A Financial Rant

(Originally posted this on Facebook and G+. I decided it was worthy of posting here to keep for future reference.)

Big ol' rant / lamentation warning.

It is sad to me how poorly, in my view, the last few generations have done for themselves financially. And improvement doesn't seem on the rise overall.

I don't expect everyone to love spreadsheets like I do. We each have our interests. I love budgeting, I love mvelopes.com, I love Strongbrook, I love planning ahead, I love all of that.

But love it or not, certain proficiencies in financial areas of life make a big impact in how we are able to live and pursue the interests we do have.

Give yourself the class you never had in school! Here's a few books for personal finance 101:
* The Prophetic Model of Prosperity (I can get you a pdf - just ask)
* The Total Money Makeover
* The Richest Man in Babylon
* Rich Dad Poor Dad
* The Jackrabbit Factor
* The Strait Path to Real Estate Wealth
* The Anatomy of Peace (for anyone that has to budget with someone else, e.g. a spouse)

These are all easy reads, but please please please don't read just one of them and call it your one and only true gospel of finance - read them all and get some different ideas going so you can determine the best path for you!

Here are some more books for personal finance 102 if you wish:
* The Millionaire Next Door
* Get a Financial Life
* Whatever Happened to Penny Candy
* Cashflow Quadrant
* Think & Grow Rich
* Getting to Yes (Again, for anyone that has to budget with someone else, e.g. a spouse)

Spend one penny more than you earn each month and you have stress; spend one penny less, and you have peace.

If you've tried to do this before and couldn't, if you've tried to budget before and failed, then remember William Edwards Hickson's proverb:
"Tis a lesson you should heed
Try, try, try again.
If at first you don't succeed,
Try, try, try again."

If you think it would be worth your while, find someone to help you! Find someone to mentor you and/or be your accountability partner!

A word or seven about retirement. I don't know how many people throw their money at their 401k and forget about it WHICH IS, after all, what we're taught to do. Here's the thing... have you ever calculated it out to see if it will be enough? If the answer is no, then PLEASE Please please take the time to do so!

"But I don't know how!" Well I don't know how to be a Dad either, but I'm doing it, so nix that excuse now! Pull some numbers out of your ear if you need, but think about it.

Actually, re-think about it for a moment. Does it even make sense what we're doing? We're saving up a huge sum of money, just so we can spend it down come retirement time. That's the most pessimistic, "I hope I die soon enough" pattern I can possibly come up with! It's not the 401k that's broken, it's the foundation the 401k was built on in the first place!!

It makes NO sense to me to build up a huge pile of money, only to spend it down. It's a very scarce-minded, selfish, hoarding type of model! And yes, there ARE other options!

Many years ago, retirement was the family farm. Once your children took over running it, they would take care of you by its production. And that's the principle here! A farm would continue to produce even after you, personally, no longer worked it. Just because the family farm isn't an option for most people today doesn't mean the principle it stands on needs be tossed out with it!!

Talk about throwing out the baby with the bathwater!

Find investments that reliably produce income!! Whether it's a family farm or real estate or something else, this is a principle on which to base a retirement plan -- not hoard and spend, binge and purge!


Is this why I love Strongbrook so much? Of course it is! It builds on this principle. But Strongbrook isn't the world's only viable option! If Strongbrook doesn't work for you, find something else! But find something that will produce for you long after you are done putting time and effort into it!

Ah well, perhaps my rant has done something to offer a new mindset consideration.

I'll conclude with some other books I also find valuable - 200 level course material, perhaps:
* Becoming Your Own Banker
* How Privatized Banking Really Works
* As a Man Thinketh
* Man's Search for Meaning
* The Four Agreements
* The Screwtape Letters
* How to Win Friends and Influence People
* The Conscious Creator

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