Lebron The Quitter

Please take a moment to admire the great LeBron for the special talent he is. It never gets old looking at the King's history. So many accomplishments Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan will never achieve:

1. Bronze 2006
2. Bronze 2004
3. NBA finals sweep 2007
4. Go entire Finals scoring 20 pts only one time
5. Quit on his team the year after he promises a championship
6. Dunked on by a highschool kid and then confiscate tape
7. Bail on the dunk contest 9 times
8. Only able to win a ring with 2 superstars
9. 7th best player in NBA finals series.
10. Average 1.8 pts in the 4th quarter of NBA finals.
11. Lose not 1, not 2, but 3 times in the Finals.
12. Host a national televised TV show to leave his team
13. Play on the same team as his moms boyfriend
14. Go 2 for 18 in an NBA playoff game.
15. Get stuffed by a player under 6 feet (Nate Robinson)
16. Flop every single game in the playoffs
17. Choke 4 out of 5 finals games by dropping FG% by 18
18. Vow revenge for 2007 sweep, then proceed to choke again

Try Living Below Your Means

Remember the old saying that "A Penny Saved is A Penny Earned" made famous by the master of frugal, Ben Franklin? Over the years, there has been much written about how you should forget about watching the pennies and focus on building your business, increasing your means and all that other nonsense. Okay, maybe it’s not nonsense, but for the 95% of people who are LAZY and are NOT going to build a business, invest in investment real estate properties or strike it rich with the next Microsoft, I offer a simpler solution – one that’s been around for decades. Try Living Below Your Means.

Andrew Tobias in his book "The Only Investment Guide You Will Ever Need" wrote about living below your means and saving money. The title of his chapter was "A Penny Saved Is Two Pennies Earned" seems contrary to what Franklin was talking about, but it’s really not. What Tobias was getting at was that if you save a penny or dollar and don’t spend it, it’s like earning two pennies or dollars. How? Simple.

While the book has some good insights into investing (it was written 25 years ago and some things have changed), the subject of saving money is one of the best I’ve seen because of it’s clarity and ability to get straight to the point. His lesson about 50% money is really critical to changing your mindset. You heard me right, 50% money, which is what he writes about.

Tobias shows you in a couple of paragraphs how the last few dollars you earn are worth only 50 cents after you pay federal, state, local, social security and Medicare taxes. So if you make $10 bucks an hour, you’re only taking home $5 at the end of the week. It’s just that you can’t see the 50% tax because when you look at your paycheck and the amount you paid in taxes, you’ll see what percent you paid on average.


“Yeah, but I’ve tried living below my means, but……”
No buts about it! Take a look at some of the following and see if you can’t cut that budget of yours!

Tips for Living Below Your Means

- Don't drink alcohol, don't smoke. You’ll save a ton of money, live longer and feel better. (You, not me!)
- Learn to cook. It’s cheaper to eat at home and save your left overs for cold cuts and sandwiches.
- Dine out less often.
- Bring your lunch to work. Say no to sodas and other junk food and vending machines. If you need your junk food fix, bring it with you.
- Pay your highest interest rate cards first to save money on interest charges.
- If you carry a balance on your cards, pay your bill as soon as it arrives. You’ll pay less in interest.
- Pay off your credit cards in full every month. (May take a while till you are ready for this!)
- Save for your vacations in advance. Don’t pay with a credit card and carry a balance.
- Kill Your TV. Well, not really, just turn it off and invest in yourself by reading books, listening to tapes or calling on investment properties.
- Borrow books from the Library.
- Carpool to work if you can.
- Don’t order wine with your dinner. Drink water! You gotta drive home right?

- Skip dessert and coffee when dining out, eat it at home.
- Eat "OUT" at friends’ houses instead of going out to a restaurant. It’s worth the extra effort.
- Don’t lease, buy your USED car.
- Use coupons and shop on double or triple coupon days. Most people don’t use coupons, only 1.5%
- Try figuring out the cost per ounce. Usually the smaller the bottle, the more you’re paying per ounce. That’s why warehouse clubs have great deals – bigger sizes
- Buy store brands. If you don’t like the store brand’s taste/quality, switch back, but at least give it a try.
- Find the place around you that has the cheapest gas.
- If you’re not using your membership at the local gym, quit.
- Return your videos on time. Late fees are killers.
- Say NO to the ATM. Take out cash in advance and put it in a drawer at home.
- Take out money when you need it. If that’s too much work, then ONLY use your bank’s ATM, save the fees. Same rule for using ATMs at the grocery store.
- Shop for groceries on a full stomach, you’ll buy less. Try shopping sober…
- Cancel subscriptions.
- Buy your clothes out of season. J. Paul Getty was quoted as saying he bought his straw hats in the winter and he had MILLIONS of dollars and yet was concerned with saving a few pennies. Think end of season.
- Movies? Go to matinees or go to the library and take them out for free! If you go to the movies, bring your own snacks. Do you really need to spend $3.00 for a dollar bag of Skittles?

VALUE YOUR MONEY

- Pay Yourself First – Set Up an Automatic withdrawal from your account/paycheck every time you get paid. Aim to save 10% of your net pay. - Before you spend every dollar, ask yourself if the purchase is a good use of your money. After all, you worked hard for that money. You might as well get a good return (fun is a return as well) from it.
- On purchases over $100, wait two weeks before buying. IF you still want the item, purchase it.
- Establish a debt-repayment plan to get you out of debt. Pay off High Interest debt first, then when a balance is paid off, attack the next highest interest loan/balance. The Richest Man in Babylon suggested allocating 20% of your pay toward debt repayment. Why make the credit card company or banker rich, why not make yourself rich instead? Interest you’re paying is working AGAINST YOU. The whole Idea is to have money work FOR you, not the other way around.
- Create a Cash Can – Put all your loose change in it at the end of every day. Never pay with ‘coins’ always pay with dollars. Deposit the change in your account each month
- Create a Mad Money Fund – Sure all this stuff sounds fine and dandy, but it seems like you’d be cutting out EVERYTHING and living in a shack. Fine, create what I call a Mad Money Fund. Set aside a couple of bucks a week into a separate bank account or another Cash Can and this money is yours…to SPEND…on whatever you want!!!!! Seriously.

Okay, I’m almost done. Essentially what I’m saying is that there are 1,001 different ways to save more money in your budget every month. Only YOU can DECIDE where you’re going to cut back. I suggest that you make those choices that will not leave you feeling deprived as in, "I’m not enjoying this thing called life anymore because I’m trying to free up some cash to invest." Life is about making choices. You can choose to have instant gratification, but that often burdens you under a mountain of debt. Live too frugally and you’ll never make it because your psyche will revolt.

For the skeptics, critics or the just plain uneducated, before you flame me with responses, check out The Millionaire Next Door and once you’ve read it, you’ll realize that the majority of millionaires in this country LIVE BELOW THEIR MEANS.

Just learn to manage and control your spending habits. Make those tough choices. Pay yourself first, set aside 20% or more for debt repayment, give something back in the form of money, time or service to charity and prosper. It’s a simple path, but not an easy one to follow. I suggest you:

Concentrate first on learning to live below your means
Take control of your cash flow by managing your expenses
Increase your knowledge by reading up on ways to increase your means
Decide how you’re going to "GET RICH"
Create your plan of action
Take action…duh!
By the time you’re ready to put your "GET RICH" plan in motion, you should have some extra money every month thanks to managing your expenses that can be put toward building your empire.

So what are you waiting for? As Rich Dad Said - Mind Your Own Business and TAKE ACTION!!!!

Be Prosperous!

Ask A Thief

I had quite the interesting conversation this weekend with a person who happened to be a former burglar. It was great timing because I figured that if you wanted to know the best place to hide your money from a burglar, a former burglar was the person to ask.

I started off simply and was not surprised by the answer to the question “where is the best place to hide your money?”

“At the bank,” he said with a sly grin

When I rephrased and asked where the best place to hide money and valuables in the house would be if you had such items there, I was taken a bit by surprise by his answer:

“It doesn’t matter how clever you think you are or where you hide it in your house, if I have enough time, I would be able to find where you stash your valuables,” he said bluntly. He then explained that what was much more important than the actual place where you hide your valuables is that you understand a burglar’s motivations. Basically, he has two:

1. To steal your money and valuables
2. To get out of the house as quickly as possible with these goods

When you begin to think of it from this perspective, how you should hide your money changes a bit. Obviously, you don’t want to leave all your money in the places where the burglar will first look: dresser drawers, drawers by phones, desks, closets, a safe (if not bolted down), boxes, jewelry boxes, purse, etc.). That being said, you also don’t want to hide all of your money too well for the following reason:

“If I can’t find money and valuables in the normal places I usually find them, I would continue to tear the house apart until I found something. Remember, the first rule is to to steal money and valuables. We’ll keep looking until we find something.”

Your best strategy, then, is to actually leave some money in obvious places for the burglar to quickly find (the same applies if you keep all your money in the bank). This can not only save your other stash of money, but may actually keep the burglar from destroying your place as he looks for where you have hidden your money. If they believe they may have found the cash that you have in the house, they are much less likely to keep looking (remember, they want to get out asap). In the end, if you hide all your money well, you may win a moral victory in not letting the burglar find the money, but you’ll likely have much more damage done to your place that will end up costing you more in the long run.

The next obvious question was “How much money should you leave for the burglar to find?”

“It depends on the area where you live. If you are in a upscale community and only leave $100, I would assume there is more and keep looking. In a different part of town $100 would convince me I found all the money that was there and leave.”

When it comes to hiding valuables, his suggestion is to mark an envelope in an easily accessible drawer or with files by your computer with “Bank Safe Deposit Box” on the outside and a list of items on the inside. This will tip off the burglar that your most valuable items are stored at the bank and will discourage him from tearing up your house looking for them.

So the question of where is the best places to hide money still hadn’t been answered?

His number one recommendation for money was in toys in a young child’s room. As he explained, young children don’t have money, they have an abundance of toys and most parents don’t trust a child around money. Therefore, parents will rarely hide money there. In addition, when money is hidden, it is usually hidden away neatly and securely — a child’s room is rarely a neat place making it an unlikely place for money to be hidden. Plus with all the stuff in a child’s room, it is not someplace that a burglar can search quickly and get out (rule #2).

If you have a safe, it should be professionally bolted down so it can’t easily be removed. If you leave some token money for the burglar to find in the places they normally look for money, then anyplace you wouldn’t normally consider a place to hide valuables will usually keep those valuables safe. The underside of trash cans, inside laundry detergent, inside false packaging (but only if the packaging appears real and is in the appropriate place – “When you find a Campbell’s soup can in the bedroom, you have a pretty good idea there is money inside”) were some examples he gave.

You need to be smart about where you hide the money. He related one time a person had left wads of money inside the empty battery areas of electronics around the house. The problem was that although he had not found the hidden money at first, the electronics themselves were worth money and he took those to sell. Only when he got home and was checking that everything worked did he find the hidden cash. The person hid the money well, but not in a good place.

One last tip from a personal finance angle – if you do hide money someplace around the house, make sure that your significant other (or someone close) knows where your hiding place is. If something unfortunate happens to you and nobody knows where your hidden stash is, it’s unlikely that they will be able to find it if a burglar isn’t able to find it. Worse, it could very easily be accidentally thrown away depending on where it is hidden.