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That’s right, I invest my emergency fund. I’ve pointed out that, if credit cards are paid off monthly, they serve just fine for an emergency as long as you can free the money to pay those cards again at the end of the month (by selling stock for example). I’m getting a bit of push back on the investment end of things. The main arguments I’m told it is bad are: • An emergency fund should be liquid (hold value). • Emergency fund should be readily available (accessibility). • If you invest your emergency fund, chances are the market will […]

Investing your emergency fund

 in Budgeting / emergency fund / investing / Saving  tagged frontpage by
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I just saved over $1,400 buying refurbished. If you want to know how I did it and how you could too, read on. It has been well over a year that I left corporate America for a long deserved break and I have to admit I miss some aspects of the job. Surprisingly what I miss the most is the kick ass laptop I was provided. Our company had just gone through a laptop refresh and we had the latest of the latest. For those in the know when I opened task manager it showed 8 threads each with its […]

Buy Refurbished

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The easy answer is: If you are in a flood zone and have a mortgage your lender will insist on it. But, how do they know you’re in the flood zone? Better question yet, are you really in it? When I initially started writing about this I thought this won’t apply to any of my readers. Turns out there are actually 5.3 homes in the US with flood coverage.  Who knew? Approximately $14,000.00 is what we’ve paid over the last 8 years for FEMA flood insurance. We were the unlucky ones that had their property redrawn into the flood zone […]

Do you need Flood Insurance?

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Without exception, whenever the cashier at Petco would say that will be $18.88 for the cat-litter, I would say “For my cat to poop on”. Lame I know but still, pretty crazy, the things we spend money on. It has been several months now since Daisy, our cat, passed away. We miss her, she had a good 19 years of live and I’m not even going to attempt to put a price tag on that. Speaking of price tags, Americans roughly spent 56 Billion (that’s right with a “B”) on pets in 2013. I can only imagine it has gone […]

Can I afford that pet?

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It has been close to a year since I created this blog millionin10 with the lofty goal of inspiring you to build wealth the way we did. I was a salaried employee with wife, kids, two cats and a picket fence (not white). I also happened to be an expat that came to this country some 18 years ago with only $500 and a diploma in my pocket; We now have over a million. If we could do it, why can’t you? Since the start of this blog I’ve written posts on topics varying from investing and how it shouldn’t […]

5 Keys to Building Wealth

 in Budgeting / calculators / credit / healthcare / investing / Saving  tagged frontpage by
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For those of you who follow my blog I’m sure my post on Shop around for health care, really? is fresh in your memory. If not, check it out but the short of it is that, my son broke his elbow 4 weeks ago and required surgery. I was frustrated by the myth that high deductibles will make people shop around and vented my thoughts on it. like my son’s cast above has changed from bright orange to somber black, so has my mood. In the original article I mentioned a health insurance deductible of $6,700 I was guaranteed to […]

My health insurance deductible is what???

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In a few of my previous posts I’ve mentioned how we’ve saved considerably by getting rid of our incandescent light bulbs. You know the ones invented by Thomas Edison, the ones that run current through a really thin wire that then gets really hot and lights up. The lighting up is really cool but the heating up not so much. Most energy used to create light actually ends up getting used generating heat. Then there was the new (really not new anymore) Compact Fluorescent light bulbs that somehow manages to redirect a lot less energy to heat and more to […]

How we saved $350 a year switching to LED

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Planning for retirement is not as easy as you think it might be. I’m not talking about whether you’ll go fishing or grow a vegetable garden. I’m talking about getting to retirement with enough funds to last you a lifetime. If you want to skip all the reading and go straight for the FREE Millionin10 Retirement Calculator™ click here. Following is a set of factors that play an important role in getting to that successful retirement (all adjustable in the Free Millionin10 Retirement Calculator™) Date of Birth: Obvious one right? Yes but important nonetheless. If you plan to work till […]

10 factors to consider planning for retirement

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Curious what it takes to retire? You can now download the comprehensive excel Millionin10 Retirement Calculator™. It will show you what it takes to retire. The spreadsheet will capture over 20 parameters that you can alter (think of them as dials that you can turn up and down). Best part yet IT IS FREE!!!! As you capture the initial parameters ranging from date of birth, start of plan and intended retirement age, a graph will show you exactly what funds will be available to you at time of retirement. When retirement kicks in, it will automatically start deducting money from […]

Millionin10 Retirement Calculator

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First of all, thank you to Money Bacon Guy at MoneyBacon.com  for nominating me for the Sunshine Blogger Award. It’s an honor and  privilege. What is the Sunshine Blogger Award? The Sunshine Blogger Award is given to those who are inspiring and bring sunshine into the lives of their readers and fellow bloggers. It is such an honor to receive! My inspiration for what I did and what led me to blogging came from an off-the-cuff remark by a colleague. He’s long forgotten about me and that’s okay. It’s more often the friends,  family and people around you that inspire […]

Sunshine Blogger Award

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You read them everywhere, how to save on …. Look around this blog and you’ll find them here as well; articles on how to save money. As you read them you might ask yourself how eliminating a dripping faucet can build you wealth. The answer is simple; all little amounts help, they tend to add up to a lot. For years I thought we were living below our means and in effect we were as money was left at the end of each month. After we started budgeting, we actually learned we could cut our expenses even more, a lot […]

How we saved $23,000 per year

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So our health insurance’s high deductibles are supposed to make us more conscious of pricing and have us shop around for the best prices… Bulls@#!! You’ll be given the example of how an x-ray costs 75 bucks at one provider and $350 at the next. CT scans at $2,000 at one provider and $500 at the next. When do you need an x-ray? That’s right, in most cases when you are in really urgent need of one. Your heart stopped beating so let’s do some price comparisons. Yes, there is a wide variety of pricing from one healthcare provider to […]

Shop around for health care, really?

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Update: This article somewhat outdated I as truly entered early retirement some time ago. It’s been more than a year now since I left my job. Life is good, there is little stress and spending time with my family is great. Some people assume I’m retired and for a while stopped arguing otherwise. Not this time though, let’s argue for a minute. Why is it that I’m pondering going back to work? Is it money? well… yes and no. I’m still a millionaire and as a matter of fact my portfolio is slightly larger than it was the day I […]

Why I’m not in early retirement (yet)

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I’ve been investing in the stock market for over 17 years now and it has served me well, very well I might say. from time to time however I’ve been tempted to maybe take on a rental property or two but after 17 years I still haven’t. I’m not giving up on the possibility completely. So the question remains; invest in stocks or rental property? Here’s why I personally hesitate: If you get into rental properties you can build yourself a pretty handsome passive income. In return you have to deal with people. Not that there is anything wrong with […]

Should you invest in stocks or rental property?

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One of the bigger expense items in your life is probably you car. Chances are it wasn’t as expensive as the one above but nonetheless. There is the actual purchase of the car which is most likely the highest of all costs but then there is the upkeep and feeding it. Fuel, insurance, oil, small maintenance and then the always unexpected not so small maintenance/repair. Following is a list of 10 ways to save money on your car, be it your current or next car. Inflate the tires on your car to the proper pressure, McCain ridiculed Obama for making […]

10 ways to save money on your car

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I run a dehumidifier every day from 8am to 8pm. I don’t like to but if I don’t the basement gets stuffy and with stuffiness cones mold. The dehumidifier costs me $0.68 per day to run. How do I know? Well, thanks to the KILL A WAT ™ meter. Yes, I’ve dabbled in a little promotion on my site and yes this is a total plug for a product but I won’t feel bad about it. I got the KILL A WAT  meter many, many years ago and it has been worth the investment. This goes right back to my […]

Know what it costs to run your gadgets

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Your utility bill is one of the constants of life (when you grow up and do that settling down thing). Cutting down that bill  is a great way to work your way out of debt or towards financial freedom.  Following is a list of 10 ways to save money on your utility bills. 10 ways of saving we apply or have applied in the past that cut down our utility bills. Whether you want reach financial freedom or want to get out of debt, these savings can help you get there a little faster. Shower 3 minutes instead of 5; […]

10 ways to save money on your utility bills

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Working your way out of debt or to financial freedom doesn’t mean you should stop living altogether. Entertainment not only brings joy but some of it nurtures the mind (especially of the young ones). Following is a list of 10 ways to save money on entertainment. These happen to be 10 ways we apply or have applied in the past on our way to become millionaires. Whether you want reach financial freedom or want to get out of debt, these saving can help with both. Get memberships, they often pay off after 2 visits, I wrote a whole thing about […]

10 ways to save money on entertainment

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Another one of these cost of healthcare articles, ugh. Yes, another one and I hope more of these keep coming as things can be better here. This one I felt compelled to write as it is from a very personal point of view. After 3 years, we finally went back to the Netherlands to visit my parents. My parents are getting older and so are our kids. 3 years in the life of a child is like a lifetime (for both kids and grandparents). Yes we see each other on Skype every Sunday but that does come not close to […]

Cost of Healthcare elsewhere, seen firsthand

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Well, we’re back from a vacation to the Netherlands. We had a blast. We stayed at a nice little villa in a quaint little town, had one of those cute little cars that looks like it rolled out of a cartoon and we went all around visiting the parks and attractions. We also of course visited my family that still lives over there. As summer is in full swing I’m sure you’re gearing up for vacation as well. vacations can be pretty expensive. Don’t ask me why but plane tickets to the Netherlands easily run up to $1,800 nowadays. Long […]

5 ways to save money while on vacation

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One of the key ingredients to us becoming millionaires was to live below our means. For a long time into the 10-year-plan to become millionaires we believed we were living below our means. That was until I figured out we could save an additional $20,000  a year (that is not a misprint), getting us that much faster to becoming millionaires. here are the 10 ways to save money on your way to building wealth. It’s what we applied to ours and it worked. 1. Cut the cable cost No we did not the cable, just the cost. We simply looked […]

10 ways to save money on your way to a ...

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Our path to becoming millionaires was one that took time. It took 13 years to be exact. Throughout the 13 years the following 5 steps were at the core of what made us millionaires. 1. Start early. We started our path to becoming millionaires early in our 30s. Had we started earlier we would have been in an even better financial position. The earlier you start investing the more effective compounding will be. In my article on compounding: Compounding, if you’re 25 READ THIS. if you’re not READ THIS. I work out how by saving only $300 a month at […]

5 Steps to become a millionaire

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They tell you, over and over again, not to quit your day job when considering writing a Blog. With “they” I mean everybody and with “over and over again” I mean over and over and over again. I like to think of myself as someone who pays attention but oops, I did quit my day job…. It’s coming up on a year now since I quit and I have no regrets. Am I retired now? No. As financially sound as my situation is, it is not enough to retire at 44. Sooner or later I will go back to work […]

Don’t quit your day job, wait what?

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A good friend of mine posed me the question if I had some advice for all the graduating students this month. An interesting question given that I did not face the same issues and questions students in the United States face today. Before I continue: CONGRATULATIONS for those that already graduated this month and to those who soon will!! Back to why I didn’t face the same issues you do. I graduated in the Netherlands some time ago when student loans did not exist. That combined with a tuition which at the time didn’t exceed $1,200 there was no financial […]

Some advice for 2015’s graduates

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If you need a new TV go ahead and get a 4K/UHD TV, if not, I think they are still an Optical Financial Illusion
Look for TVs on Amazon, walk into Sears or your local Best Buy and all you’ll see the splendor of the “new” 4K TVs. They may also be marked as UHD (Ultra High Definition).  The demo videos of butterflies flapping their wings as dew drop fly around are stunning. Pretty much the same videos we were amazed by when 1080p TV’s were first featured. Optically the new 4K TV are definitely something to behold but again I judge this based on the demos provided by the manufactures. Some argue that the difference isn’t that big as the human eye has […]

4K Ultra HD TVs, Optical Financial Illusion?

 in Optical financial Illusion  tagged 4K UHD / optical financial illusion by
3D printing is gaining in popularity but does it make financial sense to get and use one
What comes out of a 3D printer is certainly no Optical Illusion you can feel and touch it. Sometimes it even looks good and is useful.  The question we’re going to pose here is whether or not these 3D printers are Optical Financial Illusions. Yes, they’re cool but do they make financial sense? 3D printers have been around for a while now.  I personally had my eye on one for some years now. It used to be that MakerBot was the only affordable game in town. Makerbot was one of the first to break the $2000.00 barrier which at the […]

3D printers, Optical Financial Illusion?

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Love the apple watch but the Apple watch Edition is what I consider an Optical Financial Illusion 1
No I’m not an Apple hater; as a matter of fact I love practically every product they put forward. When I could afford them I got pretty much every model of IPad, we swear by the iPhone and 80 percent of our media is streamed through the Apple TV. In short, I love you Apple, despite the fact you’ve become everything the 1984 commercial warned against, I can’t help but admire your products. Even the Apple watch is something I’m very much tempted by, but in the context of Optical Financial Illusions which is a new category I’m starting on […]

Apple watch Edition, Optical financial Illusion?

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In order for you to turn your financial goals into reality you need to educate yourself on yourself and your financial behavior
And as some of you jump up and start shouting “Wrong!! Zuckerberg and Gates got rich dropping out of college and by following their dreams”. Simmer down; I’m not talking about a college degree. No, not saying it’s bad as it certainly served me well but of all things a college degree can get you, financial freedom is probably at the bottom of the list. The current price of a college degree and crippling loans associated have that effect. What I’m talking about is education of yourself about yourself, education about your own behavior and specifically education about your own […]

Financial goals and plans start with education

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after all my investments escapades I've learned to keep it simple. Invest in ETFs only. It is easy and tends to come with higher rewards. 3
Here’s why I’ve invested in the past and are currently still heavily invested: I wanted to build a nest egg. Not to buy a bigger car, bigger boat or bigger house on the water. I wanted to feel financially secure and not have to worry about any financial calamity that can come our way. We did it did I and certainly would recommend for anyone to do. How you spend that nest-egg is up to you. Even how you get your nest-egg is up to you but you may want to read this and take some lessons from what I […]

KISS Applied to my investments

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