Stacy Johnson

I'm a nationally syndicated consumer/personal finance TV reporter

Visit Stacy Johnson's blog

Member for: 7 weeks 3 days
Location: Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Homepage: Money Talks News

I’m a 54 year-old single guy living in beautiful Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I live in a modest house on a canal off the intracoastal waterway. I love riding my motorcycle (Softail Custom) sailing, fishing, traveling, laughing out loud and flaunting convention. Back in the day I was a hippie: now that I’m older, I’m a gray-haired hippie.

I've been investing in stocks for about 30 years (although it took me about 20 to learn how not to lose money at it.) I’ve also bought and sold a lot of real estate.

While I’m certainly not rich in the Palm Beach/Central Park West sense, I’m financially independent; meaning I work because I want to and not because I have to. What separates me from the many money morons I’ve seen on Oprah is that I didn’t get here by selling books on how to get rich. I did it the same way I expect you to: one hard-fought paycheck at a time.

My philosophy is simple: you’re only on this earth for about 15 minutes, so do everything you can to make it count. The sooner you can become financially free, the sooner you can stop running like a hamster on a wheel in a job you hate and instead pursue the things that make you happy and give meaning to your life. I believe you can either look rich or be rich, but not many people will live long enough to do both. So you should decide early which you'd rather achieve and act accordingly.

If you’re paying too much for the things you buy or buying things you don't really need or paying a bunch of interest on credit cards or not investing wisely, what you're doing is swapping the only non-renewable resource you have: your life… for some company’s bottom line.

What I’ve chosen to do with my life is live below my means, achieve some degree of financial independence and help other people make more, spend less, avoid being ripped off and better understand money. And if that sounds altruistic, it’s not. The sooner you’re financially free, the sooner you’ll be available to make contributions to people like me. So for entirely selfish reasons I want you to be able to find the freedom to make my world a better place.

I'm honored to be here and look forward to hearing from you!