Cashflow Blog

  By BRETT ARENDS

You’ve eaten the hot dogs. You’ve watched the fireworks.

Now it’s time to declare another kind of independence — your own. If you’re like most Americans, you haven’t been free in a long, long time.

Instead you’re in chains. You’re manacled to dozens of monthly bills you can’t seem to escape.

Mortgage payments. Car payments. Credit-card payments. Cellphone, landline, cable TV. TiVo. You name it. Thousands of dollars.

Call them tribute. Or tithes.

Who’s really free here?

Our Founding Fathers probably would have thrown their cable boxes into Boston Harbor. But then, they ranked liberty ahead of the pursuit of happiness.

Take a look at the chart. Maybe it should become our new national symbol.

It shows how much more we owe than our parents did.

In 1976, around the time of the bicentennial, the average family of four owed about $56,000. That’s in today’s dollars, after accounting for inflation, and includes mortgage, credit cards, car loans and the like.

The figure now? Oh, about $185,000.

Gosh, it’s just amazing we have a credit crisis, isn’t it?

Of course it must be somebody else’s fault. Insert conspiracy theory here: [   ]

But instead of blaming other people for our problems, or looking to political candidates to solve them for us, maybe we could start by looking a little closer to home.

Do we really need the Super Duper Every Movie Ever Made cable package? All those meals out? The endless trips to the salon? The supersized caramel double iced latte with extra whipped cream every day on the way to work?

Really, how lazy we are. Could there be anything easier in the world to make at home than an iced coffee?

It isn’t just the big bills that are shackling us. It’s all the little ones. They add up. If we cut just one dollar a day from our budgets and saved the money instead, in thirty years we’d have…. about $26,000.

Yep. That’s assuming we earned about 5% after inflation on our investments - a reasonable assumption, but not a heroic one.

Twenty six thousand bucks.That’s in today’s money. If you’re not maxing contributions to your 401(k) plan, it’s even more because of the tax savings. Try $34,300.

That won’t buy complete freedom. But it can’t hurt.

Read the rest here:
How to Declare Financial Independence

Robert and Kim Kiyosaki say that their business relationship has strengthened their marriage and they believe that it is beneficial for couples to grow together financially as well as spiritually and emotionally.

But with that said, it’s important that you and your spouse set some rules so that you keep your business activities in perspective and proportion with the rest of your lives. Don’t spend the whole day working on your business and then the whole evening talking about it. You have to turn it off. You have to spend time on your personal relationship and your family.

When you and your spouse become business partners as well as life partners, set some ground rules. Be clear on when you’re working and when you’re not. And always allow enough time to nurture the feelings that brought you together in the first place.

Excerpted from:
When your spouse becomes your business partner

Money alone does not solve your money problems — financial intelligence does.

This is according to world best selling author Robert Kiyosaki, who will be in the country next week to promote his new book Increase Your Financial IQ.

In his book he says it is not the love of money that is evil, but the lack of it that causes evil. With the current high interest rates and soaring petrol and food prices, many consumers are finding it difficult to service their debts.

According to online money advice company www.justmoney.co.za South Africans use as much as 75 percent of their income to service debt.

The old adage, “knowledge is power”, has never been more relevant now as many people are selling their homes and cars to survive.

A recent survey by www.justmoney.co.za shows South Africans are cutting back on partying and eating out, by as much as 40 percent, as they watch their pennies.

Trim the Fat Off Your Spending

Getting out of a financial pickle is as easy as getting in it. It starts with changing your habits. Start by cutting out luxuries.

~ Abdul Milazi

Excerpt from:
Financial freedom is not impossible

Robert Kiyosaki on KTLA News on real estate.

More:
Robert Kiyosaki on KTLA News

Robert Kiyosaki explains why many commonly held truths about managing money are obsolete. In their place, he offers financial solutions anyone can follow.

“Investing,” he points out, “is not risky, but following bad investment advice is.

* Your future is created by what you do today, not tomorrow

* The size of your success is measured by the strength of your desire; the size of your dream; and how you handle disappointment along the way.

* The only difference between a rich person and poor person is how they use their time

* Academic qualifications are important and so is financial education. They’re both important and schools are forgetting one of them.

* The poor, the unsuccessful, the unhappy, the unhealthy are the ones who use the word tomorrow the most

* I have a problem with too much money. I can’t reinvest it fast enough, and because I reinvest it, more money comes in. Yes, the rich do get richer.

* Do today what you want for your tomorrows

* Tomorrows only exist in the minds of dreamers and losers

* The most life-destroying word of all is the word tomorrow

* A lot of people are afraid to tell the truth, to say no. That’s where toughness comes into play. Toughness is not being a bully. It’s having backbone.

* Money is kind of a base subject. Like water, food, air and housing, it affects everything, yet for some reason the world of academics thinks it’s a subject below their social standing

* We go to school to learn to work hard for money. I write books and create products that teach people how to have money work hard for them.

Guru Speaks?