Homes in Order

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A good Wife & Health, is a Man’s best Wealth: Benjamin Franklin

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A good Wife & Health, is a Man’s best Wealth.  Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin

I’m a wealthy man!

I spent 32 years of my life single, waiting for Liz to find me.  Finally she did, and the years since have been awesome!

I’ve been blessed with good health throughout my life.  The old saying about not appreciating things until they’re gone is so applicable with health issues.  Earlier this year, I started getting an irritating rash on my chest.  It turns out — I had shingles.  If you’ve ever had shingles, you can sympathize with me.  It was perhaps the most painful episode of my life.

But now, I’m healthy, I’ve got a great wife, and beautiful kids.  Even a dog!  Yes, I’m wealthy!

And this wealth has nothing to do with money.  🙂

Gas Crunch: Does $0.10 on Gas Really Save That Much?

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Everybody knows that A Penny Saved is a Penny Earned, but not everybody knows how much money they could save by saving a penny here and there.  One of the biggest monthly expenses is gasoline for the car.  Does shopping for gas really make a difference?  Absolutely!  What if I told you that you could save $75, just by going to the cheapest place for gas?  That’s pretty good.  But what if I told you that you could save $5,000, just by shopping for the cheapest gas?  I bet you’d read on!

Saving = Good.

but

Saving + Investing = Great.

Especially on monthly expenses.  Gasoline probably one of your top 5 biggest monthly expenses.  Let me show you how you how gasoline savings add up.

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Fish or cut bait: Business and mortgage with Benjamin Franklin

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While Benjamin Franklin’s writings are replete with nuggets of wisdom for his day, I think they are more applicable for today’s day.  Take this one for example:

He that would catch fish, must venture his bait.  Benjamin Franklin

You’re not going to catch fish without a line in the water.  You’ll never know until you give it a shot.  Fish, or cut bait.

Fish, He that would catch fish

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Compound interest in your mortgage payment might surprise you

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What would you do if you discovered that 95% of your paycheck was being flushed down the toilet?  That happened to me about 6 years ago.  That was the day that I discovered how expensive compound interest can be, and that was the day that I determined that I would learn how compound interest works and I would put money to work for me.

About a year earlier, I bought my first home, right at the max of the real estate boom.  This was back in the days of sub-prime mortgages, and interest rates were double what they are today.  About a year later, I was sitting at my new knotty alder kitchen table, paying the bills.  I had a 1st and a 2nd mortgage on my home, 80/20, to avoid PMI.  As I was going through the bills, I looked at the statement for the 2nd mortgage and I saw that I was paying $477 in interest, and only $17 in principal.  Who would be crazy enough to pay 96% interest on a loan?  Apparently, I was.

Here I was, a hot-shot MBA, business owner, homeowner, and I was paying 96% interest on my 2nd mortgage.  My stomach literally dropped.  I was sick.  I remembered the well-known quote, often attributed to Albert Einstein or Benjamain Franklin, though neither actually said it.

Compound interest is the greatest mathematical discovery of all time.  Those who understand the principal of compound interest are destined to collect it.  Those who don’t are doomed to pay it.

I still clearly remember that day.  Financially, that was probably the best day of my life.  I don’t know if I made any money that day, but I realized that day that I never wanted to be doomed to paying compound interest again.  I determined that I was going to understand the principal of compound interest better than anyone, and that was the embryo of Homes in Order.

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