Some Thoughts On Steve’s Article and Personal Finance
I was reading Steve’s article and thought “Steve you are a smart guy.” Steve is being smart because I think he is reading the market correctly and getting ready. I read the comments associated with Steve’s article and thought many are missing the message within the article. One comment that caught my eye.
Of course anyone who is on the outside will be scared, like you Steve- quoting horror stories- however the real money is made now. You have to educate yourself instead of claim that all use of leverage (blanket term) is bad or dangerous. It’s simply a tool that when used properly can help you get ahead faster than if you had to save the same amount.
I would ask the person who made this statement, how do you know now is the time to make money? Because the trends are going this way? Because some people like Cramer said, “Now is the time to make money?” Making money is not about following trends. Making real money is about managing risk. Remember that in the market you can make real money regardless of what the market is doing. One book I read said it best. The market is like the waves in the ocean. There are always highs, and lows and you can always catch a wave. You want to avoid the wipe-outs.
Regarding that now might be a bull market to make real money, I want to make a comparison of the current situation to the Swiss housing and market in general. The reason why I want to use the Swiss market is because Switzerland has gone through what I think the other markets will go through in the future. Consider the following graph of the Swiss housing market since 82.
Look at the price growth, and you notice a very interesting behavior. The years 82 to 90 were fantastic years. These were the years when Swiss housing became expensive. Then prices stabilized, and took a slight dip in 95, before going up slightly in 96. Then the “big drop” happened at the end of 96. If you had invested in a house at the peak, then only in 05 would you have seen any profit in absolute terms. If you calculate in terms of investing, and had invested your monies in 96 your housing investment would still not match your money investment. For reference purposes I am calculating using the Swiss deposit rates of 1.5% annually and not calculating inflation because until recently Switzerland had next to no inflation.
When the housing market crashed did the market crash? No, something far worse than the market crash happened. People saved money and stopped spending. I will admit that Swiss always tended to be fiscally conservative, but Swiss stopped buying things for many years. The Swiss changed their habits and stopped using credit and stopped going into debt. It was hard for the retailers. Recently in Cash there was an article on how the credit companies want the Swiss to spend.
Look closely at the graph which talks about how much consumer credit (not including mortgages, but including car loans, etc) each person has. In Switzerland each person only has 920 CHF (736USD) debt per month per person. Whereas the Brits have nearly 5944 USD of debt, and from what I remember the US consumer debt load is about 12,000 USD where 6,000 USD is credit card. Swiss have cash. The Brits, and the Americans are going have to stop spending. The more it is delayed the longer the slow down will be. I am not saying that there will be a hard crash. I am saying the market will be like Swiss housing market and there will be a long protracted slow down.
In Steve’s article there was a comment to the effect:
This is not the way you want to retire!!! I lived this way for 2 years. That’s why I don’t believe that lowering your expenses is the way to retire early. You should be increasing your income. Then when you retire, you can go on vacations, cruises, Vegas or whatever you want… not just sit at home.
If I equate the lifestyle proposed by Steve as being the Swiss, then the comment does not make sense. If you live frugal for two years you are not going to feel any difference. It’s only over the long haul where you feel the difference. And in the case of the Swiss they tend to be big ticket item buyers. The reason why the Swiss can do this is because the Swiss have created for themselves a positive feedback loop that has been confirmed in today’s Cash daily magazine. Cash says that not including real estate the average Swiss has 225,000 dollars in bonds, cash, equities. In my positive feedback loop article I say the reason why the rich keep getting richer is because the rich keep investing thus making more money. And the poor keep getting poorer because they keep going into debt buying things that they cannot afford.
What people forget is that debt allows you to buy more things in the short term at the expense of buying something in the long term. Debt requires interest servicing taking earned money out of your pocket with no return value. On the other hand interest or investment returns is free money that can be used to generate more free money or buy things without taking money from your pocket.
When I read Steve’s article what I read was not early retirement. What I read is that you need to be fiscally responsible and in control of your destiny. I interpreted how stress free life can be. What Steve has right is that he is battening down his ship for that storm. And when that storm comes Steve will be singing, “singing in the rain…”
Hello There Mr Roboto!
(the song and era says it all... http://www.devspace.com)
34 Comments Add your ownSubscribe
1. prlinkbiz | November 22nd, 2006 at 3:17 pm
I made the comment about now being the time to make money in real estate. I think a lot of people who are here at investor Geeks tend to be a younger more fear driven and over analytical crowd, so I’m not surprised by the reaction. Less book knowledge and more real world experience, especialy learning from those who have ridden market cycles and know how to make money, will help you really understand how and when the real money is made, instead of over analyzing the stats of the Swiss.
2. Christian | November 22nd, 2006 at 4:20 pm
Hmm, I appreciate the comment about being considered younger. Really I do appreciate that. You see I happen to be 38, and to be considered young in mind at 38 in the IT industry is a COMPLIMENT! So thanks…
Now about the lacking real world experience. Well, in my day!…
Seriously, I have lived in about 25 different places in Canada, US, Germany, Switzerland, France, UK, and Austria. My brothers, sisters or parents have(are) living in the US, Ecuador, Turkey, and Russia (incl those places I have lived in). My wife and I have have owned and sold two houses, and my parents at least 8. I am not an Army brat, rather a VP Executive brat. My father’s specialty was plant turn-arounds.
I “over-analyzed” the Swiss market because I feel it is an example of where we are headed. Japan went down that route and Germany is now traveling that route. My wife and I bought a house in Germany during the first dip, and then sold half way down the second drop. We took a hit and when we bought the house the situation was similar to now (prices dropped thus a good time to buy, right?) The German real estate market did not rebound, but is taking the route as the Swiss market did.
The problem and this is why I analyzed the Swiss market is that there is a personal fiscal problem. The Swiss market did not rebound because there was a big difference in what people earned and what people could afford. For example a property in the bay (US) costs on average 600,000 USD. A property in the South of France costs 550,000 USD. These prices are not sustainable in relation to the incomes of the average person/family. Using conservative mortgage calculations, I think an average American family that has two incomes can afford a house in the 300, 000 USD range including a 20% down payment.
This income and expense gap is not an American problem. As I illustrated in the consumer debt example, the problem exists in Canada, UK, France and Spain. The consumers are living beyond their means.
A correction can occur in one of two ways. A collapse in prices and increased bankruptcies, or a grin and bear it attitude. I think the latter will happen because people need to live somewhere. The result is that consumption will decrease and slow down because people will try and wait out the storm. And the case of Switzerland illustrates that we have to wait a decade.
The reason why I liked Steve’s article is because if you adopt Steve’s attitude you will be ahead of the game. You will not be stressed with payments when things get tough. You will be able to take it easy and if desired can buy a distressed property. From personal experience real money is made by buying a distressed property in a slow-down or recession. Right now we have neither slow-down, nor recession, nor distressed properties. All we have is a small drop in prices and I say its the wrong time to buy a property!
My advice is to take the money you would have used to buy a property and invest it in a T-Bill or some derivative product. Then relax and wait for the panic.
3. Steve | November 22nd, 2006 at 5:51 pm
I have to agree. This isn’t the down-turn people think it is, not yet. In my opinion, it’s just the beginning. In my town, the median house is around $450,000. I’m sorry, but a majority of the people who live in my city can’t afford that. A majority of the people in my neighborhood can’t afford the houses they purchased as it is. Many have already taken out home equity loans, second mortgages, etc just to make ends meet.
I’m sorry, but a house that sold for $170,000 a few years ago doesn’t balloon to $600,000 overnight without the need for a massive correction. People over bought, over anticipated the run, etc. It’s just like the stock market boom of the dot coms. Everyone over bought, ran all of the dot com stocks way too high and then they started down a bit, every one said BUY BUY BUY and then…..CRASH.
With the amount of debt the average family is carrying and with inflation, simple things like cars becoming unaffordable for the average worker, like Christian said, people will have two choices, stop spending money and try to eek by or watch a huge crash and correction occur where these over extended people file bankruptcy in droves.
Unfortunately, people have spent way, way, way more than they have made and when you’re ‘investing’ from a position where you’re risking more than you’re making, I think you’re backing yourself up into a corner and, really, for me, the key to investing is to lower risk, lower loss and create positive cashflow towards yourself, not a bank.
Thanks for the article Christian, very well done.
Invest in peace…
4. Doug | November 22nd, 2006 at 6:15 pm
I also think that a much bigger correction is coming - what really scares me is Christian’s point about the negative wealth effect from real estate deflation. A collapse in spending could be catastrophic now, because with looming Boomer retirements, it simply will not lead to future pick ups in spending. People who cannot afford their lifestyle will not return to spending in two years, as they wind up in early retirement - from layoffs due to lower consumption - they will simply stop spending permanently.
The after effects of this bubble are going to be unprecedented in the post-war economy. It may very well look like the 1930s.
5. Ken | November 22nd, 2006 at 6:45 pm
I made the comment about living on the cheap for 2 years. All I was saying is that there are two different paths… Maybe I misunderstood Steve, but it seemed like he was saying, lower your expenses, generate passive income to match them and you can retire comfortably.
I’m saying a better goal is to increase your income until it reaches your current expenses instead. It will be a much better life.
Instead of lowering your expenses down to $2k/mo, imagine if you did the opposite and increased your passive income to $4k/mo.
True, you can do both, but I think it’s better to concentrate on getting up to $4k rather than getting down to $2k. Lower expenses is relatively easy. I’m back up to $3k a month, but I could drop it to $1,500 in a month if I really wanted to. Problem is that I don’t.
6. Steve | November 22nd, 2006 at 6:52 pm
And that’s my point. I think having expenses at $4000 is a huge mistake and overspending. What happens if you lose your job? Or lose your passive income? Is your income real estate? What happens if an earthquake hits, or Katrina 2.0 hits or a fire hits, your passive income is gone and you’re on the hook for $4k a month?
What happens if the stock market crashes? Your passive income just went out the window. With all passive income there is risk (unless you buy CDs or a savings account). I’d much rather have my monthly expenses at $2000 when a medical emergency hits my family and that unexpected $50,000 bill hits at Christmastime (which happened to my family last year.)
The problem in the United States is overspending. It’s that simple. I think people need to realize that ‘crap’, ’stuff’, ‘junk’, ‘plasma’ really isn’t necessary and is a waste of money. I’d much rather go on a cruise to Alaska than have a Plasma TV and it’d probably cost me less and I wouldn’t have that $80 monthly HDTV Cable payment for life either.
Don’t stop doing things, just lower your spending so that when the downturn of life hits, and it will, may not be today, may not be 10 years from now, but I’d much rather be ready for those bad days and pass over them like a speed bump than to have my life slam on the breaks as I’m trying to climb a major hill. Call it ’scare tactics’ or anything else you want, but ask 20 of your friends if something unexpected fucked up their lives in the past 10 years and I’d bet 18 would say yes.
Invest in peace and have a happy and healthy Turkey Day everyone.
7. David | November 22nd, 2006 at 8:01 pm
Steve said: “I’d much rather go on a cruise to Alaska than have a Plasma TV”
And if you really want to see the state, hop on the “Marine Highway” you’ll get to see the real Alaska, drink with the regulars, and, you’ll be treated like royalty, just for stopping to enjoy the experience, rather than being amongst the hordes of tourists.
.
It’s way cheaper, too!
David
8. Phil John | November 23rd, 2006 at 1:29 am
Christian - great post. Agree with you entirely. I think the US housing market will stagnate for 10 years as the baby boomers are worked out of the system.
Ken - what the…??? Do you have a wand of passive income creation +5? You have been reading Rich Dad again haven’t you? You know that fuddles your brain. Keep that spending high - it’s making me relatively richer for my age.
:D
Phil
9. Phil John | November 23rd, 2006 at 1:55 am
PS Ken - if you do have a want of passive income creation +5… hows about sharing? buddy. pal.
10. Ken | November 24th, 2006 at 12:26 pm
Steve, I think you missed my point. I’d much rather go on a trip to Alaska also. But going on 1 trip a month will cost me at least $2k (for my regular monthly expenses) + $2k (the cost of each trip). You can lower your expenses to $2k so you can live at home, but you will need some more to support the stuff you want to do because now you have all that extra time.
11. Ken | November 24th, 2006 at 12:34 pm
Phil,
Not sure what the +5 means. But I am increasing my passive income monthly. It’s my main goal so I work on it everyday. In the past month I’d say I’ve increased it +$545/mo through various investments, loans, businesses. I’m going to put my goal out here for you to see. I hope it will put more pressure on me to get it done.
My goal is to spend the summer of 2007 June-August in Colorado in a vacation home. In order to do this I need to get my passive income +$4,000/mo or generate $12,000. That’s the cost of the monthly rental in a ski town. I’ve got 7 months to do it!!! You’re invited to tell me I’m crazy and rag on me if I fail!
12. prlinkbiz | November 24th, 2006 at 12:38 pm
Hey- none of that negativity K dog. You set your mind to it and you will accomplish it!
13. Steve | November 24th, 2006 at 4:53 pm
A trip isn’t an expense. A mortgage, utility payments, car payments, loan payments are expenses. They are bills you HAVE to pay. You don’t increase your income to $4000 a month because you’re going on a 1 time $2000 trip. You lower your expenses and save up $2000 and go on the trip. That’s completely different than what my article was stating, which was lower your expenses and save the extra money to do things like go on trips paying cash without worry.
To the person going for the monthly rental that’s $12,000, are you including your lost income for the 3 months? Are you including the cost of your expenses for that time? Your utilities at home? Your car payment? Your loan payment? Are you including 3 meals a day? Tours? Gasoline? Parking fees?
Just from my point of view, I wouldn’t consider a loan as ‘passive income’ but rather debt. Anything you owe money on is not passive income. If your business cost you $100,000 and you’re generating $500 profit a month, that’s not passive income until you pay off the $100,000 you’re in the hole (even though people will tell you it is passive income, realistically, it’s not.)
That’s a great goal to go on vacation for 3 months. I applaud you for having such a lofty goal! I just think you should go into the goal already having the money in hand and then it would be a lot less stressful to you, rather than worrying that you’re going to eek through paying for it or ending up charging a whole bunch of costs you didn’t anticipate.
On a side note, I just came back from my friends house down the street. He and his wife are adding an addition to their house. They saved up just enough money to do that. They’ve poured the foundation and started ripping the wall off their house. On Wednesday his wife went in for a routine checkup. She left the doctors office with news she wasn’t expecting. She has cancer and needs to go in for surgery in a week to try to remove it. She’s 37 years old.
Shit happens people. We can all put our heads in the sand and think it’ll never happen to us, but a bad day is coming and I suggest you prepare because right now, I wouldn’t want to be in my friends shoes and they are scared shitless about how they are going to deal with the bills that are coming, whether they want them or not.
Invest in peace…
14. Ken | November 24th, 2006 at 5:24 pm
Steve,
To me the trip is an expense because I take one vacation a month. I don’t spend $2,000 on every vacation, but I “myself” view it as an expense for me because I do plan for it every month. I’ve got my vacations planned for 2007. Jan 15 to Chicago (Bears playoffs), Feb - not sure, March to Chicago (NCAA games), April (Hawaii), June-August (hopefully Colorado)
I’m also the person who wrote about the $12k rental. There is no lost income for me, because it’s passive. My goal is to continue making that money while I’m in Colorado. I can easily save $12k by then working a job. That’s not hard. Note, I said generate $12k in my post, meaning create it out of nothing.
I have included my home expenses which is why I have to increase my passive income by $4,000 to cover the additional expenses of living elsewhere while still paying my home bills.
I’m also not taking out loans. It’s the opposite, I’m loaning out money, thereby creating passive income. I’ve loaned out $45,000 in the past month. My avertage return is well above 10%. Just this simple loan creates more than $350/mo for me.
I’m also creating businesses with little start up. These are 99% passive. They are very simple small biz’s that I hope will bring in a steady $1,500 a month on a start up of under $50.
My goal isn’t to go on vacation for 3 months. It’s really to be able to live where I want at anytime and still make money. I was already on a 2 year and 4 month vacation and I didn’t like it.
15. Ken | November 24th, 2006 at 5:26 pm
Steve & Phil,
I just wanted to say that I’m not arguing with you guys on here. I wanted to post this here so it’s out there and we can look back at this post on June 2007 and see if I succeeded or not. If I do, I’ll tell you how, if not, we can see where I went wrong.
16. Kimber | November 24th, 2006 at 5:37 pm
“I think having expenses at $4000 is a huge mistake and overspending.”
Steve, could we talk about percentages instead of concrete dollars? ‘Cause for you $4,000 may be a lot, for others not so much. I can see pr sitting at home thinking…well, shoot $4,000 is one car flip, who can’t do that? Seriously its all relative.
As for leverage, I think leverage is a solid tool once an investor learns to play the game. Since this forum is called investor geeks, I myself made the assumption that the base skills have been mastered. Perhaps that was a wrong assumption.
Real estate? I’ve seen cautious investors (like I am with stocks) look for both rental and capital plays in the same transaction so if the capital play goes south, they still cash flow with the rental. That’s how a nervous nellies like myself reduce risk in investing.
17. Jason | November 27th, 2006 at 2:45 pm
I just wanted to peek in and say, great conversation going here.
So…
Great conversation going here.
18. Steve | November 27th, 2006 at 3:01 pm
I think thinking in terms of percentages is lame. That’s like saying, “Hey, you made $100,000,000 this year so you SHOULD spend $10,000,000 cuz hey, it’s only 10%, right? BAH to that.
Just because you’re rich doesn’t mean you should be spending money or running up stupid bills. I could go buy a lamborghini, but it doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.
By keeping things in dollar amounts, it has a value. 10% is not a value to most people. It’s not even a budget. Even if I made $100,000,000 a year, $4000 in monthly expenses (which don’t include travel or trips or tickets to a hockey game or Disneyland or whaver) is a crap-ass load of money wasted anyway you slice it.
I know people who’s water bill is over $1000 a month. That’s stupid. You work your ass off to get that much money to waste it? Why? Give $800 of it to the Make a Wish Foundation so kids who REALLY need the money get some joy in their lives.
People need to get away from wasting money on crap. ‘Stuff’ is crap. Go through your house and count the number of things that have dust all over them that you HAD to have in the moment.
Anywayz, I think doing things based on a percentage is lame unless it’s saving 10% of your check immediately or donating 20% of your stock gains every year to charity. Using it as a budgeting tool is just not a good plan anyway you slice it in my book and if you have money to the point where $4000 is a drop in the bucket, you shouldn’t have debt to begin with!
Invest in peace…
19. Kimber | November 27th, 2006 at 3:31 pm
Hhhmmm…so what you’re saying is that a $1,000 an hour attorney should save the $7 an hour he’d pay the teenager down the street and cut his own grass?
Steve, I may not be too good at math, but that really doesn’t make sense to me.
I see what you’re trying to do. Draw an absolute line in the sand and say that’s that.
Unfortunately, like it or not, expenses go up with income and wealth (clear example, brokerage fees, management fees, oh and taxes).
And btw…I consider travel an expense. Its when people start to exclude expenses from their budget that they get into trouble.
20. Kenric | November 27th, 2006 at 3:39 pm
If I made $100,000,000, I know I’d be spending more than $4,000 a month on just electric at all my summer homes. You just don’t like to spend money and that’s fine.
Do you have a maid? a cook? dry cleaner? gardener? pool boy? You’re saying that these are dumb expenses for the rich? If I worked 60 hours a week to make $1,000,000/yr I certainly wouldn’t waste 2 hours of my spare time cleaning my house. I would pay someone $100 to do it and spend the time enjoying my life.
21. Christian Gross | November 27th, 2006 at 4:21 pm
Let’s say that you make 100,000,000 would you really be spending 4,000 on electical? I think rather not. Would you own oodles of summer homes? I think not. Or if you did then you would be quickly parted from your money.
Hedgehogging has this issue pinned down. When you make quite a bit of money you enter a “rich” race of out doing one another. And thus you cannot earn enough money, and go bankrupt. You don’t go bankrupt because you did not earn enough money, but because you don’t earn it fast enough.
Let’s take a very very simple example, Bill Gates. How many homes does he own? If I am not mistaken 1. It’s a big house, but one house nonetheless. How about cars? http://www.forbesautos.com/advice/toptens/billionaire/02-bill_gates.html
He owns a 1999 Porsche, and a 1988 Porsche. An invidividual that is worth 50 Billion could easily own 15 Porsches and Lamborghini’s. But he doesn’t. Gates has more money than anybody can do with. Yet Gates new mission is to better the world! He gives his money so others can benefit.
How about Buffet? Worth 44 billion and drives a Lincoln town car.
How about Ballmer? Lincoln town car.
How about Ingvar Kamprad (Ikea)? He drives a 1993 Volvo.
How about somebody who wastes money, like Larry Ellison? He drives a Bently and that does not surprise me.
I think the point is that just because you have oodles of money does not mean you need to waste money. And I am sure if somebody said, “Hey Buffet get yourself a Bently.” Buffet would reply, “Do you know how much that car costs?”
22. Steve | November 27th, 2006 at 4:31 pm
Amen Christian!
I think the key difference we’re seeing here is one of goals.
Most people get rich to get things. A mansion, a pool, a lamborghini, a maid, a butler, a jet. That’s getting rich, that’s not getting wealthy.
Wealthy people don’t care about ‘things’ so much as what they can do with the money. They can invest it, they can create a new risky business they’ve always wanted to try, they can donate it to their favorite cause. Buying the crap you see ‘rich’ people buy is a waste of money. It won’t make you happy, it will only put more pressure on you to stay rich to continue to afford your rich things.
A wealthy person stays wealthy easily, without stress, by continuing on the path they’ve always gone down. Bill Gates doesn’t have to work, he wants to work. Buffett could have stopped decades ago, but he doesn’t. They don’t work to get rich, they work to get money to do amazing things for other people.
I’m in the do amazing things for other people boat. I know at this point in my life I could stop working forever and never work again, but where’s the fun in that? I’m working on creating new businesses, I donated a ton to the arthritis foundation this year, I still drive my 2003 Kia and my 1995 Pontiac Sunfire that has 200,000 miles on it. It’s not about buying stuff or owning stuff. It doesn’t impress me, it makes me sad that you used all that money on ’stuff’ when you could have used it to improve other peoples lives.
But, like I said, that’s the difference between the two schools of thought. One equates being rich with getting things and the other equates being wealthy with opportunity.
Invest in peace…
23. Kimber | November 27th, 2006 at 6:40 pm
I agree with you about “things” but I’m pretty sure that Buffett and Gates spends more than $4,000 a month on legal bills and other professional services.
Gates, for one, has personal assistants out the ying yang. Buffett doesn’t have a computer on his desk so I’m pretty sure he pays someone to make his trades. They may not buy things but they certainly buy time.
And we won’t even talk about their travel bill.
24. Steve | November 28th, 2006 at 2:25 am
Ahh Kimber.
Legal bills, professional services and travel would all fall under business expenses, not personal expenses. At least for the most part. Especially since they are all tax write offs if used under a business umbrella.
Buffet doesn’t need a computer to make trades, he has a telephone.
And I bet it’s a local call and if it’s not, it’s a business expense since Berk Hath is a business. It wouldn’t be a personal expense.
Invest in peace…
25. Kimber | December 1st, 2006 at 9:22 am
Okay, Steve, I’m starting to see why you can easily stick to the $2,000 a month rule.
As far as I understand, your $2,000 does not include travel, gifts, other one time expenses, professional fees, investment expenses, anything that can be attributed to a business (which I guess would include my home office, automobile, research expenses), etc.
So what exactly does it include? I’m confused. ‘Cause I try to structure most of my expenses to be offset with revenue (and as a result tax deductable).
26. Steve | December 1st, 2006 at 3:02 pm
Hi Kimber,
Well, it depends on the person. I would think a normal person doesn’t have much in the way of travel expenses, gifts are usually on credit cards, which is debt, one time expenses obviously can’t be figured into a budget unless they are reoccurring, in which case I divide those by 12 to get the monthly cost (property taxes, car insurance, etc.) I don’t have any professional fees, so I’m not sure what you do, my investment expenses are $7 a trade, so I’m not sure how yours are so expensive.
As for the office, automobile, etc it depends who gets billed for those. If you are personally billed, they are your expenses (a mortgage and a car payment are expenses, obviously.) If you own your car through a corporation you own, then it’s the corporations expenses and it’s taxed at the corporate rate, which is quite different.
Owning my own Corporation, I can expense off my travel and all that on my company, however, you miss the point of the article which was if you lower your re-occuring debt to a very low amount, you would have tons of money to invest or travel and pay CASH for it instead of debt your way into it.
I bought my car with cash, I have no payment and never have. I’m working to pay off my house and should have it paid off by next Christmas, another debt gone and those are the two debts that are usually the highest for people. If I combine the payments I would be making to the car and the house I could easily afford a cruise in the nicest room once a week every month and pay cash for it. I could fly pretty much anywhere in the world and pay cash, simply because I lowered my monthly expenses.
I cancelled my DirecTV which was $70 a month. I personally send that money to Scottrade automatically now, but I COULD have $70 to go out to 7 $10 meals a month or I could save it for 3 months and have $210 to go to Las Vegas or I could save it for a year and have $840 to go on a cruise once a year, simply from saving my satellite TV bill. That’s not to say everyone should cancel their TV, but it is to say that by lowering my monthly output I have greatly increased my ability to do anything I want and pay cash to do it.
Invest in peace…
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