3.27.2007

The House Who Bought Itself

Let me tell you a story about the house who bought itself. One day a boy named Paris (I'm the star of the story!) realized that he wanted to buy a house. But he was only 23! (I took an aging potion) He could not afford to make continuous payments to his mortgage, but following his own advice, had about 50,000 dollars saved up. So he went around looking for a nice house. He found the perfect one, and it cost 500,000 dollars. He quickly got a mortgage and payed his 50,000 dollar down-payment. But now he needed a way to pay the mortgage. He didn't feel the need to move out of his parent's house just yet (although they wanted him to) so he decided to rent the house out and stay with his parents. He put all the rent payments towards the mortgage, and pretty soon, he had a 500,000 dollar house that only cost him 50,000 dollars!
The end!
I have this dream to buy a house before I'm 17, but I need a way to do it. I know that I can't pay for the full house all at once, and paying off a mortgage is out of the question, so I devised this plan to help me do it. If you can't come up with the 10 percent down-payment, see if you can borrow from an angel investor (someone who will loan you money at little or no interest, usually family) and if you have a dream like that while you are young, you can ask a parent to buy the house for you.
Another similar plan like this is, if you already own a house and are paying that mortgage, you can get a second mortgage on a condo or another house and use that as a rental property.
So if one of these plans can work for you, you're well on your way to being on your way to being financially independent!

3.18.2007

Post Number 50! Review Number 1!


There is only so much I can teach you guys because, although it's a sad thing to say, my knowledge is infinite. Whoops! I mean limited... So I have decided to add a new feature to my site. Whenever I do something that can really help you or me get financial knowledge, I will get my butt on this chair and type out a review. That way you can see what books are good and which ones are bad. There will be a lot of reviews because I read a lot of books... What else am I supposed to do in my pleasure time? Play sports? Pfft... But you can read other blogs about people who hate sports, but this is the one you came for to read this review so let's get it on!

CashFlow 101- The game
Rated: *****


CashFlow, the amazing board game by Robert T. Kiyosaki, award-winning best-selling author of the Rich Dad Poor Dad books, is designed to help people understand the power of paying off your debt and gaining passive income, or income you do not have to work for. (assets, etc.) You start off with a randomly chosen job, with varied income and expenses, and debt. You are in the rat race, meaning you have to work in order to live. Your goal is to increase your passive income to higher than your expenses and get out of the rat race. To do so, you have to decrease your expenses by paying off bills and increase your money-generating businesses.
I found this game to be both great fun and entertainment at the same time. For the first half of the game, I was extremely captivated and the game held consistent twists and turns to keep you locked in for the entire part. But once I got to the second half, it turned less exciting because the game took longer to do less. The problem is, playing the second and first half took too long, but playing the first half was too short. But all in all, this was a great game.
Go out and buy this amazing (expensive!) game. If you enjoy it, get the kids version and also CashFlow 202. (This guy works fast!)

3.13.2007

Financial Success in Autopilot

Are you living paycheck to paycheck? Is there never enough money "left over" to pay yourself after bills and other living expenses? I'm sure you've heard the term "pay yourself first" before, but lots of you must be wondering, "How? There's barely enough money for me to get by in life, let alone put aside for my future!" Well, there IS a way. You have just proved that you spend all your money. But you have also shown that you can't spend what you don't have. So what if you were, right before you even RECEIVED your paycheck, to take money out of it and put it in an RRSP or another future savings investment. Most companies offer automatic payroll deduction, and the best part is the money you put in it doesn't get taxed! You can also use automatic payroll deduction to save for a "rainy day" or even pay off your mortgage!
Again, you're all saying, "Where am I supposed to come up with this money? Won't it affect my current style of living?" That's the beauty. Let's take this true story for example. Someone named Kim was saying exactly that, so the man who came up with this beautiful thing called the "Latte FactorTM" named David Bach asked her to walk through the day and quickly discovered that every morning she would buy a latte and a muffin for $5.00. He explained to her that if she stopped doing that and saved the $5.00 a day she was going through right there, she could retire with that money! To find the money, you have to first discover YOUR Latte FactorTM. It's usually something you buy every day that is a WANT instead of a NEED. For example, if you stop of at Starbucks and buy a latte every day (Not that there's anything wrong with Starbucks, I personally find their Chai Lattes DELICIOUS!) or you buy a pack of smokes every day. (Now, there is EVERYTHING wrong with smoking!)
If you want more information regarding automating your savings efforts and the Latte Factor(tm), please read his amazing and eye-opening book, the Automatic Millionaire.

3.06.2007

F.F - F.F.F.A.F! - A Close Shave

Part Three in a Series: Free Fundraisers - Fun for Friends and Family!

Here is one that will make teachers cringe and students grin... ge... (now that is pure poetry!) Anyways, do any of your teachers feel like encountering a close shave? Here is an idea that will blow your minds! (literally...) All you have to do is put up a sign-up sheet in your school's staff room and book your school gym for a lunch-period. It's that easy. So here's the catch - You have to find teachers who would be willing to shave their heads!
It's awe-inspiring!
Anyways, what you will be doing is charging kids to get to see teachers have their hair shaved off! You can charge about a dollars for admission, and more if lots of teachers are getting their heads shaved. Try to get long-haired teachers to volunteer, and if you want a crowd-bringer, see if you can get your principal in!
This is a sure-fire way to raise a lot of money for no cost at all! And, it will please the masses. You would even be able to sell tickets to parents if you want to make it a bigger event. You'll be able to do this every year, or however often their hair grows back!

3.01.2007

Really Rad Savings oPportunity

That title was hard to come up with... HAHAHA! I'm sooo funny! But anyways, it's time for RRSPs! Some of you may have been listening to Cfun 1410 when I made the absolutely horrible mistake of saying it's bad to borrow for your RRSPs. Well, it's not always! I just assumed that, where there is debt, there is bad interest...
But not for RRSPs! As many of you may know, the government doesn't tax savings you put into a RRSPs, unlike all other loans. So because of this, you make more money. And also, interest rates on RRSP loans are one of the cheapest forms of loans, so what you make off of putting money into an RRSP can totally defeat what you are paying for it! So in this way, you can make a lot of money, without making a cent! But remember, in the end you have to pay off that debt anyways. So even though that loan can indeed become an asset, it is a liability at the same time.
RRSPs are important to contribute to in any way you can because it's such an important retirement tool. So while it's good to borrow for an RRSP donation, it's even better to not only borrow, but use your own money as well! Because you know what they say. A lot is better than nothing!