People say the craziest things about money and personal finance. Things like… “I’d be bored if I retired early.” “I won’t need as much money in retirement as I do now.” “I like to work, so I just plan to keep on working in my eighties and nineties.” When I hear statements like this, I […]

Have you ever noticed that although your lawn takes careful watering and fertilizer to look its best, the weeds and thorns seem to grow and flourish without effortlessly? With no help, these lawn enemies are always lurking, waiting for the opportunity to cheat you out of a great looking lawn. And so it is with […]

It’s easy to spend energy primarily on today’s immediate concerns. Yet without a clear-eyed assessment of the present and the future you can end up with a future you really don’t want. So, what’s a freedom fighter supposed to do? Simple. Modify your identity. Say what? You see, change means reinvention. You have to choose […]

When, and how, will it end? With the stock market making all-time new highs on a regular basis, this is the question I’m most asked by friends. Indeed, most investors both simultaneously love and hate bull markets. They love to see their portfolios swelling due to price increases, but as they swell, those same investors […]

I wasn’t born wealthy. Far from it. I grew up poor. Three kids to one bedroom type of poor. Neither parent finished high school type of poor. Nobody (before me) in my family had ever went to college, type of poor. Hardly a “hot out the gates” start in life. And you know what? None […]

As you might expect, I’m often asked for financial advice. Friends and friends-of-friends will hit me up with questions they have about money and investing. And I’m happy to help. After all, that’s why I blog and also why there’s nothing for sale on my blog – I simply want to share what I know […]

I’m often asked this question – “How much money do I need before I can retire early and be financially free?” My answer is – “It depends.” It depends on this… How much happiness you think you’ll be able to withstand in retirement. Some people can’t withstand that much happiness, so a little amount of […]

If you haven’t read George Clason’s seminal classic “The Richest Man in Bablyon”, I highly recommend that you pick up a copy or just look for the full text online. Originally Clason distributed his financial wisdom thru a series of informational pamphlets distributed by banks and insurance companies. But in 1926, the pamphlets were bound […]

Americans are angry. They’re angry because things have never looked so different. Never before has there been such a divide in our country. Never before has there been such a separation. Never before has there been such an obvious gap between… the haves and have not’s. And we know this about anger – behind every […]

A friend-of-a-friend asked me for financial advice recently. This lady had gotten herself into a financial bind, whereby she will now “unexpectedly” need another $5,000 a month to cover expenses. She wanted to know my thoughts on the best way to go about gaining the extra money. The reason I put “unexpectedly” in quotes, is […]

There’s a lot of self-improvement literature out there telling people that they should go “easy on themselves”. While this may sound good in theory, I’ve never seen anyone accomplish anything worthwhile by taking the easy route. The most common way I know to get things done, to achieve and to motivate yourself is to be […]