The Secret of Financial Happiness

“Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.” (Mr. Micawber, in David Copperfield by Charles Dickens – 1850)

You already know this secret, really.

But maybe you don’t like to think about it.

If you’re trying to improve your financial situation, you need to either:

• Spend less
• Earn more

Even in the post-credit-crunch world, it’s all too easy for us to put items on a credit card. It’s all too easy to run up thousands of dollars of debt – with our spending constantly outstripping our earning. Read the Rest of This Article »

Money Myths That Keep You From Making Big Money: Myth 5

“It Takes Money To Make Money!”

No. It doesn’t.

Again, with this statement we believe that we are dependent on those who are sitting on a mountain of money. It takes an investment to make money or create wealth. An investment can be time, resources (the use of a PC), home- office space, automobile, learning, training, energy, love, planning, practicing—all these can be money-free investments.

This myth is perpetuated by existing Power Brokers (I have nothing against them), who invite you to feed their dream. If you dare to try to break away to build your own personal dream, they’ve got it covered. If you are breaking away from indentured servanthood, at least they can loan you the money and earn the interest for it. Read the Rest of This Article »

10 Money Myths That Keep You From Making Big Money: Myth 3

“I Can’t Do My (business, art, purpose, mission) Without Funding First!”

This is probably the number one money myth that drives us away from living our dreams, passions, and true talent and consequently realizing abundant wealth from those gifts and inspiration. And it is not only a major money myth, but it is a big fat convenient excuse keeping you from investing in yourself.

I know that many of you are going to be totally offended at this one. But if you really want to live your purpose, your gift, your talent— nothing, and I mean nothing, should stop you or distract you. The biggest myth that Power Brokers Perched atop the Mountain of Money (most all of it paid to them by us); is that you must have funding to accomplish your dreams. There is only room for one real dream and that’s theirs. Read the Rest of This Article »

9 Tips to Control Every Meeting and Get What You Want

Are you nailing job interviews, closing new clients, and maximizing every meeting? Most likely you aren’t, but I’ll show you how I blew a huge meeting and what you can learn from my mistakes.

Bottom line . . . you need to prepare for key meetings. It doesn’t matter if you are on an interview, auditioning for a TV show, meeting a prospect for your business, or trying to get your kid into a swanky private school. It doesn’t matter if the meeting is at your office or theirs. You need to invest some of your other 8 hours into preparing for your big meetings.

Why? It’s simple. If you don’t prepare for a meeting, someone else will control it. If you have something important to say, you might not get the chance to share it. And when I say “control,” I don’t mean some Machiavellian thing where you need to dominate the discussion. Control the meeting means you know what you want to say and that you navigate the discussion to make sure your key points are addressed. Read the Rest of This Article »

Making Money vs. Creating Abundance

To make money or to create Abundance, what’s the difference? Seems like a minor distinction, doesn’t it?

On the surface it is. However, after exploring the subject of abundance in depth, I woke up this morning with an epiphany.

Trying to deliberately make money, doesn’t work.

Correction. It works enough to fool us into thinking we can deliberately make money, but as it turns out; we are only chasing it. It teases us into thinking that “making money” is an actual skill. On a certain level that’s true, but only if you have the printing press to print it! Read the Rest of This Article »

Make More Money and Live Your Passion: Become a Cre8tor

Image courtesy of Tim Hussin/Meanderings

Your financial life has a certain trajectory — similar to a train on a track. There will be twists and turns, but you can easily determine where you will end up if you stay on the financial track you’re currently on. What if the traditional methods of working hard, cutting expenses, and saving don’t work for you? Brown bagging it every day won’t cause you to jump tracks and end up somewhere completely different. The guy living in the mansion overlooking the ocean didn’t buy that house by clipping coupons, and the woman passing you in a $400,000 Maybach didn’t get that way by eliminating her morning latte. For most of us, the gap between where we are and where want to be is so wide that we’ll never be able to close it by following traditional financial advice. Read the Rest of This Article »

Debt Advice – The Facts

It’s a complex world, but most of us still manage to get on with it: whatever our job may be, we turn up every day and tackle the challenges that come our way.

When it comes to debt, though, it’s not so straightforward. Many people end up with serious debt problems they just don’t know how to deal with. Why is that?

• It could be because debt’s a complicated subject, full of unfamiliar terms and issues: repayment terms, APRs, early repayment penalties, and so on.
• It could be because we’re content to leave the details to the lenders. At the end of the day, it’s often tempting to assume that one set of terms and conditions is much like another – so all we want to know is ‘Can I borrow the money or not?’
• It could be because it’s just too easy to get credit – or at least it was until the credit crunch occurred. There are too many people who simply have too many debts: multiple credit cards, multiple store cards, an overdraft, a personal loan, a couple of hire purchase deals…
• It could be because we leave it too long before we look for debt advice.

In short, it’s easy to see how so many people who can cope with life’s other challenges still have a hard time coping with debt. Read the Rest of This Article »

How Do You Increase Your Income?

Image courtesy of Stephen Barnwell.

I was in an “on-line forum” the other day when someone asked the question, “How do you increase your income?” The person asking the question was no longer working their “day-job,” and was seeking to make money in other ways.

This person was making a few dollars each week teaching kids how to play basketball, but was looking to make additional money.

The Solution

In order to increase your income, you must increase your value; “YOU” must become more valuable. Read the Rest of This Article »

Ben Franklin’s Real Way to Wealth – Part III Conclusion

Franklin ended the Way to Wealth with this ironic statement:

The people heard it, and approved the doctrine, and immediately practiced the contrary, just as if it had been a common sermon; for the vendor opened, and they began to buy extravagantly, notwithstanding all his cautions.

Franklin knew that knowing the right way to live is much easier than living the right way. Being industrious and frugal each and every day is a tough task, one that most people will never master. It takes an enormous amount of self-discipline and perseverance to become wealthy and successful. Most people who read these posts and the Way to Wealth will agree with the advice but will soon forget it and go on making foolish decisions. This isn’t going to change; people can’t be helped that don’t want to help themselves. Read the Rest of This Article »

Ben Franklin’s Real Way to Wealth – Part II Frugality

The second section of the Way to Wealth imparts the importance of frugality. It isn’t enough just to earn money, you have to be smart about what you do with it. In this collection of sayings Franklin describes how a lack of frugality will cause financial ruin and describes the temptations that lead people to spend foolishly. Read the Rest of This Article »