I’m going to be the first to admit that I work too much. For years I have been hustling and grinding in order to achieve success. How did I measure success? Money! It seems cliche, but I’ve attributed success with having money. For too many years, I thought having flashy things made me a success,…
I’m constantly asked how one should pay off debt. It’s extremely hard to answer, because it’s generally based on personal experiences and preferences. That being said, I firmly believe in paying off debt and saving money at the same time. Why? It’s because that’s how I did it and I showed it was possible…
After dealing with multiple rounds of repairs on my ten year old Honda Civic, I decided that enough was enough – I was going to sell my car. The only catch was…that I wasn’t going to buy another one. Even though a lot of people are giving up their cars nowadays, the majority of American’s…
Welcome back to Simple Savings Sunday here at Wealth Bytes. This is a series I started last year and I post only when I come up with helpful tips on saving money. You can check out all of the Simple Savings Sunday articles and hopefully they can give you a simple way to save. Since…
I have a confession my friends. It’s not something I’m really happy about, but the truth hurts sometimes. I have a problem and I’m working hard to fix it. I’m a hoarder, everyone. Yes, that’s right, I hoard, but not things, just money! I’m a money hoarder and I’m working to change it. While it…
Do you have debts that you are considering paying your debt off early? Everyone wants to be debt free (well most of us do), but did you know there are some cons to paying off your debt early? Depending on your situation, paying it off early could damper your financial situation, so make sure you…
As most of you know, we moved into our current home last June. We have a nice sized yard and a really nice neighborhood. What we don’t have is a house that was move in ready. Well, it was, but we wanted to change many things. It’s been months and we still have too many…
I was lucky enough to be able to try out a new service from TransUnion. I will disclose I was provided the service to try and review. This review is based on me testing the service and my opinions are my own. If you aren’t familiar with TransUnion, then let me give you a quick…
My friends over at Motif Investing created this great infographic on how to grow your wealth with simple investment strategies. As regular readers know, I’m a fan of infographics. I feel they are easy to follow and some of them provide awesome visuals on a topic which might be boring otherwise. If I get a…
I’m sure most of you have heard the phrase “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade!” The basis of this quote or phrase is when you are given an opportunity, do something with it. When life gives you a lemon, don’t just say “thanks” and move on. Do something with the lemon, like make lemonade. To tell you the truth, I kind of live by this quote. I know I got my drive from my parents, who work their butts off and do well doing it. They never let their foot off the gas. When life gives them an opportunity, they tend to take it. I’m the same way. Not only that, but I try and find my own lemons on occasion. I don’t always like to wait for life to give me a lemon, I want to find it and create the opportunity. Though this quote is inspirational, I don’t feel it tells the entire story. I wanted to expand on it and make it my own, because I can!
One of the longer running pieces of personal finance advice is to never buy a new car. Seriously, most experts use the word “NEVER!” I am cool with that, especially as someone who has purchased quite a few new cars, I have learned my lesson. The justification of this advice is you can save a lot of money by just buying a car one or two years old. The majority of depreciation happens within the first year. After that, most cars depreciate on a sliding scale. Some do it slower than others, but I am not getting into that. So, let’s talk about this “never buy a new car” advice.
You’re frustrated at the end of the month because it feels like every penny you make goes toward paying bills, and you have nothing to show for your hard work. You see things that you would like to have, seemingly frivolous items like designer shoes or a new television, and walk away, thinking that because you don’t have the money now, you won’t ever be able to have what you want. You’re jealous of others. While it’s true that basic necessities like food and shelter cost more than ever, the real reason that most people aren’t achieving wealth goals has nothing to do with how much money is in the bank. It has to do with how they think about money.
