Bryan C. Fleming

Last Post on this Blog (Please Read)

2006-10-30T12:10:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone,

I'm leaving blogger and continuing my blog on it's own site:

http://www.BryanCFleming.com

If you subscribe to my RSS Feed, you will automatically be updated.

Why am I leaving?

I don't think many people understand the long term value blogging. As these pages sit on the web they gain value in search engine placement and traffic. It would be a real sad day to log into your free blogger account and see they decided to cancel it.

Who would you call? Who would you email?

You can contact anyone.

I'd rather have a little more control over this blog since it is growing in popularity.

I do apologize in advance for any inconvience.

Sincerely,

Bryan C. Fleming

Million Dollar Savings club Update: Day 65

2006-10-26T12:25:00.000-07:00

This post is an update to the Million Dollar Savings Club. If you are not familiar with this club, you can learn more by reading my post describing it.

Wow. It's been 65 Days already. So how's it comming? Have you been able to set your dollar away in each pile?

If you have, you'd be sitting on just a hair under $200. As I look at my piles of money there are lot of 20's, 10's, 5's and ones. I haven't traded in some 20's for a 50 dollar bill. But you can bet I'll do that soon. As you may recall, I did give a big tip at a dinner but never took the money out of my giveaway pile. So I'm sitting at $195 as of today.

Would you feel a little different today if you had $195 in your back pocket? $195 to do anything you want with? That's the power of saving money. If you haven't tried saving a dollar per day, why not give it a try? It's a lot of fun and you can play along. I know a lot of you have been reading a long saying to yourself "I'll start on my next paycheck". Just start today and give it a try.

Today I want to focus on the Investment Pile. Is $65 a lot of money for investing? It's certainly enough to get started with.

Maybe you've always wanted to invest money in the stock market but were too afraid to try. Well, that's what that $65 is for. You see, you'll probably loose money in the begning as you're learning. That's OK. That's what investing is all about. Learning from your mistakes. Afterall, do you want to make a mistake with $65 or $65,000?

$65 can buy you a share of stock in a lot of companies. Here are a few you could be an owner in:

Ebay - $32
General Motors - $34
Costco - $53
Ford Motor Company - $8

Let's say you invested in one share of General Motors for $34. Everytime you see a commercial for one of their trucks or cars you can feel the pride of being on the owners side of the fence. It's a great feeling. Everytime they announce a big profit you'll be excited. Everytime they come out with a new flavor of their Hummer Truck, you'll watch for how many are on the road.

It's very empowering being an owner of a company rather than someone who just buys their stuff. If you haven't tried buying stock in a company here's your chance.

The funny thing is that it feeds on itself. Instead of buying a Hummer Truck, you'll start thinking "Maybe I could buy more ownership in the company and keep driving my used car". Now, that's millionaire thinking. But it won't happen until you start taking the first baby steps.

Personal Growth Carnival October 24th

2006-10-24T11:56:00.000-07:00

I really like the titles of the posts this week. We're not doing categories this week but the posts are broken up into groups for easier reading. I'm going to go back to categories next week. They just work better. Enjoy the articles.

Tracy Coenen presents 6 excuses why people don’t save money
Jane Chin presents Improv and Three Secrets to Success
Madeleine Begun Kane presents How To Disorganize Your Life
Mental Health Source Page presents Ten Years Ago and Ten Years From Now
Christine Kane presents Healing Bulimia and Addictive Eating (Part 5)
Peter Kua presents To CONsult or to be brilliant?
Travis Wright presents Let Your Children Be Children

Ravi Raman presents The Power of Affirmation
Jason Dutt presents "I'm just not that kind of person."
Aleksandr Kavokin, MD, PhD presents Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Quiz
Gleb Reys presents 3 Golden Rules of Goal Setting
Lynn DeVries presents Forgiveness
Andy Smith presents The 7 Biggest Mistakes In Goal Setting

Bob Carter presents How to Become an Extrovert in 4 Easy Steps
Patricia presents How To Know Who You Are In 20 Minutes
Hueina Su presents From Self Sacrifice to Self Love
oovs presents Lessons from The Dog Whisperer
David Maister presents Repairing Fences

Reb Chaim HaQoton presents The Fire Within
Tim King presents Why Leaders Never Assign Blame
John Buehler presents So, You’re Starting a Small Business
Jack Yoest presents Business Etiquette Between Manager and Employee
Mary Jo Manzanares presents Stop Concentrating on Concentrating

Victor Fam presents The Risk Of Missed Opportunities
Randy Yniguez presents Let's Not Burn Bridges
Erek Ostrowski presents Heroes and Role Models

Michael K. Dawson presents There Is a Certain SOMETHING Needed Before You Can Find Financial Freedom

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of personal
growth carnival using my carnival submission form.

Technorati tags:

personal
growth carnival,
blog carnival.

Why Get-Rich-Quick Rarely Works

2006-10-23T07:51:00.000-07:00

You've probably seen the late night infomercials pitching get-rich-quick schemes. These usually involve making money in RealEstate, Classified Ads, and recently even the Internet. Maybe you've even ordered one of these businesses in a box.

They all promise that with a little hard work, and by working "smart", you'll be able to retire in a few years time.

JD over at GetRichSlowly.org has a great article about Casey Serin. Casey is a kid who's trying to get rich quick in Real-Estate. Here's his story:

I'm a 24-year-old aspiring real estate investor from Sacramento CA. After going to few seminars I bought 8 houses in 8 months across 4 states with no money down. I fixed and sold 2 and then ran out of cash. I am now facing foreclosure on 6 5 houses. I'm learning my lessons, finding solutions and blogging about it.

Investing is different from buying-and-selling homes to make a buck. I suspected a lot of people would be hurting right now as the realestate boom is cooling off.

The best way to make money long term is save a little bit off the top. You do this each and everytime you make any money. Over time you'll amass a fortune. If you haven't been able to start saving money, why not try the Million Dollar Savings Club ? You can start with a dollar per day to build the habit. You can read more about it here .

Enjoy JD's article.

Personal Growth Carnival - A New Record!

2006-10-17T10:56:00.000-07:00

Well another record this week for the Personal Growth Carnival. We had 38 submissions which is almost twice what we've gotten in the past.

Some writers submit more than one article, so I left in the one that I feel is their best work. Also, I'm starting to see carnival Spam!

Truthfully, I'm not too surprised. How long did we think it would take for someone to figure out they could start spamming blog carnivals? I pulled the articles that I thought were spam. What you're left with now are the best articles of the bunch.

Enjoy this week's carnival!

Goal Settings
Alexander Becker presents WOW: How to Double Your Productivity
Hjalte presents Goal setting for beginners
Nelly Nandes presents Passion or Career?

Money
Michael K. Dawson presents Saying Goodbye to the Time for Money Swap
Steve Faber presents Are You Really Saving? You May Be Wasting Instead!

Personal Growth
Madeleine Begun Kane presents De-Stress Or Distress?
Beverly Keaton Smith presents Finding Peace Through Forgiveness
Jane Chin presents Many Dimensions of Money
Erek Ostrowski presents Facing the Unknown
Alexander Becker presents WOW: How to Avoid Misunderstandings
Wenchypoo presents Memo to Old-Line Feminists
Debra Moorhead presents The Power of a Smile
supermom_in_ny presents I Was Sinking
Jeff presents The Shaman in the Mirror
David Maister presents How Did You Lose Your Innocence?
Nelly Nandes presents The Strength of Weakness
Patricia presents Waiting on a Biopsy: How to Handle Uncertainty
Bill Losapio presents Drawing Inspiration in Uncertain Times
Patricia presents Car Accidents: Will You Make It Home Today?
Jack Yoest presents 9 Tips for Interviewers
Chris presents How to be Cooler Coping with Nervousness
Edward Mills presents Technology and Personal Growth - Holosync Solution
Nneka presents Positive Speaking
Peter Kua presents Why white elephants reign in office
Brandon Peele presents Why get an MBA?

Time Management
Gleb Reys presents Why I Always Have Time To Do Things
Jim Goss presents Looking Busy
Daniel Scocco presents Future-Storming

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of personal growth carnival using my carnival submission form.

Technorati tags: personal growth carnival, blog carnival .

Million Dollar Savings Club: The Give-away Pile Strikes!

2006-10-13T11:42:00.000-07:00

This post is an update to the Million Dollar Savings Club. If you are not familiar with this club, read my post describing it and play along.

Here we are at day 52 of the Million Dollar Savings Club. As I said before these piles of money are building up. With over $50 in the giveaway pile I decided to finally give some away.

Last Saturday, Sherry (my wife) and I were having dinner at a restaurant. The waitress looked stressed. She was having some back problems and shouldn't have been working. I felt bad for her. I don't know her, but she was probably working because she really needed the money. So, I thought why not unload some of the giveaway pile right now?

Our bill came to around $50. A "good" tip would have been 20% or $10. Why not use the giveaway pile to leave a 30% tip? So that's what I did.

It felt really good to leave a $15 tip for the meal. I'm sure it made her night to get a nice tip. All the waitresses I've known always judge their night by how much they're earning in tips. A "good" night means someone tipped them well.

Keep in mind it didn't cost me anything extra to leave a bigger tip. The giveaway pile paid for it. Could I have left her a $20 or $30 tip? Certainly. But I would have felt a little odd. I didn't want to draw too much attention to myself.

Being able to give is an incredible feeling. It's much different to give for the sake of giving rather than feeling obligated to give. That's why the giveaway pile is so important. You see, many times we look at our bill from a meal and think "What's the minimum I'd feel good about leaving". Have you ever done this? I know I have. I've even seen couples argue over leaving a $5 or $7 tip. I'm telling you, you're robbing yourself of the feeling of giving.

The giveaway pile will start teaching you the real power in giving. Because you already have the money to give, you'll give more.

You want to know the strangest thing of all?

It felt so good to leave that extra tip, I never paid myself back from the giveaway pile.

Day 51: Million Dollar Savings Club

2006-10-12T13:34:00.000-07:00

This post is an update to the Million Dollar Savings Club. If you are not familiar with this club, you can learn more by reading my post describing it.

Travis Wright writes:

So, I have now arrived at day 30. I put $1 in each of the three piles each
morning when I first wake up. One in a savings pile, one in an investing pile
and one in a charity/give away pile. I now have $90 dollars sitting on the
dresser. Each pile consists mostly of ones, with the savings pile and investing
pile having one five in it. The charity pile is all ones, and the stacks are
growing quite nicely.

I actually went to the bank this week and got $50
worth of ones from the teller so that I will have enough for 2 weeks worth of
savings. The power of this project is magnificent, each day, I start out on the
right foot by SAVING money. Not handing it to Starbucks for a glorified cup of
coffee, or giving it to a fast food joint. I’m starting my day by putting money
in three stacks and watching them grow.

I like how Travis starts his day out by saving money. It’s brilliant because no matter what happens during your day you’ll always know you have more money than you did yesterday. As I’ve been saying in a previous post, seeing these piles build up is truly amazing. You have to try it for yourself!

If you have not joined the Million Dollar Savings club, why not make that first commitment? Why not pay yourself first right when you get out of bed in the morning? It’s a great way to start the day!

Personal Growth Carnival - October 10th

2006-10-10T11:52:00.000-07:00

Hey gang - You know I can’t help but notice how many blog carnivals start up, probably with great intentions, only be to be abandoned. The carnival of Personal Growth has been around for a while and I don’t plan on bailing out anytime soon.

If you’ve been reading along, you’ll see a lot of the same authors submitting their articles every week. These guys (gals) are in it for the long haul. You may want to subscribe to their blogs because they’re certainly not the fly-by-night types and almost always have great stories.

Of course we get new talent added too. Time will tell. Hopefully they too will continue to submit articles and make it to the more elite group.

In any case, enjoy this week’s carnival…

Inspiration

Matt Hutter presents Swallow That Frog!
Gleb Reys presents Don’t Be Afraid To Be The First

Money

Peter Kua presents I’ll only expire at 91… Darn!

Personal Growth

oovs presents The Motivation Behind Our Behavior
Virtual Magic presents Stanford Prison Experiment
Karl Staib presents 10,000 Swimming Pools Inside Our Minds
Donald Latumahina presents How to Have a Joyful Day
michelle presents 10 Valuable Life Lessons ..
David Maister presents It's THEIR fault
Emmanuel presents Learn What You Need to Learn
Rick Cockrum presents Don’t Look For the Easy Life
Erek Ostrowski presents Heroes and Role Models
Jeff presents Personal Development Starter Kit
Basil Vandegriend presents Personal Learning by Doing

Time Management

Peter Kua presents Mental sickness behind email swamp
Alexandra Levit presents Procrastination Addiction?
My Bubble Life presents Words Are Containers for What We Believe

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of
personal growth carnival
using my carnival submission form.
Technorati tags:

personal growth carnival, blog carnival.

Piles of Money!

2006-10-06T07:28:00.000-07:00

This post is an update to the Million Dollar Savings Club. If you are not familiar with this club, you can learn more by reading my post describing it.

Until you are a few weeks into the Million Dollar Savings Club you won’t really know what I’m talking about in this post. If you haven’t made the commitment yet to save a dollar a day you can read my posts from the beginning and play along. I’m telling you; even at a dollar a day the money builds up fast.

These piles of money are getting heavy. The paperclips I’m using are hardly working anymore. The piles are too big. The paperclips are pushed apart. I don’t know how I’m going to keep all this money together. Each pile is filled with singles, fives, tens and some twenties. But where did it all come from?

We’re at day 45. That’s $45 in each pile for a total of $135. If you’ve ever seen $135 in singles (mostly) then you’ll know it’s a lot of bills. You couldn’t fit all the money in your wallet even if you wanted to.

Saving works by taking a little money off the top of what you earn and putting it away over long periods of time. That’s the idea of the Million Dollar Savings Club – To teach you how to save money. We’re starting at a dollar a day because anybody can commit to it.

Will you have a million dollars from being in the club? Yes, you will. But this is the first step. You see we need to see all that cash build up so we really learn first hand what were doing. As we get further along, we’ll make bigger commitments. But a dollar a day is all you need for now.

Start thinking about unloading some of the give away pile. A $45 gift to someone who doesn’t expect it would be almost outrageous. Personally, I’m thinking of giving $10 or $20 to one of the homeless people I see on the side of the road here in Detroit. I wonder how many people give them that kind of money?

Keep saving each and every day. Keep saving and you’ll see the money build up. Keep saving and your money problems will soon be behind you.

Personal Growth Carnival

2006-10-03T09:51:00.000-07:00

Here's this week's carnival with a lot of good submissions. Enjoy....

General Personal Growth

Phil B. presents Phil for Humanity: Greed is Good and Bad
Peter Kua presents The best PDA in town – the Hipster PDA
David Maister presents Us and Them
Patricia presents Eating Disorder Recovery, 14 Years Free
Hieu Doan presents How to Expand Consciousness
Che Jaafar Che Man presents How To Accept Mistakes and Dont Blame Others
Peter Kua presents 50 strategies for making yourself write, work, or do anything

Goal Setting

Thom Singer presents Don't Lock The Doors, Even Though You Can

Money Management

Michelle presents A finance website can’t say that!

Personal Growth

Peter Kua presents The FASTEST way to be put off by yoga

Time Management

muse presents Another "fine line"
Patricia presents 4 Secrets to Time Management That Define You
oovs presents What Level of Time Management are You At?

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of
personal growth carnival
using my carnival submission form.
Technorati tags:

personal growth carnival, blog carnival.

Joining the Club

2006-09-29T08:23:00.000-07:00

This post is an update to the Million Dollar Savings Club. If you are not familiar with this club, you can learn more by reading my post describing it.

Melissa recently joined the Million Dollar Savings club and writes:

"The concept of the Latte Factor is that if we invested the $3.50 or more a day
that we spend at Starbucks we could all retire in 10 years. Its true add it up.
I found out that I was spending almost $75 a month on frappacinos! No wonder I
cant pay my credit card bill. I was also spending $5-$9 a day on food. That's
about $100 bucks a month. Yes I know I have to eat but that sandwich that I
spent five bucks on, I could have made it at home for $.25! Probably would taste
better too."

That’s the trick. Finding a few simple ways to cut back on what you spend is how you save money. Melissa took a quick inventory of her spending habits and can now start saving money. Too many people are focused on the offense (making money) rather than the defense (not spending everything we earn). Try cutting back on a few of your daily extras. Make a sandwich instead of going out to lunch and you’re in the club. Then you’ll turn around one day and have piles of money.

Counting Cold Hard Cash

2006-09-27T08:13:00.000-07:00

This post is an update to the Million Dollar Savings Club. If you are not familiar with this club, you can learn more by reading my post describing it.

Last night I decided to count each pile of money. You know what? There was much more there than I thought. Yes, you can sit there and say, “Bryan it’s day 36, you should have $36 in each pile”. This is true, but to actually see that much money sitting in front of your face is different.

You have to think about it. This money seemingly came from nowhere. True we had to build the habit of saving a dollar a day. But honestly it really should be something you’re doing now without thinking about.

Then you turn around one day and start counting all that cash. Twenties, tens, and fives all start appearing from your pile. You probably won’t even remember putting them in there. Seriously, you should have over $100 among the 3 piles now. That’s a lot of money for skipping a few StarBucks coffees.

Remember what we’re learning here: You really need to see the money build up first hand before you can talk yourself into bigger commitments. We will get into that soon I promise. We will have a plan to really have a million dollars. We’re taking baby steps now.

Here are some pictures of my money piles:

Investing

Savings

Give-away

Even if you’re just starting out, you can read my previous posts and play along. The first few days are the hardest. I promise you that. Drop me an email with how much you have in each pile. Include a picture if you want and I’ll post it on this blog.

Enjoy counting your cash. You’re doing the right thing. Your life will only improve as these piles of money get larger and larger each and every day.

Personal Growth Carnival September 26th

2006-09-26T11:43:00.000-07:00

Last week I told you we'd be doing something different with this carnival and here it is - Categories. Maybe you're interested in money or goal setting or your health? Well it's much easier to find these articles. Enjoy.

Goal Setting

Jonathon Bates presents Goal Setting – Why do it?

Alexander Becker presents WOW: Leap Forward and Benefit from Nonlinear Growth

Health

Aleksandr Kavokin, MD, PhD presents How do they use you as guinea pig? Part3

Money

oovs presents The Courage to Live Debt Free - the Principles of Economic Security

David Lorenzo presents The Five Habits that Make You More Money

Steve Faber presents Money – What Matters is How Much You Keep

Personal Growth

Phil B. presents Phil for Humanity: Overcoming Laziness

Gleb Reys presents Knowing Where You Want To Be

Brandon Peele presents The Evolutionary Role of Ethnocentricism

Peter Kua presents Wanna be more productive? Trash that bloody PDA!

Chris presents How to be Cooler How to get a Social Life

David Maister presents How to Get Ahead: Lie and Cheat?

Hieu Doan presents Imagination - The Way to Empowerment

Alexander Becker presents WOW: Acceptance vs. Resistance?

Rollo presents How to get out of life alive

Milo Paulo milo G. Riano presents How to Let Go and Move On

Matt Hutter presents The four-year-old optimist

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of
personal growth carnival
using my carnival submission form.

Technorati tags:

personal growth carnival, blog carnival.

Who’s Winning? Million Dollar Savings Club

2006-09-21T10:31:00.000-07:00

This post is an update to the Million Dollar Savings Club. If you are not familiar with this club, you can learn more by reading my post describing it.

While going through the comments in the Million Dollar Savings Club it occurred to me, “Why not list the top savers at the end of each month?” That’s what I intend to do. I will start posting a leader-board at the beginning of each month. If you’re playing along, email me. Include how much you have in each pile (savings, investing, giveaway). For extra-proof, include a photo of your money (I will put it on the leader-board). By making it fun and having a little competition we’ll all save more money.

Million Dollar Savings Club Leader-Board for September:

1.Alex Williams $84
2. Bryan Fleming $29
3. Travis Wright $16
4. Mom2Fur $14

Obviously, don’t make any outrageous claims. If you do, I will email you back requiring proof (Pictures).

Yes, you can add more money to your piles than $1/day. We’re using $1/day as a starting point so people can get started. $1/day is the minimum to be “in the club”.

Congratulations Alex. Right now you’re the winner. But look out. There are probably some serious savers reading this blog right now.

How to Get Through a Cash Pinch

2006-09-20T10:48:00.000-07:00

This post is an update to the Million Dollar Savings Club. If you are not familiar with this club, you can learn more by reading my post describing it.

Here we are at day 29 of the Million Dollar Savings Club. Today I want to talk about the savings pile.

Obviously, the savings pile is for saving money. But what should you use this money for? Specifically the savings pile is to protect you from yourself.

For each of us there are times in life when you come up a short on money. Maybe it’s the end of the month. Your house payment is due and you’re stretching every dollar. You suddenly find you pushed your checking account a little too far and you have no money until your next paycheck. If you don’t think this happens a lot, look at how many pay-day-advance services have appeared in recent years.

Most people have a quick fix. They turn to credit cards to buy a tank of gas, or charge the groceries (Yes, there are people that finance food).

Your savings pile will protect you against turning to the credit card trap. It will also protect you from dipping into your investing pile. Do you see the difference? The investing pile is for investing money. For making your money work hard for you because you’ve worked hard for it. Saving money is for a rainy day. You don’t need to gain high returns on your savings; you need it for a financial cushion.

So here we are at $29 in our savings pile today. You have a small cushion for probably a tank of gas and a few meals. It’s not much, but it’s a start. The next major hurdle will be having enough in savings for a utility bill, then an unexpected car repair and ultimately a few months of living expenses.

Of course that’s a ways off. In the meantime, You can sleep better knowing the savings pile will protect you from life’s unexpected twists and turns. Best of all it’s growing every single day because you’re adding money to it.

Personal Growth Carnival - A New Record!

2006-09-19T18:44:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the September 19, 2006 edition of the personal growth carnival. I'm happy to say this week is a new record! We've had 23 submissions, which is more than any week in the past. The carnival is certainly growing, and it shows how much talent is out there.

Next week, I have something very exciting to announce. It will be durning the carnival of September 26th. Until that time "Stay tuned". Enjoy this week's submissions.

Christine Kane presents How to Live a Life of Quiet Desperation posted at Christine Kane.

Peter Kua presents 7 strategic reasons to take on corporate philanthropy posted at RadicalHop.com.

Praveen presents Financial and Branding Lessons from Tyra Banks posted at My Simple Trading System.

Daniel Scocco presents Choosing a Profession posted at Innovation Zen.

Violeta presents Top 10 things successful people have in common posted at All Tips and Tricks.

Erich Jaeckel presents How to strengthen your decision making skills posted at Life Training - Online.

Shuchetana presents Happiness and Health posted at Life PBS.

Patricia presents Dream Your Dreams to Achieve Greatness and Inspire the World posted at Patricia.

Steve presents Light Up And Live posted at Poetic Pilgrimage.

David Trager presents Life Is Like A Road Trip…To Texas posted at Dave Trager.com.

Matt Hutter presents The Story of Two Bank Tellers posted at A year's salary under the mattress?, saying, "Making daily deposits in your mind can amount to the apex of your achievement....or continued disaster."

David Maister presents The Secret of a Great Marriage Is posted at Passion, People and Principles.

Gleb Reys presents Are You Interested? posted at Personal Development Ideas Blog.

John Buehler presents The 3rd Channel » It seems so far away posted at Rebuilding Eden.

Werner Boersch presents What is spirituality? posted at Werner Boersch, saying, "Discover Your Higher Self, Your Spirituality, Live in the Flow of Your Nature"

Violeta presents Give me something to do posted at Questallia.

Wenchypoo presents The Wages of Expediency (L-O-N-G) posted at Frugal Wisdom from Wenchypoo's Warehouse.

Dave Cheong presents How to Overcome Distractions Anytime posted at Dave Cheong Engineer to Entrepreneur.

michelle presents 10 Easy Ways to Not Get Dumped posted at AmericanInventorSpot.com, saying, "Funny article on how not to grow."

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of
personal growth carnival
using my carnival submission form.

Technorati tags:

personal growth carnival, blog carnival.

How to Instantly Determine Your Future

2006-09-18T10:20:00.000-07:00

Want to know where you’ll be five years from now? You don’t have to go any further than the words coming out of your mouth!

I read a good article today called “Words are Containers for What We Believe”. It struck a cord with me, so I thought I'd pass it along. Bill drives this point home and even gives some action steps towards the end.

Enjoy!

Why You Can’t Depend on Social Security

2006-09-14T10:31:00.000-07:00

I get letters from the Social Security office here in the United States, just as everyone else does. These letters tell you how much money you’ll get when you reach retirement age. What’s funny is how they keep changing the ‘retirement age’.

Below is a photocopied section of the letter I got from them yesterday

In telemarketing there is a term called ‘spiffing’ your phone operators. It means to give them a big incentive to close one more sale. Looking at the picture above, I’d say the government is trying to ‘spiff’ everyone into working longer. Consider that they will pay me almost twice as much if I hang in and work another 7 years.

You also can’t help but read the bold print on the bottom that this could change at any moment. So none of this is guaranteed.

You simply can’t depend on the government to take care of you. That’s why you need to save money. Even by saving a modest amount of money regularly you’ll gain more interest from your retirement account than Social Security will pay you. That is, if they can even pay you at all.

If you have not been able to save money, start today. Join the Million Dollar Savings club and build the habit of saving money. You won’t need to rely on the government. In fact by the time YOU decide to retire (not when they tell you to) you’ll probably have too much money and they will disqualify you. Personally, I’m OK with that.

This Week's Reading List

2006-09-12T16:23:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the September 12, 2006 edition of The Personal Growth Carnival.

We've been spending a lot of time saving money. But you should always take time out and read something that will make your life better. I've done the work of erasing some of the submissions that came in this week. I just didn't feel you would benefit from them. The articles below are the best of the bunch. Bookmark this page and come back to it throughout the week. You'll find it makes for great reading.

Brian Kim presents How to Believe You Can Do Anything posted at Brian Kim.

Peter Kua presents Not another cholesterol lowering drug! Innovation vs. blockbusters posted at RadicalHop.com.

Peter Kua presents Building a successful business: 8 qualities of an expert posted at RadicalHop.com.

Christine Kane presents Are You A Quitter? posted at Christine Kane.

This is Jeff's first post, make sure to stop by his blog and say HI!
Jeff presents How to Overcome Guilt posted at Jeff

Gleb Reys presents Don’t Be Afraid To Be The First posted at Personal Development Ideas Blog.

Joseph presents help with everything: Goal setting and your destiny posted at help with everything.

Mary Jo Manzanares presents Diffusing Anger posted at Leadership Turn, saying, "No matter how we try to avoid it, anger is a part of our business life. We can't eliminate it, so we may as well learn to deal with it."

Shuchetana presents 10 questions to ask before you join a new job posted at Life PBS.

Andrew Leahey presents Overcoming fear posted at Leahey.org.

Kevin Chu presents Don’t wait until it hurts posted at Smart Living 4 Smart People.

Building the Habit - Day 20

2006-09-11T12:13:00.000-07:00

This post is an update to the Million Dollar Savings Club. If you are not familiar with this club, you can learn more by reading my post describing it.

If you’ve been playing along in the Million Dollar Savings club, then today is a big day for you. It’s day 20. Why is today so important?

First and foremost, you’ve probably noticed it’s easier to get $20 bills for your fund than anything else. Since you have $20 in each pile of money you can make change for yourself. I’ve talked about this before, but it becomes really important since $20 bills are probably the most common amount of money you have on hand to put into your fund.

Secondly, it takes about 20 days to form a new habit. Do you notice this new habit? Probably not. You see that’s the funny thing with habits. You don’t know you form them. On a side note this works for bad habits too. So always keep an eye on yourself. We fall into bad habits and have to work to develop good ones. Saving money in the Million Dollar Savings club is a good habit to form. Congratulations.

So pat yourself on the back. You deserve it. You should have a total of $60 today. That’s more money than most people have in their back pocket right now. It’s significant. To drive the point home, count your money. As the singles, fives, tens, and twenties slide through your fingers you’ll be amazed at where this money came from. It will seemingly have appeared out of thin air!

Why Cash is King!

2006-09-07T10:49:00.000-07:00

This post is an update to the Million Dollar Savings Club. If you are not familiar with this club, you can learn more by reading my post describing it.

If you don’t have any money you can’t seize opportunities when they come your way. That’s why it’s important to save money. The more cash you have, the more opportunities you can seize.

Even at day 15 of the million dollar savings club you can seize opportunities. Let me share with you my story:

Yesterday I looked out my window and saw a couple of guys standing around with an earth-moving machine. For weeks, I’ve procrastinated about moving a large pile of dirt from one end of my yard to the other. I knew these guys could move the dirt in 5 minutes with that machine. It would take me a full weekend to move by hand. I suspected if I offered them $20 they’d jump at the chance and move the dirt.

But there was a problem. I didn’t have the cash on me.

A light bulb went off in my head. I thought, “Why not borrow $20 from my savings and investing pile to pay these guys? Then I’ll put the money back when I have time to get to the bank.”

I approached the young man and he jumped at the opportunity. He moved the dirt. I paid him $20. I saved a tremendous amount of time and effort because I was able to come up with the cash immediately.

So there it is. Even with a modest savings account you’ll see opportunities open up to you. That’s why it’s so important to begin saving money today.

If you’ve not tried the million dollar savings club, what’s been stopping you? It’s only a dollar per day and as you’ve seen, the money will start adding up. I guarantee it will change your life. Get started today.

Million Dollar Savings Club Day 14

2006-09-06T11:21:00.000-07:00

This post is an update to the Million Dollar Savings Club. If you are not familiar with this club, you can learn more by reading my post describing it.

By now you should start feeling comfortable with your new habit for saving money every day. Congratulations. You’re almost there. It’s been said that it takes about 20 days to form a habit. We’re one week away.

Personally, I can tell you that the habit has finally taken root. Having cash on hand to put into separate piles of money is almost an afterthought. I do it without much thinking now. It’s painless. It’s much different than my problems a week ago.

Today we’re fourteen days into the club. You now should see a fairly sizeable amount of money in 3 piles – Savings, Investing, and Giveaway.

Today, I’d like to focus on the third pile, the giveaway pile. You should have $14 in the giveaway pile. Fourteen dollars is not a lot of money is it? But let me ask you, when was the last time you gave away fourteen dollars? If you don’t think it’s a big deal, add it to your waitress’s tip the next time you dine out. How will she react? I’m willing to bet it will make her night.

What about homeless people? I don’t know about your town, but in Detroit Michigan they’re everywhere. You can’t go into the city without being approached from someone with his or her hand out. Most of us just walk by and give these people the cold shoulder. Some may give them pocket change, but most only give them an excuse why they can’t give.

I wonder what their reaction would be to getting $14. I wonder how you would feel giving that money away.

Don’t discount the giveaway pile. I think you’ll find it the most important pile of all. Even though it’s only $14 today.

Personal Growth Carnival - September 5, 2006

2006-09-05T18:23:00.000-07:00

This week we're back with a lot of new and upcomming talent as well as some of my favorite writers who've been with the carnival from the begining. If you have an article on personal growth, why not add it to next week's carnival? It's easy to do. Just follow the instructions at the bottom of this post.

Enjoy!

J Clegg presents How to Create a New Identity – Part 1: Letting Go of the Past posted at A Life Journey

David Trager presents Freedom and Powerlessness posted at Dave Trager.com.

Dave Cheong presents 13 Problem Solving Nuggets Everyone Should Know posted at Dave Cheong | Engineer to Entrepreneur.

Brandon Peele presents Politics is Philosophy for the Intellectually Lazy posted at GT.

Alexander Becker presents WOW: How to Deal with Principles vs. Results posted at WOW, saying, "Stick to principles or focus on results?"

Rick Cockrum presents Nine Obstacles to Completing Your Goals and Four Ways to Overcome Them posted at Shards of Consciousness.

Edward Mills presents Caution: Singing Driver, or, Tears of Joy Ahead posted at Edward Mills

David Maister presents You Gotta Go First posted at Passion, People and Principles.

Alexander Becker presents They Call You Crazy? You're on the Right Track posted at WOW, saying, "Remove yourself from everything average."

Kevin Chu presents Statistics – Its irrelevance in most of life’s decisions, for “If it is to be it is up to me” posted at Smart Living 4 Smart People.

Phil B. presents Phil for Humanity: Speaking Carefully and Correctly posted at Phil for Humanity.

Alexandra Levit presents The State of Laziness posted at Water Cooler Wisdom.

Peter Kua presents 21 secrets to becoming a millionaire posted at RadicalHop.com.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of
personal growth carnival using my
carnival submission form.

Technorati tags:

personal growth carnival, blog carnival.

How to be Your Own Bank

2006-08-31T12:32:00.000-07:00

This post is an update to the Million Dollar Savings Club. If you are not familiar with this club, you can learn more by reading my post describing it.

For those of you saving along, you’ve probably come into some challenges with trying to save $1 per day. The biggest problem of course is having only 5 or 10-dollar bills on hand to put into your fund, but no singles.

By now, on day 8 you should have $8 in each pile of money (savings, investing, and giveaway). If you only have a 5-dollar bill on hand to put into your fund, you can now make change for yourself. You are in effect being your own bank!

Let’s look at how this can idea can grow as we continue to regularly add money to our savings.

On the 20th day you’ll have $20 in each pile. Then you can break $20 bills. For those of you actually in the club you’ll know this is a big deal.

Perhaps further down the road, you may need to take a small loan from a bank. If your savings were large enough you could borrow the money from yourself and pay yourself the interest. The interest would go back to you and not to the bank.

Maybe a co-worker needs to use a payday advance service because they’re low on money. Could you not loan them the money and collect a small fee for providing the service? You certainly could.

We’ll talk more about this, but I wanted to get you thinking of the world of opportunities that begin to open up because you’re starting to save money.

Being your own bank to change a 5-dollar bill into singles may not seem like a big deal today, but it’s a window into the opportunities that will follow.

Keep saving. Keep putting $1 per day into your 3 funds and your life will change in amazing ways.

Million Dollar Savings Club Update: Day 7

2006-08-30T10:35:00.000-07:00

This post is an update to the Million Dollar Savings Club. If you are not familiar with this club, you can learn more by reading my post describing it.

Day 7:

How have your saving efforts been coming? Have you been able to save one dollar per day in each pile (Savings, Investing, Give-Away)?

By now you should have $7 in each pile for a total of $21. Today, I will share with you some of my challenges and rewards:

Building the habit is difficult. I won’t kid you. Keeping the money in a place where you can see it, perhaps next to your bed is key. Without having the money in plain view I would have surely forgotten to add to it daily.

Another challenge is keeping cash on hand-- single dollar bills to be exact. I regularly have to keep a pipeline of singles in my wallet and not spend them.

So that’s the hard part. Here are some rewards:

It’s amazing to see how quickly these piles of money build up. Again, seeing the money is key. Let’s be honest $21 is nothing special. But seeing it build up is powerful. It seems like yesterday this club started and already there is a pile of money on the side of my bed.

Here’s something else: Because I’m setting money aside everyday, I find myself thinking more about saving money. Again, seeing the money makes me think more about saving.

Also, I’m much more conscious about spending money. For example, do I really want to pull $20 out of an ATM machine and pay a $3 fee? After all, that’s a days worth of savings!

Hopefully you’re experiencing the same challenges and rewards. If you forgot to add to your pile for a day, don’t quit. Just do the best you can.

Remember it’s a marathon. Not a sprint race!