.Treat Your Life Like a Business

May 10, 2020 By MonkWealth Career, Finance, Personal Finance, Philosophy

Some people got lucky and made millions. Some people were disciplined and got rich slowly.

However, adopting certain principles can make us eliminate the factor of luck in business and in life. Maybe not completely but enough to feel sufficient control over our project.

In this post I want to point out a few non-exclusive factors that may significantly improve our lives.

The idea is in the title: Treating our lives as a business. And if we’d do a good job in achieving what’s considered success in life, applying the same principles in a corporate environment would be a joke. Winning at life is much more rare than career success.

Don’t overspend It always starts here. Know your budget. Allocate it properly. Don’t borrow without a plan. Have a fund that can cover your expenses for a few months.

.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.

How To Get Rich

February 13, 2020 By Machinist

Most people want to be rich. A smaller portion of those actually want to get rich. If you are one of the enlightened few who are willing to actually do the work of getting rich, then you are in luck, because this article contains pretty much everything you need to know about money and how to accumulate a great big pile of it.

There are really only three ways to get rich, but one of those is dumb luck, and you either have it or you don’t. That leaves only two ways to get rich that you have any control over. You can work for your money or you can put your money to work for you.

Actually, you are going to have to work either way. So, it would be more accurate to say that you can work for you money or you can work for your money AND let your money work for you. Whether or not you choose to participate in that second part will largely determine how long you’ll have to work.

Let’s start by talking about money.

.The Curse of a High Income

February 20, 2020 By Machinist

The Income Curse

Regardless of income level, the vast majority of people spend very nearly everything they earn, if not more. Most people know that living paycheck-to-paycheck is a problem. What they may not realize is that the higher their income, the bigger this problem actually is. Common sense tells us that more income is always better, but that’s not always true. If you have a high income and are spending it all, then you might be in serious trouble with limited options.

Consider the following scenario and think about who is financially more secure? Who is wealthier?

Introducing Bob and Bill

Bob earns a salary of $50k per year. He owns his 10-year-old Toyota Camry outright, makes the mortgage payment on his comfortable home, and is still able to save $5k each year in his 401(k) account.

Bill earns $250k per year and leases a new Land Rover every two years. He lives in a very nice house with a pool and a beautifully landscaped yard. Bill is also saving $5k per year toward retirement.

.The Market is Falling. What Should I Do?

March 10, 2020 By Machinist

In a Free-Fall

Falling markets are a normal and expected part of investing. The proper reaction to an ugly period in the market is to hold. In fact, the only logical response to a discounted market is an increased motivation to buy more. Selling may seem right emotionally, but it’s absolutely illogical and wrong.

Explanation

Timing the market is a fool’s errand. Timing only works if you know where the market is going. You can’t know where the market will be tomorrow or next month. But luckily, we can say almost with certainty that the market will be higher ten years from now.

Markets will recover, but you will only benefit if you are invested when they do. You are not investing for next week. You are investing for decades, so you’ll realize your best odds of success when you buy and hold for decades.

Investing involves risk. That means that the value of your stocks can and will drop from time to time. You should expect to lose several percent twice a year or even more.