We stick it to “the man” one penny at a time by showing you how to invest and grow your wealth, share tips to save money and help build a successful retirement plan in order for you to retire early. I believe that investing on your own, saving for the future and enjoying life without breaking the bank can be done.
Secret to Financial Success
The secret to financial success is knowing how the entire money equation is all related. You see, it is hard to make room for investing in the future if we can’t stop spending every dime on Colonel Sanders Secret Recipe. But we also want to avoid working at Wendy’s when we are 75 (Sorry Dave!), so learning how to build wealth is critical.
In the end, the most sensible balance is to create a financial life where you can save for the future, budget for today, but play golf tomorrow. To achieve this, we should focus on the 3 elements of the money equation:
- Savings
- Investing
- Financial goals
- And a bit of Life Perspective
Each point balances the other out. Unfortunately as we go about our financial habits, we often lack a critical element to becoming successful. We are missing the clear goals that are designed to achieve what we want. So we tend to not save as much or invest as we should. Think about it! Why save and invest if you have nothing else to work towards
“But I have a goal…”
Ah, retirement! What do you think retirement will be like? Take a look at your typical retiree. You can almost see all those retirees in Florida lined up, ready to cast their votes 2 days before the voting polls open. Now there’s an excuse to get out of bed. Is this where you want to be at retirement: looking for the early bird specials, comparing HMOs, and going to Costco for free samples?
This shouldn’t be a call for suicide, but call to action. If you don’t already, get a clear and succinct goal for retirement. Once you have a goal, you have an incentive to get you to that goal. And if you have an incentive, you will want to save and invest.
Pavlov was right!
We are all pretty familiar with Pavlov and his dogs. His purpose was to “train” the dog to slobber. The dogs had the incentive that maybe Pavlov would stop ringing his damn bell, get off his ass and give them a treat. This same incentive system is just what we need to save and invest.
Let’s look at it another way. When you were a kid and your parents denied you that Barbie doll or toy army soldier, what was the next thing you did after kicking and screaming and slobbering - you saved for it! You probably became so excited that if you were able to save for it, just maybe, you would have enough to buy it before the turn of the millennium.
Planning for retirement is the same concept, except bigger. By getting a specific life purpose or life goal, we are incentivizing ourselves to make it happen. I specifically wrote Cheap Lee’s Guide to Investing to help you get there! The rest is in the blog (hopefully!)
