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Investments That Always Pay Off

Written on August 10, 2009 by George Krueger & Mary-Lynn Foster in Money

pay-off Bigg success is life on your own terms. The five elements of bigg success are money, time, growth, work and play. Today we’ll focus on money.

You may have noticed that the market is up year-to-date. That’s the good news. The bad news is that we’re still off quite a bit from the top.

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Hear George & Mary-Lynn discuss today's topic on The Bigg Success Show! Click the purple player to listen while you read: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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The main market indicator, the S&P 500, hit its highest level in history on October 9, 2007. The good old day, we guess you could call that.

It hit its most recent low on March 9, 2009, off 57% (excluding dividends) from that high nearly one-and-a-half years earlier. Of course, now we’re up over 49% from that March low but we’re still off about 35% from the high if we factor out dividends.

The bottom line is that our portfolios have still taken quite a hit. It made us wonder …

Are there investments that don’t lose value?

It depends on your goal.

Your investment goal

Why do you invest? Obviously, you want more money. Why?

For some people, it’s the end. However, the end is pretty empty. For most of us, it’s a means to an end. Instead of financial returns, we really want emotional returns.

We want to be happier!

If that’s the case, research shows there may be a more direct path to happiness, assuming that basic needs — food, shelter and clothing – have been met.

Invest time in work you love

We tend to follow an indirect path to happiness. For example, many people strive to build a portfolio that allows them to retire when they want.

One direct path to happiness is to do the work you love. Bea Arthur, the late-great actress, said:

“Actors don’t retire. People who work in jobs they don’t like retire.”

Invest time to find the work you love. Invest time doing the work you love. It’s an investment with returns beyond your wildest dreams.

Invest time in relationships

Some people want more money so they can buy things. There is a more proven path to happiness.

Invest your time in relationships. Research shows this delivers higher returns on the happiness scale than having more money.

The direct path creates synergy

Bigg success is life on your own terms. The bigg idea behind bigg success is synergy. One place to search for synergy is between the five elements of bigg success.

Let’s look at two of the five elements of bigg success – money and work. You don’t need as much money to be happy if you’re doing work you love.

The funny thing, though, is that research shows that doing the work you love often leads to more money. If you put first things first, you end up better off all the way around. That’s synergy!

Now let’s look at money and play. Research shows that strong relationships lead to greater happiness than more possessions. You can save money by having friends.

It’s also interesting that, in our interconnected world, those relationships may very well lead to more money if you don’t force the issue. Put the relationship first and let the money follow.

Invest directly in happiness by investing time doing what you love with people you love. That’s bigg success!

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Thank you so much for checking in with us today. Please join us next time when we discuss mixing business with pleasure. Until then, here’s to your bigg success!

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(Image in today's post by svilen001)

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6 Paths to Financial Freedom

Written on July 2, 2009 by George Krueger & Mary-Lynn Foster in Financial Freedom

freedom Today is the fourth installment in our freedom series. We’ll focus on financial freedom.

Financial freedom … can you imagine it? To use the lingo from our last couple of posts, it means freedom from money worries or, even better, freedom to choose how we spend and live.

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Hear George & Mary-Lynn discuss today's topic on The Bigg Success Show! Click the purple player to listen while you read: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Financial freedom is just one piece

We’ve defined bigg success as life on your own terms. There are five elements of bigg success – money, time, growth, work and play. Bigg success comes faster when these five elements work in synergy; that’s part of the bigg idea behind bigg success.

So while financial freedom is a worthy goal, be sure you’re looking at it as part of the bigg picture. What does life on your own terms mean to you? Only you know the answer that’s best for you.

Framing financial freedom

You are the entrepreneur of your own life. As the entrepreneur, you need to understand the two basic financial statements: your Income Statement and Balance Sheet.

The Income Statement shows how much money you brought in the front door and how much money went out the back door. Financial freedom means more income and less costs.

The Balance Sheet shows how much you own (your Assets) and how much you owe (your Liabilities). Financial freedom means more Assets and less Liabilities.

6 ways to define financial freedom

Debt free

There are variations of this. You may consider yourself free if you don’t carry a credit card balance forward from month to month. Other people want everything paid off except their house. For some, they want no debt period.

You focus on the Liabilities side of the Balance Sheet with this path. You want to minimize what you owe. Better yet, owe nothing.

Low standard of living

Some people take this to an extreme, but they’re the only ones who have to be happy with it. This is a very simple, yet proven path. Focus on spending less so you’re free to spend the excess money however you want.

Obviously, this path focuses on the Expense side of your Income Statement. “Low” is a relative term; it means low relative to your Income.

High salary

Conversely, you can focus on making a lot of money. Make a lot more than you spend and you’ll feel free financially.

We called it “salary” but it can be active income from any source – commissions, business ownership and the like. Obviously, we’re on the Income side of the Income Statement here.

Cash in the bank

If you have an amount equal to three to twelve months of living expenses in the bank, you may feel a sense of financial freedom. It doesn’t have to literally be “in the bank.” For example, you may have the money invested in a money market mutual fund.

This is a Balance Sheet strategy focusing on Assets, specifically Cash and Cash Equivalents.

Retirement nest egg

Here you get that sense of financial freedom by having enough money stored up to allow you to live comfortably, without working, for the rest of your life. Your focus is on building up the Asset side of your Balance Sheet. Unlike our third definition, this path is about building passive income from these Assets.

Wealth-creation

For some people, financial freedom means being wealthy enough to buy anything they want. There are a lot of degrees here. “Everything you want” doesn’t have to mean a jet or a yacht, but it can if that’s what you really want!

This is a complex path. You’ll probably need to manage both sides of the Income Statement and the Balance Sheet. You may not try to minimize Liabilities; instead, you’ll focus on having Liabilities that have paid for Assets that make you money.

It’s important to define financial freedom so you can determine your goals. With your goals in mind, you can develop strategies to achieve them. That leads to bigg success!