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The sooner you start your quest to become a millionaire, the cheaper and easier it will be. If you’ve delayed, it’s not too late to start, though.

We’ve got nearly 25 million millionaires in the United States, according to global investment bank Credit Suisse. About eight out of 10 are self-made, Fidelity Investments finds; only around 20% inherited their wealth.

“Anybody can become a millionaire with the right habits,” notes behavioral researcher James Langabeer in a press release announcing the publication of his book “The Quest for Wealth: Six Steps for Making Mindful Money Choices.” “The key is to become mindful, or deliberate and conscious, about your buying, spending, and investing behaviors.”

Millionaires aren’t special or smarter — they just live their lives more strategically, according to Vivian Tu, known as Your Rich BFF on YouTube, where she has nearly half a million subscribers.

Whether you’re an entrepreneur, a worker with real estate dealings or other money-generating side hustles, or an employee climbing the corporate ladder, adopting millionaires’ common habits could help you achieve this wealth milestone yourself.

Here’s what millionaires do.

1. They set goals

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Goals help millionaires stay focused and motivated.

You can start with SMART goals that set you on your path to wealth. These goals are:

  • Specific, like paying off your credit card debt
  • Measurable, like tracking your monthly payment progress
  • Attainable, like how you’re going to do it (Try this.)
  • Relevant, like freeing money for investing
  • Time-bound, like in six months or a year

Just the act of writing goals down can help you set your actions in motion. Building routines to meet your goals can become the habits that make you a millionaire.

Forming enriching habits requires from 18 to 254 days of following routines, according to the findings of one study. The median time is 66 days, the study authors say.

2. They visualize themselves

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Picture your ideal self every day, advises Stacy Johnson, founder of Money Talks News. “We’ve all read about millionaires who lost everything, then somehow made it all back,” he says. “We’ve also read about people who won the lottery, then lost every dime. In both cases, what those people did was adjust their reality to match their self-image.”

You have a mental picture of the person you expect to be, Stacy says. He adds: “Sooner or later, you’re going to become the person in that picture.”

Many people might think luck plays a role in attaining wealth.

“Even if luck or randomness plays a big role, we still are better off if we start with some notion of where we’d like to end up,” author Langabeer says in an article for Psychology Today.

3. They invest

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You can only work so many hours in a day, but millionaires know your money can work for you nonstop, Tu says in one of her videos.

Millionaires save about 20% of their income annually, according to William D. Danko and Richard J. Van Ness, who wrote the research-based book “Richer Than a Millionaire ~ A Pathway to True Prosperity.” “Unfortunately, others spend all of their income or more,” they write in an article published by the Coastal Breeze News.

“Saving and investing remain a fundamental practice to reach financial independence,” Danko said in an interview with Breakwater Financial.

The sooner you start investing, the less you need to invest to grow it to $1 million long-term, as this illustration shows.

  • If at age 25 you start investing $200 a month in a tax-deferred account such as a 401(k) or IRA and earn 10% compounded annually — the approximate long-term average return on a low-cost S&P 500 Index fund — online calculators indicate you’d have just over $1 million at age 65. During that 40-year period, you would only invest $96,000 but have gains of nearly $1 million.
  • If you wait until age 40, you need to put up $850 a month at the same 10% annual growth rate to accumulate $1 million by age 65. Over the course of 25 years, you would invest $255,000 and earn about $750,000. Still not a bad deal, and it indicates it’s never too late to start.

Step up the pace if you want to be a millionaire before you’re 65.

4. They shun debt

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Most millionaires have no debt, says a Fidelity study. Just 1 in 4 has a mortgage and even fewer carry credit card balances or are paying off auto loans.

When you’re not spending money on auto loans or credit card charges, you have more to save and invest in building your wealth. That’s not to say don’t use credit cards, especially rewards cards; just pay them off as you go.

Use debt in only two instances, Stacy advises.

  • When you have to in order to survive.
  • When you earn more on what you’re financing than what you pay to finance it.

“Unless borrowing is ultimately going to make you richer, don’t do it,” Stacy says.

5. They live frugally

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Even if they’ve never heard of humorist Robert Quillen, millionaires take heed today of his approximately century-old observation about money habits. In his Quillen’s Quips column from 1928, he wrote:

“Americanism: Using money you haven’t earned to buy things you don’t need to impress people you don’t like.”

To their credit, most millionaires have avoided this piece of Americana.

Danko and Thomas Stanley authored the 1996 groundbreaking bestseller “The Millionaire Next Door.” They found a lot of millionaires don’t look wealthy. Instead, they work most of their lives, drive average-cost cars rather than luxury models, live below their means, save their money and invest.

“People still need to be frugal, perhaps now more than ever,” Danko said in the Breakwater Financial interview. “They need to make viable family budgets that are adhered to.”

Industrial psychologist Sarah Stanley Fallaw, Stanley’s daughter, worked with her father to study 600 millionaires for “The Next Millionaire Next Door,” a data-driven sequel published in 2018. Fallaw says in a podcast the basic findings in the new book are consistent with her dad’s first book: Be frugal, make sound financial decisions and ignore what your coworkers and friends are driving, buying and wearing.

6. They avoid distractions

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Seemingly small decisions can take you off track to reach financial goals, according to Fallaw.

“Distractions are a significant reason why many struggle to become financially independent or achieve other goals,” she tells Business Insider.

Technology places what others are up to at our fingertips, making it harder to ignore their spending, Fallaw explains in a podcast. Distractions like that could lead you to spend unwisely while trying keeping up with the Joneses.

Fallaw founded DataPoints, which offers a free Money Personality test to help you see distractions that could derail your saving, spending and investing decisions. For example:

  • Extroverts might place themselves in social situations where they could bust their budgets on dining and entertainment.
  • Highly agreeable people could fall prey to dubious financial offers or opportunities they don’t need.
  • People with negative emotions can make impulsive spending or investment decisions when faced with stress.

“To build wealth, we must take responsibility for our financial future, even if our past was less than ideal,” Fallaw said in a 2020 interview.

7. They prioritize health

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Millionaires spend nearly six hours a week exercising while the average American spends 2½, according to Fallaw’s research as reported in Business Insider.

“You can’t do anything without health, and no matter how much money you have, you can’t enjoy it if you’re dead,” says personal finance educator Rose Han in her millionaire-habits video on YouTube, where her channel has 690,000 subscribers. Letting your health go will reduce your productivity, she cautions.

Another reason millionaires keep up healthy habits: Paying for health care is a top worry for millionaires as well as millionaires-to-be, the Fidelity study found.

8. They keep learning

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Education is a lifelong adventure for millionaires.

They spend roughly 5½ hours a week reading, Fallaw says.

Author Tom Corley, who got to know 233 millionaires for his Rich Habits study, says in an Acorns article that 68% of them went to college and 25% to graduate school. More than eight out of 10 say they read daily.

Reading helps them stay relevant in their field, updated on world news and expands their knowledge base to see more opportunities.

Millionaires also learn the language of money so they can make better decisions about their personal finances, says Chelsea Fagan of The Financial Diet in a YouTube video.

9. They persist

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Millionaires keep showing up, Stacy says.

“I’ve been at least moderately successful in three businesses: stock broker, TV news guy and website owner,” he explains. Each success took at least five years.

“We live in a society that has the attention span of a gnat,” according to Stacy. “All we ever hear about is someone who got rich overnight.”

If you’re not an immediate success, don’t cut and run, he urges.

“Becoming successful isn’t easy, but it is simple: Find something that provides value to other people, then keep improving and delivering it until you either best your competition or outlast them,” Stacy says.

Other self-made millionaires agree.

“Become someone who can fail forward and you will succeed at everything you do,” says Han in her video.

“If you believe in yourself and are consistent about working hard to achieve whatever goals you set out for yourself, you’re unstoppable,” Steve Adcock, who retired at age 35 in 2016, tells CNBC. Don’t give up, he says. “Success could be just around the corner.”

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Source: moneytalksnews.com

Apache is functioning normally

My father was an entrepreneur. He was always starting businesses. Most failed. Some succeeded in a wild fashion. (The inheritance he left the family is in the form of his most successful business, the source of my day job.)

It’s no surprise that as a child, I wanted to make money too.

I made my first business venture when I was in the second grade. I sold lemonade by the side of the road. It was miserable failure. I was trying to sell lemonade in March, on an infrequently-traveled stretch of country road, in rural Oregon. I didn’t sell any lemonade.

But in fourth grade, I started a little business that actually made money. Star Wars was huge in 1978, and like all the other boys, I collected Star Wars cards. Whatever change I could scrounge went to these cards. (We used to walk the sides of the roads collecting pop bottles. We’d cash in the deposits and immediately buy more Star Wars cards.) Collecting was frustrating. Sometimes I would have six of one card, and none of another. This bugged me until I realized that I could turn the surplus to my advantage.

  

I took all of my doubles (and triples and quadruples, etc.) and sorted them into random piles of about twenty card each. I wrapped each stack in a piece of typing paper and wrote 10¢ on the package in black felt pen. I made as many packages as I could, took them to school, and sold them to the other boys. I took that money to the local variety store and converted it into new cards. It was brilliant!

I did the same thing with Hardy Boys books. I loved the Hardy Boys — my aunts and uncles knew this, so I often got books as gifts. After I finished them, I’d take them to school and sell them for fifty cents. (They cost two dollars new.)

I was learning practical business lessons, and I was only ten years old.

Source: getrichslowly.org

Apache is functioning normally

Save more, spend smarter, and make your money go further

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Shortly after graduating from New York University with a Master’s degree, Melanie Lockert turned to food stamps, as she worked her way out of $81,000 in student loans.

“There were a lot of emotions around carrying that debt. It caused a lot of stress and depression and anxiety for a long time,” she shared with me recently during an interview on my podcast.

The student loan crisis in America has reached epidemic proportions. With households across the country carrying $1.26 trillion in student loans, it is the second largest category of debt following mortgage debt.

For the class of 2016, the average student loan balance is $37,172, up six percent from the previous year, according to a new analysis by student loan expert Mark Kantrowitz published in the Wall Street Journal.

If you’re struggling to make ends meet due to student loans or wondering how you’ll ever pay off the debt in a timely manner, here are some key steps to support you along the way.

Never Pay Late. Ever.

Whoever likes to call student loans “good debt,” has probably never faced a late payment. “Falling behind on payments can cause federal loans to enter default, triggering expensive fees and collections,” says Heather Jarvis, attorney and student loan expert.

If you miss several payments and are in default, federal loan borrowers may also seize your wages, tax refunds and possibly social security benefits. And you can only imagine how all this can damage your credit score. (Keep reading for advice on what to do if you’re already in default.)

To avoid ever paying late, sign up for automatic payments with your lender. Doing so could also earn you a reduced interest rate (usually 0.25%), which could save you hundreds of dollars, maybe more, over the life of your loan.

Extend the Term

Speaking of your loan’s life, extending the term from 10 to 15 or 20 years could provide you with some payment relief since when you extend the term, your monthly payments decrease.

Bear in mind that since your interest rate remains the same this strategy may mean you’ll end up paying more to pay off the loan over time.

One way to avoid paying too much more interest is to take advantage of the smaller monthly payments for only a window of time. As soon as your finances strengthen place more than the monthly minimum towards your balance to help you get out of debt closer to your original term. Be sure to place extra payments directly towards the principal to knock down the debt even faster.

Tap Government Assistance

If you have federal student loans you may qualify for Income-Based Repayment (IBR), a government program that helps qualifying borrowers cap loan payments to a percentage of income, typically 10% of their income. The program will also forgive any remaining student loan debt after 20 or 25 years of making payments.

The Department of Education also has a program called Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF). If you work full-time for a “public service” employer such as not-for-profits, AmeriCorps or PeaceCorps, the military or a government agency, PLSF may forgive your remaining federal loan debt after 10 years of employment.

If You’re Already Behind…You Have Options

If you’re in default, Jay Fleischman, a student loan and bankruptcy attorney, says you may be able to consolidate your loans under the U.S. Department of Education’s Direct Consolidation Loan Program, which is free and does not depend on creditworthiness.  “You could also rehabilitate by making nine agreed-upon monthly payments over a 10-month period of time with the collector assigned to the account. Those payments may be adjusted based on your income, and payments can be as low as $5 per month,” he says.

For private student loan borrowers, “the situation is markedly different because there is no right to consolidate or rehabilitate unless the lender has a specific program to do so,” says Fleischman. Contact your loan servicer and learn about ways you may be able to reduce or eliminate payments until you get back on your feet, he says.

If your lender won’t budge, you may choose to remain in default until a settlement opportunity presents itself or until the statute of limitations for collection expires. As a last resort, you may also consider bankruptcy as a way to wipe out other debts and repay your student loans under court supervision. “Though bankruptcy may not wipe out your student loans except in limited circumstances, many people opt for bankruptcy as a way to get more control over the ways in which your loans get paid,” says Fleischman.

Tap Home Equity…With Caution

Homeowners may be eligible to use a home equity line of credit (HELOC) to pay off their remaining student loan balance. This allows them to pay off the student loan with the existing equity in their home and save money if the HELOC has a lower interest rate than the student loan.

There’s also a new program offered by online lender SoFi called the Student Loan Payoff ReFi that allows some homeowners to pay down student debt using their home’s equity.  SoFi refinances the total amount of your student loans and existing mortgage at a lower rate. Through that process your student loan balance is paid off directly to the loan provider.

To qualify, SoFi says borrowers need healthy credit scores (check your free credit score to verify you qualify), a debt-to-income ratio that’s 45% or less (calculate debt-to-income ratio to see if you fall under this number) and a loan-to-value ratio that’s 80% or less (meaning you can’t be underwater on your mortgage). You can calculate your debt-to-income ratio with Turbo, and

Just keep in mind that when paying off your student loans with home equity – be it through SoFi or another lender – if you default on the consolidated loan the lender has the right to use your home as collateral and foreclose on the property. It’s a serious risk if you don’t have enough in savings or stable income to help you get by during tough times.

Remember to Deduct It

Student loans are no fun, but paying them can yield lower taxes. Each year the IRS lets borrowers deduct up to $2,500 in student loan interest from their taxable income.

Maybe Your Employer Can Help?

A growing number of companies are helping employees squash their student loans as an added perk like a 401(k) and health care.

Gradifi is a Boston-based start-up that’s working with over 200 employers to set up its student loan pay down plan, including PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

It’s a trend that’s likely to grow over the years with more than 50 percent of student loan borrowers saying they would rather receive student loan benefits than heath care from their employer.

Start a Side Hustle

While it’s important to cut back on spending to make room for paying down debt, that move alone isn’t always enough. “Pinching pennies and cutting back is really useful as an initial strategy, but at some point, there’s only so much you can cut back,” says Lockert, whose now chronicled her debt payoff strategies in the book Dear Debt: A Story About Breaking Up With Debt.
Through a series of side hustles over the years, including housecleaning, event assisting and pet sitting, earning $10 to $50 per hour, Lockert managed to not only afford her living expenses, but also erase five figures worth of student loan debt.

Depending on your interests, you can find relatively easy gigs at sites like TaskRabbit, Tutor.com, GigWalk and Care.com.

Have a question for Farnoosh? You can submit your questions via Twitter @Farnoosh, Facebook or email at [email protected] (please note “Mint Blog” in the subject line).

Farnoosh Torabi is America’s leading personal finance authority hooked on helping Americans live their richest, happiest lives. From her early days reporting for Money Magazine to now hosting a primetime series on CNBC and writing monthly for O, The Oprah Magazine, she’s become our favorite go-to money expert and friend.

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Apache is functioning normally

This is the first of a planned series in which I interview friends and family about their attitudes toward money. Most of these will be anonymized (and much shorter). Some will not. This first interview is with Scott Durbin, a member of Imagination Movers, a rock band for kids. This band is an entrepreneurial venture that required a huge leap of faith.

Scott, what made you and the other Movers decide to form a band? And why a band for kids?

Once you get into your 30s, you begin to feel opportunities to be creative evaporating. This time in our lives is often devoted to starting families, working for the company, paying bills to stay above the proverbial water, or working on our various relationships (wife-husband, boyfriend-girlfriend, other). I could get philosophical about the conflict and guilt of doing something seemingly self-indulgent versus being a good father/husband/worker, but let’s save that for another day. Luckily I have an amazing wife!

Several forces led to the founding of the Imagination Movers.

1. First, the guys in the group are very creative fellows. Creativity bubbles to the top given an opportunity.

2. Strangely enough, having families created an environment that allowed us to pool our creativity. That and proximity. When the Movers started, we lived within walking distance from one another. We all started having kids at the same time (minus Smitty who is the Mover without children). Kids have birthday parties. Parents gather. A ritual is established, and instead of going to bars or wherever to hang out with your mates, you’re left with your two-year-old’s birthday party as a means of convening. But it’s all good. These gatherings became the second peice of the puzzle.

3. When you have kids, you are immediately introduced into a foreign culture. You acclimate yourself as best you can, discovering the latest coolest educational toys, kids’ music, enrichment opportunities, places to play or visit, restaurants where kids eat free, any video/audio that might make your kids smarter — the whole kit-n-kaboodle. You discover your children want to listen to something over and over and over and over and over again, so as a survival parent, you want to make sure you can tolerate whatever that music is. This was the third key to development of the Imagination Movers.

4. Meanwhile, my wife has a friend who works at the local PBS affiliate. My wife’s friend often asks me to participate in commercials or promos they do. So there I am dancing for a commercial advertising the station’s fundraiser, a Beer Tasting Fest. The commercial is a hit, so I am receiving a lot of local affiliate PBS love which I put on the shelf for later use. This is a fourth thread. (All these threads will come together, so stay with me.)

5. Finally, I am a huge fan of Mister Rogers and Captain Kangaroo — people who possess a sincere desire to better the lives of their audiences and an almost palpable integrity that assures you they are not full of crap. And on top of that, they are REAL and not cartoons. I love cartoons just as much as the next guy, but heck, you know live action children’s entertainment is needed. A cartoon can only model so far or translate so much. It’s two-dimensional. So when Fred Rogers passed away, I felt called to take his place. Sounds crazy, but that become this nagging gut thing for me. I wanted to create a local kids’ show that treated kids like people and not consumers. This was the last factor in the band’s creation.

So here’s where the threads start coming together:

  • I mention that I want to start a local kid’s show to my wife’s friend at the local PBS affiliate.
  • I talk about the idea with my friends (and future Movers) at parties or the local grocery (the neighborhood essentially).
  • As I begin waxing, I arrive at a name for the show — “Imagination Movers” — and a broad concept that Movers work in the other-worldy land of imagination, and it’s the job of a Mover to bring people good ideas when they have idea emergencies.
  • I pitch the initial notion to the guys at a party. They’re in. We start writing a treatment/script in the attic of Dave’s house that we plan to pitch to the local PBS station. As we work on the show, music becomes a cornerstone. Rich and Smitty whip out the guitars and jam. Since the first script is about ‘healthy snacks’, most of the songs are in that vein. Well, we start writing songs and sometimes play them at get-togethers. People love the songs. Really love the songs.
  • We pitch the show to the local PBS affiliate and they love it, but with PBS-type entities, they have NO money. We are disappointed, but everyone loves the songs. So Rich decides to invest in a home studio and we begin recording the music we wrote for the show.

The rest is Mover history.

So why did we become a kids’ band? For the most part, our children/families were where we were, and what we were about, so our songs became part observations of our lives, part honoring our wee ones (and hopefully creating something meaningful for other wee ones), and a sincere desire to be the new Mr. Rogers. But in our case, Mr. Rogers has been divided into four parts, and instead of wearing a cardigan … wears blue coveralls.

What was your family’s financial situation at the time you started the Imagination Movers?

At the time the Movers started, I was entering my sixth year of teaching. Picture if you will, being the ‘bread winner’ on a teacher’s salary. Ahhh, the luxury of it all. My better half worked full time-ish as an office manager for a web firm and was earning a little less than me. Our income, however, was supplemented by a rental property. Even so, we rented to friends and consequently asked for $150 month lower than market value for the area.

Having two wee ones, we were quite honestly living paycheck to paycheck. We had some credit card debt but nothing crazy.

Our biggest financial problem — and this sounds strange — was vacations. Here’s the recurring scenario: we would finally get ourselves into some kind of financial stability and then boom, we would go on a family vacation and put ourselves right back into a mini-hole. Not trying to shift blame from self, but ‘we’ were not as frugal when it came to vacations as we should have been. My wife having been raised in a close knit family that always took summer vacations, was pretty adamant that we take similar family vacations. The problem with vacations is that you’re more apt to splurge thus obliterating your vacation budget. It’s the mentality of saying to yourself, “Hey, we’re on vacation! We won’t be able to do this for awhile or eat this good or whatever.” And soon enough, your food budget no longer exists and you’re stuffing your face with $20 crab cakes. Viva la vacation!

How did starting the Imagination Movers affect your personal finances?

For a while, everything we did was out of personal pocket. As the organic nature of our project began to take root and blossom, it was clear that some kind of real investment needed to be made so our Big Ideas could be realized. That investment was a gut check: it meant we needed to use more of our own money. So began the Movers. Honestly, everything we did — from purchasing blue suits to buying equipment (such as a PA and wireless mics) to investing in a home studio — came from the pockets and sacrifices of Rich, Scott, Dave and Smitty. The great part is that we so believed in what we were doing that money, time and energy aligned themselves and we went into overdrive.

Rich and I were the initial big investors. Dave and Smitty pitched in when possible. Rich took the burden of financing a home studio, which led to the biggest collective cost we faced early on: the creation of our first audio release, Good Ideas. Taking into account the manufacturing of the CDs, paying someone to master them, and PR, we were looking at a few thousand dollars head-on. We didn’t have much disposable income, but we found the money. (I think Smitty sold plasma. I sold balloon animals. Dave panhandeled and Rich washed cars.)

All in all, to get the Movers started, we had to get out the shovel and dig into savings so the machine could begin to turn. Our first big hope was that sales from the CD and early shows would allow us to reap what we sowed. Either we’d get back what we paid into the project, or allow the money we made to lead us to other opportunities. The latter became the yellow brick road.

So to answer your question: my personal savings was hit, parts of my home were converted (putting up shelves for inventory, setting up a network system, getting filing cabinets), and little costs (mailers, paper, postage) sometimes cut to the bone. Instead of buying a six pack or going to a movie, my disposable income went to buying CDs and labels to burn early demo copies for people.

How did you and the other guys feel about this? It sounds to me exactly as if you’ve been starting a business. Do you feel this way too?

We had big ambitions from the start. Although it seemed like a great side project, we secretly treated it as an opportunity to become self-employed and as such worked it like it was a small business. I took on the role as visionary, aspiring to some very lofty goals.

When our demos turned into real products, the fire was lit and we added more goals: creating a coloring book based on one of the songs, printing t-shirts, looking to establish distribution for our burgeoning product line. You name it, and we were plotting it. We even financed a trip to Toy Fair in New York in an attempt to introduce the world to the Movers.

I will say we were smart about resisting investment from outside of the group. Some financial advice we received led us to just say no to third party investors. I remember something about us selling securities in the group if we did so; in other words, we’d be opening ourselves up to a very complicated financial and legal world.

We also had some great friends who encouraged us to form a business plan. Sounds incredible impetuous, but we formed an LLC, met with local business leaders (Idea Village, a business incubator in New Orleans), and started working on goals.

Naturally, guys in the group participated in the project as best they could. Some did much more than others, but we were aware of the sweat equity certain people were giving early on. Rich and I were in working situations that allowed us to devote more time to the project than Dave and Smitty. Dave was working hard as an architect and Smitty as a fireman. We were — and still are — doing something that we loved, so turning it into a business simply allowed us to keep everything on the up and up, as well as kept us organized.

Scott, how did Hurricane Katrina affect the Imagination Movers? How did it affect your personal financial situation?

Katrina, without question, was a reminder of just of fragile we are; how life can turn on a dime with very little warning. Its effects were truly devastating, but with destruction there comes new life and so it was with my family personally and the Movers professionally. First off, Katrina destroyed three Mover homes and most (if not all) possessions. Here is a picture taken near our home a few days after the levees broke.

Keep in mind, most of this water stayed around for days. Sadly enough, photographs, videos of a child’s birth — you name it — met a watery and moldy grave. Actually, it went further than that — it destroyed the neighborhood. The places you went to have coffee, ‘make’ groceries, the church you attended or the school you dropped your kids off were gone. In the blink of a wink, everything you saw for miles became ghost-like. Even today — more than a year plus after — empty houses, lonely streets, lost neighborhoods now whisper for anyone, anything to bring them back to their former selves.

The Mover office was also trashed. Countless CDs, coloring books, musical instruments were ruined. And guess what? The Movers didn’t have insurance. We had liability insurance, but we were so small and Mom-and-Pop-ish that we hadn’t needed more insurance — or so we thought.

Luckily Smitty lived on the West Bank, so although his home experienced minor wind damage, it escaped the destruction. The material things naturally hold memories, but not life and our thoughts focused on the well being of him and others like him soon after Kat hit.

Right after the disaster, everyone was reeling from the new reality we were forced into and for all intent and purpose had not processed the extent to which our lives would change, but we knew at the very least we did have the Movers. In particular, the Movers had two shows booked in Texas, one in Dallas on the Labor Day weekend and another in Plano. With the exception of Smitty (who was knee deep in search and rescue), we all rallied and went to Texas to fulfill our obligation. Quite honestly, no one knew about their jobs or future income or anything. All we could see in front of us was a small payday and so we went with quite honestly the clothes on our back. We had no instruments, no Mover suits — nothing, but we went. And we played. Here is a picture of the Mover suits we used in place of our trademark royal blue ones. Note: Kyle is our ancillary Mover and plays drums for live shows with us.

Life afterwards was surreal. We no longer had a place to live. My family lived with my parents and my brother and his girlfriend in a tiny house with one bathroom in Lafayette, Louisiana (about two hours west of New Orleans). My job as a teacher was in limbo. I spent time in line for food stamps and wondered what queer curiosity tomorrow would bring. All the while I was still a dad and husband and the well-being of my family was paramount to everything I did. I’m sure the rest of the Movers felt the same way.

Personally speaking, my family received help from people we knew and didn’t know. Friends sent us giftcards for bookstores so we could buy the kids books as our wee ones love to read. Other friends and people we didn’t even know sent assistance of clothing and toys and hope. Churches helped. Companies helped. People helped us restore the basics. The Movers too received emails of support and even a guitar was sent. The emails, for the Movers sake, really kept the project going. The simple act of someone somewhere taking the time to share with us how important what we did — musically speaking — meant in the lives of their children (many whom were going through the same situation as us) humbled us. Buckled our knees. We knew. We knew we had to continue despite the overwhelming sense of powerlessness we all felt.

All in all, looking back, I am a better person. Though I wouldn’t wish the ordeal on anyone — the goodwill (and Godwill) of so many showed taught me about selflessness and how truly to give of the heart. As for my personal financial situation, well I was unceremoniously dumped from my position as a teacher in an independent school in New Orleans. I hold no grudges but wished they would have done it with a little more humanity and compassion. It was a phone call and a FedEx package. Either way, no job meant no income and no health insurance. My wife had to go to work full time so we could have health insurance. Our situation was so transformed that we were unaware of what might happen next (food stamps, unemployment, ect). Lots of ‘what ifs’ came along. Lots of ‘how did we get here.’

On the good side, the reality of our immediate financial situation was: we forced ourselves to save, to tore up those proverbial nuts for winter. Some pluses included no longer having to pay some of our bills: electric, cable, water, etc. We did receive some emergency funds from Red Cross, FEMA and some monies from of our insurance companies. All in all, our financial situation was made very clear to us: the ins and outs of our money was front-and-center and we were forced to deal with our financial situation head on. Credit card debt — what to do about mortgage payments on a home we no longer lived in — paying rent, too — you name it. We dealt with how we were going to handle it, especially having lost my salary.

Since I had no job, the Movers became a full time gig. As it did with Rich and then later with Dave. Any reason we had not to jump headfirst into this venture disappeared and so we signed with Disney. What a crazy juxtaposition that is — you sign a deal with Disney and you still are having difficulty making ends meet. Most people believed we were rich once the Disney deal came — biggest misnomer you could ever imagine. Hopefully our financial situation will improve, but the fact is: reality and perception are clearly two different things. Our main source of income is not Disney. Instead it was and is playing live. It’s our favorite thing to do and so we do it — right now to survive financially and emotionally. As a sidebar: Major props to Music Rising as it was a Godsend. Without it, the Movers would be instrument-less.

It’s now been a year since Katrina. How are things now with the band? With your financial situation?

A year plus removed from Katrina, it seems everyone yearns for routine and normality. My life now is spent in a city two hours west of New Orleans. I am the only Mover who has not returned to NOLA. My family sold our house after having sat on it, hoping the city and state would give us reason to reinvest and rebuild. Translation: a plan of some kind or another. Unfortunately, they have failed miserably in my humble opinion. The local leadership has become invisible and crime has riddled a city in desperate need of hope.

The world wonders why the Saints meant so much to the city of New Orleans. The inside scoop: a simple football team allowed the city to be one, regardless of color or creed or financial state. It allowed all people to smile and be hopeful because the city itself didn’t offer those commodities.

Back to the Movers — We’ve been fortunate to have videos rolling on Playhouse Disney so it does raise our profile. We’ve been working our tales off to make half of what we were making as professionals: architect, journalist and teacher — so we could make this dream come true. Sidebar: Smitty still works as a fireman in New Orleans. Shows you our true reality. Even with that said, we have opportunity and that is all we can ask for. We finished a pilot presentation (we felt was incredible) and five new videos which will hopefully air soon. All of the filming was shot in LaPlace (which can be considered Greater New Orleans to some). We felt humbled to know that an idea we created was now employing 75-ish people, most of whom were from the local area. Good story. Gives you lumps in your throat.

As I type this, I really have no idea what the future holds — financial or otherwise. I just hope I can make my next payment! Money is, after all, like all the things lost in Katrina: it comes and goes. A person defined by money gets short-changed by life. Family and friends are what make life special.

Thanks to Scott for sharing his story. Look for more money interviews with other real people in the coming months.

To date, the Imagination Movers have released the following:

Compact Discs
Good Ideas (2003), Calling All Movers (2004), Eight Feet (2005)
DVDs
Stir it Up (2005)

Want to hear what the Movers sound like? Here’s a song called “My Favorite Snack”. This song is popular among both the kids and parents we hang out with. You can find more mp3s for download at the Imagination Movers site.

Scott reports that the group has a brand new CD coming out on a major label in March. Want to hear what the Movers sound like? Here’s a song called “Clean My Room” that — among other things — reminds me of Aerosmith’s “Sweet Emotion”. You can find more mp3s for download at the Imagination Movers site.

Thanks to Scott for sharing his story. It’s a great example of the need for emergency funds and the realities of entrepreneurship (and making money from hobbies). I hope to do more money interviews in the future. I’m exploring the idea of making these podcast-based. If you have any thoughts on this, drop me a line.

Source: getrichslowly.org

Apache is functioning normally

Could you pay your mortgage, groceries, rent, insurance, medical expenses, and other bills on $2000/month? If you could, what kind of lifestyle might you lead?

Millions of retirees across America live it every day.

The Social Security Administration reports that 50% of elderly married beneficiaries and 70% of singles rely on Social Security for more than half of their monthly income. Considering that the average Social Security check is around $1361/month, this is a really tough place to be in for so many of these retirees.

And I’ve met them. Many of them.

Every year at my insurance agency, we meet thousands of baby boomers aging into Medicare at 65. We often see their shock, dismay, and confusion when they realize that the cost of their healthcare in retirement will easily eat up at least 20% to 30% of that Social Security check every month.

No matter how you slice it, even the best of the retiree budgeters out there are likely to have trouble making ends meet on Social Security income alone.

Sometimes when it comes to personal finance, budgeting isn’t the problem.

Sometimes income is the problem.

Fortunately, there’s good news on that front, because we live in an age where there are more opportunities to earn extra money than ever before. Our digital world has made this possible, and it couldn’t have come at a better time.

When you’re on a fixed income and struggling to make ends meet, a side hustle that pays you even a few hundred dollars a month can be a tremendous help.

At Boomer Benefits, we polled our Facebook fans – largely baby boomers and seniors – to ask what kind of side-hustles they are rocking out there in the real world. What we learned is that there’s a wide array of ways in which creative retirees are supplementing their Social Security income.

 

Today, I’ll share a few of their stories to give you some ideas for your own possible side-hustle that could potentially help to reduce financial worry and afford you a better lifestyle in retirement.

Teach From Home

Did you know that you can get paid to teach English without leaving your house? That’s right, and this is a perfect example of a retirement side hustle that exists today that would not have been possible ten years ago.

Valerie Heidel shared with us that she uses an online teaching platform called Cambly to teach English to students in Saudi Arabia, China, Japan, and even Brazil. She found this job opportunity by searching online for work from home part-time jobs. This work-from-home part was a must so that she could make her own schedule and work only when she feels like it.

What was also important to Valerie in finding a side hustle was the sense of purpose and productivity. And, because she has quite a few repeat weekly students, the job gives her spending cash. She earns $0.17 per minute that she is online with a student, which comes out to $10.20/hour.

Not bad for a job that doesn’t require her to leave her house. And this part-time gig doesn’t require a degree either. You can be approved for teaching gigs like this one in as little as two days (although for some applicants it can take up to two months).

Another retiree we spoke with shared how she used her part-time teaching income to transition into retirement. Our client Nancy was teaching full-time at one college while also teaching health courses part-time online as an adjunct instructor. When she was laid off from her full-time job unexpectedly, she was able to transition into semi-retirement by keeping the part-time health teaching.

J.D.’s note: When Kim’s father retired from teaching high-school English, he too picked up some extra cash by teaching college-level English classes online.

Nancy shared that she has a physical disability which would make it difficult for her to teach in a classroom or report to an office for work. The ability to teach right from her laptop through the school’s Learning Management System has even allowed her to work when she was hospitalized. Once the courses are created, her main duties are to respond to emails and grade assignments.

She loves that it keeps her active and says that she would be bored without this job, so she plans to continue teaching for as long as she possibly can.

Nancy shared that she and her spouse currently use her part-time income to supplement their Social Security income benefits so that they can avoid dipping into their retirement savings for as long as possible.

Takeaway: Nearly everyone has a skill that they could turn into a tutoring, teaching or mentorship position. In addition to Cambly, you can check for opportunities that fit your skills at sites like Tutor, Skooli, and Yup.

Turn Your Passion into Part-Time Income

Jeanine Handley has been a creative artist all her life and worked in graphic design. Now that she’s retired, she does remote graphic design work for clients out of her own home.

She’s also managed to turn this passion into a business right in her own neighborhood. Several years ago, when she relocated to Florida, she moved into a 55+ community. Many of the residents there are active seniors who want to learn and explore new things in their own retirement.

Jeanine noticed that many residents didn’t know how to use the camera and editing features on their smartphones. She helped one woman in her eighties with picking out a new smartphone and iPad and began weekly lessons to show her how to use both.

This blossomed into a course there in the community in which Jeanine helps to introduce other folks to smartphones and smartphone photography. She can communicate and teach these skills in a manner that other seniors understand and appreciate.

Jeanine charges a small fee for this and the money she earns helps to supplement her income and be able to afford some of the extra things like travel, entertainment, and dining out.

As an artist at heart, she doesn’t plan to ever retire this side hustle. Think about your own hobbies and passions. Could there be a way for you to turn that into an income-producing side gig?

Another side-hustler who plans to never retire is our client Billy who is a professional Santa Claus.

That’s right. Santa Claus! How cool is that for an income booster?

As a member of three professional Santa Claus organizations, Billy appears everywhere from schools and restaurants to big city events to spread the holiday cheer. He stresses that this side-hustle is one that really comes from your heart and not from the boots and suit that you wear.

He enjoys talking to children of all ages and listening to their needs. Sometimes the job can require emotional fortitude as the requests aren’t always about gifts or toys but sometimes may include a plea that Santa helps a child’s father find a job.

Yet even so, Billy admits that what he enjoys most is visiting homes of children who are either chronically ill or home-bound. These visits fulfill his heart while the side income he earns helps he and his wife to pay some of their expenses in retirement.

Being Santa can be a serious business both emotionally and professionally. Billy must pass a criminal background check each year and has regularly attended schools and seminars to perfect his craft. He’s also a member of three professional Santa Claus organizations.

Takeaway: Think about the things in your life that you absolutely love to do. Could your passion benefit someone else? How could you monetize that so that you can earn some income while performing activities that hardly feel like work at all?

Become a Contractor for Your Former Employer

When Roberta Baciak retired from working in a local school lunchroom, she felt so bad about leaving them that she volunteered to be a fill-in worker whenever they are short-staffed. They were quick to take her up on her offer, so now she works one day a week every week and sometimes gets called in on other days.

She also works from home 15 hours a week as an administrative assistance for a coffee shop and roasting company owned by her daughter and son-in-law. She takes care of their invoices, payroll, entering expenses into Quickbooks, sending statements and things like that.

Her side hustles have afforded her the ability to pay off some medical bills and to have some pocket cash to spend on little things her grandsons. She also loves the honor of helping her family with their growing business.

She plans on working as long as she can for her family and probably another year or so at the school lunchroom because she enjoys seeing her co-workers and the kids at school.

Roberta recommends that other retirees looking for side-income check with their local schools because lunchrooms are often looking for people who are willing to fill-in on an on-call basis.

Takeaway: Consider negotiating part-time employment with your last employer before retirement. You never know when they might agree! If that’s not an option, who do you know that has a business? Are there any part-time services that you could offer to them with your skills?

Get Financially Fit with Furballs

I honestly can’t think of a side gig I would enjoy more than getting paid to hang out with some fur kids. Busy working professionals are using pet sitting services more than ever – J.D. tells me he frequently uses Rover to book walks for his dog — and what’s great about this particular job is that you could work contract though a pet sitting service, or you could just post your services in neighborhood sites like Nextdoor.

This side hustle is really flexible because you can work only when you want to, and you can pet site in your own home or in someone else’s home for a little more cash.

I myself am a busy entrepreneur, working long hours at the office and frequently traveling for business. When I’m going to be gone overnight, I pay a friend’s mom, who is retired, to come and spend the night with my fur babies.

It helps me sleep at night to know that someone is caring for them, but I also know love that my pet sitter is a retiree who can really use the money to help her make ends meet. It’s a win-win for everyone.

Not sure about overnights? You could start with some day visits or dog-walking, both of which are other pet services that many working people willingly pay for.

Takeaway: This one is possibly the easiest side gig of all to get started in. Post on your favorite neighborhood app or sign up as a pet sitter or dog walker with sites live Rover or Wag.

What Will Your Next Side Hustle Be?

These are just a few of the fun and creative ways to earn extra retirement income that some of our own social media followers at Boomer Benefits have shared with us. No matter what type of work you used to do, there are endless opportunities for new things that you can do once you are retired to supplement your income from Social Security and investments.

If teaching or pet sitting aren’t your thing, check out our post on 50 Ingenius Ways to Earn Money in Retirement for additional inspiration. You might also check out Ryan Helms’ Hustle to Freedom podcast, which is one that I’ve referred dozens of people to when they’ve shared that they want to work part-time but aren’t quite sure doing what.

The key is understanding that our digital world really does make it easier than ever to put a few extra dollars in your pocket each month and sometimes just that little bit makes all the difference.

Happy Hustling!

Source: getrichslowly.org

Apache is functioning normally

The No Limits Ladies have posted an article on how to flip cars — how to buy used cars for cheap and sell them again for a profit.

I find used vehicles for sale, often times through Cars.com, and I price them using KBB.com. When I find one that I know is in more demand, with a motivated seller at or below private party pricing, I go look at it and sometimes buy it. Then I drive it for a while for free, and sell it when I’m ready, for more than I bought it for. Then I roll that money into the next vehicle, or sometimes keep a bit for myself.

According to the article, the steps to flipping a car are:

  1. Screen used car ads for in-demand cars priced below market.
  2. Make a cash offer for below the asking price.
  3. Make necessary repairs.
  4. Get the car cleaned and detailed.
  5. Have the title free and clear, ready to hand to the buyer.
  6. Show the vehicle in a safe location.
  7. Don’t negotiate — you don’t need to sell the vehicle, so wait for your price.
  8. Accept only cash.

This doesn’t interest me — I’m not a car guy — but if you’re mechanically inclined, this could be a great way to make some extra cash.

[No Limits Ladies: More Money Mondays: Flipping Cars]

Source: getrichslowly.org