3 Cheap Cities in the United States You Should Consider Moving To in 2023

In 2023, the cost of living will be higher than ever in many cities around the United States. It is an expensive time to be alive, from high rent and mortgage prices to increased prices of goods and services, including gas, utilities, and groceries. If you are finding it increasingly difficult to afford to live in your current city, it might be time to call up the professionals at Black Tie Moving and plan to relocate to another city. Keep reading to learn just a few of the cheapest cities in the United States that might be the perfect destination for those looking to save on the cost of living in the future.

Great Falls, Montana

Montana is one of the most beautiful states in the country. With breathtaking mountain views and endless opportunities to explore some of the most gorgeous natural wonders in all of the United States, many people dream of moving to Montana. The good news is that it is possible to make the dream of living in Montana a reality for those wanting to live on a tight budget, thanks to the low cost of living in beautiful cities like Great Falls. Located in the center of the state and just east of the Rocky Mountains, the cost of living in Montana is 14% lower than in other U.S. cities, making it the perfect destination for those on a budget.

Lima, Ohio

If you work in the fields of healthcare or manufacturing, you are likely familiar with this smaller Ohio town. In addition to being a hub for professionals in both industries, Lima is also a city with a meager cost of living in comparison to other similarly sized cities, with rent, utilities, and other living expenses costing 47% less than other American cities. In addition to the low costs of living, Lima also has three major universities located within city limits and has plenty of entertainment and activities for residents to do, despite its smaller size.

Rockford, Illinois

Located just 90 minutes from Chicago, Rockford is a midsized town known for its booming economy, low unemployment rates, and lower cost of living compared to other cities in the area. If you want to relocate within the midwestern United States and want to save a considerable amount of money on the total cost of living, Rockford might be your perfect destination.

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How to Know If a Reverse Mortgage is Right for You

You can’t watch TV today without seeing the ads for reverse mortgages.  But what are they and more importantly how can they help?  While it seems like reverse mortgages are fairly new, they have been around since the 1960’s.  The concept is rather simple, seniors over 62 can tap into the equity in their home while freezing mortgage payments until the time you move from or sell your home.

OK, this sounds like a good deal.  But how do you know if a reverse mortgage is right for you?  Well, this article will take a deeper look.  This way you can decide is this option fits into your retirement plans or not.

Reality of Today’s Seniors

For today’s seniors, it is the best of time and it is the worst of times.  On the one hand, we are living longer, more active lives and this means that we can truly enjoy our retirement.  Today’s seniors have also had to live through one of the most volatile economic periods in the history if the U.S.  

When times are good, they are very good.  The stock market soars, home prices soar, and we are all richer – at least on paper :-).  But when times are bad, they can be very bad.  Uncertainty has hit the job market and the promise of lifetime employment is long gone.  

In addition, today’s seniors have had to live through the combined blows of the dot-com collapse the financial crisis.  These twin crises have had a profound impact on the retirement plans of millions of Americans.  As such, many have begun to consider the possibility of using a reverse mortgage to help to pay for retirement.

Reasons to Get a Reverse Mortgage

When is the right time to get a reverse mortgage?  While there are no fixed rules, some potential answers include when you need extra money to cover retirement expenses, when you want to purchase a home for retirement, or if you want to set up a rainy-day fund.  

Again, the answer will come down to the specifics of your situation.   The one thing to know about a reverse mortgage is that the option will allow you to access funds without having to pay any debt service costs over the life of the loan.  

Instead, the principle and interest will accrue over the life of the loan and then the loan will be repaid once you either sell or move from your home.  While this sounds like a great deal, a reverse mortgage is not exactly free money.  To keep the loan current, you need to remain current with your homeowner’s insurance policy, property taxes, and utilities.  

So, back to the reasons to get a reverse mortgage.  The answer lies in how secure your retirement plan is.  If you are looking at significant shortfalls, then you might want to consider a reverse mortgage to help.

Advantages and Disadvantages

As mentioned, reverse mortgages are not free money.  In fact, these loans include requirements such as income verification, insurance coverage, and the need to properly maintain a home.  The latter might be a challenge for borrowers who are not in good health as failure to maintain their home could lead to foreclosure.

In addition, having a reverse mortgage does complicate a borrower’s wish to bequeath their home to their heirs.  The reason is that the bank which issued the loan will essentially hold the first position when the will is read.  As such, a borrower’s heirs must either pay the remaining balance due on the home or agree to let the bank sell the home before they can inherit any residual value.

However, this does not mean that reverse mortgages are bad.  There are instances when getting a reverse mortgage does make sense and a complete list of advantages and disadvantages can be found here.  

One major plus with a reverse mortgage is that the Government has made it harder for a borrower to be ‘under water’ on their loan.  This is a big plus as it makes it harder for a borrower to owe more on a reverse mortgage than their home is worth.  However, the guidelines which protect borrowers also placed strict limits on how much can be borrowed.  

Conclusion

In the right circumstances, a reverse mortgage can make sense.  However, you want to make sure that you have a clear understanding of your retirement plan and how a reverse mortgage will fit in.  This will help you to make the right decision when it comes to leveraging your home to pay for your retirement.

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For more saving money, making money, and investment ideas go to www.MoneyAhoy.com

It Is Time for Spring Cleaning!

We’re all familiar with the concept of spring cleaning — winter has finally given way to warmer spring temperatures, and it’s the perfect time to declutter your house and shake off all that winter dust. While it can be a great opportunity to make your home look nicer, there is a hidden value in decluttering your home that you may not have noticed. What is the real value of decluttering?

How to Get Started

The first step to take before you start your spring cleaning and decluttering mission is to figure out where to start. Depending on the amount of clutter in your house, you might need a few days to make your way through everything. Set aside two or three days, just to be safe. If you finish sooner — bonus. You get a free day or two to relax.

Start by sorting your clutter into three piles — Donate, Keep and Garbage. Once you have everything sorted into one of these three piles, it’s easier to move to the next step because you’ve reduced everything by two-thirds.

Organize What’s Left

Decluttering your home makes it easier to organize your belongings. Not only do you have fewer things to find homes for, but they’re often taking up much less space. When you’re decluttering and organizing, a few things to remember include:

• Don’t buy a bunch of containers or other organizational tools. It might sound like a good idea, but you’ll probably end up spending a ton of money on stuff you’re not even going to use. Organize first, then buy to cater to your exact needs.
• Don’t expect perfection but don’t quit either. Your drawers or closets aren’t going to look like they do in the magazines. Don’t worry about it. Instead, just make sure you complete any project you take on.

Organizing makes your home look better, makes you feel better and it makes it easier to keep the clutter down in the future.

Refresh Your Furnishings

Use your spring decluttering as an excuse to get into the darkest corners of your house where you wouldn’t normally clean. Dust bunnies love hiding there, but no dust bunny is safe from your spring cleaning fury!

As you’re decluttering, take the time to move your furniture and clean behind and under it. You may find some stuff that’s fallen under or behind your sofa or desk. Find some good dusting tools and eliminate those dust bunny colonies. Not only will your home look better, you’ll feel better once you get rid of all that dust.

Expand Your Cleaning

Spring cleaning automatically comes with some heavy lifting attached as you move furniture to make sure you get all the nooks and crannies decluttered. Instead of putting it back in the same spot when you’re done cleaning, try rearranging your furniture. It can help make your space look bigger, allowing you to expand into your newly decluttered rooms.

Move tall furniture toward the walls, and use low furniture in the center of the room, leaving plenty of space to walk around. Also, make sure your windows and light fixtures are clean and clear — the more light you can get into your room, the larger it will look. If you have the chance to slap some paint on the walls, light colors make small spaces look larger, especially when paired with natural or bright lighting.

Let Go of Excess

Finally, decluttering your home allows you to let go of the parts of your past you’ve been carting around from home to home. Do you have boxes full of your childhood schoolwork or piles of clothes that no longer fit you? Toss them in the trash or donate pile. We tend to cling to things for their sentimental value, but there’s a fine line between sentiment and ending up on an episode of Hoarders.

That’s not to say you should get rid of your photo albums or other items that bring to mind good memories — just don’t hang on to every scrap of your past or you’ll find it impossible to declutter.

Final Thoughts

Decluttering your space can be a relatively easy way to make your home feel more like a home and less like a storage unit — take the time to declutter during your spring cleaning, and you’ll be surprised how much better you feel afterward.

Anum Yoon is a personal finance blogger and writer. She created and maintains her personal finance blog Current on Currency. You can subscribe to her blog newsletter right here for her weekly updates.

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For more saving money, making money, and investment ideas go to www.MoneyAhoy.com

3 Ways Your Home Is Draining Your Money

American underwater mortgage rates peaked in 2012 — resulting in some of the worst negative home equity statistics of all time. Since then, the percentage has gone down by almost 50 percent, with the total number of underwater mortgages down from 31.4 to 16.9 percent of homeowners.

While forecasts predict that negative home equity will continue falling, the number of people with underwater mortgages remains significant. If you’re a property owner struggling to keep up with payments, the threat of going underwater is a very real one. What are you doing to stay afloat?

Avoid the following major mistakes to give yourself the best chance for success.

Buying More House than You Can Afford

The first step to saving money on a home is to spend less money in the first place. Before you do anything else, set a budget based on what you can afford — not on what you’re qualified to spend. Unfortunately, realtors tend to suggest properties outside of your price range. It’s not out of malicious intent; rather, it’s because they stand to benefit more from the sale of a more expensive home.

The past decade has seen a massively unstable housing market. The formerly held belief that pricier homes will appreciate more over time no longer holds water, and the hidden costs of larger homes can overwhelm homeowners quickly.

A bigger house than you need will cost more to heat and cool. Additionally, you’ll likely have to pay higher property taxes and insurance premiums. Finally, bigger houses cost more to repair and remodel. More square footage of flooring, roof tile, landscaping, driveway concrete, and more will be more expensive to fix or replace.

Overlooking Small Repairs

Prevention is the best cure, and home repairs are no exception. Overlooking minor issues could end up costing you thousands in the long run. Take the example of your A/C filters. Replacing it on a regular schedule will cost you around $2 per new filter — but ignoring the issue may cut your unit’s lifespan short. A major replacement may cost thousands of dollars.

A leaky roof presents a similar problem. You may think a few drips during a rainstorm are nothing to worry about, but over time, they may cause major water damage. This can cause problems like rot, mildew, warping, and structural deterioration. Save yourself the trouble of ripping apart damaged drywall and replacing moldy insulation; instead, invest in minor repairs before the problem becomes irreparable.

Don’t skimp on remodeling projects, either. Always use a licensed contractor. The cost of fixing a Craigslist handyman’s shoddy work will be as much or more than the cost of hiring the right people in the first place, and you’ll risk being penalized for lack of permit.

Buying a New House

If you’re still paying off your current house, now is not the time to invest in a new one. The same rule of thumb applies even if you’re trying to sell the first house. If the first house doesn’t sell, you’ll be stuck with two mortgages, two monthly payments, and a whole lot of debt — not to mention an average down payment of up to 20 percent of the cost of the new property.

Instead, time the purchase of a new home with the sale on your old one. Talk to your realtor to figure out how to write or update your purchase contract. It should include a clause stating that you will not close on a new home unless you have a contracted buyer for the old one.

3 Ways Your Home Is Draining Your Money – Final Thoughts

No matter your income, owning a house doesn’t have to render you bankrupt. If you’re in trouble, get in touch with a financial counselor to discuss your options — but whatever you do, don’t wait for a bad situation to get worse. It will only end up costing you more in the long run.

Anum Yoon is a personal finance blogger and writer. She created and maintains her personal finance blog Current on Currency. You can subscribe to her blog newsletter right here for her weekly updates.

The post 3 Ways Your Home Is Draining Your Money appeared first on MoneyAhoy.

For more saving money, making money, and investment ideas go to www.MoneyAhoy.com

Happiness Is Fortune Divided By Desire

What can you do to find true happiness in life?  Well, I’ve been stewing over this question for the past year and have had a draft post just sitting there waiting to be written that entire time.  I finally feel like I’m ready to put my thoughts down into words on this one.

I am sure that many of us ask this question every once in a while when we are feeling a little down in the dumps.  If this is you, then let’s see if we can find the answer to the question – what brings true happiness in life?

 True Happiness – A Moving Target?

Have you ever felt that things that used to make you happy just no longer seem to do it for you?  If you just had a little bit more or did a little bit more you’d be truly happy?

We’ll be talking about this today.  Happiness can come and go like the tide because happiness is a moving target!  Think of it like an equation… Happiness = Fortune / Desire.  Let’s explore the numerator in this simple equation first.

True Happiness – Good Fortune

Is the only key to achieving true happiness good fortune?  Are mega-millionaires more happy that the rest of us?  Are “poor” people destined to live a life of sorrow and despair?

Of course, we know that simply having money will not make you happy.  There are untold of examples of rich people that are living completely miserable lives.  Also, there are countless numbers of poor people that seem to be able to live life to its fullest.  Obviously, good fortune is only one part of the “happiness equation.”

Now let’s check out the denominator for the “happiness equation!”

True Happiness – Desire

Have you ever met someone that was just never satisfied with what they had?  No matter how much good fortune they were blessed with, they wanted more?  This can be one problem with having too much wealth – your desire for more increases!  Bigger houses, bigger cars, bigger everything!

It’s like the children’s book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.  Once you get one thing, that brings you happiness for like 5 seconds.  Then your brain automatically fixates on the next thing to obtain.  I find myself getting caught up in this all the time with electronics (my one true weakness):  TVs, headphones, faster computers, video games, etc.  The list goes on and on and it never stops!

The point is, you have to get your desires under control if you are ever going to be able to attain true happiness.

True Happiness – Putting it together

If you’re any kind of math nerd like I am, you will see that the way to maximize happiness is to increase your fortune and decrease your desire.  So, how do we do that?

Well, there are three good ways to increase your “fortune” (these come straight from the book I highly recommend titled: Outsmarting the System):

1. Become a landlord
2. Start your own business (see my guide on how to form your own LLC)
3. Invest in the Stock Market (see my excellent book titled Stock Market Investing for Newbies)

Each of these three methods are great for building your personal wealth for several reasons.  First, I’m sure we’ve all heard the cliche “you’ll never get rich working for someone else.”  The main reason for this is because of the way tax income is treated for the above three activities.  You will end up saving 15%-20% in taxes versus just working for the “man” if you engage in one of the three above activities.  Read the book to learn more

Now, how do we work on reducing desires?  Unfortunately, this one can be much more tricky to get under control.  One of the best methods I find myself recommending is to do your best to eliminate advertising from your life.  I also find it useful analyze your spending and track just how much you are spending on “desires vs. needs.”  It can be very eye opening – I know it was for me.

If you are looking for further ways to help reduce desires, please check out this excellent blog about simplifying your life: ZenHabits.

True Happiness – Final Thoughts

As you can see, there is no one true way to find happiness in life.  The path to true happiness is different for each person and really is a rich composite of your fortune in life contrasted against your internal desires.  If you can work to increase your fortune in life and shed many of your desires, you will find yourself approaching a state of true peace and happiness.

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For more saving money, making money, and investment ideas go to www.MoneyAhoy.com

I Live in a Van Down by the River

That’s right folks.  Currently, I live in a van, down by the river… basically.  But before we get into that, let’s talk about Chris Farley.

In one of my favorite SNL sketches, he portrays a motivational speaker, Matt Foley, that lives in a van down by the river.  If you’ve never seen this short skit from Saturday Night Live before, do yourself a favor and check it out now.  It is truly hilarious!  Sorry, Hulu makes you watch a short ad

 I Live in a Van Down By the River – What?

What does all of this have to do with me?  Well (bends forward), I live in a van, down by the River!  Quite nearly actually.

Except that it isn’t a quite a van, it’s a mid-sized motor-home.  And it isn’t a quite a river, but a really large lake.  I’m doing all this to try and save some extra money!

I Live in a Van Down By the River – Background

During our vacation, the family and I stopped by where we’ll be living in Georgia to do some house hunting.  I recently applied and accepted an internal promotion in my company in Georgia.  We found a great house that will suit our needs just perfectly.  There was just one small problem…

I was supposed to show up for my new job in Georgia on 9/2/14, but we weren’t closing on the new house until 9/15/14.  We would also need to leave a day or two for moving in and unpacking.   I decided to drive down 8/31/14 (a day early) just to make sure I made it down here in one piece and would be ready to start working first thing on 9/2/14.

That meant that I would need to find somewhere to stay for about 17 days on my own dime.  About the cheapest hotel I could find was ~$80 a night plus taxes (let’s call it $90 total).  Hmm…  I wasn’t really interested in forking out more than $1,500!!  I could try and push starting off my new job a couple more weeks, but I was concerned that this would look a little unprofessional.

I Live in a Van Down By the River – Money Saving Idea

Then my Dad hit me with a great money saving idea.  He offered to drive up his motor-home from Florida and park it at a nearby RV park.  What an awesome idea that I hadn’t even considered!  If this would work out, it would help me save hundreds!

After my wife and I had a bit of discussion on it, we decided we would take him up on this gracious offer.  I would get the opportunity to come down, start work on time, and save hundreds in the process.  Score!  My wife and kids could finish getting everything packed up north and then make the drive down closer to our closing date.

I Live in a Van Down By the River – The Result

This whole motor-home idea turned out to be another great money saving idea from my dad.  The motor-home is basically the same size as a hotel room (the bathroom is definitely a little bit smaller), has wi-fi, a pool, nice showers, and is about 15 minutes away from my job.  What more could a guy ask for?

I was tough being without my wife and kids for two weeks – it’s the longest I’ve ever been apart from them.  But, we managed to get through it OK.  Since I needed to come down before we closed, this really had no impact on the hotel vs. motor-home decision.

Anyways, the RV park runs a weekly rate of $205 (without cable – or course ), and those extra nights tacked on at the end run $35 a night (taxes included).  So, when everything is said and done, my dad’s idea saved me a total of $1050!!!

An additional bonus was I didn’t have to worry about falling on any coffee tables

THANKS DAD FOR YOUR AWESOME MONEY SAVING IDEA!!!

The post I Live in a Van Down By The River – Basically… appeared first on MoneyAhoy.

For more saving money, making money, and investment ideas go to www.MoneyAhoy.com

July 2014 Money Report

Welcome to the July 2014 Money Report!  I’m late again with my report this month, but with my new job starting, vacation, and house hunting, I’ve been just a little bit busy

To view all previous monthly money reports and to find out why I publish these reports, click here

Actions Plans for July 2014

Key: Complete/Some Progress/No Progress

• Publish my eBook and paperback book:  Stock Market Investing for Newbies
  • COMPLETE! – I’ve sold 29 copies so far and it’s been downloaded for free 220 times!  Pretty cool.
• Conduct at least two tutoring session for $$$
  • COMPLETE – In July I went tutoring crazy!  I held 11 different tutoring sessions and made a total of $740!  
• Sell 5 things on eBay
  • Some Progress – I was only able to sell 3 items in July:
    • Crate Guitar Amp – $50 (bought for $4)
    • Super Smash Bros. Brawl for Wii – $22 (bought for $3)
    • Legend of Zelda: Twighlight Princess Wii game – $15 (bought for $3)
• Get halfway through the book the The Law of Success by Napoleon Hill
  • COMPLETE – Made it about 55% through the book

July was pretty good for goals.  I set the bar pretty low because I knew that I was going to be super busy with interviewing for a new job.  I’m happy with my progress.  Let’s look at the financials for the month:

Notes on Making Money for July 2014

It was just a normal month for salaries, but I set another record in July for the highest side-hustle income for a month!  I brought in a ton of money from tutoring, and guest posting also did well.  Here are some details:

• Tutoring – $740!!!
• Guest Posts – $350
• Dividends – $162
• Ebay – $87 – sold three items
• Stock Market Investing for Newbies – $26
• Google Adsense – $25
• LegalZoom – $15
• Youtube – ~$13

Total side income (dividends plus side-hustles) came in around $1,250+!  That’s the highest so far since I started this blog   I put in a ton of hours tutoring (not sure if that is sustainable as I felt pretty burned out towards the end of the month), but it was nice to earn some cash spending money for vacation in August.

Notes on Money Saving for July 2014

Routine expenses for July were pretty standard.  Daycare prices kicked-up since school is out and both of our kids are now attending full time.

Non-routine expenses popped higher as I brought my wife along on a job interview to Georgia.  Between food for her, her plane ticket, and an extra day of renting a car, we spent about ~$700 for her to come along.  It’s a good thing we did because she was able to scout out the area and identify a couple different job opportunities for herself.  More about that next month.

Our total savings rate for the month of July was 47% – that’s pretty standard for us these days.

Notes on Investing for July 2014

I moved a bunch of money from cash over to investment accounts in July.  I finished off my wife’s Roth IRA for 2014 by purchasing ~$1,500 of VNQ.  This is a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) that pays a 3.6% annual dividend.

Additionally, I bought 53 share of VBK at a price of $121.05 – a total investment of ~$6,400.  VBK is the Vanguard Small-Cap Growth ETF.  It pays a small 0.6% dividend as it is setup primarily to grow vs. provide an income.

As you can see, I’m still working to move more of our assets from cash and corporate bonds into higher risk investments like the stock market so that we can realize increased long term returns.

If all this is Greek to you, why not check out my new book: Stock Market Investing for Newbies?  It is sure to turn you into an investing guru in no time

Actions Plans for August 2014

Even though I am extremely late to the press for my July money report, here are the goals I set for myself for August:

• Take a vacation!
• Get our current house in Virginia listed for sale
• Find a new house in Georgia that is substantially cheaper than our current one (we’re talking half the price or more!)
• Finished the book the The Law of Success by Napoleon Hill
• Support my wife in finding a job in Georgia (like she really needs my help )

Again, for this month I am setting the bar pretty low because my free time is nearly nil with preparations to relocate from Virginia to Georgia.

Other Points of Interest

• I applied for and accepted an internal promotion within my company.  My new position will be Site Technology Leader at a plant in Georgia.  I am super excited to relocate to this new area and start the new job!
• Here are the posts developed for the month of July on MoneyAhoy – check them out if you missed any as it really is a great collection of info:

1. My First Office For Newbies Video is Up!
2. How to Save Money on Your Fourth of July Party
3. How Saving 50 Cents Cost Me 500 Bucks
4. My New Book: Stock Market Investing for Newbies is Finally Finished!!!
5. How to Save Money at Theme Parks (guest post)
6. Tips for Starting a Successful Small Business (guest post)
7. Are Short Sales Good Options for Buyers? (guest post)
8. How to Seal Coat Your Driveway and Save
9. Tips For Building The Self-Restraint Needed To Pay Off Debt (guest post)
10. Maybe Insurance Companies Are Not So Bad?

What are your money saving, money making, and investing plans for August?

The post July 2014 Money Report appeared first on MoneyAhoy.

For more saving money, making money, and investment ideas go to www.MoneyAhoy.com

Moving to Georgia – Triple Win

If you haven’t noticed recently, things have been a little slow around here at MoneyAhoy.  I have been very busy with seeking out a new job.

After a couple interviews and hundreds of miles of travel, I hit on an awesome opportunity that is going to work out great for my family and me!  We’re moving to Georgia!

Read on to find out why I’m calling this “life event” a triple win.

Moving to Georgia – Triple Win – Reason #1

The first reason moving to Georgia is awesome has to do with money making,  The job I am moving into will be a promotion for me.  After finishing my MBA, I was looking for a job opportunity that would provide a promotion, more responsibility, and direct supervision experience.  I found all that with my new assignment.  I will be the Site Technology Leader of a small plant in DuPont.

This job seems like it is going to be tons of fun and will come with a hefty dose of challenge.  It will also be a great stepping stone for other types of roles that I am looking to move into as I advance in my career.

Moving to Georgia – Triple Win – Reason #2

The second reason moving to Georgia is awesome has to do with money saving.  When we moved into our house back in 2011, we bought WAY too much house.  Since this time, my wife and I have both been interested in downsizing.  The only problem was the penalty to switch houses because of Realtor fees would have set us back by nearly $23,000!

Since we are relocating through my company, they cover all Realtor fees!  The result is that we will be able to downgrade to a house that is less than half the price of our current house!  This is sure to save us across on the board on interest, taxes, insurance, and utilities.

Moving to Georgia – Triple Win – Reason #3

The third win in terms of relocating to Georgia is that the whole process will allow my wife to retire early – sort of…  She was dead set on cutting herself back to part-time once our daughter started Kindergarten.  She wants to spend more time with our kids when they get home from school.

This really was NOT going to be very easy or possible under our current financial situation, but with the lower cost of living in Georgia, the smaller house, and all the savings we’ll be seeing this will be no problem.

You know that they say – happy wife, happy life!

Moving to Georgia – Final Thoughts

With all of the craziness that goes into moving and starting a new job, my time is going to be very limited.  Sprinkle in a little vacation, and I do not think I will have much time to devote to this blog for the next several weeks.  I know that things will come out nicely on the other side of the move, and I plan to share all of the fun money saving, money making, and investing details as time permits.

The post Moving to Georgia – Triple Win appeared first on MoneyAhoy.

For more saving money, making money, and investment ideas go to www.MoneyAhoy.com

Book Review – The Millionaire Next Door

This past month, I had the opportunity to read the Millionaire Next Door.  This book by Thomas Stanley is a best seller and has been touted by some as a much read for folks interested in personal finance.  I thought I would throw in my own two cents and whip up a quick book review on it.

Book Review – The Millionaire Next Door – What I Loved About The Book

Overall, I thought The Millionaire Next Door was just kinda “blah.”  I had pretty high hopes for it, and I felt a little let down after finishing it.  There were a couple of good things about it that I did find helpful though…

The book covers the following seven main characteristics of millionaires in detail:

1. They live below their means
2. The allocate their time, money, and energy into building wealth
3. They believe that financial independence is more important than flashing around their wealth
4. Their parents did not financially support them
5. Their adult children are economically self-sufficient
6. They are proficient in targeting market opportunities
7. They chose the right occupation

I found most of these insights to be pretty obvious.  However, the ones that stood out the most to be were #4 and #5.  These two were the biggest insights I will take away from  The Millionaire Next Door.  The basic conclusion is that kids that receive a lot of money from their parents are actually less “wealthy” than kids that do not!  “How can that be,” you might ask?  Well, kids that are used to “riding the gravy train” come to depend on the money.  Because they didn’t work hard to earn it, they usually end up wasting it on material things vs. saving/investing it.

Also, many times parents will place their adult children into situations that end up costing the kids more money in the long run.  The perfect example of this is parents partially or fully paying for their adult children’s homes or partially paying for their grandchildren’s private school education.  Because of this “subsidy”, the adult children end up paying more than they would have if there had been no parents money in the first place!  It also breeds a generation of “free-loaders” if the parents are not careful to ensure their kids learn for themselves how to earn a living.

This is a key insight that I think I’ll take with me to my grave.  It has made me totally rethink my whole outlook on paying for our kids college education (if they even choose to go).  Sorry kids, but it’s for your own good

Book Review – The Millionaire Next Door – What I Disliked About This Book

OK, as I said above, I had really high hopes for The Millionaire Next Door.  Besides the key insight I mentioned above, most of the rest of the book was common sense stuff that you’ve probably heard hundreds of times before: live below your means, don’t waste money on cars, invest as much as you can, buy used stuff, plan your field of study carefully, etc.

It’s not that I actually disliked this part of the book per se – I guess I was just looking for something a little more insightful than all the normal stuff we have all heard over and over again…  While there isn’t much to getting rich other than working hard for a decent wage, saving as much as one can, and investing it, the book seemed to take ~300 pages to tell us this 

I felt like most topics had gone beyond the point of beating the dead horse to actually trying to squeeze the blood out of a stone!  The whole point about most millionaires don’t spend much on their vehicles was a good one.  Many people may not realize this.  But, between the countless stories, tables, figures, etc. just to explain this one topic, I kinda wanted to blow my brains out.  Do we really need 40 pages to get just this one point across?!?  IMHO, much of the book follows this formula of taking a concept, presenting it, then giving you 40-50 pages of fluff to re-illustrate the point another five times.  It gets pretty annoying after a while, and I would like to think that most of us are smarter than that

Book Review – The Millionaire Next Door – Rating

3/5 Stars – You may want to pass this one over unless you’ve read just about every other financial book out there.

Book Review – The Millionaire Next Door – Final Thoughts

Overall, I thought  The Millionaire Next Door was just pretty average.  It’s not a bad book by any means, but you won’t really get a good “bang for your buck” or good return on your investment of time reading this one.  If I were you, I’d stick with something a little more concise and actionable such as Ramit Sethi’s I Will Teach You to Be Rich.

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Selling on Ebay – Diamonds in the Rough

As you may have read, I’ve created a New Years Resolution to try and get rid of some of our extra stuff by selling at least 20 things a month on Ebay.  This will help us to declutter and also help instill the attitude of living with less.  This is definitely an important mindset to get into if you’re trying to save as much money as you can

Selling on Ebay – Diamonds in the Rough – The Background

This is one of those weird ideas that just sort of came to me the other day.  I was sitting on the couch and thought, why the hell do we have all of these DVDs we never watch?  With Netflix streaming and DVD rental only costing us ~$18 a month combined, we haven’t watched a physical DVD of our own in ages!  I’d venture to guess that we have about 150 of them just sitting there in the cabinet.  It’s probably close to an even split between kids movies and grownup movies.

I then began to wonder about all the old video games that I have just sitting on the shelf.  The oldest one I still could put my hands on was The Legend of Zelda – The Minish Cap.  I’m a die-hard fan of the overhead type of Zelda games, and I had saved the game, box, and manuals all these years for some reason.  I believe the game is something like 10 years old by now.  I’m think the game probably cost $30 new when I purchased it all those years ago.

Selling on Ebay – Diamonds in the Rough – Jackpot!

Imagine my surprise when I found out that complete versions of the game were selling for $65 – $75!  This game is just sitting there on my shelf taking up space, and I know that I’ll never play it again!  Finding this “diamond in the rough” that I can sell on ebay gave me the motivation I needed to decide to sell all of these old games I’ll never play again.  This whole discovery got me thinking – how much will other unused things around the house sell for if I listed them on Ebay?  I’m looking at all of our material possessions in a whole new light as a result of running across the wacky pricing of this old game.

Selling on Ebay – Diamonds in the Rough – Final Thoughts

What do you think?  Is there much point to keeping old games, books, movies, etc. that you probably aren’t going to ever use again?  Why do people hold onto things and collections in the first place if they aren’t going to actively use them?  Aren’t these things just one more thing to tie up your money and hold you down?!?

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