tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76855359095332868972024-10-24T06:59:30.166-05:00This is my personal blog about the way I spend, make, save, and employ money in my life. If you are interested in making your money work for you, you've come to the right place.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger24125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7685535909533286897.post-17494749384363226662010-10-01T17:24:00.000-05:002010-10-01T17:24:04.368-05:00

By writing on this blog I'm already braking one of my cardinal rules - no writing on blogs without some plan to make money off of them. But I can't help it in this case. I need a place to write about what I'm doing and how I'm doing where I can retain a little bit of anonymity. I like business, I like talking about making money, and I want a way to catalogue where I've been and where I want to go

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7685535909533286897.post-8097358428021864692009-04-24T11:52:00.002-05:002009-04-24T12:04:36.112-05:00

As a self-proclaimed personal finance guru (and believe me, no one else claims that!) I'm always looking for ways to do two things, make money and save money. And if I can accomplish both goals at once, then it's all the better. Today, I'm focusing on the save money side, and it has to do with shoes.See, I really love shoes. No, really, if I had enough money, I would be buying at least one pair

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7685535909533286897.post-6870995112440805482009-04-22T16:55:00.000-05:002009-04-22T17:04:56.917-05:00

The past year has wreaked havoc on the United States, particularly in the real estate industry. Many people have purchased homes that they can't afford, banks are foreclosing like crazy, and many people are in a state of financial crisis. But, there is a silver lining, particularly if you are one of the people that didn't buy your home at the height of the bubble (and are therefore still right

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7685535909533286897.post-22192690656549793622009-03-23T16:12:00.002-05:002009-03-23T16:26:09.876-05:00

In the never ending saga that is building wealth, trying to get rich, and now a day just trying to survive, our first house flipping adventure is over with the sale of house number one. It closes on Friday, and everything appears to be a go. Although we did end up losing a little money ($6,000 or so), it could have been so much worse, and is worse for so many others out there. I think the

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7685535909533286897.post-12962816072480283862009-03-16T16:13:00.002-05:002009-03-16T16:25:19.987-05:00

As the economy gets worse and worse, and it appears as though much of it is tied to the banking industry, whether through bad real estate loans, poor management of funds, or out and out fraud (i.e. Bernie Madoff), I recently wondered if just anyone can start a bank, financial institution, or hedge fund.When I googled how to start a hedge fund I got a wide variety of answers. I must admit, I know

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7685535909533286897.post-32047918719793441982009-01-08T16:30:00.003-06:002009-01-16T13:56:02.079-06:00

It's been a while since I've put an update here on house number one, which, before the real estate housing bubble burst, was supposed to be the beginning of a real estate empire. A lot has changed since then. The house is finished, and it looks great, but there just aren't a lot of buyers out there.Do I know it's January and there probably aren't a lot of home buyers out there looking right now?

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7685535909533286897.post-64628281793083421702008-11-24T13:47:00.006-06:002009-03-30T18:14:18.050-05:00

Right now early retirement is probably the last thing on anyone's mind. With the economy in the tank, automakers on the verge of bankruptcy, and winter nipping at our noses (I hate cold weather so I thought I'd drop that in!) there is no room to talk about early retirement right? Although it may appear as though the primary question of the day may be how to get out of debt, now is actually the

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7685535909533286897.post-58951162459201525272008-10-15T23:49:00.005-05:002009-03-17T12:19:04.339-05:00

You've all heard about my house flipping story. My wife and I bought a house about two years ago now that we thought just needed cosmetic work (there should be a foreboding pause here...). Some minor renovations to increase property value and we were sure we'd be able to turn this thing around and sell it and make a little money. We did the first part right - new paint all over the place, and

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7685535909533286897.post-35961942266287706592008-06-18T15:40:00.003-05:002008-06-18T15:54:15.027-05:00

Real Estate Market in Your Area is What MattersWe've recently had a pretty big event happen in our lives that directly effect the information discussed on this site. About a week ago my wife applied, interviewed, was offered, and accepted a job in a faraway place - Seattle. As a result, our plans for fixing and flipping our house have been accelerated somewhat.Many people in this situation would

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7685535909533286897.post-49509311759093831522008-06-07T11:08:00.003-05:002008-06-07T11:41:14.720-05:00

Should I Sell My Home "For Sale By Owner?"These days, if you are selling your home, the greatest fear is that it will sit on the market forever, with no buyers, and possibly no one even looking. The second greatest fear is that you will get tons of interest but everyone will present offers far below your asking price, in hopes that you are in such dire straights that you have to take whatever

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7685535909533286897.post-30885839212010824682008-05-27T10:44:00.004-05:002009-01-16T13:59:13.006-06:00

All the time, in personal finance blogs, you hear people talking about personal finance and financial planning. They discuss the best ways to reduce debt, the best ways to save for retirement, handy-dandy tools to get things cheaper, and generally how to better handle your money.I know this, and I know that they know this, and I know that you know this, but managing money is not easy. It is

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7685535909533286897.post-4751458284655112782008-05-19T15:07:00.005-05:002008-05-19T15:44:13.458-05:00

I received my economic stimulus check on Friday from the government. I'm married, so it totaled $1,200.00. Although when you just look at it like that and think about holding $1,200.00 it seems like a lot, when you think about what you can buy with it, it really doesn't amount to much.Since we did get it though, and this is supposed to be a discussion on personal finance, building wealth, and

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7685535909533286897.post-15156497866262459802008-05-02T13:47:00.006-05:002009-03-10T21:58:04.036-05:00

Tracking Your Expenses the First Step Toward Building Wealth.There is an old saying out there that goes something like, "you can't know where you're going if you don't know where you've been." This adage applies to many things: career; love; family; life; and, believe it or not, finances. So often in our lives we have dreams of wealth and happiness and early retirement, but we never seem to

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7685535909533286897.post-62050559742782464582008-04-23T20:17:00.004-05:002010-10-01T17:26:05.763-05:00

One way to get ahead and stay ahead with your finances, and in the process build wealth, is to plan ahead for fun. What does that mean, you might be saying to yourself. Well, it means exactly what it says. Plan to have a good time in the future, and save money so you can do those things guilt free and within your budget. Doing this is easy. It just takes a little self-discipline and an

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7685535909533286897.post-49244240489672793552008-03-26T21:19:00.010-05:002009-03-10T21:13:06.092-05:00

Building Wealth - Passive Income - Personal FinanceBuilding Wealth includes many things: reducing debt; planning for retirement; taking advantage of tax rules; passive income; and expanding your income base. This post is about expanding your income base, and the things I have planned to expand my income base.Blogging for Money Making Money OnlineThere are a ton of ways to make money online, some

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7685535909533286897.post-55590565591134666892008-03-13T15:49:00.007-05:002008-12-29T13:30:09.722-06:00

Building Wealth - Personal Finance - The Debt SnowballIn my last post, I talked about debt snowballs and eliminating credit card debt. In this post, I want to outline my own personal debt snowball to provide not only an example of how to do it, but to provide you some motivation to do it yourself. It really doesn't take that long to put together, and once it's up and running, it's very easy to

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7685535909533286897.post-6824284527338120742008-03-11T15:55:00.010-05:002008-12-29T13:32:05.636-06:00

Building Wealth - Review of Dave Ramsey's "The Total Money Makeover"A sucker for personal finance books, both the get rich quick kind and the get rich slowly kind, I couldn't pass up checking out this book when I was perusing at the book store. As the cover implies, it is your traditional get rich by scrimping, saving, getting out of debt, building wealth, and throwing as much money as you can

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7685535909533286897.post-5651635333097749952007-04-25T16:39:00.010-05:002009-03-11T21:28:12.207-05:00

Building Wealth - House Flipping - Dining Room ImprovementsTo build wealth and retire early, I'm flipping houses. The next room that we worked on making over was the dining room. As you will see by the pictures, we don't use it as a dining room, but more of a sitting, or cigar, room, but I think it was designed to be a dining room.Room Pre-FlipThe "before" condition of this room was pretty sad,

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7685535909533286897.post-77713572649801888832007-04-09T21:36:00.006-05:002008-04-16T13:19:34.405-05:00

Building Wealth - The Magic Math of Compound InterestEver wonder why some people are so adamant about saving money (including me)? Ever wonder why some people seem to always have money, particularly those in traditionally wealthy families, but you never do? Although not completely the answer, compound interest has a lot to do with building wealth and retiring early.Compound interest is the

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7685535909533286897.post-46350002826718537452007-01-09T22:11:00.006-06:002009-04-20T13:50:46.098-05:00

Building Wealth - Passive Income - Retiring EarlyAlthough most posts here so far have concentrated on my house flipping venture, I wanted to let you know that this site is about more than that. In addition to making money by flipping or rehabing houses, I want this site to be about building wealth in general - what to do with the money you have now to maximize its returns and what to do with all

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7685535909533286897.post-41797956985821528132007-01-04T20:58:00.012-06:002009-04-20T13:56:19.304-05:00

Building Wealth - Flipping Houses - Real Estate DevelopmentIn building wealth and retiring early, we are flipping houses. I'm going to run through the typical kitchen remodeling ideas you can make to a kitchen to maximize its value while minimizing your costs. Here are a couple of pictures of the kitchen in its current state for your viewing pleasure.The first thing that should jump out is the

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7685535909533286897.post-7643814859913030672007-01-02T22:54:00.037-06:002008-11-30T22:22:11.478-06:00

Building Wealth - Real Estate Development Although it is easy to talk about finding the perfect home, unless you have seen one it may be hard to visualize. Do not worry, I am here to show you the way to house flipping success, building wealth, and real estate development. Below are several pictures of the house I have picked up to flip. Now, this is a long term flip, doing many of the repairs as

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7685535909533286897.post-61578795127509652692007-01-01T16:02:00.006-06:002008-11-30T18:59:42.880-06:00

Building Wealth - Passive Income - Real Estate DevelopmentOne way to build wealth, build passive income and retire early is to flip houses. Finding a property to flip is not difficult. All it takes is knowing what to look for, knowing what to avoid, and keeping emotions out of the equation. To show you how easy it is, I'm going to let you in on a property I recently purchased to flip. Before I do

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7685535909533286897.post-40103971167880960082006-12-31T14:05:00.003-06:002008-11-30T18:56:20.250-06:00

Welcome to Building Our Empire. This site provides tips and techniques for beginning property flippers to make money fixing and flipping properties with the end goal of retiring early and playing a lot of golf.

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0