financial goals

Does Planning your Financial Goals Make Better Outcomes?

Personal finance and scamsNo Comments

Yes, those people who create their own financial blueprints – including budgets, big goals for the future, and spending plans/prioritising – are better off financially than those who do not. For proof, you can read the stories of a New Zealand blue-printer here and an American blue-printer (Mr Money Mustache) here. I guess we like the words financial blueprint because it reminds us that we can be the architect of our own financial life. And we can! Why Write Goals?…

creative ways money flow

How will Creative Ways help my Money Flow?

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Over the past year, I’ve been busy knitting together creativity with money (conceptually, not literally), and looking at what would increase our money flow. It’s more about what stops it and what blocks your creative thinking, than anything else. When we think of money and finance, we often get all crazy. Fear of not having enough, fear of investment losses, fear of missing out, and confusion over the array of investing choices seems to block our minds from truly thinking outside the…

Prosperous Future Self

Looking after your Prosperous Future Self

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After all my learning through both painful experience and miles of research into personal finance over these past 12 years, I have come to this conclusion: If you don’t look after your money, no-one else will. If you think that your Super is someone else’s problem, don’t believe it. It’s yours to manage, with annual reviews to make sure you are on track to live comfortably, when the time comes. Keep the management costs low by selecting your Super Fund…

rich retirement

Want a rich retirement? You need creative money ideas!

Book Writing, Personal finance and scamsNo Comments,

There’s nothing that makes me madder than some journalist rabbiting on about sacrificing lots of salary into superannuation. Well, that is all very well if, a) you are employed; b) your employer is amenable to that; and c) you make enough money that you could easily miss 5 or 10 percent of it. But what about all of us in business? What about those retiring now? I don’t expect that people earning $120,000+ per year are going to be that…

Setting Goals for authors

Setting Goals: Are you Doing it the Right Way?

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If you take the step of setting a big goal that excites you, you’ll at least be putting it into your vision. But some stab at a goal without really considering all the factors. Are they aiming correctly? In 2003, I had two goals:  meet a man and write a book. I had a list of desired attributes and my write a book goal was written on a piece of paper, taped to the wall. Since dating and this blog…

My Financial Life in Books

Book Writing, Personal finance and scamsNo Comments,

Oh, what have I done to deserve this wretched financial life statement?  This five-digit retirement fund? Did I not start and run a freelance business, had this book, How to Start and Run a Freelance Business, that served clients well with persuasive copy? ‘Planning is the secret to success’, you say?  Well, that is my middle name. So faithfully I planned, set goals, budgeted, paid myself first, sought education and read up on Money. Just in case it found me…

keep positive

How do you keep Positive when all your Income Streams turn to Custard…?

Personal finance and scams1 comment

My dear bloglings, I am so qualified to write this post that it’s not even funny! Circa 2008 – 2010 was tough, tough, tough. Going backwards is never fun. Positive thinking is lambasted, but what I write about is positive psychology and ideas to keep you motivated. I know we’re all trying to put on a brave and successful public face, but at times do you feel like you’re one key client account away from closing shop… or are you…

THW Global – another work at home scam

Personal finance and scamsNo Comments

Dear readers, today I am among the tens of millions of gullible online workers around the world. Welcome to THW Global, paid video viewing (‘a reverse of Youtube’) – where “apparently” you can make up to $25 an hour (who knows what currency) and recruit others and make even more money (20% extra for the first level). In some parts the rambling made sense, although the use of ‘up to $25 an hour’ is a bit cagey…. but they failed to…

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What Can We Learn from a Ponzi Scheme?

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Recently a news story caught my eye – its real life plot truly ‘stranger than fiction’. A dead man’s body washed up on a Sunshine Coast beach. A tale told of a $100-million-dollar investment ‘Ponzi scheme’ – but hardly a trace of money has been found, apart from $1 million worth of US property and $91K cash. The “trading syndicate” invested in shares, real estate and commodities, and aimed to achieve returns of 24% a year. The fund manager had…

Family Finances Not a Cause for Fury

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When I think about my family finances, I do not get caught up in the emotional traps that others seem to. Perhaps because I believe that managing money has, at its base, simple accounting and mathematic principles. If you can understand what the words “income” and “expenses” mean, then you can probably manage a budget, if you don’t let emotions get the best of you. Some simply look at their income and unwittingly imagine that their entire salary is theirs…

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