Bounteo.com

In a recent blog post, Seth Godin posts some good advice regarding personal finance. Check it out!

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/06/urgent-personal.html

Here's a few good articles and posts on other sites that I thought readers might find interesting:

How to recover from a (big) mistake at work
Jay over at Dumb Little Man has a pretty interesting post about getting past a mistake at work without letting it do too much damage. The advice is basic but helpful and could be applied to other areas of life beyond just work.

How to Determine the Amount of Life Insurance You Need
Good post from Free Money Finance about how to determine the optimal amount of life insurance. I know that when you're 25, life insurance isn't at the top of your priority list, but there are times when it's important, depending on your circumstances. Take a quick look at the article and see if it's something you should look into further.

You must file a tax return to get economic stimulus tax rebate
Finally, Wise Bread has a post about the upcoming economic stimulus package rebates and how you need to file a tax return to get your cash. I'm posting it here because some college students may not make enough to need to file a tax return, but should definitely consider filing anyway this year. The post also has some good info about the dates that you can expect to receive your rebate.

And that's it! Please send me any links you might have and I'll try and include them in the next Links post.

Now that Bounteo.com is up and running (though we still are working on a design for the site), I want to start things off well, so I'm looking for post ideas and guest bloggers. Please contact me with any ideas you might have for posts and if you're interested in posting a guest post here, please send in any ideas you have. I would love to get some perspectives from other bloggers and authors about how young people can make good choices and make progress towards a life of success.

This blog is about the pursuit and attainment of success for young people, so we should probably determine what that means. Too often in our society, we think of success only in terms of money, power, fame, sex appeal, stuff, etc. The truth is that none of those things are success for everyone. We each have a different definition of success. But what can we say about success in general? After some reflection, I propose that success can be described as follows:

Success is the process of defining goals, developing plans and strategies, and working hard towards the fulfillment of those goals. It is a journey of self-discovery and transformation towards the ultimate goal of a more meaningful and fulfilled life.

Note that I have defined success as a process; in other words, the journey counts as much as the destination. For example, if your goal is to retire at 45 and you develop a plan to get there and spend 20 years diligently working towards that goal but end up retiring at 47, would you define that as a failure? You may not have achieved your original goal, but the process you underwent of setting and working towards that goal is a success in itself.

Since this blog will focus heavily (for now) on the topics of personal finance and development, a fair question to ask is that of the relationship between money and success. Are they the same thing? Do you have to be wealthy to be successful? Do you have to be successful to be wealthy? I think the answer to all three questions is a resounding no. Experts tell us that happiness tends to increase with more money, but only until people have been lifted out of extreme poverty. When you're starving and homeless and sick, money absolutely can buy happiness. However, once you have a certain amount, adding more usually does not increase your happiness.

Bounteo.com is site that explores the pursuit of a life more abundant, particularly as it applies to young adults in their twenties.  However, readers of every age are certainly encouraged to interact and share their opinions and perspectives.  In subsequent posts, I'll explore a bit more about my own definition of success, the topics that I think are relevant to its pursuit, and why I've chosen to focus on young adults.  But first, a short introduction is in order.

My name is Ryan Waggoner, and for some time I've blogged at my personal website about personal finance, including a 12-part series for young adults on how to start investing for the future.  That content will form the genesis of Bounteo, but as we progress, I hope to add content in areas other than personal finance and investing, such as career development, entrepreneurship, time management, personal development and motivation, and other topics related to the pursuit of success in our lives.

Finally, I would like to say that I myself am a young adult (25 years old) and possess little in the way of credentials and professional experience that would qualify me as an authority of many of the topics we'll discuss.  I'm just a guy with a burning curiosity, a passion for learning, and a willingness to see others succeed.  I will do my best to ensure that I provide sources and solid logic and reasoning for the content on this site, but I hope that my readers will do their part to scrutinize my words and conclusions and challenge me where my own reasoning or research has fallen short.  In this way, perhaps we can actually accomplish something in our pursuit of the truth and a life more abundant.

MSN Money had an interesting post awhile ago about an annual survey of millionaires. They classified the millionaires into six categories, according to how they made their money, their risk tolerance, attitudes about wealth, etc.

Satisfied Savers (24% of Total)

• Average age: 60
• Built wealth through hard work, by living below their means and taking moderate risks
• Financially savvy
• Lost relatively little in the bear market
• Know how to make their money work for them
• Enjoy making a difference through charitable efforts

Status Chasers (18% of Total)

• Average age: 55
• Achieved wealth through work and some inheritance
• Want it all but haven't been able to achieve their major goals yet
• Define wealth as a level three times their current net worth
• Pessimistic about their own financial future
• Less financially knowledgeable than their counterparts
• Think of financial situation daily as a source of concern

Altruistic Achievers (17% of Total)

• Average age: 54
• Achieved wealth through work, some inheritance, good investments, owning a business, and living below their means
• Self-made, driven to succeed, work hard, take risks
• Use their wealth to help the less fortunate
• Lack the time, interest and know-how to manage finances; rely on professional management
• Lost the most in the bear market
• Only one-quarter plan to retire completely

Secret Succeeders (17% of Total)

• Average age: 55

My parents didn't do a great job at demonstrating good financial habits for me, and as a result, I've been thinking about how I'd like to teach my kids to be more fiscally responsible.  I ran across a great post today over at Get Rich Slowly with some good tips and links to helpful articles about allowances, teaching kids about the value of hard work, and more.  I don't have kids yet, so I don't have a lot of commentary here, except to say that it's definitely the job of parents to teach their kids about this.  The schools sure aren't going to do it, and judging by the pile of debt that the average American has, people don't usually fall into a pattern of good financial habits on their own.

My Two Dollars yesterday had an interesting post about Detroit and how property values have fallen hard there, and probably have more room to fall. A few samples:

At least 16 Detroit houses up for sale on Sunday sold for $30,000 or less.

A boarded-up bungalow on the city’s west side brought $1,300. A four-bedroom house near the original Motown recording studio sold for $7,000.

Now, let me say that I would never live in Detroit. But I've seen that when everyone seems to be saying that it's crazy to own or buy property in an area, it's time to take a hard look at that area because some good values can often be found. Detroit isn't going to disappear tomorrow. It might be a little shaky there, but they'll recover, and when they do, some of those dirt-cheap houses will sell for 10x or 20x what they were bought for. Those investors will invariably be viewed by many as "lucky" but as someone once said:

"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity."
-Seneca

Building wealth over the course of a lifetime is a pursuit that requires focus, dedication, and self-discipline. Living on less than you make and investing the difference is 90% of the battle, and we often think of this path as one of constant restraint, eating ramen noodles and spaghetti and shopping at thrift stores. Pinching every penny is one way to build wealth, but the good news is that once you get some momentum and see your wealth pass a certain point, a class of investments starts to open up that allows you to have fun and increase your wealth at the same time. CNN Money ran an article a few days ago with some ideas about how to live rich and then retire richer. Here's a sample of my favorite suggestions:

• Going global: Buy real estate in exotic locales. Imagine buying a small villa in an up-and-coming tropical paradise (they mention Uruguay) and holding on to it for the next 30 or 40 years. Not only will you have the enjoyment of the property, but you can rent it out to vacationers for some extra income. When you're ready to retire, you can always keep it as a vacation home or sell it, likely for a tidy profit. What could be better?

• Collecting profits: Invest in unknown artists. If you're an art lover, buying works you love from artists who are poised to make it big is a win-win. You'll get the enjoyment of the artwork and possibly make a handsome profit along the way. Granted, it may not be as lucrative as some stocks, but as the article points out, it'll look a lot better on your wall than a stock certificate from Wal-Mart.

Interesting post yesterday on Free Money Finance about a couple of articles that discuss saving money on groceries. Some of the tips include the classics like cutting coupons, but also things like keeping a price notebook to record the prices of the stuff you normally buy?

My mom has always been a coupon person and a bargain hunter. She'll drive all over town looking for the best deals on organic produce. I've never fully understood that philosophy. It seems like your time is worth more than trying to save $.50 on a cucumber. At what point does the gas you're using and the time you're spending outweigh any small savings? I know that small numbers add up, and especially when you have a lot of mouths to feed, it may make more sense.

For my wife and I, who both work, it's just not usually worth it to try and do all this bargain shopping and coupon clipping. We order our groceries online and have them delivered for $10. Most of the things we buy are staple items and I do a quick check to see if there's another brand or something that's on sale. There are several "luxury" items that we simply do without if they're not on sale.