brip blap - Latest Comments in a little-too-late advice on building wealth

Re: a little-too-late advice on building wealth

Rishikesh — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:04:23 -0000

Nice Post. . I really enjoy reading your articles and I love your writing style

Re: a little-too-late advice on building wealth

Steve — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 21:59:53 -0000

Yes, rhinokitty, I made the assumption that the actions I took led to the results that followed. I'm not sure why that would be interpreted as arrogant, exactly - it's just my take on things that helped me out to get where I am. It was a backward-looking post and hindsight's 20/20, of course.

Re: a little-too-late advice on building wealth

rhinokitty — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 17:28:19 -0000

What an arrogant post! Thanks for sharing your privileged perspective with the humble masses. You act as if these things CAUSED your success, but your logic is completely reliant on the assumption that because your success was chronologically followed by these things that you did, that these are what caused it.

Re: a little-too-late advice on building wealth

A 19 Year Old from Texas — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 18:44:53 -0000

Thank you kindly for this post. I would like to press you further on the question of personal finance and education. I am taking a debt of about $12,000, spread over four years. With that debt, I am studying Economics, Mathematics and becoming fluent in Chinese. I am at a nationally known private college.

My goal in life is to build a great deal of wealth so that I can improve math and science education in this country, as well as the hardly edible food that is served (seriously--http://ajp.psych.... I never was taught Algebra, Chemistry, how to write an essay or take notes. However, I was taught how to avoid having to talk to the police if you saw someone getting stabbed at school. Although you may have Rousseau inclined views about education, in my view, education (especially higher education) gives a person a set of logical tools with which to invent new things or innovate old ones.

Given these, would my education still be worthless given the amount of debt I'm taking? It's about as much as a car, and I don't drive.

My e-mail's joshua.moton@oberlin.edu if you would like to answer there.

Re: a little-too-late advice on building wealth

DGG — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 12:13:15 -0000

Hi, Interesting advices, will u expalin more on (11)journal please..

Thanks...

Re: a little-too-late advice on building wealth

Manish Kapoor — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 12:56:24 -0000

“People are always looking for the newest way to earn cash for the least amount of work. ”

I don’t see anything wrong with this. We’re naturally energy-conserving creatures. I think we could all learn from Ben if we realize that working smarter, instead of harder, is the true meaning of being industrious. By conserving our energies and attention, we are being frugal.

It’s one of the foundations of the GTD philosophy: conserve.

Economically, its a natural behavior to strive to get more out than we put in; that was what the productivity boom of the ’90s was all about, and why a lot of white collar information workers kept their jobs. Everything we do, from technology, to education, to hard skills training, helps us get more accomplished with the same energy, thereby increasing our wealth.

Even the ancient stone masons had strict processes and methodologies, before one could even say there existed hard sciences, to improve the quality and speed of their work.

Re: a little-too-late advice on building wealth

NikSan — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 02:50:22 -0000

Nice things you said there,
Its never too late to follow good practices :)

The right time is when you start following,
very useful ones,

Thanks!
niksan

Re: a little-too-late advice on building wealth

alex — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 03:24:17 -0000

Many thanx for the good approch and reading!
Greetings from Paris

Re: a little-too-late advice on building wealth

Michael — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 08:41:29 -0000

Great article !
Everything i do since 1 year is related to that, including what i write on my blog.
We live in a society where thinking about the future equals nightmare. Everyone wants to enjoy his life right now and forget all the bad things that could happen later. We do not accept disease and risk but that's life !
Thinking is the key.

Re: a little-too-late advice on building wealth

JEM — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 17:36:45 -0000

Thank you.

Re: a little-too-late advice on building wealth

Steve — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 06:22:23 -0000

Thanks everyone for following up with the votes! :)

Re: a little-too-late advice on building wealth

fathersez — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 00:21:12 -0000

Steve,

This is a great article.

I have not opened my google reader for about 10 days now and there are probably a couple of thousand posts outstanding, and this article of yours is a refreshing start to my reading schedule.

Thanks, and

PS: you got my vote

Re: a little-too-late advice on building wealth

7million7years — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 22:34:27 -0000

BripBlap ... you deserve to win this whole shebang ... good luck!

I would add a couple of additional items:

14. Start a business or three ... just for the 'experience', but, don't get too upset if you make a ton ;)

15. Buy a rental property or two ... don't live in it (yet) .. again, just for the experience of handling tenants and finances.

16. Read these books (in this order): Richest Man in Babylon; Rich Dad Poor Dad; The E-Myth Revisited; The Art of the Start ... then STOP reading and START ACTING!

Re: a little-too-late advice on building wealth

Ruth — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 18:36:46 -0000

What good advice! I practiced on my own children, now I can get it right with my grandchildren!

Re: a little-too-late advice on building wealth

Greg — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 16:48:08 -0000

Behold! I am voting!

Brip Blap you'll surely reign supreme with my vote... I mean, I am an egotist

Re: a little-too-late advice on building wealth

Know The Ledge — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 19:24:49 -0000

This is a list of great advice, and I agree that not all of it is too late. There are some things here for people of all ages and stages in life.

Re: a little-too-late advice on building wealth

El Cheapo — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 02:48:33 -0000

Thank you for #10. I used to play Tecmo Bowl with the bros for hours and hours too, haha. As I get older, the more often I hit my 'savings goals' I realize that people/experiences are still much more important than the money I have in the bank. But its certainly nice to have both!!

Re: a little-too-late advice on building wealth

Ben — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 23:53:07 -0000

These are great ideas...it makes me want to change how I give advice on my site.

Re: a little-too-late advice on building wealth

kentuckyliz — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 23:31:59 -0000

The experiences vs. stuff thing is really a personal decision and neither necessarily affects the bottom line differently than the other. Some people like stuff better than experiences because it isn't so ephemeral. Sometimes experiences and stuff go together. I have a lot of great rowing experiences but it necessitated buying a boat. LOL

Re young people taking advice and counsel. Some listen, others are smarter and know better. You can learn the easy way or you can learn the hard way: listen to your parents, teachers, counselors, mentors; or let life kick yer beehind and teach you the hard way.

A lot of young folks insisted on learning the hard way. I did. I reminded my mom that she did, too, when she was trying to nag and preach and teach. Let me go make my own mistakes!

But life being the teacher leads to lessons well learned and never forgotten!

Re: a little-too-late advice on building wealth

zane edwards — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 09:18:59 -0000

this is for you now that you're young. Especially point 12 and 4. luv ya.

Re: a little-too-late advice on building wealth

No Debt Plan — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 17:53:11 -0000

Fantastic list. Not too late for some of us! (Came across this from FMF's March Madness.)

Re: a little-too-late advice on building wealth

Shawn@MoneyBrick — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 06:44:42 -0000

Thanks so much for this post! It's an amazing list and one that everyone should follow. I'm sure people might have more than 13 pieces of advice for their own lives, but I'm sure you covered the absolute basics here.

I especially liked #6, although I must disagree a little. If you spend your time watching channels such as Discovery, National Geographic Channel and other such educational TV, I'm sure you're not wasting time at all. It's the pointless TV programs meant purely for entertainment that zombieize people and lead to meltdown of consciousness. I totally agree, however, that watching a movie is so much greater than watching anything on TV (aside from mentioned channels...). The whole story starts and is over in two hours, and you feel a sense of satisfaction knowing the whole story. Sitcoms, however, just keep you dangling there. I'm proud to say I haven't watched a sitcom in more than ten years. Honestly!

Re: a little-too-late advice on building wealth

Steve — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 16:28:28 -0000

@Steve (the commenter - not myself): It is a little preachy, and I certainly wouldn't expect someone to make a huge amount of life changes based solely on my blog. It's really intended just to get the thought process started. And I will point out it's "too late advice" - meaning it is stuff I would expect people (including myself) - to find out too late, after they missed it the first time.

That's probably why the tone is a little preachy - it's a retrospective list!

Re: a little-too-late advice on building wealth

steve — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 15:41:33 -0000

Jee-eez. Preach much?

Steve, you clearly have a handle on dispensing advice. Good advice at that; cleverly written to boot. But do you think it's necessary to lay out behaviors most people wish they would have taken on in their lives? The most insightful, introspective and poignant moments in my life come right after I've realized I've made a mistake. Right after I quit smoking. Right after I lost a close friend via "hating." Right after I did something stupid with my car.

The above 13 traits of life-improving behaviors cannot be learned from reading a succinctly written article like this. They must be conditioned in by mistakes. Preface this entry with something like "Rule 1: Err. If you don't want to err or are too afraid of the fallout thereof, then stick to the following 13 points. They should get you through life pretty safely."

Re: a little-too-late advice on building wealth

Megan — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 05:15:47 -0000

Great article. My kids at a very young age have started to have an entreprenerial mindset. I work by own online business. I share my experiences my strategies with the family. They surprise me sometimes with there responses. Never to young to start taking information on business and wealth. Enjoyed your blog it was fun and educational. I will definately be returning

Megan
http://www.PassportMentors.com