(Frey Freyday is simply a bunch of inspirational, motivational and other quotes meant to make you think, reflect, smile, even laugh a bit. Hopefully helpful, useful stuff….)
Finance is not merely about making money. It’s about achieving our deep goals and protecting the fruits of our labor. It’s about stewardship and, therefore, about achieving the good society. Robert J. Shiller
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What’s money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do. Bob Dylan
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Too many people spend money they haven’t earned to buy things they don’t want to impress people they don’t like. Will Rogers
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Money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver. Ayn Rand
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WORD TO LIVE BY:
money- noun, often attributive-mon·ey | \ ˈmə-nē \
plural moneys or monies\ ˈmə-nēz \- something generally accepted as a medium of exchange, a measure of value, or a means of payment:
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People react to and think about money in many different ways.
Most people don’t like to talk about money. That can be problematic.
Unfortunately many, many Americans live paycheck to paycheck. We don’t have any reserves for an emergency; a health issue, a car repair, etc.
In the U.S., the average retirement savings is $95,766 across all age groups, according to the EPI. Experts recommend having at least $1,000,000 saved for retirement by the age of 60.
Too many of us don’t know or understand some things around savings, investments, mortgages, credit cards, loans. That’s OK not to know or understand we all start out that way with everything. However, too many people then still go ahead with life and they don’t ask questions, they don’t read, self-educate or ask for help. In some ways, ignorance is chosen.
Don’t beat yourself up…We are humans, therefore we still act partially rational, partially irrational. Our brains still have primitive fight or flight mechanisms; we react to and from emotions. This affects our money habits.
Many people know they want or need to save money but our ‘reptile brain’ hinders this. We sometimes panic, sometimes fear drives us, sometimes we’re driven by an impulse in the moment to spend, in any case, while we know that we should set aside some of our money for savings, many of us do not. Once we realize and accept that we still have this part in all of us, and that it affects our money, we can do something about it, we can ‘hack’ it.
Really, the best way to do this is simple. Make it automatic. Many of us have a 401k or retirement plan at work. We can take out a % of income BEFORE we even see it. Maximize that %. Use Apps to make savings easier. There are many different ways to pull out money – before you can touch it – and put it into savings or investments. Out of sight, out of mind is a good thing in this case. Put the money somewhere that you can’t touch it. Schedule automatic transfers to another account. Save your loose change. Budget with cash and envelopes.
Think about it….if you set aside 5%, for instance, you really won’t miss it, especially if you take it out up front before you ‘see it’. We can all adjust to small changes like that. You can still live a fair lifestyle with 95% of your money.
If you get a raise, set that raise aside before you see it. For instance, if you get a 3% raise, set up an automatic withdrawal so that you pull the 3% out and save it. You’ve been living on your income without that 3% until now, you won’t miss what you don’t have, put that somewhere where you can’t touch it.
There are many websites for and about this. https://americasaves.org/for-savers/save-automatically https://www.discover.com/credit-cards/resources/5-ways-of-saving-money-automatically/ , https://americasaves.org/for-savers/make-a-plan-how-to-save-money/54-ways-to-save-money ,
If you don’t know or understand something about money, credit, finance, whatever, don’t just keep living like that – read, ask, search it. There are many good resources and people out there who aren’t trying to sell you something, there are people that can and want to help.
http://www.pbs.org/your-life-your-money/index.php , https://360financialliteracy.org/ , http://www.practicalmoneyskills.com/ , https://www.financialliteracy101.org/
Above all, we all need to take time to talk about money and plan more. If you think about it, most Americans can spend weeks, even months, planning a vacation. I’ve seen some people plan a wedding for over a year. However, too often many of us spend almost no time planning for retirement.
Things can’t improve without change.
Every human has four endowments – self awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom… The power to choose, to respond, to change. Stephen Covey
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Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me. Carol Burnett
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Frey Freyday was actually born out of something I created called “Words To Live By” (WTLB). Going forward, I will now not only share the quotes, as you may be used to receiving, but also a related (WTLB). In 1999, when we had our first daughter, I was contemplating how I would raise my new beautiful child, and I was thinking about how I can best educate her and my other children about values, morals, and other key thoughts about life. School offers education. Religion offers some values and morals. Parents offer most of it, sometimes intentionally, sometimes accidentally.
So I created a (WTLB) book, like a dictionary, which lists things like honesty, love, persistence, etc. with a definition that I created, with my wife’s input. I then turned it into a workbook with one word per page and space below for notes. For years we would discuss with my two daughters and they would draw pictures and make notes in the blank space. I may share some of those images with you. As they got older, they were less inclined to draw and more open to quotes and references from adults, hence where Frey Freyday came from….
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You can read more at www.onewebstrategy.com
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BONUS : How I learned to read –and trade stocks – in prison
Financial literacy isn’t a skill — it’s a lifestyle. Take it from Curtis “Wall Street” Carroll. As an incarcerated individual, Carroll knows the power of a dollar. While in prison, he taught himself how to read and trade stocks, and now he shares a simple, powerful message: we all need to be more savvy with our money.
One Web Strategy 