In How to Ignore the Basics of Personal Finance and Still Become Rich I addressed those who say it's "easy" to become wealthy if you have a high income. I pointed out that income and net worth are not correlated, as many assume. In other words, it does not mean you'll be wealthy simply because you have a high income. A few sources to support this line of thinking include … [Read more...]
Simple Money Resolutions the ESI Way (And 30 Days to Great Finances!)
I am a New Year's resolutions guy. For the past 20+ years or so I have set goals at the beginning of each year, then spent the next 365 days working towards them. I adjust along the way as needed. Some get added and some eliminated, but I'd say a good 80% of those initial goals get accomplished in some form over the next year. This system has been very kind to me. … [Read more...]
How Do You Define Net Worth?
After our fun discussion about whether to pay off a mortgage or invest first, I thought a nice follow-up would be to chat about another topic with advocates on two sides. So today I'd like to address the subject of how to calculate net worth. Specifically here's the question I'd like us to address (this is the summary -- there are more questions at the end): Do you … [Read more...]
Millionaire Stories: How 7 Everyday People Became Wealthy and What We Can Learn from Them
We've now completed 100 millionaire interviews, run the numbers/stats/demos on them, and shared top learnings. Now I'd like to dig deeper into some of the more interesting and useful questions. I think this will help us add to the wisdom these wealthy individuals have to share. Today we'll focus on answers to this question: How did you accumulate your net worth? I ask … [Read more...]
Three Sentences that Lead to Wealth
A few months ago the Freakonomics podcast ran an episode titled "Everything You Wanted to Know about Money But Were Afraid to Ask." A major part of the show featured the author of The Index Card: Why Personal Finance Doesn't Have to Be Complicated. The book, a best-seller for sure, basically said that everything anyone needs to know about money can be written on an index … [Read more...]
Examples of How to Get Rich on a Small Income
In my post titled You Can Become Wealthy with a Lower Income, one reader commented: I agree with your original commenter, and would personally like to see more stories of people who make AVERAGE incomes because they love teaching elementary school, or working as a substance abuse counselor, or massage therapist or whatever. There are millions out there to whom even a $50k or … [Read more...]
Millionaire Interview 9
Here’s our latest interview with a millionaire as we seek to learn from those who have grown their wealth to high heights. If you’d like to be considered for an interview, drop me a note and we can chat about specifics. My questions are in bold italics and his responses follow in black. Let's get started... How old are you (and spouse if applicable, plus how long … [Read more...]
How to Go from Zero to Millionaire, Part 2
In How to Go from Zero to Millionaire, Part 1 I started detailing what I would do differently today in managing my finances if I could go back to high school and start over. But this time, I'd have all the knowledge and experience I have now. When we left off, I was a 24-year old out of graduate school (MBA) with a net worth of $22,827. Today we'll detail the next steps … [Read more...]
Make Small Progress Every Day
How would you like to achieve your wildest dreams? How would you like to accomplish anything? No matter how large... Ok, perhaps that's an exaggeration. After all, I might want to "be richer than Warren Buffet" but that's very unlikely to happen no matter what I do. But I'm talking big goals that are reasonable, though tough: Becoming a c-level executive of a … [Read more...]
Millionaire Interview 8
The following is a millionaire interview I first published on a previous site. I thought you'd enjoy this interview with another person who grew his net worth to over $1 million. My questions are in bold italics and their responses follow in black. Let's get started... How old are you (and spouse if applicable, plus how long you've been married)? 53, divorced in … [Read more...]
