Cashflow Blog

I hope you all have a great Holiday season and look forward to sharing the best ideas with you as we continue on this journey of financial success. It’s certainly a White Christmas here in Denver, Colorado and a special Thank You and best wishes to all our military troops all over the world. God speed your journey home to your loved ones!

Steve Mertz
Peace and Prosperity to You!

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Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!

Chris Gardner’s amazing story of financial success was first chronicled almost four years ago on TV-as fate would have it, Will Smith, happened to be watching this story. Four years later Will Smith is portraying Chris Gardner in the movie The Pursuit of Happyness! The misspelling is a reference to a real life day-care center that Gardner could not afford for his son.

I am a sucker for a real life rags to riches story and Chris Gardner is all of that and more. One night while visiting San Francisco General Hospital on his sales rounds (he was a medical-supply salesman), he spotted a red Ferrari 308 pulling into the parking lot. Gardner posed two questions to the driver of the Ferrari: “What do you do?” and “How do you do that?” They went to lunch and the stockbroker explained how we was making $80,000 a month-Gardner was making $30,000 a year. Gardner managed to get into a trainee program and the rest is history. For those of you who have not read the book or seen the movie—I won’t ruin the story but if you need to have your spirit rekindled, and you are suffering some troubling financial times, please do go see this movie.

I’ve always said financial success is a journey and what a journey it has been for Chris Gardner. It’s also not about the money-it’s about the freedom money provides you to make choices to help yourself and others!

Steve Mertz
Thanks for the Inspiration Chris Gardner!

Continued here:
The Pursuit of Happyness

Jay Zagorsky, an economist at Ohio State University, has bad economic news for people that are carrying 30 to 40 pounds of extra weight-You will be discriminated against in the wealth arena! He covers the usual costs of extra weight including:life insurance premiums are two to four times as large. They can also have a harder time being hired, and then a harder time winning plum assignments and promotions! The study looks at correlations between economic and social factors and a measure of obesity called the body mass index. This is the same index which has been criticized for its inability to distinguish between a well-muscled person and a fat one.

The end results of the study are startling. The obese accumulate only about half the assets of the normal sized American! Years of weight discrimination studies clearly show there is weight discrimination-I would also venture a guess that there is also a direct correlation between those with severe physical disabilities!

I just wish I’d not read this article as I was having that extra brownie
Here’s the link to the New York Times article: Extra Weight, Higher Costs.

PS-NY Times is offering a free preview if you can’t get through on this link. Looks like if you click on the graph a few times you get one that you can easily read!

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Personal Finance, Money, New York Times, Money Tips

More:
Money Tip: Being Overweight can be Dangerous to Your Wealth!