.Five Freedoms

Jonathan Clements  |  January 25, 2020

FOR THREE YEARS, I lived on Roosevelt Island, in the middle of New York City’s East River. It’s a wonderful place—a quiet, friendly, low-crime oasis in the middle of one of the world’s largest, most frenetic cities.

During my time there, the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park opened on the island’s southern tip. The park is named after a 1941 FDR speech, where he articulated “four essential human freedoms”: freedom of speech, of worship, from fear and from want.

FDR’s speech was inspiring. Managing money is altogether more prosaic. Still, I’d argue that our pursuit of money is also about a hunger for freedom—with five dimensions:

.Investing Quotes That Will Make You Think About Money Differently

As you begin investing your money, sometimes you need some strong investing quotes to help continue to shape your mindset.

Sure, these quotes may mean nothing if you do not take action and practice what resonates with you.

But sometimes these quotes about investing money can spark the drive you need to make better financial decisions.

And besides that, these quotes can serve as healthy reminders as you become a top-notch investor yourself. Additionally, as a bonus, I added some investing stats at the end.       

.12 Financial Sins

John Lim    January 23, 2020

THE FINANCIAL markets are often quick to punish investment sins. By contrast, if we err with our borrowing, spending and other personal-finance issues, problems might not show up until years later—but the damage can be just as great. Here, to complement last week’s list of 12 deadly investment sins, are 12 deadly personal-finance sins:

1. Pride: Keeping up with the Jones by buying luxury cars and fancy clothes.

Antidote: Realize the folly of buying depreciating assets you don’t need, with money you don’t have, to impress people you don’t like.

2. Greed: Operating with a “never enough” money mentality. A reporter asked billionaire John D. Rockefeller, “How much money is enough?” His response: “Just a little bit more.”

Antidote: Generosity. Giving away money will loosen its emotional grip on you—and make you happier as well.

.Magnitude Matters

Rand Spero    January 16, 2020

WHY DON’T WE spend our time and energy on financial issues that have the greatest impact? We’ll drive to a more distant gas station to save 10 cents a gallon, but fail to do all the maintenance needed to extend the life of our car. What lies behind this sort of behavior?

The savings from getting the best price per gallon is concrete and immediate, while maintaining our car is long term and abstract. It’s simply easier to focus on the 10 cents.

I have a relative who stayed at a $500-a-night luxury hotel in downtown Boston. He emailed me to bring him water when I visited, because the hotel charges $5 per bottle.

.Why I Buy Everything on Credit Cards

The Almighty Credit Card

Credit cards are a supremely convenient and secure way to carry money and make purchases and payments.  With credit cards, you never have to worry about losing money – even by theft.   In addition, credit cards offer many attractive benefits. 

In addition to the reward programs such as cash back and frequent flier miles, most credit card purchases also come with extended warranties, insurance, and transaction history.  Plus, the ability to cancel a transaction gives you power over the vendor in a customer satisfaction dispute.  For all of these reasons and more, I make nearly all of my purchases and payments on my credit card.

.Money – We Need To Talk About It

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.

.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?