Future Profit

I met Dave Ramsey. Agree and Disagree...

2019-04-17T16:03:00.000-05:00

Back around 2013 at a Mardel's in Oklahoma City I ran into Dave Ramsey. Before 2013 I had heard of Dave Ramsey and listed to his radio show for several years off and on. I don't agree with everything he says and a lot of it is common sense that I talk about and half a million other people talk about.

After listening to him and meeting him in person I have to say there are two sides of him.
He's a nice guy that does want to get people out of debt. He does carry a grudge against lenders due to how he was treated 30 years back when he was going through debt issues.
He is the kind of guy that is warm and welcoming, but he does skew and amplify his personality on the radio. Some of this is for entertainment purposes.

One thing for sure, beyond anything and everything else, I see Dave Ramsey as a Marketer.
The information he provides is basic and he repeats a lot of his answers over and over for years now. You know what? That's not a bad thing.

I like him just as I like a lot of other money maker's and marketers including a lot of you!

With that being said here are a few things I don't agree with.
1) I believe you can hold ETFs and Bonds in your investments.
2) I think once you know what you are doing, you don't have to pay a Financial Adviser. I think you can save those fees and do your own research as well as periodically re-balance your account.
3) I think "Baby Step 1: Save $1,000" should be changed to something that can scale with time and inflation like "Baby Step 1: Save a Month's Expense's".

Now something that does work better and is not logical is the Debt Snow Ball of paying your smallest debt first and working up to the largest debt. You don't save as much money this way, but it works more than paying the largest debt and working your way down. This is due to Behavioral Economics.

I'm much more brutal when it comes to saving money and that is based around my own sacrifice and experiences. I say you should save 6 to 12 month's of expenses in most cases. I cut so much out of my life to achieve that that it shaped me into a different person and I don't regret it. In fact I took on additional challenges to test myself and see what my limits were. It helped me understand who I was.

If you are just starting to recognize you have a money problem and it circulates around debt, then Dave Ramsey is worth taking a look.
All add an Affiliate link to an updated version of the book I bought years ago:
Dave Ramsey: Total Money Makeover

If you are interested in the silly Capitalist Pig shirt.
Capitalist Pig shirt

Answering your Questions: 1 through 4

2019-04-10T09:00:00.000-05:00

Original post on Our first Q & A! click here

Let’s start:

1) How can I invest in the stock market without losing money? Is there a way to guarantee I will not lose it all?

Any time you invest in the stock market you are risking losing money and making money.

When people refer to the stock market they are often referring to NASDAQ, the Dow, and the S&P 500 indices. There is a debate about relying too much on the history of the stock market and where it will go. I personally like to look at the history as a whole to get a picture on how it recovers and changes over time. When it comes to single stocks, mutual funds, bonds, ETFs, and the such I have to tell you to research the current information and health of those businesses and not the history of that specific investment.

The stock market has had over 10 recessions since the 1920s and the United States has had over 40 recessions since the “Panic of 1785” based on various issues around war, revolutions, agriculture, metals, and more, not just stocks. After all this I have a lot of confidence that the US markets are going to have recessions and even depressions in the future, but they are going to turn out of it and keep going up.

You can go to macrotrends.net to look over various historical charts and statistics.

Back to the question about investing in a way to not lose money.
I’ve had some short term loses and even with the Great Recession around 2008 to 2011 I made back the 35% I lost on everything. My recovery on the losses took 3 years. That was the longest I was ever down. With the simple way I invest and explain on this channel myself and all of you should make money. If the stock market goes down, I leave the money in and it has come up gained every bit I lost and went up further every single time. If you have done your research and not narrowed yourself into one or two sectors or individual stocks then just ride the roller coaster that is the stock market.

2) I’m a college student and currently have $35k of college debt. My primary job is working at a department store in the afternoon and a big box store on the weekend. How can I invest when I feel like this looming debt is going to hit me in the head when I graduate? Should I save to pay off the debt or invest now?

I have to commend you for being able to balance two jobs and a college career. I did the same thing years ago. I worked full time and went to school full time and only made $11k to $13k a year for years.

First you should be saving all that money. If you are under 25, then you have plenty of time to invest and compound your interest.

You should be thinking of building an emergency fund that is 6 to 12 months of your living expenses.
Then start researching on building a resume that is specific to the career you plan on having after college.

You should be thinking of what state and city you plan on going to for that first big job. Look into renting, cost of living, and various demographics that are free on the web. You should rent at least a year before you settle down in your new area.

As for your college debt, you may find a better use of your time quitting one of your jobs and filling out scholarships nonstop. If your day is full of work and school you seriously may not have time to do anything. If your weekend job is for something like minimum wage then you may want to quit it, work every other weekend, or get reduced hours. If you do this, then your new job is to fill out and apply for scholarships all the time.

Also, don’t ignore sleeping and some physical activity. Your main focus is graduating college and you need to keep healthy to do so.

Once you graduate and get the big career, then allocate 15% to 25% of everything you make to investing. There are different types and ways of investing, but I’ll save that for another time.

3) When I get paid all my money goes to bills and if there is anything left over then I feel like I need to reward myself with a little something just for making it to the end of the week. How do I get out of this cycle?

I talk about some of this in my online dating courses (Coming Soon). I am asking you nothing short of becoming a different person. If you don’t want to become someone else then I can’t help.

Let me explain. We are constantly changing throughout our lives and we all have a variety of emotions that need to be recognized, validated, and confronted. You need to find a way to be satisfied and happy with things that don’t cost money. It might be going for a walk, writing, drawing a picture, or day dreaming. You need things like this to help fill your day so then you can cut subscription services or other things that do cost you money. That will give you a small foot hold on your finances.

Once you do that and can create a little bit of space by having an emergency fund, you then automate your investing so you never see or touch the money. If you forget things or have impulse control issues, like me, then you should automate at least a portion of your finances. Go online to your bank’s website and look into what you can do about shifting money the day after you get paid and having the process repeat itself.

There could be a simpler answer to this question and it’s that you’re in the wrong job or career. You may need to change that as well.

I should also mention I have a few different issues such as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. So, if you have issues in that area, ask me some more questions and I’ll be able to better address that.

4) I’m 17 years old and I know I can’t invest yet, but where do I start?

I first started investing when I was 21. You should double check your state requirements and see if you can start when you are 18 or 21 or some other age. They really do range, so go and check.

First, as a young “pre-investor” I should tell you to “raise your shields” and become skeptical of what anyone tells you online or in person. Most people don’t know half of what they are talking about and if they don’t have a net worth of at least one million or more, you shouldn’t be giving them more than 10 minutes of your time.

There are some books I recommend and you can find them on the Resources page. Now is a good time to promote my Patreon I’m going to point you in those directions.

Please continue coming back to look for updates on the blog and new videos.
I'm putting together additional information on a course I want to teach online. I'll email you when that is released.
Thank you!

New Career without a Degree

2019-04-03T09:00:00.000-05:00

Original post here: New Career without a Degree

While putting together this site and making business contacts to help provide resources and give story leads, I received a call concerning Real Estate Education.

Now, this is an area I've been interested in for a long time and I haven't taken the dive to get my Real Estate License...yet!

I spoke with some local real estate businesses and looked over my own information since becoming a landlord.

After making money in stocks, I advocate that the next step should involve something with real estate. Out of thousands of people, I interviewed the ones that have a net worth over a million are involved in real estate.

What is amazing is that you don't have to go to college. Of course, you should check your state's requirements for becoming a real estate agent or a broker.
This is my state of Oklahoma's REC www.ok.gov/OREC/

If you are interested in becoming an agent or broker then I would like to point you to this site: Real Estate Express
It's an affiliate link to a business I've been looking into a few months and I spoke with them on the phone. I want to check them out further, but I feel comfortable enough to point people toward them.

Let me know what you think!

Free tool if you want to improve blog content and make more money!

2019-03-27T09:00:00.000-05:00

Click here -->Grammarly

As you know by now this site is dedicated to making money several different ways and I stumbled upon a tool over a year ago called Grammarly.
I use it through the Chrome extension anytime I email business contacts to avoid awkward and embarrassing spelling and grammar mistakes.
It's bailed me out more than a few times when I would accidentally omit a word here or there rendering my entire paragraph senseless.

If you are a blogger or interested in blogging or you fancy yourself ever writing online in the future, then give Grammarly a try. I've been using the free version for over a year but they have additional features.

If you choose to sign up you will also gain these additional features:
Sign up now to unlock the following:
Enable/disable on preferred websites
Store your personal dictionary
Save and access your work from any computer
Get weekly writing statistics and tips

I want to be transparent too. This blog entry is also a result of joining their affiliate program. This site is about making money and there is nothing stopping you from also joining their program and both using a helpful tool and making a little money on the side.

There are additional added benefits once you sign up. Check them out and give it a try!
Grammarly

As I finished this blog post, Grammarly spotted mistakes that I was then able to correct before going live!

Money saving tip...

2019-03-20T09:00:00.000-05:00

Original post at Saving Money Tips

I was looking through old books and scanning the internet when I found few things that threw me back into nostalgia mode. I also thought I'd add a couple new things I do too.

So back when BlockBuster Video was still a company, and I was very poor, I did very little for entertainment. Hulu wasn't around, Netflix didn't stream they mailed you dvds, and Amazon was starting to get into other products than books.
There was no such thing as a YouTube ad!

There was a company I found that worked like Netflix but they would mail me a video game. I loved my video games. Now days I enjoy them and I'm no longer obsessed.
Well I found out that company I used still exists!
Game Fly!
I'm thinking of using them again with my older consoles. Here's a link: Game Fly! (affiliate link)

Let's get back to saving money. One of the everyday tips I can give you is no secret and that is to eat from home. I did it when I was poor and I still do it now.
Put a little money down on an Insta Pot
My wife and I use it all the time for 3 things.
1) Pho
2) Japanese Curry
3) Bun bo Hue

All three of them are almost the same difficulty level. You go to an Asian or International market.
Buy the Pho, Japanese Curry, or Bun bo Hue base sauce or powder.
Buy Beef Shank.
Buy whatever vegetable or noodle is needed for your recipe.

All you do is cut up everything, pour water in, and cook like it's a slow cooker or crock pot. You can cook other things separately like rice and the noodles to be more authentic.

We have saved hundreds of dollars for something that takes around 15 to 30 minutes to set up and 30 to 60 minutes total cook time (depends how soft you want the meat).
It's a cheating way to get something that usually takes 7 to 9 hours to make at the restaurant.

There are few things we use daily in our kitchen that has improved our food game. Our rice cooker, Insta pot, toaster, and air fryer.
I can't tell you how much money we seriously save from eating at home.

If you have any interests in the actual brands we use, contact me. This is just a small money saving tip that I continue to do to shake a couple hundred dollars more per month to then use on other projects.

Millionaire Book List: The starting point.

2019-03-13T09:00:00.000-05:00

This is a list of books that started me on the path of becoming wealthy. Some I thoroughly enjoyed while others were quite tedious but filled with information. These are also affiliate links.

Investing:
The Intelligent Investor
A Random Walk Down Wall Street

Business Primers if you know nothing (we all have to start from somewhere):
The Book on Rental Property Investing
Small Business for Dummies
Small business Kit for Dummies
Stock Investing for Dummies
Accounting for Non-Accountants

General Money Concepts:
Rich Dad Poor Dad
The Millionaire Next Door
Question Behind the Question

This is my starting list to get you pointed in the right direction.
If you wish to suggest additional books, leave it in the comments below.
Thanks!

Otaku can be millionaires!

2019-03-10T15:09:00.004-05:00

All young Otaku can become millionaires?! Sure.

Hey, I’m Hickory from the ComfyMillionaire.com and I want to tell you something that hits close to home.

Otaku are oddly positioned to become millionaires thanks to our social behaviors, but we have to harness it.

Take me for an example. I have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Attention Deficit Disorder, issues with social environments etc. I’m an Otaku who later crawled out of my shell and exploded with possibilities. I have a business, buy houses with cash, and like to invest in the stock market.

Enough about me, how about you and you becoming a millionaire? Let’s cut to the chase.

If you are a young Otaku you can do this or at least start creating a plan to do this. If you are in the United States you have to check your local state laws because you have to be either 18 or 21.
Begin planning to save money. Due to our general difficulty to socialize at times and our sixth sense to be awkward, we Otaku generally save money from doing a lot of social things in public but only to redirect it toward our love and obsessions.

My friend has been figure collecting for about 20 years and has a room in his house dedicated to it. You look at one figure and it can cost $80 or $150.
Another friend buys “Day One” game collectibles along with a couple hundred POP figures and D&D stuff.
I used to collect retro games and consoles. One of my games was Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout for the Playstation, it was in English and overlooked when it had a limited original run in the USA. I got it from a Toys R Us in the 90’s. It’s around $200 to $300 on ebay right now. If you play it, it’s worth $5… not fun at all.

So, I hope those examples help illustrate that we Otaku spend money on the things we love. What I’m asking you to do is hold off buying. I’m not asking you to stop. If you can instead buy a couple less figures each month, three less fully priced video games, or swear off of “Day One” editions for 6 to 8 months then you can be saving more money.

The target figure you are looking for is around $300 per month. It can sound hefty at first, but if you budget and have a job you can reach this. The sooner you start the better. The sooner you start the more chances you can recover if something bad happens along the way.
$300/month starting at 21 years old and retiring at 67 at the average interest rate of the stock market’s 7% is $1,181,607.

How do you get there and get the 7% when everyone says the stock market goes up and down like a roller coaster? This is one of the reasons I started ComfyMillionaire.com
The information I share isn’t a secret. People just get bored talking about it or see that $300 per month figure and say, “Yeah, no thanks.”

Which do you want? Do you want that anime figure, game, or collectible now even though you know you will feel the exact same way when Kotobukiya or Aniplex release another figure next month? Or… Do you want to have a million dollars at retirement so you don’t have to ask family for help with everyday expenses. Even if you want work or draw or do other things in your 60’s you may not be able to due to things like rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis?

There are thousands of companies to invest in, but that can be risky. What if that company goes down or out of business? What if the CEO does something bad and no one wants to be associated with it?
Then you choose Mutual Funds. But mutual funds sometimes have extra fees (high expense ratios and loaded funds) and some require to invest at least $5,000 or $10,000 before starting and that is next to impossible if you are young, getting started, and not sure what you are doing.
I do all the above, but I’m more interested in something called an ETF (Exchange Traded Fund). It can be traded like a single stock, don’t need a lot of money to start, and the expense ratio is generally less.

That was a lot of information, but you still don’t know what to invest in.
I want to direct you to my site for more information in the future, but also get you to start looking up these keywords like “ETF,” “Expense Ratio,” “Compound Interest,” and “Actuarial Tables.”
Start your journey looking for “Stock Market Index Funds” with “Vanguard.” I’m not affiliated with them in anyway. I find them to be some of the best for people to get into and don’t take my word for it. Look around and see what others are thinking.

Also, don’t limit yourself to $300 per month. You can do what I’ve done and invest more, start side hustles, businesses, and get rid of debt. You don’t have to wait till 67 to retire. You can still go overseas on annual or biannual pilgrimages to Akihabara, Tokyo. Maybe we will run into each other.

Thanks for reading,
-Hickory from ComfyMillionaire.com

Market Value and You. Millionaire Step 2

2019-03-10T15:08:00.000-05:00

tl/dr: Read the 2 books from my other post. Find a job/career that helps people or society. Get paid more. Live cheap. Use left over money to invest. Start making more money. Read dumb story when I tried to work for Radio Shack. Laugh.

(Long Version):
After reading the books I mentioned from my previous blog post Making a million: step 1 I began to study deeper into investing in stocks, business structure, and talking to everyone.

After opening a brokerage account, talking to about 200 people, and starting the business plan to my first business I began to formulate a plan that touched a lot of angles I was seeing.

What is your value to the market? This answer and taking a journey to solve this will make you money over and over. Now fast forward 10 years I had failed multiple times in multiple ways trying to answer this question. Don’t let failure dissuade you. Create back up plans, minimize the effects of failure, and don’t forget your lessons learned.

Let’s go back to the beginning again.
I was in my early 20’s and asked myself the question “What is my value to the market? What can I do to bring value to people?”
I hadn’t really started to think like an entrepreneur. I had a couple computer certificates, started at a community college, and I couldn’t get a job doing anything that I was trained in.

Radio Shack turned me down! I laugh at what the manager told me, “You’re over qualified and I don’t see you sticking around.”
I just wanted some money so I didn’t live on the streets and I could continue to go to school. I had a lot of foul language I wanted to tell him. He didn’t know I was one of the hardest workers around. He didn’t know I was a farm-hand that knew how break apart computers and build them back up. He didn’t know I fed chickens before the sun rose and tended to tomato plants in blistering July 96 degree heat.

I thought again, “What is my current worth to society? What kind of value can I bring people and my family?”
I’m ethical, compassionate, and love Science. Less than one week later I changed my major from a computer programming degree to a medical one.
The Medical Field remains a great way to get your foot in the door to start making money $40,000 to $60,000 in 2 to 3 years. I leveraged my money working in the medical field with an Associate’s Degree to then invest more and more into the stock market, then it opened doors to real estate, and now I can purchase houses with cash. I’ll talk more about this later and I plan on showing videos on the specifics including some of the current stocks I invest in, but that’s for a later post…

Choosing a job or career that will bring value to other people’s life will make you money. A receptionist is not going to make more money than a nurse. You have to choose an area of work that will give you more chances to make money while helping people in some way. You might be a great marketer bringing an insurance product to people you really believe in. Your passion and drive will make a difference.
You should also research the job and turn over rate. I hate to say, but in the past I wouldn’t remember Nurse Aides' names. Their job, pay, and respect causes a turn over rate of less than a year. I knew 75% of the people coming in the doors for a job at a nursing home or assisted living center wasn’t going to be there by next year, but I’d see some of them again literally down the road at the next nursing home or assisted living center.

Finding a job in something that will turn a tidy profit, help people in some way, and become a stepping stone to more lucrative sources is vital. After you do this you should return the favor. Don’t let greed consume you. After I worked in the medical field I then helped others get the exact same job I had using old connections from hospitals, schools, and other facilities.
I don’t believe in competition! I believe in cooperation and that there is enough market space and money out there for everyone.
If you are in Oklahoma and have access to one of the special emails by being part of my Patreon https://www.patreon.com/comfymillionaire
Then I will tell you some of the more specific steps I took, what I needed, and how I passed my medical license for Oklahoma.

Hey, thanks for reading.
-Hickory

Starting toward a million. Step 1

2019-03-10T13:59:00.001-05:00

Orignal Post from ComfyMillionaire.com

When I first started on the path to Millionaire status I read blogs and books. This was before I really knew what I was doing with stock investing and before interviewing thousands of people from the poor to multi-millionaires.

I'm going to mention two books I started with add affiliate links to them.

I began reading books by Robert Kiyosaki. This had two benefits. It opened me up to his life story and it became conversation material when I met a serial entrepreneur from Malaysia.

Robert Kiyosaki's book "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" has become standard reading material for anyone that wants to make money.
It's about Robert growing up as a child in Hawaii while is biological dad is considered his "poor dad" and his friend's dad taught him more about business is considered his "rich dad."
It's a great book and worth checking out.

What does a Millionaire look like?
This is something I will talk about more later and make videos on.
I always envisioned a Millionaire as someone that had expensive cars, a large house over 3,000 sq feet, dressed nicely, and dined on expensive foods while hopping on planes from one destination to the next.
I read a book called "The Millionaire Next Door" .
It set me straight on what the average millionaire looks like.

The "Millionaire Next Door" interviews several millionaires and multi-millionaires breaking down some common traits and characteristics. Some of the same traits I've been able to copy and replicate.

There are many more books that I read, some I would recommend while others would screw you over. I began my path before 2008 when The Great Recession took a bite out of everyone. Some of those bad books were teaching and telling how to invest in real estate with no money. A few years later around 2008 - 2009 the market went belly up. I went back several years later to look up the titles of those books and they have oddly disappeared.... Gee, I wonder why?

Thanks for your time,
-Hickory