Deep in my heart I reached the ideal of becoming Millionaire my family is the beginning, my life is on its way with all the positive acomplishments of humanity make this one be a way with heart a practice of will power. One million in less than five years...Welcome to my journey.
Especially in today’s economy, establishing an emergency fund is a critical step on your journey to make millions. We all know that life happens, and if all of the sudden you needed cash quick, would you have it on hand? If not, do you know what the long term consequences could be? Here is a look at what an emergency fund is and why it is so important.
An emergency fund is simply a fund that you stash cash into in case of an emergency. Let’s face it, emergencies do happen. What if you came home one day and your furnace had died, what if you had a sudden accident with thousands of dollars inuncovered medical bills or what if you showed up for work, only to find out your job had been eliminated. What would you do? If you have an established emergency fund you can take the money from there without a lot of unneeded stress. If however, you don’t have an emergency fund you will be scrambling.
If you don’t have an emergency fund for when life happens, your options are not the greatest. You could cut into your monthly budget to get by, but what would you have to sacrifice? Would you have other late payments with tacked on late fees? Would you be able to pay your mortgage and put food on the table?
You could use your credit cards, but when would you be able to pay them off? Credit card interest and other fees add up fast, and the long term consequences can be financially devastating. Also, in today’s tough credit world, you may not have enough credit or even be able to get credit to cover emergencies.
Another option would be to take the money from your retirement, but that is not wise either. Most likely you will have early withdrawal penalty fees and depending on the account you may also have to pay taxes on the money. Not to mention that every time you withdraw from these accounts you are taking hard earned money away from your retirement.
The solution is to save some of your money in an easy access account for emergency purposes. The amount you save is really up to you. You need to look at your own individual circumstances. As a rule of thumb, many financial experts will tell you to save somewhere between three and twelve months worth of living expensed in your emergency fund. If you have a stable job, usually the three to six month range is good, but if you are in fear of losing your job, the more months you have saved, the better.
Where to keep your emergency fund is the next question. The key is to make sure it is accessible, while hopefully making a little interest. Some options include keeping the fund in a high yield savings account, , in short term CD’s (Certificate of Deposits) or in a number of CD’s using what is called CD laddering. The goal is to have cash at hand.
As a recap, an emergency fund will:
* Keep you financially prepared for unexpected “life happens” emergency events.
* Keep you from having to rely on credit and in turn prevent you from going into debt.
* Keep you away from your retirement accounts.
* Help keep you from experiencing financial stress.
If you don’t already have an emergency fund, start one today. Work to fund it quickly and then don’t touch the money except for emergencies. Having the protection of the emergency fund very well could help you achieve saving millions.
This article was the result of a joint cooperation with my friend and colleague,
Barbara Montgomery is a freelance writer who specializes in articles and blog posts on numerous topics including banking, finance, debt management, health, travel and more. She is a frequent writer for reliablewriters.com and a guest blogger for DepositAccounts.com, where you can compare savings accountrates from dozens of banks in one place.
Keep your comments coming, with wise Investing and great ideas.
Back to the normal rutinary days followed by a great sunny day... I finally have time to express all the ideas on the objective of the Million Euros in less than 5 years. After taking a short trip to Amsterdam to celebrate their freedom day! and see a couple of friends in there I'm back the news are quite extreme, everything financially speaking circles around Greece and Europe, therefore I have to write a follow up article to my article writen on february 2010.
The follow up has to do with Greece and the final bailout that not so many were expecting including me, I still perceive a bunch of exagerated facts and issues let me explain:
The European finance ministers triggered a record 110 billion euro ($147 billion) bailout for debt-stricken Greece last week after Athens committed itself to years of painful austerity.
After weeks of tough talk and procrastination due to fierce public opposition to handouts for the Greeks, German Chancellor Angela Merkel finally threw her full support behind the EU/IMF package, vowing to fight for parliamentary approval.
Euro zone ministers, meeting in emergency session, approved the three-year package of emergency loans and agreed the first funds would be released in time for Athens to make a big debt repayment to creditors on May 19.
In exchange for by far the largest bailout ever assembled for a country, Prime Minister George Papandreou announced further spending cuts and tax increases totalling 30 billion euros over three years on top of tough measures already taken.
"It is an unprecedented support package for an unprecedented effort by the Greek people," a sombre Papandreou, told a televised cabinet meeting.
Merkel called the programme very ambitious and said she would work to achieve swift parliamentary approval of Berlin's share -- the biggest of any EU state at about 22 billion euros out of 80 billion -- of the rescue loans.
U.S. President Barack Obama told Papandreou on Sunday he welcomes Greece's "ambitious" reform program, the White House said. He also praised the "significant support" from the IMF and Eurozone members.
Euro zone leaders held a special summit on Friday to formally launch the rescue after obtaining parliamentary approval where necessary. International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn forecast the IMF board approved its 30 billion euro contribution to the package this week.
Greeks have already taken to the streets to demonstrate against the austerity drive and past governments have backed off from reforms to defuse often violent protests. But Papandreou, a Socialist with a strong personal approval rating, has insisted the country must face the bill for years of drift and graft.
"These sacrifices will give us breathing space and the time we need to make great changes," he said. "I want to tell Greeks very honestly that we have a big trial ahead of us."
The first rescue of a member of the 16-nation euro zone aims to stem a debt crisis that has shaken financial markets, dented confidence in the euro and begun to spread to fellow euro zone weaklings Portugal and Spain. Berlin's hesitancy has fuelled market panic.
The chairman of the Eurogroup of finance ministers, Jean-Claude Juncker, said that at Germany's insistence, all ministers would discuss with their national banking sectors the possibility of voluntary contributions to the aid package.
Some 10 billion euros of the overall amount was earmarked to help stabilise the Greek banking sector if necessary, EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said.
Greece is such a particular case that could not be compared to any other state. Now what really worries me behind all this propaganda is that The euro zone loans will carry an interest rate of about 5 percent -- just half the rate demanded by markets last week to buy Greek debt, but nearly 2 percentage points more than the rate on Germany's benchmark bonds. Here is my main question and concern. How would Grecee be able to pay a loan with a loan?
European Commission and the International Monetary Fund will monitor Greece's progress quarterly and loan disbursements will be tied to those reviews.
Telling angry Greeks to choose between the painful rescue or economic collapse, the government now aims to bring its towering budget deficit back to the EU limit by 2014, two years later than originally promised.
"These measures are tough and unfair," said Stathis Anestis, a spokesman for private sector union GSEE. "They lead workers to misery and the country deeper into recession."
Economists were more positive. "The aid package will help defuse the primary cause of concern for creditors which is the imminent risk of default," said Lena Komileva, head of G7 market economics at Tullett Prebon. But she noted that there was still a question mark over political approval across Europe.
The Greek rescue dwarfs the previous record bailout. South Korea -- a country with a population nearly five times that of Greece -- obtained a $58 billion rescue package from donors including the IMF during the Asian financial crisis in 1997.
Citing a choice "between collapse or salvation", Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou announced a three-year public sector pay freeze, further cuts in civil servants' benefits, higher sales and fuel taxes, an increase in the effective retirement age and reductions in pensions.
Papaconstantinou said the deal would cover a large part of Greek borrowing needs for the next three years. In return Athens promised to slash its budget deficit to the EU limit of three percent of GDP by 2014 from 13.6 percent last year.
Papaconstantinou said Greece's public debt would soar to nearly 150 percent of GDP -- a higher peak than forecast earlier -- but start falling from 2014. Both he and EU and IMF officials insisted there had been no talk of restructuring Greece's debts. It seems that there is some clear lack of specialization concerning finacial issues in this particular case, we basically have to consider some basics on financial matters. Austerity and stop the credit crunch lately the world has seen a bunch of financial bubles and here comes my second questions Why we just don't get it? Stop getting loans that you are not able to pay.
Economists say that if the rescue fails to calm markets, European countries could end up footing a bill of half a trillion euros ($650 billion) to save several other nation. I ask the Economist Who will be able to re pay those bills? why to go that far, instead we should go back to the basics of the market to learn to live between our means stop the credit crunch be environmentaly friendly and make a decent but multiple profit.
It seems to me that the Greek classics are comming back specially with the The Allegory of the Cave, also commonly known as Myth of the Cave, is an used by Plato in his work. The Republic to illustrate "our nature ". (514a) The allegory of the cave is written as a fictional dialogue between Plato's teacher Socrates and Plato's brother Glaucon, at the beginning of Book VII.
Plato imagines a group of people who have lived chained in a cave all of their lives, facing a blank wall. The people watch shadows projected on the wall by things passing in front of a fire behind them, and begin to ascribe forms to these shadows. According to Plato, the shadows are as close as the prisoners get to seeing reality. He then explains how the philosopher is like a prisoner who is freed from the cave and comes to understand that the shadows on the wall are not constitutive of reality at all, as he can perceive the true form of reality rather than the mere shadows seen by the prisoners.
So it seems to me that maybe we should see what is going on behind the shadows, having in mind the following:
-Grecee is not the whole of Europe -Greeks must be ready for long sacrifice -Athens promises extra 30 bln euros in cuts over 3 years -The bailout will have to be paid (with interest) -In the past the USA approved 100 billion loan to IMF. -Learn from the past and stay out of debt!
Final comment: Any heart weak investor should go out off the stock market immediatelly, others like me will stay inn strong waitting for the great oportunities to come, last month Nokia was around 11.30€ a share after all this news it came down to 8.40€ a perfect time to buy don't you think?
Keep your mails and comments coming and let's make it happen!
This post is about a major shift in my way of thinking that occurred a year ago, a shift that caused a dramatic improvement in my enjoyment of life. If you’d like to experience more joy in your life right now instead of merely hoping things will get better in your future, you might find my story helpful.
During February 2009 I was developing and implementing payment applications in the payment industry in which I still work at the moment, then one of my goals and the reason of this blog was to become Millionaire in less than five years. I figured that would be a very positive goal to achieve, one that would give me a lot more freedom, one that would really challenge my past objectives and the general perception of wealth. However, I noticed that even though I was working in a good industry, I wasn’t enjoying much freedom in the present. I had to answer to customers, directors and other stakeholders. I had to meet deadlines set by others. And I had to do many tasks I didn’t particularly like. When I gazed into the future, I saw the potential for wealth and freedom, but in order to reach that point, I would have to endure a definite absence of those qualities in the present.
Initially this plan of delayed gratification seemed sensible and intelligent to me. Shouldn’t I make sacrifices while I’m young in order to create a better future for myself? Wouldn’t it be great to become a Millionaire in my 30s?
But something about that mindset didn’t sit right with me. My intellect liked it, but my intuition kept fighting it. I experienced a major head-vs-heart battle as I pondered the issue of sacrificing freedom in the present in order to achieve supposedly greater freedom in the future. I figured it was just a matter of discipline and self-sacrifice and that in the long run, all my efforts would pay off. But after just a year of hard work and encountering some major roadblocks along the way, I felt like I just wasn’t getting any closer to my goal. It always seemed to be just a few more years away.
While organising my old bookshelf I found one day not long ago, certain book a book that practically jumped off the shelf at me: a book of my all time favourite Mr. Gurdjieff. I had such a strong intuitive sense about the book that I just read it again right away.
One if the main ideas of the book is the: "Here and Now" that simple idea continues to swirl about in your consciousness weeks after you’ve read it. It left me permanently changed.
The basic principle of the book is quite simple — nothing exists outside this present moment. But that’s a very different way of thinking than I was used to. I used to think of my lifetime as a line segment from birth to death. The present moment was a single point on that line moving slowly forward. The past was the part of the line behind that point, and the future was the part ahead of it. After reading Mr. Gurdjieff again and again and again, I stopped thinking of my life in this way. I finally understood that this model was extremely disempowering.
The Here and Now taught me that there is no line segment. The point is all there is. The past and the future are illusions. They only exist to the degree we focus our attention on them right now. We create the past and the future by imagining them in the present. But we don’t even exist outside the Now.
This might seem like just a semantic difference, perhaps even an erroneous one, but it was a radical new way of thinking for me, and I was eager to test it. As I grasped the idea that nothing exists outside this present moment, I turned my overall life strategy upside down. I understood that if I am to experience anything in life, I must create it in this moment, so here it comes Millionaire Here and Now!. It must exist in some form right now, or it doesn’t exist at all. So the idea of creating freedom and wealth in the future by constraining myself in the present was nothing but a fool’s errand. That future would never arrive as long as I was creating confinement and scarcity in the here and now. The future is certainly a convenient mental construct, but I found that projecting too much of what I wanted into my future was hurting the enjoyment of my present. What’s the point of working to create a future of joy and freedom if my present reality is just the opposite? If I wanted freedom and wealth in the future, I had to seed its creation right here, right now. The only power I have to create anything is here in the present. I adopted the mindset, “If it doesn’t exist in some form right now, it never will exist.”
This shift in thinking produced a significant shift in my priorities. I began focusing more of my energy on improving the quality of my present reality instead of projecting all those improvements into the realm of someday. I started asking questions like, “How can I experience more joy in this very moment?”
Some basic changes in my attitude have been taking place in my way of living I eventually stopped doing what I dont like and shifted my focus to personal development. Why? Largely because I enjoyed personal development more than anything else. I got rid of some projects and began working more time from home. I stopped doing deadline-oriented project work and started blogging and writing articles I could complete in a single sitting. I started taking more time off. I began doing more things I enjoyed, such as exercising, reading, meditating, and spending time with my wife and my son. I became less stingy with my cash and began spending it more liberally when the situation warranted.
I was initially concerned that focusing too much on the present moment would make me shortsighted. But my experience has been just the opposite. I’m still able to make plans for the future and work on long-term goals. In the past I would set goals because I believed that achieving those goals would increase my happiness. But now the flow goes in reverse. Today I set goals to increase my expression of the happiness I’m already enjoying... including the money.
With this personal development business, I also want to keep building web traffic. But now it’s mainly because I’m so passionate about the work I’m doing that I want to share it with as many people as possible. Again, the flow has been reversed. I don’t look to this business to make me happy. I look to this business to express my happiness outward and to share it with others.The big irony is that my future is in much better shape even though I focus most of my attention on the present. By making my present reality as enjoyable as possible, my motivation has just been soaring. I’m working from a state of joy instead of a feeling of obligation. I write because I enjoy writing, not because I feel I must keep writing in order to make money. If I don’t feel like writing, I don’t write. Whenever I feel like taking several days off, I do that, In fact in a couple of weeks I will take a trip to Amsterdam to visit some great friends from the past to mantain my present alive
I’ve actually created the very situation I was hoping money would someday grant me. I imagined what I would do if I was already rich beyond my wildest dreams. I saw myself spending lots of time working on personal growth, doing all sorts of interesting experiments, and then sharing what I learned with others. I thought to myself, “That would be a truly incredible life for me.” But instead of waiting to become rich first, I decided to find a way to make it happen right now, even if I’d only be doing it for free in my spare time. I realized that telling myself I would do certain things after I was rich was just an excuse. Do you ever catch yourself saying, “Someday when I’m rich, I’ll do X”? Deep down you know that it isn’t a lack of money that’s holding you back though — it’s just fear. Why not find a way to do those things right now, if only on a small scale?
This line of thinking produced some amazing results for me. Even though I don’t have millions of dollars in the bank, I feel like I’m already living the way I would live if I were financially set for life. If I won $100 million in the lottery, I’d keep doing what I’m doing right now. The money would simply expand my capacity but not the essence of what I’m doing. What would you do if you were already set for life? Figure out what that is, and find a way to begin doing it on some level right now.
Today I’m so happy it’s almost ridiculous. I couldn’t even have imagined being this happy on a daily basis a year ago. And I certainly wasn’t depressed back then — I was at least content. But now my default emotional state is highly positive, not just neutral. I stopped seeking happiness in the future and instead looked for ways to create it right now.
I’ve noticed that the happier I feel, the less attached I am to outcomes. Instead of trying to acquire money, possessions, or other externalities, my focus has shifted to self-expression. I have a burning desire to create. Instead of having a craving to eat, it’s like I have a craving to cook. But of course by focusing on expressing instead of acquiring, I end up doing the very things that enable me to easily acquire whatever I want. Really I’m just doing what I love most. Infact I was talking with a colleague from the office and I was stating the simple idea that the biggest pleassures in life are FREE, (just deep inside think about it)
How do you feel about your life right this moment? Are you gushingly positive and overflowing with passion?
Or do you find yourself stuck in the same situation I was in a year ago, sacrificing your present happiness for the hope of a better tomorrow? How is that strategy working for you? Are you becoming significantly happier and more fulfilled with each passing year? Or are you just running on a treadmill while trying to convince yourself that someday things will be better?
There is no someday, you know. There is only right now. If your current life path isn’t a joyful one, turn around and take a different path. Other people will probably whine about your decision — no one on the treadmill of unhappiness likes being reminded that it’s possible to get off at any time. Of course I´m still after the Million but now it´s clear that it is not my Everything because maybe the seed of humanity was harvested on earth for other purposes...
Keep the attitude and I will be glad to read your comments. ENJOY AND SMILE!
