.A Single Investment Can Produce A Lifetime Of Income

A Single Investment Can Produce A Lifetime Of Income

Notes From The Field By Simon Black  January 23, 2020 

An eight-minute recording can produce a lifetime of income…

That’s the story of musician Don McLean.

Fifty years ago, McLean was just an obscure American folk singer. But in 1971 at a café in Saratoga Springs, New York, he wrote a song that would change his life forever.

The song was a long ballad about an experience he had as a 13-year old boy, in 1959. It began with a radio bulletin that said that 1950s rock and roll pioneer Buddy Holly had died in a plane crash. McLean was crushed. And a dozen years later, he harnessed this memory and took the world by storm with his song.

If you haven’t guessed by now, McLean’s song was “American Pie.”

“American Pie” stayed atop the Billboard music charts for more than a year. And the song turned this once obscure folk singer into a global sensation.

More than that – McLean was immediately set for life. I’ve been told by people in the industry that he still earns several hundred thousand dollars each year from that one song.

Imagine still being handsomely paid for something you did nearly half a century ago.

This story holds the key to one of the greatest business models ever invented: the idea that you can create something once and be paid on it for life.

I’m talking about the royalty business.

A royalty is a cash payment that you receive over and over again from an asset that you created, developed, or own.

Every time a song is played in public, purchased, downloaded, streamed, or used in a television commercial, the performers, producers, investors, and songwriters collect a royalty.

Fortunately, you don’t need to have any musical talent to generate royalty income.

It’s actually possible to buy other people’s royalties and receive their income.

I’ve done it myself; not long ago the bank that I own acquired partial rights to a popular song, entitling my bank to royalty income from downloads, streams, etc.

The investment was $225,000. But within roughly the first year it earned a total of $29,851.41. That’s a yield of around 13%.

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

https://www.sovereignman.com/blog/

To your freedom & prosperity, Simon Black, Founder, SovereignMan.com

.Money – We Need To Talk About It

Money – We Need To Talk About It

December 4, 2019 By Machinist

Let’s Talk About Money

There are few things that people avoid talking about more than money, yet we probably spend most of our time in pursuit of money.  We could all benefit from a better understanding of it, but sadly, we are mostly left to find our own way with money. We rarely even have the chance to learn from other’s experience, so we are bound to repeat the same mistakes.

I get it; there are some good reasons not to talk about money.  We think that letting people know how much money we have or how much we earn will complicate our relationships and interactions. 

Strangely, even though we don’t want people to know our financial situation, most people spend a lot of time and effort trying to appear as though they have more money than they actually do.  I’m not sure how this deception makes interactions any more comfortable.  Maybe people inflate their perceived financial status in an effort to avoid having to interact with people of their own income level.

Silence On Money Causes Problems

Because people are so unfamiliar with money topics, just living normal lives inevitably leads them into financial conflict which they are unprepared to resolve.  The inability to identify and avoid financial snares and navigate out of mistakes causes crisis situations for many individuals and for society in general.  For example:

The Student Loan Crisis

Most kids receive almost no instruction about money at school or home.  They enter college with a poor understanding of its costs.  They are ignorant of the burden a student loan will be – possibly delaying the major milestones of adult life for decades.  Most kids choose their college based on factors of prestige or fun but may not consider which institution will provide the best value for their money or the best employment opportunities upon graduation.  

Most entering freshman have not chosen a major, so they spend valuable time and money “exploring their options” before buckling down.  They often realize that their initial school choice was a poor one, so they decide to transfer.

 All of this leads to more years spent in college and greater expenses.  In addition, many kids aren’t even aware of options other than college.  For all of these reasons and more our educational system is failing students and the student loan situation has reached crisis level.

Money and Divorce

Because most people participate so rarely in discussions about money during their youth, they don’t develop the skills to talk about money – let alone use it effectively.  It should come as no surprise then, that when people join their finances with a partner, they struggle to communicate about money differences.  Is it any wonder that money is a leading cause of divorce?

The Retirement Crisis

It used to be that people were forced by reality to plan for how they would support themselves in old age or in case of disability.  They may have built a farm or business, acquired rental property, or just had plenty of kids. 

These long-term planning skills were lost after a generation or two where everyone had an employer-provided pension and government-provided social safety net.  Now that employer-provided pensions have mostly disappeared, we have a crisis of under-prepared retirees and unsustainable social security system.

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

https://perpetualmoneymachine.org/money-we-need-to-talk/

.Good Enough Is Pretty Great

Good Enough Is Pretty Great

January 8, 2020 By Machinist

Have you ever noticed how much contradiction and disagreement there is in the advice being offered about personal finances?  Suze Orman claims that buying coffee is like flushing a fortune down the toilet.  Others assure us that we can tolerate a vice or two and still be responsible personal financiers. 

Some people are convinced that owning a home is a waste of investable capital, while others are convinced that real estate, with its easy leverage is the best, most reliable passive income stream.

 Still others make the choice to pay off their mortgages early.  Some people wouldn’t stoop to driving someone else’s hand-me-down car, while others will gladly accept years of additional retirement as a trade for doing just that.  Which advice is best? More importantly, which is good enough?

The reason for this disagreement is simple.  People are unique and so are their finances.  We all operate within the same economic system, so there are universal principles that apply to everyone, but beyond these foundational principles, we all get to decide how to make the most of our limited resources. 

You can choose to buy your coffee, a big home, and a new car.  Maybe you have the resources to support the purchase of all of these things, all at the same time.  Perhaps you can even afford private school, and a fancy yacht, but at some point, you will reach the limits of your available resources and will have to start making choices.

The Point at Which You Start Making Choices Is the Determinant of Wealth and Happiness in Life

And that’s the secret to economic success.  Life operates within a framework of limited resources.  Whether you are Jeff Bezos or Joe Schmo, your resources are limited.  This is not a flaw in the universe.  It is a key feature of life in the universe.  And, as with nearly everything, understanding the rules and features of the system makes it easier to use the system to our advantage. 

When we understand that we will never be able buy everything the world has to offer, we can get to work on what really matters – optimizing the benefit we can get from the resources we have.  The key is to deliberately choose what we value most before we have exhausted our resources.

Life Is Short, But It’s Also Rich

I want to get all the joy and adventure I can get out Life.  I don’t want to give up the things that make life great in order to have more money when I am old.  I want a great life now, AND when I am old. 

Fortunately, we live in a time of plenty.  Most of us have the resources to live longer, healthier, more comfortable lives than even the nobility of not so long ago.  We also have much greater ability to travel and experience all that the world has to offer.  In addition, we can accomplish more in a given time period than at any time in the history of the world.

This is all to say that although our resources are limited, they are, nonetheless, enormous.  Our challenge is not the procurement of scarce resources, but rather the efficient use of plentiful resources.

It’s All About Choices

Every day we make many choices in the allocation of our resources.  Some choices like food and shelter are driven by need.  Some choices like entertainment are driven by desire.  Other choices are made for us, for example, when we fail to make our own choices within the established time limit.

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

https://perpetualmoneymachine.org/good-enough/

.“Now We See The Violence Inherent In The System”

“Now We See The Violence Inherent In The System”

Notes From The Field By Simon Black  1-22-2020  Bahia Beach, Puerto Rico

Apparently Bill Gates has sat on his * and contributed nothing to Microsoft’s success over the past 44 years… at least, according to Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

At an event commemorating Martin Luther King on Monday, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez told the audience that wealthy people “sat on a couch” while “undocumented workers” earning “slave wages” created all the wealth and value.

“No one ever makes a billion dollars,” she said. “You take a billion dollars.” And the crowd went wild.

She went on, chuckling that “there is a case” that “billionaires are inherently, morally corrupt,” and that “if Jeff Bezos wants to be a good person he’d turn Amazon into a worker cooperative. . .”

And this is the solution that AOC is posing; she wants to completely upend the system and turn the country into a Marxist collective.

It’s worth noting that AOC is not stupid. Conservative media likes to beat up on her and make her out to be an idiot. She’s not.

AOC is clearly an intelligent person, and some of what she says is true. One of her central themes, in fact, is that a lot of people are getting screwed by the system. And it’s hard to argue with that.

The primary danger, as is the case with most politicians, is that AOC doesn’t seem to have a grasp of the problem.

Why are people getting screwed by the system? Why is healthcare so expensive? Why is education so expensive? Why haven’t many workers’ wages kept up with inflation?

She makes no attempt to understand the root cause of these issues, and that’s extremely counterproductive. No one can solve a problem which they haven’t properly defined.

Instead, AOC simply blames wealthy people for all the ills of the world-- the wealth gap, environmental issues, social injustice, etc.

And her solution for everything is to confiscate their property.

Not to be outdone, two separate sets of video recordings have recently been leaked by Project Veritas in which Bernie Sanders campaign staffers call for violent revolution and for wealthy people to be incarcerated in forced labor camps.

One of them even said, “Guillotine the rich!”

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

https://www.sovereignman.com/trends/now-we-see-the-violence-inherent-in-the-system-27089/

.The Biggest Scam In History of Mankind

The Biggest Scam In History of Mankind

The Final Wake Up Call By Peter B Meyer

 The Destruction of Modern Society

The Insanity of Negative Interest Rates

New Socialism

Valuable Reserves Are The Foundation of Any Stable Currency 

 Hidden Secrets of Money

Who owns the Federal reserve? You are about to learn one of the biggest secrets in the history of the world, it’s a secret that has huge effects for everyone who lives on this planet. Most people can feel deep down that something isn’t quite right with the world economy, but few know what it is.

Gone are the days where a family can survive on just one pay check, every day it seems that things are more and more out of control, yet only one in a million understands why. You are about to discover the system that is ultimately responsible for most of the economic problems and inequality in our society today.

The Deep State doesn’t want you to know about this, as this system is what has kept them at the top of the financial food-chain for at least the last 110 years. Learning this will change your life because it will change the choices that you make.

If enough people learn it, it will change the world, because it will change the system. For this is the biggest Hidden Secret of Money. Never in human history have so many been plundered by so few, and it’s all accomplished through this; the biggest scam in the history of mankind.

The Destruction Of Modern Society

The basic idea is that Central Banks will keep interest rates lower than anyone can imagine, for longer than anyone can imagine; and that will cause asset prices to soar. That includes stocks, as well as real estate and precious metals. However, to camouflage the devaluing progress of specifically the US dollar as the reserve currency, but also all other paper currencies.

The price of precious metals is artificially manipulated downwards, whatever the demand might be. And this is the reason that after the high of 2011, gold never has reached or surpassed that level again, it should have been shot-up to US$ 50.000 per ounce under today’s circumstances.

Even worse, they inflict an enormous credit inflation, as result of the growths in the money supply. Whereby, price increases are delayed and uneven, due to the Cantillon Effect, as early receivers of the new money are able to purchase goods and services at existing prices.

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

 http://finalwakeupcall.info/en/2020/01/22/the-biggest-scam-in-history-of-mankind/

.The Investment That Destroyed the SP 500

The Investment That Destroyed the S&P 500

Notes From The Field By Simon Black  January 21, 2020  Bahia Beach, Puerto Rico

You’ll be surprised to see what investment has destroyed the S&P 500

The year was 1990, and the Soviet Union was on the verge of collapse. The Berlin Wall was still in the process of being destroyed, and East and West Germany were set to reunify later in the year.

Nelson Mandela was released from prison in February, and the South African government began talks to end Apartheid soon after.

Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in August.

Ghost, Home Alone, and Pretty Woman were the top movies of the year. Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation was the top-selling album.

And the S&P 500 reached an all-time high of 360.65 in May.

It’s hard to even imagine that number anymore; the S&P 500 just closed last week at an all-time high of 3316, more than nine times higher than its peak in 1990.

And that’s impressive growth, no doubt. Investors who have had the discipline to buy and hold over the past three decades have been rewarded.

This is, of course, the most common investment advice doled out by money experts and best-selling financial authors. They tell people to invest in an S&P 500 index fund, and to basically keep it there for decades.

The experts insist there will always be strong years and weak years, but the overall long-term track record is pretty good.

And this is true to a degree. But let’s go back 20 years to early 2000, when the S&P 500 was at roughly 1500.

If you had bought then and held until now, that works out to be an average annual return of just 4%.

4% is better than zero… but it’s hardly anything to write home about.

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

https://www.sovereignman.com/international-diversification-strategies/youll-be-surprised-to-see-what-investment-has-destroyed-the-sp-500-27079/

.How To Never Worry About Money Again

How To Never Worry About Money Again

The No-Sweat Way to Protect Yourself From Financial Disaster

By laura goldstein 

Building a bigger rainy-day fund may feel daunting. Start by breaking it down into manageable chunks.

That nagging feeling that a bit of bad luck—a medical emergency or a layoff—could derail your finances is widely shared. A new survey from the American Psychological Association found that 54% of people rated paying for unexpected expenses a very or somewhat significant source of stress.

And people across the income spectrum tend to be underprepared. A Pew Charitable Trusts analysis finds middle-income households typically have the equivalent of 20 days of income to tap, and even high earners have just 52 days. Building a bigger rainy-day fund may feel like a daunting task, given all your expenses and savings goals, but you can start by breaking it down into manageable chunks.

Do It One Essential Expense at a Time

Aim to cover three months of one regular bill, like your mortgage, suggests RBC Wealth Management financial adviser Darla Kashian. Then move on to three months of utilities, then car payments, and so on.

This approach gives you the satisfaction of crossing one more potential problem off your list. Once you’ve hit three months of all essentials, make your new goal doubling your account to get to six months.

Why so long? “When things get rough, your emergency fund enables you to make good choices, where you don’t have to rush into a job you don’t want or dip into a credit card,” says Certified Financial Planner Board consumer advocate Eleanor Blayney.

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

http://money.com/money/collection-post/3938823/save-money-emergency-fund/

.Unexpected Habits Of A Frugal Millionaire

Unexpected Habits Of A Frugal Millionaire

April 8, 2019 jeff@debtfreedr.com 

When you hear about someone being a millionaire, you typically don’t picture them as being frugal. The phrase, “Frugal millionaire” is not something that typically goes together such as a peanut butter and jelly sandwich does.

But, if you’ve read books such as “The Millionaire Next Door” and Chris Hogan’s new book, “Everyday Millionaires,” you’d have a different outlook on how millionaires actually live.

Occasionally, when someone hears that a person is frugal, they automatically think that they’re cheap. Being frugal and cheap are two different things.

So, before we discuss the habits of a frugal millionaire, let’s look at the difference of being frugal versus cheap.

What Is Frugal Living?

Frugal living is simply being intentional with your money. It’s mainly practiced by those who aim to:

cut expenses

have more money

get the most they possibly can from their money

Frugal people understand that paying more doesn’t necessarily mean better value. Again, just because someone is frugal, doesn’t mean they’re cheap.

Are Frugal People Cheap?

I know cheap people and I can tell you firsthand that they’re NOT fun to be around. Cheap people think that EVERYTHING is overpriced.

The bottom line is that these are people who don’t like to spend money. They complain to everybody about how much stuff costs.

Unfortunately, many cheap people I know also lack honesty and moral principles.

The reason I wanted to differentiate between being frugal and cheap is that the majority of research on millionaires concludes that they’re frugal. They put people above money and are known to give to worthy causes.

If you’re not yet a millionaire (keep reading the DFD posts and you’ll soon be one!) and want to know just how many exist out there, let’s move on to some stats…

Millionaire Statistics

Here’s a few millionaire stats you may not know about from millionairefoundry.com:

There are 42.2 million millionaires worldwide, up 2.3 million over the last 12 months.

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

https://www.debtfreedr.com/frugal-millionaire-2/

.The Ten Commandments Of Personal Finance

The Ten Commandments Of Personal Finance

From The Retirement Manifesto

By  fritz@theretirementmanifesto.com

Is it possible that there are some basic principles upon which your personal finance journey should be built?  It turns out there are. I’ll warn you in advance – you may not like some of them. 

Just as THE Ten Commandments guide us away from our personal nature which is sometimes tempted to do things which seem fun at the time, but lead to long term harm, these “Personal Finance Commandments” can guide you away from doing things which will bring harm to your long term financial goals.

In full transparency, I didn’t come up with the original list.  That honor goes to this article from MoneyStepper, which I just read tonight.  I liked the concept and the guidelines presented so much,  I’ve decided to build on the original article with original thoughts of my own, including the “10 Commandments” title.

 In my quest to “Help People Achieve A Great Retirement”, I think there’s a lot of room to share some of the best concepts I come across in my heavy reading on personal finance topics.  This one’s a good one, and worth my effort to build upon the concept.

Strive to achieve as many of these commandments as you can, and you’ll be well on your way toward financial independence.  Break them, and suffer the consequences.

 The 10 Commandments Of Personal Finance

I.  Keep Your Housing Costs Under 25% of Your Net Income

Personally, I like these “rule of thumb” guidelines to help you decide how much of something you can afford.  When you’re shopping with a realtor, or talking to a banker, they often attempt to “stretch” you to a ratio that’s higher than you should really undertake.  So, look at your last paycheck. 

How much went into your bank account?  If you rent, your rent should be less than 25% of your monthly NET pay (after taxes).  Ditto on your mortgage payment.  If you’re spending more than the 25% “commandment”, consider downsizing, or seek out a job with higher pay.

II.  Keep Your Mortgage Under 2.5 Times Your Annual Salary

Interesting that the first two “Commandments” focus on housing costs.  Appropriate, given the cost of the roof over your head is the highest expense you’ll incur in your personal finance journey.  Manage it carefully, and don’t buy “too much” home.  If you’re making $50,000/year, your home should be worth $125k or less.

III.  Don’t Buy A New Car Unless You’re A Millionaire

I LOVE this one.  Bottom line:  buying a new car is stupid (yes, I said Stupid!).  It depreciates immediately, and it’s expensive. It’s one of the worst personal finance decisions you can make. Don’t “Buy New”! 

After a few months, it’s “just a car”.  Within a few years, if you’re like most people, you’re “itching” for another one.  AVOID the materialism – focus on the function.  My wife and I have bought used cars for years, and paid cash for all but our first one. 

We bought her last car new (a 2012 Hyundai Sonata for $25k), but I’ve told her she can’t sell it until it has over 200,000 miles on it.  Oh the fun we have on this topic.  Yes, this one is a HOT button for me. 

Don’t let Madison Avenue talk you into a mistake. Here’s a challenge for you, which I’ve accomplished with several of my cars:

“$1,000 PER YEAR”

Depreciation, that is.  Make it a personal goal.  Think on it.  If you buy a $20,000 car and sell it in 3 years, you’d have to sell it for $17,000 to achieve this goal. 

It can be done, I’ve done it twice (most recently with my 2002 Miata, which I bought for $12,000, and sold it 6 years later for $7,000).  It’s really, really hard, but it helps you keep your car expense where it should be – MINIMIZED!

IV.  Maintain A Savings Rate of 20% or More

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

http://www.theretirementmanifesto.com/the-ten-commandments-of-personal-finance/

.Money Lessons You Must Teach Your Children and Grandchildren

Money Lessons You Must Teach Your Children and Grandchildren

Kentin Waits

If you know and love a young person, pass on these life-changing lessons that can put anyone on the road to prosperity.

Money Lessons You Must Teach Your Children and Grandchildren

Around the nation, young people are graduating from high school and college and preparing to take charge of their financial lives.

If you listen closely, you can hear wallets groaning from coast to coast.

This is not another rant against millennials and other whippersnappers. Americans of all ages are hopelessly behind the curve when it comes to handling their money responsibly. Unless they have astute parents — or a natural interest in personal finance — young people are at a high risk of making financial mistakes that lead to chronic debt.

Money Talks News is all about providing the financial education lacking in too many schools and families. So, pass on the following 8 lessons to a young person in your life — or read these tips yourself if you’re fortunate enough to be a young adult just starting out on your own.

1. Debt is a form of slavery

In the first quarter of 2018, household debt reached a record $13.21 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Household debt is now 18 percent higher than it was in the second quarter of 2013.

Imagine how all that debt might impact the life of the average debtor. What will happen if there is a job loss or an illness that health insurance does not cover? How much stress would you feel in that situation?

Debt, especially unsecured consumer debt, is a form of slavery. The debtor is beholden to the creditor because each day that the debt remains unpaid, interest charges pile up. Over time, it’s easy to see how the unchecked use of credit can erode wealth and foreclose opportunities.

If you already have fallen into debt, it’s not too late to climb out. Check out “Resolutions 2018: Crush Your Debt in 3 Simple Steps.”

2. Financially successful people live below their means

Financial success is usually the result of years of self-control, and a big part of that discipline involves living within or below your means. If every dollar that comes into your life has to go out, there’s little hope for getting ahead.

Work to keep your overhead lower than your income, pocket the difference and don’t let every bump in income mean a boost in lifestyle.

3. Pay yourself first

Learning to pay yourself first is an important part of financial security. Direct a healthy portion of your income into an IRA, a 401(k) plan or a savings account before your paycheck even hits your account. Otherwise, you’ll have to constantly fight the temptation to spend every dollar.

When you automate your savings and make that an unwavering part of your routine, it puts the twin forces of time and compounding interest on your side.

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

https://www.moneytalksnews.com/10-things-every-high-school-graduate-should-know-about-money/#at_pco=cfd-1.0

.10 Types of Friends Who Are Costing You Money

10 Types of Friends Who Are Costing You Money

By Tim Lemke

Our friends are some of the most important people in our lives. But have you ever considered the impact they have on your finances?

Some friends can suck money from your wallet, even if they don't intend to. And because they're your friends, you may not even notice.

Consider whether yours fall into any of these categories of friends that cost you money.

1. The Leech

He's more than just cheap. He's a moocher. He's always asking to borrow money. He raids your fridge, and if you go out to eat, he always insists on paying just half the check — even if he ordered more.

He wants you to spot him his share of the monthly rent and promises to pay you back — but you know he won't. He'll even "borrow" books and DVDs that you'll never see again. You need to draw a hard line on what you'll do for this friend. Otherwise, you'll both end up suffering financially.

2. The Big Spender

If you go to a baseball game together, they insist on getting tickets behind home plate instead of in the bleachers. When you suggest a weekend of camping, they push for a week of skiing in Aspen. Perhaps this friend is wealthy and has a good chunk of disposable income.

Or, perhaps they just love to spend and hate to save. Either way, keeping up with their lifestyle is making you go broke. You like this friend because you enjoy his or her company, but you must politely find a way to spend time with them on more frugal terms.

3. The Bad Association

He's always getting in trouble, and you're often dragged in his wake. He's the guy who shows up with weed at parties, or gets into fights at clubs. You can try your best to be on the straight and narrow, but just being around him can put you at risk for legal trouble.

And even if your criminal record stays clean, your social media profile might not. Think you're due for a raise at work? You better hope the boss doesn't see the drunken Instagram pic your friend tagged you in.

4. The Awful Entrepreneur

She always has a new idea for something that will change the world, and all she needs is some money to get it off the ground. Maybe it's a new mobile app to help you brush your teeth, or a new restaurant specializing in gourmet scrambled eggs.

You admire her entrepreneurial spirit, but the truth is that she has neither the business sense nor the dedication to get rich from any of these schemes. It may be tempting to lend money to friends for their business ventures, but don't let your friendship skew your assessment of whether the investment makes good financial sense.

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

http://www.wisebread.com/10-types-of-friends-who-are-costing-you-money?ref=seealso