Live 4 Financial Freedom

Back in 1990 I think I got our first will done and it was a pretty simple Will at the time. Now the older we get we have revised our Will and other documents for Estate Planning and final decisions more often. We have done new wills twice now in the last six years.

We had one done in Minnesota before we moved to Arizona to live. Then when we got down here, we found out from our new Lawyer that we should have one done in the state that we live in and of course that meant we needed a new one in Arizona. I am glad we did get a new Will and more done down here because I feel we laid out our wishes even better than before.

I know some people do it themselves to save money. I just believe in using a Lawyer for our situation. We teach our boys to hire a Lawyer also. As always though, I am not giving you any Legal or Financial Advice and you should seek advice from your Professional Advisors to see what is best for your situation. See my Disclaimer at MillsWay.com. This is for entertainment only.

I feel that we do all these legal forms for our loved ones and not ourselves. Things are hard enough when someone passes a way or is sick in the hospital. Why not try to reduce their pain or headaches with having your plans and wishes in place. I don’t want them to go through legal battles or to have a judge decide who gets what from our estate. Plus, I have heard that without these forms your estate can be hit hard with legal costs when you pass away. Listen to the whole Podcast for more info.

If you would like to be a guest on my Podcast drop me an email at [email protected] or Text me at 480-389-6224

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Personal Capital - Manage your money now. Smart way to track and manage your financial life. Award-winning financial tools and more.

#financial freedom #financial independence #FIRE #Hustle #Live4 #podcast #millsway

Sources and Resources from Podcast (Available in Show Notes)

1. Stats – Legal Zoom https://info.legalzoom.com/statistics-last-wills-testaments-3947.html

Whether someone wants to get their debt paid off or if they want to really focus on investing for their Financial Freedom goals then this might help. We told the boys that if we would have tried to live off our old wages and just saved all raises and bonuses, we ever received we could have reached our Financial Freedom goals even soon.

You may be saying that isn’t realistic but anything is possible and I bet there has been people that have done it. Even if you took some of your raises for any expense that may have increased over the last year and still pocketed your bonus check you would be much better off.

As always, I am not giving you any Financial Advice and you should seek advice from your Professional Advisors to see what is best for your situation. See my Disclaimer at MillsWay.com. This is for entertainment only.

Sticking to your Budget

Back when I was working in my early years my pay outpaced my cost of living for my basic needs. I moved up fast over the years and got some really nice bumps. If I only was taught this rule. But instead I just let my lifestyle increase. I got nicer place to live, nicer furniture and fixtures. Bought nicer vehicles and went on more exciting vacations. Ughh. LOL

This is why we are teaching our boys this rule so maybe they don’t make the same mistakes we did when we were younger.

Bonus Checks

Then Bonus checks is a whole other story to talk about. Bonus checks are basically free money if you don’t count on them as part of your pay. For me the companies I worked for, bonus checks were not guaranteed and we were told not to plan on them.

With human nature we didn’t listen to them in our younger years and we spent the bonus checks on normal wants and not needs. We pretty much got used to them and factored them in our income and budget we had.

One Million Dollars - Listen to the whole Podcast for the rest of the show.

If you would like to be a guest on my Podcast drop me an email at [email protected] or Text me at 480-389-6224

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What Passive Income means to you may mean something different to others. Darlene and myself want to have many streams of passive income built up for our Financial Freedom plans. Passive Income if you don’t know is Income that you make with out going to work or doing work to get paid. Yes, maybe you did work once to do it but then after you do it you could be making money off that constantly the rest of your life.

What’s nice is that some streams of passive income once they are in place can take little to none effort from you. I will always give most of our streams of passive income some love, maintenance and effort to grow them even more.

For instance, let’s say you write an e-book and put it on Amazon.com. You did the work once when you wrote it and then you did a little work uploading it onto Amazon. But you have the chance to be selling that book for the rest of your life with no more work from you. That’s good living and that’s Passive Income.

We are at 35%

Our current streams of passive income are about 35% of our current expenses. That is not counting any money that our Retirement Account’s are making for us.

When we are older, we could also have Darlene’s Pension Check each month and both of us receiving Social Security. We also want to have as many other sources of passive income streams so we never have to have a job again.

As always, I am not giving you any Financial Advice and you should seek advice from your Professional Advisors to see what is best for your situation. See my Disclaimer at MillsWay.com. This is for entertainment only.

Passive Income Streams we cover in the Podcast.

I like to read books and one of the first books I read that got me really fired up about creating passive income streams was Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. It is one of my must-read books we had our boys read.

Let me know your thoughts about this blog and let me know of others you would like me to do in the future. I feel we can all learn from each other. That is why I am in the helping people retire early, enjoy life more and be more successful. Also, please see my Disclaimer page.

. If you would like to be a guest on my Podcast drop me an email at [email protected] or Text me at 480-389-6224

Support me at Anchor.fm/Live4, Patreon.com/Millsway or Paypal.me/Millsway

Thanks, and Have a great night.  Please Support or Follow me at https://www.patreon.com/millsway  for access to all my blogs.

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Personal Capital - Manage your money now. Smart way to track and manage your financial life. Award-winning financial tools and more.

#financial freedom #financial independence #FIRE #Hustle #Live4 #podcast #millsway

Health Insurance is a major expense for some people. It is an expense we teach our boys to factor in their Financial Freedom plans. Medicare Insurance doesn’t start till age 65 so if we quit working before than we will need to buy our own policies.

With two boys living at home it is really beneficial for us to have one of us working for Health Insurance. Our boys can be on our Health Insurance until they turn age 26. So that is for 12 more years that we will have one of our boys on our Health Insurance coverage.

If Darlene worked till Seth was off our Health Insurance coverage than she would be 55 years old. At that time, I would already be on Medicare so she could retire if we had our Financial Freedom goals hit.

If we don’t have our Financial Freedom goals quite done yet she has the option at her job to go to an average of 20 hours or more and then she could stay on her employers Health Insurance program.

Her insurance at work cost her $15 per week for the family. At age 55 when I am on Medicare and the boys are off than it would drop to $10 per week unless the company changes rates. We hope they keep them the same that they have had for years.

If they kept the rates the same that they are currently at, she would pay $520 a year for Health Insurance. That includes Dental Insurance also. I have known people that pay as low as $150 per month for an Individual plan or $1,800 a year and some have paid up to $650 per month or $7,800 per year.

As you can see it is a huge benefit for Darlene to keep working until she is age 65 if she is healthy enough. Of course, if we do have our Financial Freedom goals hit and can afford her to retire at age 55, we would need to factor in the added costs to our projected retirement expenses.Listen to the full Podcast episode for more details.

Let me know your thoughts about this blog and let me know of others you would like me to do in the future. I feel we can all learn from each other. That is why I am in the helping people retire early, enjoy life more and be more successful. Also, please see my Disclaimer page.

Don’t give up on your dreams; don’t let others talk you out of your dreams. Make your dreams happen. Make it happen today.

If you would like to be a guest on my Podcast drop me an email at [email protected] or Text me at 480-389-6224

Support me at Anchor.fm/Live4, Patreon.com/Millsway or Paypal.me/Millsway

Thanks, and Have a great night.  Please Support or Follow me at https://www.patreon.com/millsway  for access to all my blogs.

Click here for some Side Income and Part-time Business Ideas

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Personal Capital - Manage your money now. Smart way to track and manage your financial life. Award-winning financial tools and more.

#financial freedom #financial independence #FIRE #Hustle #Live4 #podcast #millsway #healthinsurance #insurance

Emergencies funds is an important part of our Financial Freedom plans that we have. We want our Money working for us the best it can and still be able to get to some of it that we may need for Emergencies. Money hit under your mattress doesn’t earn anything or even can be worth less next year because of inflation.

Some people like to put their money they use for Emergencies with their local bank in a savings account. They feel they can get to the money easily and be able to have it available for Emergencies.

Darlene and myself we want not only to be able to reach get our Emergency Funds when needed but also to make some money off it. We teach the boys to have their money work for them.

For instance, we currently have $30,000 in our Emergency funds. If we had the money in the following places this is what we may be making off of it in a years-time. If in; Rest covered in Podcast episode.

Let me know your thoughts about this blog and let me know of others you would like me to do in the future. I feel we can all learn from each other. That is why I am in the helping people retire early, enjoy life more and be more successful. Also, please see my Disclaimer page.

Don’t give up on your dreams; don’t let others talk you out of your dreams. Make your dreams happen. Make it happen today.

Visit my Podcast at www.Live4.Club on Anchor.fm, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Breaker Audio, Google Podcasts, Radio Public, I-tunes, Apple Podcast and more. If you would like to be a guest on my Podcast drop me an email at [email protected]or Text me at 480-389-6224

Support me at Anchor.fm/Live4, Patreon.com/Millsway or Paypal.me/Millsway

Thanks, and Have a great night.  Please Support or Follow me at https://www.patreon.com/millsway  for access to all my blogs.

Click here for some Side Income and Part-time Business Ideas

Millsway.com and Live4.Club

Personal Capital - Manage your money now. Smart way to track and manage your financial life. Award-winning financial tools and more.

#financial freedom #financial independence #FIRE #Hustle #Live4 #podcast #millsway #emergencyfunds #dividends #stocks

Sources and Resources from Podcast (Available in Show Notes)

1. Fidelity.com

1.Gas Price 1965

https://www.dollartimes.com › items › price-of-a-gallon-of-gas-in-1965

For our family Roth IRA’s and Roth 401K’s are currently our best option. We are a huge fan of them. It isn’t for everyone but we stress to our boys to start with Roth Retirement Accounts early to help them towards their Financial Freedom goals.

Fidelity Investments say “With a Roth IRA, you make contributions with money on which you've already paid taxes. You're able to withdraw your contributions tax- and penalty-free at any time, for any reason. Any earnings have the potential to be withdrawn tax-free in retirement, provided that certain conditions are met.”

As always, I am not giving you any Financial Advice and you should seek advice from your Professional Advisors to see what is best for your situation. See my Disclaimer at MillsWay.com. This is for entertainment only.

One Roth Advantage I like that some people may see as a disadvantage is that you pay the Taxes upfront. Some people don’t like the thought of not using that on their taxes for the year. But I would rather pay on $10,000 contributions for the year than pay taxes on $150,000 if that is what it grew to once retired.

Another Roth Advantage I like also is not only it is a powerful way to save for Retirement but you don’t have to do the required minimum distributions at retirement age.

In our situation I hope to keep living on our other Investments and not have to ever worry about using the money in my Roth Account until Darlene retires. Even after she retires the longer, we can go with out touching the money the better off we would be. Not having to do the required minimum distributions is huge in this case for us.

We are looking at other sources of Income and we want to only use Social Security and our Roth accounts as the last options. Of course, we will start taking out Social Security when we reach age 70. Darlene could have a Pension from her job starting at age 62 also which will help. Plus, we have our Business Income and other Investments.

We are currently rolling over some of our money that wasn’t set up as a Roth into a Roth. After this year all of mine should be into a Roth and then we can focus on Darlene’s the following years.

If you don’t have one set up you can go to any Financial Planner to get setup if you don’t want to do it yourself online. Fidelity and Charles Schwab can be very helpful also.

I like the Roth Advantage of the savings growing tax-free. That is nice. Of course, I don’t have a crystal ball for the future but I hope the law makers will always keep the Roth rules in place.

There are Income limits and other factors that your Financial Company that you work with can help you with. More covered in the Episode. Listen to it today.

If you would like to be a guest on my Podcast drop me an email at [email protected] or Text me at 480-389-6224

Thanks, and Have a great night.  Please Support or Follow me at https://www.patreon.com/millsway  for access to all my blogs.

Click here for some Side Income and Part-time Business Ideas

Millsway.com and Live4.Club

Personal Capital - Manage your money now. Smart way to track and manage your financial life. Award-winning financial tools and more.

Sources and Resources from Podcast (Available in Show Notes)

1. Fidelity.com

Most people probably would say they love and care for their family and friends. Myself I like to solve problems because I don’t like to see anyone suffer. Especially when it is my family or friends. It normally has felt good when I could help them out with loaning people money but then normally those feelings go away and new feelings of pain seem to set in.

Most people that I loaned money too paid me back but without a lot of hassle, lost trust and hurt relationships. Some people that loan money to others get feelings of being used, taken advantaged of and not wanting to help anyone else ever.

Few people never paid me back and I never heard from them again. But when they asked me for money, I was their best friend and we would be best friends for life they made it seem. Funny how that happens. LOL

Few people paid me back when they said they would. That is very few did that. Most people I had to hunt down, hassle them and one I even had to hire a Lawyer with to protect the money that was owed to me. Most people that did pay me back took anywhere from One to fifteen years. Yes, one took fifteen years to pay me back.

It is tough when people don’t even try to make small payments to you monthly. Instead they seem to never bring it up what they owe you and normally don’t pay any money towards the loan unless you bug them.

I even loaned someone my house to live in and I moved in with a neighbor. The family that moved in my house was supposed to be a short time situation and were to pay me for utilities and a small rent amount. They paid the first month and then after that nothing. I had to have friends help me evict them. I never received any money from them for the past utilities and rent from the house. I never have heard from them again. Plus, they broke some stuff while living there.

Sometimes when we loan money to people, we hurt them more than we help them. We don’t let them solve their own problems and think outside the box. Plus, they probably have deeper issues like spending more than they make. If you solve their money problems, they will probably be right back in money problems down the road again.

I asked my Dad twice for money and he said “Sorry Son but you will figure it out, do you want to talk to your mom?” He was so right and both times I did come up with solutions once I let my mind calm down and it made me stronger.

Some more reasons to think about before you loan money to any family or friends; Covered in Podcast

If you would like to be a guest on my Podcast drop me an email at [email protected] or Text me at 480-389-6224

Support me at Anchor.fm/Live4, Patreon.com/Millsway or Paypal.me/Millsway

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Many people do not have enough money in their bank accounts to pay for a $1,000 car repair bill. I have worked with and talked with so many people that had less than $100 in their checking and savings account. Many had no retirement savings either. I have heard that one out of four people have no emergency savings fund.

We believe in having an Emergency fund for our family. We teach our boys to have at least six months of their total expenses in a savings account. We like to use a Brokerage Account for our Emergency Funds and we invest it in Stocks, Mutual Funds and EFTs. We know if we have to liquidate some funds to pay off an unexpected bill, we could with in about seven days at the most.

Of course, no place is safe and no investment is safe. Any Investment can go down at any time. Some Financial Coaches or Advisors may feel that you should keep the money in a well know Bank and not in stocks. That is fine for them, but for us we believe in the Market. You need to make your own decision with what amount of risk you can accept. That is where a Financial Planner can help you out with options and making your choice if needed.

Remember this show is for entertainment only and you should seek advice from your Financial team if you have any questions on Investing. See my Disclaimer on MillsWay.com. I want to help you prepare for an unexpected bill so you don’t go into debt paying on a bill. I want everyone to live Debt Free and reach their Financial Freedom goals.

So, if our monthly expenses average about $3,600 per month then we need to have saved $21,600 in our Emergency Fund.

If we know we have some big expenses coming up in the next year or two we will build up our Emergency Fund account to cover those expenses also. For example, if we need to buy a used car next year and we feel it will cost us around $10,000. Then we will need to build up our Emergency Fund account to $31,600.

Here are some examples of Emergency Expenses that can come up and if you don’t have the money saved for them then you could go into Debt. Covered in the Podcast.

Let me know your thoughts about this blog and let me know of others you would like me to do in the future. I feel we can all learn from each other. That is why I am in the helping people retire early, enjoy life more and be more successful. Also, please see my Disclaimer page.

Don’t give up on your dreams; don’t let others talk you out of your dreams. Make your dreams happen. Make it happen today.

Visit my Podcast at www.Live4.Club on Anchor.fm, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Breaker Audio, Google Podcasts, Radio Public, I-tunes, Apple Podcast and more. If you would like to be a guest on my Podcast drop me an email at [email protected]or Text me at 480-389-6224

Support me at Anchor.fm/Live4, Patreon.com/Millsway or Paypal.me/Millsway

Thanks, and Have a great night.  Please Support or Follow me at https://www.patreon.com/millsway  for access to all my blogs.

Click here for some Side Income and Part-time Business Ideas

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Once debt free it is important to stay debt free. This is one of the lessons we teach our boys. It is easy to get back into debt if you let yourself once you are debt free. I know this from personal experience. I let myself do this several times until I got tired of the rollercoaster of debt and jumped off.

It took me remembering the pain that I felt when I was in debt and the times that I wondered how I was going to make the minimal payments that were due for the month.

People I worked with in the past had different reasons why they wanted to stay debt free. Some didn’t like the feeling of not wanting to answer their front door because it could be a debt collector, some people were afraid to answer the phone and others were afraid to check the mail because it may have more letters from Debt Collection companies. Finally, the pain of those experiences was enough for them to make a change and take action to not only get debt free but to stay debt free.

If you are married or in a committed relationship then this can be twice as hard than for a single person of course. So, if you are married or in a relationship it is so important to have this be one of your monthly topics at your monthly financial review meeting or celebration parties. What ever you want to call it.

Once you are debt free for life then you can start focusing on your Financial Freedom goals and how you are going to get there. For our situation we wanted to be debt free except for the house before we started saving for our retirement.

We know the value of investing money early but with debt we are investing into getting debt free for life so we can then really be focused on our Financial Freedom goals.

Some times people want to be totally debt free including their house before investing for retirement. There is no right or wrong way that I feel as long as you are reaching your retirement goals. Reminder that it is a math choice and consequences. Bottom line you need to be happy with your choices and can live with the consequences.

Listen to the whole Podcast for all the info.

Let me know your thoughts about this blog and let me know of others you would like me to do in the future. I feel we can all learn from each other. That is why I am in the helping people retire early, enjoy life more and be more successful. Also, please see my Disclaimer page.

Don’t give up on your dreams; don’t let others talk you out of your dreams. Make your dreams happen. Make it happen today.

Visit my Podcast at www.Live4.Club on Anchor.fm, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Breaker Audio, Google Podcasts, Radio Public, I-tunes, Apple Podcast and more. If you would like to be a guest on my Podcast drop me an email at [email protected]or Text me at 480-389-6224

Support me at Anchor.fm/Live4, Patreon.com/Millsway or Paypal.me/Millsway

Thanks, and Have a great night.  Please Support or Follow me at https://www.patreon.com/millsway  for access to all my blogs.

Click here for some Side Income and Part-time Business Ideas

Millsway.com and Live4.Club

Everyone has different situations that can affect when they choose to start taking Social Security payments. Some of my friends started at age 62 and some waited till age 70. For your situation it would be good to visit with your Financial Planner and your local Social Security Office.

Darlene and myself have a plan to wait till age 70 for our situation. We want to max out our monthly Social Security benefit that we possibly could get. Of course, we still have sixteen years to wait until that time but we hope our other Investments maintain us so we don’t need to touch Social Security.

Social Security website said the following – “If you were born between 1943 and 1954 your full retirement age is 66. If you start receiving benefits at age 66 you get 100 percent of your monthly benefit. If you delay receiving retirement benefits until after your full retirement age, your monthly benefit continues to increase.

The chart below explains how delayed retirement affects your benefit. The increase is based on your date of birth and the number of months you delay the start of your retirement benefits. If you start receiving retirement benefits at age:

When you reach age 70, your monthly benefit stops increasing even if you continue to delay taking benefits.” See the link in the below show notes.

We print off our Social Security statement each year to check and make sure they have our correct past years income. Plus, it is fun to see what the projected benefit amount is at different ages. Hopefully our elected officials don’t take away from Social Security and help protect it for future generations. Remember I am not giving you any financial or legal advice, this is just for entertainment purposes and see my Disclaimer Page.

Here are some reasons that people I have talked with decided to start taking Social Security payments early; More covered in the Podcast

Let me know your thoughts about this blog and let me know of others you would like me to do in the future. I feel we can all learn from each other. That is why I am in the helping people retire early, enjoy life more and be more successful. Also, please see my Disclaimer page.

If you would like to be a guest on my Podcast drop me an email at [email protected] or Text me at 480-389-6224

Thanks, and Have a great night.  Please Support or Follow me at https://www.patreon.com/millsway  for access to all my blogs.

Click here for some Side Income and Part-time Business Ideas

Millsway.com and Live4.Club

Sources and Resources from Podcast (Available in Show Notes)

1. Social Security Stats from https://www.ssa.gov/planners/retire/1943-delay.html

2. Social Security Break-even Points https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/13/those-social-security-break-even-calculations-can-be-misleading.html