Tag Archives: money

Money does buy happiness …

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… but, not for long.

I have become obsessed with lotteries!

Not in participating … I don’t: I recently refused to buy a $7 ticket to a $20 million+ lottery; the vendor thought that I was crazy, but he was crazy.

[AJC: Actually, I used to participate in my office lottery syndicate as a form of ‘insurance’: if my staff won, they might leave en masse, at least my lottery winning would help cushion the blow … this is really how I think!]

There are government-sponsored anti-gambling ads running on Australian television right now that show that you have around twenty times the chance of a number one record as you do to win the biggest jackpot on a slot machine … lotteries are worse, much worse.

Yet, I can understand the temptation because the prizes are so large.

My interest actually has to do with my ‘easy come, easy go’ thesis: I believe that in order to keep a large sum of money, you have to make it slowly (so that you can learn the necessary financial lessons along the way) … by slowly, I mean years – say, 7 – not days.

When I heard that 80% of lottery winners lose their winnings within 5 years, I became very interested to find out more. Unfortunately, stats are hard to find:

Nora Moon, validations supervisor with the Virginia Lottery, has dealt with almost every lottery winner since the lottery began. Estimating how many Lotto winners have gotten into financial trouble is impossible, she said.

Documents submitted to the Supreme Court of Texas by the Attorney General state:

Steve Danish, a Virginia Commonwealth University psychology professor who has counseled Virginia Lottery winners, said one-third of about 40 winners he talked to in a seminar several years ago asked questions indicating they were in financial trouble.

But, I think the most interesting source comes from the lottery itself: Camelot Group Plc, who is the operator of The UK National Lottery. Camelot commissioned Ipsos MORI (a leading UK research house); in a good news / bad news survey, they found:

More than half the Lottery winners are happier now than they were before their win (55%). Most of the other winners claim that winning the Lottery has not affected their level of happiness, largely due to the fact that they were happy before their win. Only 2% of winners were less happy. The happiness of the winner is not affected by the size of his or her win.

Of the winners who are happier (55%) around two thirds claim one of the reasons is improved financial security and fewer worries (65%). A further 23% either stated that they can buy what they want now or that life is generally a lot easier.

The large majority of Lottery winners have not experienced any negative effects on family life or friendships.

That’s the good news … surprisingly (after all, the research was sponsored by the operators of the lottery!), there was some terribly bad news in a one-liner buried in the body of the report; money does buy happiness … but, that money (and, presumably, the happiness) is short-lived:

On average, the winners have so far spent 44% of their winnings …

Whoa!

I forgot to mention that this survey carried out in 1999 by MORI, marked the 5th birthday of The National Lottery and the findings “represent the most complete snapshot of the generation of Lottery winners who have emerged since the first draw on 19 November 1994”.

That’s a 44% depletion of winnings during a 5 year period or, on average, after just 2.5 years!

All of a sudden the ‘80% of lottery winners are broke after 5 years’ myth is not so ‘mythical’ after all; here’s the lottery winner’s life cycle:

Happy => Rich => Happy => Spend => Broke => Happy or Devastated … you decide?

In either case, my ‘easy come, easy go’ thesis is looking better all the time 🙁

What’s better: a satisified mind or money?

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Sadly, not too long (less than 5 years) after this performance of the great Red Hayes song (covered by everybody from Johnny Cash to Bob Dylan, and even The Byrds), Jeff Buckley died; that makes TWO great reasons to find your Life’s Purpose … the other being in the opening lyrics to this great song:

How many times have you heard someone say: “Ifï»ż I had money, I would do things my way.”

But little they know, that it’s so hard to find one rich man in ten, with a satisfied mind.
Money can’t buy back all your youth when you’re old, a friend when you’re lonely, or peace to your soul.
The wealthiest person, is a pauper at times compared to the man with a satisfied mind.

Find your Life’s Purpose, then the money will mean something: Your Number will be the financial enabler of Your Life’s Purpose!

After all, there’s no other good reason to be wealthy, is there?

The much maligned Robert Kiyosaki

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Robert Kiyosaki is famous (or infamous, depending on your viewpoint) for his break-out book: Rich Dad, Poor Dad.

Whichever way you happen to lean on this subject (and, please feel free to share!), I think that he deserves to be congratulated for thrusting personal finance back into the spotlight, and he equally deserves to be admired for his ability to parlay that first success into a personal finance publishing empire that includes 10 to 20 books, a few games, and so on.

In fact, RDPD is one of the very first books on personal finance that I ever read, and is certainly the book that inspired me to look into the field very deeply.

It’s unfortunate, then, that Robert Kiyosaki has managed to build up both a cult following and a cult anti-following (?!), neither of which I ascribe to.

Jake says, somewhat, tongue in cheek:

Ahh, so you will now renounce your belief that Kiyosaki is not a quack? :)

Abandon the dark side


Actually, Jake, I’ve never commented on RK’s quackiness of lack thereof 😛

All I’ve said is:

1.  His book – at the time – inspired me to look into the field of personal finance a LOT further.

2. I like RK’s definition of liability v asset (albeit, not technically correct, he says an ‘asset puts money in your pocket, and a liability takes money out’. Neat!).

3. I think that RK became rich because of his book, and was worth ‘only’ circa $1.5 mill. (give or take $500k) before.

I base this last assessment purely on a statement he made in RDPD (or one of his later books, perhaps Cashflow Quadrant? … I’m working from memory, here, as I have filed his book away somewhere) that he ‘retired’ to write that first book (or was it to create his board game?) on passive income of $100k p.a., driven primarily by real-estate.

That’s pretty much it!

But, and this is important, realizing that a lot of these personal finance gurus – whether well-meaning and genuine in their belief or out-and-out scammers, scoundrels, and liars – actually made their real wealth, if at all, AFTER (or because) they wrote their books …

… I firmly resolved that I would study the field of personal finance, apply what I learned, and (hopefully!) become rich in the process, THEN write about it from the standpoint of a REAL self-made, multi-millionaire entrepreneur and investor.

This blog is the result 🙂

Where does the money go?

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If it takes an average of just 2-and-a-half years for UK lottery winners to blow 44% of their winnings, where does the money go?

Well, Camelot (the operators of the UK lottery) commissioned a follow-up report in 2002:

A third of winners (34%) buy a car straightaway, while one in 10 (11%) buy new clothes or new jewelery. For around four in five (77%) the most expensive single purchase is a house, followed by a car (14%). A quarter of winners give up to 10% of their winnings to their family, while nearly a half more (45%) give family eleven to thirty percent. Almost three in five give up to 10% to friends, while two thirds give up to 10% to charity.

Why do these winners figuratively throw their money out the window?

I think I’ve stumbled on a clue; they think that they can just win it all back again:

As to doing the Lotto, four in five jackpot winners (82%) still play every week — and one in five (21%) is very confident of winning again.

And, I think that in here is a very important lesson for those of you lucky enough to become successful with your Making Money 201 (Wealth Acceleration) activities:

Don’t spend your money as though you can just keep on making it all over again … you take on huge (hopefully, calculated) risks to reach your Number by your Date.

But, once you get there, switch to Making Money 301 (Protecting Your Wealth) because you just may not be so lucky the next time around 😉

5 Secrets Of Self-Made Millionaires

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I’m a voracious reader of anything that purports to teach you how to be rich … when I needed to learn, I read everything hoping to find ‘the answer’ … and, after I made it, I continued reading (but, I must admit that I am more discerning now) mostly out of curiosity (to see what others are saying).

In both cases, I was almost invariably disappointed … hence this blog.

But, I was pleasantly surprised to read an article with a [groan] headline: 5 Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires …

… it’s actually not that bad. Not rocket-science, but not anywhere near as bad as most similar articles and books are.

Here are the 5 ‘secrets’ and my take on each:

1. Set your sights on where you’re going

T. Harv Eker, author of Secrets of the Millionaire Mind [another groan] says:

The biggest obstacle to wealth is fear. People are afraid to think big, but if you think small, you’ll only achieve small things.

Wanting to be wealthy is a crucial first step.

I obviously agree; if you don’t understand why, you must be a new reader [Hint: It’s to do with discovering your Life’s Purpose and Your Number / Date]

2. Educate yourself

You’re reading this blog post … and, I wrote it, didn’t I? ‘Nuff said 🙂

3. Passion pays off

See 1. above … ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzz

4. Grow your money

Well, d’uh!

But, Loral Langemeier, author of The Millionaire Maker, adds something sensible:

The fastest way to get out of that pattern [the never-ending cycle of living paycheck to paycheck] is to make extra money for the specific purpose of reinvesting in yourself.

[AJC: I would delete the last two words, which are hokum; it doesn’t cost much to “reinvest in yourself” except time … for example, this blog is FREE].

I like this part [AJC: I bolded the part that I like the best … I like it, because I did it, too; that’s how I raised the capital to expand to the USA i.e. from profits left in the business]:

A little moonlighting cash really can grow into a million. Twenty-five years ago, Rick Sikorski dreamed of owning a personal training business. “I rented a tiny studio where I charged $15 an hour,” he says. When money started trickling in, he squirreled it away instead of spending it, putting it all back into the business. Rick’s 400-square-foot studio is now Fitness Together, a franchise based in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, with more than 360 locations worldwide. And he’s worth over $40 million.

I also like:

If you want to get rich, you need to pay yourself first, by putting money where it will work hard for you—whether that’s in your retirement fund, a side business or investments like real estate.

5. No guts, no glory

If there’s any one secret in all of this, it’s this one:

Iif you are a timid mouse (like me), you either have to learn to roar (like I had to) or learn to live with a Small Number / Never Date.

Getting the Life’s Purpose ‘religion’ is one way to put the fire in your belly … it worked for me.

Oh, and they leave the best secret to last (at least the author feels it’s the best), which is funny because this would then be Secret # 6:

The Biggest Secret? Stop spending.

I agree with everything AFTER the ‘?’ above 😉

If you don’t have the money to invest, don’t spend … it’s simple!

But, I don’t agree with this:

Every millionaire we spoke to has one thing in common: Not a single one spends needlessly. Real estate investor Dave Lindahl drives a Ford Explorer and says his middle-class neighbors would be shocked to learn how much he’s worth. Fitness mogul Rick Sikorski can’t fathom why anyone would buy bottled water. Steve Maxwell, the finance teacher, looked at a $1.5 million home but decided to buy one for half the price because “a house with double the cost wouldn’t give me double the enjoyment.”

Don’t believe that Millionaire Next Door cr*p; some multi-millionaires are frugal – even some Billionaires (most notably Warren Buffett) – but, don’t be fooled into believing that’s the majority of multi-millionaires:

I have a friend who works for a 35 year old Russian immigrant who is now a hugely successful hedge fund manager (yes, he’s survived the GFC as far as I know. I’ll check when I’m on Safari in South Africa with my friend later on this year); my friend overheard him explaining to his daughter that he was going to take the family jet to a business meeting, so she would need to fly on a commercial airliner with her mother to get home from their vacation.

This is what he said to his daughter: “You know that there will be people you don’t know on that plane” … at 8 years old, she had never flown other than by private jet!

Another friend works in MLM and had breakfast with that company’s # 1 distributor – a nice, young lady. She receives a $600,000 check every month. She just bought a mountain in Colorado and a special tractor, so that she could grade her own private ski run.

I hope she puts a lot aside for a rainy day; gives overly generously (money and time) to charity and those in need; and, joyfully spends the rest!

I have a simple rule: spend freely, when it doesn’t make sense not to.

Think about that, and let me know what you think it means …

What difference does 1/10th of 1% make?

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Brian Tracey makes an interesting observation of making tiny, incremental changes which accumulate over time to make huge differences.

You could apply this principle to anything: for example, if you want to save 26% of your income (not a bad goal if you want to get rich slowly, with inflation chasing your tail), just start by saving 1/10th of 1% of your income today, and increase that amount by 1/1th of 1% each day until you reach your goal.

Use your ‘golden hour’ to read the personal finance headlines at http://personal-finance.alltop.com/ looking for money saving tips and you’ll find plenty of fuel for your daily 1/10th of 1% increased savings goal.

How much is in your emergency fund?

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How many months do you have in your emergency fund?

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I think this is a good time to take another look at your emergency fund; I’ll explain next week …

In the meantime, answer the survey to let us know how much you have saved specifically as an emergency fund, and leave a comment (if you like) to tell us why!

Would you donate your last penny?

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They say that the will to give – to donate – generously is governed by a gene. 

For those readers in – or approaching – MM301 (i.e. you’ve made your millions, now you are struggling with what to do with it), I want to test that gene to its fullest, by asking you a question:

Would you donate your last penny?

I can honestly say that I would not …

Which brings me to a related topic: it seems that many people who come into money take a chunk of it to donate. Perhaps to have the wing of a school named after them, or to do some other ‘good works’.

Whether the sum is $1,000,000 or $100,000 or $10,000, when donating what you consider to be a large sum, think about what you are really donating; you are not merely donating $1,000,000 (or $100,000 or $10,000), you are donating the future value of $1,000,000:

Let’s say that you plan on living for another 40 years, and you can invest your money at 5% above inflation, then the real value of your donation is not $1,000,000 but more than $6.7 million!

[AJC: if inflation runs at 4%, and you can get an average return of 9% over 40 years your $1 million will grow to almost $29 million, but inflation takes away a huge chunk of it!]

When thinking about donating that $1 million [AJC: The Cartwood Family Wing does sound tempting], I’m not really thinking too much about that $6.7 million [AJC: or, $28.8 million … ounch!], I’m actually asking myself:

Would I donate my last $1 million?

You already know the answer to that 😉

But, why?

If all goes belly-up in my financial life, I really may have just given away my last $1 million … in other words: if I lose $6 million, I am now broke (since I already gave away the 7th million of my 7m7y).

That’s why I would never donate a lump sum … instead, I would invest that $1 million for the benefit of charity. Further, I would not even pledge the capital or the income stream in advance, I would simply make the requisite donations annually and anonymously.

It may not get my name ‘in lights’ [boo hoo]; it may not help the charity with capital acquisitions; and, it may not be the most tax-effective method of donation (compared to, say, charitable trusts and the like), but it will help both the charity and me, long-term:

1. The chances are that I can invest $1 million far better than the people running the charity can [AJC: after all, I’ve made 7m7y]

2. It’s likely that the charity – or, some other equally worthy casue – can use $6.7 million more than they can use $1 million, albeit spread over 40 years; but, I admit that I’m just making a wild guess that the world will need philanthropy for at least the next 40 years.

3. If all goes belly up, and I end up becoming the one in urgent need of ‘charity’, I can ‘donate’ my last million (at least the income thereof) to myself and my family.

4. When I die, if I feel so inclined, I can finally donate either the asset or the income stream (or both) to the charity as I will no longer require it as insurance for myself. On the other hand, I may choose to pass it on to my family and let them decide.

I guess nobody will be talking about “AJ Cartwood, the great AustraloAmerican investor, raconteur, and philanthropist” … at least, not during my lifetime 😉

The problem with Henry …

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Actually, it’s not the problem with Henry, it’s the problem with HENRY: High Earner Not Rich Yet.

Included in this group, a group that most workers mistakenly aspire to, are those doctors and ceo’s (at least those not in the Fortune 500) that I mentioned in yesterday’s post.

Now, this is only interesting because I can now answer the question posed on Twitter [AJC: you can glance across to the right to conveniently find a link to my Twitter account].

Dianne Kennedy (CPA), I think erroneously, links HENRY’s to taxes then lifestyle, but (as my article some time back about doctors also said), I think it boils down to three non-tax (even though taxes hurt!) issues:

1. As your income grows so does your spending … then some!

2. Keeping up with YOUR Jones (i.e. other high-flying corporate executives and professionals) is VERY expensive

3. You can’t sell a salary package (like I can sell a business, some shares, or a property or two) when you decide to retire

[AJC: You need both a big 401(k) – see reasons 1. and 2. why this doesn’t happen – and a huge golden parachute, which may / may not happen to compensate for reason 3.]

If HENRY’s want to become rich, they have only two choices:

– Get lucky, or

– Invest a very large % of their annual earnings

Let’s assume that a HENRY – conveniently named Henry who happens to be ceo of a medium-sized business – is earning $290,000 and has already managed to save $1 million – our consummate Frugal Investor – and has arranged things so that he can continue to save a very hefty 35% of his salary (this is all pre-tax).

After 22 years, Henry will have saved just enough (in Rule of 20 terms) to replace his $290,000 ceo’s salary … by then, inflation adjusted to $661k per year, assuming that he wants to maintain his lifestyle [AJC: more importantly, assuming that he can – and wants to – ‘ceo’ for 22 more years … if he ‘only’ starts with $500k in savings, he’ll need to work for at least 26 more years].

Seems easy, but human nature [read: urge to spend it up] is what it is …

I should know: I was ceo of my own business, employing over a hundred people across 3 countries (USA, Australia, and New Zealand).

I paid myself $250k per year, and had cars, cell phones, laptops, and health insurance all paid for by my company – I reinvested all the remaining profits in these businesses.

I had a $1.65 million house in the ‘burbs, paid for by cash (s0, no mortage), and two children in school (one private, one public). We traveled domestically and/or internationally once or twice a year as a family, ate at ‘normal’ restaurants (and, the occasional top-tier eatery).

I can’t see how I could have saved 1/3 of my salary … I couldn’t even save 10% 🙁

Of course, I could have saved 10% if I really tried, but my point is that it’s very hard to save 30% of even a high salary, unless you gear yourself up to do it from the very beginning.

[AJC: Look, it’s not my job to tell what should happen as you get richer, but the reality of what will happen and how to do better … when you get to $250k you will bring with you exactly the same spending and saving habits as you have today, if not worse. Moral: start MM101 today!]

In other words, don’t divert all of your creative energy into playing Corporate Lotto (i.e. chasing a higher salary) if you want to get rich – or, even to reach a more humble goal, such as becoming debt free (a dumb goal, IMHO).

First – and, as soon as possible – learn how to get rich (or debt free, or …) by taking action right now, with whatever you can bring to the table.

If your salary happens to improve along the way, all the better … but, don’t rely on it!

How much income do you need to be Rich?

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In his bestseller, The Number (2006), Lee Eisenberg relates the story of a man who outlined for him what somebody else told him [AJC: already, this sounds like an Urban Myth] about what it takes to be rich:

This is really interesting, because it matches what I was told when I began my Journey (to $7 million in 7 years) by a well-known finance guru; at the time, he said [AJC: paraphrasing; my memory’s not THAT good!]:

In order to live a ‘rich’ lifestyle (i.e. you can drive the cars you want, live where you want, travel whenever and wherever you want) you need an income of at least $250,000 per year.

Now, that was back in 1998 … so, when I bumped into him a year or two ago, I reminded him of what he told me then, and asked him what he thought the ‘number’ was now: he said “$500,000” [AJC: that’s per year].

In fact, that $250k (times the 20 multiple that he also told me that I needed) was the exact basis for my $5 million Number, because I didn’t know how to calculate it any better (then) … and, along with discovering my Life’s Purpose, started the journey that totally changed my life.

Seeing this table, excerpted from Lee Eisenberg’s book [AJC: which, he admits ripping from somebody else … apparently, that’s how these ‘rules’ get written!] only reinforces that … so, just decide whether you want to be “comfortable” (or, “comfortable+”), “kind of rich”, or plain ol’ “rich” and  your Number is virtually set!

Which brings me back to the question of whether CEO’s are rich, in the first place?

[AJC: we already know the Fortune 500 CEO’s are, but what about the ‘ordinary’ CEO’s of all of those small-to-medium-size businesses out there?]

Really, it’s only the CEO’s of those businesses (and, their highly-deserving legal advisors) who can even claim to be “comfortable+”.

Most senior management in these businesses can only claim to be ‘comfortable”, at best …

… so, the real reason why most CEO’s aren’t rich is that they simply don’t earn enough!

My question to you is:

If you know your Life’s Purpose, and if you know your Number (particularly if it’s a Large Number / Soon Date) why are you wasting your time:

– kissing up to your boss,

– back stabbing your work mates, and

– running ragged for your company’s customers?

… just to have the slightest-possible-chance of getting to the ONE job in the WHOLE company that ONLY makes you “comfortable+” AT BEST?

Seems silly to me …

When I crunched those odds (way back in 1990), I very quickly made a rush for the Exit Door at my high-flying corporate job 🙂