Mr. Simplicity And The Simplicity Lifestyle

“Being independently wealthy is every bit as much about limiting needs as it is about how much money you have. It has less to do with how much you earn—high-income earners often go broke while low-income earners get there—than what you value. Money can buy many things, none of which is more important than your financial independence.” - “The Simple Path To Wealth” by JL Collins It’s much easier to make lifestyle changes when We’re  young and don’t have as many responsibilities.  When We’re young, don’t have bills to pay, and don’t have a family We need to provide for We have the opportunity to change Our financial situation pretty easily and quickly.  When We have a significant other and children to think about it’s much harder to start steering the boat in another direction.  A whole lot more planning and, most importantly, respectful communication is needed.  Everyone in the family must be on board. It can be a tough sell to tell Our families that in order to save money for investing

“All big things come from small beginnings. The seed of every habit is a single, tiny decision. But as that decision is repeated, a habit sprouts and grows stronger. Roots entrench themselves and branches grow. The task of breaking a bad habit is like uprooting a powerful oak within us. And the task of building a good habit is like cultivating a delicate flower one day at a time.”  - “Atomic Habits” by James Clear Everything We need to be “a success” is already within Us! If there is something We don’t  like about Ourselves We can change it.  If We can’t change it, it could be time for a “perception change” and a pivot.  We can’t let doubt and fear keep Us from Our ideal life.  “Even when we have no idea where we are or where we’re going, with the right map, we can find our way back to our heart and to our truest self.” - “Atlas of the Heart” by Brené Brown The truth is We usually know when something is not right.  Stress and discomfort are good indications that a change needs to take

“When there are multiple solutions to a problem, choose the simplest one.”  - “The Little Book of Common Sense Investing” by John C. Bogle Growing Wealth is easy if We have a clear, easy to follow, budget and plan to reach the ultimate goal of financial independence!  The big question is how do We get from living a high consumer lifestyle to a high investing lifestyle with a finite amount of income? “Intelligence has nothing to do with IQ or SAT scores. It simply means being patient, disciplined, and eager to learn.” - “The Intelligent Investor” by Benjamin Graham Creating a budget and a savings plan is extremely important in order to clarify money coming into a household and expenses going out of a household so it can be brought under control.  Once the flow of money becomes clear it can be temporarily “tweaked” a bit in order to create a savings account that can be used to start accumulating income producing assets, like stocks that pay out dividends.  These days A lot of Inve

“We buy things we don't need with money   we don't have to impress people we don't like.”   - “The Total Money Makeover” by Dave Ramsey Several years ago I had  back surgery. The surgery was not successful in alleviating my pain.    When I tried to go back to work I only lasted a couple months before they had to let me go.  It was a couple of years before I began to receive disability, and my Wife couldn’t work because she was taking care of me and our daughter.  For years my Wife and I were racking up credit card debt just to survive.  Here are several getting out of debt tips that We learned: - Pay Minimums Finding out what all the minimum payments were gave us a good base amount to start from.  It also let us know how much extra we could pay per month to pay our debt off quicker.  - Pay off smallest to largest first This was important because it gets the snowball rolling.  As we pay off our smallest credit cards we then had more and more that could go to our larger debts