When Cornelius Vanderbilt (the Commodore) passed away in 1877, he left the majority of his fortune valued at $95,000,000 to his oldest son. In today’s dollars, this fortune would be worth around $2.1 billion. He left smaller amounts to all of his other children. This particular son, who received the majority of his fortune, actually…
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According to the IRS, most millionaires have these seven income streams: 1. Dividend income from stocks owned. 2. Earned income from a paychecks. 3. Rents from rental real estate. 4. Royalties from selling rights to use something they’ve written or invented. 5. Capital gains from selling appreciated assets. 6. Profits from businesses they own….
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Back in the 1960s a study at Stanford University was completed with preschoolers. This study is now referred to as the “Marshmallow Test.” They presented the preschool children with two choices: ONE marshmallow they could eat immediately OR TWO marshmallows if they waited alone for 20 minutes Years after this study the research team…
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When I talk with new clients I typically will try to understand what their goals are with regards to their investments. Some aren’t concerned with current income and are focused more on long-term appreciation. Others aren’t worried too much about long-term appreciation and are focused more on maximizing current income. Depending on the client’s goals,…
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The life plan most of us are taught to follow is to go to college in order to get a good job. Once we get our good job, we are taught to open up a 401k plan and save 10% of our paychecks. After 30, 40, or even 50 years of working, we’ll hopefully have…
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At the end of 2014, I received an email from someone who had stumbled across this website. He asked if we could meet because he was thinking of buying his first rental property. We ended up meeting for coffee at Panera and I was really impressed by him. He was in his 30s and it…
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What is your primary goal when you invest? Or another way to ask the same question might be what are you trying to achieve with your investments? Should you buy freedom or build your wealth? This is an important consideration because your answer(s) dictate how you should invest. Some people may respond to this question…
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One of my favorite things to do is ready about average people who build significant wealth during their lifetimes. For some reason, these real life case studies resonate with me. They show the true power of investing and the real magic of compound interest. We typically only hear about the mega billionaires and how they…
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Last year, I read an article on Business Insider that indicated that 99.1% of Warren Buffett’s wealth came after his 50th birthday. I have thought about this several times since reading the article and decided to look into it a little further myself. According to a recent Google search, Buffett’s net worth is currently estimated…
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In Warren Buffett’s biography, The Snowball, I found an interesting story from when he was seventeen. He read about an idea of buying a used pinball machine and using the income generated by the first machine to buy additional used pinball machines. So Warren bought a used pinball machine for $25 and went into the local…
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