Home › Forums › Money › I need advice on how to become financially independent. Does anyone have any?
Tagged: wealth
This topic contains 40 replies, has 28 voices, and was last updated by 
Anonymous 4 years, 6 months ago.
- AuthorPosts
I am an 18 year old Highschool senior who is four weeks from graduating. I will be making the biggest decisions of my life. I need to know how to pay the house bills when i buy a house. I already have a truck. I need to know everything about being financially independent from my parents and not just the basics. I would appreciate any and all advice that i can get. Thank you!
I'm married to the game,but she broke her vows.
When I was 12, I got a book for my birthday. It was called “The Wealthy Barber” and it explains (in simple terms) how any AVERAGE working man – not even a high earner – can make himself a millionaire- especially if he starts putting away 10% of his earnings AS SOON AS POSSIBLE IN LIFE.
This is not even bulls~~~.
Take 10% of whatever you make and sock it away and NEVER. F~~~ING. TOUCH. IT.
Even if you have to sleep on a park bench, and have to skip lunch.Financial independence is attainable. DONT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON WOMEN.
Ignore women. Acquire money.
The second you get a pay check, put at least 10% away ALL THE TIME – always pay yourself first.
Welcome to the forums, pal. I would say “good luck” but luck is not a factor.
Oh! and PS, don’t even THINK about having a girlfriend until you are AT LEAST 26 and well on your way to achieving your dreams.
If you keep doing what you've always done... you're gonna keep getting what you always got.Firstly, listen to Keymaster…go get “The Wealthy Barber” and follow it’s advice. My only advice would be, that if it is at all possible, try living below your means.
As an example, say just because a bank approves you for a 300,000.00 mortgage doesn’t mean you have to spend 3 hundred k….You could probably still get a kick ass place for half that and have loads of disposable income left over at the end of every month…If you follow that kind of logic with all major purchases you should also quite easily have the 10% to pay yourself every month-hell probably even more than that.
I know too many people that fall into the trap of spending more money once they start making more money…don’t do this!
And hey, without a woman in your life, saving money should actually be fairly easy to do for you.
Look out for yourself man
You = No 1 unequivically
Anonymous5Hey Maximus, this is a great link I know you’ll love, spend some time there. There’s male cats there somewhere, you might even get a boyfriend.
/womens-shelter/Rule #1
Don’t be the Average working man…Think Bigger!!! That is if you have what it takes…not everyone one is cut out to do so…and thank God for that.
Step 1:
Join the Coast Guard or the Air Force for 4 years…preferably the Coast Guard and grow up fast. Have some fun, adventure, travel with pay and benefits for life.
I used to visit a barber who owned his own shop in an exclusive area of LA…beautiful home, all the toys…but let me tell you how his face lit up when speaking of his 4 years in the Navy traveling the world. He drank like a sailor, cussed like a sailor, spent money like a sailor and had women in every port. Not that I’m advocating that…he got it all out of his system…sowed his wild oats, AND then focused on building his business.
Correct…don’t waste money on women; however, your a man and have needs; therefore only invest in women that give you the best BANG for your BUCK. And by all means, don’t fall in love…play the field a bit…and do your due diligence.
Soooo picture this:
after a hitch in the service, you’d be 22 or 23 and would of had real life experience, seen the world, met people from all over and are in a much better situation than a Wealthy Barber circling the same old block year after year with a high net worth.
Go for the EXPERIENCES at your age…if you play your cards right, after 4 years in the military…you’d have life long benefits (thank you for your service etc) travelled the world, made life long friends, had quality female companionship (on YOUR terms) and <span style=”line-height: 1.5;”>you’d have cash in the bank. If you were really savvy and got expert advice, you might consider putting socking away 5-10% or more in a Vanguard Index Fund…or better yet INVEST IN REAL ESTATE. Even better…if you enjoy the military lifestyle…stay in for 20 years and invest in real estate the whole time. Imagine that…if you play it smart…you’d be loaded in 20 years of sooner.</span>
Consider Real Estate School…not for the license, but for the knowledge…either in or out of the military.
The world is you oyster brother!!!
Best of luck to you!
I find it interesting that people are mentioning “The Wealthy Barber.”
My parents bought that book about 14 years ago and I always saw it stashed in the bookshelf. I never picked it up to read it as a kid, because I literally thought it was just a book about how to make money as a barber. Silly me!
Now that my parents have separated (6 years ago), and my mother has moved out of the house they owned (last August), that book has been passed to me. I was about to sell that book, too! Now, I’m interested in reading it…
No matter how much you get paid, always live within your means. Credit Cards and Credit reports are just there to give you quick steps to becoming a wage slave. If you do get a credit card, keep your charges below your monthly income after taxes. Use the card for everything. Then, before the bill is due, pay it off from your main checking account.
For instance, let’s say you get paid 1800 a month after taxes. You put all your expenses on a credit card for about 1500 a month. Now, when you pay the card off, you are using money that has already accrued interest for the month, but you have paid off your balance so you don’t incur interest on the credit card. Not to mention many cards have a cash back incentive on all purchases on the card. So, you are being paid to pay your bills and being paid to pay off your balance.
It will also help if you invest all you can while you are younger. Over time you will build up a great amount of wealth by doing nothing.
Now here’s where things get crazy. Just of that one Credit Card, through time your credit limit on that card should grow as your take home pay grows. However, if you are only making 3000 a month and your card limit is 10000, don’t spend more than you can pay off at one time. Also, any raises you get, just invest the raises if possible. If you can already live on your initial pay rate, why spend more money than you have to? By this time your credit rating should be quite nice.
As your investment assets grow, and in hopes you have dividend paying stocks that are being invested, you should reach a point where your dividends should be larger than your paying job’s income. At this time you have hopefully picked somewhere to live that meets all the points in life you want. (I recommend South East Asia). Now, if possible, if your dividend income is twice that of what you need to live, stop dividend reinvestment. The money should more than likely go to a tax free money market account where you can freely transfer it to a checking account. Transfer only what you need and find more stocks to reinvest in.
Essentially anything and everything you purchase will be with “free” money. If you wish to continue to live in the States, go ahead a get a house on loan. With the dividend income pay the mortgage and you should be able to deduct a percentage of your home loan from your tax burden. If you live in South East Asia it is a bit more tricky. I recommend doing as much research as you can before making any purchases. However, renting isn’t a bad option. Just for comparison, I have rented a two story town home for 100 bucks a month, larger one story for 140 bucks a month in places I actually wanted to live. However, due to work I have had to pay 250 bucks a month for a one story home and 250 bucks a month for a small apartment exactly where I do not want to be.
Anyway, if you live underneath your means and invest properly everyone should be able to get exactly what they want in life. However, if you try to keep up with the Jones you will find that retirement is next to impossible.
Also, if a buddy or family member ever comes to you and says, “Hey, I have this great business idea,” don’t fall for it. I’d be retired right now if I had just said “no” twice. But I didn’t say no. I’m not that far from my goals, but I would have met my goals years ago if I had just said “no”.
Don't stick your dick into anyone you aren't willing to put up with for eighteen years and nine months.
Silvernail,
I’m 48 years old and can retire anytime, but I like my work so I do it part time. My job is more like a hobby to me now. My financial history that got me to this point has some once-in-a-lifetime lucky events that can’t be counted on so I won’t go in to those. But it also includes some lessons learned early from older, wiser people than me which I will pass on. These things negate the need for luck.I don’t type fast enough to explain in as much detail as I’d like, but I’ll start by saying that seeking the advice of people older and further down your path when you are young (as you are doing now) is exactly what I did. So, you are off to a good start. Learn everything you can from as many people as you can as early as you can.
Looking back 30 years later, the most valuable things I learned:
* Have the discipline to control your spending. It doesn’t matter so much how much money you earn if you can’t hang on to it. Celebrities with million dollar salaries who can’t control their spending go bankrupt all the time. If you want to be hard core about it, treat your money as if it’s your blood, and everytime you are about to spend money, ask yourself if this purchase is absolutely necessary for your survival. If not, then keep your money and survive without it. Obviously, this results in living within your means. Warren Buffet is worth 58 Billion dollars. He could eat steak everyday, but eats hamburgers instead. Think about the discipline of that example, and follow it.
* Usually, the biggest drain on any person’s assets… is another person. Rarely do you see someone who is their own worst financial enemy. There is the occasional compulsive gambler or compulsive spender who are their own worst financial enemy. But usually, it is a wife, or girlfriend, or kids, or some other person who is the biggest drain. Choose your relationships as carefully as you choose your investments.
* Make a list of things you like to do. From that list, pick what will earn you the most money and make that a career. Everything else on the list can be a hobby. This way, you’ll always be doing work that you enjoy and will not have ‘wasted’ your life doing something you hate in order to get paid. Everything else on the list is a hobby, but pick the hobbies that are the least expensive to pursue.
* Seek out the best education/training/mentors you can find in whatever you choose above, and then WORK AS HARD AS YOU POSSIBLY CAN to be better at it than anyone else…including your mentors. To use the baseball analogy: do not stand in the batter’s box and hope for a walk. Do not bunt or swing as though you are trying for a base hit. Swing (try) as though you intend to dent some cars in the stadium parking lot…
* When you do start earning money, the money you save and invest early in life is the most valuable money you will ever have. That invested money has 40-60 years to grow. Maximize that by controlling your spending as above. Being young allows you the most valuable possible asset there is: time.
The wisdom to learn from people who’ve gone before you and follow their example, the love of your work, the discipline to control your spending, to invest early and to say “no” to beautiful liabilities, the willingness to work as hard as you possibly can, and the fully committed aspiration to be the absolute best in the world at whatever you do… should serve you well in whatever field you choose to make a career.
Look, it's not my fault that tornado dropped a house on your sister. Now get back on your broom and get your ass out of here... and take your monkeys with you
Acquire assets. More important than simply making money is having the ability to do so. That’s your foundation.
Hey BigD, you seem to know a good deal about credit cards. Can you elaborate more on the whole part about being paid to pay your bills? When and how often should I be purchasing things with my credit card, and when should I be paying the balance off for the best effect?
If there are WellsFargo Bank branches where you live (and you may be able to do this even if there aren’t), you can get a Wellsfargo checking account and a Wellsfargo credit card at the same time. The credit cards accrue points which can be used for air miles, gift cert’s or cash which comes back to you tax free. The really good thing about Wellsfargo which I have not seen in other banks, is that you can set up the credit card to pay itself off in full every month by automatic transfer from your checking account. You can also set it up so that the due date is a few days after pay day.
The checking account is an interest paying account. Though the interest rate is so low it’s only pocket change, it’s still free money.
The benefit here is that, as long as you spend less than you earn, you can put everything you spend on the credit card (even some utility companies and cell phone companies will do this) and then automatically pay off all your bills at one time once a month. Obviously, it is critical that you do not ever spend more on the card than the paycheck that goes into your account to cover it. This way, you will never pay credit card interest, and the utility company, the credit card company and the bank will show on your credit report that you never paid late, overdrew your account or ran a debt balance and these things boost your credit score.
Many banks will allow a transfer from checking to pay it off, but they make you do it manually every month in hopes that you’ll forget on the due date and they will get late fees and interest charges. If you make this mistake, and remember to pay your bill two days later, you don’t pay interest charges for the two days you were late. You pay interest charges on each individual purchase all the way back to the day you made each individual purchase. In order to avoid this, you have to pay on time every time with perfect reliability. WellsFargo is the only one I know of that will do it automatically, and in full every month.
If you set it up correctly, you make cell call on January 1. The cell bill is generated jan 30 and you have until say Feb 20 to pay it. On the cell bill due date, cell company places charge on your credit card on first day of credit card’s billing cycle. Credit card bill is generated 29 days later on March 19 and you have 20 days to pay it. So, around April 10, the credit card bill is due and it pays itself automatically from your checking account.
So, you make phone call on Jan 1 and pay for it on April 10. In the interim, the money to pay for the call sits in your checking account drawing interest for 3 months and ten days. When it finally does pay, it does so with zero effort or input from you, with no risk of paying late fees or interest charges, and with a point system that gives you about 1% tax free rebate on the cost of the call.
If you happen to use quick books or microsoft money for your book keeping, the Wellsfargo site will download all your banking and card information to your computer in quickbooks format, so you just download and assign each charge to it’s category without having to retype them all. If you use turbo tax, or one of those other tax software programs, I’ve heard that they will extract your information from quickbooks software when it’s time to do your taxes, so you don’t have to re-type all that info into tax software to do your taxes every year.
Last, if you’re like me and too lazy and busy to do any of that, Wellsfargo website has a view-only password that my cpa can use to sign in on my account, see everything I’m doing (but not have ability to move or control any of the money there) and download it all into his book keeping/tax software. I have two credit cards. I use one for tax deductible expenses and the other for expenses that are not tax deductible. So it’s easy for him to see what to account for as expenses. This all saves him time on my taxes and so he charges me less for doing them.
By doing it this way, I never pay to have checks printed since I almost never use any, or pay any fees for writing over a certain number of checks each month (some banks apply service charge if you write more than some designated number of checks), and I’ve never paid late fees or credit card interest.
But for all this to work, you must treat dollars like your own red blood cells and NEVER spend more than you earn!
Look, it's not my fault that tornado dropped a house on your sister. Now get back on your broom and get your ass out of here... and take your monkeys with you
The second you get a pay check, put at least 10% away ALL THE TIME – always pay yourself first.
This!!
I will share one of the principles I learnt years ago and I still use it this very day, The Three Bucket Strategy.
How you allocate your money in percentages is up to you but I earn enough to do a 33% split across the three. It works!I learnt this from Tony Robbins and Sir John Tempelton book and over 2 years you will be amazed how much money you will have. All my toys, trips etc all come from the Dream Bucket and I NEVER take from the Growth or Security Bucket to feed the Dream Bucket. Go to the bank, set up 3 accounts and start drip feeding into them whilst you decide where you will invest for the Security and Growth Buckets. Use the 8th wonder of the world – Compound Interest! And like a Vasectomy, NEVER tell a woman about these accounts or investments EVER!
1. Spend less than you earn and then invest the difference
2. Reinvest your returns for compounded growth</span></p>
3. Reach a critical mass of investment capital that creates the annual income that you want. After you own your home, car and expenses are paid every year you really only need say $50K a year to live comfortably.ASSET ALLOCATION – 3 BUCKETS for your investment capital (e.g. 30% of your income)
1. SECURITY BUCKET (e.g. 50% of investment capital) – first port of call for investment – low risk, fixed income, guaranteed return</span></p>
* cash for 2-6 months’ expenses
* home
* insurance
* superannuation2. GROWTH BUCKET (e.g. 30% of your investment capital) – greater risk
* shares
* property
3. DREAM BUCKET (e.g. 20% of your investment capital)
* second home
* trip
* boatThe only reason to invest: to have an income for life without working.
*** ALWAYS PAY YOURSELF FIRST ***
And NEVER get a loan for bad debt or a depreciable asset, like a car!
Also what I do is I have a platinum credit card linked to Singapore Airlines. Every $1 i spend i get 1.5 points, EVERYTHING goes on this card, and before you know it you have enough points to fly business or first class anywhere in the world and because you use this card it also covers you for medical and travel insurance as well saving $500. Everyone has ideas, I respect that, but for me the bucket system works and I don’t have to think about it too hard. And please learn how to invest and trade if you want shares. Financial planners and managed fund brokers are crooks and skim percentages off your portfolio.
One last thing, don’t ever follow what Warren Buffet says, it’s complete s~~~ to favour him, not you! Best piece of advice I ever got from a Wall Street trader was this “Never take financial advice from anyone who owns or earns less than you.” And don’t be afraid to approach affluent and successful people for advice. If you don’t ask you’ll fail 100% of the time.
Oh BTW guys, if you are starting out on trading DO NOT, DO NOT, NOT, NOT trade on margin if you don’t know what you are doing!!! Just use your own money on a long trade and spread the risk, think dollar cost averaging. BlackRock iShares are a good place to start and you can buy over time and build it up for 20+ years and it exposes you to some amazing companies globally that most people aren’t generally exposed to financially. It is an ETF (Exchange Traded Fund) but is totally in your control and personally, I have made some good money from these!
* I am NOT a financial advisor or giving financial advice but rather giving some avenues to look into for people who are unfamilar. And I repeat, no matter what any brokerage or online platform says – DO NOT, DO NOT, NOT, NOT trade on margin if you don’t know what you are doing!!!
Great advice guys, I appreciate it. I currently have 2 credit cards and was wondering if more were necessary. Is there any benefit to having a 3rd?
Not necessarily any need for a 3rd. The most important thing on your credit report is not how many cards you have, it’s how reliably you pay your bills (all of them). A late payment anywhere, even in utility bills, creates the impression that you are someone who either spends more than they earn, or borrows more than they can pay back.
When a mortgage agent looks at your debt to income ratio, they also look at your ‘potential debt’ which is the total of all the limits of all the cards you have. Even if you only charge 20 or 30 bucks a month on a card with a 10,000 limit, that 10,000 is potential debt that, if you go to the mall and charge 9900 the day after the mortgage goes through, may affect your ability to pay the mortgage. Having a card or two with modest limits that you never max out and always pay off makes the best impression.
Look, it's not my fault that tornado dropped a house on your sister. Now get back on your broom and get your ass out of here... and take your monkeys with you
Not necessarily any need for a 3rd. The most important thing on your credit report is not how many cards you have, it’s how reliably you pay your bills (all of them). A late payment anywhere, even in utility bills, creates the impression that you are someone who either spends more than they earn, or borrows more than they can pay back. When a mortgage agent looks at your debt to income ratio, they also look at your ‘potential debt’ which is the total of all the limits of all the cards you have. Even if you only charge 20 or 30 bucks a month on a card with a 10,000 limit, that 10,000 is potential debt that, if you go to the mall and charge 9900 the day after the mortgage goes through, may affect your ability to pay the mortgage. Having a card or two with modest limits that you never max out and always pay off makes the best impression.
Really good advice, two thumbs up!!
I have a AMEX and VISA linked. I only have a max. $12K limit and it is paid off every month. If I need more than $12K I place extra onto the card to beef it up, but I’ve never needed it yet.
Hey BigD, you seem to know a good deal about credit cards. Can you elaborate more on the whole part about being paid to pay your bills? When and how often should I be purchasing things with my credit card, and when should I be paying the balance off for the best effect?
I know just enough not to get myself in trouble. Most credit cards have a cash back perk. So if you pay everything with it, you get cash back. However, I don’t go over my monthly budget. So I pay off the whole thing before the end of the month. So I get to keep my cash in my account longer to accrue interest. So I get paid twice by using a credit card and paying off the bill by the end of the month.
Don't stick your dick into anyone you aren't willing to put up with for eighteen years and nine months.
I’ve done plenty of things from running my own business to owning income property…. BUT
The one think I found that has been my favorite way to be more independent is Placing money every month into a mutual fund.
Over time, as a young man, if you can set aside some money every month – then over time this pays off. An example for me, last year my mutual fund PAID OUT 40K in revenue to me. I expect this year it will provide me about 30K.
In order to get rewards, build the fund up each month… and over time it makes money for you.
- AuthorPosts
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
921526
921524
919244
916783
915526
915524
915354
915129
914037
909862
908811
908810
908500
908465
908464
908300
907963
907895
907477
902002
901301
901106
901105
901104
901024
901017
900393
900392
900391
900390
899038
898980
896844
896798
896797
895983
895850
895848
893740
893036
891671
891670
891336
891017
890865
889894
889741
889058
888157
887960
887768
886321
886306
885519
884948
883951
881340
881339
880491
878671
878351
877678
