Not Buying It
November 15th, 2006
I’ve started reading Not Buying It:My Year Without Shopping
In the process of putting up this site and starting to get a better handle on my financial life I’ve been reading books on the topic and learning loads from other bloggers. I’m starting to understand that I am in control of my spending, no matter how much advertisers will try to convince me otherwise. With that said I’m still not doing everything that I could to save more money and get to the more interesting side of what this site was dedicated to; investing. But this is a learning process and I like the fact that some of the books that I’m reading and some of the sites I frequent don’t miss this point.
Technorati Tags: Not Buying it, Consumerism, learning
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The Millionaire Next Door – My Thoughts
November 10th, 2006
A couple days ago I finished reading The Millionaire Next Door. The book came recommended as one of the fundamental books to read when it came to personal finance along with the likes of ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad’ and I have to agree with that assessment. I found the book to be full of common sense but also quite eye opening. I know that this is a bit of a contradiction but unless you look at your financial matters in a certain way you might completely miss a great deal of the common sense that the book shows. One of the key items in the book is the power of frugality and how you can turn that into huge amounts of money when you’re ready to retire.
There were a few key lessons that I learnt from the book:
Financial awareness, budgeting and planning take time but the benefits are worth it.
I’ve always understood that to get a handle on your money you need to devote some time to this, but what the book pointed out is that the people who are financially independent are the ones that spend double the amount of time the non-affluent do when it comes to their money issues. I found this to be a surprising increase in time especially since when I got into more financial trouble I was forced to spend time ensuring everything got paid. I guess I wasn’t spending nearly enough time and I’m probably still not spending enough time. But at least I know this.
Live below your means, being frugal has great benefits.
Ever since I’ve received a steady paycheck I’ve been pretty much a hyper consumer. I might not have all the technical gadgets or fancy cars, but for me going out with friends was how I spent my money. Granted I have a lot of great memories from this and enjoyed it but the reality here is I’ve always liked spending the money I made. But being frugal will allow you to save up money for investing which in turn will make you more money. The book also gave me a mental poke when it comes to being a hyper consumer, I’ve known that this was the reason I’ve routinely been short on money but the extent of this was emphasized for me when I read this book. I’ve been spending less money lately and even more now that I’ve read this book.
Being a business owner makes you more likely to be a millionaire.
Recently I’ve been toying with the idea of starting to try out some of the business ideas that come rattling out of my head. This book reiterated my desire to do this by pointing out that the majority of the millionaires the authors talked to were business owners. As long as you keep track of your money and spending and your business succeeds then it makes perfect sense.
Overall I have to say I quite enjoyed the book even though the chapters on inherited wealth didn’t have much bearing for me; at least not any time soon. I would recommend reading this book to anyone who is just finishing school. It’s an eye opener that at the very least will get you thinking about what impact your spending habits might have.
Technorati Tags: Book Review, The Millionaire Next Door, frugal, consumerism
Posted in Books | 3 Comments
An Update – With a financial impact.
October 26th, 2006
For some reason I was struggling with the title of this post; but I’ve got it now. Anyhow the primary point of this post is the fact I’ve made the decision to quit smoking. It’s a disgusting thing, most smokers would agree. I know that saying it and doing it are completely different things. In this particular case I sought some help and I got that help in the form of a book.
Allen Carr’s The Easy Way to Quit Smoking! And its working. I’m not smoking anymore and I’m glad for it. I was never a heavy smoker but I was a smoker for years. The sad thing is I only started smoking when I was in my mid 20s. It’s about time to stop paying through the nose for the pleasure of filling my lungs with gunk
The financial impact is going to be pretty immediate in that I was spending about $100 every pay on smokes sometimes more when I was buying smokes for myself and my Fiancé. We’re both quitting at the same time which will make it easier for both of us and we’ll both see the financial impact.
Posted in News/Misc, Books | 2 Comments
Who Moved My Cheese? – Not Bad
September 15th, 2006
Last night I couldn’t find the book I was planning on reading mostly because I thought it was in the car so I grabbed a book off the shelf. That book was Who Moved My Cheese and I managed to get the whole thing done in under an hour. The story and the post story discussion in the book are fairly simple but when you really think about them they carry deeper meaning. The focus of the book is change and it uses four characters to describe what many people do during situations of change. I won’t go into details because that’s what reading the book is all about but I think the elements that were described not only apply to change but also to business and investment.
We can all just sit there and do virtually nothing, happy as a clam as our debts increase year over year as we try in vain to keep up with the Jones’ who miraculously aren’t in debt. We fear the results of our investment and risks. I say we because I know I can’t possibly be the only person that was afraid of taking a look at their finances because of what he might see, not only the bad but the opportunities lost and potential still within. I was afraid of taking the risk of investing in stocks, not because I might loose the money, heck I’ve been doing that for years why should I be afraid of that? I was scared of the possibility of success, the potential for Change.
I’ve come to realize this on my own but the book did highlight a few things of interest for me, which is why I found it interesting. I’m less afraid of change now than I was a couple years ago and its time to take a point from the book of never letting complacency get the best of me again.
Tags: Business, books, Business Books, Change, Fear
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