I missed my weekly Thursday blog post but I wanted to share with you an example of how I am taking some of my own advice and hopefully encourage you to do the same. This afternoon I was able to save quite a bit of money on groceries, and I wanted to share with you not only how I did it, but also show you how easy it was. At the end of March we went to our local Lowes hardware store and bought a mid sized chest freezer for a little under $300.00. Thats a lot of money on a tight budget, but we have already recouped almost half of that cost with BOGO (Buy-One-Get-One-Free) deals.
This afternoon my wife spent about five minutes online looking at the Harris-Teeter weekly ads and gave me a list of things that we use that were on sale. She checks the Harris-Teeter, Lowe's Foods, Food Lion, and Bi-Lo online ads each week to see what deals they offer that we use. Keep in mind a great deal on something that you don't use is not such a good deal after all. If you save the weekly coupons in the newspaper and a few from the daily junk mail, you can save quite a lot of money in addition to the BOGO deals. Most of the things we buy that are on sale are the staple items that we would buy at full cost anyway. Many times we can get higher quality name brand items such as cereal and lunch box stuffers with BOGO deals at half the cost of the store brands. The same goes for a lot of items that we buy using coupons.
Today for example, the grocery list that my wife gave me totaled $122.44 and I spent $67.19 saving $55.25. The way I look at it is that I just saved one sixth of the total cost of our new freezer. Since I have had at least three other BOGO trips since March, we have saved about half of the cost of the freezer. She gave me another list for tomorrow afternoon for Bi-Lo. Just with the BOGO items we will get $72.00 worth of food for $36.00 and that does not include using any coupons that she is still looking through. As far as I'm concerned $91.25 of free food in one week is not a bad return for investing only ten minutes of her time. If you are keeping tally, that's saving one third the cost of the freezer in only one week.
Now keep in mind its not all about just saving money. Remember my catch phrase about building happier, more secure, and more self sufficient lives for our families? Often times when we prepare for even minor emergences we are actually prepared for larger emergences. My wife is going to have surgery sometime in the next month or so. We bought the freezer to save money but we are going to reap larger benefits in the near future by having that larger frozen storage capacity that we did not have with our refrigerator freezer. We are planning to prepare several meals and casseroles in advance and freeze them. Some of our friends and family are planning to bring us some meals during my wife's recovery period. If several people bring food at one time we can freeze some of it and have no waste.
If you guys are using some of my ideas and techniques to build happier, more secure, and more self sufficient lives for your families let me know and don't forget to share those successes with others. By sharing our successes we all grow stronger. 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.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Two more High Yield Low Risk Investments - Part Two
We all work hard for the money we earn. Most people understand that due to inflation (or more accurately the devaluation of the dollar) we can not just stuff our savings in the mattress and expect to see it grow. In fact for the last few years we have seen three to four percent inflation which means that for every dollar we earn, we can buy three to four percent less than we could the year before. In order to either keep up with inflation or hopefully see our savings grow we turn to investment vehicles. There are several traditional investments available from your bank or stock broker. Most traditional investments earn between 3 – 15% during good years. Lately with our economy where it is, we are seeing 0.5 – 2% growth from traditional investments. Remember that the old adage still applies, “The higher the yield the higher the risk”.
I mentioned two other non-traditional investment ideas in my last blog post and this time I would like to show you two others that can yield fairly high returns with very little risk. Other than paying off your debt which yields the highest return for your investment dollars, the second highest yielding investment that I have found anywhere will probably surprise you as well unless you have been reading my blog for a while. It is one that most people would never consider to be an investment because it is so easily overlooked. How many traditional investments do you know of that will give you an 18% return on your money, and even if they don’t they are guaranteed to give you back 100% of your initial investment? Not many, I believe. There is one non-traditional investment that does provide that security, here it is: Food. Everyone is complaining about high food prices, but were you aware that food prices rose 18% from 2008 to 2009? I have mentioned that storing extra food today will provide your family the ability to eat if you have some sort of local emergency. I usually think of it as food insurance. It also makes a lot of economic sense to store some canned goods and long term store-able items such as rice, beans, and pasta. There are a lot of other food available in your local supermarket that store well. Don't forget to use your coupons and try for those buy-one-get-one-free items to save money. There you have it, you can have your investments and eat them too.
The other non-tradition investment vehicle that is becoming more mainstream lately is investing in Precious Metals. I have mentioned in previous blog posts about how precious metals hold their value. An ounce of silver purchased just two years ago would have cost you $5.00 and today that same ounce is selling for a little over $18.00. There are a few tin foil hat wearing folks on the Internet that claim that the days are numbered for our current fiat based money system, and we should all go out and convert all of our savings to gold. Again there is probably some truth in their ramblings but when you take just about anything to the extreme you tend to lose. I personally think that the proper level of investing in precious metals lies in the range of 5% to 15% of your total investment portfolio. This is where you must use your own common sense and invest at a level that you feel comfortable. You might limit yourself to just 1% or you might feel comfortable at 20% or higher. While there are several methods of purchasing precious metals via COMEX and ETF vehicles, I tend to stay away from them at this time. When it comes to precious metals I think there are some good investment opportunities in the paper investments through brokers, but again the higher the return the higher the risk. For now there is an old rule that I follow because I think is very wise, “If you can't touch it, you don't own it”. Physical gold and physical silver are tangible assets. If the stock market crashes or the brokerage firm that holds your gold/silver goes bankrupt your metal investments can vanish overnight. One other nice feature of investing in physical precious metals is you can start with very small amounts of money. Purchase just one, one ounce silver round at your local coin dealer and you are in the market. If any of you are interested in purchasing silver or gold I have a couple of suggestions that I will share with you via email if you ask.
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.
I mentioned two other non-traditional investment ideas in my last blog post and this time I would like to show you two others that can yield fairly high returns with very little risk. Other than paying off your debt which yields the highest return for your investment dollars, the second highest yielding investment that I have found anywhere will probably surprise you as well unless you have been reading my blog for a while. It is one that most people would never consider to be an investment because it is so easily overlooked. How many traditional investments do you know of that will give you an 18% return on your money, and even if they don’t they are guaranteed to give you back 100% of your initial investment? Not many, I believe. There is one non-traditional investment that does provide that security, here it is: Food. Everyone is complaining about high food prices, but were you aware that food prices rose 18% from 2008 to 2009? I have mentioned that storing extra food today will provide your family the ability to eat if you have some sort of local emergency. I usually think of it as food insurance. It also makes a lot of economic sense to store some canned goods and long term store-able items such as rice, beans, and pasta. There are a lot of other food available in your local supermarket that store well. Don't forget to use your coupons and try for those buy-one-get-one-free items to save money. There you have it, you can have your investments and eat them too.
The other non-tradition investment vehicle that is becoming more mainstream lately is investing in Precious Metals. I have mentioned in previous blog posts about how precious metals hold their value. An ounce of silver purchased just two years ago would have cost you $5.00 and today that same ounce is selling for a little over $18.00. There are a few tin foil hat wearing folks on the Internet that claim that the days are numbered for our current fiat based money system, and we should all go out and convert all of our savings to gold. Again there is probably some truth in their ramblings but when you take just about anything to the extreme you tend to lose. I personally think that the proper level of investing in precious metals lies in the range of 5% to 15% of your total investment portfolio. This is where you must use your own common sense and invest at a level that you feel comfortable. You might limit yourself to just 1% or you might feel comfortable at 20% or higher. While there are several methods of purchasing precious metals via COMEX and ETF vehicles, I tend to stay away from them at this time. When it comes to precious metals I think there are some good investment opportunities in the paper investments through brokers, but again the higher the return the higher the risk. For now there is an old rule that I follow because I think is very wise, “If you can't touch it, you don't own it”. Physical gold and physical silver are tangible assets. If the stock market crashes or the brokerage firm that holds your gold/silver goes bankrupt your metal investments can vanish overnight. One other nice feature of investing in physical precious metals is you can start with very small amounts of money. Purchase just one, one ounce silver round at your local coin dealer and you are in the market. If any of you are interested in purchasing silver or gold I have a couple of suggestions that I will share with you via email if you ask.
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.
Friday, June 4, 2010
Four non-traditional financial investments - Part One
Another day, another dollar, makes you wonder where your money went. You can scream, you can holler, it really doesn't matter because it all gets spent. (Jack Spirko - TheSurvivalPodcast.com)
While I don’t even pretend to be a financial adviser, I do but a lot of weight behind the old saying of; "Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket". I know that everyone looks at investments differently, but I would like to share some not-so-common financial philosophies with you. I believe that it is important to understand that the information given to you by a financial adviser is just simply that. It is just information and advice. You do not have to follow everything your financial adviser tells you to do. You need to make sure you are comfortable placing YOUR money in a place that makes YOU feel comfortable. It is also important to remember that most financial advisers are getting paid to sell a product. Most advisers only make a profit when you buy their investment products, and it is not in their best interest to advise you to diversify your investments outside the portfolios that they offer to sell you.
I feel that it is important that we diversify our investments. Most of the advice I have been given follows along the lines of putting all of my savings into stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. I'm just not comfortable with that advise any more. Even after the wake up call we all had when the stock market crashed and about a third of my retirement money fell to the ground like the ashes of a cheap cigar, I still believe that there is a place in most folk’s portfolios for those traditional investments. After all, the money that flows through the stock market is the fuel that keeps the engine of our capitalist economy moving forward. The ability to sell stock is what keeps entrepreneurs and inventors of new technology in business to make our lives better and our country stronger.
I have found that there are four separate non-traditional financial tools that are important to me. The first is Cash. It is important to have some cash on hand for small immediate purchases so that I am not tempted to use a credit card for little things. Those little things can add up quick even if you are trying to pay attention. It is also important to have an emergency fund such as a savings account where you can readily get to the money to cover other minor emergencies. Several advisers have recommended a $1000 emergency fund as that amount can cover most of the problems we encounter.
The second financial tool is the highest yielding financial investment that I have seen anywhere. It is one that almost no investment counselor will share with you and it is simply: Get out of Debt. The best way to think about debt is to consider it the same way you look at cancer. In reality it is financial cancer. For every dollar you put on your credit card you will wind up paying the Credit Card Company $1.25 after you add in fees and interest charges. If you just pay the minimum amount due each month on even a relatively small balance it could take up to 36 years to pay off some cards. You wind up paying more in interest to the Credit Card Company than you initially put on the card. The money that you are paying as interest is money that you cannot use for things that you want or need. Interest money given to a Credit Card Company is gone forever and can not be used for increasing your personal wealth.
In my next post I will share with you two more non-traditional investment tools. One of them gained 18% last year with a 100% guarantee on the initial investment. The other has gained 200% over the past four years.
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.
While I don’t even pretend to be a financial adviser, I do but a lot of weight behind the old saying of; "Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket". I know that everyone looks at investments differently, but I would like to share some not-so-common financial philosophies with you. I believe that it is important to understand that the information given to you by a financial adviser is just simply that. It is just information and advice. You do not have to follow everything your financial adviser tells you to do. You need to make sure you are comfortable placing YOUR money in a place that makes YOU feel comfortable. It is also important to remember that most financial advisers are getting paid to sell a product. Most advisers only make a profit when you buy their investment products, and it is not in their best interest to advise you to diversify your investments outside the portfolios that they offer to sell you.
I feel that it is important that we diversify our investments. Most of the advice I have been given follows along the lines of putting all of my savings into stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. I'm just not comfortable with that advise any more. Even after the wake up call we all had when the stock market crashed and about a third of my retirement money fell to the ground like the ashes of a cheap cigar, I still believe that there is a place in most folk’s portfolios for those traditional investments. After all, the money that flows through the stock market is the fuel that keeps the engine of our capitalist economy moving forward. The ability to sell stock is what keeps entrepreneurs and inventors of new technology in business to make our lives better and our country stronger.
I have found that there are four separate non-traditional financial tools that are important to me. The first is Cash. It is important to have some cash on hand for small immediate purchases so that I am not tempted to use a credit card for little things. Those little things can add up quick even if you are trying to pay attention. It is also important to have an emergency fund such as a savings account where you can readily get to the money to cover other minor emergencies. Several advisers have recommended a $1000 emergency fund as that amount can cover most of the problems we encounter.
The second financial tool is the highest yielding financial investment that I have seen anywhere. It is one that almost no investment counselor will share with you and it is simply: Get out of Debt. The best way to think about debt is to consider it the same way you look at cancer. In reality it is financial cancer. For every dollar you put on your credit card you will wind up paying the Credit Card Company $1.25 after you add in fees and interest charges. If you just pay the minimum amount due each month on even a relatively small balance it could take up to 36 years to pay off some cards. You wind up paying more in interest to the Credit Card Company than you initially put on the card. The money that you are paying as interest is money that you cannot use for things that you want or need. Interest money given to a Credit Card Company is gone forever and can not be used for increasing your personal wealth.
In my next post I will share with you two more non-traditional investment tools. One of them gained 18% last year with a 100% guarantee on the initial investment. The other has gained 200% over the past four years.
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.
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