DollarStackin'

Want to be rich? Don’t get too happy

Michael — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 22:11:31 +0000

Checked out the bestseller lists lately? In February you would have spotted motivational expert Marci Shimoff’s “Happy for No Reason,” which claims to teach you “how to experience sustained happiness for the rest of your life.” In March came “The Geography of Bliss” by journalist Eric Weiner, a travelogue of places on Earth where people are the happiest. Both of these follow on the heels of “Stumbling on Happiness” by Harvard psychologist Dan Gilbert, which has been translated into 20 languages.

Clearly, for a lot of people, finding happiness is the ultimate goal. But should it be? New research suggests maybe not - at least if wealth and success are also at the top of your list

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Want to be rich? Don’t get too happy

7 Tips On Using Credit Card Rewards & Avoiding Rip Offs

Michael — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 22:08:18 +0000

You got burned with frequent flier miles, which were nearly impossible to redeem and hardly worth the hassle, so credit card issuers turned to other kinds of incentives to entice you to charge more. But most rewards programs aren’t much better, and consumers are still eager to sign up for them despite the same old traps.

About 85 percent of U.S. households participate in at least one rewards program, according to a study released Monday by Consumer Reports. And though rewards do spur consumers to spend more, the study found that confusing rules and restrictions make most reward cards more trouble than they’re worth.

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7 Tips On Using Credit Card Rewards & Avoiding Rip Offs

Why Athletes Go Broke

Michael — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 22:02:56 +0000

Most athletes play for four to ten years if they are lucky. After they pay taxes (can be 40 to 50%), agent fees and buy their first homes, cars, outfits, jewelry and then buy friends and family things they are left with very little. When they first “strike it rich” all of their longtime friends and family expect help. Most athletes feel obligated to help everyone out at first then they wise up. They also want to keep up with their teammates. If someone buys a Bentley they have to buy one, if someone buys a $75,000 watch they have to buy one to keep up the appearance. Then of course when the career ends and they are still living in a multi million dollar house, driving 3 expensive cars (and insurance), traveling in private planes and taking Limo’s when they go out on the town reality sets in. The money dries up very quickly.

However, if athletes educate themselves and learn money management skills and make smart, safe investments along the way they are usually in very good shape. After representing athletes for over 20 years we call this our “life plan”. We take out clients on working vacations in the off season to places like Las Vegas, Cancun and on a cruise to the Bahamas to learn business networking. We have people from industries such as real estate, oil and gas, financial planning, credit repair, asset protection/estate planning, etc come to educate the players and their wives so they can learn about these business and also determine if they are interested in any of these industries for life after sports. One of the financial planners who comes always says most people die coming down from Mt. Everest not going up. The goal is for these athletes to get to their Mt. Everest AND to get down safely. ”

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Why Athletes Go Broke

4 Reasons’ why Flying a Kite is like Starting and Running your Small Business

Michael — Thu, 29 May 2008 17:44:43 +0000

The weather was not beach-able this past weekend, but we decided to make the most of what little sunshine there was by flying Kites. I hadn’t flown a kite in at least 15 years, so it was a great experience. Heres 4 reasons why flying a Kite is like starting and running your small business.

Start-up Cost Have you been to a specialty kite shop? Kites ranging in price from $34 to $1500 are easy to find. This weekend I purchased the top of the line “2 for $3.00” model from a non-Kite shop. In fact, I think I was at a pharmacy. Look, I’m not a professional Kite flyer; I just need the thing to come with string and stay in the air.

In business, you can spend multiple thousands of dollars on advertising, equipment and promotions or you can spend nothing but time and effort. The object is to fly, figure out what you need to get in the air and go from there.

Location and Commitment Flying a Kite in the back-yard is neigh impossible. First, the house is huge and it’s in a cul-de-sac; so the back yard is boxed in by other huge houses. What little wind there is usually just swirls around, pushing my Kite around like many entrepreneurs push ideas around in their heads: back and forth – never grabbing hold of any gust of wind to help it take off. Or maybe, pushed around like the entrepreneur himself – the feeling that you want to do something bigger then your 9-5 job pushing in one direction; while the threat of unpaid bills, repossessed cars and homelessness pushes in the other. Moving from the back yard to the front presented its own problems. Mostly, my second daughter and youngest son were no longer confined to the safety of the back yard. We were in the cul-de-sac.

Sometimes you’re just not in the right place to get your business going. This can mean you’re not yet committed to the change in lifestyle it may take in the beginning, or it can mean you havent felt the gust of wind pushing you strong enough in the entreprenurial direction. Changing your state of mind can make all the difference in the world when it comes time to launch.

Preparation and more Commitment The hardest part about flying a Kite is getting it in the air. Do I really need to say the hardest parts of business are usually found in the start up? No matter your field, getting started is where most of your problems are going to come up. Unfortunately I was unprepared for the cul-de-sacs wind, causing more then a few misfires. The first found me scrambling to free more string as the Kite climbed; only to fail miserably at keeping up with the winds pace.

Each attempt feeling more prepared then the last but still finding myself unable to unwind string from its coil fast enough, I decided to unwind all of the string before the next gust of wind. I had to change my technique and I had to be careful not to tangle myself (or the kids) in the 100 or so feet of killer nylon entrapment laid out in the street, but when the next gust of wind came I was ready.

In business being prepared for challenges can make the difference between falling to the ground, or flying. This is where planning for growth and for changes in your market become vital.

Planning for Continued Success So now that my kite is flying I need to keep it in the air. I tried tying the string to the rear hatch of my Navigator, but the kite kept losing altitude. This is where my first “employee” (oldest daughter, 10) came in. At first excited about the opportunity, she soon found herself bored with what was essentially pulling a string. She did all kinds of crazy stuff, like flying while on her bike, then on rollerblades, then on her bike while still wearing rollerblades (I’m so serious). It was over when her friend came out to play; I had to let her go. My middle daughter (daddy’s favorite*, 4) happily watched from the front yard. I had another Kite to get in the air (franchise, remember 2 for $3.00) so I hired her right away. She took the kite string and flew better then I could have ever hoped to. Running around the cul-de-sac, jumping up to the higher ground of a neighbor’s yard, running around some more. She was incredible, and having her fly the kite (run my first business) gave me opportunity to get the other one off the ground.

Having the right people around you to support what you’re doing can make or break your efforts. Its counter productive to hire a 10 year old, when you’ll have to micro-manage and hold the kite string while they put skates on. Hire the 4 year old, she cant skate – and shes thrilled just to be there. Even if you don’t have employees (cheap child labor) make sure you keep people around you who are supportive, even if its just someone who can be a sounding board for your ideas; or your 2 year old son who is excited just to see you do something as miraculous as fly a kite. Also, there is always someone out there who specializes in what you don’t. The general manager of my first Kite was able to make it fly higher then I was, and did it without much input from me. In fact she did better when I just shut up and focused on launching the second kite.

Over-all, it was a great experience, one I hope to repeat this weekend but at an even better location; Seaport Village. I’ll have my 2 for $3.00 Kites flying right next to the $500 Kites that are there every weekend. I need to buy more string…

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4 Reasons’ why Flying a Kite is like Starting and Running your Small Business

The Lease of 2 Evils - Car Buying vs. Leasing

Neil — Tue, 06 May 2008 21:47:42 +0000

If you have read any of my blatherings for any length of time, then you already know that I am big on actually owning stuff. Being beholden to another in any way, shape or form is a form of slavery and that has never sat well with me.I have never leased a car, but then I also do my own oil changes, tire rotations and many of my own repairs while following my owners manual maintenance schedule RELIGIOUSLY. I probably take better care of my car’s needs better than most, thus I probably get more out of owning my vehicle than the average car owner.

That stated, I can understand the point of view (partially) of leasing a vehicle. If you need to have a really nice car for your business, driving around upscale clients or just for the sake of your business’ outward appearance (showing up at a function in a dented rust-bucket doesn’t exactly instill confidence in your potential clients that you are capable of producing top-dollar for them) , then leasing could make sense.

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The Lease of 2 Evils - Car Buying vs. Leasing

Twitter Me

Michael — Tue, 06 May 2008 21:46:00 +0000

I got an email, well… several emails saying I don’t update enough. The People want hourly updates on what I’m doing and damn it; I’m going to give it to them. Twitter.com is where I do nearly constant (read: every few hours) updates. I promise to post more here but if you’re that interested in what I’m doing you can follow me there.

~~I’ll add a Twitter update to the sidebar one of these days.~~ OK, I added the Twitter updates widget. You can now stalk me directly from DollarStackin.com.

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Twitter Me

RMCN: Credit Repair made Easy

Michael — Fri, 02 May 2008 23:10:14 +0000

Getting your business off the ground with minimal funding can be a difficult task. Many entrepreneurs turn to small business loans to secure equipment and other business necessities. For the credit challenged (read: poor/bad credit) this is often not an option. repairmycreditnow.com introduces an interesting approach to credit repair: Auditing.

The auditing process occurs over a period of time, and includes a number of verification request being sent to the various credit reporting agency’s. In a nut shell; RMCN contacts the credit agencies on your behalf requesting each negative entry be verified. If verified, the stuff sticks (pay your bills), if unverified the credit agencies are pretty quick to delete the entry.

your credit - negative entries = higher credit score. a credit repair service can help accomplish this.

The website is pretty simple. The homepage has text entry field for your general contact info. Fill it out and wait for a representative to give you a call. When the process is complete you should find yourself in better position to apply for a small business loan.

There are a number of ways to repair credit, some work - some don’t. I’ll be giving RMCN a try so I can post a full review.

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RMCN: Credit Repair made Easy

TNX.net: Better Advertising for your Website

Michael — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 20:05:31 +0000

Ad placement; the bane of my existence. True, were it not for the ad revenue DollarStackin.com might not exist - I still don’t like placing ads. Its cumbersome, mostly untargeted and it gets in the way of otherwise good site design.

I’ve been trying out the ad services from the good people at TNX.net, and I’m feeling much better about the whole thing. TNX.net allows me to create adspace on individual pages for all of my websites, which lets me better decide how, where and what ads are displayed.

The service connects me with advertisers in ways I was unable to connect before, and the prices for a link from my site are pretty good. From the advertisers perspective, TNX.net is an incredible deal. They even have a free tool to help you secure the number 1 spot for highly competitive words in Google’s AdWord system.

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TNX.net: Better Advertising for your Website

Mafia Boss: 7 Rules for Running a Successful Business

Michael — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 01:33:56 +0000

They’re violent, they’re ruthless, they have caused misery to many, but you can’t fault their business sense: mafia bosses know how to make a profit. Its practices may be largely illegal, but Cosa Nostra is not as retrograde, or conservative, as it has often been portrayed. Its raison d’etre is profit. Like any business, it is pragmatic and constantly changing to exploit new opportunities.

Big business has learned how to sell itself to the public, with television shows such as The Apprentice and Dragons’ Den granting us a view of harsh but compellingly competitive environments. Businessmen such as Sir Alan Sugar, Duncan Bannatyne and Peter Jones have become unlikely media personalities. But the mafia has been using these methods for years.

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Should You Bother To Own: Part 1

Neil — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 05:55:30 +0000

DollarStackin’ straddles the line between being about running a small business and managing personal finances. Some people think those are two distinctly different categories. I think those people are stupid. Personal finance IS a business, and should be treated as such. So I’ve decided to add a speciallist in the personal finance realm to the DollarStackin’ family.

I’d like to introduce our first “Non-Michael” contributor to DollarStackin’ at iStackDollars.com; Mr. Neil Smith of Lets Get Ahead.

Neil will be running a number of series about personal finance. Welcome Neil - Michael.

Pay off that mortgage or invest elsewhere?
A friend and I were having a chat one night regarding home finance and he told me of a strategy he was investigating that really took me aback and and made me wonder if I had gotten things all wrong! Should I continue on in my horse-and-buggy strategy of paying down my mortgage towards my dream of owning my home outright, or should I get with the times and follow this new groovy path of enlightenment that states you should purchase your home with little money down, a low-rate interest-only plan and then just make the required monthly payments and invest the money you would have paid towards principle elsewhere and let it earn a higher rate of return.

His position was that mortgage interest is tax deductible, and the money you turn around and invest elsewhere is no less risky than the housing market. The idea is finding a long term investment which over time has a history of performing well, but in the short term may be prone to some instability, hence a high enough rate of return to warrant a strategy such as this.
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Should You Bother To Own: Part 1