Live 4 Financial Freedom

Car shopping isn’t one of the most enjoyable things for a lot of people. A friend of mine once said he would rather go to the Dentist then go car shopping. I am not a fan of Dentist either and probably enjoy some of the hunt and numbers of car shopping.

This is one of the rules to Financial Freedom that we teach our kids and we have taken them with us to experience the whole car shopping experience. Including the games and negotiation that is played.

Before we start talking about how we go about car shopping lets think about some things from the Millionaire Next Door book. Here are some key things from the book that studied Millionaires (It is on my must read book list);

Then another good book to read is Spend Smart book. Here are a few things to think about before we dive in to the rest that we teach our kids. Bill wrote:

In Suze Orman’s book she said that taking out leases is a costly financial mistake. She also said Certified Pre-owned cars with warranty is a good option.

We start with first knowing what our budget is to spend on a car that we are looking at getting.  Everyone can have their own opinions on how to car shop or feel they are an expert but the below points are what we taught our boys.

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Sources and Resources from Podcast (Available in Show Notes)

How does the word “No” have anything to do with reaching your Financial Freedom Goals you may be asking me? It is a huge factor, I think. You need to be able to say “No” at times to be able to stay on your budget and disciplined to reach your goals.

In our house hold we have to say “No” quite often to our boys. If they had their way, we would be going to the movies every night and out to eat every night. Which I would agree with them that it would be fun but then the next day I would be disappointed in myself that we didn’t stick by our budget.

Each week I get invited to golf at least three times at about an average cost of $50. The prices are higher in the winter months because of all the snow birds. My budget for golf is about $50 a week. In the months from May to October I can play about three times a week for $50. But in the winter months I can only play once a week. It isn’t any fun turning down friends who invite me to play golf but in our current budget that is what our budget is. Maybe once the boys are out of the house and my business is making more money.

So, in the Winter months I try to mix it up and golf each week with a different group of friends to try to stay in touch until the cheap rates come back. I also will invite them over at times to watch Football on TV to help keep in touch.

Another time we have to say “No” at times is when friends want to go out with us for the night to dinner or drinks. Our budget on going out with friends is currently only $100 a month. So, depending on what friends want to do that is normally one night out for the month with another couple.

We try to mix it up and rotate different sets of friends to get with each month so we can try to keep in contact with in person other than just social media.

Sometimes we will also ask friends over to our house to play some cards or do some putting in the backyard. We can have fun with friends at our house for a low cost for sure. About $25 in snacks can go a ways.

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.

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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.

Setting Financial Goals is the first rule in the Mills Way to Financial Freedom rules that we covered with the boys. The importance of goals is to help us make our dreams happen. You need to write them down to be able to make them happen. Difference between a Dream, Idea, Vision and a Goal is nothing more than writing it down.

After we write our goals down on paper, we don’t hide it and forget it. We post it, shout about them and we review them monthly. “We” is a must if you are married, it is hard to hit Financial Freedom goals if both of you don’t agree on them and the action plan to attain them.

When setting the goals to your monthly review meetings schedule it with your spouse or partner if you aren’t single. If you are single maybe ask your best friend to come to your monthly goal review meetings. Having it schedule a month in advance helps make sure the meetings happen.

Some people hear the word “Meetings” and they run. Some people feel meetings are a waste of time at their jobs when they could be getting their work done and getting out of work earlier. Financial Freedom Goal meetings aren’t a waste of time. They are important tool in your achieving your Financial Freedom that you want.

Why not make the goal review meeting fun? Maybe get some snacky food or order pizza to be delivered. Make it a party and have fun celebrating what progress you made towards your goals. When you are having fun, you are able to think outside the box easier to be able to come up with ideas on how to achieve more the next month.

These goal meetings we will be covering our budgets and actuals from the last month. We like to schedule our goal review meeting on the 2ndof each month so we have last months numbers to review. We will talk about budgets and tracking numbers in other posts.

We have personal goals and financial goals that were based off what our family priorities are. So, you would need to decide what your own priorities are. Goals and Priorities, you both need to agree on them if you aren’t in a committed relationship. Here are some example steps to do for your goal setting;

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Christmas is around the corner and people are starting to think about what they want to give at Christmas time. At our house we have our Christmas Tree up and our Outside decorations up also. We have been getting Christmas Ads in the mail from companies like Best Buy and Kohls.  We have been getting plenty of emails sent to us about Black Friday sales coming up or pre black Friday sales.

There is so much temptation this time of year to blow our Christmas budget out of the water. We want to buy for everyone and make everyone’s dreams come true, especially the boys. But thank goodness we both are on the same page with our Christmas budget and sticking by it.

If you are single then you don’t have to worry about a spouse at Christmas time and you can go spend what ever you want on who ever you want with in your budget hopefully.

But if you are married it can get tricky if you want to buy them a special gift for Christmas but you don’t want them to know how much you spent on it or what it is. That is a challenge when you are married and both on a Christmas budget.

Remember that you both are grownups and should be able to stick to budgeting goals you have both decided on. If you haven’t yet it would be a good time to sit down and decide on how much you both want to spend for Christmas this year and then break it out for each person you want to spend it on so things don’t get out of line.

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.

Let me know your thoughts or ideas.

Visit my Podcast at www.Live4.Clubon 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]

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

Thanks, and Have a Merry Christmas.  Please Support or Follow me at https://www.patreon.com/millsway Bruce of MillsWay.com

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Sources and Resources from Podcast (Available in Show Notes)

Average Christmas Spending Stat - https://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/1112/average-cost-of-an-american-christmas.aspx

https://nrf.com/media-center/press-releases/consumers-will-spend-41-percent-more-last-year-during-winter-holidays

Today is a good day since I was able to do my first pod cast with Seth who is our Son. He is 13 years old and a future star in any thing he goes into. 

Asking for deals or for a cash discount isn’t always very easy for a lot of people. My parents never talked about this subject when I was a kid and I don’t remember ever hearing them ask for a deal or a discount. Now I think about all the money they could have saved during their life time.

Seth and Logan, I hope they will take the Mills Way to Financial Freedom rules that we teach them and use them in the future. Then hopefully they will continue on and teach their kids the rules also.

Here is two positive quotes I like; “There is no way to happiness; happiness is the Path.” By Buddha

“Change Your Thoughts - Change Your Life” by Wayne W. Dyer

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.

Let me know your thoughts or ideas.

Visit my Podcast at www.Live4.Clubon 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]

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. Visit my website today to see my recommended Must Read Books and other info.

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Divorce Sucks.. Sucks.. Sucks…. Divorce is not a favorite topic for me, it is an ugly word and a word we never talked about in my parents house when I was a kid. I never even knew anyone personally before I got married that went through a divorce. Now I know many people with divorces or as we say on the golf course “D’s” and it keeps growing by the day.

I will go on record I am against Divorce unless it is a safety issue for them or their kids. Most Divorces seem to happen over one spouse cheating or money issues.

WebMD said 2 out of 5 of first marriages will end in divorce after one spouse cheats. WF Lawyers said that almost 50% of marriages will end in divorce or separation when I was searching about money issues. From my time helping people with debt problems it sure seems like over 80% of those divorced said Money was the top reason for the divorce or one of the top reasons. Some references are listed below in the show notes if you like stats.

I think people who may be on the fence about getting a Divorce may want to go see a counselor or pastor at church. Another good option would be seeing a marriage counselor or buying a set of Gary Smalley Relationship tapes. That is if your spouse will attend. My past ex went one time and then said it was just me that needed help. We had so much debt that even after selling our house we still had debt to divide up.

Some more things to think about is from an article in Time Magazine. It had some stats like:

Judith Wallersteom on a book she wrote a book called “The Unexpected Legacy of Divorce” Said “Children from broken families tend to marry later, yet divorce more often than those from intact homes. Listen for more info.

If you would like to be a guest on my Podcast drop me an email at [email protected]

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 Bruce of MillsWay.com

Sources and Resources from Podcast (Available in Show Notes)

https://www.webmd.com › sex-relationships › features › love-timeline

https://www.wf-lawyers.com › divorce-statistics-and-facts

3. Time Magazine September 25, 2000

Insurance isn’t maybe the most exciting subject but one that Darlene and myself feel is important to cover with our Teenage Boys. We want them to know that they need to protect their assets as their assets grow. Especially since today with all the Lawsuits that are filed. It is hard to not watch TV in our house and not have many different Personal Injury Lawyer Commercials come up on TV. Insurance costs a really big expense most people have and the costs can vary so much from company to company.

In our situation we are one of the lucky families that have no debt so we have more that we want to protect from losing.

We have higher amounts of Protection to help us with that. But since we have our Emergency fund complete, we are able to have higher deductibles so we can have lower cost for our Insurance.

We have Term Life Insurance on Darlene to Protect her income from her day job till she fully retires and the boys are out of the house. We are looking at Umbrella Policy’s currently for more Coverage now that Logan is driving

In this podcast I covered some ways we lowered our Auto, Home and Life Insurance cost lately and our plan for the future.

Let me know your thoughts or ideas. If you are looking for a Financial Coach drop me a note.

Visit my Podcast at www.Live4.Clubon 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]

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 Bruce of MillsWay.com

We feel it’s so important for Logan and Seth to start their lives after college with no Student Loans and No Car loans. No Debt at all. We are helping them out by giving them each a used car and they can live at home rent free until they are done with school. But they will need to pay for their college tuition, books and misc. charges. Having NO Student Loans is one of our Mills Way to Financial Freedom rules that we stress to the boys. We want them to grow into successful Adults and give us grandkids to play with someday. Way down the road. LOL

Seven Top things we are trying to do for Logan and Seth so they don’t have any Student Loans they owe on after they are done with college. They are explained in this Podcast with some interesting Stats.

Let me know your thoughts or ideas.

Visit my Podcast at www.Live4.Clubon 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]

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 Bruce of MillsWay.com

Sources and Resources from Podcast (Available in Show Notes)

Student Scholorships average they receive -

https://withfrank.org › for-parents › scholarships-and-grants-for-parents › ho...

Student Loan Debt - https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2019/02/25/student-loan-debt-statistics-2019/#63ffb661133f

This was our second Disney Cruise to Mexico. We left out of San Diego, CA. We were gone 3 days and 2 nights so it was a quick trip. But the boys loved it and loved the other cruise also. Now they want us to book a 7 day cruise for next summer. They ran into some old friends from their last cruise and made tons of new friends. 

Visit my Podcast at www.Live4.Clubon 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]

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 Bruce of MillsWay.com

Show Notes and References

1. Info about Disney Cruises at https://disneycruise.disney.go.com/onboard-activities/halloween-on-the-high-seas/