45 Carlos Slim Helu Quotes About Wealth & Success

45 Carlos Slim Helu Quotes About Wealth & Success

By Dan Western

Carlos Slim Helu is a Mexican business magnate, investor, and philanthropist;

He was also once the richest man in the world, according to Forbes, and now remains on the list of the top 10 billionaires worldwide.

Carlos Slim’s conglomerates include real estate, retail, hospitality, education, health care, industrial manufacturing, energy, transportation, media, entertainment, high-technology, sports, and financial services.

We’ve put together this collection of the greatest Carlos Slim Quotes:

45 Carlos Slim Helu Quotes

1. “All times are good times for those who know how to work and have the tools to do so.” – Carlos Slim Helu

2. “I’ve always said that the better off you are, the more responsibility you have for helping others. Just as I think it’s important to run companies well, with a close eye to the bottom line, I think you have to use your entrepreneurial experience to make corporate philanthropy effective.” – Carlos Slim Helu

3. “Staying occupied displaces preoccupation and problems, and when we face our problems, they disappear.” – Carlos Slim Helu

4. “The truth is, you leave this world with nothing. What you are is a temporary administrator, and you must administer well… the wealth in your care, and generate more. The surplus can be used to do many things for people.” – Carlos Slim Helu

5. “Competition makes you better, always, always makes you better, even if the competitor wins.” – Carlos Slim Helu

6. “It’s important to give a better country to your children, but it is more important to give better children to your country.” – Carlos Slim Helu

7. “Inertia is in our minds always.” – Carlos Slim Helu

8. “The only way you finish with poverty is with jobs.” – Carlos Slim Helu

9. “The key is the Internet. The United States is by far the most advanced country in this new digital culture, so we have to be there. The Internet is the heart of this new civilization, and telecommunications are the nervous system, or circulatory system.” – Carlos Slim Helu

10. “With three work days a week, we would have more time to relax; for quality of life.” – Carlos Slim Helu

11. “Firm and patient optimism always yields its rewards.” – Carlos Slim Helu

12. “Well, when I was very young, maybe 12 years, I began to make investments.” – Carlos Slim Helu

13. “Money is not a goal. The goal is to make companies grow, develop, be competitive, be in different areas, be efficient to have a great human team inside the company.” – Carlos Slim Helu

14. “Anyone who is not investing now is missing a tremendous opportunity.” – Carlos Slim Helu

15. “When you live for others’ opinions, you are dead. I don’t want to live thinking about how I’ll be remembered.” – Carlos Slim Helu

16. “If you are in business, you are not enjoying. You are working.” – Carlos Slim Helu

17. “In this new wave of technology, you can’t do it all yourself, you have to form alliances.” – Carlos Slim Helu

18. “It’s very important for leaders in business to work to create human capital, a team that has the same sense of purpose and alignment.” – Carlos Slim Helu

19. “When we decide to do something, we do it quickly.” – Carlos Slim Helu

20. “Most people try to make a better world for our children when what they should be doing is making better children for our world.” – Carlos Slim Helu

21. “Work well done is not only a responsibility to yourselves and society; it is also an emotional need.” – Carlos Slim Helu

22. “Choose the right employees and then set them loose.” – Carlos Slim Helu

23. “In business, you invest when things are not in good shape. When you invest at these times, you take a better position than your competitors. When there is a recession and your competition does not invest, they are giving you the advantage.” – Carlos Slim Helu

24. “All businesses make mistakes. The trick is to avoid large ones.” – Carlos Slim Helu

25. “People need to feel very good about their achievements. They get pride from what they are doing.” – Carlos Slim Helu

26. “One of the big errors people are making right now is thinking that old-style businesses will be obsolete, when actually they will be an important part of this new civilization. Some retail groups are introducing e-commerce and think that the bricks are no longer useful. But they will continue to be important.” – Carlos Slim Helu

27. “Focus on essentials and try not to get distracted and bogged down by things that don’t add value to the bottom line.” – Carlos Slim Helu

28. “You cannot have people in your organization who are pessimists. They take you to mediocrity.” – Carlos Slim Helu

29. “Courage taught me no matter how bad a crisis gets… any sound investment will eventually pay off.” – Carlos Slim Helu

30. “When we face our problems, they disappear. So learn from failure and let success be the silent incentive.” – Carlos Slim Helu

31. “I learned from my father that you continue to invest and reinvest in your business – including during crises.” – Carlos Slim Helu

32. “You cannot live without doing something.” – Carlos Slim Helu

33. “When you are convinced what to do and what you need to do, it’s not hard to do that.” – Carlos Slim Helu

34. “Think of an athlete. He may be very good in his own house, but not as good as his neighbors. You have to go beyond your home. You have to go worldwide.” – Carlos Slim Helu

35. “Anything that has privileges have responsibility and all people that is clear about their responsibility has compromise.” – Carlos Slim Helu

36. “With good perspective of history we can have a better understanding of the past and present, and thus a clear vision of the future.” – Carlos Slim Helu

37. “Live the present intensely and fully, do not let the past be a burden, and let the future be an incentive. Each person forges his or her own destiny.” – Carlos Slim Helu

38. “When there is a crisis, that’s when some are interested in getting out and that’s when we are interested in getting in.” – Carlos Slim Helu

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How The Rich Enrich Themselves

How The Rich Enrich Themselves

The Final Wake Up Call By Peter B Meyer

Real Money Is Not Controlled By Anyone

The Illuminati Have Introduced Fractional Reserve Lending

Equalizing Trust-Money With Debt-Money

Crony Capitalists Control Governments

The Industrial Mafia

Pharmaceutical Drugs Do Not Cure

Central Bank’s Fake Money Is Doing The Heavy Lifting

Perpetual Debt Slavery

Some economic experts conclude the great global wealth divide is a cultural issue. Several nations – England, the United States and the Netherlands, for example – adopted early on just the right cultural combination of free markets and light regulation and taxation. Essentially, they were pro-business from the beginning, and that paid off.

Yet, most people are totally clueless that their money has no value, and that the Central Bank’s banking system, and Governments are totally corrupt. Be aware, we, the people and all the countries together are simply one nation under God, as are equally all other 209 sovereign nations on Earth.

Regrettably, most people have lost their shining light as a beacon of self-esteem. To address this short-coming; every citizen should take note of the following information to understand how and why we the people have been manipulated into perpetual debt slavery.

Money and banks were founded on faulty public sentiment. Money should be a symbol of value; the same way a little stone or carved piece of wood is a symbol of God. But, in the modern world, money is a commodity, like beer and cheese.

There are many different kinds of money in exactly the same way as there are many brands of beer and cheese, and they all present their own national characters and peculiarities.

However, there is a profound difference between money which has a value in-and-of-itself, such as a gold coin that has intrinsic value, which is not the case with legal tender currencies, bonds, notes and letters of credit. Additionally, there is another market on this same basis, in securities, like stocks and commodity futures. More precisely, todays’ money is valuable only as long as there is not too much of it

. The market can absorb a little extra money, but there’s a limit. And that limit has been greatly exceeded, thanks to, a worldwide overcapacity in output, financed by former lending and a huge excess of cheap labour, largely financed by the credit expansion of the last 40 years.

Without these two unique circumstances, central banks’ irresponsible QE and ZIRP policies would probably have caused inflation to rise into the double-digit range or even higher, much earlier, maybe as far back as a decade ago?

Real Money Is Not Controlled By Anyone

Nowadays there is no further need to worry about how much governments borrow. Central banks buy government bonds – hold them on their balance sheets – return the interest payments – and the whole thing is set up in such a way as to be swiftly forgotten. And when the bonds expire, central banks can use the repaid principal to buy more government debt!

On the contrary, real money is not controlled by anyone. It is earned – freely – in win-win exchanges. Fake money takes a different route. It is created by the insiders, and controlled by them. It stimulates to corrupting politics; which is often completely beholden to the corrupted money.

The fake money system has given the world two things that it lacked beforehand: huge demand coming from credit-rich U.S. consumers, and a huge supply of capital, coming from the same source. – The financial industry created this bubble by lending the Central Banks’ fake money.

Money that no one ever earned or saved, lent to people who had no business borrowing it, so they could buy overpriced houses they couldn’t afford. Then, after the inevitable blow-up in 2008, insiders bought the homes that had been heavily discounted by the blow-up they had helped to cause.

The Illuminati Have Introduced Fractional Reserve Lending

Few people have any real money. But almost everyone has credit. At today’s ultra-low interest rates, they can own stuff they don’t need, with money they don’t have. That is why Central Banksters (CB) always tell the world not to expect “normalisation” of interest rates anytime soon.

They know there will be hell to pay when people have to pay higher finance costs. Besides, how can the CB allow interest rates to rise? All governments are addicted to low interest payments on its $20+ trillions in debt.

On the basis of today’s low rates, the US government in 2024 has got to pay $880 billion on interest against a total expenditure of estimated $240 billion. To put this in perspective: Interest payments are 50 times larger than the NASA, and 105 times the FBI budget.

The Deep State Shadow Government dictates the policies and events on behalf of the Rothschild Bloodline who control the global financial system; they have accumulated their power by theft and exploitation.

Their whole system is based on a gigantic fraud because there is no money, as people perceive it. The ‘money’ that’s earned is backed by nothing. The value is only the value that people can be persuaded it has.

These are worthless pieces of paper or figures on a computer screen that people are tricked into taking seriously. Money is brought in circulation through what is called ‘credit’ from money, which is believed that it exists. Banks are not lending anything, but people are paying fortunes to do so.

The Illuminati have controlled banking and governments for centuries, and they have been able to dictate laws of the financial system and introduce ‘fractional reserve lending’. This allows the banks to lend ten times more than what they have on deposit.

In other words, they lend ‘money’ they don’t have and doesn’t exist – called credit – while charging interest on it. So the banking system is a fantastic business, they lend money they don’t have and charge the lender interest on it. Invented by Mayer Amschel Rothschild.

“Mr. Rothschild loaned promissory notes – which are worthless – to governments and individuals. When the economy turned buoyant, then he made money scarce, by tightening the control of the system, and collect the collateral through the obligation of contracts.

On their decision this cycle was repeated – by applying pressure to ignite a war,” – recently Syria and Ukraine. Then they control the availability of currency to determine, which side would win the war.

The government, that agreed to give them control of its economic system, gets the support. Collection is guaranteed by economic aid to the enemy of the debtor.

“The profit derived from this economic methodology made Mr. Rothschild and his cohorts all the wealthier. He discovered that the public greed would allow currency to be printed by government order beyond the limit of the backing in precious metal – inflating the production of goods and services to grow GDP.”

Equalising Trust-Money With Debt-Money

Just by legally equalising the energy money created by ordinary people who trust each other, which is called trust-money with the credit-money created by the central banks called debt-money, enables the latter to acquire the trust placed into the first; resulting in inflation, which in itself is forthright theft: The increase of the money supply goes far beyond social trust.

The conflict between the two kinds of money – trust versus debt money is clear: because a dollar or euro can be spent only once – in principle for private transactions between citizens, but that same dollar/euro is again promised to pay off the public debt, through the schemes in which governments are engaged, without the consent, nor knowledge of its citizens.

In 1990, lived 1.85 billion people – or about 36% of humanity – in extreme poverty according to the World Bank. By 2015, that figure had been cut by more than half, to 736 million.

But guess what? Of the people who escaped poverty, 800 million were Chinese, and they did so due to China’s embrace of global markets and capitalism. Despite its labels, China is not a communist nation. However, it is a one-party capitalist economy. And it has reaped the rewards of free markets in a very big way.

Poor nations are called the “Third World”, nowadays changed in “emerging markets.” The idea is that they too can achieve prosperity if they copy what wealthier nations have done by creating a sustainable market.

Crony Capitalists Control Governments

To the contrary, the EU is dull and uninspired, lethargic, overtaxed and over-regulated. Its workers take too many days off, and its businesses lack the dynamic spirit that makes U.S. enterprises so successful. Compared to hard-charging US-dealmakers, Europe just can’t keep up, right? A professor at New York University, Thomas Philippon explains what it is:

First, U.S. markets have become less competitive: Concentration is high in many industries, leaders are entrenched, and their profit rates are excessive.

Second, this lack of competition has hurt US consumers and workers: It has led to higher prices, lower investment and lower productivity growth.

Third, and contrary to common wisdom, the main explanation is political, not technological: I have traced the decrease in competition to increasing barriers to entry and weak antitrust enforcement, sustained by heavy lobbying and campaign contributions.

Markets are how people get wealthy. Politics is how their wealth is redistributed and squandered. But why would politics be more malicious in the U.S. than in Europe? The simple answer is that Europe has less of it.

Europeans speak different languages. They have different histories. Different flags. Different cultures. They mistrust each other, and all mistrust their Brussels’s central EU-government. While Americans lavish power and money on Washington’s DC – swamp bureaucrats, Europeans resent every penny they send to Brussels.

Crony capitalists conspire with the government in both Europe and America, but only about half as much is spent lobbying Brussels as Washington. As for campaign contributions, candidates in the U.S. get 50 times as much as European politicians.

There are only two choices: politics or markets. In the last half of the 20th century, America gradually swung towards politics. Now it pays the price.

Recent history certainly seems to support the idea that functioning capitalism eradicates poverty, while socialism does not.

The Industrial Mafia

People that work by the hour, have to sell their time. The one that has the money meaning someone who is “rich” has more time because he can control not only his own, but other people’s time, too.

R http://finalwakeupcall.info/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/12/industrial-mafia.png

The one who had $1,000 worth of stocks in 1971 could buy approximately 260 of the average working man’s hours. Today, that $1,000 worth of stocks is worth about $32,000, which, at today’s $28 per hour average, will buy 1,140 hours of the typical working man’s time, which is about four times as much as in 1971. In other words, compared to the wage earner, the capitalist is four times as rich.

Invert it, and you see about the same thing. A working man would have had to labour for 224 hours to buy the 30 Dow stocks in 1971. Today, his time is much less valuable; he has to sweat for 1,000 hours to buy the Dow. That’s why the socialists whine about “inequality”. Few people may have done the math, but a lot of people suspected something is wrong. And they are right.

For their part, many investors, amongst the rich and their cronies are the insiders that are thought to being smart. They earned their wealth fair and square, is believed, by investing in cabal owned multinationals, where they couldn’t loose, but only gain, at the end of the day they all belong to the insiders or being their well-connected cronies.

As an example; they are the ones that create wars to make huge profits in the arms and pharmaceutical industries, companies belonging to the Rockefeller and Rothschild Imperia, both of which have become one of the most profitable conglomerates in the world. How was that possible?

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

http://finalwakeupcall.info/en/2019/12/11/how-the-rich-enrich-themselves/

15 Quotes From Successful Investors That Will Change Your Life

15 Quotes From Successful Investors That Will Change Your Life

From Pocket Sense By Natalie Saar

It takes a wise person to make millions and billions of dollars from investments, so why not partake in some of that wisdom? From Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett to historically notable inventor and investor Benjamin Franklin, here are some words to live by some some of the wisest people in the history of investing, and not just when it comes to money.

1. Don't Lose Money

“Rule number one: Don’t lose money. Rule number two: Don’t forget rule number one.” – Warren Buffett

This seems pretty straightforward, but it’s incredible to think about how often in our lives we lose money because of one reason or another. Las Vegas has made billions of dollars off of people prepared to lose money without a real hope of making it back. It may not be the golden rule, but it’s certainly one to keep close to the chest.

2. Invest in Knowledge

"An investment in knowledge pays the best interest." – Benjamin Franklin

Whether you're considering investing or switching careers, investing in knowledge will pay dividends in time and money. Consider the five-hour rule – something Oprah, Buffett and Bill Gates all adhere to.

It’s simply spending five hours a week learning something new. If you’re not already doing this, consider adding it to your schedule for the week. There are endless resources online to get yourself on the right track, whether it’s simple YouTube videos, borrowing a book from your local library or subscribing to an educational site like Skillshare or The Great Courses.

3. Don't Play it Too Safe

"How many millionaires do you know who have become wealthy by investing in savings accounts? I rest my case." – Robert G. Allen

While this largely applies to investing, it also applies to other areas of life. Playing anything too safe won't give you optimal results. Especially when it comes to your money, there are some tried-and-true methods to responsibly invest. Do you research when risk is involved, and you'll come to a logical balance of risk and reward.

4. Know Your Investments

"Know what you own, and know why you own it." – Peter Lynch

Unfortunately, people tend to make decisions without fully understanding why they’re making them. For example, if you have a 401(k), do you know how it works and how it will work for your future retirement?

This goes for all types of investments and purchases, from home ownership (do you know why you bought in a certain neighborhood? Why you paid the price you did? If the home is in a growing area?) to cars (What’s the resale value outlook? Are repairs expensive?).

Investments, homes, cars and other investments will always be around. Do your homework so that you make sound decisions, even when you have a financial professional or an agent guiding you along the way.

5. Financial Success Happens Slowly

"Investing should be more like watching paint dry or watching grass grow. If you want excitement, take $800 and go to Las Vegas." – Paul Samuelson

There are many things more rewarding than checking in on your 401(k) or other investment account and seeing how much it’s accumulated over time, but the key there is “over time.” Financial success from investing happens slowly, not overnight. Be patient and you’ll see results.

6. Find Your Niche

"Wide diversification is only required when investors do not understand what they are doing." – Warren Buffett

While this is true of investing, it’s also applicable to life. No one can be good at everything. The key to success is finding your niche in life and running with it. It’s okay to know how to do things like change a tire, but that doesn’t mean you need to be a mechanic. What skills work for you in your life? Focus on honing those.

7. Protect Your Reputation

"It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently." – Warren Buffett

Another nugget of advice from Buffett that can be applied to both investing and life in general. If you manage other people’s money, it just takes one expensive mistake to lose trust forever. It’s the same in life. Sometimes it doesn’t matter how much goodwill you’ve built up; it can be lost in a matter of minutes. A familiar example is Hollywood stars who seemed squeaky clean until their mugshot is slapped across the front page of every tabloid.

8. Improve Yourself

“Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up." – Charlie Munger

Here are some wise words from Buffett’s counterpart Charlie Munger. If you want to put this into practice in your own life, at the end of each day, ask yourself what you learned that day.

It doesn’t have to be a fact from a book; it can be an observation about your work, people close to you or something about your own life. Try to take that lesson and internalize it in a constructive way.

9. The 20 Percent Rule

"If you have trouble imagining a 20 percent loss in the stock market, you shouldn't be in stocks." – John Bogle

This speaks to the concept of not overextending yourself in general, not only when it comes to the stock market. Take a look at your income and budget, if your paycheck was cut by 20 percent would you still be able to pay the bills and keep the same quality of life? If not, then you might want to find a way to cut back on 20 percent of your expenses.

10. Don't Fall into the Same Habit

“The four most dangerous words in investing: ‘this time it’s different.’” – Sir John Templeton

Ask anyone who has jumped from one bad relationship into another, these words don’t only apply to investing. Unfortunately, we can become creatures of habit, which means we may habitually choose the same kinds of jobs, friends or romantic partners despite the fact that they didn’t work out before.

It’s easy to get excited about something new and think that this time it will be different, but chances are that it won’t be. If it’s just a financial investment you took a gamble on again, then you can make that money back, but if it was an investment of time, then that’s the costly mistake.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://pocketsense.com/15-quotes-from-successful-investors-that-will-change-your-life-13708277.html

“Gold Market Fraudulent, Already in Deep Default"

“Gold Market Fraudulent, Already in Deep Default, Cannot Deliver 5,900 Tons”

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

“Financial writer and precious metals expert Bill Holter says big delivery demands are flashing a warning sign that something is very wrong in the gold market. Holter explains, “What’s happened so far this year, there have been roughly 5,900 tons of gold sent to London under ‘exchange for physical.’

The world only produces 2,700 tons a year. There is only one official hoard in the world that is more than that, and that is 8,300 tons in the U.S. Treasury. It has not been audited since 1956.

What I am telling you is over 200% of annual production has been sent to London for delivery, and it is an impossibility to deliver. The metal doesn’t exist. Once it gets to London, it is totally shrouded. We see nothing in terms of proof or verification that delivery is being made. It’s being sent to London to die.”

So, is a default in the gold market coming soon? Holter says, “It’s already happened. It’s already happened. They can’t deliver. Just this month alone, in December, there are 41 tons (of gold) standing for delivery.

I think they (COMEX) only have 37 tons to deliver on. You will not see the movement inside COMEX showing delivery. The 37 tons will not be eaten into to deliver. Are they paying a 25% premium to settle in cash? Who knows, it’s totally shrouded.

You know by sheer size of the numbers that 5,900 tons, in less than one year, for delivery, that’s fraudulent. I hope COMEX or CME sues me because then we get into discovery. I am sure there are 10,000 lawyers that would do this on a pro-bono basis just to get to the truth.”

When will this market blow up? Holter says, “I don’t know, you can’t ask me how long because this thing should have blown up years ago. When will it blow up? I can’t tell you, but I can tell you mathematically it cannot sustain.” - https://usawatchdog.com/

Join Greg Hunter of USAWatchdog.com as he goes One-on-One with gold expert Bill Holter of JSMineset.com.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

http://beforeitsnews.com/opinion-liberal/2019/12/greg-hunter-gold-market-fraudulent-already-in-deep-default-cannot-deliver-5900-tons-2599643.html

Would You Trust an Online-Only Bank?

Would You Trust an Online-Only Bank?

Here’s What You Should Know

By Jamie Cattanach  Contributor   DECEMBER 4, 2019

Choosing a bank account is a big deal. After all, you’re handing the institution what’s most likely the majority of your money for safekeeping. You want to make sure it’s actually safe.

You also need to be able to access that cash for all your day-to-day operations, like paying bills or coughing up for your share of the pizza.

Along with choosing from multiple financial institutions, banking in 2019 and beyond means making another important decision: Will you use of one of the many all-digital, online-only banking options, or will you keep it old school by opening an account at brick-and-mortar facility?

Are Online Banks Safe?

In a recent survey conducted by The Penny Hoarder, more than 50% of respondents said they wouldn’t consider using an online bank, and more than 19% were unsure about using one. Given how much of our lives are conducted online these days, we found that data point surprising.

But on the other hand, we do understand having reservations when it comes to money matters. Walking into a stately, brick-built bank can make it feel less scary to hand over your hard-earned cash.

So are online banks safe? The truth is there are a growing number of online-only banking alternatives that are, indeed, legitimate and safe. Online banks like Chime and Simple are FDIC-insured for deposits up to $250,000, just like Bank of America and Chase.

And thanks to the magic of technology, you can do pretty much everything you might need to with your money without ever needing to visit a teller in person: depositing checks on your mobile phone, pulling cash from a network ATM or transferring funds to a family member or friend. You can even write paper checks… if you really, really have to.

It’s true, however, that you won’t be able to walk into a bank and talk to a teller in person. What are the other important differences between these two methods of banking?

Brick-and-Mortar Banking: Pros and Cons

Since nearly 72% of our survey respondents said they’d visited a brick-and-mortar bank in the past year, we want to give this option its due. Here are the drawbacks and benefits of patronizing and old-school bank — the kind you can walk into to open your account.

Traditional Banking Pros

Larger banks may offer “one stop shopping” for your financial needs: They often make it easy to take out a mortgage, open a credit card, or apply for a personal loan with the same institution you bank through. (However, these products may come at higher fees than you’d find by shopping around for independent lenders.)

Some users simply find it easier to walk into a bank and ask for the service they need. This may be a better option for you if you don’t like figuring out how to get what you need through an online banking portal or app.

Depending on the bank you choose, you may be supporting a local (or local-ish) business, or at least a nationwide business that provides jobs in your area. Credit unions in particular are often community-focused institutions that participate in local events and provide friendly, face-to-face customer service to account holders.

Traditional Banking Cons

Again, depending on the bank you choose, you may only be able to access your bank locally. That can present problems for those who travel or eventually plan to move out of state.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://www.thepennyhoarder.com/bank-accounts/are-online-banks-safe/?aff_sub2=homepage

What a Financial Trainwreck Can Teach Us

What a Financial Trainwreck Can Teach Us: Six Mistakes to Learn From

By Donna Freedman

A married couple recently confessed to some horrifying money blunders in an interview on the WealthSimple website. In their mid-40s and the parents of three kids, the pseudonymous Kate and Tom bring in $160,000 a year through their day jobs in insurance, with additional funds whenever Tom moonlights as a bartender for private parties.

Yet they have always spent more than they earned, and cannot seem to learn from previous mistakes. A few examples:

After wiping out their credit card balances a decade ago, they charged them back up even higher.

They have postponed paying back Kate’s law-school loans, which are now up to either $120,000 or $140,000 (she isn’t sure – and incidentally, she has never practiced law).

They spend “insane amounts” of money on groceries at places like Whole Foods (where one of their kids likes to snack on $15 sushi).

They bought their son a tux at prom time, because they couldn’t afford the rental fee but hadn’t yet maxed out the Nordstrom card.

Clearly this couple is a financial trainwreck. But they have something to teach us, if we’re willing to listen.

It’s easy to scorn the protagonists as entitled or clueless. You’d never be that foolish. You’d never go into debt, get yourself out, and then go back in. You’d never borrow from family members, or cash in a 401(k), or use a credit card to put your kids in private school.

Maybe you wouldn’t. Or maybe scorning other people’s mistakes keeps you from having to look too hard at your own behaviors.

If you’ve absolutely got a lock on your dollars, good for you. But keep in mind that all across the country, otherwise intelligent and rational people are spending more than they earn.

Losing Sight of What Matters

Some debtors have little choice. For example, someone going through a serious health issue or a protracted divorce can’t just check out of the ICU early or stop paying for legal representation.

Others, like Kate and Tom, have simply lost sight of the big picture in favor of short-term gratification: sushi, private school, a big house in a nice neighborhood.

This skewed perspective happened in such a gradual, boiling-the-frog way that they didn’t notice they couldn’t really afford the lifestyle enjoyed by their wealthy neighbors and the parents of their children’s classmates.

They’ve postponed the day of reckoning thanks to the availability of credit, including taking out loans online vs. having to face a loan official at a local bank. “We ask them for it, and they give us money. It’s ridiculous,” Kate said.

All of these are terrible decisions. Terrible, human decisions. As a species, we’re superb at ignoring the things we don’t want to face.

What Kate and Tom Can Teach Us

Kate and Tom didn’t set out to ruin themselves financially. Their wedding vows didn’t include a promise to “spend ourselves to the brink of bankruptcy, racking up so much debt we can’t sleep at night or even think straight.” Yet that’s what happened.

They messed up big-time and they’re finally admitting it. Coming clean publicly (if anonymously) is a huge service to others, because financial trainwreck stories are a reminder to examine our own lives.

Debt can be like quicksand in that you don’t know you’re sinking until it’s really hard – or maybe impossible – to escape. Rather than make fun of the couple for their massive foul-ups, consider them an object lesson. Learn from their mistakes.

Specifically, be honest with yourself: Could you wind up making the same kinds of mistakes? Or are you making them already?

Mistake #1: Believing Debt Just Sort of Happens

Here’s how Tom described their situation: “I think education loans probably started us on this path. But credit cards got us in trouble.”

Notice the detachment: An external force got us going and then another external force did this to us. He doesn’t say, “We overspent on education – especially on the law degree that Kate doesn’t even use – and then we bought too many things on credit.”

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://www.thesimpledollar.com/what-a-financial-train-wreck-can-teach-us/

How Much Money Do You Need to Be Wealthy in America?

 How Much Money Do You Need to Be Wealthy in America?

By Suzanne Woolley   May 15, 2018

 A few million should do it. But for some, it’s not just about the cash—it’s what you do with it.

 Many Americans cite leading a stress-free life and having “peace of mind” as their personal definition of wealth. That doesn’t sound too money-centric on the face of it—until you consider that money, or specifically the lack of it, is a major source of stress.

 Americans don’t like to admit that assets can buy happiness—just 11 percent of those surveyed for the second annual Modern Wealth Index from Charles Schwab chose “having lots of money” as their definition of wealth.

​But while most respondents selected more high-minded concepts as their keys to contentment, they weren’t afraid to put a number on what they needed to get there.

 To be financially comfortable in America today requires an average of $1.4 million, up from $1.2 million a year ago, according to the survey. The net worth needed to be “wealthy”? That’s an average $2.4 million, the same as last year in the online survey of 1,000 Americans between age 21 and 75.

​There were some heartening signs amid the numbers. While 18 percent defined wealth as being able to afford anything they desired, 17 percent said it was “loving relationships with family and friends.”

That jibes with how Joe Duran, chief executive officer of money manager United Capital, said he likes to think of “wealth.” After building and selling his first company, “I realized that money is nothing more than fuel,” he said.

 “It is a resource that lets you have choices, but if you don’t think about what you are working for, you will die rich but not live rich.”

 The survey asked people to choose which of the below statements came closest to their personal definition of wealth. When asked about what made respondents feel “wealthy” in their daily lives, the survey found that spending time with family was most commonly cited, at 62 percent overall.

 That was followed by what can be the most elusive of things, cited at about the same level across generations: “taking time for myself,” which came in at 55 percent. Hard to do either of those without some bank, though.

Life’s little luxuries matter, too—but they are called “luxuries” for a reason. Having meals out or food delivered made 41 percent of people feel “wealthy” in their daily lives.

Even services such as Netflix, Spotify or Amazon Prime made life feel richer for an overall 33 percent—particularly for millennials, at 44 percent, compared with 29 percent and 23 percent for Generation X and baby boomers, respectively.

 Write-in comments for what made people feel “wealthy” included “access to healthcare,” “being able to help close friends and family financially” and “just waking up in the morning.” Only one of those doesn’t require money—sort of.​

Millennials displayed some youthful optimism when it came to their financial future. Some 64 percent of twenty- and thirty-somethings believe they’ll be wealthy (the cash kind) at some point in their lives, compared with 22 percent of boomers.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-15/how-much-money-do-you-need-to-be-wealthy-in-america

If Money Could Talk

If Money Could Talk

By Greg Habstritt 

 A Powerful Perspective You’ve Never Heard Before – "If Money Could Talk"

Most people think they know me.   They don’t.

I am not what most people think I am. I am not the paper in your wallet, or the coins that jingle in your purse. I am not quietly sitting in your bank account, hoping to be used one day.

You cannot see me, feel me or touch me. I am an idea. I am energy.

I’m neither good nor evil. I am only what you decide that I am, and I fulfill the role that you create for me.

I don’t care how smart you are, where you live, what you do, or where you come from.  All I care about is your energy.

Your energy decides what thoughts you have, and therefore your thoughts will determine the relationship you have with me.

I have very simple needs, and simple rules.  I am infinite.

I have no limits, except for those you place on me with your mind. There is no limit to the energy in the world, and because I am simply energy, I cannot be restricted or controlled.

I crave abundance.

I am attracted to those who think without restrictions, who like to think big. When you believe there is enough of me to go around, I am naturally magnetized by that thinking.

I despise scarcity.

Because there is no limit to me, I avoid those who think from a win/lose or scarcity perspective. Those who believe I am in short supply, or difficult to receive, will find that very reality, because I choose to avoid those who think small.

I love value.

What magnetizes me most is the creation of value in the universe. I move to places where value is created, because creation is energy. If you wish to attract me into your life, focus on creating value for others, and I will appear.

I avoid entitlement and complacency.

No one ‘deserves’ to have me, and I am always moving to the place I am most respected and where value is created. It has nothing to do with ‘fair’. Those who take me for granted or become complacent with my energy will find me gone.

I only have one job, and that is to serve you.

It is a matter of energy and value creation. My purpose is simply to move to where I am attracted most, and where I can grow.

My one goal is to replicate myself.

Because there is no limit to energy, my purpose is to reproduce and grow, in order to bring more energy to the universe. I am created and replicated through value creation. I am an energy of evolution.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

http://museologies.blogspot.com/2011/10/if-money-could-talk.html

The Buying Power of the U.S. Dollar Over the Last Century

The Buying Power of the U.S. Dollar Over the Last Century

The Money Project is an ongoing collaboration between Visual Capitalist and Texas Precious Metals that seeks to use intuitive visualizations to explore the origins, nature, and use of money.

The value of money is not static. In the short term, it may ebb and flow against other currencies on the market. In the long-term, a currency tends to lose buying power over time through inflation, and as more currency units are created.

Inflation is a result of too much money chasing too few goods – and it is often influenced by government policies, central banks, and other factors. In this short timeline of monetary history in the 20th century, we look at major events, the change in money supply, and the buying power of the U.S. dollar in each decade.

A Short Timeline of U.S. Monetary History

1900s

After the Panic of 1907, the National Monetary Commission is established to propose legislation to regulate banking.

U.S. Money Supply: $7 billion

What $1 Could Buy: A pair of patent leather shoes.

1910s

The Federal Reserve Act is signed in 1913 by President Woodrow Wilson.

U.S. Money Supply: $13 billion

What $1 Could Buy: A woman’s house dress.

1920s

U.S. dollar bills were reduced in size by 25%, and standardized in terms of design.

The Fed starts using open market operations as a tool for monetary policy.

U.S. Money Supply: $35 billion

What $1 Could Buy: Five pounds of sugar.

1930s

To deal with deflation during the Great Depression, the United States suspends the gold standard. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs Executive Order 6102, which criminalizes the possession of gold.

By no longer allowing gold to be legally redeemed, this removes a major constraint on the Fed, which can now control the money supply.

U.S. Money Supply: $46 billion

What $1 Could Buy: 16 cans of Campbell’s Soup

1940s

The massive deficits of World War II are almost financed entirely by the creation of new money by the Federal Reserve.

Interest rates are pegged low at the request of the Treasury.

Under Bretton-Woods, the “gold-exchange standard” is adopted.

U.S. Money Supply: $55 billion

What $1 Could Buy: 20 bottles of Coca-Cola

1950s

The Korean War starts in 1950, and inflation is at an annualized rate of 21%.

The Fed can no longer manage such low interest rates, and tells the Treasury that it can “no longer maintain the existing situation”.

U.S. Money Supply: $151 billion

What $1 Could Buy: One Mr. Potato Head

1960s

An agreement, called the Treasury-Federal Reserve Accord, is reached to establish the central bank’s independence.

By this time, U.S. dollars in circulation around the world exceeded U.S. gold reserves. Unless the situation was rectified, the country would be vulnerable to the currency equivalent of a “bank run”.

U.S. Money Supply: $211 billion

What $1 Could Buy: Two movie tickets.

1970s

In 1971, President Richard Nixon ends direct convertibility of the United States dollar to gold.

The period following the Nixon Shock is uncertain. The federal deficit doubles, stagflation hits, and the oil price skyrockets – all during the Vietnam War.

Over the decade, the dollar loses 1/3 of its value.

U.S. Money Supply: $401 billion

What $1 Could Buy: Three Morton TV dinners.

1980s

The stock market crashes in 1987 on Black Monday.

The Federal Reserve, under newly-appointed Alan Greenspan, issues the following statement:

“The Federal Reserve, consistent with its responsibilities as the nation’s central bank, affirmed today its readiness to serve as a source of liquidity to support the economic and financial system.”

The Dow would recover by 1989, with no prolonged recession occurring.

U.S. Money Supply: $1,560 billion

What $1 Could Buy: One bottle of Heinz Ketchup.

1990s

This decade is generally considered to be a time of declining inflation and the longest peacetime economic expansion in U.S. history.

During this decade, many improvements are made to U.S. paper currency to prevent counterfeiting. Microprinting, security thread, and other features are used.

U.S. Money Supply: $3,277 billion

What $1 Could Buy: One gallon of milk.

2000s

After the Dotcom crash, the Fed drops interest rates to near all-time lows.

In 2008, the Financial Crisis hits and the Fed begins “quantitative easing”. Later, this would be known as QE1.

U.S. Money Supply: $4,917 billion

What $1 Could Buy: One Wendy’s hamburger.

2010-

After QE1, the Fed holds $2.1 trillion of bank debt, mortgage-backed securities, and Treasury notes. Shortly after, QE2 starts.

In 2012, it’s time for QE3.

Purchases were halted in October 2014 after accumulating $4.5 trillion in assets.

U.S. Money Supply: $13,291 billion

What $1 Could Buy: One song from iTunes.

The Changing Value of a Dollar

At the turn of the 20th century, the money supply was just $7 billion. Today there are literally 1,900X more dollars in existence.

While economic growth has meant we all make many more dollars today, it is still phenomenal to think that during past moments in the 20th century, a dollar could buy a pair of leather shoes or a women’s house dress.

The buying power of a dollar has changed significantly over the last century, but it’s important to recognize that it could change even faster (up or down) under the right economic circumstances.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

 http://money.visualcapitalist.com/buying-power-us-dollar-century/

How Much Money Means You Don’t Have to Worry?

How Much Money Means You Don’t Have to Worry?

By Caragh Poh   Mar. 11, 2019

 Get That Money is an exploration of the many ways we think about our finances — what we earn, what we have, and what we want.

 When I was a kid, I somehow became aware that some people could allegedly make $100,000 a year — more than both my parents combined some years, and the closest answer my father would give to my nosy questions about his income.

He always told me to never look down on people who do honest work for little pay, but, concerned I would tell other people, he also refused to tell me how much he made.

The lesson I drew from this has been a very Catholic-influenced do not ever make anyone feel ashamed, but please remember to allow shame to infiltrate your life at all times.

We were not a $100,000 family. I did not come from $100,000 stock. And so, obviously, making $100,000 became my one true path to happiness and feeling quietly better than everyone else. I could own a bigger house, with newer toys, and I could buy clothes that weren’t on sale at Walmart.

 I could own every single Backstreet Boys and Brandy CD. CDs were so expensive! CDs were $19.99 each! I would never fight with people I love about money.

​I would never let the hot water get shut off. I would never stand silently by a cashier at the head of a long line as they counted off pennies two-by-two 75 times.

 Of course, we were not truly poor. We were immensely privileged compared to many, but my bubble was very small and the other people in it all had better stuff — they had American Dolls that looked like them, cable, pink Power Wheels.

 Their living rooms had too-nice furniture I never quite felt comfortable or clean enough to sit on. And somehow it all matched, like a Good Homes magazine, like the pieces were bought at the same time, together, on purpose, from the same collection. Utterly alien.

 But back then, I was ignorant enough to think we were poor, and I’m dumb enough now to sometimes forget where we stood compared to most.

How much is enough to keep two people happy?

 My parents took out a mortgage for a raised ranch in 1996. We had a washer and dryer that almost always worked. We had shelter, we had bicycles, we eventually got a computer, and a bit later even got that cable.

​My parents allowed me to stay at home for free while I went through college with loans somewhat offset by multiple jobs. I had my own bedroom.

 Most of our material items came to us used, but we still had them. We were more or less comfortable, firmly stationed in our place in the lower-middle class. A whole family of Bruce Springsteen songs, baby.

 It’s a place so many know well: You’re always in a hole, but you’re also always digging out of it, so it’s never really all that bad. A little struggle never really hurt anyone.

 A little struggle never really hurt anyone, but too much struggle can strangle anything.

 Even a 30-year relationship. My parents argued constantly about bills for the last 20 years of their relationship, maybe especially when the argument wasn’t about the bills.

I watched their marriage burn until it fizzled out into two adults who lived under the same roof and only communicated through their four kids.

 It couldn’t have only been about the ever-growing debts, but I imagine it would’ve been a lot easier without them. More vacations, more material rewards to ease hard weeks, more time off from work, better health care, less worry, less math, fewer overdrafts, fewer debt collectors. The things people forget about when they try to tell you money can’t buy happiness.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://www.thecut.com/2019/03/how-much-money-means-you-dont-have-to-worry.html

Gold Has Outperformed The Stock Market Over The Last Year

Gold Has Outperformed The Stock Market Over The Last Year

Notes From The Field By Simon Black

December 4, 2019   En route to Saint Lucia

For more than a year, I’ve been strongly encouraging readers to consider buying gold.

In fact, almost exactly one year ago to the day, I wrote that gold was cheap relative to just about every other asset class in the world.

Since then, gold has been one of the best performing investments in the world.

Over the last 12 months, the price of gold is up 21.1%, handily outperforming everything from the S&P 500 index in the US to stock markets in China, Europe, and Canada, plus bonds, real estate, and even major commodities like oil.

Gold has even outpaced the stock prices of many of the world’s most popular tech investments like Netflix, Tesla, Amazon, etc.

(One of the more interesting exceptions has been Bitcoin, which has more than doubled in value over the last 12 months. We’ll talk about that another time.)

But while gold’s investment performance has been great, I want to tell you today why that doesn’t matter one bit to me.

According to data published by the World Gold Council (WGC), in the last quarter alone, both retail investors and a number of large hedge funds have been piling into gold.

That’s certainly been one factor driving prices higher. But to be frank, that sort of demand is extremely fickle.

The WGC data show that most small investors are buying into gold ETFs (which as I’ve explained previously is probably the dumbest way to own gold.)

Gold ETF buyers are NOT long-term investors. They’ll most likely sell the minute gold prices start to fall.

Hedge fund managers won’t hesitate to sell either, especially if they need to boost their quarterly returns.

So, long-term, gold prices won’t be driven higher by fickle investor demand.

The real demand that’s worth watching comes from foreign governments and central banks-- institutions with such a heavy appetite that they buy gold by the metric ton.

In the third quarter of this year, Turkey bought 71 metric tons of gold. Serbia bought 9 metric tons of gold in the month of October alone.

Poland doubled its gold reserves last year. And China has been gobbling up not only gold, but gold miners too.

It’s critical to understand that foreign governments and central banks tend to be buyers of gold. They’re rarely sellers.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://www.sovereignman.com/trends/gold-has-outperformed-the-stock-market-over-the-last-year-26760/