Category Systematic saving

Jan 14 2013

Start working for yourself without quitting your job!

Early RetirementWouldn’t you love to work for yourself?  Are you afraid to quit your job?  Surprisingly, you don’t have to!  You don’t even have to work any additional hours!  What am I talking about then?  It’s simple.  Start saving today!

Alright… at this point I’ve lost a solid percentage of my readers, individuals who simply aren’t willing to sacrifice their own “perceived happiness” just to save.  But hold up one minute there… what exactly is a sacrifice?

When I used to have to wait to purchase something I thought of it as a sacrifice as well, but as time has went on and wisdom has slowly creeped into my head I now realized that I had a threatening disease known as first-world slavery and that making the actual purchase is the sacrifice.  What?!  Am I completely nuts?  No, in fact I’m not!

Recover from these words, regain your composure and then continue reading my blog please.   It’s okay… you can do it.

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Oct 2 2012

Quit gifting your financial freedom to the government

Financial freedomWhat if I told you that there is a legal way to pay less tax every year?  What if I told you that there was also a way to retire earlier and with more money than you would have if you continued down the path you’re on right now?  Would you take advantage of this?  Of course you would!  Well then keep reading and let’s get started…

Almost every individual has a tough time saving.  In fact, almost half of all individuals are living paycheck to paycheck… and sadly, this includes thousands of people making $100,000+ salaries!  Terrifying!

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Sep 26 2012

Change The Way You Think About Purchases, Quit Being A Slave To Your Possessions

Slave to MoneyLast week one of my friends was talking to me about her weekend filled with her perceived much needed bout of “retail therapy”.  She talked about all the new clothes and shoes, and even more clothes that she bought!  She upgraded her iPhone to the latest version and she even managed to go out to both lunch and dinner twice!

We both know what happened after.  I completely lost it!  “Are you nuts?!” I exclaimed, “I cannot believe my ears!”.  She smiled and retorted in sarcasm, “I know… I know… I went a little overboard, but I work hard so I deserve it!”.  Ironies abound, what she didn’t realize was she was about to start working even harder just to cover the costs of all of these material possessions.  Believe me, I was once in this trap for several years of my life… I know this situation all too well.

After some coaxing I convinced her to reveal the details of her purchases over the weekend so that I can create a case study to present back to her (I got her permission to post it to my blog as well).  I just couldn’t take it that she was about to set herself up for decades of suffering and I had to at least try to pull her out of the trap of first-world slavery (self-inflicted by the lust for unnecessary physical possessions).

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Sep 24 2012

Want to Achieve Financial Freedom? Stop Spending So Damn Much!

Saving moneyOver the past several months I’ve had dozens of discussions with family, friends and colleagues surrounding various topics related to investing in order to achieve financial freedom.  These discussions have blurred a number of different topics – What are the best investments?  What exactly is financial freedom?  How do I approach an opportunity?  How do I get over my fears?  And the list goes on.

Today I’d like to cover one of the most important topics to achieving financial freedom.  This topic in particular revealed both significant discomfort and resistance from the majority of my colleagues during our conversations – saving for financial freedom!

Saving for financial freedom isn’t a new concept.  It’s not even a complicated one, it’s simple, spend less than you earn and save the rest; optimally save as much as you can.  After all, if you aren’t capable of saving, you won’t have very much money to invest towards achieving your financial freedom!  Ironically, in almost every instance where the topic was brought up, the reactionary comment was something along the lines of “I can’t save any more money; I’m already barely getting by!”

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Mar 12 2012

Your House is a Liability (Not an Asset)

InvestmentsMost people think their house is an asset.  I disagree.  One of the reasons that most people are struggling these days is because they’re identifying their liabilities as assets.  They’ve been programmed by traditional financial and investment companies to think they’re richer than they are and to over-invest in their own personal liabilities (most would call them “personal assets”).

Why is that? Why would the banks and the government do this?  It’s simple, in order for them to make money they need to charge you interest, the more liabilities that you have, the higher their income!

So what’s my definition of an asset versus a liability then?  It’s quite simple actually… an asset puts money into your pocket and a liability takes money out of it.  Even if your house is paid off, it still remains a liability – you still have insurance, property taxes, maintenance, etc.   Based on my definition, even when investing in real estate, an asset can quickly become a liability when the property becomes vacant or is not collecting rent.

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