Taking your first steps toward financial independence.

I have talked with several investment advisers for the past three or so years. Most of them have given me the same advice that I got when I started working twenty six years ago. A couple of them have a different view on the economy and investments in general. I like to get as much information as possible on any subject that affects me and my family especially as I begin to look towards retirement. I think that most of them are giving advice to the best of their ability, but also within the constraints of making a living out of it. I’m not knocking the advice that they have given me but I now believe that they only provide partial advice at best. Over the next few blog posts I want to share some of the unusual and diverse investment strategies that I have discovered over that past three years. A couple of these investments have consistently yielded between twelve and eighteen per cent growth for me, even during the downfall of the stock market. I wish I had known twenty years ago about some of the techniques that I have learned about over the past three years.

I want to share with you some of the resources that are working for me and thousands of other informed folks. These techniques are not get-rich-quick schemes, and they do not work magically overnight, but they do work. For a lot of you who are students, or even those that have been working for a while and are struggling financially, I have some information that I will share with you in my next few blogs that will get you started towards financial independence. I know that there are a lot of advertisements out there for companies that purport to help you get out of debt, but really just want to rip you off further. I'm not going to be selling you anything and I'll even do my best to steer you away from those get-rich-quick multi-level-marketing (MLM) schemes that usually crash after you invest a lot of your hard earned money into someone else's bank account.

I will begin this series with one of the highest yielding financial investment that I have seen anywhere that almost no investment counselor will share with you. Get out of Debt. The best way to look at debt is to think of it as financial and emotional cancer. One of the most common causes of marital problems is dealing with overwhelming bills. Most investment counselors try to get you to focus on how much you can earn when you buy their products. But look at this from another point of view. Which would you rather do? Invest $1000 in stocks that MIGHT earn you 4% interest, or pay off a credit card with a $1000 balance that you are PAYING 24% interest on. Remember that for most investments the higher the yield, the higher the risk. There is ZERO risk in paying off debt. The best investment is one that will leave you with the most money in YOUR wallet, not the credit card company's wallets. The less interest you pay now, the more money you will have to spend later.

Next week I am going to share with you a couple of tools to help you eliminate debt that I have been using over the past couple of years. You don't have to buy anything or sell anything to make them work. No gimmicks, just proven strategies and techniques that I have personally tested and have proven to work for me. As a matter of fact, you will probably think "That’s so simple, why didn't I think of that?".

Your feedback is important to me. Let me know what you think of my blog. You can email me at larrygriffin@carolina.rr.com or drop in for a visit on Facebook. I am always happy to share ideas with others and hopefully answer some of your questions. By working together we can build happier, more secure, and more self sufficient lives for our families.