The optimism of the young …

When you are just starting your working career – or perhaps you are still studying for your career – it can be hard to think of anything more exciting and fun than working at a job that you love.

So, when I talk about retirement – as I do from time to time – I can imagine that a large chunk of my audience is looking for the ‘close window’ button?

Well, don’t!

[AJC: Also, keep reading this particular post even if you AREN’T young … I have included a lot of back-links, because I want you to review some of the ground that we have covered so far, with this blog .. the idea of Future Vision is THAT important to your financial success!]

Recently, I suggested that most people fail financially, not because their dreams are too big, but because their dreams are TOO SMALL!

Now, this seems counter-intuitive, therefore some of the comments were interesting … the one that I felt expressed the counterpoint the best was from Alex, who said:

I don’t plan on quitting working anytime soon. My “retirement” is to retire from working 9-5 and work for myself. I wouldn’t call that work since I know I will enjoy it, if not, I can always pick a new thing to work on. Life is simple and fun if you have more choices right?

I responded:

It’s my thesis that one day working will no longer be fun, for any of us … if you agree that it’s possible that you will one day feel the same way, then it’s your job NOW to decide WHEN that will be, WHAT you’ll be doing instead of working, and HOW MUCH it will cost to do it – and, if you’re no longer earning money, WHERE will it come from?

The younger that you are when you get this, the more chance that you have of either:

1. Achieving a larger goal, given enough time, than your friends and peers, or

2. Achieving a more modest goal, but much earlier than your friends or peers.

Simply applying Making Money 101 principles as outlined in this blog will, given enough time, compound your savings to a large’ish sum. Not anywhere near large enough for me – but, that’s another story – if that provides enough for you … great … you’ll have a reasonably stress free (but, long-working) life.

But, if you aspire to an unconventionally wealthy and rewarding lifestyle, where you have replaced work with even more rewarding activities, while you are still young enough to enjoy them (e.g. 29, 39, or – hope YOU don’t need to wait THIS long – 49 years old!) then you will need to sit down and dream your large dreams NOW …

… then wake up, splash some cold water on your face and get straight to work applying my Making Money 201 principles!

If you do, you will soon be keeping your very large nest-egg safe with my Making Money 301 principles – and, at a much earlier age than me or most others.

I’m 49 y.o. – officially retired – and I think that’s WAY TOO OLD!

So will you, if you just sit back and wait because you are still young, and still excited about your work or your business or your whatever … if you follow my advice, these will still be your fun and exciting means to a much more valuable end, so …

… start now!

AJC.

PS If you are a ‘young adult’, Ryan at Bounteo has a great series specifically focussed on investing for young adults … why don’t you check it out, and let me know what you think?

What's the probability that you'll even read this post?

Well, if we look at all the billions of people on this planet [AJC: is it 6 billion or 8 billion now … damn, I lost count] …  the chances are minuscule.

If we take all the people who use the Internet daily … still microscopic.

If we take all the people who read Personal Finance blog … not much chance.

If we pick all people who read the self-prophesying headline to this post …. bloody great! You see, it WAS a trick question of sorts …

… all to lead me on to the subject of Probability … as in “it’s probable that your eyes will glaze over just about now, and you’ll click back to Pamela Anderson’s home page” … brought to my attention by a recent post from an excellent blog by All Financial Matters, appropriately titled Probability 101.

Even if you hated math [AJC: in other countries, known as: maths] and statistics, stick with me past this excerpt:

I’m in the process of reading Peter Bevelin’s awesome book, Seeking Wisdom – From Darwin to Munger (Not an Affiliate Link). I HIGHLY recommend this book for anyone interested in investing and behavioral finance. As boring as that sounds, this book is a page-turner. One of the sections of the book that I found most interesting was this illustration of probability on page 151:

A lottery has 100 tickets. Each ticket costs $10. The cash prize is $500. Is it worthwhile for Mary to buy a lottery ticket?

The expected value of this game is the probability of winning (1 in 100) multiplied with the prize ($500) less the probability of losing (99 our of 100) multiplied with the cost of playing ($10). For each outcome we take the probability and multiply the consequence (a reward or a cost) and then add the figures. This means that Mary’s expected value of buying a lottery ticket is a loss of about $5 (0.01 × $500 – 0.99 × $10).

The first comment that I would make is that whilst you need to understand the basics of a ‘good decision’ against a ‘bad decision’ in probability/statistical terms, simply running your eye over the key line “A lottery has 100 tickets. Each ticket costs $10. The cash prize is $500”  should do the trick:

If you bought all 100 tickets, at $10 each, you would spend $1,000. But you would only win the cash prize of $500 … are YOU smarter than a 3rd Grader?

But, as one of the comments on that post pointed, out not all decision that SEEM to be mathematical ARE simply mathematical:

Unfortunately, probability doesn’t always translate directly into real-life situations.

Let’s take your example of the lottery, except we’ll change things up a little.

Mary is 50 years old and approaching retirement. She’s been financially savvy for her entire life and has accumulated $1M in cash.

Donald Trump decides to hold a lottery for only Mary. One ticket costs $1M, and she has a 50% chance of winning $10M.
If you looked at just probability, her EV is -(0.5 x $1M) + (0.5 X $10M), or +$4.5M. Does that mean she should buy the ticket? Obviously, no.

I think what this comment is saying is that EVEN THOUGH you have a 50/50 chance of winning 10 times your money, you shouldn’t invest your entire life savings into it … because you have an equal chance of ending up flat broke!

The concept is good, but I take issue with the “obviously no” bit …

The numbers in this example are ridiculously skewed for most people, so I tried to give some ‘closer to home’ examples in my post centred on that popular game show, Deal or No Deal.

It all boils down to this:

When a decision is potentially Life Changing … the numbers count less … the possible result counts more.

In practice:

1. You should understand basic probability because it is so important in life,

BUT

2. You should first make the Life Decision then look at the odds …

Deal or No Deal?!

 

Retirement sucks!

I officially ‘retired’ in April … which is nice for one reason and one reason only (actually, two … second one below): I get to brag for the rest of my life that “I retired before 50 … nyaa…nyaa!”

Now, if that sounds a little vapid, it is … but, I have vapid, dumb, vain, stubborn, and a lot of other great characteristics in me.

But, what keeps me real are equally stupid things like: I didn’t meet my goal of my first million by 30 (I missed by 10 years, or so).

And, even if I did retire by 30, I can tell you unequivocably that retirement sucks … because life sucks!

To prove my point, here’s how I spent just one of my first days in ‘retirement’:

– My wife has been sick with bronchitis this week … in fact, she waited 15 years, until the very first day of my retirement, to get this sick;

– I found out that somebody just scammed one of my overseas businesses for circa $20k … in fact, they waited 15 years, until the very first day of my retirement, to scam me for this much;

– One of my longest-serving employees was terminated from the business that I just left … in fact, they waited 15 years, until the very first day of my retirement, to get rid of this guy;

– Some guy in a Lexus just did his best to kill me; a tennis ‘pro’ actually went out of his way to be rude to me; need I go on?

… and, all of that in one day!

 I guess retirement starts next week 🙂

The point: ‘life’ – for all its good and bad – goes on … and, for those of you just waiting for that perfect moment when [insert favorite when here: when I get $1 million; when I retire; when I get married/divorced/pregnant; when my life will be just perfect] …

… you need to heed my words: I have just had the brutal awakening so that you don’t have to.

Life doesn’t start or stop when something happens … life is … because life is always happening.

I think that this little paragraph from (from “Five Great Moments of Personal Finance”  in an article by Business columnist Scott Burns of the Dallas Morning News) summarizes it quite nicely:

Our easy problems involve money. They may be terrifying, but there is always a solution. Our big problems are the ones that can’t be solved with money. They are the ones that make us cry in the night and pray for relief. The marriage that doesn’t work. The illness that can’t be cured. The child who is afflicted. The friend who won’t be helped. If you are an adult and still think money problems are real problems, you have led a charmed life. Be grateful.

Despite appearances, I was actually quite well-prepared for this week … you see I really didn’t expect my life to become perfect when I retired / made $7 million / whenever …

… my life, for all of its ups and downs was (and is) already perfect.

Then, why did I aim for so much money, so soon?

Simply to give me the freedom and credibility to do what I am doing now, and what the coming months and years will unveil … and, it all begins with writing this little blog.

But, don’t wait to see how my life pans out before living yours … just 3.5 minutes a day is all the contribution to your life that I need to make – the other 1435.5 minutes are all yours!

Meet The Frugals and The Moguls

There are two groups of people in this world:

1. The Frugals – those who live their lives frugally, scrimping & saving their way to the Magic $1,000,000,

and

2. The Moguls – those who think saving is for pussies and are busy scheming their way past $10,000,000.

What’s wrong with the Frugals:

i) $1,000,000 (or even $2 Mill. or maybe even $3 Mill.) will not be enough for MOST people, you simply can’t SAVE your way to Wealth

ii) Being Debt Free – the Holy Grail of the Frugal World – is a false target that actually serves to keep you poor

And, we all know what’s wrong with the Moguls:

i) Wealth isn’t measured by some arbitrary lump sum – be it, $1 Mill., $5Mill. or even $10 Mill. (OK, I admit, $100 Mill. sounds tempting but, and here’s the point: ONLY because I don’t already have it!)

ii) There’s no such thing as a ‘Get Rich Scheme’ otherwise we’d ALL be doing it ALREADY – you know, word gets around 😉

Now, here is the Shocking Truth – OK, Boring Homily –  you NEED to be a Frugal in order to STAY a Mogul …

The Frugal and Mogul are the same: one is the caterpillar, the other is the butterfly!

If you don’t develop the good ‘frugal’ habits on the way UP, you will quickly lose your money and slide all the way DOWN.

So, here’s what you need to do:

1. Get in the habit of spending 10% – 20% less than your earn NOW

2. Eliminate all NEW Consumer Debt and pay off any high-interest existing debt

3. Buy your own house and position yourself according to the 20% Rule

4. Start a business (online, offline, full-time, part-time, trading, flipping) – take SOME risk

5. Invest at least 50% of the excess cash that your business activities spin off into PASSIVE Investments

6. Do not drastically increase your lifestyle until the income from Passive Investments (indexed for inflation) ‘catches’ up to your required standard of living

7. When it does, retire!

Frugal / Mogul … two sides of the same gold coin … which ‘one’ are you?

The Great Debt Repayment Fallacy … don't fall for it!

Everybody knows about ‘good debt’ and ‘bad debt’, right? And, we all know – and have committed to memory – Personal Finance Prime Directive # 1:

Eliminate All Bad Debt Now … Before Doing Anything Else!!!

This may be the current Personal Finance mantra, but, if you happen to subscribe to the same view, then read on because this post could be the most important piece of wealth-building advice that you will ever read!

But, first …

That simple and clear ‘PF Directive’ was the assumed premise behind a recent (and very good, I might add) post on The Simple Dollar that I want to delve into a little more deeply than usual because it brings out a critical wealth-building point that may not be obvious to all. In that post Trent said:

A reader wrote in recently:

I have kind of a weird situation with our 2 credit cards, and wanted to see what you thought. We have one card (Citi) with a total balance of $4,800. $3,800 of this is a balance transfer that is at 2.99% until paid off. The remaining $1,000 is at 13.49%. Of course, all principal payments are applied to the lower rate debt first. Our other card (Chase) has a balance of $5,700, and is at 0% until September 08, when it goes to 8.99%. Which card do you think is best to “attack” first?

After reading this email, I thought it would be a good time to take a more general look at comparing the debts you owe as well as how to construct a healthy debt repayment plan.

Trent then proceeded to outline a very good and pragmatic approach to dealing with these, and any other, debts … a plan that involved: 

A few sheets of paper and a pen; the latest statement for every single debt; making the first list; ordering all of the debts by their current interest rate; looking for ways to reduce the rates, focusing most strongly on the highest current one; when you’ve reduced rates, making a new list reflecting the changes; dealing debts that are set to adjust in the future; directing all of your extra payments towards the top debt on the list; when a debt vanishes, crossing it off and feeling good about it; updating the list when you acquire a new debt; and, updating the list when one of your debts adjusts to a new rate

Before I weigh in on this, let me ask you a Very Important Question:

Do you really just want to be debt free or do you want to be rich?

I know that sounds self-evident, but stick with me … if you just want to be in the top 5% of the US population and retire on $1,000,000 in, say, 15 years then by all means, do the Dave Ramsey, Suze Orman, and/or Oprah ‘debt diets’:

That is, save and be debt free (including your own home) … whoohee! … by the time you ‘retire’ [read: work part-time in Costco handing out free food-samples until you’re 75], you’ll be living on the equivalent of $15,000 today  and hoping to hell that the government can still afford to pay you social security!

It’s OK if you slavishly follow this thinking: it’s the Conventional Wisdom …

It’s just that if you want … nay, need … to be rich(er) and retire soon(er) then you’re going to need unconventionally large amounts of money in an unconventionally rapid timespan, and that’s going to take some Unconventional Wisdom!

You see, I believe that being debt free and being rich are [almost] mutually-exclusive!

This is a pretty controversial view, I should think … but, I will even go so far as to say that it is [almost] impossible to become rich without using debt: debt to fund your business (working capital finance and/or leases on equipment and/or leases on vehicles, etc.); debt to fund your real-estate investments (fixed interest mortgages and/or interest-only funding); debt to fund your stock purchases (margin lending); etc.

Hold on, all the Personal Finance writers/bloggers out there say:

We can put all of the above examples in the ‘good debt’ category and we already agree that they are OK …

Great!

But, then they always add:

… but, ‘bad debt’ is ‘consumer debt’ (credit cards, student loans, car loans, etc.) and we all know that our Number One Personal Finance Objective is to wipe Bad Debt out, right? After all, it’s not called ‘Bad’ for nothing! Right??!!

Well, not necessarily … sure you shouldn’t get yourself INTO any of this Bad Debt … but, once you have some (you naughty, failed human being, you), you need to mix it with your Good Debt and revisit Trent’s Plan with ALL of your debts in hand … both ‘Good’ and ‘Bad’.

Look at it this way, once you find yourself with a mix of both Good (appreciating and/or income-producing assets) and Bad (depreciating, consumer goods) Debts, the only things that matter are:

1. Paying off the Dollar Value of the Bad Debt as quickly as possible, and

[AJC: Here is the key … its in the “AND]

2. Paying off the highest after-tax interest rate loan off first.

So here was my advice to the person who asked the question on Trent’s post:

Interestingly, in the reader’s case (if I read correctly) his ‘consolidated’ card is at a Combined Effective Rate of only 5.2% … because he can’t attack the 13% portion until he pays off the 2.99% portion I would do the following:

1. Pay off the other card first, then

2. Buy an investment using the money that he would have paid the 5.2% debt off with …

… after all 5.2% is a very low rate of interest!

To clarify: I would not pay either card when interest rates are under the standard variable mortgage rate … I would be financing new real-estate, or paying down the mortgage on my existing (IF I’m not breaking the 20% Rule). The plan I outlined above starts when the 0% period ends … until then, pay off NEITHER card IF you have a more productive use for the money!

What does this mean for the rest of us?

i) Don’t get INTO Bad/Consumer Debt … save and pay cash for any ‘stuff’ (cars, vacations, furniture, ipods, computers, etc.) that you want.

ii) Once you do get INTO Bad/Consumer Debt … don’t be in such a hurry to get out of it; compare the cost of your Student Loans; Ultra-Low-Honeymood-Rate credit-cards; Super-Low-Suck-You-Into-Buying-More-Car-Than-You-Can-Afford Interest Rate car loans; etc. against the after-tax cost of the mortgage that you have on your house and/or investment properties (or the interest rate on your Margin Loans for your Stocks; or your Working Capital Finance for your Business; etc.).

iii) Work out a repayment plan as though you were going to pay INTO that Bad/Consumer Debt … instead, pay an equivalent amount off against your highest after-tax interest rate loan across your entire Good/Bad Debt portfolio.

iv) Reevaluate at the earlier of Quarterly (i.e. every 3 months) OR when one of the interest rates on ANY of your loans changes OR [yay!] when you have paid one of your loans off.

v) If you don’t want to (or can’t) get out of a higher-interest loan early using (iii) then compare the cost of the lowest-interest loans that you have (regardless of whether they are Good/Bad) against the current FIXED interest rates for new loan on a new investment … if LESS, buy new instead of pay off old.

Remember: The Object of Personal Finance is to end up with MORE money … the object isn’t to SAVE money, PAY off debt, BUY a house, START a business … they are all just all steps along the way.

If you want to get Rich(er) Soon(er) never, ever confuse A Means To An End with The End

… now, let the flames begin!

 

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Casting Call

Last days for ‘pre-applications’ to become one of my 7 Millionaires … In Training! Click here to find out more …

 

 

Put your money into CD's? Not exactly what we meant!

Casting Call

 

Last days for ‘pre-applications’ to become one of my 7 millionaires … In Training! Click here to find out more …

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Here’s another in my Money-Video-On-Sundays Series …

This clip from the popular comedy, The Office, is sad but true … how many students are also ‘investing’ their money into CD’s the way that this guy does, rather than saving and paying down debt?

http://www.nbc.com/The_Office/video/#mea=169237

AJC.

PS Take a look at the latest Money Hacks Carnival here ….

Who is the Devil's Advocate's "devil's advocate"?

Have you noticed whenever you have an idea that goes against the mainstream (as most of my good ideas seem to) that people always pop up to rain on your [idea] parade?

They often justify their negativity under the guise of that old cop out: “oh, I’m just playing the Devil’s Advocate” … meaning that you get to listen to their endless diatribe. If you’re unlucky, they just may succeed in having you ‘come to your senses’ [a.k.a. miss yet another opportunity]. 

My response usually is: “In that case, I’m the Devil’s Advocate’s Devil’s Advocate! ;)”

… which means, this time I get to explain why their [contra]-ideas are dumb, and they get to sit there and listen!

I particularly like to play Devil’s Advocate’s Devil’s Advocate with the typical Personal Finance mantras as published in so many PF books and blogs – and, we have already covered a few, with a whole lot more to come – because so many of them are so self-limiting.

I go the idea for this post from a PF blog that I like, Bargaineering, who has a whole section called Devil’s Advocate … I have reprinted a section from his latest roundup, and have included the links in case you want to review the actual articles [AJC: I haven’t had time to review them all, yet]:

I have a few good ideas in store for future articles but I wanted to do a little roundup, in part for myself to see all the topics we’ve covered, so that you could join in the rock throwing against mainstream ideas.

  1. Don’t Invest in the Stock Market
  2. Cancel Unused Credit Cards
  3. It’s Okay To Ignore Your Problems
  4. Ignore Personal Finance Experts
  5. Don’t Have Kids
  6. Buy More House Than You Need
  7. Don’t Move From Job To Job
  8. Get A Store-Branded Credit Card
  9. You Don’t Need College to Succeed
  10. Four Reasons You Should Get A PayDay Loan
  11. Don’t Get Married
  12. Buy That Home Warranty
  13. Adjustable Rate Mortgages Are Awesome!
  14. Pay Cash for Everything
  15. Don’t Budget to the Penny
  16. Invest In Your Company
  17. Say No To Credit Card 0% Balance Transfer Arbitrage
  18. Why Roth IRAs Are Bad
  19. Lease A Car, Don’t Buy It
  20. Don’t Just Buy Index Funds
  21. Don’t Optimize Payroll Deductions
  22. Rent Forever, Don’t Buy A Home
  23.  

My view?

Great ideas – in fact, I made a fortune by FOLLOWING ideas # 4, 6, 13, 15, 16, 18, 20, 21. ;)

Here’s how I look at it:

Follow conventional thinking and you’ll get conventional results.

Follow Unconventional Wisdom, and you just MIGHT get rich, too (but, don’t be stupid about it, because you will probably remain poor) … but, you need to throw in some ’special sauce’ as well [AJC: that’s what this blog is for].

Nothing wrong with following good advice … nothing wrong with ignoring it, either … I’ve made money both ways – just be sure you know WHY you are following/ignoring it!

Here are the Top 4 Personal Finance Myth’s that I will be doing my very best to destroy over the coming weeks:

1. ‘Bad Debt’ is to be avoided at all costs!

2. Your house is NOT an asset or Your house IS an asset!

3. Max. your 401.k and other Retirement Accounts

4. You can [and, must!] save your way to wealth

5. The Magic Number is $1 Million

… a whole plethora of ideas for us to explore!

But, first a word of caution:

If your target is just an amount like $1 Million to $2 Million in 15 – 30 years, then you do NOT need to read any further – this blog is NOT for you and you will get far more benefit for your time invested by reading here, here, and here, or probably ANY of the places listed here instead.

However, if you are going to join me on this exploration of Anarchic Personal Finance Ideas – and be the Devil’s Advocate’s Devil’s Advocate – then let me know which DUMB 😉 ideas that worked for you, so far …

Business for sale?

As you know, I’m a member of Networth IQ – and quite an active member, at that! I love reading and answering questions … 

[AJC: you’ve probably already seen that from the detailed responses that I try and give commenters on my posts on this blog … try me, if you have a question … I just won’t give direct personal advice, because I am not a qualified professional, but I will give general advice if I think it will benefit all of our readers]

… and this unique site provides a great platform (as does Tickerhound, which provides a great Q&A forum on everything from stocks to real-estate).

For those of you who aren’t members of Networth IQ, here is an exerpt of a great question:

I found a business for sale that has generated the following free cash flows since 1998.

1998 – $3,426.0 Mil
1999 – $3,949.0 Mil
2000 – $4,917.0 Mil
2001 – $7,133.0 Mil
2002 – $6,077.0 Mil
2003 – $8,333.0 Mil
2004 – $8,956.0 Mil
2005 – $9,245.0 Mil
2006 – $11,582.0 Mil
2007 – $12,307.0 Mil

The current owners are asking $183.49 Bil, …. I don’t have $183.49 Bil, but they said that they would sell me a smaller portion of the business if I wanted … Should I buy?

I like this question on two levels:

1. It’s a neat reminder that when we buy stocks, we’re not just buying ‘bits of paper’ … we’re buying a small piece of a real, live business!

And,

2. It gives me an opportunity to show you the sorts of questions that I would ask – and the types of information that I would be looking at before buying into this – or any – business.

According to Warren Buffet (or sources who purport to know how he works) the intrinsic value of a business is in its discounted cashflow.

That is, a business is – or should be – a cash machine … what’s the reason for owning it, if not to get some cash out?

So, in the above example, we should be able to decide if the business is worth $183.49 Billion (not knowing the company in the above excerpt, I am assuming that this number represents the entire current market capitalization of the business) by discounting the cash-flows shown above …

… a quick look at the most recent cash-flow figure shows that it is currently producing $12 Bill. cash per year (probably growing, if history is any guide); that would mean about 15 years to get our money back … yuk.

Now you know why the stock market is generally a fool’s game … I would by far prefer to invest in my own business, or buy a private one at ‘only’ 3 to 5 years free cash-flow (better yet, Net Income), and grow it … then float it myself!

Or, at least sell it to a public company who can immediately ‘claim’ 15 times my Net Profit (hence, give me 7 to 12 times my Net Profit).

But, if we are going to play ‘the stock market’ game, what would we need to know before we can make an informed decision about ‘investing’ in this stock?

Hmmm …
As I pointed out, the free cash-flows on their own say nothing …
For example, I recently sold two similar businesses: one had been going for many years and generated ‘free cash flows’ [now that’s an oxymoron!] of $1 mill. and the other was less than 2 years old and had yet to make a dime.
Yet, I sold them both (separately) for about the same price! So, there must be more to the valuation of a business than Free Cash-flows, right? Absolutely!Let’s start with Return on Invested Capital:
I’d like to know what it has been for this company (and, the industry) over the past 5 years? I’d like to see an improving trend in excess of 15%, please.
Then, is the company growing?
Cash Flow is just one measure (but, what about operating cash-flow … have they made any strategic purchases / major capital expenditures /etc.), so what about the 10 years trends in: Earnings? Book Value? And, what about plain, old Sales?
I’d like to see a history of growth (min. 10%) in all of these …Now, how is there debt situation?
How long will it take them to cover their long-term liabilities from ‘Free Cash Flow’?
I’d like to see no more than 2 to 3 years.
Do the people who run the company own stock? Are they buying or selling?
Tell me about the company: do they have a ‘sustainable competitive advantage’ (what Warren Buffet calls a ‘Moat’ … but, that’s too much water for me!).

Do I believe this company will be around for the next 100 years … do I really want to buy THIS business in THIS industry?

Lastly, if I like the answers to all of the above (unlikely … so far I’ve only liked the answers to similar questions for 7 companies out of the 5,000+ that I can currently buy a ‘piece’ of) …

…. then how CHEAP can I get this thing!?
PS I made the ‘other’ category … waaaayyyyyy down at the bottom of the 150th Carnival of Personal Finance … whoo hoo!

Thinking of buying something on credit?

Mr Bean Cartoon Image

‘Need’ a plasma TV? Perhaps you ‘just’ need a new car?

There’s ALWAYS a way to find the money that you need WITHOUT putting yourself further in debt … just ask Mr Bean :

http://youtube.com/watch?v=42AHISKy2Kk

Mr Bean (a.k.a. Rowan Atkinson … played the priest in 4 Weddings and a Funeral) is not as well known in the US as he is overseas … he’s one of my favorite comedians and comedic actors.

Anyhow, I hope that you enjoyed this short clip for today’s installment of our Video on Sunday’s series as much as I did?!

AJC.