A self-made millionaire shares her recipe for success, happiness and financial freedom
From the category archives:
I’ve been receiving emails lately from people asking questions like:
“Is the stock market experiencing a true recovery or is this just a bear market rally?”
“Do you think we’ll see a V, W, U or L shaped recovery?”
“Should we expect deflation or inflation?”
“When will my house be worth as much as I paid for it?”
“How should [...]
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In response to my last post, Would You Ditch A Car For $1,000,000?, a reader made the comment: “As a grad student in an urban area, I don’t have a car (nor could I afford one) and I use public transit. … I wish there was a “big ticket” item like that that I could [...]
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A study found that households with 3 or more cars are the single largest group among American car owners. The national average is 2.28 vehicles per household. Obviously, Americans are very much in love with the automobile.
According to the AAA, the average American spends $9,369, excluding loan payments, to drive ONE medium sedan 15,000 a year. In [...]
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Rebecca commented:
I enjoy these posts – thanks for adding a voice of reason given the vast propensity to imagine the solution to the problem is doing more of the thing that caused the problem. We’ve collectively been telling ourselves the same stories so long it’s hard to ram home still that they *are* just [...]
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More specifically, does the commonly given investing advice to “buy and hold” really work? Or have the rules changed?
During the past several decades, the prevailing advice has been something like this:
“Diversify your investments, buy stock in good companies, and hold them until you retire. The value of stocks (and real estate) always go up over [...]
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As the current lease on our rented condo rolls towards the end of the contracted dates, some of our friends are asking us, once again, when we plan to stop renting and buy our next home. When I share my findings that renting is still cheaper than owning in our town, some suggest we “should” [...]
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In response to my recent post, Will your parents’ financial decisions leave you holding the bag?, Steve wrote,
I agree with the premise that a person’s retirement should be taken care of before saving for a child’s education, but saving enough for one’s own future seems to be a moving target.
When does a person ‘have enough [...]
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Known to the blogosphere and on national TV as “The Millionaire Mommy Next Door”, Jen Smith went from earning minimum wage as a graveyard shift donut and coffee pusher to financial freedom as a self-made millionaire by age 40. Jen bootstrapped half a dozen small businesses while working from home in her pajamas. She learned how to invest in the stock market and in herself. Her story is more than a rags to riches story, it's a rags to a rich life story.
Now Jen is on a mission to inspire and empower others through financial education so they too can enjoy the life they want to live. Jen freely shares her recipe for success, happiness and financial freedom via writing, blogging, speaking and coaching. As part of her commitment to community, Jen pledges her blogging revenue as 0% microloans through Kiva.org to small businesses operated by working, impoverished women in developing countries.
