The art of getting rick quick can be summarized with one word: luck. The key to getting rich quick is, in many cases, to do the opposite of what you should do if your goal is to retire at 65 or 70 with plans to golf three days each week. To get rich quick, you need to start by ignoring your family, your community and your faith and instead focus entirely on yourself. Ready?
Here are the surefire ways to get rich quick:
- Quit your job today.If you stay at your job, it may take the rest of your career to accumulate a million dollars—if you ever do. Start your quest for instant wealth by walking out the door. Never mind the bridges you’ll burn, you’re going to be rich, quick! Whatever you do, don’t stay at your job for the next 30 years contributing to your 401k—that surefire way to wealth will take too long.
This article was first published at FamilyHow.com; to read the entire article, click here. It is also included in my latest book 925 Ideas to Help You Save Money, Get Out of Debt and Retire A Millionaire So You Can Leave Your Mark on the World available for free at Smashwords.
11
Listen, I’m not the guy to ask about style, diamond quality or color. I’m just the guy to coach you on buying the engagement ring. The only thing you’ve likely purchased that will be more expensive than the ring is a car—and only if you’ve bought a nice car!
Two to Three Month’s Salary: There is an old convention that a ring should cost two to three month’s salary. It isn’t fair. It may not be wise. It is absurd. But, you may be feeling like you need to live up to that standard. If you are early in your career, you are likely earning around $3,500 per month, depending upon your career, that would give you a budget of $7,000 to $10,500. For your sake, I hope you didn’t just finish your cardiac residency—three months of a cardiac surgeon’s salary would get attention at Tiffany’s, for sure.
To heck with convention: While you should want your future spouse to recognize the symbol of your love for her as a sacrifice, you may want to consider whether or not some of the money you might spend on a ring could be better spent on the down payment for a new home.
Don’t Borrow: Nothing says, “I don’t really love you that much” like borrowing the money for the ring.
This article was first published at FamilyHow.com; to read the entire article, click here. It is also included in my latest book 925 Ideas to Help You Save Money, Get Out of Debt and Retire A Millionaire So You Can Leave Your Mark on the World available for free at Smashwords.
Devin Thorpe has collected over 150 essays on personal and family finance to help you learn how to be happier with your money, to live more frugally and investment more wisely.
925 Ideas… is an easy and readable guide to help your family find financial peace. Author Devin D. Thorpe explains:
1) how you and your spouse can find agreement on money matters,
2) how to teach your kids about money,
3) how to pay for your children’s college education,
4) how to live like a millionaire (spoiler alert! Frugally)
5) how to come up with $25,000 in a crisis
6) how to make ends meet on one income
7) how to get out of debt and stay out of debt
8) why home ownership should be your family’s top financial priority
9) how to ask your boss for a raise
10) how to use your finances to do more good in the world.
And much more!
Devin D. Thorpe is the author of the highly regarded book, Your Mark on the World and is the founder of the Your Mark on the World Organization, championing social good. The Your Mark on the World Organization believes that people, no matter their level of income, can give more and do more to make the world a better place. The empowering lessons of 925 Ideas will enable you to leave your mark on the world.
The book is available for FREE at iTunes, Smwashwords, Diesel-ebooks, Kobo and Sony. It is also available at Amazon for just $0.99.
Rabbi Benny Zippel, the extraordinary leader of Utah’s Chabad Lubavitch, has created a program called Project HEART (Hebrew Education for At Risk Teens) working with mostly students from out-of-state attending boarding schools for troubled kids in Utah. Project Heart is our cause of the week.
The Rabbi is seen here with one of the students, Nathan, he served. Nathan’s story is included in Your Mark On The World. We previously wrote about Rabbi Zippel, who is one of the most prominent religious leaders in Utah.
This week, we’ll donate $3 to Chabad Lubavitch for every Kindle version of Your Mark On The World sold on Amazon.com. What can you do to help?
It isn’t unusual for a family to come up a little short at the end of the month. How a family handles that situation may matter more than you think.
If your family comes up short by $100 every month and borrows that money on a credit card with 12% interest, the deficit in the second month will have grown to $101. The next month, the shortfall will have grown to a bit more than $102. Within a year, the shortfall will be $113. After two year years, $127 and after three years, $143. You’ll also have a new debt totaling $4,308 at the end of 36 months.
If you borrow the money on a more expensive credit card, say one with a 24% interest rate, after three years the monthly deficit will have grown to $204 per month. At the higher interest rate, your debt will have grown to $5,200.
This article first appeared at FamilyHow.com. To read the rest of the article, click here. A collection of my articles will soon be released as a book.
If you find yourself wishing every month that you could save just a little bit but you never seem to be able to put anything away for the future, try doing nothing for thirty days. Enlist the help of everyone in the family and for one month, go on a spending fast. Of course there are many—probably most things you do—that you can’t stop doing, but many things you can quit altogether for 30 days.
Consider going one month without any of the following:
- Movies. For one month, you could go without paying to see, rent, watch, view or attend a single movie. Your eyes would not fall out. Your heart would not cease to beat. You could spend exactly zero on movies for one month.
- Fine dining. You could easily go for a single month without eating over white linens. Most people enjoy the treat of a fine meal once in a while—some more often than others. There is nothing wrong with it, but skipping the white linen tables for a month may make quite a contribution to your savings account.
This article first appeared on FamilyHow.com; click here to read the rest of the article.
Investing for a college fund is vitally important. How you invest the money is almost as important as how much you save. A bad investment could leave you without any college savings. Consider the following guidelines to help you invest for your child’s college savings—assuming you have at least 10 years before your child will finish college.
Take only low to moderate risk. Risk-taking increases expected returns, but also increases the probability of loss. Even with 20 years until your child finishes college, there may not be enough time to recover from big losses. Keep your college fund investments conservative.
Individual stocks, even mutual funds invested in stocks, may be too risky for most people. Virtually any stock can drop in value. Mutual funds that invest in stocks can drop dramatically—as we saw in 2008 and 2009. You don’t want to have your college fund invested in stocks when the market tanks.
This article originally appeared on FamilyHow.com. To read the entire article, click here.
The Congo Leadership Initiative (CLI), which we’ve covered before, is our “Cause of the Week.”
CLI is working to address the myriad problems in the Democratic Republic of The Congo, arguably the poorest country on the planet.
Nathaniel Houghton is a remarkable young social entrepreneur who has devoted himself full time to driving real social change in the Congo. Great Nonprofits recognizes CLI as one of its “Top-Rated” nonprofits.
CLI is presently running a fundraising campaign at StartSomeGood.com to help them fund their program to help train Congo’s next generation of leaders.
This week beginning November 5, 2012, we’ll donate $3 for every Kindle copy of Your Mark On The World sold on Amazon.com to support CLI.
Devin D. Thorpe
Thank heaven for entrepreneurs. Unless you are one of the one-in-three who work for the government, if you have a job, you have an entrepreneur to thank. Someone back in time launched that business and created the job that feeds your family. If you’d like to be an entrepreneur, the following tips will help you succeed at launching your own business while you maintain a happy and healthy home environment.
- Remember it will be tough.Entrepreneurship is not for the weak. It is going to be tough. A lot tougher than you think. Really.
- Talk about it.Sit down with your spouse and talk about the implications of your plan. Make sure that your spouse is 100 percent behind you. It may take time, but this is the most critical step for maintaining a happy home with an entrepreneur in it. It may also be more important than you think for the success of the business. Because an entrepreneur has to invest so many hours into ramping up the business, and may not add a dime to the family wallet for months, spousal support can make or break the dream. Many entrepreneurs have said their spouses were key to their success.
This article originally appeared at FamilyHow.com. Click here to read the rest.
