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

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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.

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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.

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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, …

My wife and I constantly discuss different ways to build our overall wealth. Our goal is to retire and be able to spend all of our time with our children. We’ve tried a lot of different things over the years, but our most miserable experience arose when we decided to drastically cut back on our bottom line expenses. I think we started doing this after I read the book “The Millionaire Next Door” which is a book about how most millionaires become wealthy by being extremely frugal and compounding their money over time.

So we tried being frugal, cutting back on going out to eat and pretty much eliminating all of our entertainment expenses. After trying to do this for about 4 weeks, I finally got fed up and decided to calculate whether this was worth all of the misery. At that time, we had …