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The forever fallacy
Last week, Ben Carlson from A Wealth of Common Sense published an interesting article about how staying rich is harder than getting rich. He writes:
Research shows over 50% of Americans will find themselves in the top 10% of earners for at least one year of their lives. More than 11% will find themselves in the top 1% of income-earners at some point. And close to 99% of those who make it into the top 1% of earners will find themselves on the outside looking in within a decade.
Watch as crooks install a card skimmer at a convenience store
Over the next few weeks at Get Rich Slowly, I plan to ramp up the production level once again. I’m not going to return to the pace of one article per day that I was maintaining at the start of the year, but I’m not going to rest at two articles per week like I did in June, either. I’m guessing we’ll end up at three to four articles per week.
To start, here’s some raw video from Miami Beach, Florida in which three men work together to distract a convenience store clerk in order to install a card skimmer at a point-of-purchase card reader.
This is interesting to me because I’ve never understood how these things work. I don’t know how to spot card skimmers, and I don’t know how crooks install them.
There are no shortcuts
Every Tuesday and Thursday morning for the past four weeks, I’ve awakened early and driven to the gym for a one-hour workout with a personal trainer. This is awesome but it also sucks.
Why does it suck? Because:
- I am old.
- I am fat.
- I am out of shape.
Plus, who likes getting up at five o’clock? Not me! I can handle 6:30 no problem (and left to my own devices, that’s when I’ll naturally rise) but crawling out of bed ninety minutes earlier destroys me.
At the same time, this change has been awesome. Eight years ago, when I was at the heaviest weight of my life, I forced myself to get up early and go to the local Crossfit gym. After two years, I’d left peak fatness behind and achieved peak fitness. I was in the best shape of my life! Now I have a long way to before I get back to that point, but the key is that I’ve started.
Exploring the U.S. by RV: The price of adventure
Two years ago today, Kim and I returned to Portland after fifteen months traveling the United States in an RV. Believe it or not, I’ve never published an article about the trip and how much it cost. Although we kept a travel blog for most of the adventure (including a page that documented our expenses), I’ve never gathered everything into one place. Until now.
Today, I want to share just how much we spent on the journey — and some of our favorite stops along the way. It seems like the perfect post to celebrate the start of summer, don’t you think?
The Lure of Adventure
All my life, I’ve wanted to take a roadtrip across the United States.
Money nerds and their spreadsheets
“When are you going to write about your hot tub?” readers have been asking. “We want photos of you in your hot tub.” Fine. Here’s a typical scene on any given afternoon. (This photo was taken with my iPad, and I can’t figure out where the camera lens is…)
The cats like the hot tub too, but only when the lid is closed. I suspect they’ll live on top of this thing during the winter.
You folks were 100% correct when you encouraged me to proceed with this purchase. I was anxious after having spent so much on remodeling the house during the first few months after we moved in. I didn’t want to spend more. But you guys encouraged me to throw in one fun thing along with all of the needed repairs. It was the right move.
Passive income vs. passion income
When I was a younger man — back before I founded Get Rich Slowly in 2006 — I was intrigued by the idea of creating passive income. While passive income isn’t exactly a get rich quick scheme (and boy was I intrigued boy those back then!), there’s certainly some overlap. Both passive income and get rich quick schemes appeal to lazy people like my younger self, people looking for ways to make money for nothing.
What Is Passive Income?
Passive income, as the term implies, is money you earn on a regular basis with little or no effort required to maintain the cash flow after the income stream has begun.
Common examples of passive income include rental properties, royalties from books (and other published work), and profitable businesses that you own but in which you have little (or no) active involvement.
Summer Vacation 2018
Ah, can you feel that? The end of June is approaching, which means it’s time for the summer weather pattern to descend on Portland. There are clear skies and plenty of sun sun sun in the forecast. Feels like the perfect time to play hooky, no?
I’m taking this week off to enjoy the sunshine and to prepare for my upcoming presentation at WDS.
Financial Freedom Workshop Next Week!
As I did in 2016, I’m co-hosting a workshop on Financial Freedom. This year, my co-host is the amazing Douglas Tsoi, founder of Portland Underground Graduate School. We’ll host our three-hour session on money and meaning from nine to noon on Thursday, June 28th, in downtown Portland.
HelloFresh review: Is a meal delivery service worth it?
“Hey,” Kim said one day last week as she was leaving for work. “There’s a package coming today from one of the doctors I work with. To thank all of his hygienists, he’s sending us a trial of HelloFresh.”
“What’s HelloFresh?” I asked.
“It’s a meal delivery service,” Kim said. “Anyhow, it’d be great if you could bring in the package and put the food in the fridge. And it’d be even greater if you made one of the meals for dinner!”
I kissed her good-bye, then promptly forgot what she had told me. (This is par for the course.)
How Does HelloFresh Work?
That afternoon when I returned from walking the dog, a package from HelloFresh was waiting on the porch. I took it inside to open it. The box contained three brown paper sacks, each with a different meal from HelloFresh.
“Oh yeah,” I thought. “I’m supposed to make dinner from one of these. I wonder what they are.”
The four-percent rule for safe withdrawals during retirement: Theory versus reality
Last week, I wrote about the problem with retirement spending: How much should you spend during retirement? If you spend too much, you run the risk of depleting your savings. But if you spend too little, you’re sacrificing the opportunity to make the most of your money, to “drink life to the lees”.
One of the guiding principles in retirement planning is that there’s a “safe withdrawal rate”, a pace at which you can access your investments so that your nest egg will last for thirty years (or longer).
The death of Anthony Bourdain: Thoughts on productivity, pleasure, and depression
Warning: This is a rare GRS post that contains salty language. If you don’t like salty language, don’t read this article.
Anthony Bourdain killed himself Friday morning.
“So what?” you might be thinking. “He’s just another fucking celebrity who didn’t know how good he had it.” Maybe you’re right. But his death has weighed heavy on me all weekend.
On Friday morning, as I wrote the weekly Get Rich Slowly email, I thought about Anthony Bourdain. On Friday afternoon, as Kim and I worked in the yard, I thought about Anthony Bourdain. On Friday evening, as we soaked in our new hot tub with a friend, I thought about Anthony Bourdain. Yesterday, I thought about Anthony Bourdain. Today, I thought about Anthony Bourdain.
Now I’m writing this article as an act of catharsis. Maybe it’ll help me to stop thinking about Anthony Bourdain.
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