.12 Places to Keep Your Money Safe — And Growing
.12 Places to Keep Your Money Safe — And Growing
By Tara Struyk
Maybe you've heard a story like this: An entirely ordinary — and often reclusive — elderly person passes away, revealing the millions of dollars they have stashed away in their modest homes.
One Nevada man died to reveal a fortune, including gold bars and coins, worth more than $7 million. His bank account was found to be holding a meager $200.
In an age when there are so very many options for saving, investing, and managing our money, the notion that people still really do put cash under their mattresses is a bit hard to imagine.
Then again, if you've been faced with the task of deciding where to keep your savings, you've probably discovered it isn't an easy one, precisely because there are so many choices.
So where can you keep your money safe but still earn a decent return? Here are some key options.
Savings Accounts
They're simple, they're convenient, they're easy to find and they're perfectly safe in terms of protecting your principal investment. Because there is so much competition, you can also find a decent interest rate if you shop around. Just be sure to choose an account with no fees. Who wants to pay to save?
12 Places to Keep Your Money Safe — And Growing
By Tara Struyk
Maybe you've heard a story like this: An entirely ordinary — and often reclusive — elderly person passes away, revealing the millions of dollars they have stashed away in their modest homes.
One Nevada man died to reveal a fortune, including gold bars and coins, worth more than $7 million. His bank account was found to be holding a meager $200.
In an age when there are so very many options for saving, investing, and managing our money, the notion that people still really do put cash under their mattresses is a bit hard to imagine.
Then again, if you've been faced with the task of deciding where to keep your savings, you've probably discovered it isn't an easy one, precisely because there are so many choices.
So where can you keep your money safe but still earn a decent return? Here are some key options.
Savings Accounts
They're simple, they're convenient, they're easy to find and they're perfectly safe in terms of protecting your principal investment. Because there is so much competition, you can also find a decent interest rate if you shop around. Just be sure to choose an account with no fees. Who wants to pay to save?
(See also: Why Savings Account Interest Rates Are So Low)
Who It's Best For
Those who prioritize liquidity (the ability to withdraw your money whenever you want it without restrictions) above all other conveniences. If you're looking to save for shorter term goals, or for an emergency fund, a savings account is a great option.
Money Market Accounts
This type of savings account tends to provide higher returns than a typical savings account, but that also has more restrictions on withdrawals and minimum deposits.
Some money market accounts even allow some check-writing privileges. These accounts are risk free in terms of losing your initial deposit and, like a simple savings account, are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which protects your deposits against bank failure.
Who It's Best For
Those who value safety and are willing to forego some convenience and accessibility for higher rates of return.
High-Yield Checking Accounts
Many checking accounts charge a monthly fee, but some checking accounts, often called "high yield checking accounts," actually offer pretty solid interest rates instead.
These accounts are typically offered by local credit unions and online banks and, as of July 2014, some offered interest rates as high as 5% — although there are quite a few caveats to scoring that kind of return. You can run a search of these types of accounts and what they offer at CheckingFinder.
Who It's Best For
Those who seek safety, reasonably good liquidity and don't mind jumping through a few hoops for a higher return.
Certificates of Deposit
A certificate of deposit, or CD, is a sort of IOU from a bank in which the bank agrees to pay back the amount you deposited plus a specific amount of interest within a certain time frame.
For example, if you buy a $1,000 CD with a 5% interest rate, you'll be owed $105 when the CD matures. Generally, you can't withdraw this money before the CD's maturity date without incurring a penalty.
However, CDs are very low risk and generally provide higher returns than a savings or money market account. (See also: The Basics of CD Laddering)
Who It's Best For
Those who are seeking a long-term savings vehicle and don't expect to need to access their savings immediately.
To continue reading, please go to the original article at
https://www.wisebread.com/12-places-to-keep-your-money-safe-and-growing?ref=seealso
.9 Essential Personal Finance Skills to Teach Your Kid
.9 Essential Personal Finance Skills to Teach Your Kid Before They Move Out
By Tim Lemke
Your child is on the verge of moving out and living on their own. Are they prepared?
Arming them with the right personal finance knowledge will give them a strong foundation to go and achieve many of their life goals. If their understanding of personal finance is lacking, they could begin their independent life on the wrong foot (and they may even come back home).
Consider these ways that you can help your child build a base of financial knowledge before they move out.
1. Show Them How To Budget
Perhaps the most important personal finance skill is consistently spending less than you earn. There are a million different ways to budget, and whatever works for you may not work for your child.
9 Essential Personal Finance Skills to Teach Your Kid Before They Move Out
By Tim Lemke
Your child is on the verge of moving out and living on their own. Are they prepared?
Arming them with the right personal finance knowledge will give them a strong foundation to go and achieve many of their life goals. If their understanding of personal finance is lacking, they could begin their independent life on the wrong foot (and they may even come back home).
Consider these ways that you can help your child build a base of financial knowledge before they move out.
1. Show Them How To Budget
Perhaps the most important personal finance skill is consistently spending less than you earn. There are a million different ways to budget, and whatever works for you may not work for your child.
But encourage them to develop a system to track and categorize spending and then compare those expenses to their income.
Of course they'll need to account for housing, food, and utilities but also let them know it's OK to include "fun money" in their budget. It will help them stay motivated to stick to their budget. (See also: How to Help Your Kid Build Their First Budget)
2. Teach Them How Retirement Plans Work
If your child is moving out, they likely have some earned income. That means they can start contributing to a Roth individual retirement account.
They may scoff at the notion of saving for retirement so early, but if you help them open a Roth IRA and demonstrate how much money they can accrue over time, they'll get on board.
Urge them to save as much as they can each month, invest in simple things like index funds, and simply watch their account balance grow over time through compounding.
If they have a 401(k) plan through an employer, take time to review the plan document with them and encourage them to contribute as much as they can. Be sure to explain the advantages of getting a company match on contributions, if one is offered.
3. Explain Bank Interest Rates
Chances are, your child already has a savings account. But it's still helpful to explain that they don't necessarily need to put their money in the first bank they see.
Show them how interest rates can vary, and that it's OK to shop around for the best rates so they can earn a little extra money. Explain terms like APR and APY, and the factors that impact whether rates go up or down.
Also outline the pros and cons of placing money in certificates of deposit. These days, it's also helpful to explain that while interest rates are rising, they're still quite low, and that it might make sense to invest some funds in ways that generate a higher return than savings account interest.
To continue reading, please go to the original article at
https://www.wisebread.com/9-essential-personal-finance-skills-to-teach-your-kid-before-they-move-out
.The Flywheel Of Wealth
.The Flywheel Of Wealth
(and the importance of patience)
By Rob Berger September 3 2019
His name is Dave. A retired Naval officer, he’s written two novels and about to publish his third. His books (thrillers in the style of Dan Brown and John Grisham) have been well received and even won awards, yet he’s still a relative unknown in the competitive world of fiction.
Her name is Michal. She’s a residential and commercial painting contractor in central Ohio. She’s a natural artist, a trait she inherited from her father and passed on to her daughter. She’s truly gifted, yet has struggled to grow her young business.
His name is Rob. He wants to achieve financial freedom at a young age. Yet, fresh out of college, he has mountains of debt. He makes a good salary, but most of it goes to paying school loans and everyday expenses. He manages to save and invest $100 a month, but feels like he’s making little progress.
These are all true stories.
The Flywheel Of Wealth
(and the importance of patience)
By Rob Berger September 3 2019
His name is Dave. A retired Naval officer, he’s written two novels and about to publish his third. His books (thrillers in the style of Dan Brown and John Grisham) have been well received and even won awards, yet he’s still a relative unknown in the competitive world of fiction.
Her name is Michal. She’s a residential and commercial painting contractor in central Ohio. She’s a natural artist, a trait she inherited from her father and passed on to her daughter. She’s truly gifted, yet has struggled to grow her young business.
His name is Rob. He wants to achieve financial freedom at a young age. Yet, fresh out of college, he has mountains of debt. He makes a good salary, but most of it goes to paying school loans and everyday expenses. He manages to save and invest $100 a month, but feels like he’s making little progress.
These are all true stories.
Dave is Dave Grogan, a friend of mine. You can find his books here.
Michal is Michal Cheney, my sister. She owns and operates No Drip Painting, a company that has enjoyed tremendous growth, but only after years of hard work that seemed to go nowhere.
Rob is, as you might have guessed, me — 25 years ago. What started as $100 a month turned into early retirement at the age of 49.
What do these stories have in common? The Flywheel.
A flywheel is a mechanical device designed to efficiently store rotational energy. Well, that’s how an engineer would describe a flywheel. I majored in English. To me, a flywheel is a wheel that’s really hard to get started. Once it gets going, however, it’s really hard to stop.
Anybody who has taken a spin class and tried to stop the pedals with their feet has learned firsthand just how much a moving flywheel wants to keep moving!
Today, I want to tell you about the flywheel of wealth. Like any flywheel, it can be slow to get started. But once it's moving, it's almost unstoppable.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=139&v=GeyDf4ooPdo
The Flywheel and Business
Most young entrepreneurs experience the flywheel. The new realtor struggles to get her first sale. The second sale is just as hard. So is the tenth. As she struggles, she watches long-time realtors get new clients with ease.
To continue reading, please go to the original article at
.A Basic Skill We Should Have Learned as Kids
.A Basic Skill We Should Have Learned as Kids
By David Cain of Raptitude
The phrase “Don’t get emotional” implies that we normally aren’t.
Most of our news headlines can be interpreted as emotional responses gone overboard, becoming crime, scandal, corruption, greed, and bad policy.
The fact that these reactions are newsworthy seems to reinforce the idea that emotions are sporadic and exceptional, little whirlwinds that appear around significant events, making the odd day or week wonderful or awful.
But if you pay attention to your emotions as you read these headlines, it becomes obvious that even in our most mundane moments — reading the paper on a Monday morning — we are always feeling some way or another. Even a casual glance at a newspaper will begin to stir up familiar feelings like fear, amazement, disgust, admiration or annoyance. We’re never really in “neutral.”
We’re living through emotional reactions all day long, even to events as tiny as hearing a text message arrive, or noticing a fly in the room. Our emotions aren’t always overwhelming us, but they are always affecting us, coloring our perceptions and opinions about ourselves and our world.
This is the “fish in water” effect at work — because we are immersed in our emotions’ effects every moment of our lives, we tend to talk about them only when they’re exceptionally strong.
Even when it’s not obvious, though, emotions are the force behind almost everything we do. They’re the only reason our experiences matter at all. If every event triggered the same emotion, it wouldn’t matter to us whether we got out of bed or not, whether we were sick or healthy, or whether we thrived or starved.
All of our values and morals, all of the meaning we perceive in life, stem from our knowledge that there are some very different ways a person can feel.
A Basic Skill We Should Have Learned as Kids
By David Cain of Raptitude
The phrase “Don’t get emotional” implies that we normally aren’t.
Most of our news headlines can be interpreted as emotional responses gone overboard, becoming crime, scandal, corruption, greed, and bad policy.
The fact that these reactions are newsworthy seems to reinforce the idea that emotions are sporadic and exceptional, little whirlwinds that appear around significant events, making the odd day or week wonderful or awful.
But if you pay attention to your emotions as you read these headlines, it becomes obvious that even in our most mundane moments — reading the paper on a Monday morning — we are always feeling some way or another. Even a casual glance at a newspaper will begin to stir up familiar feelings like fear, amazement, disgust, admiration or annoyance. We’re never really in “neutral.”
We’re living through emotional reactions all day long, even to events as tiny as hearing a text message arrive, or noticing a fly in the room. Our emotions aren’t always overwhelming us, but they are always affecting us, coloring our perceptions and opinions about ourselves and our world.
This is the “fish in water” effect at work — because we are immersed in our emotions’ effects every moment of our lives, we tend to talk about them only when they’re exceptionally strong.
.Seven Reasons Making 6 Figures Alone Won’t Make You Wealthy
.Seven Reasons Making 6 Figures Alone Won’t Make You Wealthy
By Michael Budget, Finance
Why Making 6 Figures Won’t Make You Wealthy
Earning a six-figure salary can make building wealth easier, but it’s not a magic solution for your financial woes. Earning a high income is only one part of the equation. If you want to be financially secure, you need to make your money work for you.
A big paycheck can make it easy to gloss over financial mistakes since you can still cover your bills. However, if you want to build wealth rather than an inflated lifestyle, you need to focus on reaching your full financial potential.
Most of the mistakes that six-figure earners make are easy to fix. Here’s how to use that high income to your advantage and build your net worth.
7 Six-Figure Money Mistakes
Seven Reasons Making 6 Figures Alone Won’t Make You Wealthy
By Michael Budget, Finance
Why Making 6 Figures Won’t Make You Wealthy
Earning a six-figure salary can make building wealth easier, but it’s not a magic solution for your financial woes. Earning a high income is only one part of the equation. If you want to be financially secure, you need to make your money work for you.
A big paycheck can make it easy to gloss over financial mistakes since you can still cover your bills. However, if you want to build wealth rather than an inflated lifestyle, you need to focus on reaching your full financial potential.
Most of the mistakes that six-figure earners make are easy to fix. Here’s how to use that high income to your advantage and build your net worth.
7 Six-Figure Money Mistakes
Mistake #1: Not Using a Budget
Just because you have a lot of money coming in every month doesn’t mean you shouldn’t keep track of where it’s going. This makes it easy to squander your paycheck without making any financial progress.
Creating a budget doesn’t have to be hard. Think of it as your spending plan. Make a list of all monthly expenses and use it to create your budget. Does your spending in each category align with your values? Can you cut back or cut out any costs?
Certain expenses such as eating out or groceries can get out of hand if not kept in check. Cut back on these areas by cooking more at home and shopping smart. You can still have fun with no regrets when you know you’re sticking to your budget.
Review your accounts for subscriptions you are not using and cancel them. Look at your other expenses and think about ways you can cut back with little sacrifice. It may surprise you how spending can escalate when left unchecked.
Make sure to track your spending, so you know where your money is going every month. Just because you can pay your bills every month doesn’t mean that it justifies your expense. Every dollar you invest instead of spending sets you up for a better financial future.
Mistake #2: No Long-Term Financial Plan
Having a long-term strategy is an essential part of setting yourself up for financial success. Making a six-figure income won’t mean much if you lose your job or if you don’t save enough for retirement.
To continue reading, please go to the original article at
.How To Invest Like Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson
.Notes From The Field By Simon Black
August 29, 2019 Bahia Beach, Puerto Rico
Here’s how you can invest like Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson
In 1978, a scruffy-looking Frenchman named Patrick Hernandez signed his first-ever recording contract.
He had spent the better part of the previous decade touring ballrooms in France, backing b-class singers without any real success to show for himself.
But in late 1978, he released his very first single, “Born to Be Alive.”
The song was an instant hit. It hit the number 1 spot in France, and within a few months, sold over a million copies in the US alone.
And Hernandez became a sensation. By the end of 1979, he had amassed fifty-two gold and platinum record awards from more than fifty countries.
Just like that, he was set for life.
Notes From The Field By Simon Black
August 29, 2019 Bahia Beach, Puerto Rico
Here’s how you can invest like Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson
In 1978, a scruffy-looking Frenchman named Patrick Hernandez signed his first-ever recording contract.
He had spent the better part of the previous decade touring ballrooms in France, backing b-class singers without any real success to show for himself.
But in late 1978, he released his very first single, “Born to Be Alive.”
The song was an instant hit. It hit the number 1 spot in France, and within a few months, sold over a million copies in the US alone.
And Hernandez became a sensation. By the end of 1979, he had amassed fifty-two gold and platinum record awards from more than fifty countries.
Just like that, he was set for life.
And 40 years later that same single still earns him around 1,200 euros per day...roughly 438,000 euros per year.
Even his official music video has over 100 million views on Youtube - the envy of most professional YouTubers.
Imagine getting paid hundreds of thousands of dollars per year for something you created over thirty years ago!
It’s rare, but it’s possible… and one of the best ways to do it is with royalties.
Royalties are cash payments you receive from assets you’ve created or own. Millions of people worldwide earn royalties every year - on assets as diverse as books, songs and movies-- but also from lesser-known sources like oil wells, gold mines or real estate.
Royalties are an all-time favorite of investors around the world - including Warren Buffett.
That’s because once you own the asset, all you’ve got to do is collect your cash every month or quarter.
I personally love royalties. To me, they are real assets - and generate income no matter what’s happening in the economy.
In times of inflation, the value of your asset goes up, protecting your savings.
In a deflationary period, the cash that the asset produces becomes even more valuable.
And the cash flow can be incredible…
To continue reading, please go to the original article at
.Don’t Let Early Retirement Box You Into Stupid Corners
.Don’t Let Early Retirement Box You Into Stupid Corners
By Steve Adcock
How many of you good people have [formally or informally] entered contests to see how little money you can spend during a period of time? Like those “No Spend” months?
If you read enough personal finance material, those money challenges are common. But, I haven’t entered a single one of them.
Not because they’re useless. Not because they are harmful.
It’s because I don’t need to enter a contest to see how much I can scrimp to get by in a certain area of my life.
That’s not the point of early retirement. Or financial independence.
These competitions have a way of “encouraging an assumption” that we need to do certain things or believe in specific philosophies in order to achieve our financial goals.
Don’t Let Early Retirement Box You Into Stupid Corners
By Steve Adcock
How many of you good people have [formally or informally] entered contests to see how little money you can spend during a period of time? Like those “No Spend” months?
If you read enough personal finance material, those money challenges are common. But, I haven’t entered a single one of them.
Not because they’re useless. Not because they are harmful.
It’s because I don’t need to enter a contest to see how much I can scrimp to get by in a certain area of my life.
That’s not the point of early retirement. Or financial independence.
These competitions have a way of “encouraging an assumption” that we need to do certain things or believe in specific philosophies in order to achieve our financial goals.
Things like:
Early retirees don’t spend money on clothes (they do)
Early retirees never spend money at restaurants (they do)
Early retirees never buy new cars (they do)
Early retirees always own instead of rent (they don’t)
In reality, financial independence and early retirement looks different to each and every one of us. We all spend money differently, and I’ve met early retirees who go out to eat regularly, or lease cars, or rent their homes instead of own. Homeownership is overrated.
The rhetoric that you hear isn’t necessarily wrong.
It just doesn’t speak for everyone. If you do things differently than the rest of us, that’s okay. Just because you love going out to eat or buying that Starbucks coffee doesn’t mean that you’ll never retire early.
Early retirement = Quality over Quantity
Here’s the biggest problem with these contests. They make it seem like simply spending less money is a major accomplishment. Like, “Yay, I didn’t spend a dime on such-‘n-such item for a whole month!“.
To continue reading, please go to the original article at
https://thinksaveretire.com/dont-let-early-retirement-box-you-into-stupid-corners/
.Six Simple Money Habits That Changed My Life
Six Simple Money Habits That Changed My Life
By Jim Wang 28 August 2019
Habits play such an important role in every aspect of your life. And those habits, good or bad, are reflected in your finances.
Some of our habits are small, almost insignificant. Over time, though, they have a large effect. There are little things that I've done over many years that have had outsized results. Individually, they don't move the needle. But they're like little course corrections on the cruise ship of life. A little change early on, repeated and compounded over many years, can have a significant impact.
When you add them together, they can help you achieve things you never thought possible.
Six Simple Money Habits
Small Habits Lead to Big Results
Six Simple Money Habits That Changed My Life
By Jim Wang 28 August 2019
Habits play such an important role in every aspect of your life. And those habits, good or bad, are reflected in your finances.
Some of our habits are small, almost insignificant. Over time, though, they have a large effect. There are little things that I've done over many years that have had outsized results. Individually, they don't move the needle. But they're like little course corrections on the cruise ship of life. A little change early on, repeated and compounded over many years, can have a significant impact.
When you add them together, they can help you achieve things you never thought possible.
Six Simple Money Habits
Small Habits Lead to Big Results
A prime example for me was gaining strength. I made a decision to build muscle but I didn't want to be one of those guys who spent hours in the gym. I learned that there are workout regimens that don't require a ton of time, but which still improve strength with just 20-30 minutes a session. These routines target several muscle groups at once. (The deadlift is a good example.)
Because these sessions only took 20-30 minutes, it was easy to make time for them. As a result, I started going to the gym more regularly. And once I was there, something funny happened.
On some days, I did the workout and left. On others, I felt like I could do more. So, I incorporated other exercises that targeted smaller muscle groups. The promise of a short session got me in the habit of going to the gym. That was the hard part. Once I was there, I often did more than I had planned.
At first, I saw my strength increase until I hit a plateau. I talked with some folks and realized I had two non-obvious weaknesses: insufficient protein intake and grip strength.
For the protein, I added a bit of unflavored protein into my coffee each morning.
For grip strength, I started doing more dumbbell exercises in lieu of barbell exercises. The simple act of carrying the heavy weights to a bench helped increase my grip strength.
Both were small changes that became daily habits, which eventually had a big impact on my exercise regimen. Neither was difficult, I just had to discover them. And today, I'm stronger than I've ever been thanks to these seemingly minor changes.
But you're not here for fitness tips from me. You're here for money tips, right? Here are some simple habits I've developed that might not seem like much at first, but which have had a huge impact on my finances. Maybe they'll help you too.
To continue reading, please go to the original article at
https://www.getrichslowly.org/simple-money-habits/#more-237236
.What My Immigrant Mom Can Teach You About Money
.What My Immigrant Mom Can Teach You About Money
September 1, 2017
How an Immigrant Does Money
My mom thinks that if she had $1,100 a month she’d be able to retire rich. That’s just $13,200 a year. To most people reading this that amount is poverty level. You need millions to retire, right?
My mom and I have this tradition: since she can’t read or write, she puts any unfamiliar mail aside, waits for me to come visit, so I can then read the mail and explain to her what it says.
This last time, she got a letter from Social Security. The letter showed a chart of how much she was eligible for if she retired. I explained that if she retired right now, at 62, she’d get a little over $1,100 a month. But if she waited until she was 65, she’d get $1,500 per month.
“So, what do you think?” I asked.
What My Immigrant Mom Can Teach You About Money
September 1, 2017
How an Immigrant Does Money
My mom thinks that if she had $1,100 a month she’d be able to retire rich. That’s just $13,200 a year. To most people reading this that amount is poverty level. You need millions to retire, right?
My mom and I have this tradition: since she can’t read or write, she puts any unfamiliar mail aside, waits for me to come visit, so I can then read the mail and explain to her what it says.
This last time, she got a letter from Social Security. The letter showed a chart of how much she was eligible for if she retired. I explained that if she retired right now, at 62, she’d get a little over $1,100 a month. But if she waited until she was 65, she’d get $1,500 per month.
“So, what do you think?” I asked.
She thought for a second and said, “If I had the $1,100, then that’s rich enough.” In her mind, that’s $1,100 she wouldn’t have to work for. It’d be enough to cover her basic needs. What else would you need?
Aside from social security, my mom has saved up a high five-figure sum in 401k funds, plus five-figure amounts set aside for both my sister and me. And yet. She has never made more than $14 an hour. She was the breadwinner, and worked to support a family of four.
When I was little, my dad got fired from his job one day and never went back to work. Then he passed away when I was a teenager.
Still, us kids never wanted for much of anything. We lived a life of amazing privilege: a steady roof over our heads, full bellies, and parents who wondered about us when we went out at night.
You’ve seen the startling headlines. That nearly half of Americans don’t have an extra $400 laying around in case of an emergency. And most Americans have little saved for retirement. In my mom’s age group, the median amount saved is a paltry $17,000.
So, how is it that an illiterate, low-wage earning immigrant has managed to surpass these Americans?
Let’s start from the beginning.
Coming to America
Most people would say my parents came to America with the most unfortunate circumstances: they didn’t speak any English, were uneducated, and didn’t have a penny to their name. Coming from a tropical country, also unfortunate was the cold, snowy area they landed in: a small, working-class, predominantly white city, because the local church folks brought them there, and my parents didn’t know any better.
To continue reading, please go to the original article at
http://www.theluxestrategist.com/immigrant-mom-can-teach-money/
.The Important Thing About Money
The Important Thing About Money That Has Nothing To Do With Money
.June 25, 2019 The Luxe Strategist
Values: The Overlooked Part About Money You Need to Get Right
Recently on Instagram I saw a group of friends clinking drinks on a trip and felt a pang–I wish I could do that. Not the traveling part. It’s the traveling with the multiple people part that I suck at.
You see, I’m a Vacation Ruiner. The larger the group, the greater the damage.
If you invite me on your trip I can guarantee that there will be a tempo mismatch–what everyone wants to do at a relaxed pace I’ll want to fly through. And when people want to go to a museum I’ll undoubtedly show up in waders ready to go fishing.
My presence will create an unmistakable tension that will ensure you have a terrible time on a trip you’ve spent thousands of dollars on and hours planning.
On my first group trip, one of my friends quietly cancelled the rest of the trips we had planned.
And on the second trip, nobody said a word the entire three-hour car ride home.
It didn’t take long before I realized I was the common denominator.
The Important Thing About Money That Has Nothing To Do With Money
June 25, 2019 The Luxe Strategist
Values: The Overlooked Part About Money You Need to Get Right
Recently on Instagram I saw a group of friends clinking drinks on a trip and felt a pang–I wish I could do that. Not the traveling part. It’s the traveling with the multiple people part that I suck at.
You see, I’m a Vacation Ruiner. The larger the group, the greater the damage.
If you invite me on your trip I can guarantee that there will be a tempo mismatch–what everyone wants to do at a relaxed pace I’ll want to fly through. And when people want to go to a museum I’ll undoubtedly show up in waders ready to go fishing.
My presence will create an unmistakable tension that will ensure you have a terrible time on a trip you’ve spent thousands of dollars on and hours planning.
On my first group trip, one of my friends quietly cancelled the rest of the trips we had planned.
And on the second trip, nobody said a word the entire three-hour car ride home.
It didn’t take long before I realized I was the common denominator.
In case you think I’m a jerk for no reason, let me explain: Everyone’s got something that drives their behavior. Later I realized what it was about the trips that turned me into an awful travel companion.
Group trips stifled things that I value very very much: independence, exploration and the opportunity to problem solve on my own. Being able to do things how I want and when I want.
When you think about it that way, six people on a trip with only one car was a disaster in the making. And when I look back even to my childhood, it’s crazy how my values have driven so many of my decisions:
From getting mad at a teacher for trying to help me pick out a holiday card. To being banned from field trips in high school, because I ran off from the rest of the group. Then after college avoiding a full-time job for three years. (Like really, who does that?)
Have you noticed something like that in yourself? A value that you hold so strongly to the core, that it steers everything you do?
The Hard Part About Money
If you have a hard time thinking of an example, you’re probably in good company.
In personal finance we all focus way too much on tactics. While spending less than you earn, learning how to invest, and opening up a 2% interest savings account are important, the results will mostly vary depending on who you are.
But one thing I can guarantee is that money will always be hard unless you’ve got the touchy-feely stuff down.
That means understanding what drives you to do things. Your core values.
To continue reading, please go to the original article at
http://www.theluxestrategist.com/the-important-thing-about-money-that-has-nothing-to-do-with-money/
.Here’s A Dirty Secret Few People Know About Gold
.Notes From The Field By Simon Black
August 26, 2019 San Juan, Puerto Rico
Here’s A Dirty Secret Few People Know About Gold
In 1962 in a picturesque setting in Santa Barbara, California, two local entrepreneurs opened a low-cost, roadside inn where the nightly room rate was just $6.
They called it Motel 6.
And today the chain has grown to over 1,400 locations.
If you want the most straightforward explanation for why you should own gold, consider your local Motel 6.
Notes From The Field By Simon Black
August 26, 2019 San Juan, Puerto Rico
Here’s A Dirty Secret Few People Know About Gold
In 1962 in a picturesque setting in Santa Barbara, California, two local entrepreneurs opened a low-cost, roadside inn where the nightly room rate was just $6.
They called it Motel 6.
And today the chain has grown to over 1,400 locations.
If you want the most straightforward explanation for why you should own gold, consider your local Motel 6.
It’s noteworthy that, today, the very same Santa Barbara location now rents its rooms for nearly $90 per night.
That’s a 15x increase in 57 years, an average increase of roughly 5% per year.
Are the rooms 15x bigger, or 15x nicer? Not really.
The reason the price has increased so much is because of inflation-- the gradual erosion of the US dollar’s purchasing power over the past several decades.
This is why it’s important to have a conversation about gold.
Unlike paper currencies, gold has a 5,000 year track record of keeping up with inflation.
In fact, when priced in gold, a room at the Motel 6 has actually gotten cheaper.
Back in 1962, an ounce of gold would buy you about 6 nights at the motel. Now, despite the 12-fold increase in the price of a room, one ounce of gold will buy you 21 nights there.
That’s because the price of gold has largely outpaced the rate of inflation and the decline in the purchasing power of the US dollar.
Gold is a fantastic long-term store of value. It’s also an insurance policy-- a hedge against paper currency, systemic risk, and uncertainty.
And there’s plenty of those in the world.
But there’s also a number of catalysts emerging right now that could send gold prices substantially higher in the near future, so it may be worth considering gold right now as a speculation.
There have been several times in history where gold has experienced wild swings in value against paper currency. And some people got very rich from it.
In the coming days and weeks, I’ll be writing a series of articles on different ways to own gold.
And it’s my hope that you’ll use the information to as part of your Plan B, not only to hedge against looming risks, but also to potentially profit from uncertainty in the system.
To continue reading, please go to the original article at
https://www.sovereignman.com/trends/heres-a-dirty-secret-few-people-know-about-gold-25505/
To your freedom, Simon Black, Founder, SovereignMan.com