Smart Saving and Investing

Did you date your spouse when you were young?

Are you in your twenties, in a relationship and thinking about marriage?

Do you think you’ll save and invest by the time you’re 50 as you and your partner create a life together?

Have you made plans to do this? What are your financial plans for 10, 20, 30, 40, or 50 years of marriage?

Maybe you don’t have financial plans but you just know by the time your 50 years old you’ll both have saved so much money, contributed so much to your retirement plan and started other types of investment plans that you’ll be financially okay.

The Story

In the past month I’ve seen three couples I know, in or around 50 year olds and have been together for 25-30 years, who argue about the money they don’t have.

One spouse commenting to me that, “If things don’t change soon, I’ll have to do something.” What does that mean? The way it was told to me, it means resentment. It sounded like possible separation and even divorce.

It means not being part of the relationship that made sure they were saving and investing over the past 25-30 years so it wouldn’t get to this point. No financial plans except hoping for the best.

Disagreements for 25-30 years on where the money should be spent. “We’ll have money like our parents do and have acquired.” Well, these couples are parents of teenagers, college-aged, and working adult kids.

Some attributes these couples shared over their 25-30 years of marriage:

• young
• in love
• always together
• struggling
• in debt
• graduating from college
• new jobs
• employer retirement account
• marriage
• in debt
• kids
• new house
• cars
• vacations
• in debt
• Christmas gifts no one would forget
• up-to-date clothes for the family - no matter what
• paid weddings for their kid(s) by way of second mortgage or any other bad debt vehicle - “Don’t worry, you’ll have a great wedding - no matter what”
• taking care of friends and family in diverse financial ways - buying them something to help them out, etc.
• paying for their adult kids who are married now - their utilities, housing, cars, etc.
• giving to charities
• tithing
• in debt

This kind of story repeats for so many couples and generations it’s kind of crazy to watch and hear about. It’s like a collective, unspoken agreement that this is the way it is.

So what will happen to some of these couples? I don’t know. The love is almost lost with some of them, but not gone. It can be saved, fixed and corrected. It will take work and understanding.

The Future

Young folks can visualize what the future looks like but if you don’t take actions and implement those actions in such a way that covers your financial future long term, you’ll end up carrying out some of the same scenarios that have happened for years, over and over again to many people.

What financial goals do you want to hit and how are you going to get there? What alternative plans can you put into place so you hit them.

How about the plans on how you’re going to feel about your spouse when you don’t hit those financial goals. Are you going to blame them? Ban them for your life as to say, “It’s your fault”?

How do both of you feel about the attributes above? Can you agree on how they should happen? When? How much? Do they have to happen?

Financial problems between couples is one of the most debilitating attributes that cause divorce and destruction in families. Treat it as if a train is coming down the track and your best friend or family member is standing on the tracks. What would you do? You’d do everything you could to get that person off the tracks.

written by Bill Stevens

Do you have multiple streams of income? More importantly do you have multiple streams of passive income?

At this site, I stress the three actions most people can do in their lives to increase their wealth over a lifetime. However, I also talk about the options market too because that is something I consider to be one of my other streams of income.

I’ve been using options to create extra income since 1999. It’s not an easy game to figure out and play. It does take time and energy to do.

You need startup money. You need patience. Sometimes a stomach made of steel. Some of it can be “outsourced” to others. Like what options to pick. There are services out there that provide better options selections than I could select. So for that service I pay a fee.

Multiple streams of passive income are streams of income you create and at some point that stream generates income so you don’t have to do too much to keep it going - at some point.

Examples include:

• Writing and selling a hit song
• Recording a hit song and selling a million copies
• Writing a book and selling millions of copies
• Playing the options market and actually making money in the long term
• Writing a blog that is so popular it makes you money while you sleep
• Selling a product or service that you don’t have to actively be involved with and again, makes money while you sleep
• Owning Rental Property
• You fill in the rest…

Now, the hard part is finding that stream of passive income that fits into your life. Maybe it’s something that takes a long time to implement or maybe it’s something that you could get other people to implement for you - for a fee of course.

Whatever it is, multiple streams of passive income are definitely something that makes your financial life better but your personal life could temporarily suffer or suffer for a long time as you work towards a lofty and meaningful goal.

A Story

When I was going to college about 30 years ago, I used to work in a pizza and sandwich shop, a liquor store, as well as being a musician on various nights of the week and weekends.

At one music job, I met an older gentlemen in the hallway outside of the hotel ballroom my band was playing at. He asked me what I did and eventually got around to asking me what I planned on doing with the rest of my life.

This caught me off guard since I was young and didn’t think too far ahead into the future. It did get me thinking and I’ll never forget the conversation either.

He just happened to be the speaker that night for the engagement I was providing the music for. He was a Tony Robbins type speaker who energized people with his presentations.

During our conversation he mentioned that he planned on trying one career every 10 years to keep his life interesting. I was twenty years old and looking at a future of one career forever. I never really thought that far in advance to plan like that.

Another tidbit of wisdom he shared with me was, always have a project to come home to at the end of the day that inspires you. Whatever it is.

This guy worked a regular day job for many years while trying to become a motivational speaker and in the evenings he would spend hours building an airplane. That’s right, an airplane.

He would do this after he came home from his day job to his wife and two boys, have dinner, spend some time with the family, then go to the garage and start working on his airplane.

After 2 or 3 years of doing this he finished his plane and flew it. WOW!! Now if someone can take that time to figure out how to build an airplane, do it and fly it, then most of us can strive to do what we want to do over the course of a life time.

That man’s name is Raymond Lemke and I met up with him last year, 2006. I told him the story about how I met him 30 years ago and the conversation we had as well as what he said to me that evening and how I never forgot it.

Although he said he didn’t remember it, he was very happy I came up and I told him about the impression he made 30 years ago.

You can listen to a sample of him here. Here’s his book Yes, You Can!: An Innovative Approach to Happiness

written by Bill Stevens

Here’s a trick that a lot of folks know about and maybe some don’t.

Action

Make the decision to cancel your cable tv. Call your cable tv provider and tell them nicely that you want to cancel your cable tv.

When they ask why, tell them that you and your spouse are looking for ways to save money and decided to cut your cable tv out of your life temporarily or possibly forever. Then start crying. Just kidding, you don’t have to start crying.

When they ask you how the quality of service is that they are providing you, tell them that it’s been great and you’ve never had a problem.

Depending on your carrier, they might have to schedule an appointment for a service person to come out and disconnect the service. Sometimes they don’t even charge to disconnect the service because you might be using other services they provide like your phone and/or your Internet service.

If they have the ability to disconnect it immediately, you might want to see if they can schedule it in four or more business days. This is the magic time period where a sales person from your cable tv carrier has the opportunity to win you back.

The Magic

So in that time period before they disconnect your service you most likely will get a call from a sales person almost begging to find out what they can do to keep your cable tv connected. Typically they call in the next 24 to 48 hours. Most likely you won’t have to say a thing.

Out of their mouth will come, “How about we keep your cable tv connected and we’ll only charge you 50% each month on your cable tv bill for three months?” At this point you can either barter with them, which is completely up to you but could make the deal go sour, or you accept his kind offer.

Then start crying again because he’s made you so happy. Just kidding.

That’s where the $60.00 or more or less comes in. If you pay $40.00 a month for your cable tv then 50% of that each month is $20.00. So, for 3 months you get to keep $20.00 for a grand total of $60.00. That’s Slammin’!!

Take the savings to a higher level by putting the $60.00 to work in an online savings account or contribute to your Roth IRA.

The Commitment

Obviously, you have to be in the position to lose your cable tv completely. That’s why you ask them to disconnect it in four or more business days. So you can retract your commitment. You also need to ask if there are any charges incurred if you change your mind.

Some More Magic

Whether you have cable tv or not, you can try another trick that will get you more services out of your cable tv.

Stop by one of those cable tv trucks that are in your neighborhood or where you work or any where else you see them and ask if there are any specials going on for the month. It seems like there’s always something they’re promoting. If there is a special going on you would like to try, ask them for the code so you can call and get the service for free for a certain time period.

written by Bill Stevens

I’ll be going to a 2-3 posts per week schedule for most of the month of September 2007 here at Smart Saving and Investing due to various endeavors I’ve taken on.

If you’re new here, don’t forget to sign up for my RSS feed. You can receive my posts by email using the subscribe box to the right or using your favorite RSS reader by clicking on the RSS button to the right.

Also, look around at the various articles here as well as the sitemap and let me know if there’s any topics you’d like me to write more about or new topics you’d like me to cover.

Review the three actions I “push” on people to get a feel for what this site is all about.

written by Bill Stevens