 Pictured above is a Dell Latitude Ultrabook Laptop (13” model). Click on it to see all laptops in store. Saving Money on Laptops Everyone uses laptops, tablets, or smartphones to access the internet nowadays. If you want a powerful laptop, you can easily spend over $1,000 to get a new high-powered model. Working in the computer consulting business, I found that most companies use computers for about 2 years and replace them with a newer model. Those older machines have years of life in them, and in the past due to faster speed in technology, it made some sense to change every year or so. Not so much anymore. I decided in 1997 that there was probably a good market for used laptops, so I started an eBay store where we sold both used desktops and laptops. Desktops are pretty much dinosaurs in the computing world, so we have changed over to selling only used laptops. I have used dozens of different models over the years, but have zeroed in on one model. The Dell business model which is the Dell Latitude Ultrabook. These are slim and lightweight, weighing about 3 lbs or less. And you can get them in sizes from 10” all the way through 15.6” (10, 11.5, 12.5, 13.3, 14.2, 15.6). I personally use the 13” and 14” models myself after using 12.5” models for 7 or 8 years. The current Intel i7 processors are the 11th gen models. The ones we sell are typically 9th or 10th generation (and a few 8th gens). What is amazing about these is that even the 8th gen I7’s with DDR4 Memory run almost at the 11th gen I7 speed, but instead of spending $1400 on a new one, we sell them for $400 to $600 depending on the model, ram size, and SSD size. All of these Ultrabooks in the past five years have the SSD hard drives. (Solid state drives). Solid state drives are so much faster than the old 7200rpm hard drives and rarely break. They do start slowing down after about 5 years of use, but most people buy another laptop before they ever get 5 years old. The reason I chose the Dell Latitude models is they are made out of super high quality components. The bases are made of metal (not plastic like the rest of the industry), and the hinges are made of titanium. We are talking super tough. The Dell operating systems (either Windows 10 or Windows 11) are capable of moving between models when you insert the SSD into the other laptop. We keep both 256GB M2 SSD drives along with 512GB SSD drives, and offer various sizes of memory from 4GB, 8GB, 16GB, or 32GB. The more memory the faster they run of course, but it costs a bit more. A 16Gb 8th or 9th gen Intel processor with the SSD drive will really haul. It boots using the newer UEFI file system (newer setting in the bios) in 17 seconds or less on Windows 10. Compare that with other models. These laptops are very fast and efficient The ones we sell are FHD high definition screens with 1920x1080 dpi. Super sharp resolution, (not like the cheaper 1366x768 screens.) We have sold over 4,000 laptops since we started our eBay store in 1997. We specialize to a specific market and have dozens of repeat customers. You don’t have to buy a laptop from us, but I urge you to look at using one or two-year-old Dell laptops. If you don’t need a high-quality type business model, the Dell Inspiron laptops are geared for the home. Before buying on eBay, review your seller’s feedback and determine if he or she is reliable. We have 100% feedback and stand behind every laptop we sell. I sell even the laptop I use in my consulting business. I can switch to a similar model by simply taking my SSD drive over to another model and rebooting. Super efficient are the Dell Laptops and very flexible in being able to move between models. We carry only 6 to 10 laptops in stock and list each with 8 or so different settings of ram and hard drive (SSD) sizes. It allows the consumer to find exactly what they want and only pay for what they need. If you don’t understand all the technical talk, get a model with the size of screen you want, 8GB, and 256GB SSD and you will be set to rock. 14” models are good on screen size. Check out our store at InternetDirectLaptops Two other thoughts for this week. There are many ways to save money besides buying laptops. I read this past week in “The Compound Effect” by Darren Hardy that many blow so much money on simple things. How much does that $4 daily latte really cost? Add it up. $60 in 3 weeks. Over $1,000 in a year. So after 20 years if you compound it with the interest you could make, your one bad habit costs over $51,000. Think about it when you start any habit. A whole gallon can of coffee is less than $10, and it can make a LOT of cups of coffee. Check out another good minimalism site by Bolu Sokunbi at: www.clevergirlfinance.com Check out her 50/30/20 Budget article. A great and simple method to save. 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 Investing in Real Estate Investment Trusts (Reits) DISCLAIMER - I am not a Financial Advisor and do not work for any Brokerage Firm. The opinions given are of my own and are not to be used as professional advice. These are my findings and can hopefully help you to make informed decisions on investing. Consult a Broker or Lawyer before making any investment. One of the most underused investment categories to obtain Passive Income is Real Estate Investment Trusts known by the acronym of Reits or Reit. We discussed a large number of investment categories in an earlier article. https://lifecanbesimple.net/blog/investment-categories That article did not break out all the types of investments a person could make, it simply listed the 4 main types of investments which are Stocks, ETFs (Electronic Traded Funds), Mutual Funds, and Bonds. Bonds were covered in this next article. https://lifecanbesimple.net/blog/what-is-a-bond We discussed briefly in last week’s article on Why I Don’t Crypto Anymore the 11 stock diversification types. https://lifecanbesimple.net/blog/why-i-dont-crypto-anymore One of those 11 diversification types is Real Estate. A person can invest in Real Estate in many ways. You can rent a room of your home, purchase a duplex, live on one side, and rent out the other. You can buy houses individually and use them for rental property, or purchase apartment complexes. Each of these methods gives you passive income, but all require a substantial amount of effort and may require assistance in maintenance or maintaining the tenants and collecting the rent. Then there are REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts). Someone else maintains the properties, and you simply reap the rewards of the profits of the companies. Not all Reits are alike, and I encourage you to study these closely before making any purchases. Note that MREITs provide funding, but do not own the property. Do not automatically ignore MREITs as there are many good ones. We may come back and do an article on just MREITs due to the complexity of them. The more I read, the more I realize we must study these to clearly analyze their profitability compared to regular REITs. I briefly touched on rental property and REITs in the article on Passive Income: https://lifecanbesimple.net/blog/why-passive-income-is-so-important One of the great things about REITs is that most of them own the properties. Many Reits return above 10% on annual or quarterly dividends, making them excellent for passive income. And if they own the property, you can expect appreciation in Property values, particularly in this high inflation market we currently are in. I am so pleased with REITs potential, that I am currently upping my investments to have 11 to 15% of my total Roth IRAs invested in some form of REITs due to the high dividends and stock appreciation. Before explaining all the types, let me also mention that if you do not want to spend the time to research all the stocks (REITs), then there are some excellent ETFs that do the legwork for you and give consistent average returns. I have all 3 of these in my investments and all have done very well. Note there are many others that invest in REITs, these just happen to be the 3 we have purchased. Check out the following three: RIET - Hoya Capital Hi Dividend ETF HOMZ - Hoya Capital Full REIT ETF VNQ - Vanguard Real Estate Index Fund ETF  MREITS are companies that provided funding for Rental Properties (IE: Mortgage REITs). Mortgage-backed securities ae bundles of mortgages package together to form a bond-like asset.
A good website article on MReits by Michael Webster is: https://www.moneycrashers.com/mortgage-reit-mreit-definition/ The next few paragraphs were pulled from that article above. What Is an mREIT? The “m” stands for “mortgage,” as mREITs are a special group of REITs that base their real estate investments on the mortgage market. For the most part, this means that mREITs buy mortgages on the secondary mortgage market – in other words, they purchase mortgage debts. After a bank lends money to someone buying a house, the bank sells that mortgage to a mortgage buyer (such as an mREIT), and since mortgage rates are tied to the government bond market, mREITs are closely tied to that market as well. Types of mREITs: When an mREIT is established, it usually specializes in one type of mortgage debt. Some companies only buy mortgages that are backed by a federal agency like Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, or Ginnie Mae. They choose these mortgages because they are backed by a federal guarantee and thus there is a lower risk of default, which means that they are also less profitable. Other mREITs, sometimes called non-agency mREITs, specialize in mortgages that are not guaranteed by a federal agency. These tend to pay higher dividends, largely because there is a higher risk of the mortgages being defaulted upon. Owning Shares Investors can buy into these mREITs by buying shares in the companies, which are publicly traded on a stock exchange. As a partial owner in the company, shareholders receive dividends from the mREITs – and that is where those attractive high yields come in. Like other public companies, an mREIT goes up and down in value as the market reevaluates the company’s value. If investors believe that an mREIT will become less profitable because it becomes more expensive for them to raise money or because mortgages will underperform, the share price will go down. Since many investors look at mREITs as a source of passive income thanks to those high dividends, mREIT shares will also depreciate if investors think that dividends will go down. Some of the other types of REITS where most own the properties are: (These are specifically focused REITs) Office REITS provides commercial real estate involving office and Rental business space. Residential REITs focus on single-family homes, residential housing such as apartments, and mobile home lots. Data Center REITs. Rather than proving physical storage, these may be providing data storage such as Cloud sore in data server facilities. DLR/Digital Reality is one such REIT. HealthCare REITS. Of course, this category focuses on the healthcare sector including medical offices, Senior-living facilities, and hospitals. A couple of the larger established Healthcare REITS are MPW – Medical Property Trust, and LTC Properties (LTC). Infrastructure REITs. These build the inner workings of cities and towns including cell towers, energy pipelines, fiber, and telecommunication structures. Retail REITs. These are mainly shopping centers and malls. Hospitality REITs. These are focused on hotels and resorts dealing mainly in lodging. Timberland and Farmland REITs. These are focused on land for farm crops, and farmlands. Industrial REITs. These mainly deal in large warehouse and distribution centers. A hot REIT nowadays is the Self Storage REITs. They collect rents from individuals and companies storing items in Self Storage units. With so many types of REITs, you may want to consider just purchasing the ETFs such as Riet, Homz, or VNQ which give you exposure to what they consider the overall REITs and give consideration to all categories. I will come back and do a more extensive article on REITS in the future. I clearly think these are excellent investments. There are a lot of good ones and some not-so-good investments in REITs. So be careful and don’t just chase the high dividends. Look at their long-term Earnings Per Share and their Price to Earnings Ratio. (P/E). The total asset values should exceed their market share. (Number of outstanding shares * Price Per Share.) This requires pulling the Balance Sheet from their quarterly 10-Q SEC filings which we will delve into in future articles. Always be aware of all the pitfalls in investing and don't just take recommendations, but prove the numbers in a logical decision making process. List of All Investment Articles https://lifecanbesimple.net/investments.html List of All Minimalism Articles https://lifecanbesimple.net/minimalism.html www.lifecanbesimple.net http://www.InternetDirect.us Internet Direct Laptops  DISCLAIMER - I am not a Financial Advisor and do not work for any Brokerage Firm. The opinions given are of my own and are not to be used as professional advice. These are my findings and can hopefully help you to make informed decisions on investing. Consult a Broker or Lawyer before making any investment.
Have you been tempted to buy some Crypto Currency such as Bitcoin? As I write this article, the first half of 2022 has seen the S&P 500 drop 22%. That is the worst six months run since the bear market of 1970. So if you are like me, you are looking for ways to invest that are possibly better and more consistent. I read books and articles from a lot of authors. And so many of them have told me that we can trust these new Crypto Currencies. After listening to this for months on end, (and yet not fully understanding it fully), I decided that the windfalls had to be so great that the risk would be worth it. I sometimes speculate with small amounts of money, so I bought an ETF on Bitcoin and my $100 investment went to $140 in like 3 weeks. So I decided I would take my profits and get out. One my authors who I follow daily suggested that Stable Coins at Voyager would be really good as it yields over 9% (but is not guaranteed like an I-Bond). He suggested to use Voyager as the platform to buy and sell as he was doing. So I go out and download the Voyager app, and the first thing they ask me to do is set up my bank account information to pay for my investments. If you are new to the “Crypto” world, the reason hackers love the platform is they can take your payment and there is no way to track it. So I thought to myself, even if Voyager is a solid platform, do I want to give someone access to my bank accounts and have no way to track the buy or sell transactions. I will say up front that I don’t understand how this all works, but the fear of linking my bank stopped me from investing with Voyager. God takes care of widows and fools, so since I am not a widow, I guess you can see how I qualified. Sometimes you need to trust your gut feelings. So I found a mutual fund that invested in Cryto-currencies and invested my small $100 of speculative money with them. Then as the weeks went by, Bitcoin continued a slow decline. Week after week, I would lose another 5%. I have a limit of 30% down before I cash out of any speculative investment, so I sold off 3 weeks ago and got what was left back which was $65. So I made $40, and lost $35, so I am to the good $5. So why am I saying I won’t buy Crypto anymore? The Voyager platform went belly up a few weeks ago, right after I got my money out. I understand that on the website, it stated that the company/bank owning Voyager was FDIC insured. Now the bank was, but not Voyager. I am just writing what I have read. I am not sure this is factual. But the reality is Voyager was selling various forms of Cryptocurrencies, and most people who invested in it lost like 95% of their money. I have read that some lost over $1 million dollars. So what can we make of this? I say we need to do what Warren Buffet does. Back in the dot.com speculation era of the FAANG stocks (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google make up the FAANG stocks), he said he never makes any investment that he does not understand. I think he is super wise and that is now my new rule to invest. Until I can study anything new, I WILL NOT invest. I not only will study it, but I will be confident that I UNDERSTAND it fully. Invest carries the connotation that you will receive something in return for what you put into it. All these fast-money hustlers are waiting to take advantage of an unwary public. BUYER BEWARE! I suggest you study and then study some more. As Richard Kiyosaki has said in multiple books, you must continue to read and study all the time as things change. What worked in 1984 may not work in 2022. Also, depending on market history to repeat itself may not be wise either. I think history many times does repeat itself, but that simply means the stock market will have bear markets and then some bull markets. But which stocks make the big moves will have a lot more to do with what those companies are selling. (or the dividends they pay.) Anyone who invested $1,000 in Amazon in the early days would be rich today. But not many Amazons are out there. Right now I personally think companies in the Lithium and Copper markets are some good speculative buys due to the batteries needed in the Hybrid or all Electric EV cars. But I could be wrong. I have read it takes 20 times more copper to make an EV than it does Lithium due to the number of wires in those types of vehicles. Right now 80% of the Lithium is coming from China, so other companies in this business should do well. So STUDY, STUDY, STUDY. Don’t take my word for things, but read multiple people. But if they tell you to buy something that does not make sense, don’t do it. Be conservative like Warren Buffet. Buy Coca-Cola for the dividends (or 3M or Exxon or something you know and understand). My personal investments are now taking on new percentages where I try to be fully diversified over the multiple types of investments. There are 11 major stock sector diversification types and I try to have some money in all of these sectors. List of 11 Sectors
Why would you ever want to invest in all these sectors? It is simple. Some sectors are normally lagging, while some are shooting up. This year if you are not invested in Energy, you are missing some of the really fast movers. So the reason to always stay invested in some of all the categories is to guarantee that you get full exposure. Jack Bogle, founder of Vanguard investments, has for years preached that the full indexes are the way to go in the market. Very few mutual fund managers (3% or less) beat the overall stock market averages. I did a review on his book “The Little Book of Common Sense Investing” a few months ago. After reassessing the market mid-year in 2022, my main investments in the remainder of 2022 and into 2023 will be Dividend Growth Stocks (or ETFs of that investment type), Real Estate Trusts (REITS), and the full stock market indexes. I intend to put 11% in each of these 3 categories and 50% in I-Bonds, Cash, CDs, or short-term bond funds(or ETFs). The remaining 17% will be filling in on sector funds and make up those 10 sectors above (excluding Real Estate which is one of my top 11% investments). It is a conservative approach, but I think a wise one that should net out above 12% if the market rebounds. I checked my Schwab account today which has the highest number of Dividend Growth stocks in my 5 Roth IRAs, and it shows my last six months have yielded 20.54% while the S&P 500 has dropped 22%. One six month period proves nothing, but it does indicate that my plan is sound and working for now. The I-Bonds (Inflation protected Treasury Bonds) are the best lock in the market right now yielding 9.62% for this current 6-month period and may go above 10% in November when the next 6 months rate is set. Check those out at: Treasurydirect.gov I did an article on those at: https://lifecanbesimple.net/blog/safe-place-to-invest-50-today Check out the articles on full stock market indexes and the power of dividend growth investments on the next two links. Start simple but do start. https://lifecanbesimple.net/blog/the-power-of-full-market-indexes https://lifecanbesimple.net/blog/dgi-investing Don’t speculate with your money, but begin LONG-TERM investing today. Plan to make money by steady consistent investments, not some get rich scheme that most likely will fail. Always remember, if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is not true. List of All Investment Articles https://lifecanbesimple.net/investments.html List of all Minimalism Articles https://lifecanbesimple.net/minimalism.html www.lifecanbesimple.net www.InternetDirect.us Internet Direct Laptops  DISCLAIMER - I am not a Financial Advisor and do not work for any Brokerage Firm. The opinions given are of my own and are not to be used as professional advice. These are my findings and can hopefully help you to make informed decisions on investing. Consult a Broker or Lawyer before making any investment. Are you living expecting the government or some rich relative to bail you out of a lifetime of poor money management? Sad to say, but the Calvary is not coming. It is up to each of us to manage our money and invest for retirement. Are you 20 years old and think retirement is something you don’t have to worry about? I was there and wasted my early years and invested zero. Or maybe you are between 30 and 60 and know it is something you need to start planning for. Now is the day to address your retirement. Many believe that the stock market is too complicated for them to understand. We began several months ago by explaining how the market works and began with explanations of the 4 main types of investments. These next 2 articles give explanations on Mutual funds, ETFs(exchange-traded funds), Stocks, and Bonds. None are super complicated to understand. See the first 3 investment categories in the first article below and bonds on the second link. https://lifecanbesimple.net/blog/investment-categories https://lifecanbesimple.net/blog/what-is-a-bond It is crucial that we begin somewhere. One of my first articles was on beginning investing and how to start out on your journey to security in retirement. https://lifecanbesimple.net/blog/beginning-to-invest In that article I explained that you can choose a self–directed IRA or setup one that you manage. But getting a ROTH IRA is a good way to begin investing. If all of this scares you a bit, then start studying how to invest with our investments tab and begin by simply putting $25 or $50 in a I-Bond at treasuryDirect.gov which returns currently 9.62% for this current 6 month and may go above 10% when inflation is taken into account at the end of the year. Read about I-Bonds at: https://lifecanbesimple.net/blog/safe-place-to-invest-50-today You don’t even have to setup an IRA to invest. Read about all the advantages of the Inflation protected I-bonds at the link above. The main thing is to get started. A person who invests as little as $50 per month when you start in your 20’s will not believe how much money you will have by the time you retire if you consistently make a positive return of over 8% each year. I have been reading a book called the Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel. In that book he tells the story of Ronald Read who died in 2014 at the age of 92. He said that 2,813,503 people died that year and fewer than 4,000 of them had a net worth over $8 million dollars. But Ronald Read did. What was amazing about him was he fixed cars at a gas station for 25 years and swept floors at J C Penny for 17 years. He never made much money. Mr. Read lived in 2 bedroom house he purchased for $12,000 at the age of 38 and lived there all of his life. He never made much money, but he lived a humble life and saved most of his money and invested the money in blue chip stocks. People of his home town were shocked to find out this janitor left $2 million to his step kids and $6 million to his local hospital and library. It is an amazing true story. Janitor to philanthropist. But what worked in his favor was his consistency of saving early and continually every year. No elaborate plan. Just common sense continual investments. Read about how to invest. Buy some good long term investments and some full stock market ETFs. Read about all of these and get started. You will be glad you did. Check out the articles on full stock market indexes and power of dividend growth investments on the next two links. Start simple but do start. https://lifecanbesimple.net/blog/the-power-of-full-market-indexes https://lifecanbesimple.net/blog/dgi-investing The Calvary is not coming. Get started investing today.  List of All Investment Articles https://lifecanbesimple.net/investments.html List of all Minimalism Articles https://lifecanbesimple.net/minimalism.html www.lifecanbesimple.net www.InternetDirect.us Internet Direct Laptops  DISCLAIMER - I am not a Financial Advisor and do not work for any Brokerage Firm. The opinions given are of my own and are not to be used as professional advice. These are my findings and can hopefully help you to make informed decisions on investing. Consult a Broker or Lawyer before making any investment.
Book Review – Limitless by Jim Kwik This is one of the greatest books I have ever read. It makes you question all the ways you have been trained to think and learn and apply new methods. Get the book on Amazon at Limitless I was hesitant to dive into this book as it seemed a little far-fetched to me initially. This book is not about finances, but it is all about how to think and get rid of ‘Limiting beliefs’ about yourself. Doing this will help you in making financial decisions and learning to live a full complete life. Few books have ever left me with such a strange feeling as this one has. Richard Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad Poor Dad made me question my ‘limiting beliefs’ on investments, but this book opens up many foods for thought. How much of your brain are you using? And could you easily be learning much more and much faster? This book has a lot of answers. Jim Kwik tells his life story of having a fall when he was very young, and it impaired his ability to think and learn. He earlier could not learn like all the other kids, but after his accident things just did not make sense. His teachers were so discouraged with him that one of them nicknamed him “The boy with the damaged brain.” NEVER tell a child something like this, as a child takes what they are told as fact. That is why so many movements today are trying to indoctrinate young children with false teachings since they don’t yet have the maturity to make good decisions and know the truth from a lie. If a wrong thing is taught (a lie) and a person of authority teaches it, it is assumed to be true by a young person. Jim Kwik was hurt by the teacher’s comment, and it set him off on the path that made him have a horrible time in school. Even in college, he simply could not learn things being taught by current teaching techniques. Then he found out he needed to learn “How to Learn.” That changed his life, and now he is a coach to people all around the world and a motivational speaker. What I learned from “Limitless” by Jim Kwik: Our most precious gift is our brain. It allows us to learn, love, think, create, and even experience joy. It is the gateway to our emotions and it allows us to innovate, grow and accomplish great things. Humans (and our brains) are not computers and we can not multi-task and be effective like a computer can. We need to prioritize things and concentrate on the one thing at hand. Focus is crucial. Jim says that part of the reason we can not learn effectively is due to the four digital enemies to our minds. Digital Deluge – we have an almost unending flood of information that we do not have the time to process it all. This results in anxiety, feeling overwhelmed, and sleeplessness. Digital Distraction – We have this fake pleasure from all the digital distractions about us. Our emails ping and our phones ding with messages. We have so many distractions that it is hard to accomplish anything. We must limit this so we can be in the moment and do what we are doing without constant distraction. Digital Dementia – We can let our memory/brain become of no use by thinking every answer can be googled. We don’t process what is happening and come to our conclusions as we should. We are effectively outsourcing our brain to the internet, and not all things are facts on the internet. Digital Deduction – We let our computers make deductions for us. That is for us to assess and do, not some google algorithm program. We have lost the ability to process information and come up with deductions. Don’t let machines make your deductions for you. Mindset is so important. Mindset is the held beliefs, attitudes, and assumptions we create about who we are, how the world works, what we are capable of and deserve, and what is possible. Jim used ‘superheroes’ in his life to protect and project himself. He wanted to be a hero like Spiderman. Most everyone has some kind of ‘limiting beliefs.’ We are taught certain things about our limitations and we take those to be fact. In the book, he tells the story of Roger Bannister. Back in the 50s, it was a known ‘belief’ that no one could ever run a mile in less than 4 minutes. But in 1954, Roger ran it in under 4 minutes. 46 days later another person ran it faster than he, and since then, over 1400 others have run a sub-4 minute mile. See how we need to not limit what we can do. With the right mindset, we can be limitless. If we have these limiting beliefs, it is more than just in our heads. John Hopkins found that people with positive attitudes are 13 percent less likely to have heart attacks. Optimism can increase our life span, lower the rate of depression, and lower levels of distress when they come. We even have greater resistance to the common cold and have better coping skills during hardships. We need to reframe our limited beliefs by first identifying the limiting belief and getting to the facts causing those limiting beliefs. Overcome those with a new belief. Jim identifies the 7 Lies of learning. Lie no 1: Intelligence is fixed. It is not fixed and we can continue to learn. Lie no 2: We only use 10% of our brain. We can not honestly determine how much of the brain is being used, but we can stretch ourselves and start using all of our brain. Lie no 3: Mistakes and failures. They do not doom us. We need to learn from each one. Albert Einstein once said, “People who never made a mistake have never tried anything new.” We make mistakes and we need to learn from them and move on. Lie No 4: Knowledge is Power. While not totally wrong, we must learn and take that knowledge and apply it in some action for it to become power. If you do not apply the knowledge, there is no power in just the knowledge. Lie No 5: Learning New Things if Very Difficult –The truth is learning will not always be easy, but the effort pays dividends. Learning is a set of methods and a process that becomes easier than you know how to learn. Lie no 6: Criticism of Other People Matters. We must learn to let go of the fear of criticism from others. Lie No 7: Genius is born. Genius is learned and there is always a method behind what looks like magic. Genius is not born but made through deep practice. To learn and grow, we need to use The Three M’s: Mindset Methods Motivation What we eat can help fuel the brain. Here is a list of top brain foods: Avocados, Blueberries, Broccoli, Dark Chocolate, Eggs, Green Leafy Vegetables, Salmon, sardines, Caviar, Turmeric, Walnuts, and Water (Brain is about 80 percent water so dehydration can cause brain fog and fatigue. Well-hydrated people score better on brainpower tests. To become limitless, we must learn to FOCUS. We must limit distractions and calm our busy minds. Anxious minds can cause us to overthink. Things like yoga and meditation can help to calm our minds. 3 things to help calm the mind:
Memory – You must train your memory. There is a whole set of chapters on this. But we can teach our minds to remember things. We may need to relate the thing or person’s name to a place or even a smell. You can make the words into a story to help you remember each name in a list. Use the mnemonic device with the letters: MOM M: Motivation O: Observation M: Methods One of the best quotes in the book is from Mark Twain: The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them. Speedreading. Many ideas are given on how to speed up our reading. One is to remember that probably the last time you took a reading course was the fourth grade. When we first started reading, we had to ‘vocalize’ each word and speak it to the teacher. Without realizing it, our brain may be vocalizing each word causing us to slow down. Also by using your finger on each line as we read, we can drastically pick up speed. Words begin to flow and we don’t have to read each word to understand the sentences. It simply ties together as the commas and periods are there but not processed in our minds. This is important and it has improved my reading speed to almost double. In conclusion, we need to learn to think and use new methods of learning. What you were taught may not be your optimal learning method. Jim Kwik has caused me to question everything and try new methods. Learning is a life-long process. We must continue to grow and learn. The brain is a muscle, and it needs a workout. People who continue to grow and learn are much less susceptible to brain diseases such as Alzheimer's. List of All Investment Articles https://lifecanbesimple.net/investments.html List of all Minimalism Articles https://lifecanbesimple.net/minimalism.html www.lifecanbesimple.net www.InternetDirect.us Internet Direct Laptops  Getting a Minimalist Mindset
I have found to make changes in our lives, we must replace bad habits with good ones. Sounds easy, but it certainly is not. If you have repeated a bad habit for even a year, it is really hard to change. Perhaps you grew up and simply followed in the footsteps of your parents. Perhaps you were taught in school to do things a certain way when in reality it is not the best plan for your life. I read Jim Kwik’s book “Limitless” and found it quite interesting. Click here to read the review on this book. While Limitless is not focused on Minimalism, Jim Kwik teaches you to think beyond what you have been taught. You can buy Limitless here. Think outside the box and question everything. What I learned from this book is you must rethink all things. So if your life is a life of consumerism, it requires a hard change. If you want to change, you must believe that it is for your benefit. So can you say: “ I don’t need all the things I have been buying myself.” Until I questioned my motives about ten years ago, I thought I needed all the ‘Things’ I was buying. But after a few years of never being satisfied with what I had, I realized it was not doing me any good. Having the newest Android phone on the newest Android OS release is not all that important. I used to think it was so important. If we have to have the best of everything, most likely Minimalism may not be what you want to pursue. But if you are a practical person, minimalism may be your cup of tea. Question everything you are doing. Ask yourself “What gain am I getting from how I am purchasing items?” Is it possible that you could be just as well off with a one-year-old phone(or a 2 or 3-year-old one)? How about a 2-year-old Intel I7 Dell laptop? Those and 3-year-old ones are the only kinds I use. I will do an article soon on why these work so well and save us about one-half the price of a new computer. Try testing an 8th gen I7 with NVME SSD hard drives and compare it to an 11th Gen I7. Very minimal differences, but cost less than half the price of a new one. How about your clothes? Do you have to wear a name brand for everything? Who is noticing these expensive items you are wearing? Probably no one who is a true friend. How many pairs of shoes do you own? How many different sets of clothing do you own? Most people have dozens and the closet is overflowing. What about the groceries we buy? I love certain brands of items, but the store brands are pretty close on almost everything, and if no detectable difference, why pay a 40 to 50% difference. Saturday, I found a perfect example of this. A package of Oreo cookies at Walmart was $4.58. The store brand, which looked the same and tasted identical to the original and cost only $2.17. Now that is a huge saving. Do that on 40 items and guess what? Half the grocery bill. Now not every item can be replaced equally with store brands, but I dare say at least 80 percent can be. The savings you can use for important things such as investments or taking your kids on vacation. Let’s talk big-ticket items. What kind of car do you drive? I read in the “Millionaire Next Door” that 90% of millionaires drive 4 to 5-year-old sedans. Not Mercedes or BMWs which these people could easily afford. Save money and buy reasonable high-quality cars that are just a few years old. Cars you don’t think of that are excellent quality used cars are Kia’s and Hyundai’s. Hondas and Toyotas have been excellent quality vehicles for over 20 years. Sometimes off-lease cars can be bought at huge discounts over the cost of new ones. There is a huge loss of value in the first few months after new car purchase. And in the environment we are in, just finding a new one is hard, and then it will probably cost you full price if not more. Not a good time to force a new car purchase. How big is big enough on a home? I have read that most homes 30 years ago were under 1,000 square feet. Today the average home is over 2,000 square feet. I used to live in a 2375 sq. foot 4 bedroom home, and it was great. But guess what? Even with ¾” wall studs and double insulation, the electric bill 20 years ago exceeded $500 a month. So not only do you pay for the extra room, but you pay every month on the utility bills. After a few stops in downsizing, we are now living in a 3 bedroom / 1200 sq. ft. house and we love it. Less to clean and my electric bills using window air conditioners for cooling just two rooms at a time keep our electric bill around $115 a month using the ‘free weekends plan’ with Reliant Energy. Huge savings and we honestly have more room than we need. All 3 of our kids are grown and we use one bedroom for my consulting office and another for my wife's sewing room. Plenty of space for everything we need. I hope these ideas will give you some food for thought. Question everything and seek a simple method. The savings will be huge, and you can use the extra money to build more passive income so that you can retire earlier. See articles below on how to invest to retire early. List of All Investment Articles https://lifecanbesimple.net/investments.html List of All Minimalism Articles https://lifecanbesimple.net/minimalism.html www.lifecanbesimple.net http://www.InternetDirect.us Internet Direct Laptops  DISCLAIMER - I am not a Financial Advisor and do not work for any Brokerage Firm. The opinions given are of my own and are not to be used as professional advice. These are my findings and can hopefully help you to make informed decisions on investing. Consult a Broker or Lawyer before making any investment.  Book Review – Rich Dad’s Cashflow Quadrant by Robert Kiyosaki. This is the second of the 3 books I have read by Mr. Kiyosaki. For whatever reason, I read the first one (Rich Dad Poor Dad) and then the third one (Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing) before reading this one. I want to encourage you to read them in order. Links for the 3 books are: Rich Dad Poor Dad Rich Dad’s Cashflow Quadrant Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing makes a lot of sense. I suggest you try to read them in order starting with Rich Dad Poor Dad. The Cashflow Quadrant is a bit difficult to grasp initially, but the longer Mr. Kiyosaki explains it, the easier it gets to understand. The three books work together to give you sensible investing information. It honestly is even greater than just investing advice. He urges you to think a bit outside of the box and gain an education beyond what normal education can give you. Robert Kiyosaki had two dads. The first was a highly educated man who was the poor dad. His rich dad had little education, but great street smarts and taught him that to get good grades in college and get a lifetime high paying job with good benefits is not the way to wealth. You have to work 45 to 55 years and you at best have minimal investments. Using the Rich Dad’s Cashflow Quadrant can allow a person to gain riches in 20 years or less, and then not have to work the rest of your life. Is it a lock that you will be successful? Of course not. But the basic rules are all found in this book. 20 Things I learned from Rich Dad’s Cashflow Quadrant: 1.The Cashflow Quadrant is made up of 4 quadrants. See Image Above. On the left, you have the E and S quadrants. These are employees and Self Employed people. The right side is the B and I quadrants, where the real money is made. B is for big business (over 500 employees) and I is for Investors. 2.The people in E/S quadrants have very few tax advantages. Those in the B bracket have huge tax breaks as they acquire assets. The 4 quadrants are not equal in any way. The B and I quadrants allow you to put more money to work with Pre-tax money. Also, the business can depreciate the asset and other people can make your payments. (IE: Rentals where the renter pays the bank for your loan while you accrue higher value over time in the asset.) 3.Different people fit into the various quadrants. If your mindset is strictly security, you may never get outside the E quadrant. 4.Successful B quadrant people hire smart people to run the business. Over time, you can step down from leadership and the company sustains itself with money continually coming in as passive income. 5.An example of a hard-working businessman was Henry Ford. He hired great people to work for him. Quote: “Thinking is the hardest work there is. That is why few people engage in it.” His workers could answer questions that Ford himself could not. 6.A successful B Quadrant person must take control of business systems and be a great leader with much self-confidence. The system is your bridge to ultimate freedom. 7.Rich Dad pointed out to Robert that he might have to fail 2 or 3 times in business before he became successful. Success is a poor teacher, but we learn a LOT when we fail. 8.Of the levels of investing types, the Level 5 Capitalist is the one where the richest people of the world attain. They learn and many times use OPM (Other people's money) to finance their investments. 9.Rich Dad taught me that ROI is more than Return on Investment, but a Return on Information you have learned. You can never learn too much and it is a constant struggle to stay up on business and tax laws. 10.To be effective in the B/I Quadrants, a person must understand what real risk is and develop a system to minimize risk. This takes time and effort. 11.We must always continue to learn. Mark Twain once said, “I never let schooling interfere with my education.” Successful people seek training in other places than schools such as through books, seminars, and online classes. 12.The Cashflow Quadrant is all about being, not just doing. How we think about winning and losing is so important. Losses are inevitable, and we must learn from the losses. How we think is truly how we will be. Emotional intelligence can be controlled. 13.To move to the right side of the quadrant, we must control our emotions and think in more technical terms. Be the bank, not the banker. Learn to control assets which is so very important. 14.In life, there is a continual transfer of wealth so we have to be ready for change, 15.In Cashflow Quadrant, many books are listed as good ones for us to read including “The Worldly Philosophers” by Robert Heilbroner and “Wealth of Nations” by Adam Smith. 16.A journey of a thousand miles begins with one little baby step. We must go slow initially to be successful in the Investing Quadrant. 17.To get in a good place to invest, Robert lists several key things to do. Pay Yourself First, Snowball any Debt you have, don’t use over 2 credit cards, and pay them off fully each month. When debt is fully paid, then use your snowball to invest. 18.Know the type of investor you are, and learn to solve problems to find your fast track. 19.To grow and be effective, get mentors to help you. 20. Make your disappoints your strengths. Mind your own business, take control of your cash flow, know the difference between risk and risky, and know which type of investor you are.
In conclusion, Mr. Kiyosaki encourages us to learn from our mistakes and don’t think we won’t fail sometimes. Be kind to yourself and speak positive thoughts to yourself. Don’t allow negative thoughts to be spoken in your mind. He points out that money will not stay with people who don’t believe in themselves. Your words are a mirror to the soul. Stay positive and be aware of what is coming your way. Believe in yourself and start small. But do start. There is a lot to learn and it is a lifelong process. I urge you to read all 3 of the Rich Dad Poor Dad books. I now question everything and do my best to make plans and stick to those plans, good market or bad market notwithstanding. List of All Investment Articles https://lifecanbesimple.net/investments.html List of all Minimalism Articles https://lifecanbesimple.net/minimalism.html www.lifecanbesimple.net www.InternetDirect.us Internet Direct Laptops  DISCLAIMER - I am not a Financial Advisor and do not work for any Brokerage Firm. The opinions given are of my own and are not to be used as professional advice. These are my findings and can hopefully help you to make informed decisions on investing. Consult a Broker or Lawyer before making any investment. Fidelity Investments – Our Pick as Top of the Line Brokerage There are several really good investment brokerage houses. As I mentioned in my Vanguard Investments review, I have used about 10 over my 30 years of investing, and am now using just 3 where I actively manage my ROTH IRA portfolios. If you are unfamiliar with the varying types of investments, read my articles on the definitions of the main 4. (Stocks, ETF (Exchange Traded Funds), Mutual funds, and bonds. The First 3 are in article one, bonds are in a separate article. https://lifecanbesimple.net/blog/investment-categories https://lifecanbesimple.net/blog/what-is-a-bond Advantages of Fidelity Investments:
Disadvantages of Fidelity:
So in conclusion, Fidelity Investments is an excellent brokerage, and my top pick as the best of all the brokerages. As I open Roth IRAs for my grandchildren, I am creating their account at Fidelity. We have the largest investments in our Roth IRA at Fidelity than any other broker. I think Schwab and Vanguard are both very good, but only one can be my top pick. IRAs are excellent for making long-term investments. We did an article on IRAs which is listed below. Advantages / Differences in IRAs: https://lifecanbesimple.net/blog/differences-in-roth-and-traditional-iras See Fidelity Investments Website www.Fidelity.com  List of All Investment Articles https://lifecanbesimple.net/investments.html List of all Minimalism Articles https://lifecanbesimple.net/minimalism.html www.lifecanbesimple.net www.InternetDirect.us Internet Direct Laptops  ISCLAIMER - I am not a Financial Advisor and do not work for any Brokerage Firm. The opinions given are of my own and are not to be used as professional advice. These are my findings and can hopefully help you to make informed decisions on investing. Consult a Broker or Lawyer before making any investment. Advantages of Schwab Investments There are several really good investment brokerage houses. As I mentioned in my Vanguard Investments review, I have used about 10 over my 30 years of investing, and am now using just 3 where I actively manage my ROTH IRA portfolios. If you are unfamiliar with the varying types of investments, read my articles on the definitions of the main 4. (Stocks, ETF (Exchange Traded Funds), Mutual funds, and bonds. The First 3 are in article one, bonds are in a separate article. https://lifecanbesimple.net/blog/investment-categories https://lifecanbesimple.net/blog/what-is-a-bond Advantages of Schwab Investments:
Disadvantages of Schwab:
So in conclusion, overall Schwab Investments is an excellent brokerage. I have a large number of Stock Slices and several mutual funds in my Schwab Roth IRA, IRAs are excellent for making long-term investments. We did an article on IRAs which is listed below. Advantages / Differences in IRAs: https://lifecanbesimple.net/blog/differences-in-roth-and-traditional-iras We will cover Fidelity Investments next week and show its pros and cons. See Schwab Investments Website www.Schwab.com  List of All Investment Articles https://lifecanbesimple.net/investments.html List of all Minimalism Articles https://lifecanbesimple.net/minimalism.html www.lifecanbesimple.net www.InternetDirect.us Internet Direct Laptops |
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