Substance abuse, whether it’s through alcohol or legally prohibited drugs, can be a serious burden to employers. Workplace and family issues can cause an employee to develop an addiction problem, and employers need to recognise this and work to help their workers deal with the issues that arise.
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[Happy Monday guys đ Thought we’d start it off right this week with a pretty kick-ass article from my old friend Anton. Last time he shared with us his money lessons from growing up in the former USSR, and now – a year later – he’s officially a millionaire and shares how he achieved this. How many of these habits are you currently doing?]
Earlier this year, shortly before my 27th birthday, I became a millionaire. It wasnât a sudden thing and I pretty much expected it, but it felt absolutely awesome nevertheless. Checking your Mint account and seeing a cool $1 million net worth is a great way to start a morning!
What still bugs me a little, however, is the way people perceive millionaires and especially what they think about how people like me became financially successful. They always seem to be looking for some secret formula or hot stock tip that will make them rich overnight. When I tell them that I made my money through a lot of hard work, self-discipline and sacrifices they usually seem disappointed.
I canât really think of a single thing I did that was the magic key to my success. Instead, it was a combination of daily tasks, habits and principles that helped me grow my net worth year after year.
I wanted to share 10 of these habits that I think were especially important:
I realize that talking about goals is really clichĂ©. Pretty much every single âhow to be successfulâ book Iâve ever read talked about goals at one point or another.
Well you know what? I am a testament that goals really do work! I would consider myself a goalaholic because at any given time I have over 180 or so that Iâm actively working on. I started setting them just for my finances, but now do it for all areas in life.
My goals give me motivation, keep me on track and help me track my progress. I look at them every day and they help me make decisions both big and small. And most importantly â they give me a vision for the future.
I consider net worth to be the ultimate metric of financial success. Iâm really not that impressed by how much people make, but I will listen to somebody who has a high net worth.
Iâve been tracking mine since I was a teenager. I did everything I could to increase it by double digit percentages every single year and for the most part, Iâve been successful in doing so.
If youâve never calculated you net worth, it may be a huge reality check. Iâve met tons of people who have 6-figure salaries and a net worth of less than $100,000.
You donât necessarily need a high paying job to grow your wealth (although it sure helps!). What you do need, however, is the discipline to not spend all of the money you make. The greater your savings rate, the faster you will grow your wealth and the sooner you will be able to retire.
My actual goal is to save at least 50% of my income each month. I tend to exceed this and come closer to 60% most of the time. Itâs not easy if you are used to spending a lot of money, but if you work up to it over time, itâs doable for just about anyone.
Other than just pure discipline, there are two things that especially help me save this much:
There is nothing wrong with shopping for the best wireless service company or trying to save money on your grocery bill. But you know what Iâve noticed? Itâs the big things that tend to kill most people.
I have a friend at work who is an expert at our local gas prices. I donât know where he gets his info, but he always seems to know where the cheapest gas is. Sounds like he is a frugal type, right? Well, he then turns around and spends thousands of dollars on new gold clubs and memberships! What sense does that make?
Iâve always tried to avoid expensive things. I donât play golf, I donât go to fancy restaurants, I donât buy expensive clothes and I donât stay at 5-star resorts twice a year. I live a simple life and devote more time to people instead of things. Try it, you might just like it đ
Believe it or not, Iâm not a fan of monthly budgets at all. I havenât followed a strict budget for years.
Itâs not that I donât think they are sexy, but Iâve found them to be too inflexible. Itâs all good when your expenses stay exactly the same month after month, but that rarely happens. So you end up reworking your budget from month to month, going over your limits and feeling like you failed.
Instead, I pay myself first. Paying yourself first basically sets the priority of what you do with your money each month:
This system has helped me follow through with my savings goals because I take care of them first. My spending, on the other had, comes last and by that time there isnât much money left to spend anyway. Plus I have full flexibility as far as what to spend it on, which works for me.
I can honestly say that Iâve never got charged credit card interest, Iâve never had an auto loan, a furniture loan, an electronics loan, a payday loan or any other type of consumer debt. I just donât buy anything on credit. I either have the money in my bank account to pay cash, or I donât buy it.
Itâs that simple.
I do in fact use my credit cards to take advantage of their reward programs and to build my credit, but I pay off my balance in full at the end of each week so I never get charged interest.
This takes a good amount of discipline (itâs always easier to spend money you donât actually have!), but avoiding consumer debt has saved me a ton of money on interest and has helped me live below my means.
I should make a quick note here about mortgages. I do in fact have two of them on my two rental properties. Iâm a firm believer that you can get a much higher return on your investments in real estateif you are diligent in doing your research. And thatâs a big if, mind you. Itâs very easy to get yourself in trouble with this much debt, so donât take a mortgage lightly by any means.
This is another topic that you always hear about, but I wonder how many people actually have an emergency fund?!
Putting mine together was one of my first financial goals. And Iâve actually had to use it twice. I wonât go into the details of what happened, but letâs just say I was very happy that I had the money I needed right there and then and didnât have to use my credit card.
I keep my emergency fund in a high yield savings account. I hear about people using CD ladders or even investing theirs, but I think that completely defeats its purpose. It should be there 24/7, just a click away and you definitely donât want it declining in value.
So you know how I said that Iâve never had any consumer debt? Well what helped me avoid it is saving ahead for large expenses and purchases.
I keep a list of everything I plan to buy in the next few years that will be more than what my monthly cash flow can handle. This includes plane tickets, presents, maintenance on my car, moving expenses and so forth.
Depending on how long I have until I need the money, I either save for these in a savings account, CD or short-term investments like low-risk bond ETFs.
Iâve found that when building your wealth, consistency is key. Iâve been contributing to my retirement and brokerage accounts and my real estate fund (which I use for future property purchases) without fail for nearly 10 years.
Iâve invested money no matter what was going on in my life. It didnât matter if I was strapped for cash â I put my investment contributions above everything else. When I had some extra money, it all went toward my investments.
Iâve also invested no matter what happens with the economy, the stock or the real estate market. Whether it was up or down, I was investing. Which takes me to my last point:
One of my idols, Warren Buffett once said:
âBe fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful.â
Iâll admit that I had to overcome some fears, but Iâve piled money into the stock market and real estate when everybody else was proclaiming it was the end of the world around 2008-2009.
I was fairly new to investing back then, but Iâm super glad I made that choice. Iâve seen tremendous gains both in my stock and real estate portfolio in the years to come after that. I hope that the next time we have a major downturn I can do the same!
As you can see, there is nothing complicated or new about my habits. They are very simple to understand, but some do require a good amount of self-discipline to follow through with.
I think that if you set your mind to it, you can definitely accomplish the same, or even more, than me. It probably wonât be easy and it may take some time, but you too can become a millionaire.
How many of these habits are you currently doing?
– Anton
P.S. If you want to check out what my net worth looks like right now, here is my latest update.
This article is provided by Melissa
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This article is by staff writer Kristin Wong.
Recently, Fidelity released another survey about millennials and money. They found that 47 percent of us are saving for retirement. To me, that stat was really telling about our generationâs view of personal finance, and itâs not unlike other findings. When TIME wrote about the survey, they reported:
âTransamerica Center for Retirement Studies found that 71% of millennials eligible for a 401(k) plan participate and that 70% of millennials began saving at an average age of 22. By way of comparison, Boomers started saving at an average age of 35.â
It is self-reported data, sure. But it seems hard to deny that there is a heightened, post-recession interest in finance and our economy. Weâre pushing for every manner of financial education â in schools and on the Internet. Personal finance has become an increasingly popular niche in the blogosphere. Even Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, is involved in the production of movies designed to explain how our economy works. To me, itâs harder to believe there wouldnât be some sort of new-found interest in personal finance after the Great Recession.
Another finding from Fidelityâs poll people found interesting:
When asked whom they trust most for information on money matters, 33 percent of millennials say they trust their parents, but 1 in 4 (23 percent) say they trust no one.
Considering the economic climate, itâs no wonder that millennials are skeptical. At my own blog, Brokepedia.com, one reader brought up a point that I hadnât really considered: Our parentsâ money advice might not apply because they come from a different time. Obviously, thereâs some financial advice that is standard. Spend less than you earn, for instance, will always be the formula for financial independence. My parents taught me that at a young age, the advice stuck, and itâs working.
However, thereâs stuff my parents couldnât predict. I wanted to save money by going to a community college, for example. But their idea was for me to go to a âreal universityâ â the more prestigious, the better â so they didnât think my choice was very smart. After witnessing my younger brotherâs massive tuition, though, I think they changed their minds a bit about saving money on college.
Sure, all of these studies on millennials and how they handle money are generalizations. The huge focus on our behavior borders on obsession if you ask me. Until recently, that focus has been pretty negative. But more studies and surveys are showing that Gen. Y is actually better with money than theyâre given credit for.
Even if you take the stats with a grain of salt, I think there are a couple of lessons we can learn from the data.
For their study, Fidelity asked me if Iâd like to produce a man-on-the-street video for them. It involved talking to people my age about money issues. The conversations I had with people closely mirrored Fidelityâs findings.
Most of the people I talked to said their parents gave them basic advice and they appreciated it, but thereâs some stuff theyâve simply had to learn on their own. Because of the aftermath of the housing crisis and now the student loan crisis, young people seem to be skeptical of what other people tell them to do with their money.
Thatâs not a bad thing.
Separate from the video, I talked to a recent college grad about money. She complained about her massive student debt. What really bugged her about it was that most of it wasnât necessary. Her student loan company approved her for $100,000. She told them she didnât need that much.
âBut they told me, âNo, itâs fine. Youâre approved, it doesnât matter. You can just spend it.â I was 18,â she told me. âSomeone gives you $100,000 at 18, all you can think about is all the stuff you can buy. I learned my lesson.â
To me, this is a microcosm of why our generation, as a whole, has learned to be more careful, and yes, maybe even more skeptical, about financial advice.
In the man-on-the-street interviews, I asked the subjects where they got their money advice. Again, the response was mostly, âI learned on my own.â And this is going to make me sound like the worst money snob, but when they told me they were learning âon their own,â I assumed that meant they didnât actually know anything. I was wrong. (Sorry, interviewees.)
We talked about personal finance books I didnât think anyone outside of my money nerd friends would recognize. We talked about investing and homeownership and how your money mind-set changes as you get older.
One 26-year-old, on his way to lunch with a friend, said something that sounded like it came straight from the pages of this blog:
âNow Me wants to have fun, but Future Me wants to have fun, too.â
It seems like Gen. Y is learning through a filter of skepticism â but they are learning. Our economy is changing, weâre recovering from our mistakes, and we want to make sure our moves are steady and well-calculated.
Millennials have been criticized for postponing families, not buying property, moving back in with our parents and even commuting.
Iâve done three out of four of those things, and they contributed immensely to my financial security. Moving back in with my mom was the last damn thing I wanted to do at 22. We were going through a rough time. And, of course, I wanted my freedom. But I saw it as an opportunity to get my finances in order, and, thankfully, my mom welcomed me. I didnât think it was selfish, and she didnât think it was selfish. In fact, she suggested it as a smart money move.
The economy sucks. The system sucks. Stuff needs to change. But in the meantime, millennials seem to be adapting and taking control of what they can â and thatâs a good thing. To me, the way people are challenging traditional measures of success is an indication that weâre adapting. Yes, that might mean moving back in with your parents for a while so you can build an emergency fund. It might mean that you decide that renting is okay, because you donât want to be house-poor.
We should try to make the bigger picture better; but in the meantime, itâs productive to work toward improving our own personal financial situation.
What do you think about the (generalized) financial habits of Gen. Y? Obviously, thereâs room for improvement. While we might be surprised at the finding that 47 percent of millennials are saving for retirement, itâs also a concern that 53 percent are not saving.
Still, sometimes it seems like the stuff we get criticized for is the stuff weâre doing right. The headlines point out our flaws â but, to me, skepticism is healthy. And so is adapting.
I stand by the fact that I think thereâs a shift toward financial security. It might not be any more attainable than it was (probably even less so). But it seems like more people, young and old, are interested in what it takes to recover from an economic crapstorm. After coming of age in the middle of that crapstorm, is it so hard to believe that millennials might be interested in developing better financial habits than previous generations?
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By Peter Miller
The 1,000-page mortgage application is here, but donât be alarmed: Itâs a paper tiger, a low barrier to financing, and no more frightening than a marshmallow.
At first it may seem amazing that a loan application could be larger than a Tom Clancy novel, but itâs true. In fact, in todayâs marketplace, 1,000 pages might well be regarded as a mid-sized file, a financial appetizer, and hardly noticeable in an era where 2,000-page applications are increasingly common. Indeed, a study by VirPack, a document management company, found that more than half of all loan applications now contain more than 500 pages while 20% included a forest-busting 1,000 to 2,000 pages.
So are heavyweight mortgage applications a big deal, enough to sink any effort to finance or refinance a home?
The answer is no. Paperwork demands by lenders are about as scary as butterflies. The problem is largely that no one explains why so much documentation is needed, how big page numbers are totaled, and why this is a lender problem and not a big deal for borrowers.
Lenders and borrowers have been around for a long time. As an example, Deuteronomy says debts should be forgiven after seven years while Leviticus advises that debts should also be forgiven in jubilee periods, celebrations which occur every 50 years.
Mortgage lending in the U.S. as we know it today really began with the establishment of the Federal Housing Administration â the FHA â in the 1930s. The great innovation of the FHA was not lower rates but longer mortgage lengths. Instead of the typical âtermâ loan that was common at the time â a loan that lasted just five years â the FHA popularized the use of self-amortizing mortgages that lasted 20 years.
If you got an FHA-backed loan it meant you didnât have to refinance every five years. That was important because in five years you might be unemployed, or the value of your property may have dropped so your term loan could not be refinanced. With a self-amortizing, long-term mortgage, once you got the loan you never had to go back and re-qualify with the lender as long as you made the monthly payments. Moreover, at the end of the loan there was no more debt because both the interest and the principal had been fully repaid.
While the FHA program was and is surely an attractive option for borrowers â today one in five loans is backed by the program â the FHA is not a lender. Instead, itâs an insurance program. You can buy with less money down if you finance with an FHA-insured loan. Of course, since the FHA is an insurance program, you also pay monthly premiums.
Back in 1929 there were more than 25,000 banks and probably more than 25,000 ways to process loans. Today there are fewer than 6,700 FDIC insured institutions, but loan applications are now pretty much all alike, because most loans are sold by lenders to such organizations as the FHA, Veteranâs Administration, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac. Whatâs not standard is how the information is used â a loan declined by one lender might be entirely acceptable to another.
All of this gets us to the subject of paperwork and the sea of pulp upon which the mortgage industry now floats.
The mortgage underwriting system worked very well until the early 2000s. The foreclosure rate in 2000 was just below 0.4 percent, according to statistics from RealtyTrac.
But then foreclosure levels shot up, in large measure because of the sudden and widespread marketing of ânon-traditionalâ mortgage products such as option ARMs, interest-only mortgages, and loans with little paperwork â so-called âlow docâ and âno docâ loan applications. Indeed there were even such things as NINJA mortgages (no-income-no-job-or-assets) and NINA financing (no-income-no-assets).
The result of the new financial products and standards was entirely predictable: The housing market collapsed and foreclosure levels soared to heights unseen since the 1920s. As I told the Association of Real Estate License Law Officials â the folks who regulate real estate brokers at the state level â in a 2006 speech and at the height of the real estate market boom, âlooming in the background is the potential for financial disaster that will impact home values nationwide, spur foreclosure rates to new highs and devalue insurance funds, pension holdings and investor accounts. The value of your home, no matter how you financed, is at stake.â
New Wall Street regulations were passed in the aftermath of the foreclosure meltdown. The Dodd-Frank legislation signed by President Obama in 2010 was largely devoted to the issue of risk. No longer would mortgage lenders be able to originate residential loans that could plunge entire states into depression.
Central to Dodd-Frank â and central to todayâs paperwork demands â are two important ideas.
First, Dodd-Frank includes an âability to repayâ requirement. Under this standard, lenders must verify at the time of application that residential borrowers have the ability to repay the loan.
The result is that lenders want to make certain that loan files contain enough data and information to unquestionably meet the verification requirement. Hearsay doesnât count;Â everything must be in writing, and maybe more than once. Lenders want every document they can find to protect themselves against possible future claims that they failed to adequately verify the borrowerâs ability to repay a loan.
Why are lenders so fanatical about paperwork?
âIf it can be shown that they did not adequately verify borrower information, lenders can be forced to buy back the loan from investors, a huge cost,â said Rick Sharga, executive vice president for Auction.com. âUnder the new Dodd-Frank rules, a borrower may also be able to sue the lender for making a loan that didnât meet the ability-to-repay criteria at the time the loan was originated.â
Second, the Wall Street reforms included a âduty of careâ standard. It requires that lenders must be licensed or registered and â hereâs the big point â that the license or registration number must be on loan documents.
Why is the âduty of careâ requirement important? By having license and registration numbers, mortgage investors can quickly determine who originated a given mortgage and then â in the same way that a lender can decline a loan application â an investor can say ânoâ to loans from a particular lender. In effect, a lender with a lousy foreclosure record, missing documents, or other problems may be unable to re-sell its loans to investors in the secondary market, and as a result will be forced out of business.
The result of Dodd-Frank is that foreclosure levels are now below historic norms. This means investors can make U.S. mortgage loans with little risk, and itâs the lack of risk that explains in large measure why mortgage interest rates are now so low.
Thereâs no doubt that lenders collect a lot of paperwork, but so what? Itâs not that theyâre asking for 1,000 separate items. Instead, whatâs happening is that theyâre asking for complete documents, and those materials often have some heft.
As an example, in a recent mortgage application the lender got an appraisal for the property. The appraisal ran 27 pages. Then â to make sure the appraisal was right â the lender got an automated 22-page âvalue report.â
So here you have 49 pages of material and nothing was required of the borrower.
Hereâs another example: The real estate sales agreement for the same transaction ran 18 pages. You sign here and initial there but itâs paperwork prepared by a broker or attorney.
Think about bank statements and retirement accounts. Lenders want the full statements, not just the first-page summary. And how about tax returns? Lenders want the entire return, not just the first two pages, for more complex returns.
All of this paperwork raises a question: Does anyone know what the stuff in a loan file actually says?
Not likely. Consider the testimony of two former secretaries of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, both lawyers.
Mel Martinez once explained to The Washington Post that âyou know if Iâm a lawyer and the secretary of HUD and Iâm not reading this junk, you know thereâs work to be done fixing the system.â
Alphonso Jackson, another former HUD secretary, told the Washington Times that âIâm an attorney and Iâve had eight houses and I didnât read all that mess. If I didnât read it â and I doubt anyone around this table read it â then we canât hold people responsible for not reading every line when they were closing their loan.â
Regardless of how nutty lender demands might be, the reality is that as a borrower you have an obligation to provide needed paperwork. No paperwork, no loan, so the lender has leverage. Moreover, if you drop one lender over paperwork the next one may be even more demanding.
There are, however, certain steps you can take to make the paper chase easier:
For all the moaning about mortgage paperwork, itâs not a big deal. While the pages do add up, for the most part itâs the lenderâs problem and surely nothing that canât be handled. After all, millions of mortgages are successfully originated every year, something that wouldnât happen if the paperwork load was too overwhelming.
Peter G. Miller is a nationally-syndicated real estate columnist. His books, published originally by Harper & Row, sold more than 300,000 copies. He blogs at OurBroker.com and contributes to such leading sites as RealtyTrac.com, the Huffington Post and Auction.com. Peter has also spoken before such groups as the National Association of Realtors and the Association of Real Estate License Law Officials.
This post is by staff writer Honey Smith.
When I was in college, one of my co-workers at my part-time, on-campus job gave me a funny little gift that I use to this day. What was it? Itâs called a âwallet fairy.â According to the note that came with my little talisman, you put it in your wallet and âyouâll never be out of money when you need it.â
I canât honestly say that the âmagicâ has been foolproof. I believe Iâve mentioned on a couple of occasions the time I didnât wash my hair for a month because I couldnât afford shampoo. And I distinctly remember crying after going to the grocery store on a couple of occasions because I didnât know how I was going to pay my bills after buying food. But I guess if the magic were foolproof, this fool wouldnât have learned her lesson and started digging her way out of debt, right?
But you know what? National Preparedness Month (a.k.a. âSeptemberâ) may be over, but itâs always a good idea to consider your plans if an emergency occurs. And after the flash flooding we saw this year in Phoenix, I am thinking a lot more seriously about what it would be like to be out of money when I need it. Iâm starting to think that itâs important to keep cash readily available, but I wanted to really sort out why and how much and where. So here goesâŠ.
Should you keep an emergency âcash stashâ?
To be clear, Iâm not talking about keeping an extra $20 in your wallet (not that thatâs a bad idea). Iâm talking about keeping a significant amount of cash on hand in case of emergencies â in the hundreds or thousands of dollars. Here are the pros and cons for doing so that I can think of:
Pro: Out of sight, out of mind. Even if you put your emergency fund in an online-only account such as Capital One 360 (formerly ING), at least itâs there. You receive bank statements reminding you of its presence. Maybe it factors into your Mint net worth. Stashing actual physical money somewhere out of the way means you are less likely to think about it (and thus, be tempted to spend it) unless thereâs a true emergency.
Con: Not earning interest. If you invest your money, you are (hopefully) earning interest faster than inflation can erode the value of your cash. The âcommon wisdomâ is that inflation is about 3 percent annually, so you should aim to beat that benchmark, taking into account things like diversification and your own risk tolerance. Even parking your cash in a savings account with their interest rates of 0.95 percent or less (based on this weekâs savings account rates) is better than nothing, right?
Pro: Peace of mind. Cash canât be garnished like a paycheck or bank account, and it isnât easily traced. For some people, having access to money that flies under the radar, so to speak, may make them feel more secure.
Con: If itâs gone, itâs gone. See above: Cash isnât easily traced. If you lose the money, it gets destroyed, you are robbed, etc., you may have very little recourse.
Are there other significant pros and cons to having cash on hand that I am missing?
How much should you keep?
Assuming that youâve decided keeping some amount of cash on hand is best for your particular situation, the next question becomes: How much cash, exactly, should you keep? A solid emergency fund may be three to six monthsâ worth of expenses, but that is probably more than most people are comfortable keeping in cash. Not to mention, even at sub-one-percent interest rates, when you start getting into the thousands of dollars, you start missing out on a decent chunk of change.
The logical question to ask yourself at this point is, What emergency situations do you think would require physical cash? For example, if you live in an area that is prone to natural disasters, keeping enough cash on hand to buy food and supplies in the event that credit/debit isnât an option (due to a power outage or what have you) may be smart. Itâs important to be realistic, but thereâs no need to be paranoid.
Where should you keep it?
I suppose theoretically, you could keep it anywhere. However, if you want to make sure that youâre the one who is actually keeping it, your main options are likely these:
In your home, in a diversion safe. A diversion safe is something that looks like an ordinary household item or product that actually is used to hide items of value. Diversion safes might look like books; cleaning chemicals (think a can of Ajax); cans of soda, water, or food; or even toiletries (think a can of hairspray). The pro is that diversion safes are relatively inexpensive, but most donât actually require a lock to open. So if someone does happen upon it, the gig is up. Diversion safes also tend to be relatively small, which may be a pro or a con depending on your needs.
In your home, in an actual safe. A real safe is usually larger and can thus accommodate more items, if you have other valuables besides cash that youâd like to protect. It may require a key or combination to open (some are even biometric!) and, unlike most diversion safes, many are fireproof/waterproof or fire/water resistant. Accordingly, they also take up more space, are difficult to hide, and may be expensive.
In a safe deposit box. For a rental fee, your cash, other valuables, and important documents may be stored in a bank, post office, or other institution. The fee is usually fairly minimal for most needs, and you have the reassurance that most institutions offering this service are under some form of guard 24/7. However, that does mean if you want to access the contents of your box, you must leave your house. Depending on the circumstances under which you need to access your cash, this may or may not be feasible. After all, when was the last time you went to the bank?
There may also be indirect costs when storing items at home. If you have large amounts of cash or valuables, you may need or want a robust alarm system, for example, and that may entail an up-front cost and/or a monthly subscription.
Like most aspects of personal finance, I suspect that opinions on this topic vary widely. Do you keep physical cash? Why? How much cash is too much? And how do you balance issues of accessibility with the desire to keep your money safe?