Timeless Articles from the Archives #33

It's been over four years since I started My Wealth Builder. As I think about topics to write , I often remember, "I've written about that before," and decide to find a new topic. However, since many principles of personal finance are timeless, I want to include them in a recent post on My Wealth Builder. Therefore, I have started a series called "Timeless Articles from the Archives" which highlights posts from the same week in 2007-2010.


2007

Learning From Other's Experiences - Find an experienced person who as done it before to guide one to success.

Corporate Programs for Personal Use - One benefit of working for a large corporation is that hotel, airline and credit card premiums are sometimes made available to employees.

Another Cost Of Having Debt - Wealth Destruction - Having $25,000 of debt can cost one over $2,600,000 of wealth.

The "R" Word - Here are my areas of personal finance Responsibility.


2008

Personal Finance Simplification - Credit Card Consolidation - Our goal was to get to and maintain two cards, one for each of us. We were able to get to three.

Don't Forget To Include Non-Wage Income When Doing A Tax Return - People sometimes forget about 1099 income because they "didn't get to spend it," as in the case of CD interest or reinvested mutual fund dividends. However, the IRS considers 1099 income taxable and expects it to be reported when filing a tax return.

Three Events That Can Cause Wealth Destruction - There are sometimes uncontrollable events that can also lead to wealth destruction. Here are three types of events that have potential to cause wealth destruction.

Early Retirement Stories - While each early retirement story had different specifics, there seemed to be some consistent themes.

The Science Of Addiction - What creates addiction is the mechanism of intermittent reinforcement, where rewards are randomly related to the actions taken. As a result, rewards occur unpredictably, creating higher releases of pleasure inducing dopamine in the brain than when rewards occur predictably.

Intellectually, I know that I should just invest in low cost diversified equity index funds and accept the overall return of the market. However, I still enjoy buying individual stocks with a small portion of my savings and getting the occasional thrill when the purchased stock goes up significantly in one day or over a year:-)


2009

Kindergarten Decision Dilemma - Holding back our daughter a year for kindergarten turned out to be the right choice.


2010

Creating One's Financial Future - Although it is impossible to predict the future exactly, it is very possible to steer the future towards favorable financial scenarios by the choices made today.

To me, the content of these posts are still relevant today and worth reading again.

For more on The Practice of Personal Finance, check back every Wednesday for a new segment.

This is not financial, career, investing, political, retirement or saving advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

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