When most young men and women start out in the workplace, they typically start at the bottom. The very bottom. Scrubbing toilets, cleaning floors, and taking on the most tedious boring work. They usually do the all the menial jobs that their more experienced elders wouldn’t touch with a 10-foot pole.
These junior workers are (of course) loaded down with student debt, and own very little in the way of assets…
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What? September is over already? When did that happen? Time really does fly! Unlike last month, the Tako family spent our September primarily at home. School started back-up and Tako Jr. #1 began the first grade!
Now that I don’t need to be watching the kids all day, I took advantage of all that extra time…
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If you spend any time around the personal finance “blog-o-sphere”, you’re bound to encounter dozens if not hundreds of articles extolling the virtues of spending less and saving more. You’re also likely to have heard the message that “anybody can reach Financial Independence” if they really put their mind to it and save 50% or more of their income.
Lately though, I’ve started to change my mind about some of these core messages…
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Something been on my mind that I need to talk about. It’s been on my mind for awhile now. The question has been bugging me for over a year — Should I “go public” with this blog and reveal our true identities for the world to see?
Or, should I remain completely anonymous and protect our true identities?
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Do you keep a summer reading list? Bill Gates sure does. Every spring he publishes his summer reading list for the world to see. I usually take a look at it every year to see if there’s some books that interest me.
Like Gates, I’m a big believer in reading and continuous self education. Whether you’re a billionaire or a mere millionaire, reading is one of the most important ways any human can learn and grow…
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If you’re a regular reader of my monthly expense reports, you might start to believe that our monthly budge is super optimized and hyper-efficient. It’s a total illusion. The reality is, we’re NOT super optimized.
Our lifestyle is nowhere near 100% efficient or optimized for maximum savings. We do this by design…
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Everybody wants to be rich. OK, maybe not everybody… but most people! The process of actually becoming rich however, is another story. It’s not easy.
I used to believe that anybody could achieve Financial Independence before a traditional retirement age. If only they applied themselves. Once reaching the fabled financial status, they could retire early, travel the world, get in shape, or donate their time to worthy causes. I believed all of this could happen for anybody, just so long as they got exposure to the right information.
Maybe it was naive of me, but I thought anyone could do it. Now, I’m not so certain.
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Do you feel wealthy? Almost certainly the booming stock market has people feeling richer than ever, but according to a recent survey by Ameriprise Financial, the vast majority of American millionaires with between $1 and $5 million dollars don’t consider themselves wealthy. Most of the surveyed millionaires consider themselves as having a “middle-class” lifestyle. Only 13% of these millionaires consider themselves “wealthy” or “upper-class”…
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If each moment in life has a season, then June was definitely one of the busy seasons. The month just flew by! For starters, Tako Jr. #1 finished kindergarten and I went back to my full-time stay-at-home-dad gig. I decided to take it easy on blogging this summer, so I could spend a lot more time with Tako Jr. #1. So far it’s working out great, and I think he’s having a lot of fun…
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