Millennial Millionaires

Debt is one of the plagues of our day. It is rare to talk to someone who doesn't have debt. Borrowing money for wise and good purposes can be helpful and lead to greater wealth. But that is not usually what borrowing money is used for by the average American. What do people do when they can't afford something? Put it on a credit card. This is true for most people for things they want, as well as emergencies. It's hard too, because sometimes people are just wanting to build their credit, and then next thing they know they are drowning. Debt becomes stressful and frustrating and even debilitating. Even when you work hard to make it go away, it seems to come back and even grow. There's a psychological reason for that. What you focus on is what has importance in your life. So if you are always thinking about debt, and working on debt, you might get to the point where you wouldn't know what you would do without it! So... you get more. In the book Geometry of Succes

Saving money is almost always a New Years Resolution for people. Yet years go by, and things don't seem to get much better. Money seems to fly in and out of your account before you even had a chance to see it. A huge part of changing this around is budget management. People come to me asking for Budget help all the time. Which is great! I think people conceptually understand that making a budget is important. They want to, even if they don't do it. I think a lot more people would budget, if they only knew how to get started. Step 1 in making a budget is: TRACKING YOUR CURRENT EXPENSES. What happens every time I help someone make a budget without tracking first, is that they always under estimate things - especially groceries. They think they spend maybe $200- $300 a month on food, but it is almost always closer to $600 - $700. What do you get if you write in your budget $200 for food when you are used to $600? A budget that quickly goes does down the drain. It is unsustai

Why do I want to be a millionaire? Well first just facing the facts, according to Morningstar  (Chicago-based investment research firm) I will need $1.18 million to support a 30 year retirement with an inflation rate of 2.5%. According to  gobankingrates , I will need at least $2.5 million to retire. So... a million needs to be the norm if I am to live beyond the age of 60. And that's just to keep living life as is. But I have plans for so much more than that! It all started in 2012-2014, when I lived in the country of Bolivia serving as a missionary for my church. I spent all day every day among people who have nothing- as far as material goods go. Every day while I was there, we would pay a family to feed us lunch. At one point near the end of my mission, we were eating with a family where the dad worked in construction and the mom made and sold rolls. They were barely getting by on this while feeding their 3 kids. One day during lunch, the mom was telling us about a free w

The financial advantage gap between having a college degree and just having a high school diploma is widening! A 20-year study in Canada revealed that a man with a bachelor's degree made  an average of $732,000  more during that time than a man who only had a high school diploma. And in 2015 alone, the average US college graduate  earned 56% more  than the average high school graduate. This is the widest gap between the two that the Economic Policy Institute has recorded since 1973! While a college grad may encounter a type of retirement savings roadblock different from a reduced income – student loan debt – the earning numbers above show that the advantages of having a college degree and a solid financial strategy outweigh the retirement saving power of not having a college degree. But here’s an issue plaguing both groups:   more than two-thirds  of US millennial workers surveyed do not have a specific retirement plan in place at all, and  a full third  of Canadian millenn

Open enrollment for Health Insurance for 2018 will end on December 15th. If you do not have a Health Insurance Plan by that date, you could be fined a minimum of $695 in 2018. Are you covered? Do you need to be? Many jobs give some kind of health care. But not every millennial is lucky enough to have a job with these perks, or good enough coverage to really help them in an emergency. What is Health Insurance for? Health Insurance is there to help you in a crisis. Hospital bills can be extremely costly - with the average cost of a stay in the Hospital being $10,000! ( https://myphysiciansnow.com/how-much-will-that-hospital-stay-cost-you/ ) Emergencies happen, and you need care. Health Insurance makes this more manageable. Instead of having to pay all of that amount, you make monthly payments of anywhere between $20-$300 (depending on what you want and what you qualify for. See link at bottom of this post to get your own quotes). After the monthly payment, you also have a

Three simple words can strike fear into the heart of any millennial: Student. Loan. Debt. The anxiety is not surprising: In 2015, US college graduates had an average of  $30,100  in student debt, and the average Canadian college graduate had  $26,819  in student loan debt. Nearly $30 grand?  For that you could travel the world. Put a down payment on a house. Buy a car. Even start a new business! But instead of having the freedom to pursue their dreams, there’s a hefty financial ball and chain around millennials’ feet. That many young people owing that much money before they even enter the workforce? It’s unbelievable! Now just imagine adding car payments, house payments, insurance premiums, and more on top of that student debt.  No wonder millennials are feeling so terrible: studies showed that Canadian students who had to take out large loans were in a state of  poorer mental health  than their peers, and  57% of American millennials  report that paying for essential