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Generating Wealth
As I've observed here before there are really three critical steps to building wealth: you must
generate it in the first place, you must manage it and you must invest it wisely. This week we
concentrate on generating wealth in one guest article and on managing wealth in our book of the
month and other guest article.
If you do not generate any wealth to begin with you will not get far. Equally important however is
to manage it and invest it wisely. Many people generate wealth, often through their jobs or
professions, and then due to lack of proper management and investing. Each of these tasks takes
time and effort, but most of all they require self-discipline to do them consistently.
One aspect of management is to limit debt but if debt is a problem for you Jenny Roberts gives some
suggestions on how to manage that and ultimately get rid of it.
Our Book of the
Month, Clark Howard's Living
Large in Lean Times is a great source of information on how to save money in many ways.
This book will easily pay for itself if you implement just one or two of the 250 suggestions in the
book.
As autumn brings rain and cold weather it is a great time to get caught up on that reading and find
new books to expand your knowledge of how to build, manage and invest wealth.
Wishing you success and
prosperity,
Daniel R. Murphy
Your comments are always welcome - send them to me
at books2wealth@gmail.com
If you would like to subscribe to this newsletter you may do so by clicking here. The newsletter comes to you free each
week and you are free to unsubscribe at any time. Thank you.
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Books2Wealth Book of the
Month Reviewby
Daniel R. Murphy
Title and
Author: Clark
Howard's Living Large in Lean Times by Clark Howard with Mark Meltzer and Theo Thimou
Synopsis of
Content:
The subtitle to this book is 250+ ways to buy smarter, spend smarter and save money. This is a good
description of what the book is about. Howard teaches the reader how to be a savvy shopper. Whether
you are facing hard financial struggles or you just want to stretch your purchasing dollar this is
a good source of tips on how to do it.
Howard discusses how to be smarter about buying a car, using the internet and buying computers,
being a smarter consumer for everyday items from groceries to entertainment and some tips on how to
resolve disputes.
There is a good chapter on survival for students and on being an entrepreneur. Another chapter
tackles health and health care including how to save on prescriptions, how to deal with medical
insurance and elder issues.
He discusses your home and real estate, renting, and energy efficient appliances. There is a
section on personal finances, banks, budgeting and identity theft. Another chapter addresses saving
on telephones and television and another on travel.
He wraps up with a section websites that had died as well as those that are important to know
about that are still in existence when the book was published (2011).
Some of the information in the book, such as searching for unclaimed money in your name, is
unlikely to be of much benefit to the typical reader. Other advice, such as avoiding extended
warranties and service contracts are golden because these are rarely a good value to the consumer
and are often the chief profit generator for business.
The controlling criterion for Howard's many suggestions is to save money. For example he advises
you to drop cell phone contracts and switch to a no-contract phone. For many people however the
contract arrangements offer benefits that some people want. There can be a tradeoff between
convenience, safety, and other benefits that many people are willing to pay extra for. You have to
scrutinize each suggestion to see what you might be giving up by going with the cheapest option.
One good example of this is his advice to drop your telephone land line and use Voice over
Internet Protocol (VoIP) instead. It is true that you will save a bundle by doing this on your
monthly telephone bill. It is also true that the quality of VoIP connections can be less than
desirable and that if you lose your internet connection or the power goes off you have no
telephone. A land line will usually still work if the power is off. If your landline phone does not
work, and the problem is with the telephone system outside your house, you can call the telephone
company and get it fixed. Getting service assistance on a VoIP system can be much more difficult.
So you have to decide what is important for you, what convenience or safety you are willing to give
up to save the money. For many it is a good choice, for others it may not be. Howard does not delve
into these kinds of tradeoffs in his discussion - so you have to do the thinking on that
yourself.
If your primary criterion is saving money though there is a wealth of information in this book
about how to do just that.
Readability/Writing
Quality:
This book is well written and easy to follow. It is well organized.
Notes on
Author:
Clark Howard has a popular talk radio program on how to save money and
a television show on the same subject. He has written nine other books and has a good website at
clarkhoward.com. His co-authors are Mark Meltzer, an editor for the Atlanta Business Chronicle and
Theo Thimou, director of Howard's website.
Publication
Information:
Clark Howard's Living Large in Lean Times
by Clark Howard with Mark Meltzer and Theo Thimou
Copyright 2011 by Clark Howard and Mark Meltzer. Published by Penguin Books.
Rating for this Book
Overall Rating for Book: Very good.
Writing Style: Easy to read.
Usefulness: Very useful for almost anyone.
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Guest Article
Generating Wealth
Building wealth: When the opportunity
knocks open the door by Amanda Kidd
There are several successful case studies around the world where people talk about how they have
succeeded in building their wealth. There is no fixed formula or strategy to build wealth. If there
would have been such formula then it could have been easily applied and would have brought
financial prosperity very easily. If you see these stories deeply, you will find that along with
the success, there have been several failed attempts also. Here we are enumerating 5 ideas to build
your personal wealth.
1.
Get Educated and gain
knowledge
: Generally, earning potential is directly proportional to
education. So, you should get yourself enrolled in some course which will be a value to your
current profession. If there is some course/ degree program you had joined in the past but did not
complete then rejoin that. Nowadays there is the facility of online and distance education. Do not
let your age become hindrance in your pursuit of getting educating. It might be a costly endeavor
but in the long run, it will pay out by increasing your income.
2.
Handle your money
well
: We all know that if money is managed properly, it will grow. But
this is quite challenging for several people. Some people are impulsive buyers while some do not
have any long term goal related to money. This leads to unnecessary spending. To build your
personal wealth, you will have to be organized in monetary affairs and have to keep an eye on
finances. In the short run, you might not see the significance but it will surely pay off in the
long run.
3.
Invest
: Keep into consideration all the avenues of investment like real
estate, stock market or some business ventures, as these can prove to be extremely rewarding. The
returns of the investments are at times unbelievable. But before investing, become educated about
the investment. This is very necessary as mostly all the investments have some risks associated
with them and at times may cause some loss. You can also opt for some professional advice before
investing.
4.
Do
savings:
Saving money will automatically lead to building of wealth. Thus,
it is the best, tried and tested way of building personal wealth. Even if you save small, it will
eventually grow over time. One of the best practices to do so is by putting a fixed amount of your
salary in a savings account.
5.
Think about turning hobby into a
business: There have been
many successful cases where people have put their hobbies in profitable ventures. These ventures
are greater success as you are doing what you like the most. So people who like nature and wildlife
can write books on them, people interested in photography can become wildlife photographers.
There is no hard and fast rule or a formula to grow and build your personal wealth. The way you
choose will depend on your life style, personal interest as well as environment where you are
living. One must keep in mind that there is no alternate for resourcefulness, informed decisions
and hard work. So you need to keep in mind these three aspects while selecting any of the above
methods.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
About the
author
: Amanda Kidd is a blogger who takes utmost care while choosing
beauty products
. She prefers following natural skin care tips and has a huge collection of nail paints, blushers,
eye shadows and lipsticks. These days she is busy in writing on
most expensive
beauty stuff upcoming in the market.
Unless you change who you are,
you will always have what you've got. - JIm Rohn
Guest
Article
Debt settlement and the
after effects - Is it possible to boost your credit score again? By Jenny
Roberts
If you don't know how to deal with your debts you must immediately take some steps in order to
stay sure about your personal finances. As the US is donning a double-digit unemployment rate, most
people are trying to look for jobs and are not getting enough funds to repay their surging debt
burden. Among all the debt relief options,
debt settlement is the only one that allows a drastic reduction of the
principal balance owed by you. However, the most important thing that you must know about debt
settlement is that it hurts your credit score and a settlement stays on your credit report
throughout the nest 7 years. This doesn't make debtors refrain from getting help of debt settlement
companies as there are number of ways in which the credit score can be improved. Read on to know
more on this.
The simple benefits of debt
settlement
Debt settlement has got some particular benefits that make it an attractive option to most
debtors. If you're knee deep in debt and you want to know the advantages of settling your credit
card debt, here are some of them.
- Negotiations on
your behalf: The debt
consultant will make negotiations on your behalf and therefore you need not stay in touch
with your creditors. All the credit card companies will be able to get their payments from
the debt settlement company and thus they will not call on you and ask for the
payments.
-
- Single monthly
payment: As soon as you
come to know that your debts are settled, you can immediately start making single monthly
payments to the company. You may get rid of the multiple payments that you make in a
particular month and replace it with a single monthly payment.
-
-
- Reduction of the
principal amount: The
principal amount that you owe will be reduced by effective negotiation with your creditors.
You will no longer require paying the entire principal amount that you owe them. A part of
your debt will be forgiven by the creditors and you can easily repay the entire amount.
How can improve your credit score after a
debt settlement?
It is true that debt settlement affects your credit score to a great extent as you're not
repaying the entire amount that you actually owed your creditors. However, it is possible to
improve your credit score with ease by following certain steps. You may get yourself a secured
credit card in order to show your eagerness to repair your credit. You can also manage your
personal finances and make sure that you repay your
debts on time so that you can improve your credit score and
make yourself worthy of receiving further lines of credit.
Therefore, you need not worry if you've decided to choose debt settlement as your debt relief
option. Take the required steps to avoid falling in debt and also do the needful to improve your
credit score.
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I hope you will find the information in
the Creating True Wealth newsletter useful. Future editions will highlight other books in
the fields of business, sales, motivational materials, self help literature, psychology and
other related fields. This newsletter is published weekly on Fridays.
Daniel R. Murphy, Publisher. All content is written by Daniel R. Murphy unless noted otherwise.
Disclaimer: Nothing in this ezine is intended nor should be relied upon as professional
legal, medical or financial advice. If you need personal legal or financial planning advice you
should consult a licensed attorney, accountant or financial planner. If you need personal medical
advice you should consult your medical professional.
© 2011 by Daniel R. Murphy
All Rights Reserved. You may use the content of this ezine in your publications if you include the
following acknowledgement:
"This material is used by permission of Books2Wealth(TM) and Daniel R.
Murphy and comes from his ezine titled Creating True Wealth. You can learn more about creating true
wealth at www.bookstowealth.com and you can subscribe to the Free Creating True Wealth
ezine at that site."
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you.
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