Category Archives: Inspirational

Being Debt Free is like the Driving Part of Being on Vacation

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As a kid, do you remember that rush of excitement you would get, when you knew you were crossing into another state?  You’d see that big billboard sign welcoming you to a supposedly wonderfully great state.  Of course, your family was just passing thru and had no intention of checking out any touristy stuff they might happen to have in the their otherwise “Great” state…

Do you remember the feeling about 15 seconds later after you asked how much further before the next new state, and learn that this new state had an even long drive time to get through than the last state?

Well, that’s how if feels for me right now, since I’m now in the asset building phase.  And I have to juggle 2 kids and their various activities and needs on top of that.  Though I have to admit, I’d rather deal with the upcoming kid issues now than in the past.

But, the feeling I’m having now is wrong (at least if I do it right)!

Over the next 2 months, I’ll have (for me) three decent sized infusions of cash (taxes, saved money from no house payment, and the bonus from work), that I’ll be able to invest in a low risk dividend stock.  This will kick off the creation of my life long dream of the start of a Dividend Portfolio to cover my expenses.  If you’ve been following my site, for the past 6 months or so, I’ve been doing a lunch experiment where I eat cheap at lunch and save the money to invest in stocks that yield dividends.  The idea was to invest enough to have the Lunch dividend fund eventually pay for some or all of my weekly lunches.  That would free up that money for other purposes (like investingJ).  Through sacrificing (it wasn’t that bad really) by packing lunch (oh, the agony), I would save $40 a month week to invest in stocks.  Of course, I didn’t invest it every month week because the transaction fees would have eaten me alive (I waited until I got a big lump sum, then purchased stocks)…  I’m up to 1 fully funded lunch a week already!!!

Hopefully, the next time I write about this, I’ll have some snapshots of where I’m going with these funds and some conservative projections!

MR…

My Views On Robert Kiyosaki’s Financial Books

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Robert Kiyosaki

Why Robert Kiyosaki’s approach will not work for most of us!   

I read “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” a few years back, and today I’m going to talk about why for most people his approach will not work.  For one, you must be extremely desperate and somewhat conceited, both at the same time!  You have to believe that you are the cat’s meow, and the rest of the population is gullible sheep waiting to be slaughtered.  Unfortunately, the reality is different from the fantasy.  For someone with kids (like me), this could be detrimental to my marriage, and could potentially scar my children!   

What did I think of the “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” series of books?   

You’d think I would say they are trash, and not to read them.  However, I found them very entertaining and the 1st book “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”, I believe is worth reading.  He spins a good story, and if you want to believe his story, it’s very inspirational and motivational.  There are many half truth in his story, but overall it’s a feel good, you are only limited by your fears, kind of book.  I gained the most value out of the author’s attempts at success after a long chain of failures.  Of course, Robert doesn’t spin it that way!   

Another thing I like the the Cashflow game series (we have the “Cashflow for Kids” board game).   

I have to admit, I don’t like his attempt at changing the financial rules (a house is an asset, no matter what he says).  Another undesirable practice the author has is he likes to tell you only one side of the story, hoping you are not smart enough to rationalize or think of the negative aspects.   

Mr. Kiyosaki is very aggressive, but he is not a quitter!  And that is important!   

John T. Reed, (a real estate author) voices his option about Robert here.  I found his analysis of Mr. Kiyosaki very informative and worth a visit!  John present an argument that “Rich Dad” never existed!  And he even found evidence that Robert even said that to a certain extent.  I really encourage you to visit his site by clicking the link above! 

 But what I found interesting on John T. Reed’s site is how many times Mr. Kiyosaki has failed in life, before hitting it big (this fact alone make the 1st book an interesting read).  You can see a lot of failures in his life below:   

flunked sophomore year of high school and had to repeat
U.S. Merchant Marine Academy
3rd mate oil tanker (or was it “Love Boat” type cruise ship as he said in one of his books?)
Marine helicopter pilot (or was it fighters?)
refused to return to ship when it was ordered to return to combat (or just missed the boat)
Xerox salesman
Failed businessman (nylon surfer wallets)
Failed businessman (rock and roll memorabilia)
Failed author (1993 book If You Want to Be Rich & Happy, Don’t Go To School?)
Failed MBA applicant
Homeless person
Bankruptcy (or maybe not)   

So unless you have a personality that is extremely aggressive and you are willing to do practically anything, I pretty sure Mr. Kiyosaki’s approach will not work for you!  Or if you like to gamble big, then Mr. Kiyosaki’s approach might be for you too…, but not for me or most of the personal finance blogger’s out there!  I”m pretty sure a lot of people today in real estate that are regretting their move into it after reading the “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” series.   

For me personally, I’m more of a get rich slowly and steadily kind of guy.   

Readers, I would love to hear your take on the book series!  Mr. Kiyosaki’s approach is one of motivations and inspiration…  Did reading his book inspire you to go do something big?  Perhaps buy real estate?  I have a friend at worth that now owns real estate after reading Robert’s books!  So, even if the story is a fantasy, the end results sometimes justify the means!  Or does it?   

Please comment if you are one such reader that was prompted into action after reading his books!  Or even better, if you are now rich after reading his books!   

Thanks!   

-D   

 

My Close Friend Won A House

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A few years back, my best friend’s sister (my close friend too, let’s call her Sis) won a new house (a townhouse), car, and other prizes that added up to a tune of about $200,000.

What is her secret?

Sis (and her boyfriend) filled out 50 postcards and snail mailed them to a radio show contest.  At the radio show, 100 winners were selected (obviously, Sis was one of them), and each of those winners won $100 if they immediately called the radio show (which Sis did of course…).  A few weeks later, those winners were entered into a contest to win a “Dream Life” contest.  In this contest, the 100 winners competed for a house, and other “Dream Life” amenities.  So the prizes included a house, car, big screen tv, ticket to the theatre, etc…  to compete, the $100 winners were to show up at the prize house, choose a key from a box, and if the key opened the door to the house, the key holder won the house!

Now the story goes that the day of the “Dream Life” showdown, Sis was scheduled to leave for vacation with her family.  Half of the family went to the vacation location, but Sis, her dad and boyfriend stayed behind (at Sis’s insistence) so she could compete in that contest. 

My friend knew statistically, her chances were a bit better than 1% in winning the house.  Why a bit better?  Because there is always someone that can’t make such contests (maybe because they were going on vacation too).  1% doesn’t sound like much of a chance to win (and in normal matters it isn’t), but when compared to the chances to win via a state lottery ticket!!!  Well, it was definitely worth a shot!

Sis was the 47th person to try.  She put in the key and started to turn expecting to be a miss, but it kept turning (probably that second seemed like a lifetime), and turning, and turning… until the door opened!  She was ecstatic (I saw the pictures of her online).  I couldn’t imagine just graduating from college and winning a house!  Talk about jump starting your financial life!  As an analogy, it would be like Sis is in a race with everybody else that graduated from college, expect that everybody else starts at the start line, but Sis is allowed to start a quarter ahead of everybody else!  I’m a little jealous!

The point of this story is never give up, make your own luck by trying the best you can and going the extra distance to make it happen.  I’ll be honest, I wouldn’t have won that house if I were in her shoes.  I’m sure I wouldn’t have inconvenience my family’s vacation.  I would have skipped it thinking I probably wouldn’t win.  But if you don’t believe and try, then you definitely won’t win!!!

Always remember, you already won a big lottery just being born.  And if you are from the United States, you won another big lottery being born in a free country.

You will never know what you are capable of ,if you don’t believe in yourself and try your hardest in whatever you do!!!  I know this now!!!

And now to you readers, do you personally know someone who has won at least $100,000 dollars or other big amounts?

-D