Lawn Mower - Time Versus Money – Which is More Valuable?

I Hate Mowing!! So Why Do I Do It?

22 Comments / General Thoughts / /

If you live in an area where you don’t get to enjoy mowing your lawn, you don’t know what you’re missing out on… sweltering heat and sweat, 90 decibels of mundane loud noise, and an hour or more of your day wasted every week.  Mmm, mm, mmm – doesn’t that sound exciting?! It’s not.  I hate mowing. I decided this past weekend to mow the lawn early in the morning before it got too hot out.  Didn’t matter.  It was a hot and muggy […]

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The Steps to Wealth

The Steps to Wealth

27 Comments / Debt, Education, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Motivation, Real Estate, Saving, Spending / /

I just finished reading The Richest Man in Babylon.  I had a lot of recommendations to read this and I’ll tell you that, for as old as this book is (originally published in 1926!!), the content still holds strong.  Great book if you’re trying to find your way to wealth.  There is some very sound advice that stands the test of time, such as saving at least 10% of what you make and that you can live off your income, but you

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Cash - Get Paid to Get Laid Off - How to Engineer Your Layoff

Excited About Money

14 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), General Thoughts / /

I recently noticed that I love talking about money or investments… much more than I have in the past.  When a conversation turns to money, I realized I perk up and get excited about the conversation.  I get animated with a passion in my voice.  Whether it’s with friends, co-workers, or family, this subject seems to bring out a different person in me. Money, money, money. It’s not that I’m some Scrooge McDuck and all I want is money.  It’s actually

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It's All About the Geese, Not the Eggs

It’s All About the Geese, Not the Eggs

16 Comments / Motivation, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Real Estate, Saving, Self-Employment / /

I was listening to another podcast from the BiggerPockets guys and their guest this time around was Natali Morris.  The podcast was called Limiting Beliefs That Hold You Back From Incredible Wealth.  Although the podcast was interesting, that’s not really the point of this post. It was something that she mentioned in the middle of it that for some reason really jumped out at me and that’s what I wanted to share.  Natali said that when her father was in the midst of his divorce, he was referring

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Has It Been a Year Already??!!

Has It Been a Year Already??!!

18 Comments / General Thoughts, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE) / /

Yup, this week marks the one-year anniversary of my first post being published on this site.  Looking back over the year, I’m happy with how this has been going and I’m excited about the coming years. I had a couple basic reasons for starting this site last year: To give myself a place to share my path with anyone interested. To build a following and potentially make a little bit of side income. Looking back on these initial goals, I have to say that things have

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What's Your Story?

What’s Your Story?

15 Comments / General Thoughts / /

I’ll be the first to admit that I have a tendency to make a quick judgement on people when I first see or meet them.  I’m pretty sure I’m not alone in that either.  As I’ve grown more in the past handful of years though, I’ve made a real effort to give people the benefit of the doubt because maybe there’s a story going on that I’m not aware of… Maybe that $%^&* driver is not just some reckless, haphazard driver, but

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Just One Thing...

Just One Thing…

10 Comments / Education, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Motivation, Real Estate, Saving, Self-Employment, Spending / /

If you’re reading this article, you’re probably someone interested in or already on the way to the world of financial independence.  Regardless of why you’re here, I think we all know some of the basics of reaching that goal: Get out of debt ASAP – This is the #1 step that needs to be done… and this refers to bad debt like credit cards, car payments, etc.  This does not necessarily mean good debt like mortgages on rental property that serve as assets helping to provide you with cash

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Why a $5,000 Tax Return Refund is Actually Good News

Should I Use a HELOC to Pay off My Rental House?

12 Comments / Real Estate, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), General Thoughts / /

Last week I was listening to a BiggerPockets podcast and their guest was Clayton Morris from Fox & Friends Weekend.  I’ve never seen the show and didn’t know who Clayton Morris was, but it was actually a very good podcast.  Clayton’s one of those guys you can tell just by listening to that he’s extremely intelligent and the show was very entertaining as well.  After I was done listening, I found his blog online and that led me to an interesting article he

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Tying Up Loose Ends...

Tying Up Loose Ends…

8 Comments / General Thoughts, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Real Estate, Saving, Taxes and Financial Planning / /

I recently realized that I have a number of loose ends out there from previous posts that my regular readers might be wondering about.  So I thought I would take an opportunity to put out a post following up to hopefully tie up those loose ends a bit… Switching to an Accountant This was the first year I decided not to use TurboTax and go to an accountant.  If you remember, I had three goals with this: Check over my work Get

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The 4 Ways to Make Money with Rental Properties

The 4 Ways to Make Money with Rental Properties

10 Comments / Real Estate, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE) / /

For those of you who have been regular readers, you know that I’m starting to get a little more involved in the real estate world with rental properties.  As of this posting, I have a single-family home that I’ve been renting out for several years now and I recently purchased a duplex.  I think that owning rental properties is not only a great way to start an income stream, but it’s also a hedge against having almost all our eggs in

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