The Street has a great article called 10 (More) Reasons Why You Aren’t Rich. This article was very insightful. The 10 reasons they list are as follows:
You care what your car looks like
You feel entitlement
You lack diversification
You started too late
You don’t like to learn
You don’t do what you enjoy
You buy things you don’t use
You don’t understand value
Your house is too big
You fail to take advantage of opportunities
These are all great financial topics. I am going to devote a post on each of those 10 things. Hopefully I can share what I’ve learned and learn even more from you!
{ 30 comments… read them below or add one }
You are SO right about living beyond our means. I think a big problem is laziness. It’s takes effort to live on less, and in the case of 6 people on $58k – a lot of effort. Living within your means often means sacrifice. I know. My wife and I live on a single income. We think it’s important that our children have the guiding influence of love of a parent in their early years, but we’re a family of 4 on 1 income and it takes a lot of sacrifice… especially when it’s not a CEO’s salary! 🙂
-Joe
Thanks for visiting Joe 🙂 It is amazing how in the last 20-30 years it has become almost impossible to live on one income.
We also want to go to one income, but we can’t quite do it yet. My husband is a zookeeper and despite his masters degree, the non profit field offers a salary of only 26K. We thought about going to only my salary – just enough more that we could do it, but then we decided that instead we are going to live as much below our means as possible and save up so that in 2 years we could live off of his. Our main goals are to fund a retirement account and pay down our house. We can live on very little if we don’t have to worry about having a place to live!
We are lucky enough to work opposite days so we only need a sitter three times a week (and only twice in the summer when he works (4) 10 hour days). I just recently went to a day shift – before that we worked opposite shifts and never needed a sitter!
Yes, I agree owning your house and saving for retirement are priorities. I hope everything work out with you and your plans.
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Thank you for posting this. I agree with the laziness. We’re on a one income now in this recession. I’m trying to see if I can get in as a caregiver. I heard those jobs are hot now.
Caregiving is pretty hot right now – and I think the need will only go up with our aging population.
I am one of those people who is extremely tired of people calling other people lazy. Without knowing the exact circumstances how can you judge someone else? Sometimes behaviors that are called laziness can come from several factors such as ignorance and how one was raised.
Although many started touting the “feed a fish for a day” slogan, I noticed that Jesus Christ feed they masses while he taught them about God. HMMM Wonder why he didn’t just teach them how to fish.
With my unemployment and the temporary work that I can find, even living with someone else it is impossible to find the funds to have periodontal work done and difficult to find the funds for my depression medicine (life long) and my arthritis medicine (tart cherry juice $15.99 for 30 days supply)
These are all true! I agree with them all.
I do think that it can be summarize into just one. And that is YOU LACK DETERMINATION.
Hopefully nobody is calling anyone else lazy without knowing the circumstances. Although, I must say, I think that Jesus Christ was trying to teach the masses about God (and he did a wonderful job) not about how to feed themselves. He was a great teacher.
Healthcare (your peridontal work and medicine) has always been a cost that can easily put people under water 🙁
Determination is definitely needed! It can be hard sometimes.
Great clues – I didn't read this series so thank-you for leading me here.
Thanks for leading to this post, I am a new blogger and am always interested in these types of articles. It is great information.
Great way to do a giveaway. I hope I found the right post. I'm a new follower and I LOVE your blog.
Look forward to reading this series. Thanks for the giveaway!
This series looks great. Thanks for leading here. I can't wait to dive in and read it. BTW great idea for your giveaway.
Well Millionaire Acts, it's people like you spouting the garbage about sheer determination that makes this country a miserable place to live in for so many. Sheer determination does not get immediate results even Henry Ford declared bankruptcy before he was successful and sliced bread didn't sell well until 15 years after it hit the market. I could go on by why bother when people make such ignorant comments.
Yes Littlepeoplewealth Jesus was teaching about God but he was also doing God's work by feeding and healing people. There is at least one verse that states that Jesus Christ was moved with compassion. Now people seem to spend more time moved with judgment, blame and condemnation.
Why do people love to use negative and judgmental words, it doesn't help anyone solve any problems and I find it depressing to read such things. After all what does have a positive attitude mean?
You wrote this series before I found Little People Wealth. It looks awesome… can't wait to read all of the parts. Thanks for the giveaway chance!
Carrie
mommycarrie1(at)hotmail(dot)com
Another way to look at things! Thanks for the post.
I love your site it's good. To be financially free is good and it needs hard work and knowledge to it.http://www.waysinlife.com/
Aren't those dead on. I look forward to reading your thoughts on each of those. I also think Rich is a state of mind. I'm the richest person on earth when I'm with my family. I also think the greatest wealth to be found lies in the next world rather than this one. I think if people would quite worshiping money and material goods they would be much richer, both in state of mind, spiritually, and financially.
Rich is definitely a state of mind! There are studies that show that people are not any happier as they get more money. Except for those that live under the poverty level. I can see where you might be unhappy if you are struggling just to keep your children fed.
You need to learn to be happy with what you have and living below your means is one great way to do that!
One of the reason in that area is because those person don’t know how to save money.We should be practical anyways.
I think it’s more on your motivation. Is is strong enough for you to desire richness?
Well for me,if you want that badly…you have to be one of the top entrepreneur nowadays.Being in line in business helps you mold your personality too.
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being an entrepreneur helps a lot.
Yeah,managing a business can really help you to become more successful in life.
I am not rich becoming rich is not my priority. I don’t want it that bad.
Everybody needs to know their priorities!
Thank you for posting this. I agree with the laziness. We’re on a one income now in this recession.
It is hard to live on one income, but there are lots of things that make it well worth it!
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Thank you for sharing such an amazing and informative post . Really enjoyed reading it. : )
Apu
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