Personal Finance Wisdom I Wish Someone Would Have Told Me

You're about to discover incredibly helpful personal finance wisdom that I Phil Pustejovsky wish someone would have told me a long time ago. Chances are, you are interested in real estate investing because you have an interest in improving your financial situation. That's where it all got started for me. Right after college and flat broke, I found myself walking the personal finance aisle of a bookstore looking for answers. I ran into books by Dave Ramsey, Suze Orman and many others. They shared timeless principles of living below your means, keeping a budget, saving and investing in no-load mutual funds in an IRA. Over many years of applying their teachings, the vision was that your finances would steadily improve and during retirement, you would be in great shape. Then along came a renegade in the world of personal finance, Robert Kiyosaki, with his landmark book, "Rich Dad Poor Dad". He eschewed the conventional advice of, "get good grades so you can go to a good college and get a safe, secure job." Instead, his message was for people to get financial literacy and become business owners and investors, which was far more important than budgeting or investing in mutual funds. His book is one of the best selling books of all time.

Who should you listen to? Kiyosaki or Ramsey? I have discovered that the answer is both. And the book that brings it all together is, "The Millionaire Mind" by Thomas J. Stanley. In Stanley's remarkable book, he provides his findings from a 25 year study of real life millionaires. He discovers that they share common traits; being frugal with personal expenses but having the courage to take risks with investments and business ventures. He also finds that the wealthiest millionaires tended to be business owners. Dr. Stanley coined a phrase, "Balance Sheet Affluent" to describe those people who have large net worths, not just large incomes. Fascinatingly enough, many people falsely assume that a large income ensures financial success. It's shocking how often people go through huge amounts of money very quickly. For example, it has been determined that 70% of pro athletes are broke within 5 years of their playing days. Freedom Mentor Many burn through millions of dollars in just a few years. Lottery winners are notorious for going broke not long after winning millions. So its not all about earning more income, although that helps. As one of my mentors used to tell me, "If you cannot, or will not save, the seeds of success are not in you."

What if you have the opposite problem and you aren't bringing in enough money each month to even be able to save because your expenses exceed your income? That's a common problem for many people. The advice of some pundits would be to lower your means. The difficulty with that advice is that you can only reduce your expenses so far. There is only so much you can save on car insurance. At some point, your income has to increase for you to begin saving so that you can invest those savings. Starting your own side business can be a great way to do it. You may even have to take a financial risk to get that small business going, but for many people, it is their ticket to increasing their income dramatically. It usually takes a few years longer than you want it to for that business to flourish, but along the way, you learn invaluable lessons that will serve you the rest of your financial life.

However, I and my Phil Pustejovsky Reviews have discovered that some people aren't meant for business ownership. Instead, to increase their income, they should strive to get better at their job and to climb the corporate ladder. Being a business owner requires discipline, responsibility and the ability to handle uncertainty. Some people can't handle being their own boss. For them, they need someone else telling them what to do or otherwise they will get nothing done. They also can't stomach the uncertainty of the ups and downs of being your own business owner. A job is steady income and you get to leave the office at quitting time and not have to worry about it until the next day. The buck stops with the business owner and they do have to worry at night if there is a huge problem in the business. Many have said, "Job stands for Just Over Broke". That may be true, but I would argue that some people who start their own business end up even more broke than if they would have stayed in their job.

Without a doubt, and as Dr. Stanley discovered, real estate is a financial vehicle wealthy people use. Some have made their fortunes in the actual business and others have simply grown their wealth with real estate after they struck it rich elsewhere. Either way, you will do well to have some connection to real estate if you want to be wealthy.

Real estate can be both a business as well as an investment vehicle. The business of real estate investing is the art of finding great deals and then monetizing those deals, which is normally done by either wholesaling or buying, fixing up and then reselling. What I refer to as creative real estate investing, I believe it is the greatest small business in America. The challenge is that most people don't ever reach the level of success that makes it such a lucrative business. There are many reasons for this, not the least of which is how few have mastered the skill of finding truly motivated sellers before the competition gets to them as well as knowing how to negotiate great deals with the sellers and then execute consistently and avoid mistakes. The key to creative investing is education and unfortunately, the best and brightest in the field tend to keep their secrets to themselves. Plus, it's a very competitive business so to shine, you have to truly know your stuff.

Real estate investing as an investment is quite different than the business side and requires very little education compared to the creative side. Freedom Mentor Review Rather than chasing down and negotiating with sellers, you can simply hire a real estate agent, or visit an auction, or contact a turn key property company and then buy the real estate, rent it out and repeat. I refer to this as the traditional approach. If you have the money and the credit but no desire to get into the real estate investing business, this can be a great way to be a real estate investor.

In summary, the personal finance wisdom that has served me the best is contained in the pages of, "The Millionaire Mind." Be frugal on personal expenses, save money so that you can parlay it into businesses and assets, take calculated financial risk, own your own business, invest in real estate and although living below your means isn't exciting, it is powerful and necessary to lasting personal finance success.