Author Archives: Money Reasons

About Money Reasons

A offbeat personal finance blogger that comes from the tech world.

How Money Can Improve Your Life and Make You Happier

by

There are some studies out there that claim that earning more than $75,000 a year can’t make you more happy in your day-to-day life.  If you want to read an article that claims such a reality, check out this article at Businessweek: After $75,000, Money Can’t Buy Day-to-Day Happiness.  The article is based on of a Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, which surveyed 450,000 Americans in 2008 and 2009 about their household income, and emotional state during the prior day and overall feelings about their life and well-being.

So it got me thinking, how could making over $100,000 improve my day-to-day life and potentially introduce more happiness in my life.  let’s say that I made $150,000 in discretionary income per year (this amount is after all taxes have been taken out).

Having Money

Here is how such an income increase could improve my happiness levels

Each year use the $150,000 to establish a dividend stream for money to use to increase my lifestyle.  Ideally, I would purchase various dividend stocks that would provide around a 5% return.  This “dividend stream” money would be the basis for making the improvements in my life and in the process making me happier.

So after $100,000 invested for one year, the following next year I would have around $5,000 to increase my lifestyle spending or make me happier.  Then the following years I would continue to increase my money amount to use for life improvements and my happiness by $5,000 each year.  So after 5 years, I would have $20,000, after 10 years I would have $45,000* to spend to make my life better.

After saving for two (and maybe three) years I would have the finances to have at least one incredible overseas vacation annually.  While this doesn’t directly improve my happiness level, just thinking about having such an option makes me happy right now!

After establishing this “Happiness Increasing” dividend stream, I would do the following:

  • Hire a housekeeping service to clean our house a few times a month (perhaps weekly).
  • Join some athletic club or at least get a gym membership.
  • Joining or creating a community improving group to help with city concerns and improve the lives of all the citizens.
  • Become a “Life Changer“.  By this I mean identify either a family or individual that is incredible in every aspect except with money.  Then help without them realizing it.  This would be accomplished by creating a business and hiring them or something similar that would help them out in a small way.  Granted, it wouldn’t be much help financially, but any help helps (lol).  And who knows, perhaps the business that you’ve created for the individuals could help by being profitable.  Eventually, after 5 or 10 years, switch control the individual and become a minor partner or something similar where you wouldn’t be as involved.  Then you could focus your energies on someone else that needs help.
  • Become creative, if not in the traditional drawing, sculpting ways, then perhaps using technology.
  • Go out-to-lunch more and become a regular at such places.  Warren Buffett does this in his hometown and he seems to enjoy doing so.

I’m just scratching the surface, here, but the basic idea is that if you can’t increase your happiness level with more money, you are not trying to do so.  Money is a tool, and as such, it can help you build happiness if you use it intelligently.

What ways can you think of to create happiness with money, please comment below any ideas that you can think of?

Cheers,

MR

*the first year is considered the seed year, so it doesn’t count in my dividend stream, so because of the seed year, after 5 years I only have $20,000 but after 10 years I have $45,000 instead of $40,000 (the 5 year amount doubled).

Do You Think You Are A Victim Of The Wealthy?

by

What if I told you the people who are complaining about the wealthy are the same people keeping your from becoming wealthy yourself?

I think there is misinformation floating around that casts the wealthy as if they were all evil like the old evil stepmother depiction that was oh so popular in the Disney movie classics (I wonder what they had against stepmothers?  Perhaps childhood issues, or an easy target?).

Now just in the little that I wrote so far I’m sure some readers put their hands over their ears, closed their eyes and started chanting “I’m not listening, la la la”.  If you have made it this far read each of the points below with an open mind.

Pink Dolphin

  • 8 out of 10 people who are rich today came from a middle class or lower background.  This means that 80% of those that are rich are just like you and me!  Look around and in the mirror, practically everybody you see, including yourself, can or may already be rich.  Don’t believe the crazy people they have on “The Real Desperate Housewives” as representing the rich.  As much as they say it’s real, it not really representative of the rich.  Those TV shows are about as representative of the rich as a pink dolphin is representing the average dolphins.
  • There are both good and bad people who are rich.  Bad is a relative term, perhaps good and (aggressive, mean or selfish) people who are rich is a better way of describing them.
  • There isn’t some magic that happens to these people who come from the middle class that makes them more prone to be successful other than drive, belief that they can do it, and the willingness to try.
  • Most rich people (at least the ones that I know) give money away to causes that improves everybody’s lives, whether they realize it or not.  Parks, recreations centers, the Arts (yes, liberals that protest the rich benefit greatly from people being rich… surprise), medicine, hospitals, and quite literally the list goes on and on.
  • Big media like to portray the rich as bad guys (which is ironic since they themselves are super rich), but if you read blog sites and their interviews with the rich, you’ll see that they aren’t really the way big media like to present them.  Big media just want you to watch their shows because it makes them money.  I wonder if they think we are all slow?  Just remember when you listen to one of those shows trashing the rich, that the people pulling the strings are richer than you or I can imagine.  A bit hypocritical huh…

The wealthy are the ones that bought apple products, enabling the android devices to take off and become popular at a much lower price.  If it weren’t for the wealthy buying both calculators and computers of yesteryear, computer still might be giant behemoths of past, or so expensive that they never become mass-produced and exist only in the government world.  I don’t  know about you, but my computers and electronic devices has made a huge impact on my life, and might be a way for me to someday advance to the wealth level of the rich, even on a middle class income.

Think you are still a victim? The try the following:

  • Grow your own food
  • Stop buying products that the rich provide
  • Start bartering more
  • Make your own clothes
  • Start a side business on the cheap
  • Think and exist outside of the box
  • Experiment
  • Become more socially active and make new friends
  • Live life well…

The thing is you are a victim only because you let people tell you that you are.  You are only limited by your desire to be wealthy and your determination to get there.

I’ve been asleep for years, not really believing or even trying to become wealthy.  Now I’m awake and trying things.  I think life will slip by too quickly if you let it.

If you don’t play the game, how do you expect to win?

MR

Working Two Jobs At Once – Making Twice As Much

by

I’ve just found out that one of my friends that I used to work with until recently made over $250,000 last year by working two jobs at once in the technology services area.

In 2010, since the economy appeared to be on the recovery path, he decided to quit working for the company that I currently work for and to start technology consulting as a contractor.  He’s contracting through a large company, but he also has his own business and also does some technology work through his own initiatives.  Last year an interesting thing happened to him!  There was a six-month stint where he was working two jobs at the same time, with nobody being the wiser and everybody coming away from the situation happy.  In fact, he’s still working at the primary company that hired him as a contractor.

Superman's Cape

Opportunity To Work Two Jobs

Through a contracting firm, he was able to land a six-figure job that was to last at least one full year.  He worked this job for a few months remotely, gained expertise with it and understood and performed it well.  Then a few months later, much to his surprise, one of his former clients recommended him to another company that needed work done in the area that he specializes in.  Normally, most employees would say, “Oh, thanks, but I already have a job“, and accept the single paycheck provided by the company that they are currently working for.  Instead of letting such great opportunities slip by (perhaps he read my article: Making More Money By Working Two Jobs At The Same Time), my buddy had different plans! 

He knew that the term of this new opportunity was only a six-month-long project and although related to the area his expertise was in, was really more of a software engineering task.  As an engineer of a project, you create and know intimately the design and functionality of the system you design better than anyone else.  Since he was the architect, he realized there is a great chance that when the hiring company would want modifications or enhancements done, they will do so directly through him since he’s the expert.

My buddy was able to get paid almost the same amount that he would receive working for the primary company that he was working for but in six months instead of a full year.  Not to mention additional work that the company that he designed the system for, might want to be done in the future.

So how was he able to accomplish this feat, by working two jobs at once!

How To Work Two Jobs at Once

  • He worked the first job for a few months before the second contracting opportunity became available.  So he knew what was expected and had developed a routine and work pace.  Initially, the first job required him to travel to the company location to ramp up his understanding of the company, their expectations, and to develop face-to-face relationships.  This worked out, enabling him to establish a rapport with his employers!
  • He worked both jobs remotely, in fact, each jobs were indifferent states entirely different from the one he currently lives in. The great distance made it easier to work both jobs because he couldn’t drive to work.
  • Since the six-month contract was more of an engineering task than a day-to-day operation kind of work, occasionally he would take a day off from the engineering job to travel for his primary contracting job for the occasionally required meetings.
  • The second job started an hour later than the first job, so the work shifts were staggered, but only by one hour.  So his entire workday was 10 hours long because he worked an hour earlier than his second job, and added an additional hour explicitly for the second job.
  • He cut out social and other performance-robbing activities during his day.

So overall, his multitasking contracting jobs by doing two at once worked out well for him financially.

Doubling Your Income By Working 50 Percent Less At An Additional Job

So some of you might be wondering how my buddy was able to practically double the amount he would normally make for the year by only working at a six-month job?  Well, since he’s not paying the contracting company a huge chunk of his hourly rate, he gets to pocket all of that money he would be required to pay them.  And since the rate he charges is twice the amount he gets paid from the primary contracting company, he makes out well.  Of course, taxes will be more of a pain, but that’s a different story.

This was an excellent real-life example of the article that I wrote about working two jobs at once in the past.  I wonder if my buddy read it, and later unconsciously was affected by the article?

Anyway, I thought it was an interesting example of my last article and I thought I’d share it.

Good luck,

MR

Mistakes Made When You Are Tired!

by

Today, I’m shot!  I’ve been too busy and I’ve been staying up too late at night working on side projects.

Well, I cost someone an hour of their life today!  Here is my story!

Our family drove down to our friend’s house to celebrate their two-year old’s birthday party.  It’s like a two-hour drive down and was already tired so it pushed me into zombie mode tired.  So while I was tired to start, I was barely awake when I got down there.

Zombie Tired

Okay, now that I made an adequate excuse (lol), here is what I did…  while down there I decided to take my keys and put it in my coat.  The coats were in a closet and practically all the coats were a color black .  Well, I just reached in and thought I was putting my keys in my coat, but unfortunately it was one of my friend’s coats and they left with my keys in their coat.  Luckily, they realized my mistake and called telling their discovery and volunteered to drive it back to the house.  To make matters worse, once I was outside when they dropped the keys off at the house, so I even missed profusely apologizing to them.  I’m the type of guy that will remember next birthday though, so I’ll do something nice for them next time I see them.

I’m so zombie tired today, that I’m going to recommend reading the following articles by other bloggers:

Hopefully, I’ll be less of a zombie tomorrow.

MR