Tag: investments
Mastering the Art of Frugality: Key Habits for a Life of Financial Freedom and Fulfillment
September 21, 2015
Many people believe that being frugal means living a life of deprivation, but this is far from the truth. In reality, frugality is a lifestyle choice that can lead to financial freedom and fulfillment. Living frugally means being mindful of your spending habits and making conscious decisions about where your money goes. By doing so, you can reduce your expenses, save more money, and achieve your financial goals faster. But what does it take to master the art of frugality?
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Cheap Stock Trades
October 7, 2014
You can use various brokerage firms for your investing, so I decide to have a look at the cost of trading with these to find the cheapest. They all can be fairly competitive for various reasons, but my thinking was which ones are the cheapest for buying stocks, and hence useful for a new/small investor just beginning his portfolio but wanting full control over his/her trading. The three I found were Continue Reading
Free Stock Trades – LOYAL3
October 1, 2014
In a previous post I wrote about using Betterment to get into investing in an automated way without having to pay for trades with the ETFs that they invest in. Well, what happens if you want to invest in certain stocks for various reasons, such as the ones you like have great dividends or that you see tremendous value or potential for growth? Well, I have found one place that allows you to buy and sell a select group of shares for free, which is pretty fantastic. This investing site is Continue Reading
Hedonic Adaptation – Are You the Hamster in the Wheel?
June 21, 2014
When I first heard of ‘hedonic adaptation’ I wondered what it was, perhaps it was some kind of cool new band that I had not yet listened to? Nope, it is instead a term whose meaning I suggest should be taught to every citizen in the US, or perhaps every citizen in this rapidly developing world of ours.
Got your attention? I hope so, because for me, learning about hedonic adaptation made me changed my entire views on money, savings and investments, and my focus on what really makes me happy. Continue Reading
Never Retiring?
June 15, 2014
I just read an article on MarketWatch about never retiring. Before we get into the idea of never retiring, there were some troubling statistics in the article that I would like to highlight. Fidelity (the retirement/investment brokerage firm) is quoted as saying that merely one-third of americans that are working are going to be able to pay 95% plus of their expenses in retirement. Even more scary is that an additional 12% will be able to cover just their essential expenses, leaving 55% likely to have difficulty in covering these. We are talking about not being able to pay for food, healthcare, housing, all of which sound pretty important to me. Continue Reading
Why Are You Not Rich?
April 24, 2014
Are you financially free or even rich? If not, what’s stopping you?
Well, perhaps the main reason is that you may be living like you are rich already, and so hopefully, reading this blog will improve your financial savvy. The following is a list of major traps that can confine you to many years as a financial slave in the rat race, so avoid or escape these as soon as you can: Continue Reading
Savings = greater happiness
February 14, 2014
Did you read the recent interesting Ally study results saying that it isn’t necessarily the salary that you can earn but rather your savings that can really affect your levels of happiness?
If you would like to read in a little more depth I found a nice discussion on the topic here.
OK, so overall such a survey didn’t appeal to my rigorous scientific standards. However, the gist of it is that Continue Reading
Minted
February 8, 2014
I have been using mint.com for just over a year and have found it a very useful way to track my finances.It allows you to easily keep track of any accounts such as credit cards, bank balances and loans. This is in addition to including investments and property. Tracking your spending habits from short to long term can be completed with just a click of a mouse Continue Reading
Ramp Up Those Savings!
January 28, 2014
What would you do if you won the lottery right now and became financially free? Would you work less, travel more, move to another part of the country or an entirely different country? Maybe engage in charity work or educational activities? Become become an excellent suffer (yes, I live in SoCal) or just lounge at the beach?
Assertively pursuing your financial independence allows you to achieve these types of life goals, rather than give them up, and hopefully get to them much more rapidly! So how can you achieve this? Well clearly it is earning more and/or spending less, and maybe somewhat surprisingly, it’s the spending less that really acts as the turbo charge in this equation. Continue Reading
Why Frugality?
January 21, 2014
OK, so the question of why frugality could easily turn into a very long winded and potentially quite boring essay, which I will try my best not to do!
To keep it relatively short, I see three major reasons for embracing frugality, where each of these are clearly intertwined. The first is financial independence. At a time when many people are worried about how they will get by in retirement, a very sad state of affairs, would you instead like to still be working, but knowing that you are already financially free? Continue Reading