Many personal finance and “get out of debt” blogs often advise their readers to avoid the use of credit cards at all costs. For some people, it’s all too tempting to buy more than you need and waste money on frivolous items when all you have to do is hand over a piece of plastic. By paying for everything in cash, you force yourself to correlate the cost of the items that you buy with actual dollar values which in theory helps curb your spending.

Photo By Andres Rueda

While these mind games work for the average individual, when it comes to running a small business, credit cards are an absolute must. My personal opinion is that if you lack the self control to watch your spending, then you have no business becoming an entrepreneur either. When running a small business, it’s important to watch what you …

In order to build wealth effectively, we all have to be frugal to a certain extent. We have to watch our spending. We have to analyze our expenditures and cut back on the fat. We have to make sacrifices to make sure that we can save enough money for college and retirement.

Photo By Edward Kimuk

Fortunately, my wife and I both share the same principles when it comes to spending money (ie. we don’t spend frivolously). Otherwise, we would be seriously screwed. But after analyzing last year’s expenses using Quicken, I feel all frugalled out. We have pretty much cut back as much as we possibly can without drastically affecting our lifestyle.

If we look closely at last years expenses, we cut spending by another 4% over the year before. We are going out to eat less thanks to my wife’s desire to …

Many would be entrepreneurs hesitate to start their own business because they think it is too risky from a monetary perspective. In fact, most people don’t think starting a business is even worth trying unless they can come up with a grand slam profitable idea. Of course profitability is an extremely important factor with any business, but what if I were to tell you that you could save a decent amount of money every year with your business while only making a small profit or none at all?

Photo by Chasing Fun

That’s right! Most people don’t consider the tax savings involved in running a business. Most people don’t realize that having a day job is one of the worst ways to save on taxes because Uncle Sam takes a huge chunk out of your paycheck BEFORE you pay for anything. On the …

When most people think about starting a company or business, they think of the Microsofts, the Googles and the YouTubes of the world. They tend to think big because the media focuses on these multi-million dollar success stories and over glamorizes the risks and rewards.

Photo by MarkyBon

In fact, the media tends to portray entrepreneurs like lottery winners because that’s what makes the news. Because the chances of creating a company like You Tube or Facebook are so slim, most people shy away from starting their own business because they think it’s just way too risky with very little chance of success.

Just the other day, I had one of my readers email me that they were afraid to go out on their own because they didn’t want to risk everything for a measly 1% chance at success. A 1% chance at success? Where the hell did he …

My wife and I are currently on the verge of coming to an agreement on a house purchase and we’re excited and terrified at the same time. In just a few short months, we’ll be running an online store, maintaining a small business blog, and taking care of a second child as well. Besides the need for an extra bedroom for our new little one and a nice backyard to play in, our business has required the use of more and more room as we continue to expand. In a nutshell, we are in desperate need of some extra space and this house fits the bill.

Photo by Rev Dan Catt

The problem for me when it comes to home buying though is that I hate carrying a large mortgage. I was always brought up to pay my debts in their entirety and to not have any …

I never understood how the phrase “Time is money” could ever apply to my life. After all, no one was paying me 24 hours a day so how could my free time possibly translate to money? How could wasting time watching television or playing video games cost me anything when no one was paying me anything anyways?

It took me quite a while to comprehend the true meaning behind this statement. And after 10+ years of frittering away countless hours and taking my free time for granted, my business and my child finally made me realize how badly I was selling myself short.

Photo by tlindenbaum

For example, I used to always try to save money whenever I could by doing things myself. I would try and save a couple of bucks by changing my own oil even if it took me twice as long as going …

This article is the start of a 5 part series on how to create a profitable online store. If you’re tired of devoting the majority of your time to your day job and you’d rather set your own hours and be your own boss, the best way to escape from the rat race is to start your own business online.

When my wife became pregnant with our child and decided that she was quitting her job, we managed to create a profitable online store that generated 100k in profits in just over a year. Today, my wife stays at home with the kids and works just several hours a day on our online business from home!

5 Easy Steps To Follow

Introduction
Part 1: Find A Webhost And Domain
Part 2: Find Goods To Sell Online
Part 3: Select A Free Shopping Cart
Part 4: Select A Payment Processor
Part 5: Get A Great Design
More …

I admit it. I used to be ashamed of telling other people about our wedding linens business. When we first opened our online store, not only did we not receive many orders in the first 4-6 months, but the idea of opening an online wedding linens store seemed almost silly compared to what my other entrepreneurial friends were up to.

You see at the time, a good number of my friends and acquaintances were starting their own businesses and they were all quite impressive. One of my friends started his own cellphone gaming company. Another friend started his own web development software company. And a third friend started a small consulting firm. Whenever we saw each other, we would ask each other how things were going with our respective companies.

Photo by Nina Frazier

Friend: So Steve, how’s the linens business? Is it fun?
Me: Linens …

I received a surprisingly large number of emails after writing my last article entitled Housing Has Dropped And Rates Are Low – Should I Buy A House? so I thought I’d devote a blog post to addressing some of these mails.

I was kind of shocked because the majority of emails that I received were in favor of purchasing a house right now despite the mathematical analysis that I performed in my last article.

So I went ahead and picked some of the strongest arguments from these emails to address below. Most of these points may be valid for some people but I don’t feel that they apply to me directly. In any case, here are some of the arguments in favor of purchasing a house right now and why I personally disagree.
Argument 1:Interests Rates Are Low And They’ll Never Be This Low Again
One of my readers strongly urged me …

Home prices have dropped 10-20%. Interest rates are at historic lows. So does it make financial sense to buy a house right now? I’ve been asking myself this question for the past few months but can’t seem to find a compelling reason to do so. The numbers just don’t quite stack up.

Since I have a child and a business, my parents are also pushing me to buy a house. Even my accountant is advising me to purchase a home in order to provide a tax shelter. Do I listen to my parents and my accountant? Is it worth sitting down and running the numbers? In general, I don’t take anyone’s advice blindly unless I have a chance to do my own math. Here’s why I’m holding off on buying a house and a breakdown of my analysis.

Calculating The Monthly Mortgage Payment

Photo By Fotographix

The …

I am proud to present a guest post from Julie Broad, author of www.revnyou.com. 8 years ago, Julie and her husband set out to free themselves from their J-O-B’s. Starting with just $16,000, they bought their first investment property. Today, they are real estate millionaires and Julie officially retired from work at age 31. They now own a small business around helping other people achieve their real estate investment goals.

Martin, our money man and main investing partner, emailed us last night and said simply “I’ve pretty much lost it all”. We’d been shopping for a commercial property to buy to diversify our investments. Martin has partnered with us on four different residential properties, and had agreed to once again partner with us on this commercial property.

But, that was before. It was before the markets crashed and Martin lost his six figure down payment! Now, sitting on …

I don’t know why but I always get a little pensive during the holiday season. This is the time when I like to lie down, stare at the ceiling in total silence and reflect on my life for the past year. Holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving tend to amplify my mood. If I’m depressed, then I get more depressed, but if I’m happy, then I’m absolutely beaming with joy. This year, I’m fortunate to have many things to be thankful for. In just the span of 9 months, I feel like my life has finally come together.

For starters, I have become extremely wealthy. No, I didn’t suddenly get rich and I don’t have a huge amount of money. I don’t have a house yet nor do I drive a fancy car. But this is what I do have and why I consider my …

Last Friday, an engineer in the office complex where I work brutally gunned down the CEO, VP of Operations, and the Head of Human Resources of his company before fleeing the premises. This engineer, named Jing Wu, had recently gotten laid off from his job and decided to take revenge on the executives who were responsible.

Because this tragic triple homicide literally happened within 50 feet of my office, I’ve been thinking a lot these past few days about all of the things that I’ve been taking for granted. I’ve also been trying to place myself in the same situation as Jing Wu to figure out his frame of mind. What possessed him to follow through with such a heinous act? What caused him to become so desperate to think that losing his job meant the end of his life?

Photo By B Hernandez

While I’ll never know the …

Everyone knows that starting and running a small business is glamorous. In the past few weeks alone, I’ve read at least a half a dozen stories ranging from “How I made $1027.53 in a single day!” to “How you can work 4 hours a day and be rich with a small business!”.

Clearly, these guys are living the good life. What’s funny is that these business owners never mention how glamorous their lifestyle really is. They don’t mention the power, the freedom and the luxury that comes along with owning a small business. On second thought, it’s probably because they don’t want to make their readers jealous.

Photo By Ginsnob

Fortunately, I don’t care if I make you envious. I’m going to tell you about all of the “bling bling” that I experience on a day to day basis. For all of you who are new to …

In a previous article entitled how to build wealth by saving money without sacrificing your livelihood, I discussed different ways that my wife and I save money on a day to day basis without drastically affecting our lifestyle. While finding good deals and extending your money is an important aspect of accumulating wealth, deciding the right things to buy and avoiding spending altogether is every bit as crucial. Because spending and saving go hand in hand, the ability to allocate your funds wisely coupled with a proper savings plan will exponentially increase your pool of wealth.

So how does saving money differ from spending money wisely? Saving money is the act of finding the least expensive method of making a purchase that has already been planned. Spending wisely

Photo By Stuart Pilbrow

pertains to the decision making process that goes along with making a purchase. …

Do you believe that money is the ultimate panacea? Have you ever thought to yourself, “If I just had more money, my life would be so much easier and less worrisome?” Most people tend to think this way until they amass some wealth and the opposite happens. Their life gets harder and more stressful.

During the dotcom boom of the 90’s, my stock portfolio did extremely well. I amassed a small fortune, got greedy and starting investing more and more into the markets. Sometimes I even used margin and other forms of leverage to increase my gains. Because I was risking so much money, I found myself obsessing over ever little up and every little down.

Photo By Kudumomo

I would wake up at 6:00am PST every morning and agonize over my real time stock quotes until 9:00am when I had to go to work. …

In my previous article on mistakes parents make with kids and money – part 1, I pointed out 3 crucial mistakes that parents make with their kids and money.

1. Parents use credit cards in front of their kids
2. Parents buy their kids stuff because other kids have it
3. Parents hide financial details from their kids

If you happen to fall into any of the above categories, chances are you’re already sending wrong messages to your children about money. What’s worrisome is that this isn’t even an exhaustive list. In this article, I’m going to point out even more things that parents commonly overlook regarding kids and money that I’ve both experienced and observed first hand while growing up.

Photo By RedGlow82

Probably what is most disturbing is that we as parents make these mistakes with only good intentions in mind. We want our kids to look back on their childhood with …

My parents came to the United States with practically no possessions and very little money. They had to take odd jobs just to scrape by and could barely afford to have a roof over their heads. Every morning my Dad had to carry 2 buckets of water with outstretched arms up a mountain barefoot in a snowstorm to the water well a mile away. Okay, my Mom and Dad may have exaggerated some of their hardships but the fact is they didn’t have many luxuries growing up.

Because my parents lived a difficult life, they did their best to make sure that I had a fun and memorable childhood. In doing so, they always tried their hardest to provide me with everything a kid could want and need. In fact, they tried so hard that I kind of grew up a little confused. What could …

Everyone wants to build wealth but why do very few ever succeed in doing so? It’s because most people don’t take the time to establish a proper game plan on how to grow their money. Building wealth requires planning, budgeting and an awareness of how money can work for itself. The sooner you can amass even a small amount of money, the easier it is to accumulate wealth in the long run. It all starts with the proper frame of mind.

Most people try to take shortcuts and end up wasting their time or squandering what little wealth they have. Make no mistake, there are no real shortcuts unless you get lucky and win the lottery. The foundation of building wealth starts with establishing the right mindset and following through on a few basic principles.
Compound Interest
One of basic keys to building wealth …

Let’s face it. There are only 2 ways to build wealth. Either you can make more money or you can save more money. In a previous article, I already discussed why you should worry about your topline more than your bottom line. But just because you’re focusing on making money doesn’t mean you should neglect saving either. For most people, saving money is easier than making money because all aspects of saving it are under your control.

So why is it so hard to cut back for most people? Unfortunately, the answer is not clear cut. There are many personality issues and external factors involved that can not be easily controlled. However while you can’t change your current disposition, there are many steps that you can take to mentally prepare yourself to save. Unlike other articles on how to save money, …