Category Archives: Wealth

Reader Thoughts – Response to Sacrifices Made On the Road To Become A Millionaire

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Today at Money Reasons, I’m introducing a feature called “Reader Thoughts“.

Within this new feature, I’m going to post emails and other forms of communication that I received or gather that explains a personal take or actual personal experience on a topic that I consider worth taking a look at, to gain insight into their thoughts and experiences.

Today, I’m going to post an email I received from “S”:

Money Reasons writer – your post on wealth and sacrifices really hit it home for me today.  My response may offend some of your readers but those are my genuine feelings, you asked to hear stories.  I am not sure what you consider wealthy – but I have been in the top tax bracket for the last few years.

I was nearing this bracket as an employed professional but I entered this bracket as an entrepreneur involved in several ventures, many that turned in losses which I talk about on my blog.  Entrepreneurship involves lots of sacrifice in many aspects of ones life, social, relationships family/friends, personal interests and hobbies taking a back seat, etc. 

 

I persevered through all over the years, starting profitable businesses that pay tax. so not only do I contribute the max amount from a tax perspective, most of my businesses do the same.  I own a brick and mortar business in my community through which I have employed local citizens. the business is heavily involved in the community, often sponsoring soup kitchens, charity galas, and fund raising initiatives.

 

I also own several rental properties, all of which provide quality housing to residents in need, many of who would be considered sub prime by other lending institutions. to sum it up, the road to self created wealth involves way more than what one who hasn’t traveled the road may think. moreover, each journey is very different / unique. personally, only I know the amount of sacrifices I have made over the years. sure I am reaping huge dividends today, but I am also contributing to the larger society / community in parallel.

 

“S” provides a  story that epitomizes the exact point I was trying to make with my post called:  Sacrifices Made On the Road To Become A Millionaire.
“S” points out that he has made sacrifices on this path to becoming wealthy, the path to his success also includes taking risks and encountering some failures along the way.

The common perception of “S” is that he must be taking advantage of everybody, we learn from his email that the opposite is taking place, in that he provides housing for those that have poor credit, contributes to his community, does charity work, and most importantly hires employees, giving them a job and a way to earn a living!

 

Unlike the typical inaccurate representation of the rich where everybody thinks they are crooks or like Scrooge, people like “S” should be applauded and appreciated for the great ways they are benefiting the world!

 

Thanks “S”, for providing your personal story and hopefully bringing a better understanding of the sacrifices and hurdles that you’ve had to overcome on your road to success.

 

Big Kudos to “S” for writing such a great response,

 

MR

What Skills Are Keeping You From Becoming Financially Independent?

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I have a strong sense of logic.  I like to crunch numbers and playing mind and logic games. I consider this a great skill, but logic/analytical skills in themselves won’t help me to become financially independent!

Having Great Ideas that Didn’t Take

I come up with what I consider great ideas, but I don’t communicate those ideas very well.  Often, I’ll bring an idea up to a manager or friend and they won’t get it, then later someone else will think of my idea but they are able to create some buzz around it, thus enabling the newly re-discovered idea to be applauded and implemented (and yes, I hate that this happens to me).

So based on a long history of these kind of experiences, I’ve come to the conclusion that my weakness is my communication and marketing skills.  Since I now know the enemy, I decided to use blogging as the weapon of choice for combating my weakness. In fact, trying to defeat this weakness is my third main reason that I blog, and blog often.  My 1st and 2nd reasons are to play with the technology and to help others recognize a path for a middle-income member (like myself) to become financially independent.

Why I Blog Almost Every Day

Since I’ve uncovered my weakness through analyzing my past, The simplest and most entertaining way to combat my communication weakness is by blogging.

After almost two years of blogging, I’ve notice that my communication and marketing skills have increased in the following ways:

  • I think of words faster during a conversation with others.  I use to stumble for the correct words when speaking to other, but now those words just slip off of my tongue like a bicycle slipping on ice.
  • Both my email and IM communications are easier and more clear for the recipients to read.
  • I have confidence in my words.  I’m a blogger and this is now what I do, so words and I are finally friends.
  • I’ve learned to think outside of the box.  New ideas come to me all the time at work.
  • I believe that in some ways I’ve become smarter, and think that writing has kept me sharper than if I didn’t write.

With My New Skill, Will I Become Financially Independent?

With my new skills, I find it easier to talk to strangers.  Talking to others creates and enables opportunities that would not exist for you if were just kept to yourself.  So just in this small side effect from blogging, my odds of financial independence has greatly increased.

Since I have increased my weaknesses, now I can focus on my strengths while maintaining my new skills.  I’m hoping that with my strengths and enhanced weaknesses, I’m a more marketable individual.

Getting Help if You Have Weaknesses

What if you are the opposite of me?  Let’s say you have great communication skills, but horrible math/logical/analytical skills?  What can you do?

First, starting with the basics, try learning your skill weakness again.  Sometimes when you are younger, too many other distractions exist to focus on something that requires a lot of focus (like math, logic, etc).  You may find that you now have the patience and attitude for learning in your area of weakness.

Second, if find that you still don’t like your area of weakness, bring in others!  Friends, family, paid contractors… whatever it takes!  Keep an open mind during your encounters with your weaknesses can go a long way to fix those problems!

Readers, do you have any weaknesses that you care to share?

Thanks for helping me on my path to become financial independent.

MR

 

 

Progress on Achieving Financial Independence – Swimming To Shore

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After I paid off my house a few years ago, I wrote about the experience (via the post:  Stop Drowning in Debt, Start Swimming To Shore) using a swimming analogy.  In the swimming analogy, I compared “being in debt” as being similar to being underwater and swimming straight up to get desperately needed air.

In the under water analogy, there were no complex choices, you had to swim straight up on the quickest and shortest path to get the prized air.  Instinct practically took over so there was no thinking, just a constant and quick paddling to get to the surface.  Much like debt, it makes the decision very easy because every movement up was a direct contribution to your end goal which was to breathe or reduce your debt.

Once surfacing (or getting out of debt):

  • at first you catch your breath,
  • rest a bit,
  • then start looking where to go from there!

In a later post called (Getting Wealthy By Swimming to Shore), I wrote that I plotted a basic course to follow and that I started implementing my loose plan.

I’ve discovered that following that plan is hard because of so many other options that are out there once you get out of debt.  I’m constantly wondering about the direction that I should be swimming and if current path is the best…  I miss the days when every payment on debt was instant feedback on how my financial position has improved.  The wealth producing opportunities are not anywhere near as predictable making debt payments.

The feedback can be false depending on how you act on your investments.  For instance, 3 years ago I would have never guessed that gold would be as high as it is today.  In a unsure economic climate and the increased consumption from developing markets on a scarce resource, it makes sense that gold would rise as it has but it’s hard to see this sometimes because of all the variables involve.  To bad I didn’t buy any back then!

Interestingly (and not really related to the point of my article), I recently saw on TV that we can make gold out of lead.  The process requires massive amounts of energy that make it too expensive, but it is possible.

Achieving financial independence and my swimming analogy:

So I’ve plotted a course to follow that I will try to achieve financial independence, but it’s a tough course and I’m constantly making small adjustments.  I think as long as I don’t swim in circles or suddenly decide to swim the opposite way, I’ll be okay.  I have learned that my journey won’t be a straight path as it was with getting out of debt.

There will be times when I go backwards because of the currents or I’ll have to swim around obstacles (like stinging jellyfish).  I think the important point is to keep swimming, because after you stop swimming for too long, eventually you sink.

So in conclusion, it looks like I’m in for a long, hard swim until I develop a pace to swim/invest by…

MR

Reasons For Not Sharing Financial Information With Others

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1st Reason For Not Sharing Financial Information

Money Is All Encompassing!  I hate to say this, but money is much more than the tool I like to make it out to be.  Having money can define ourselves in the role we plan in the societal position in our community.  Being rich can even invoke feelings of inadequacy in others that lack it.

It’s sad, but if you are much more successful than your peers, you can to some degree, even hurt their feelings by telling them how rich you are while they are so much poorer in comparison.  Anything nice that you spend your money on, you have to realize that your friends and neighbors will think something along the lines of “Oh, they are rich, they can afford it”.  Meaning that they can’t because they themselves aren’t rich.

Another concern with telling your friends that you are rich could be that it changes your friendship in some way that makes it different.  Wouldn’t you hate to lose a dear friend because they despise you?  Or have the relationship change from one of mutual respect, to a more confrontational or subservient role?  Sometimes it’s better to leave well enough alone!

2nd Reason For Not Sharing Financial Information

Gossip and news travel quickly!  If you tell your friends that you are rich, a small or neighborhood community knows about it quickly, and sometimes for the worst.  Time and time again, I hear stores about someone’s house getting broken into and things stolen because the family has riches in the house.

Oh, for the most part, I don’t believe your friends are doing the breaking in, but as the information that you are rich grow in your area, that puts you at risk for being a victim.  Perhaps you tell your son that your family is wealthy, then he tells friends and it just grow from there…  This is an excellent reason that parents shouldn’t really disclose to their children that they are rich.  Especially when the are young or teens.

Tell your kids that you have done well when they are young, but don’t give them and exact amount that you may have in the bank.  Often time, kids assume you have much less than you may have, especially if you’ve lived a frugal life all along.  If someone asks you about it, you can explain that your child thought having $1,000 made you rich…

Educating Your Family With Financial Information

If you decide to try to teach your kids the actions you’ve done to become successful, perhaps only show them a small part of your wealth.  That way, they get the lesson you are trying to teach, but not going to tell everybody and their cousin that their parents are loaded!

What do you think, do you brag that you are almost as rich as Warren Buffett to everyone, or if you have money, do you just enjoy the charms of small town living without making it complicated?

MR