By Mikael
The latest post I wrote turned into quite a bit of a discussion or rather a conversation since we all agreed that you need to take personal responsibility for what happens in your life.
The post was about retirement investing but it might as well have been about financial planning. All in all it is the same thing because to achieve anything significant you will need to plan carefully as well as act and follow through.
Whether we want to become wealthy or just financially secure there is no way around the planning and preparation part. The process (and it IS a process) consists of a lot of different parts that works together but one of the vital aspects is the educational part.
Whatever we do in life we will need some kind of training or ed... Read more
By Mikael
Now I know that this is quite a statement and there are probably a lot of people that would like to argue with me on this statement and that is just fine. But I would like to share my views on planning for your retirement and why I believe that listening to most advisors is a poor and brainless choice.
When I say brainless I am not calling you stupid but merely stating that most people are passively listening to what advice the most marketing oriented (those that makes the most noise) advisors are saying. And being passive means not using your brain and in that sense you could just as well be brainless
But there is one thing that is probably worse than listening to loud investment advisors and managers and that is to take advice from your... Read more
By Mikael
Have you ever given some thought to how differently people speak and the words they use? If not then it might be time to start giving it a bit more attention because it has been proven that your vocabulary has an effect on your life and that applies to your financial situation as well.
In the post about stopping your excuses we looked at bit out how words and in particular questions are an important part of becoming rich. If you ask good questions it will work for you but if you ask lousy questions it can hurt you.
In a study done by some social behavior experts they proved that people that are put in prison have a very limited vocabulary compared to the average person. Often a limited vocabulary would make the person more violent, which I ... Read more
By Mikael
Selling is a vital part of making money and if you want to be rich that is one thing that you must be able to do… making money.
It may sound obvious but in today’s society most people think of something negative when they hear the word “selling” or being “sold” something. I don’t know if it has always been like this but it is definitely something that keeps a lot of people today from becoming wealthy and financially independent.
One of the reasons why people don’t like “selling” might be that they feel that something is forced upon them against their will and that the salesman are using dirty tricks to make them buy something that they really do not want to buy.
Where this way of selling comes from I do not know but it ... Read more
By Mikael
To be able to retire early you will need to put yourself in a situation where you will not have to worry about money to pay the bills. Retiring will as a definition mean that you are no longer working a job. In order to still have money coming in you will need to have other sources to work for you.
I see making money as a craft in the same way as it is a craft to be a carpenter or an electrician. In order to be very successful at it you will not only need to study continually but you will also need to practice (and preferably teach) the skill set every day.
What Are You Doing To Learn About Money?
Since you are reading this post (and this blog) I assume you have an interest in making more money for yourself. If that is the case my question ... Read more
By Mikael
Whether it is the current financial downturn that has caused it or it is a shift in the mentality of the Western world is beyond me, but the fact is that more and more websites and concepts for frugal living is popping up all over.
And even though frugality can be a good thing it is only a part of becoming wealthy and only if you focus on the RIGHT things. From what is currently happening all over I feel that there is a vital part that these websites and concepts are leaving out of the equation.
But let’s first have a look at how Wikipedia defines the strategy and philosophy of “frugality”:
Common strategies of frugality include the reduction of waste, curbing costly habits, suppressing instant gratification by means of fiscal self-re... Read more
By Mikael
As promised a few days ago I wanted to share with you what it is that makes me want to retire as soon as possible and why I believe that becoming rich is a very positive thing and something that everyone should aim for.
But first let me tell you that finding my WHY, the reason for wanting to become rich and being able to quit my job, was not a fast process at all.
The truth is that, like most people that are trying to become rich, I wanted to become rich because of the money. Ever since I was a very young boy I have been fascinated with money and I have worked hard at acquiring them in any way I could think of (legally).
When I was very young I took out the trash and cleaned my room (which equals that I took everything and threw it into the... Read more
By Mikael
I don’t know whether it is human nature or whether it is because we’re conditioned by the media, the school system and the environments we’re living in but I find that there is a huge majority of people that believe that they are able to SAVE their way into a decent retirement. Having money in the bank is probably one of the least profitable ways to “invest” your money.
The reason I put “invest” in quotes is that I actually believe that having money in the bank will end up being an expense for you while making the bank richer. The reason is that first of all you’re paid an insanely low yearly interest on your savings. Secondly your savings are being eaten up by the inflation and if that is not... Read more
By Mikael
I don’t recall ever meeting someone that had a job and didn’t want to be able to retire early from that job. Even people that actually like what they are doing at their job would want the ability to be able to quit or at least not be dependant of the paycheck each month. So what do I see as the key aspects for an early retirement?
1. Start as soon as possible
The best thing to do is start as early as you possibly can. The more time you have to work on it the less effort you will have to put in. Unfortunately too many people are starting out too late and are therefore struggling with making ends meet and often can’t see their way out of the everyday hassle.
2. Find out what you want
You need to be clear about what it is that you actual... Read more
By Mikael
As you might be aware this blog was intentionally created to help people that are looking for ways to retire early and retire rich to do just that. The ways to actually achieve this goal are many and I might even dare to say unlimited but even so there are just as many ways to avoid reaching that goal.
Unfortunately I find that many people are searching for ways on how to retire early because they are looking for ways to retire as fast as possible. They might be sick and tired of their jobs or they might have been in an argument with their boss or similar. Making rapid decisions and looking for quick fix solutions is almost never the best way to go and as far as I am concerned this apply to the early retirement situation as well.
I can full... Read more
By Mikael
It hurts me to see people struggle financially and especially those that are close to retirement or the ones that are already retired. I feel that everyone should be able to retire as early as possible as well as with a financial situation that will keep them safe no matter what the economic situation of the world might throw at them. Unfortunately for most people this is not the case.
The saddest thing is actually not that people are struggling and heading towards disaster but rather the fact that they could turn it all around with very small changes applied consistently on a daily basis but most people won’t even try.
Humans are in many ways a frustrating but also a very fascinating species. Even obvious small changes could turn things ... Read more
By Mikael
One of my favorite ways of making money online is with the highly popular program called Google Adsense. Making money on the internet can be done in literally thousands of different ways and there is no right or wrong way to it. Adsense is just one way to make a profit from a website but the reason I like it so much is that it is not very difficult to get started and once you get it going it will almost be able to be a totally passive way to make money online.
Using Adsense for making money on the Internet will only require two things to start bringing in an income. The first thing is naturally a website with some content and the second thing is traffic. By traffic I am talking about people using the search engines like Google and Yahoo whe... Read more
By Mikael
Being able to retire early is a dream for a lot of people but the sad truth is that very few people actually ever get to a point where they are able to retire before the age of 60-65. There are many reasons why most people never make it but I see two reasons that are causing most of the problems.
The first reason I see is that there are SO much misinformation floating around in all kinds of media. You’ll watch financial TV shows telling you all kinds of things that might sound reasonable but it can in fact actually have the opposite effect of what is being promised. You can find online financial news websites like CNN Money that will tell you to “save, save, save”, “live less than large” and “bank your ex... Read more
By Mikael
A lot of people are talking about wanting to make more money and wanting to become rich. Some will want the money in order to be able to buy more items like flatscreen tvs, cars, vacations, a bigger house, designer clothes and all these kind of things. That is a perfectly legitimate reason for wanting to make more money but it is not the only reason there is.
Some people want to make more money because they are struggling in their day to day financial situation. Maybe they have built up credit card debt, maybe it is educational loans that need to be repaid or maybe they have been downsized because of the current economic downturn.
Others might just be in a situation where they can’t help spend more than they earn and to avoid accumula... Read more
By Mikael
That is a question that a lot of people are asking themselves and I have to admit that I have asked myself that question more than once. But some years ago I found out that the question wasn’t relevant for me to answer because I was not going to settle with the minimum amount that I would need in order to just get by.
Instead I want to have so much money that I will not be able to spend them all no matter how hard I try. Can it be done? Absolutely! Will I make it? Well… since I am working on my hobbies, enjoying every minute of it and don’t even consider it “work” I’ll probably never retire but feel free to call me up in 35-40 years and I’ll be able to give you a better answer.
But if you’re not like me but want to know how... Read more
By Mikael
Many people all over the world are feeling the financial crises in one way or another. Maybe you know someone that has lost her job or maybe you are amongst those that have been fired. It is never something that you’ll enjoy and most people become sad and depressed or they become angry.
So why is it that I have chosen to call this post something as ridicules as “Why the recession can help you retire early”?
It is because humans are truly incredible beings and when they are put into a corner they are very likely to come up with some marvelous solutions that they didn’t know they could come up with. When you are left in a situation you didn’t plan for you will have to step outside your comfort zone and try something different in ord... Read more
By Mikael
My last couple of posts has been focusing on the mindset of people and why I don’t get that so many people are actually heading towards as retirement that will leave them with a lower financial income per month than when they had a job even though they’ll have a lot more time to do fun stuff once retired.
But there are yet another side to retirement because one thing is to work all your life and retire when you are no longer able to (or allowed to) work anymore but another aspect is to plan to retire early and have even more time to enjoy your retirement period. More and more people are looking for ways to retire early but unfortunately it is still not something that the majority is able to do. Not even the ones that actually wanted to... Read more
By Mikael
As I talked about in my post yesterday it is a fact that most people are not planning to retire rich and what is even worse is that many people are not planning their retirement at all. You can live the life that you dreamt of even if you’re not rich when you retire because it will only require that you didn’t have big dreams. Personally I find it to be important to dream big but if you don’t I will not hold that against you. Instead I’ll just hope that you will come read my posts as often as possible and that you will get ideas from what I write that will inspire you to see what is possible and perhaps make you dream a little bigger.
If you are planning for retirement you probably have some kind of pension plan or savings plan that... Read more
By Mikael
Why is it that most people are planning to live all the years of their old age at a minimum instead of a maximum? Why are people planning (those that at least ARE planning) to live for a far smaller monthly income when it is time to retire after a long life of working from nine to five every single day? If you ask me it doesn’t make much sense and I get back to why I believe that people do it and it is not because they want to…
Most people live their live working a job, raising kids, buying a house and paying the mortgage on that house. For some people they might have a little extra to spend on traveling and vacations but for many that is not even an option. But if that is how your life is while you have a job and have that monthly inco... Read more
Mikael Rieck is the author of more than hundred articles on topics of how to make money both online and offline. He has been online since 1999 and has always had a passion for money making opportunities and teaching others how to make a profit.