Archive for December, 2009

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Christmas Shopping: What Would a Millionaire Nurse Do?

Monday, December 7th, 2009

Holiday Shopping

A Millionaire Nurse is kind, gentle, frugal, loving, generous, a leader, and well-read. (Sounds kind of  like the Boy Scout oath)

So what are millionaire nurses doing for their Christmas shopping?

  • They are shopping by a list with spending limit on each person-agreed upon by both adults in your family (although many of us act like kids this time of year).
  • They make sure they pay for their purchases with cash, or debit card-no credit cards allowed unless they can easily be paid off -no cheating allowed!
  • They give money or time to charitable organizations in honor of their recipients, and not a tie, or another sweater – thrown in the closet or re-gifted next year.
  • They understand the reason for the season, and avoid the hype/materialism and consumerism and focus on being a better friend, mother, father, son or daughter.
  • They make a list of all their friends and relatives and send them a note, or a phone call just to let them know they are thinking about them.

Christmas Spending This Year

Brent Arands in the Wall Street Journal has an article detailing the savings that could be had by cutting back on our holiday spending.  The amount of money that you could save over your life time by cutting back on your purchases by just 20% should open your eyes.  Saving over 10,000 bucks over the next 35 years if you are an average spender of $600 each Christmas.

So make the difficult first step towards becoming a millionaire nurse.  That step is to vow to begin to change your spending habits and grab ahold of your finances.

Please share with us your giving plans this Christmas, and if you are spending more or less than usual.

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Posted in credit cards, personal finance, Planned spending aka budget | 1 Comment »

Christmas Spending:Payback Time Will Be Here Soon!

Saturday, December 5th, 2009

Christmas is here again- I love this time of year.  I try to keep my focus on the reason for the season-it is easy to get into the materialism thing with the ads-Black Friday/Cyber Monday hype.

Today my focus is getting my Christmas tree up with minimal stress/foul language.  We still buy a real tree every year-found a good buy at Home Depot yesterday-and the sales person even trimmed the bottom limbs and cut off the bottom of the tree for me.  I usually cut it two or three times till I get a flat cut, that will stand up in the tree stand-I will let you know how she did with that small electric chain saw-looked flat to me.

I am using a budget I found at HomeEverAfter.com for our Christmas list this year.  We have in the past just used a list with numbers by names, but I am trying this spreadsheet this year.  It needed a few tweaks but so far seems are working just fine.  I will let you know how well we do in staying within the limits we have self-imposed.   I am not a spread sheet geek, can barely find my way around them.  Fortunately for me I have a CPA for a brother and a son-so my spreadsheet questions are answered pretty quickly, except at tax season, when they will disappear for a couple of months.

Check out these earlier posts if you missed them about budget busters and this one about ways to decrease stress around the holidays to make sure you keep in mind the reason for the season.

And remember, that any overspending you do this month, will come back to haunt you with a vengeance in January, so be careful out there.

If you hear someone yelling today/ignore me-it’s just me fighting with the Christmas tree.

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Buying Cars Redo: Resale Value

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009

No I am not trying to turn this into a blog on cars, how to buy and what type to buy.

However, new cars are an American obsession/passion.  It is one of the most common money mistakes-having too much of your net worth tied up in cars.  Having a large car payment even though you are having trouble paying your bills, is another common evil.

To be a millionaire nurse, you have to think like a millionaire.  And millionaires get to be millionaires by making smart money decisions, over, and over, and over, and over………

The Wall Street Journal article suggests that several American cars resale values are holding up better than ever.

Wait a minute, you might say.  That means Dr Dean is wrong-maybe new cars aren’t so bad after all.

“Not so fast my little pretty”-as the Wicked Witch of the West said.  The article states, quoting figures from Kelley Blue Book, the car value bible, that new cars sold in 2010 will be worth 32% of their original value in 5 years.  That means your $20,000 new dream car will be worth just $6,400.00 on average.  That means your new car investment is losing about $4,000 a year.

The article is saying that a few American models are doing better than in the past at holding resale value, better by a percentage point or two.

So to reiterate my prior posts on cars, don’t buy a new car.  If you are buying a car, buy a cheap one you can pay cash for while you are getting out of debt.  And if you have a need for a replacement vehicle in the future, start that savings account now to build up a fund to pay for it.

And in the future, when you are a Millionaire Nurse, then by all means-go buy the car of your dreams.  When your car represents only a small portion of your net worth, the depreciation will not matter as much.

If you need help maintaining your current vehicle, go pick up a copy of my FREE e-book at The Millionaire Nurse website.  It has several tips for keeping your current vehicle in good shape.  It is also packed full of other money-saving ideas and tips.

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Posted in personal finance, Planned spending aka budget | 1 Comment »

The Millionaire Nurse Goals

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

Many of you have read the About the Millionaire Nurse page above which gives an overview of the origin of this blog and my mission.

I want to spend a few minutes of your time on my goals and techniques:

  1. Motivate: I want to give my readers the reasons to go to the trouble, yes I know it is a lot of trouble, to get a handle on their finances.
  2. Educate: I want to give my readers the tools  to help them reach their financial goals.
  3. Castigate: If you need  embarrassing, yelled at-yes I will even stoop to using guilt-to get you motivated.
  4. Masturbate: Yes, it rhymed,  I needed to wake you up, and thinking about personal finance is sometimes something you do when you are alone, and in the dark too.
  5. Renovate: If you are like me, what you are doing now, may not work as well as it should.  Be open to new, different and improved ways to manage your money.

I think that is enough of that.

So what are the main barriers to my effort?

I think the main barriers are twofold:

  1. Getting the word out-you can’t help those who don’t know you exist-so send the link to this blog to all your friends and co-workers.
  2. Earning your trust-this I can only do by providing you with information that you find useful/helpful in your quest to get your family/personal finances in control and helping you to learn to build wealth. I will try to be consistent and persistent.

Seth Godin,  the author and leadership guru, in his blog this week, had a post on “The People you should listen to.”  I agree with his assessment that many people listen to folks whose agenda is different from yours-so be careful  who you select for this honor.

If there is anything I can do to help satisfy your concerns about my agenda, then let me know.  This is a two-way street and I am open to suggestions and constructive criticism.

And if you need immediate help, check out my FREE e-book on “Emergency Money Resuscitation” and you will also receive a free mini-course on personal finance.

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Posted in Introduction to the Millionaire Nurse Blog, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Buying Stuff: What are Your Budget Busters?

Tuesday, December 1st, 2009

The essence of marketing, is getting  you to spend your money.  You vote for a product with your dollars.  Billions of dollars are spent by companies all over the world to get  and keep your attention long enough to imprint their brand on your brain.

My job, here at the Millionaire Nurse , is to teach, cajole, berate, preach, and guide you to make better choices with your hard-earned dollars so you can learn to build your own personal wealth.  As yesterday’s post suggest’s, I also want you to learn to give, but that is another story.

What you and I fight every day, is  the huge number of choices we have to spend our money. Intersect those choices with the commercial entity that has become known as “the holidays” and we are all in trouble.

  • When we have a perfectly good cell phone, why do we covet a new one?
  • When our car runs great, why do we drool over the newest Mustang, Prius, or the Mini-Cooper?
  • When our jeans have no holes or only designer holes, why do we have to have a new pair?
  • What is it about the latest pocketbook, pocket knife, or pair of shoes that drives us into a spending frenzy?

The experts in brain function/psychology have tried to explain the chemical changes that occur in our brain that makes us feel better briefly when we buy the latest bauble, smoke that last cig., eat that chocolate, or have that third, fourth or fifth drink, but this isn’t a science blog.

So how do we combat these very real feelings of lust for stuff?

  1. Planning-write down your list of needs, strike through them if they are just wants-get your partner or friend to challenge you.
  2. Keep a spending limit.   Yes this means a Christmas list with dollar values by each name and don’t you dare spend more than you wrote down.  During the non-holiday season, do the same.
  3. Challenge your family to give time and not money to each others favorite charity.
  4. Pray for the strength to overcome your urges.   John 2:16 comes to mind:  “For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world.”

The essence of building wealth occurs when you get rid of all the bells , whistles and hype  is controlling spending and increasing income.  So do your part this holiday season.  Even if you cut your spending by 5%, you are making progress.

Let us know your thoughts on what works to help you get past those spending mantras that repeat endlessly through your mind this time of year.

If you want tips on saving money-Check out my free ebook at The Millionaire Nurse-in addition to the free e book, I will send you a mini-course on personal finance and info on credit card management and banking-free of course.

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Posted in personal finance, Planned spending aka budget, Wealth building | 2 Comments »

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