Martha Stewart is a 71-year-old fox. Profile from Match.com

We’re approaching two years at American Debt Project. I told myself that two years would fly by, and yet I can’t believe that they have flown by! I can see the past year all in one condensed frame, and it’s amazing and scary. I am going to wake up one day and be 60. But I don’t mind at all, because I have seen some smoking hot older ladies these days, and I plan to be one. Pilates does a body good. Anyways, less than a year ago, I wrote the following sentence:

I just realized that at some point in the not too distant future, I will have a month where I am not accruing interest charges. Each month I am taking a step back of at least $200 in interest charges. This amount is decreasing, but I just realized how pleased I will be to look at all of my accounts and know I didn’t incur a single fee in a month.

Ladies and gentlemen, that day has come. I paid the last $0.06 of my student loan and I am now down to just one debt, at $5,708 on my 0% interest (until February 2014) Discover card. For the first time in many years, I am not shooting myself in the foot each month financially. I am not paying any interest to anyone! What a feeling!

Which made me realize that, even though I am so close to paying it all off, I now have the responsibility of being responsible. Here’s what I’m talking about: if I pay my car insurance premium up front for 6 months, I pay no additional fees. I can split it in two payments, and pay $20 extra, or do what I’ve been doing since I got car insurance, which is pay it monthly for an extra $10 per month, or $60 each 6-month period. But since my credit card debt has no interest, and my insurance would cost me $60 and is due next week, I’m paying the whole thing at once. I owe it to myself to not incur this $60 charge when I have incurred thousands in fees over the course of the past eight years. I’ll continue to pay everything else towards my debt, but that nice chunk that would have gone towards debt is going towards my car insurance premium to lower my costs. Even though I’d love to come on here tomorrow and announce my debt is well below $5,000, it will just have to wait.

Being responsible isn’t all that glamorous, but I’m feeling pretty good about approaching my money logically.

Freak out and want these shoes must have stop it don’t be crazy, wait I wonder who has these shoes? Go stalk on Instagram and wonder why they spent $1,075 on shoes, continue hate-viewing their pictures.

A lot of writing about money is being curious about money, business, wealth, what money can buy, what money cannot buy. What the characteristics of a man who makes a lot of money are, what the character of a man who makes a lot of money is. These topics have made some of the greatest novels of the 20th century. F. Scott Fitzgerald is one of my favorite authors, and he captured the ease and neuroses of being fabulously wealthy, the peculiar aspects of being born into wealth which then makes one entitled but is at the same time completely innocent of the “dirtiness” of working for one’s money. I like writing about money because money is taboo. The size of your friend’s bank account might make you uncomfortable and you would never ask someone what their salary is out of the blue (plenty of other cultures do, but Americans and many Western cultures generally don’t). Socioeconomic status is also taboo. Sometimes, certain NPR segments that cover topics on poverty just rub me the wrong way because even though it is supposed to be sympathetic, they strike me as completely insincere and are looking at poverty from the outside, as the “Other”. Ugh. Those segments are meant to be helpful, but this article does a good job explaining why we sometimes are looking at the whole thing ass-backwards.

A healthy dose of money curiosity goes a long way. It will make you want to focus on an aspect of your life that will, without a doubt, bring you the most ability to make good decisions and have the freedom of choice. You will understand that many people are motivated and fueled by money, but that it has been masked under a few different layers and it is not always obvious, not even to them. But when you understand money, are curious about it and get it good at making more of it, it really is true that money matters less, because you have already mastered it. Money curiosity means you are interested in the difficult questions money brings up and can accept the challenge of figuring them out. Or it could mean you like analyzing your spending, investments, and even your career, and can then make better choices because you considered the money, and didn’t nonchalantly act like it didn’t matter. You can understand business, government, society, even relationships and power dynamics when you are curious about money. It’s seriously fascinating stuff.

I like money curiosity. But I am also a money voyeur. This might not be as healthy. I want to know how much stuff costs, even when I have no intention of buying it (Valentino Rockstud heels: $1,075). I want to know how much you paid for your house and what the mortgage payment is on that, and if that’s affordable for you. It’s good to have a general idea of your peers’ salaries so that you are not getting shortchanged for similar work, but I also want to know all kinds of detail: how often do you get a raise? What kind of bump do you expect when you get promoted? Switch jobs? If you post your income or net worth online, I’ve probably read it. I used to read articles like this and think, Well at least I’m not the only one. And now I read them with a little self-congratulating and say, Hey, you’re actually a little better than average! I know I’m being a voyeur. It’s easy to do. I just try to balance it with a little more money curiosity and not get too wrapped up in the comparison and competition game, as TeacHer Finance so eloquently put it.

Are you money curious, a money voyeur or both?

Like pretty much everyone else I know, I am counting down the days until Netflix releases all 15 episodes of Season 4 of Arrested Development on May 26th. Everyone has a little gnawing worry in the back of their minds that it might suck, but I think it will be as sharp as the time Gob knifed himself with the Sword of Destiny. TV is awesome, let’s face it. I like to spend time with friends, work out, get out of the house, watch a sunset, etc., but you know that sometimes all you need is to sit in front of the TV like a zombie and watch someone else do some crap for a while.

So, in honor of Arrested Development coming back after seven long years, let’s giveaway one good-looking Samsung 50-inch LED HDTV:

Hopefully that will be large enough for you to enjoy watching this:

Has anyone in this family ever even seen a chicken?

We have so many more things to cover at American Debt Project. We need to talk about investing more, now that my debt-free days are closer than ever. We should be talking about selling annuities and finding values in real estate. But right now, I just want you to win this TV and then come back here May 27th so we can talk about Arrested Development. Deal?

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The following is a guest post. 

Unfortunately, the life insurance options that a terminally ill patient is going to be afforded will not be any of the traditional sort. Standard month-to-month premiums on a policy with longevity isn’t something that an insurance company will hand out when the time period over which premiums will be paid is likely to be short.

However, there are a few non-traditional options that can be obtained; especially if you seek out the council of a certified life insurance agent who specializes specifically in terminally ill cases. These specialists will provide invaluable insider’s knowledge on what options are available, with all of the need-to-know details.

Some of these options will include the following:

GRADED POLICIES

This is a whole term policy that has several conditions for death benefits to be claimed and paid out to your beneficiary; these conditions will vary from insurer to insurer, so be sure that you utilize your specialist when shopping around.

Typically, an insurer will set a predetermined time period that must be surpassed for a full death benefit payout to occur. In most cases, this time period is 2 years. If you die within the designated time period, then the payout will be minimal—usually, the beneficiary will only receive the premiums you’ve paid, and in some cases, a percentage of the total death benefits. For example, a $100,000 policy may only payout $3,000 in death benefits plus your premiums.

However, if you die after the designated time period, your beneficiary will receive a full death benefit payout from the policy.

These policies can definitely be a good way to go, but it’s still important to consider all options, especially if you have a very limited life expectancy. If this expectancy is very short, a significant cap might be place on the amount of coverage you can obtain—sometimes it can be as little as $10,000, which might only cover funeral costs.

LIMITED PAYMENT POLICIES

These policies compensate for the short period of time they will be active by charging expensive premiums. Usually, the insurer will take into consideration your total life expectancy and dictate an expected amount of months to receive payments. Total coverage and premiums will be calculated based off of this expected time period.

SINGLE PREMIUM POLICIES

Some insurers offer the option to make one huge lump sum payment in exchange for a certain amount of coverage, annually. Typically, these policies aren’t usually recommended; if you can afford to put such a large amount into a policy like this, then it might be a better idea to invest it into a trust, or some other investment opportunity that will benefit your loved ones. This largely depends on what coverage is available and what stipulations the insurer dictates for receiving a payout.

BE DILIGENT… BE PREPARED!

The best option for you is going to largely depend on your own diligence, as well as the due diligence of a life insurance agent that you can trust (visit Suncorp – http://www.suncorp.com.au/insurance/life-insurance/). Shop around, fully understand your options, and if you should find no luck with obtaining coverage, seek out the guidance of a financial expert for even more investment options. Above all, don’t lose hope!

The other day, I realized that my computer is almost 7 years old. In technology time, that’s like referring to James Buchanan as one of our modern day Presidents. This computer is so old, that I almost can’t watch video on it anymore. Which is a problem, because I love television and movies. Even though I’d like to replace it, I don’t need to right this second, and I’m fine with that.

I have old stuff when I can afford new stuff, but I don’t even feel like buying new stuff. (!!!)

This is a first. My purse is getting beat up and looking a little shabby. Meh. I thought about getting myself a sweet birthday present after I am debt-free like an iPad mini or a DSLR camera but then I thought, Nahhh, I really don’t feel like it. I don’t want anything really, just time to hang out with people and have a good meal and I’d call that a celebration.

When I started this blog, I thought I wouldn’t be able to get out of debt because I would always want to buy things. I like fashion. I love picking out that one cool piece and pulling it off. But everything is relative. My focus has changed. New things are nice. I probably will have to replace my computer within the year. But in a bizarro parallel life, I would have had a new Macbook Pro at least two years ago by now, I’d still be wearing the latest, trendiest stuff and I’d still feel a little anxious every morning because there was always another bill looming.

After a few years of not having the latest stuff, you can pick up a few good habits that will keep you financially comfortable. Buy stuff lightly used. Wait for the off-season to buy sports gear and camping equipment. Don’t give in to the urge to immediately replace something just because it’s starting to show signs of wear. Think of it as a badge of honor. 

Photo by waffries via Flickr.

Finally, it hits me. This is all practice. Everything we’re doing is a practice. Writing, finances, relationships, eating healthy, our careers. We practice each one as part of an ongoing process, each with varying degrees of success. When we actually sustain ourselves in a practice, live and breathe it, attaining our goals becomes much easier. Viewing it with detachment also helps. It does you no good to be emotional about money. You’re working yourself up over some petty dispute at the office, home or anywhere (and then yelling at a customer service representative from Verizon for no good reason, other than they are available for you to yell at). What do we practice in our lives?

We practice being ourselves.

We practice at a career.

We practice a lifelong pursuit. For me, it is writing and creating things, sports and being near the water.

We practice understanding and connecting with other people.

We practice listening.

We practice being genuine.

We practice eating for health and for pleasure.

We practice our relationship with money.

We practice understanding our moods, emotions, likes and dislikes and eventually learn to let all of these go so we can we just be.

We practice each and every day, every hour, every moment. Some moments are practiced with great awareness, others slip by unnoticed and your practice becomes sloppy and without intention.

Everything we do is part of our practice. Looking at life this way has helped me feel a lot less serious about myself (I know, you’re like, “Were you ever serious to begin with?”) and deal with the highs and lows that are a part of life. I have a ways to go in my practice. I haven’t stopped comparing myself to others, thinking I am always in the right, or needing to prove myself. But it’s nice to see that in some respects, practice has brought me farther along. I practice being responsible with money and not feeling emotional about it. I practice valuing the relationships that matter and letting go of the ones that don’t. I practice not having to stamp my opinion on everything I come across (that’s a little harder when you blog!). I practice reminding myself that I have something to learn from everyone.

What do you practice?

I have an idea (here we go again…). When I talk about obscurity, I don’t mean the kind where our deaths are not front page news. That’s pretty much the case for most of us, and we know that being front page news doesn’t mean anything either (case in point: Anna Nicole Smith, RIP). Most of us will live and die in our own little worlds, our lives affecting the people close to us, but not always reaching millions. That is the way the world works when we have billions of people alive at any one time. But there is another kind of obscurity, one that itches my soul and makes me wonder about how we spend the finite number of hours we have on this planet. It started with a bowl of cereal.

So there I was, eating my Honey Nut Cheerios (you can have your Fruity Pebbles, there’s nothing like a bowl of Cheerios) and I saw the back of the cereal box. At first I thought it was a parody of Seinfeld’s Bee Movie, but then I realized it was some kind of Choose Your Own Adventure web movie featuring the bee from the Cheerios box. Here’s a screenshot of the site:

Upon seeing the Honey Defender, my mind immediately went into overdrive: How many MBA’s worked on this project in corporate marketing at GM? How long did it take them to come up with this campaign? Did they treat this thing seriously, having update meetings about the site on Wednesdays? The site is pretty sophisticated, so what was the total budget for the site? Did they wireframe the UI? Is there an art director out there, with a Master’s in Fine Arts, who can claim that the Honey Defender is one of the biggest projects s/he’s ever headed? Most of all, with all the time and effort that went into this site and project, does anyone on the outside grasp the level of sophistication required to make something like this and does it not seem utterly ridiculous to anyone else? You know I preach a lot about how I don’t want to judge people. But these people had a choice! They ostensibly had a choice among life callings, careers after graduation and they chose to make intricate marketing campaigns that include really fancy movies and movie technology to promote a cereal. Call me crazy, but that is the obscurity I am talking about. To spend your time, your precious, limited, finite time working for someone else to promote a cereal that is already a billion-dollar bestseller – says so right in the annual report – seems surreal to me. Cheerios is doing just fine without the Honey Defender. When did selling cereal become a multimedia, Pink Floyd concert-with-special-effects-light-show?

If people are this talented, if we have this kind of sophistication and amount of resources to promote a fake movie about CEREAL, the possibilities out there are endless. We can create anything, build products that don’t exist yet, create relationships and foster collaborations that seemed impossible just a few years ago. But if we limit ourselves, or push and encourage bright people to work in obscurity because they can make a six-figure income and be part of a stable organization, we’re putting limits on ourselves for no reason. The world is out there. Don’t limit yourself to the obscurity of someone else’s not-that-great idea.

Let’s just get this part out of the way first: I am a skeptic. I think the best method is to question everything, accept nothing and eventually you start to see how the world works. Accepting the mainstream and normal views on most things in life is a surefire way to live a mediocre and stunted life. I don’t want to get dramatic and say “Trust no one” like Glenn Close as Patty Hewes, but you know, it ain’t half-bad advice! Which is a long-winded way of getting to my point about misleading articles in the news.

Is California’s Wild Housing Market a Sign of a Bubble?

This article was written by Graham Wood this morning on AOL.com. AOL is great at SEO so it’s the first result when you search for “California Real Estate Prices”. It’s true, prices in LA-OC have increased for the past eight months, but this article takes the cake for bad reporting. The author decided to consult the president of Realtor.com and Chief Economist at Trulia, two huge real estate sites that would obviously benefit from increased interest in real estate. There was zero mention of the real factors driving up the prices in this market, but only some stupid optimism (stole that phrase from Punch Debt) about “solid job growth” (no numbers provided) in “California’s coastal areas” (when really, California’s coast is three very distinct regions, only two of which are economic engines). To get the real story, read this excellent piece or just read the comments on the AOL article:

Comment 1: Greg Martin - March 28th 2013 @ 12:01PM

Of course the bubble is being reinflated! No mention of mortgage rates being at all time lows, or that 30 percent of the purchases are for cash and 1 out of 10 are from China in the SF Bay Area. Or perhaps you might mention that an entirely new way of doing business is being developed, with new companies purchasing hundreds of houses flipping and renting them, no more mom and pop rentals, just the Walmartization of the rental and speculative housing markets. So now BIG money has a way of moving relatively quickly into this market. Or you might mention that the months of inventory on the market is extremely low or even think philosophically that when prices “gap” down as they have that they will gap up as well. The holders of property wishing to recover their initial investment before selling or the fact that they can’t sell or refinance but if prices gap up they will be able to. I live in Santa Cruz and a short sale for a 2 BR / 1 BA on the market listed for $498K just sold for $640K. It was sold the new way, get your bid in by a certain date. It got 22 bids.

Comment 2: slolive - March 28th 2013 @ 4:32PM

Fannie Mae/Freddie sold off & continues to sell off some of their REOs in bulk to multi-million dollar investors. This does a couple things. Takes away affordable housing for qualified first time or regular income buyers or even small neighborhood investor types. 2nd artificially reduced the inventory as the investor can’t sell for 3 years and has to rent them out. (Fannie didn’t want to be embarrassed when they sold off at bulk prices and the investor flipped them so they figure after 3 years the public will forget.) Turning housing into corporate rental stock is lame when there are plenty of buyers. Ironic after all the mumbo jumbo talk about breaks for the rich instead of the little guys/gals that was going around a few months ago.
Basic housing economics is that if there are less transactions there are less economic benefits. Transactions to regular buyers or small investors come with higher local economic benefits of people going to Home Depot to buy extra pride of ownership supplies and hiring contractors to fix things up. The neighborhood suffers because they have corporate rentals instead of home owners with a vested interest in their neighborhood. You have higher prices but less economic benefit. It is less of a recovery than a commodity boom. Using 2005-06 prices as a benchmark if folly. That was a bubble with whacky loans.

In summary, reading from a variety of sources and taking in the comments can help you get a much more realistic picture of an issue rather than reading whatever light fluff piece was posted to get some search engine traffic. I don’t fully understand what’s going on with this market but I know better than to just take the word of someone heavily biased towards one point of view. Plus, it’s a good bet to avoid AOL and USA Today as a rule of thumb. Do you have any news sources that you know better than to take their word for? Besides the obvious candidates like Fox News and MSNBC?

The side of San Diego most people don’t see.

Money isn’t everything,

Money can’t buy you happiness,

Money can’t buy you love,

If I had a dime for every time you lied to me; I’d be rich!

However, the more appropriate term would be; If I saved a dime every time you lied to me, I’d be rich!

Where I came from money was scarce. I was a Crip gang member on the streets of Southeast San Diego, and spent most of my life in and out of the prison system. I basically “aged out” of that life after several trips to some of the most notorious and violent maximum security prisons in the state of California.

The streets were just as mean as the prisons were back then.

In 1985, crack cocaine hit Southeast San Diego with a vengeance. The Crip and Blood gangs became divided by users and dealers. The dealers looked down on the users. They drove shiny cars, and wore flashy jewelry as status symbols and validation. Gang newcomers that sold crack took seniority over veteran gangsters who smoked it. Addiction was indeed powerful, but the entire game basically boiled down to “the have’s and have not”. The same as it is in the real world.

Business savvy dealers without gang ties recruited young gang members to sell for them. This merge was in the best interest of  the dealer, as it allowed him to peddle his wares in once high-restricted areas. It also acted as a security blanket, because robbing him was then equal to robbing the gang members who worked for him.  Once recruited, the gang members naturally protected the hand that fed them. Influence was gained by manipulating the dollar in poverty-stricken communities in this way.

Contrary to popular belief, gang-related homicides decreased considerably during this time. Most incidents of violence occurred over gangs selling on rival territories, rather than just being there. Money matters simply out-weighed gang affairs.

During these times, crack dealers made hundreds of thousands of dollars, yet their ability to manage it wisely was very unsuccessful. Most of them were ghetto-fabulous, but not business-wise. They had no prior business experience.  No business or real estate investments here. They spent most of their profit accumulating material possessions, and lavish night-life expenditures with women. They had no bank accounts or legally protected assets. All of their cash was eventually seized in major undercover drug bust operations carried out by (paid) informants. It came down to MONEY.

In the end, most of the dealers received lengthy sentences in state or federal prison facilities.  But the users actually made out better. After being placed into rehab facilities due to arrests for drug use and possession, they eventually overcame their addictions. Many are now drug counselors in the very recovery centers they once resided in.

I don’t know many people that are in the drug game now. But if I SAVED a dime for every user and dealer that I personally knew back then; I’d be rich!

Apparently, smoking these will NOT make you rich.

The way people get rich is not a secret. But it’s not exactly what we think it is either. I’ve been studying money and wealth through this blog since June 2011, and a few things are starting to become obvious, which I hope will help me get to where I want to be financially. It seems like there are a few obvious things people do to become rich, and although they are things many people can do, most of us don’t do it. I’m a good example of the person who has done just about everything ass-backwards when it comes to my finances, but really, I’m shaking things up and doing things much more productively now.

Really: Save As Much Money As Possible

Not: Just Make Sure You Save Something!

It’s not 10%. It’s not 20%. It’s about saving as much as you possibly can. Sure, it’s great to save 10% when you saved nothing before (I started with saving $10 per paycheck!). But if you really want to make progress, what about putting away 70% of your paycheck every week? Before you can buy a house, start a business or make an investment, you will need your own funds to get things started. I know a lot of business owners. Before they started, and even once they got going, they were saving as much money as possible. They knew those funds would be able to make money for them, so spending money before it was able to make more money was akin to wasting it. So they saved. Hustled like crazy. But it doesn’t end there. They saved as much as possible in order to put that money towards an investment, which brings me to my next point…

Really: Research and Understand Investments Thoroughly, Then Invest 

Not: Put Your Money Into Popular Mutual Funds!

As much time as I spend on the computer, I could have learned a lot more about investing by now than I have. But I get distracted. Anyways, it takes a lot to understand an investment. It could be a convenience store, a rental property or a stock. You don’t invest blindly. You figure out what you’re getting into. What’s your rate of return? How long before you recoup your investment? If you’re going to borrow money for the investment, do you have a decent debt service ratio that makes the bank or lender comfortable with lending to you? Is your interest rate reasonable? When looking at stocks, do you have an exit strategy? Are you comfortable with your valuation of the stock? Do you know why you think this stock is a good value? And as a side note, nobody gets rich investing in mutual funds. Especially not ones with expensive fees that may eat up your returns or ones recommended by Dave Ramsey’s “ELPs” (Endorsed Local Provider-don’t get me started). The point is, you have to understand your investments thoroughly before you get involved, and stay current on developments to make sure that you are still allocating your money wisely. If you care about investing, you will figure out what works for you and thrive. And it doesn’t have to be just stocks. Pauline at Reach Financial Independence is an awesome blogger example (cattle! She has freakin’ cattle!) of this as is Paula of Afford Anything.

Really: Become a Business Owner

Not: Work Hard in One Job and Hope for an Annual 3% Raise!

I know. I’m obsessed with being a business owner. Technically, I own a few businesses but they are miniscule. I’m talking about a real business that requires sustained effort to develop and maintain. Even though, as many early retirement bloggers like Mr. Money Mustache have shown that you can save considerable amounts while working in a (high-paying) salaried job, I prefer the business owner route. No job is guaranteed, just like no business is a sure thing. So if you can put your concentrated efforts into your own business, and reap the rewards yourself or with your business partners, doesn’t that seem more rewarding than working for someone else with the hope that they will recognize your efforts and compensate you accordingly? Although I think working for a good company is extremely valuable (and will show you how to run a business efficiently), I know I don’t want to work as an employee forever.

Really: Have Multiple Streams of Income

Not: Waste Your Time Earning Swagbucks!

I have a confession: I used to waste tons of time for small rewards. $35 product research surveys. $2 Amazon Mechanical Turk gigs. Practically minimum wage restaurant jobs. But that was my mentality. I figured I had time but no money so I might as well do whatever is out there to just make some money right? No. You are wrong, my former thought process. Why did I waste my time with whatever was the easiest, first offer that came to me? I don’t know. I think I was insecure. I’m still insecure at times, but I also know what my time is worth. I have some pretty cool, specialized skills and there are people out there who don’t want to do the types of things I love to do. I’m slowly working on upping my hourly consulting rate but I am also making sure that what I provide in value is awesome and worth it. But to get really rich? I need to develop multiple streams of income: like consulting, but also owning a few businesses, investments and one-off projects like developments (my not-so-secret dream: be a real estate developer a la Bluth Company).

Really: Don’t Live Aspirationally

Not: Buy it now, pay it off later!

Do rich people have nice things? Maybe, but they constitute a teeny-tiny percentage of their net worth. See, I used to have this ridiculous vision of wearing an expensive watch, which would signify that I had “made it”. But a $4,000 watch right now would constitute a chunk of my net worth and that’s crazy. When the Omega watch or AMG Mercedes represents 0.5% of your net worth, then it’s not aspirational. It’s just something you decided you wanted and could afford because it won’t change your financial future.

We all have to make big-ticket purchases. Those things might be cars, washing machines, refrigerators, engagement rings and houses. One surefire way to stay broke is to always buy the most expensive thing you can afford. You know, the fancy refrigerator with the French door (I love those!), the 3 carat diamond, that kind of thing? Sure, they’re great if you can afford it, but what if you can almost afford it? Should you get it? If you can avoid the upsell and the urge to always upgrade, you’ll reap the rewards because someone is trying to upsell you all the time. Probably right now. Don’t look.

Another good pitfall to avoid is spending your free time in aspirational neighborhoods. Think Gangnam in Seoul, La Jolla in San Diego, South Beach in Miami. I swear, these places make me feel bad about myself. Like, what am I doing wrong? Why am I not living this life of leisure? But it’s a bit of an illusion. You can live whatever life you want, it’s just a matter of committing to your goals and making it happen. Don’t compare yourself to others and you’ll be a lot happier.

Really: It Happens Slowly, Not Overnight

Not: Buy, Sell, Make a Million! 

Things build on each other. You can make one good investment and clear some money, but then what? If you want to grow your investments, you take your gains and re-invest them, instead of spending them all on consumer goods, even though that’s always tempting. All of the ideas above are about making more and saving more, but even when you’re doing all that, it will take time to build a nice portfolio (What’s nice? That’s a question for another day or “As much as possible”). Allow yourself years to build wealth. Have fun while you’re at it, live your life and do the things you want to do, but just keep growing your wealth as you go. It really is true that if you can do something consistently for at least two years and keep your focus on that goal, what you can achieve will amaze you. Just imagine what 10, 20 and 30 years of focused wealth-building will do.

But Really, Do What You Want!

I was hesitant about writing this article. Even though many people know this as basic advice, I wanted to put it all down in one place. I want to follow this advice and have the kind of wealth that I have previously dreamed of but that was it, I just dreamed of it, like “Hmm, oh that’s nice.” Many people have the opportunity to be rich, but certainly not everybody at this exact moment. If your current situation is riddled with poverty, crime, violence and neglect, you have bigger problems that, although intricately tied with money, encompass a lot of other crap you have to handle first. Wealth can help with some of those things, but understanding, awareness and education are more pivotal when you start from the very bottom.  I don’t think being rich is some be-all, end-all in life. It is just another way to be. Neither being poor nor being rich makes you any better or worse than anyone else. Your character is what you’ll most often be judged on, but I think that can change too. But if you can be rich, and you want to be rich, then go for it. Don’t listen to the advice of big names (like big brands, they’re usually about a lot of hype) and make your own path of it.