Money Reasons

Smart Reasons to Save, Use and Invest Money

Archive for January, 2011

The Power Of Spousal Teamwork

January 26th, 2011

I was reading an article called ”Our Stock Portfolio” over at ”Budgeting in the Fun Stuff“‘s site that she and her husband built. While her husband mainly does the investing, I can tell that she’s proud of him and supportive.

It’s a solid portfolio of great dividend stocks that they have built during “The Great Recession” while prices were at a low. While the most people were stuffing the proverbial mattress during that hard time, this couple was brave enough to practice what Mr. Warren Buffett always preaches “Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful” by buying when the prices were bargains!

I was impressed by the pride I could hear in her words about their efforts! Looking at their portfolio, it appears very solid and prudent!

Now lets talk about Crystal’s activities blogging. I’ve never seen a blogger increase the success of their blog as quickly as she has. The last time I checked, her blog had an Alexa score beneath 40,000!

What’s really impressive about this is that her site isn’t even a year old yet. Not only does Crystal have 3 blogs, she’s also a staff writer at sweatingthebigstuff.com, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. She’s a guest blogger at so many sites that you’d almost think that she cloned herself and has a team of writers!

The thing is that this type of productivity is surely supported by her spouse! I’m betting that her husband is just as impressed as I am and continually verbally supporting her in her efforts!

Success in life is much easier when you have a caring and supportive spouse! Although I’ve never met Crystal and her husband, I’m sure they are an incredible couple!

-MR

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30 comments »

Posted in Family

Tags: teamwork

Which Financial Author Should You Follow?

January 25th, 2011

Too often, we read financial advice in books from Dave Ramsey, David Bach, or Robert Kiyosaki and conclude that whatever they write, is the correct way for the reader. But is it?

Let’s look at Dave Ramsey.

First, let me say that I’m one of the rare financial bloggers that did not read any of Dave’s books. That said, I’ve read enough personal finance blogs to get the gist of what his approach is about. I believe for the most part, I like what Dave says. In fact, I paid off my mortgage early as he suggests. I don’t have any debt nor have I carried much either except for car and home loans at one time, but those have been paid off entire.

The target group the Dave has the most impact on and who should read his books are those that have debt (especially credit card debt) and are trying to dig themselves out, and the middle class/middle-income group. So if you are in this group, this book is a great read for this segment!

At the other extreme is Robert Kiyosaki!

Let’s Look At Robert Kiyosaki

Robert Kiyosaki take a more “do or die” approach and obviously takes a much more risky approach to finances. Is he wrong? No, but his message is primarily for the type A personality types that have a lot of confidence and aren’t afraid of failing.

I would guess that Robert’s approach only works for 10% of the population, and he doesn’t deny it. I think Robert’s approach only works for those that are young without families or those with a lot “Chutzpah“, but this is just my opinion.

And this leads me to David Bach

Let’s Look At David Bach

David target segment of the population overlaps primarily with Dave Ramsey, but also a little with Robert Kiyosaki too. I like David Bach’s approach because he preaches the frugality via “the latte factor” message, but also preaches investments via real estate and 401ks.

To me David Bach advice is much like the perfect portage that Goldilocks eats in the story “Goldilocks and the Three Bears“. But this is because his financial advice “shoe” fits my financial risk level tolerance the best.

Conclusion

So for me personally, my approach at (MoneyReasons.com) is more in line with David Bach’s approach. I’m debt free and my finances are automated. Now if I could just bring myself to follow his advice about lattes.

An example of a blogger that follow an approach more in line with Robert Kiyosaki wold be Adrian at 7year7million.com. According to this blogger, he’s followed aggressive techniques and they have word for him.

There are plenty of example of those that follow Dave Ramsey too. One such blogger is Jeff at Deliver Away Debt.

All take different but valid approaches for people of different risk tolerances. Which author do you most identify with?

-MR

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22 comments »

Posted in Financial Heroes

Tags: Dave Ramsey David Bach finances financial advice financial authors robert kiyosaki

Sometimes Free Is Better

January 24th, 2011

We all heard that saying “There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch“, but I beg to differ! While this may have been true during time like “The Great Depression”, it no longer true in a country like American.

That said, many people still believe the old saying and take it to heart. In fact, I was helping a friend implement a free backup solution that would saved him thousands of dollars for his small business, but he changed his mind almost right after I got the first phase of it installed.

Here is what happened!

I went down to his business office, setup a workstation that he had as a server that would be the backup server, installed the software needed (all free), and then scripted out the process for the automated backup to work for his first business workstation to be backed up (as a test).

I took most of the human element out of it by having it backup to an external hard drive that someone would switch out with another hard drive in the morning. This process would then be alternated daily, with one of the hard drives always in my friend’s car. It was a good free solution.

My friend decided to hire a part-time office clerk and have system backups fall underneath the office clerk/warehouse guy’s responsibilities. Well the new hire didn’t know anything about how to backup a computer and turned off the machine I setup off.

They recently had a problem with their workstation, but no backup system was in place so all of their invoicing files were lost…

The of course we have the following list of software that is free and incredible:

WordPress - What is WordPress? The the software that support this blog and others. Great stuff!
Open Office – Microsoft compatible free office software. More Great stuff!
Linux (in particular Ubuntu), – Linux is an operating system. I use Ubuntu desktop for many of my needs!
Apache - Web Server technology, I’m using this as the web server software for wordpress.
Google – Practically anything google is great and mostly free!
GIMP – Great Graphic Manipulation software.
MySQL – SQL Server software (this is now owned by Oracle, so I don’t know how much longer it will be free… sad huh).
Download.com – I like to query for free software, and the top editor’s picks. This is more of a windows and mac site by CNN.com
Sourceforge.net – free software including Linux.

If I owned a business with employees that needed workstations, I would try to go entire with free software, perhaps a mix of 80% free and 20% proprietary.

Readers, what do you think free software, and what is your best suggestion?

-MR

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Posted in Free

Tags: free is better free softare

MR Review 2011, Jan 23 – Getting Traction

January 23rd, 2011

Getting Traction:

Okay, I’m ready to roll on with some actions and new thoughts. While I had a rocky start these last few weeks, it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. I’m now ready to start the new year with some vigor!

My Favorite Reads of the Week:

101 Centavos: Thoughts for Tax Season – Very well thought out piece about income taxes. I agree to pay money without really thing about it, isn’t one of the smarter moves. I’m glad 101 provides us the real deal about taxes!

Beating the Index: 2010 Canadian Oil & Gas Top Performers – I admit, I only know a few Canadian stocks, but BTI list some of the great returns of the best canadian stocks. I’ll be looking at some in 2011!

Bucksome Boomer: My Top 10 Freezer Essentials – Great look into what Kay has in her freezer. Overall, I’m pretty impressed, much healthier than my house.

Budgeting in The Fun Stuff: 20 Financial Milestones for your 20s – Crystal and her husband really has great financial game! This post proves it! How do you rank?

Consumerism Commentary: Life After Salary: One Month Without a Paycheck – Flexo is now a full time blogger! He has great material on his site, but I live vicariously through posts like these! Congratulations Flexo, and thanks for sharing!

Everyday Tips And Thoughts: More Great Financial Advice From the Media “Don’t Rush To Pay Off Your Mortgage” – Sometimes I hate the level of journalism that highly respected sites report about. Kris nailed this particular case!

First Gen American: The Social Part of Retirement Planning – I think Sandy’s retirement approach is a rock solid approach.

Get Rich Slowly: Blogging: A Demanding Task with Few Rewards? – Blogging is harder than it looks if your are trying to make it a career! It requires more time that you read about and isn’t near as easy as people make it out to be. Check out J.D.’s analysis of blogging.

Green Panda Treehouse: What Do I Do to Get My First Promotion? – Great tips to get that hard to get First Promotion!

Grumpy Rumblings: In praise of DH’s adult allowance – Interesting writeup on an adult allowance! I can relate since I follow a similar idea!

Hope to Prosper: The Decline of Personal Responsibility This is a scary trend! The decline of the American morals in the United States is something to be worried about.

Invest it Wisely: Our First Home Together – Congratulations to Kevin for getting their first home together. I wonder if that pool picture is at their condo? It’s sounds like an exciting time!

Len Penzo: 10 Old Wives’ Tales Masquerading As Financial Rules of Thumb – Very funny association. I rather enjoyed the old wives tales… they cracked me up!

Millionaire Nurse Blog: Gen Y: Got A Home? – Sounds like Gen Y has some minimalist taste, but most likely they will get regular houses as they age.

Money Smart life: Free Credit Scores – Coming Soon – MoneySmartLife list great ways to improve you credit score, definitely worth checking out!

Mom Vesting: Don’t Fail to Plan – Jessica write about why it’s important to plan for your retirement proactively instead of waiting until you actually retire!

RetireBy40: Book Review: Your Money Or Your Life – I usually don’t include book reviews in my weekly links, but this is not ordinary book. If you are young (or not too old), consider reading this great book!

The Digerati Life: Average American Family’s Finances: In Shambles? (Infographic) – Interesting stats on how the average american family is going. A bit scary too.

Watson Inc.: Politics of Envy – Shawn points out flaw in our government politics. I too, would rather promote productivity instead of just redistribute wealth. It’s that “give a fish feel a person for a day vs teaching them to fish” story. Check out this great read!

My Favorite Post from Money Reasons:

For this week, my favorite post was: Business Opportunities Through Family and Friends. I enjoyed this because I think we should all look around and see if we can start a side business that would benefit both our friend or relative and make us a little side income at the same time.

I hope you enjoyed my favorite weekly links!

-MR

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16 comments »

Posted in Weekly Review

Tags: weekly cache Weekly Review

Trying Something New

January 22nd, 2011

Random Thoughts:

As a child we are all thrown into opportunities, learning many new things, from talking, walking, swimming, ridding a bike, running, hiking… and the list goes on and on.

As we age, those awesome “learning something new” opportunities start to dry up like spilled kool-aid on black pavement on a hot summer day. The things we do know lose the shock value as we have performed them over and over (diminishing returns). We masses in the middle (click here to read about my middle class life cycle) live a somewhat boring, repeating cycle of activity (especially during the working days of the week). New adventures become more scarce and we fall towards an unknown end, wasting our youth and ambition to meet some ultimate goal at that end (perhaps retirement, heaven, or whatever).

So what are we to do?

Path1: Should we live it up today, borrowing and spending all our money and skipping work only to end up out in the streets homeless with debt in the tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars? (NO)
Path2: Should we live a somewhat slower lifestyle by striving for a more balanced approach? This is a good solution because you get a little of everything… financial security, some new experiences etc… This is my current path. (MAYBE)
Path3: Or should we forget about the end goal and realize that it doesn’t really matter and we should try to expanding and enjoy our life to the fullest but at the same time realize that having money can open up more doors to enjoy life? That having money can enable us to do things like traveling to distant locations and enable use to experiencing things that we never though we’d be able to see or experience? (MAYBE)

I think I would like to have a balanced lifestyle as in Path2, but I would also like to incorporate some of the elements in Path3, which would turn my balanced lifestyle to more of an aggressive balanced lifestyle.

Enough on the discussion of lifestyles, on to actions! Until I have the finances to enjoy more new experiences, I intend on “Trying Something New” by taking advantage of all the great free stuff online!

I have to admit, I’ve already been doing this by reading blogs which I find very enjoyable! Reading blogs convinced me to start my own blog enabling me to telling my own story and share my thoughts. I’m planning on expanding further into online experiences (perhaps a short podcast for next Saturday? and some day a video).

So this entire article leads up to the following sentence. I going to use my Saturday article posts to experiment and share more of my raw thoughts and experiences. I’ve done this a bit in the past with my comic series, but that was too limiting (although I still want to post a comic at least once a month).

Are you planning on researching, learning or experiencing something new soon?

-MR

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