I have seen numerous articles on the recent stock market decline. The news media is in a frenzy claiming the end of the world is near, and that we're all going to lose everything by the time it's over. It's what much of the media does best: take an issue and sensationalize it to the point of terror. Or at least that's what they like to do. As you have probably guessed, … [Read more...]
Dividend Investing Basics
As I noted in My Plan for Total Financial Freedom, I'd like to have dividend investing as part of my retirement plan. But I don't know much about it. Today I'll share what I've learned so far on my journey into dividend investing. The Concept From what I understand, proponents of dividend investing tout it as working as follows: Buy stocks of good quality companies … [Read more...]
My Plan for Total Financial Freedom (AKA My Retirement Plan)
In The Goal: Financial Freedom I noted that my personal financial goal is to invest my assets so they generate enough income to more than pay my living expenses. This way I will never have to spend a penny of the assets themselves -- just live on the income they produce. At that point I'll have total financial freedom, be able to retire, or do whatever I want to do. I'm … [Read more...]
The Goal: Financial Freedom
We've been through the basics of this site -- what it's about as well as the details behind earn, save, and invest. We've also covered the key topics of net worth and cash flow. We've also noted that if you put all these together in the right way, you will become wealthy. But what we haven't covered is the underlying question: why do we want to become wealthy? One … [Read more...]
2016 Financial Resolutions
I'm a big believer in New Year's resolutions. Each year I set a host of resolutions in a variety of categories. I then track them throughout the year to make sure I'm accomplishing what I want to with my life. I've been doing this for over 20 years and have had pretty good success throughout the years. I thought it might be fun to share my 2016 financial resolutions … [Read more...]
Invest Overview: Fueling Your Net Worth
Let's discuss the third step to wealth, the "I" in "ESI Money." As noted in the explanation of the site's meaning , the "I" stands for "Invest." (Just to keep everyone up to speed, earn and save are the other two.) Investing is the step that super-charges your net worth and opens the door to high levels of wealth. It does this by taking the cash flow … [Read more...]
Save Overview: Just as Important as Earning
Let's talk about the "S" in "ESI Money." As noted in the explanation of the site's meaning, the "S" stands for "Save." Saving is the second part of the key financial guideline "spend less than you earn" (the first is to earn as much as possible) and is just as important as its brother. Two Parts of "S" As it relates to its use in this site, "save" actually has two … [Read more...]
Earn Overview: How to Grow Your Income
Now that we've covered the basics of this site, let's spend the next few posts getting into ESI Money's three focus areas -- AKA the "three simple steps to wealth." Today we'll talk about the "E" in "ESI Money." As noted in the explanation of the site's meaning, the "E" stands for "Earn." Why It All Starts with "E" You've probably heard it said that the key to personal … [Read more...]
The Importance of Tracking and Managing Cash Flow
Now that we've covered the importance of measuring and tracking your net worth, let's move on to a financial measure that's almost as important. It's important because it's a major driver of net worth. It's called cash flow. What is Cash Flow? Cash flow is simply income minus expenses. It's what you make/earn less what you spend. Income less expenses. The difference … [Read more...]
How to Measure and Track Your Wealth
One key to building wealth is to measure it and track progress regularly. Just like there's no way to tell what's happening in a sporting event without a scoreboard, you can't determine your success in growing wealth without some sort of tracking. As a scoreboard is to a sporting event, your net worth is to your financial status. It tells you how much you really … [Read more...]
