Quote: Everything Comes To Those Who Know How To Wait.

Many people read the above quote incorrectly when they ignore the key words, "Know How To". They think it means, "everything comes to those who wait." For a minute they think that someone has finally discovered some virtue in laziness! They, therefore, hope to sit down, do nothing and be awaken from their daydreaming by astounding financial success!

The 5 basic differences between those who wish to get much from doing nothing and those who know how to wait to become millionaires are the following;

1. Being careful to spend less than you earn while still enjoying life.
2. Having an emergency fund to carry you through life's financially devastating moments.
3. Investing money for retirement.
4. Investing in self-education.
5. Borrowing money to invest in property, business and education.

Those who do not know how to wait to be millionaires usually do the following 5 things;

1. They spend more than they can afford as they try to out shine the Joneses and strangers in the community.
2. They have no emergency fund. They think insurance is a waste of money because calamities can only happen to other people.
3. They do not invest for retirement because they they will never be either too old or too sick to work. They have never seen anyone who is broke, sick and too old to work.
4. The do not invest in self-education because they know everything there is to know. They would prefer to receive something intoxicating rather than financial advice.
5. They borrow money to spend on consumables e.g. clothes, vacations, gifts and food. They cannot tell the difference between cash and credit card. They think available credit limit and cash in the bank mean the same thing and they use both the same way.

The good news is that today you have a choice to change your direction if you did not know how to wait to be a millionaire.

It is obvious that 0% would be the best interest rate when you are borrowing and e% (e means infinity) would be the best interest rate when you are investing your money. However, in general, we make financial decisions based on interest rates ranging from 1% to 50%.

In a more detailed article on interest rates i will go into greater detail about how loans are structured in relation to the rates quoted by lenders and how to determine the best interest rate when you are borrowing money to buy a house or car etc.

Today i just want to mention three things to remember when you come across the words interest rate.

1. Never agree to borrow money on a long term basis if the interest rate is more than 10%. The effect of compound interest will do alot of financial harm to your piggy bank.

2. Whenever you save or invest, always make sure the account earns you at least 4%. This makes sure you are either in-step with or ahead of inflation and it retains the true value of your money.

3. Although it may seem tedious and boring, always browse the internet to make sure you are aware about the current interest rates with regard to specific markets. This will help you negotiate the most favorable interest rate. You may start out by checking bankrate.com for interest rates and simulated loan repayment calculations.

4. This is obvious but there is no harm in mentioning it. Everything is negotiable, including interest rates. You will be amazed at how much you can earn or save just by asking. 

Many years ago in high school I was a member of the school shooting club. I was taught the best way to fine tune a new gun was to service it to make sure it was in the best condition then fire three shots at the target. Depending on the consistency of where the shots hit the target, i would then proceed to develop my aiming strategy. The initial process was therefore, Ready-Fire-Aim.

This simple procedure applies to starting a new business or any new venture. The average person spends too much money and effort in fine tuning which in turn increases the factors which cause failure. Let me explain in simple 3 steps.

Step 1 - Get Ready: Do a preliminary research about your new venture and determine your interest, capability, demand for product / service, sources of supply, financing etc. If you are 70% convinced that it is worth your time and effort, you are ready to proceed to the next step.

Step 2 - Fire! Make a sale. I repeat, MAKE SALES. Provide proof of a positive bottom line! i.e. SHOW US THE MONEY. Concentrate on the functions that are directly geared to bring in the money. Once you have a steady flow of cash, you can then take AIM.
Before you pay $1,000 for the best designed logo, before you spend $500 for glossy gold plated business cards, before you hook in the ultra-modern PABX telephone system with 100 functions, FIRE, FIRE and FIRE. SELL, SELL AND SELL.

Step 3 - Aim. After you have made some sales and you get to understand the business, the customer and your competition, you can then proceed to fine tune and take better aim with your next round of firing efforts.

If you follow this method, you will realize that your efforts will be more focussed, you will have additional money from sales to finance the set up costs and most importantly you will have proved the business works before spending too much  time and money.

Quote: Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Once I read a story about a boy who lived in a ranch. Every now and then he would sneak into his neighbor's farm and steal apples. But one day as he crept under the fence thinking no one knew of his escapades, he felt a tag on his shirt. He turned round and came face to face with his dad.

The story goes on to say that 30 years later, whenever he was about to do something that he knew was wrong, he always felt a tag on his shirt and he stopped at once.

In a similar way, you need to create a physical or mental tag that warns you when you are about to spend money on something that you don't need. For example you could hide your credit card in a small deep pocket in your wallet. Whenever you struggle to reach out for your card to pay, at least you will have 2 seconds to re-think the purchase. Or you could cover your cash with a red stick-on paper with a big "NO" written on it. This will force you to think twice about spending.

Be creative and share with us your mental or physical tag by writing to [email protected]

1) Make late payments - beyond 30 days of due date

2) Max out all your credit cards

3) Consolidate all your credit cards into one then cancel the rest

Whenever we talk about financial strategy, people expect to encounter difficult and complex strategies that will produce miraculous results instanteneously. And maybe such strategies do exist. They often forget the seemingly small but significant strategies which no one bothers to mention because they are supposed to be obvious. Here are 3 free simple strategies that will immediately seal holes in your pocket - if you pay attention!

1) Always make a list (in your head and also ON PAPER) of what you plan to buy and the maximum price you are willing to buy.

2)Ask yourself if it is necessary to buy each and every item on that list. Put a ?-question mark on any item that can be postponed.

3)Don't buy any item with a question mark. Consider an alternative that doesn't cost money and still fulfills your want.

You will be surprised how much this simple strategy will save you real money if you are serious about it. My own sister cut her grocery and clothing budget in half just by implementing this single strategy. Paying attention instead of paying money.

 Yahoo finance has a calculator on its website that lets you know how  much money you can save by cutting down on those small but repetitive expenses.

If you see the financial impact of doing away with a not-so-necessary expence, you will be encouraged to increase your savings. Please click the link below and see how much money you can add to your bottom line if you tightened your belt just an inch more.
http://finance.yahoo.com/calculator/banking-budgeting/bud-11

Welcome to Simple Money Tips - Personal Finance Made Simple website. This website is designed for the average person who wants to learn simple and important information about Personal Finance. In this blog we can all share news, tips and information about how to earn money, how to spend it wisely, ways to save money and ways to invest money.

You can also post your comments about the articles that appear on the website. At the moment we have the first 5 articles which should be read in order because each article builds on the previous one. 1) Riches 2)Think 3)Ten 4)Insurance 5)Budgets

The most important thing is for you to implement the information and then let us know how it is working for you.