John Durham is thinking....

Why does your name sound so familiar?

LOL - I just "found" you via Google. So congrats.

Thanks John,

One moment in my life that changed the way I thought about investment was an intensive weekend with a now obscure information marketer and retired accountant Damien Parker.

That discussion about why a person that quits smoking should have $10K after 10 years or the person who always ate generic brands should have saved $67.44 every week...

...but fast forward ten years and where's the money???

Back in the nineties....ok old talk here...

I learned that you only made a saving if you could quantify that saving and invest it somewhere.

Damien taught me to negotiate savings and then invest them as if you never made them in the first place.

Simple...

No?

Save $10 and then put it somewhere.

It is a shame that most people that know these things are not young.

The advantage of youth and time to invest is a big malaise that inflicts pain on everyone who didn't listen when they should have.

Your advice should be heeded because the times of "free money" and "easy credit" are ending.

If you have some spare cash...and are young...observe the cycles....

...opportunity awaits.

Yes, we all should invest, even if it's just 100 a month, cash that is invested today, can sustain you for tomorrow.

I always ask this question, if you had a near fatal stroke, you would recover but working is no longer an option... how would you generate an income??

My girlfriend, is currently generating about 60 usd annually. Next year that will be about 120ish, year after that about 600. In 5 years from now she will be generating a part time jobs work of income just by waking up in the morning.

People ask how to get out of the rat race... how about trading in a full time job by the time you are 40?

Sometimes I think that those that are self employed and rely on creativity and can greatly influence their income based on their creativity are generally the ones that suffer most from NOT engaging in long term investments or long term planning.

For me personally doing something like paying off a house in 20 years is completely contrary to how I think. The thought of needing 20 years to actually accomplish something would make me suicidal lol I can't even imagine not being bored to tears after living in the same house for more than 3 years.

If I get focused on wanting something specific, it doesn't matter what the price tag is my brain just goes into how do I accomplish that goal in a maximum of 6 months.

Thankfully with the influence of my wife and some good advisers the roller coaster has been smoothed to some hills and valleys ;-)

One of the best books to read and understand is the richest man in Babylon it may take several reads to fully grasp it, even though it is written in a non complicated way.

Further to reading the book is more so then the application of what you read over a longer term.

In many ways it is tightly related to what Peter Lessard wrote the other day in will this business model make me money http://www.warriorforum.com/offline-...ou-charge.html in that if people understood that as you travel along in life if you are able to structure how you save / invest your money, the less stress you have on how do I make more, you are then less stressed and able to relax and make better decisions into what comes next.

all sounds easy, but it is not and probably why so many people battling end up here buying shiny nuggets of hope, the sad thing is if they do find a little rainbow, it usually dissipates into thin air without some solid backing or thought into a little investment, and so like a march fly the life cycle of life starts again.

The Richest Man in Babylon is mostly a free download these days in PDF format or can be purchased as a hard cover in stores.

I was in the home mortgage business for a while.

I can think of two prospects or clients who were not spending almost all of their income.
It did not matter how much they made. Employed or self employed.

I noted that people are financially naïve but like to think they know what they are doing.
A little knowledge about getting a good credit score is dangerous.

The worst example I recall is a self-employed software engineer who bragged about how well
he can mange money. Yes, he did have a good credit score and income, but his banks still
owned 90% of his home, cars, and other toys like ATVs. He had no savings whatsoever
and a couple of teenagers heading to college.

One of his banks talked him into putting his new Suburban on a third mortgage for the
mortgage interest tax deduction. (Which, I believe, is not a valid use of that tax break.
Bank loan officers get - or did then - commissions or bonuses for selling loans.)
He could have had a 0%, or maybe 2.99%, loan from GM for five years. Instead, he took
the approximate 1/4% tax deduction to put the Suburban on a 15 year note.

So, I'd say most people need to admit they don't know what they are doing and just go
get with a great financial advisor.

I also think that parents and schools can do a much better at teaching people how to use
money as the tool it can be.

Dan