ESI Money

Three Simple Steps to Wealth

Can Getting Up Early Make You Wealthy?

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You may have noticed in this site's right sidebar that there's a section titled "what I'm reading now" about two-thirds of the way down the page. Listed there is a book titled The Miracle Morning: The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life (Before 8AM). I actually read it for the first time a few months ago and have been re-reading it again both for … [Read more...]

The Cost of Divorce

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In The Ten Worst Money Mistakes Anyone Can Make I listed the following as #7: Marrying the wrong person As I noted, this can be a double-edged sword. I stated: There are actually two major financial mistakes related to marriage: marrying a spendthrift and getting divorced. In this post I'd like to discuss the latter of these two problems. 50% of 50% of 50% of 50% of 50% is … [Read more...]

Brands I Love

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We all have brands we love, right? Those companies that for one reason or another we go back to again and again. I thought it would be interesting for me to share mine and for you to do the same! My Criteria But before we go there, let me detail the criteria I use before I decide to "love" a company: Good value -- It doesn't have to be the cheapest price (in fact, … [Read more...]

Being Healthy Can Grow Your Net Worth

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Shortly after I posted Physical Fitness and Financial Fitness I ran into a Money Magazine article titled "Get Healthy, Get Wealthy." This was the exact point I made in my post -- except with stats to back up what they said! :) The Money article was several pages long, so I'll post on it now and again to be sure we cover all the main points. The general overview is that … [Read more...]

Seven Rewarding Reads for the Beach

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Now that summer is almost over, I'm getting around to posting this. :) Money magazine had an article in their July issue that lists "seven rewarding reads for the beach". The idea is that these are good personal finance books to read while you're lounging at the beach. I'm thinking that if they are good for the beach, they're good for home too. :) Anyway, I thought … [Read more...]

Retirement 30-Day Update

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Well, it's been 30 days since I retired (it happened a couple weeks before I posted on it) and I thought I'd let you know what I've been up to. FYI, I'll do a specific update every so often but I'll be talking about retirement and the new lifestyle throughout other posts as well (of course). But for now, here's what's happened the past 30 days: I'm still getting up … [Read more...]

How Can This ESI Reader Buy a Business?

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Here's an email I received yesterday from a reader: I am writing to get your advice (or maybe the advice of your readers) on how to go about buying out the current owner of the company I work for, or going out on my own. Some history of the company I currently work for: They are a small communications company with less than 20 employees. The have been in business … [Read more...]

Costco Car Pricing is Good, But Not Better than My Method

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Summary: This post reviews the Costco car buying program and its associated pricing compared to negotiating a purchase on your own. After I got a great deal on my latest car purchase using my tried and true method for saving a fortune on a car I was in Costco shopping a bit. As I exited the store, I saw a small flyer on the Costco car buying program. Their car-buying … [Read more...]

Can This ESI Reader Retire?

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Here's an interesting, real-life situation that I'd like to get feedback on. I know there are some really smart ESI readers out there, and I need your thoughts. The other day I received the following email from a reader (FYI, I've edited a bit for brevity but haven't changed the substance of our conversation): I would greatly appreciate your opinion on my current … [Read more...]