion, they are good for single direction only. If ran the other way, the roller can catch and tear itself up.
  • Side Rotary Action – Probably the most configurable of all the actuators. They usually have a roller mounted on the end so that there are no scratches or visible marks left on the objects. Many of the levers are adjustable in length so that you can fine tune the contact point.
Lever Arm Actuator
SparkFun Electronics from Boulder, USA

7. Head Rotation

As already mentioned, the heads on the switches rotate and mount with screws. Only look at switches with 4 screws holding the head on. Switches with only 2 screws holding them together just aren’t strong enough for medium or heavy duty applications.

In addition to the four screws, look for switches that have tabs to further lock the head into position. The head is usually adjustable in 90° increments.

8. Mounting

On an aerial work platform that I designed, we had a “potted” PC board for controls. The way this was designed had a cover that I placed facing up. In rare situations, such as power washing, water would seep into the controls and sit on the potting.

This became an issue because the water just sat there for long periods of time; this eventually caused the board to fail.

The solution was to give water a way to exit by flipping the PCB over and drilling a small drain hole in the cover. The point here is that if water can pool on a seal, it will eventually get in.

Mounting a limit switch can be tricky. You need your mechanical action to work properly, but we also don’t want water intrusion into the switch at wire entry. To prevent this, you want the wires to enter from the bottom or side so the switch must be mounted horizontally or vertically with the actuation pointed up. If this is not the case, find a 90° strain relief for your switch or add a 90° street elbow.

Image by Bill Automata

You will also need to choose between tapped or through hole mounting. Many applications require using tapped holes because there is only adequate access from one side. One disadvantage is that you can cross thread or strip out the tapped hole on plastic bodies easily.

I prefer not to use this method simply because the screws needed are usually metric and I don’t have those stocked. So, it is an extra run to the store for me.

I prefer to use through hole mounting as a result. I stock equivalent sized screws and nuts. It does require another tool however.

9. Ratings

You definitely want to look for some ratings. First, most switches are UL listed. UL, Underwriters Laboratories is a non-profit group that evaluates electrical products for safety.

Second, you need to decide to select a NEMA vs IEC enclosure. International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) enclosures are focused on lower cost and a smaller operating envelope.

NEMA enclosures are very durable and offer superior water and dust intrusion protection. Use NEMA rated enclosures for applications in harsh outdoor environments.

Conclusion

Choosing a limit switch can be a daunting task at first. I always feel lost because I don’t know what is and is not important. I hope this guide will help you get your feet wet in selecting your first switch. (Your feet may get wet, but the switch enclosure must stay dry.)

Don’t Make These Mistakes With Ram Cylinders, I did…

Written by Corey Rasmussen in Hydraulics Last Updated June 25, 2021

Ram cylinders are wonderful cylinders but they have some design limitations need to be addressed.

On a recent project, I was filling the 80 gallon hydraulic tank with oil and it just dawned on me that I probably didn’t have a large enough tank for the two ram cylinders I needed to operate. Each held 22 gallons more when extended than retraced.

That meant that the tank would be less than half full when the cylinders were extended, the float switch would turn on and the oil temperature switch would be out of the oil. All very bad conditions to have. I’ll detail this problem out later, but the solution was a wider and longer (not deeper) reservoir.

The two main limitations of ram cylinders is that they take up and a lot of oil and the retract force is very small. If the hydraulic reservoir is too small, the tank may run out of oil. Many ram cylinders cannot retract under external loads and need help from springs or external retraction cylinders.

A good engineer will anticipate these requirements before they become a problem.

Image Courtesy of Raymond Shobe. Note Diet Pepsi for scale.

Single and Double Acting Cylinders

Cylinders are grouped into two main types, single acting and double acting. A single acting cylinder has only one port on it. A bottle jack is a good example of this. Oil goes into the bore end of the cylinder and forces the rod to extend. When the lift is complete, pressure is released and gravity and / or an internal spring is used to retract the cylinder

A double acting cylinder has a port on each end of the cylinder so hydraulic oil can force the rod to go in and out.

SONY DSC

What is a Ram Cylinder?

A ram cylinder is a often a double acting cylinder where the rod area is very small because the rod diameter of the cylinder is very large. A ram cylinder is defined as at least a 2:1 ratio when the bore area is divided by the rod area. This ratio makes retracting the cylinder very hard to do because the area on the rod side is very very small compared to the area on the bore side.

Single acting cylinders with a spring return may also fall into the category of a ram cylinder because they only have a limited amount of retracted force. If gravity is working against you, the cylinder may not be able to retract under even the lightest loads

Sizing the Retracting Area

Sizing the required retracting area is as simple as determining the load and dividing that by the available system pressure. The loads can be any weights (including the weight of the cylinder rod) and / or external loads that are applied to the end of the cylinder that would prevent it from retracting. If there is a case where the cylinder would undergo frictional forces, count that. Finally, any rubbing should be assumed to have a high coefficient of friction.

To be safe, multiply the calculated loads by 1.25 to 1.5 so that things like unexpected loadings, cylinder efficiency, and system back pressure won’t cause problems later on down the road.

Single Acting, Spring Return Considerations

If you have a ram cylinder that is single acting with spring return you may encounter problems when the cylinder rod isn’t pointing upwards.

I once used a single acting, spring return cylinder in a vertical downward orientation. There was only about 7 lb of load on the rod, but the spring force was too low. Even worse, we were also fighting a small system back pressure from the return filter. The result was a 30 to 75 second return cycle time. Not desirable on a 2.00″ bore 12″ stroke cylinder.

Predicting the available retract force with a single acting cylinder can be a little bit more difficult because most manufacturers don’t often advertise the retract force or the spring rate. This leaves the engineer with no information to calculate the retract force. The best way to determine this is to do some experimentation and empirically determine what the retracted force is.

If you find yourself stuck like I did in the situation above, one thing you can do with spring return cylinders is to add additional external springs that that can assist the internal spring when retracting the cylinder.

Rstom03 [CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)]

If a spring won’t get you there, changing the design to a double acting cylinder with enough rod area will be the next best thing. Unfortunately, this often doesn’t work without a redesign and may not be feasible.

A final option is to have one or more ‘regular’ double acting cylinders be applied in parallel with the ram cylinder to aid in the retraction of the ram cylinder and load. This also has the potential to increase the available ram force.

When applying this solution, you will probably want to place the additional cylinders symmetrical to the ram cylinder so that the application of force will not cause uneven loading or binding.

In the situation described above, we added two external springs to the design temporarily to get the retract time down to 5 seconds. This solution worked, but it hindered the operators access to the work. The system was eventually redesigned to use a lower pressure double acting cylinder.

Ensure There is a Large Enough Hydraulic Tank

Another subtle problem with a ram cylinder is that the difference in oil when the cylinder is extended versus retracted is vast. As the cylinder extends it will take a lot of oil to make it extend, but only got very little back from the rod side because of the large cylinder ratio. This can cause problems if your hydraulic tank is not large enough to handle the displacement of oil.

On a recent project I had 2 cylinders with 6 inch bore 5 inch rod and a stroke of 260 inches. These cylinders when extended would take up 44 gallons of oil (22.1 gal each) from the hydraulic tank.

As a result my 80 gallon tank was more than half empty when these cylinders were extended. In this case my tank was 32 inches tall and only left about 13.5 inches of oil in the tank. This tank level was well below the suction level of the submerged pump. This situation was tolerable for the short term, but if the pump were to actually run out of oil, the results would have been disastrous.

Rstom03 [CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)]

As a result, the potential for running the pump dry was very high and could cause damage to the system if air were to get into the suction line. The solution to this was to increase the tank size not in height but in width and length so that the cross sectional area was greater and we could maintain all of the existing connections in the same spot.

Mobile vs Industrial Reservoirs

Industrial Considerations

The example above was for an industrial solution where many times the pump is submerged in the hydraulic tank. The pump is usually mounted to the underside of a removable top plate. The motor will mount to the top of the plate and couple to the shaft with a jaw type shaft coupler.

Submerging the pump is an ideal design because it negates the threat of inadequate pressure head at the suction port. It also minimizes the chance of starting the pump dry (no oil in it) causing the pump to ‘shell out’ within the first few seconds of running.

It is always wise to protect your pump by using a float switch that is also submerged. This limit switch should signal the system that oil is about to be below the suction port of the pump and either shut the system off, prevent the cylinders from extending further or even retract the cylinders. All this is done to prevent the opportunity to suck air into the pump.

Mobile Equipment Applications

For mobile applications, it’s a little different.  In a mobile application, the hydraulic pump is not submerged in the tank.  Usually, the hydraulic pump is placed near the motor or engine which could be several feet away from the hydraulic tank. 

Separating the two gives us an advantage over a submerged pump in an industrial application because the hydraulic tank can tolerate a lower oil level in the tank.  In a mobile application, the suction strainer is usually close to the bottom of the tank. As a result, the oil level can come very close to the bottom of the tank without causing problems.  And this allows us to use a larger portion of the tank than we can in an industrial application.

However we do need to be concerned about cavitation.  Cavitation happens when the oil level becomes too low and the pump cannot get the oil it needs.  In order to prevent this from happening you should have at least 1 to 2 inches of oil above the suction strainer. This may need to be more if the fluid is moving fast through the suction line. We don’t want any mini-tornados in the hydraulic tank.

​Japanese Wikipedia user 出々 吾壱 [CC BY-SA (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)]

On a mobile application you definitely need to consider how much a tank will tilt as the machine moves around. When the machine tilts, the oil level where the suction strainer may be higher or lower. And if the suction strainer is placed and the center of the tank, it will be less vulnerable too changes in tilt.

Also, it will help if your tank is designed to be taller rather than wider. This allows the tilt of the fluid to have minimal impact on the available capacity.

In summary

Ram cylinders can produce very large forces, but they are subject to problems with retracting properly or at all.  They also consume large quantities of a hydraulic oil and we need to plan for that.

Top Life Lessons Learned from My Engineering Career (Part 2)

Written by Corey Rasmussen in Basics,Self Improvement Last Updated June 22, 2021

In the last article, I shared some professional lessons learned and now I want to focus on personal and financial lessons learned. For most, finances are a general extension of your personal life, but for those with businesses, it is not. Either way, I wanted to bring extra attention to it.

Top Life Lessons Learned from My Engineering Career (Part 1)

Finances

Personal finances is the number one under-taught course in school. In my opinion, it should be required for all high school graduates. I will be teaching it to my children (all home schooled) before they graduate.

Image Courtesy of Investment Zen

When you get married, most fights will boil down to raising children, finances, sex and in-laws. My wife and I haven’t argued over finances since our third year of marriage.

A Quick Story

So the last time my wife and I fought over money, we had just received a credit card bill with a late payment. My wife paid the bills at the time and I confronted her about it (not in a nice way either, sorry). I knew that we had the money and she just forgot to send it in on time.

We agreed that she would pay the bills as they came in. Perfect.

A few months went by and I came home from work to my wife who was crying uncontrollably. Through gasps for air, she told me that she couldn’t pay the mortgage.

I was stunned! We were living far below our means and making very good money. We were DINKs afterall (Dual Income, No Kids). When she calmed down, we quickly found out what happened.

The mortgage bill arrived and was paid within two days. The mortgage company received the payment and sent the bill for the following month. This happened about 10 days after the payment was received. This went on for two months.

Image Courtesy of U.S. Air Force illustration/Senior Airman Grace Lee

As you can see, we were nearly 4 months ahead on our mortgage!

Take a personal finance class

I can’t emphasize this enough. I had a 24 hour drive to make the first time I went to college. We made this trip as a family and my parents handed me a short book on personal finances to read on the trip. I’m a slow reader, but I finished this on the drive. It was thrilling to me and has had a profound impact on my life.

As I graduated from college, I was already in a financially good place. My student loans were reasonable, about $21,000, and I had less than $500 in credit card debt. I owe a lot of this success to my parents giving me that book.

For those of you who have not taken a personal finance class, I highly recommend it. I can’t say enough about Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University. It is a wonderful course that is reasonably priced.

Live Far Below Your Means

No, I’m not telling you to live in tiny house, but your dwelling should fit your budget.

My wife and I are not extravagant people. Part of this is natural and part of it has been learned. We are on a cash budget and when there is no money in the envelope, we don’t buy. Over the years, this has caused us to prioritize our spending and say “no” to many unessential things. The result: less stuff and more money.

The hidden benefit is that this gives you financial freedom! We aren’t living paycheck to paycheck and we have around 5 months of living expenses saved, a healthy retirement plan and college savings for the kids.

When we finally decided it was time for me to leave my job and start my own business, we could only do so knowing that we wouldn’t be taking on any debt and we had months worth of living expenses.

That is what I call financial freedom!

Budget

Yes, you need a budget. And it will be a blessing if you stick with it! Trust me here. When my wife and I were first married, we both had full time jobs and no kids (DINKs). We had money coming in and we spent it, most of the time on good things like paying off half the mortgage in 4.5 years. We also built a large deck and remodeled the master bedroom and bathroom.

Pinching Pennies

Anyway, with kiddo #2 on the way and moving to a new state, we were down to one income. Ouch! My wife suggested that we try this cash budget thing some guy named Dave Ramsey endorsed.

I was skeptical, but didn’t want to go into any debt again. We tried it and I remember that first month, I got $120 to spend on myself and another $120 to spend on the house. I remembered thinking that there was no way that this was going to work.

However, having a cash limit made me prioritize purchases and I found out that I rarely ran out of money and usually had a few dollars to carry over into the next month.

All in all, it has been a very freeing experience. I have all that I need and most of what I want within the budget. The things that I want may take a while to save for. The anticipation either makes me want it more or realize that I can live without it.

A budget can also be your best ally against doing things that you don’t want to do. You can always claim that, “it isn’t in the budget”.

So get your budget together and take that first step to financial control.

Cars

We also choose to drive used cars. I used to joke that we don’t buy a car until it is fully depreciated. All jokes aside, I have not had a car payment since 2006 and don’t plan to start anytime soon.

Image courtesy of Greg Olotka

Right now (2020), we have a 2007 Chrysler Town and Country and 2000 Saturn SL. The Saturn so far is my all time favorite car. I inherited it from my In-Laws for relatively free and have put less than $2500 into it.

For those of you who like the reliability of a new car, I totally understand. However, even buying a car that is 2 – 5 years old will still offer that reliability you desire but save you a lot in depreciation.

For those of you who are handy, there is a YouTube video for just about any issue on your vehicle. Just last month, I was worried that my minivan was about to go. I watched some videos and was able to fix all the problems by myself for less than $200. Now, I have no doubts that my car will last awhile longer.

Be Your Own Bank

Remember how I just mentioned that I have not had a car payment in 14 years? I can do that because I am my own bank. The best thing about being your own bank is that it charges no interest with very little paperwork.

I can do this because I set aside money every month from my paycheck specifically for things that I will need to buy.

First Bank of Rasmussen….er…..United States

Cars are a great example. We put aside $300 – $400 a month for car repairs and replacement. Many of you have car payments that are over this amount so as soon as you pay it off, keep paying yourself the payment. Once the car dies, go buy another car with the cash you saved. If you save $300 a month and drive your car for an extra 3 years, you will have nearly $11,000 to purchase a car with.

Another benefit of being your own bank is you can get deals. Ask for a cash discount. Many places will give it to you because they avoid the cost of the credit card transaction. Let me give you two examples.

I once went to a used car lot. I mentioned that I would be paying cash and the lady told me to take $1000 off the cost of any car. I walked out with a $6500 car for $5500! Awesome. I know that I couldn’t negotiate that.

Another time, I needed my transmission rebuilt. The cost was around $2000. When the repair was done, I brought cash and asked for the cash discount with the cash in hand. The owner told me there wasn’t one so I put the cash away and pulled out my credit card.

Realizing that he was about to loose some profit, he quickly offered me $150 off.

Have Diversified Income with a Side gig or Passive Income

Rich people generally have five or more sources of income. Many of these don’t require any on going effort. This is called passive income.

Most people only have one source of income, their job. This is not good. If your industry has a hard time or suddenly collapsed, you might be left penniless.

I know that most engineers got into engineering because they wanted a secure and stable career. Take it one step further and diversify your income streams.

Photo by Axelv

A side gig is where many people will go to earn a quick buck. Uber or delivering pizza are great examples of this. However, that is not where I want to direct you. The side gig requires your time and that is a precious commodity. A side gig while working full time will be exhausting.

Passive Income

Passive income is where you want to focus. Musicians are notorious for this. Think of big bands life AC/DC or U2. They wrote songs years ago spending hours perfecting and recording it. Once published, they get money every time the song is played on the radio or streamed. That is passive income that will go on long after the band breaks up.

For passive income, you will want to think of a product to sell. This may be a physical product or an informational product. In his book, the 4-Hour Work Week, Timothy Ferris describes how he outsourced all parts of his body building supplement business so that he works one morning a week and still receives a profit check.

This is the information age so selling information can be very profitable. You can use your knowledge in any area to create passive income. This website is Exhibit A. Websites like Income School can help you turn your expertise into dough by writing about it.

Personal Life

You’re Wrong!

This is a tough one. In the fall of 2010, the Lord laid upon my heart that everything I knew was wrong. Well not everything, 2 + 2 still equals 4 and gravity still accelerates an object a 32.2 ft/sec^2.

But the things that I had learned about God, money, parenting, family, nutrition and what I should expect out of life were wrong. At the very least, it all needed to be reexamined.

Image Courtesy of Alisdare Hickson

This led me down a path of new discoveries and revelations that have been very rewarding. I tried to inquire why I thought or did certain things a certain way. Many things that I had believed, changed dramatically. Some things didn’t change because I could explain why I did them a that way.

The most noticeable change was how I received input from others. I now believed that the way I saw things may not be correct and I was willing to listen and be proved wrong.

Never Stop Learning

Never stop learning goes along with always having goals, mentioned in the previous article. This doesn’t have to be related your field of study. Lately, I’ve been wanting to paint a car so I’ve been studying how to do that.

With the advent of the internet and YouTube you can pretty much learn the basics of just about anything. Take advantage of these resources but don’t stop there. Do them yourself.

Right before I left my job, I took the opportunity to go on a photography retreat. This was three days of seminars and photography outings. Here, a bunch of photographers came together to brush up on their photography skills. Everyone learned something new; even the instructors! It was a wonderful opportunity to meet with people that were unsure of their abilities like me. (It was a good thing; I was shooting my first wedding two weeks later and this helped.)

Read

A good way to never stop learning is to read.

When I was 26, I considered myself ‘functionally illiterate’. I could still read, but I had not read a book since college and did not care to. Reading books for school left me with a horrible taste in my mouth.

You see, I’m a slow reader. Even to this day, I can only read 20 to 30 pages at one sitting. In school, there were often times when I was assigned 50 or more pages to read per day. That is not a pace I can keep up with.

My functional illiteracy was discovered one day at work when I was reading one paragraph of a customer specification. After reading it the first time, I had no idea what it said. So I read it again. And again. And two more times.

Then yes, I finally understood what this paragraph was communicating but not until the fifth reading. Sadly, it wasn’t very technical or complex. I had just fallen into bad habits.

Since then, I made a goal to read 5 books that year and they needed to be around 200 pages. I’m now up to 8 books a year with several other monthly publications a year. (Remember, I read slow.)

It is a well documented fact that successful people read! A lot!

Almost all ‘financially successful’ people read at least 30 minutes a day. Most will finish at least a book a month. Bill Gates reads roughly 50 books a year and Warren Buffet reads 5 to 6 hours per day.

Of all the books you read, I recommend, Getting Things Done by David Allen. In our world that is ever changing, it is difficult to feel in control of everything that is going on. This book will give you the tools to do that.

Take Care of Yourself (Be Safe)

When I was younger, there was no fear of getting older or my mortality. At 41, I’m not afraid to die, but I do feel my body wearing out. There are certain things that I just don’t want to do anymore.

When it snowed this year, I stayed inside. I’ve had enough of being cold and wet. I watched the kids play outside through the window. While sitting next to the fire. It was great.

I also don’t like to climb ladders more than 10 feet. It’s not that I’m scared of falling, it’s that I now have a family to support and an injury from a fall would jeopardize that.

Have a Life Outside of Work

We live in a world where employers think that they have access to you whenever. There must be boundaries.

You may love what you do. But if you do anything too much, you will get burned out and eventually loathe it. A friend of mine shared with me that his wife was in labor for 17 hours. He quickly followed that up with, “I can’t imagine doing something I liked for 17 hours.”

And that is true. I can’t imagine doing one thing for more that 6 hours now, even if I like it.

Hobbies

Hobbies are a great escape from work. Most allow you to learn new skills and push yourself. Other hobbies are just relaxing and allow you to reflect on the day. Some hobbies are great because they give you a sense of accomplishment.

Nevertheless, hobbies are essential to your mental and emotional well being. Don’t neglect them by spending too much time at work.

Family is Equally as Important as Work

I only have only one calendar. Whether it is for work events or personal events, it goes on the same calendar. Why? Because both events weigh the same.

For men, our identity is rolled up in what we do. We elevate work to a high level. We do this in part because we feel that we are providing for our family, and we are. But they need you to be present as well.

In 2012, I traveled more than at any other part of my career. While it was exciting for me, it was a burden to my wife. She was 100% responsible for child care with little reprieve. Fortunately, this season of travel only lasted a short time, but it taught me that I needed to be fully present at home with them as well.

Spend One Night Away with Your Spouse at Least Once a Quarter

Sometime in 2011, my wife and I went on a date. Our first date in over 4 years since we starting having kids. We agreed to not talk about kids on the date. For the first 15 minutes, we seemingly had nothing to talk about.

That was a problem.

I can see how many married couples drift away from each other and realize it after the kids grow up and move out.

I did not want to follow in those foot steps that I could clearly see that I was on. We immediately changed our budget to include dates that would cover dinner, an event and babysitting each month.

I later talked with a retired friend and he recommended an overnight outing at least once a quarter. I liked the idea and we implemented it immediately. This is a good idea because there is a lot of rejuvenation can happen in 24 hours. We typically like to leave in the early afternoon and return after lunch the next day.

We found that this could be implemented quite easily and usually with little cost. When we planned vacations to visit family, we would ask them to watch the kids for one night. (Sometimes 2 to 5 nights). This generally saved us a ton of money in child care.

Also, we have a wonderful neighbor who will watch our kids. As a result, one of our most frequented hotels is in the same town!

Don’t Move Halfway Across the Country While Your Wife is 7 Months Pregnant!

This should be pretty self explanatory, but I’ll shed some details.

The fall of 2008 was a giant leap of faith in our lives. My wife was pregnant, the economy was headed into recession and I was looking for new employment. I was offered two great jobs, one in Chattanooga, TN and one in Durham, NC. After accepting the job in Durham, we then looked for a house.

The company was gracious and allowed us a trip to do some house hunting as well as providing professional moving services. Because of the pregnancy, we wanted to move right into a house instead of finding an apartment and scoping out the town.

Photo by mohamed hassan from PxHere

We ended up finding two houses we liked and could not make a decision. Before we left to go back to Texas, we knew that we needed to place one house under contract. My wife was so emotional and stressed out over the whole situation because of pregnancy related hormones.

The morning of our flight, we walked into the realtor’s office ready to make a contract, but still undecided. The realtor eager to make the sale spouted off some specifications on each house. One detail was the property taxes.

One house was in the county and one in the city. The county house was roughly $1100 a year less in property tax. That’s nearly $100 a month. We bought the county house and still love it!

After settling into work, we had our healthy baby girl, Amber.

You Won’t Have as Much Time and Money as you Think

I remember when my wife was first starting out in her nursing career saying, “there’s so much money out there, I just want to get my hands on some.” She wasn’t being greedy, just stating a fact and she was thrilled with the opportunity to make a substantial income for the first time.

The sad truth is as your income grows, so do your expenses. Unless of course you purposely live on less than what you make. (Hint, hint: that should be you.)

Image Courtesy of Philip Taylor

Also as life progresses, demands for your time increase. You will split your time between work, spouse, kids, kids activities, church etc. Time is really only the true commodity you have.

Time can get you money. Most people will trade their time for money at a job. (This is where passive income comes in handy in getting back your time.) Money can somewhat be treated as a commodity, but in reality it is based on time.

For most of my career, I have had more money than time. As a result, we have almost paid off our house (down to the last $10,000) in 11 years. This year however, I have had more time than money. It is an interesting change of pace. But it has led to some really cool opportunities.

I have been able to have lunch out with my kids during the week, go on hikes, and play Lego with my son.

I also have plans to paint, as my son says, “the bumble bee” car. Yes, one of my dreams has been to paint a car. So I am going to paint my 2000 Saturn from maroon to yellow with black racing stripes. (Coolest Saturn Ever!) Why yellow? I heard it was the hardest color to paint a car. I wonder if I will start getting speeding tickets with a yellow car….

At the end of the day, you need to budget your time and money because you have a finite supply of both.

Don’t Forget Your Dreams

For a number of years, I sadly stopped dreaming. I had checked off all the personal and career goals I wanted to and starting coasting through life. I like roller coasters, but this wasn’t exciting. It was as if the lift hill was only 40 ft tall and the drop decent was only 5° as it slowly rolled back to the station.

At age 39, I was happily married with 3 kids, a great paying job and a successful name for myself as well as many other things. On paper, my life was great. My wife and I were struggling with feeling unfulfilled and one day she asked me if our best days where behind us. Ouch! But I felt the same way.

You’re never to old either.
Picture courtesy of haymarketrebel

It was at this point that we sought some wisdom from others and came up with a plan for me to leave my job and start my own company. Looking back, it was terrifying and thrilling at the same time. I’m super glad that I did it.

Almost two years after that, I have pursued and accomplished several new dreams. So write your dreams down or make a bucket list.

Life Purposely – Get Started Today

As previously mentioned, you only have a finite amount of time and money. Life has a natural way of making your dreams vanish if you are not living purposely.

Don’t be like me, if you don’t have any dreams or goals, make some. Spend a weekend writing down things that you want to do or accomplish in your life. Download a bucket list from the interweb and let that be a guide to inspire your dreams. Be sure that your list is stuff that you actually want to do. Don’t live someone else’s dream.

The hardest and easiest part is to pick one of those items and do something to make it happen. For me, I started watching videos on how to paint a car in your garage. Take that first step and get your life in motion!

Read Part 1

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