Richard started talking about our Resolutions for the New Year yesterday. Here’s part 1. Keep reading for part 2!
6. Don’t fall for the annual health club membership resolution everyone makes every new year. The business model for health clubs is based on extracting monthly dues from people who only show up a few times in January, after being locked down into an extended contract. Insist on a month to month obligation only…or use the track and courts at your nearest public school.  Walking is free.
7. 2009 will be remembered as the year we all learned to downsize our discretionary spending. Used cars will yield greater value than new cars. Kitchen re-modelings can be postponed or dropped altogether. The public library can replace your binge book buying sprees. Be creative in applying thrift to all your purchases. Learn to distinguish between wants and needs.
8. There is one spending category you probably should increase: life insurance. If you have significant unmet financial obligations, to raise and educate your children, and pay off your mortgage and fund your retirement, start comparison shopping for low cost renewable term life insurance.
Most people shoulder the heaviest obligations while still young and in the work force. You will be surprised at how little it costs for significant protection.
Under no circumstances should you go to a life insurance salesman for advice. They will steer you to complicated cash value policies that pay them outrageously high commissions. You could do it all online, and avoid the hassle.
9. Invest in your financial education. Improve your investment literacy. Explore the extensive offerings from Morningstar.com, the Wall St Journal online, Yahoo Finance, and the best blogs that offer significant and ongoing content.  The cost is practically nothing, and the benefits last a lifetime.
10.  Be grateful for what you have and the time and place where you live. The hysterical legacy media will tell you we are in a crisis comparable to the Great Depression. Not even close. It’s the old line media that is in a crisis, as they try to adjust to the new wired world where content is free and instantaneous.
These blow dried pundits are a day late and a dollar short, and haven’t got a clue.
No wonder they are all so cranky.
Thanks again Richard, for sharing these with us. We look forward to hearing more from the Blue Jeans Millionaire himself. Friday, Richard tells us why he wishes he would have taken his own advice in the past.
