Building Wealth

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I just came from the dentist to have my new crown fitted. We’ve been in a bit of a disagreement on pricing (and procedure) and I think one of the issues maybe a misunderstanding of the Millionaire Next Door. My dentist has known me for a while, he even knows I’m a millionaire. He thinks I’m loaded. While I’m trying to tell him, the hard time I’ll have finding the funds to pay for the root canal and crown (and dental induced migraine ER visit), he’s trying to sell me on getting all my filled teeth crowned (probably a whopping […]

The Millionaire Next Door and his/her money

 in Building Wealth / finances / millionaire  tagged Millionaire Next Door by
How I made 200K doing nothing 12
Sounds like a get rich quick scam, right? It’s not, it took a lot of work, sweat, patience and time before I got here, but I’m doing it nonetheless. I retired two and half years ago, haven’t worked for a single penny and today I have more money than I had the day I retired. It’s like magic (but it’s not). Doing nothing I lied, I’ve been doing something, I’ve been enjoying early retirement. I’ve found something I’m passionate about and it keeps be busy most day. What I’m not doing, and haven’t done for two and a half years, […]

How I made 200K Doing Nothing

 in Building Wealth / financial independence / FIRE / investing / millionaire / retirement by
This is what it means to be financially independent 16
It’s been almost a month since I’ve written a post and I should be embarrassed. I’m not. This is what it means to be financially independent. To do whatever, whenever and however I want it. I quit my job to get away from deadlines, I don’t want to self-impose them again by means of this blog. Will millionin10 survive? Will it hurt the ranking of my blog? Yes, probably, but since I’m not trying to sell you anything, nothing lost. For those of you who are wondering what ranking has to do with anything (or even what it means)? For most […]

This is what it means to be financially independent

 in Building Wealth / finances / financial independence by
screw-ups on my way to a million 6
Let’s put it out there, making assumptions is making an ass out of u and me. Mostly though, making an ass of out myself. On my way to wealth, I’ve made a few of them. Today in the series on Screw-ups on My Way to a Million: Making Assumptions. As you can guess, most of them wrong. Is making assumptions bad? That is a tough question. I’ve made several wrong ones but at the same time my entire path to wealth and my continued growth/stability of my wealth is premised on the biggest assumption of them all: The stock market will go up […]

Screw-ups on My Way to a Million: Making Assumptions

 in Building Wealth / emergency fund / finances / millionaire / retirement by
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I took the Marketplace Economic Anxiety Index test to see how I feel about the economy and my score was 7. My anxiety was way below that of the average of 37 for those in my age group. It made me believe the test says more about me as a person than about the economy (although there is a correlation about how people feel about economy that affects the economy). It’s not like I went through the test fearless. The 7 point probably came from the fact that I’m a little afraid to not be able to pay for my kid’s colleges […]

My Economic Anxiety Index went from 73 to 7

 in Building Wealth / healthcare / Insurance by
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It’s that time of year again. The Boat show is back in Milwaukee. Why in January when the worst of winter is still to come? My theory is that it’s like “Bread and Games”;  maybe if we distract them enough with shiny trinkets, they’ll forget about the misery of minus 15 outside and stay one more generation. And it works, it reminds us there is light at the end of the tunnel. The show presents everything none of us can really afford. While in the “economic” boat section, I heard a woman say to her husband “This is just like […]

The Boat Show Extravaganza

 in Building Wealth / debt / Living / Saving by
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There we have it, another year has passed and an interesting one it has been for us. This was the year I started this blog. It has been the first full year that I’ve been off of work and as a result we’ve tried to live by a fairly strict budget. We’ve had a shitty stock market and some serious medical expenses come our way but in the end we’re all doing just fine. The Blog It has been a year of blogging and writing for both me and my wife. January of this year I started this blog millionin10.com. […]

Millionin10 2015 in review

 in 5 keys / Blogging / Budgeting / Building Wealth / calculators / credit / debt / emergency fund / healthcare / Insurance / investing by
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Last week’s post on debtfreedivas.org about paying off the mortgage early, again made me second guess my decision on investing as opposed to paying off my mortgage. I did okay investing but, would I have slept better not having a mortgage today, had I paid it off early? So to find out if I did the right thing, I’ve created my own Prepay vs Invest calculator and ran a couple of “what-if” scenarios. Take the fictional Millennials Jane and Joe. Retirement will start for them at 2050 so for the sake of this simulation lets say 35 years from now. […]

The exact price of paying off the mortgage early

 in Building Wealth / debt / investing / Saving by
How much do children play a role when creating budgets on your way to building wealth? I’m not talking about the $300 a month it costs to raise a child. I’m not talking about the choice between private vs public schools for the kids (The Debt Free Divas offer some good food for thought on that one) and I’m not even talking about the daunting task of paying for college, should they be inclined to attend. What I’m wondering is how much you can, can’t, should or shouldn’t “drag” your children into your plans and adjustments to life, budgeting your […]

Budgets are cool, but what about the kids?

 in Building Wealth / family / Living  tagged frontpage by
After starting this blog, one of my friends from the Netherlands asked me; would I have done the same had I stayed in the Netherlands? An interesting question that I hadn’t put much thought into. Probably, because I knew from a very young age I wouldn’t stay there. The question however could be looked at as a “would’ve/could’ve/should’ve” question. Would’ve First of all, had I stayed in the Netherlands, would I have had the desire or seen the need to become a millionaire like I did here in the States? Sure we all dream about being rich when we were […]

Would’ve could’ve should’ve

 in Building Wealth / investing / Living / Saving by