10 Ways to Build Wealth

I had a question submitted about ways to build wealth. These are 10 simple things you can do to save money and build wealth.

1. Never Buy a New Car- New cars depreciate the most they will ever appreciate the first year. The second biggest year of depreciation is the second year. The third biggest year of depreciation is the third year, and so on. My general rule is, buy a car that you can pay cash for or that you can pay off within a year. Buy the oldest car you can stand taking into consideration use, and necessity of reliability. I have done extensive research in this area and buying good used cars rather than new cars every three years can save you millions of dollars in a lifetime.

2. Don't Buy Drinks At Restaurants- This may sound petty, but depending on how much you eat out this could add up to thousands and thousands of dollars over a lifetime. Considering that at Pizza Hut a carbonated drink costs $1.99 plus tax. This could be up to 30% of your bill. Water will work just fine. You Lufkin folks are excluded from this rule because the water is horrible there!

3. Shop Rates On Insurance and Other Monthly Recurring Expenses- Including ways to cut your cable bill, phone service (consider going "cell only") etc. This is important, you need to shop rates and find ways to reduce monthly recurring fees. If you can reduce your insurance bill by $20 a month, that is $240 a year, which is almost like putting $2400 in your pocket.

4. Live Below Your Means- This may sound outdated and boring, but if you don't have the money to buy something, don't buy it.


5. Save 10-15% of your income. This is a good goal to make for saving for retirement. Especially for people below age 35. Social Security will not exist in it's current state (unless we make some serious cuts in other places, which is unlikely). My generation cannot count on Social Security being sufficient to have any kind of standard of living. Bottom line, you need to plan on providing for your own retirement. To go along with this, take advantage of any company retirement plan offered at your place of employment, especially if they offer any kind of matching on money you invest.

6. Watch Your Taxes- Take advantage of tax credits, and deductions. This can save you big money.

7. Watch Your Investment Advisor, not just your investments. You cannot consistently and without great risk pick winning stocks, and neither can I (and neither can anybody else.) You cannot consistently time the market just right on when to get in and out. You should never ever pay an investment salesman a commission to invest your money. You should find a "Fee-only" financial planner with the CFP(R) designation to advise you and take care of your financial planning needs. CFP(R) Professionals have a fiduciary responsibility to their clients, meaning they have taken on a standard of care enforcing them to put the interests of the client before their own. They are held to the highest ethical standards in dealing with their clients, which has been and will be very important going forward.



Disclaimer: I don't agree with everything Jon Stewart says but I love it when he rips on CNBC.

8. Do a Budget- Know where your money is going. Be in control of it, this is half the battle.

9. Don't Buy Toys- I don't just mean for kids (let relatives get toys, buy them books), but also big toys like boats, or Jet Skis, or 4-wheelers. If you borrow money you lose interest, depreciation, and you will have to put insurance on these types of items. All of these costs add up to major bucks. The resale value on these things is very low as well. Borrow or rent, if you don't use these things consistently or if you don't have the cash to pay for them.

10. Buy in bulk if possible. If you can save 10% on something that you consume over a six month period by buying in bulk this is tantamount to a 20% return! What kind of investment do you know of that would give you that kind of guaranteed return. For that matter, realize the power of time value of money. This is one of the most important laws of finance that if everyone knew, they would act drastically different than they do. For instance if you thought about that $2 dollar Coke actually costing you $70 in 50 years you may think twice about buying it today.

There are any number of other things that I could put in this post, but this ought to be enough food for thought for the time being.