Live 4 Financial Freedom

Bitcoins have been talked about a lot in the news and online. Some people are scared about it and some people are excited about it. One of my friends called it in nice terms a very risky investment. Myself I could see it being a mainstream currency. I actually invested in a Credit Card company that deals with Bitcoins. My boys are more open to Digital Currency than the guys I golf with. An example...

Bitcoins have been in the news big time over the last few years and stories of how people got super rich. I do have to say that I once had a lot of Bitcoins that I had earned back over ten years ago. I didn’t take it serious and forgot about them. There codes are on an old computer that is no longer around. Also, I have not been able to log into my old email account. Ughhh I could be worth many mi...

Our boys are good boys and we are very proud of them and love them to death. But they still worry me that they may not be Financially Free in the future because of their lack of Action towards Money and Education. Like is hard and even harder if you don’t have money. We constantanly tell them they need to live with the Consequences of their Choices they make. In Robert Kiyosaki book called “Retire...

We like to point out to the boys all the time the people that are rich and famous but yet living frugal lifestyles. Our boys like to put these youtubers to Tik Tok kids up on a pedestal because they drive fancy cars and live in these big houses. They watch videos of these people throwing money away to friends and family like its water. We try to bring up to them what would happen to these people i...

The more questions we ask the more we learn about Social Security to help us with our Retirement Projections. My Dad and myself got talking about what happens when once spouse dies how much the other spouse gets then from Social Security for monthly payments if they are both retired. We hope we never will need Social Security to get by on but it looks like for our situation that it will be part of...

Recently we took our car in for an Oil Change and the Store Manager came out to the sitting area and gave me a long list of repairs the car needs. It was over $3,600. I said to him that the cars value isn’t much over that. When the shock wore off, I told him I was going to hold off for now. When I got home and started looking up Used Cars that had less miles than my car did it looked like I would...

Hope you had a fun New Year’s Eve and New Years Day. I am excited that it is 2021 and all the new opportunities we have this year. It would be hard for 2021 not to be way better than 2020. As many people know a lot of things can happen to a family in a short period of time. Last year we saw COVID-19 mess up peoples lives in so many ways. For instance, some businesses had to shut down and some neve...

Christmas is tomorrow and then we start a new year in just seven days. Are you looking forward to the holidays or are you feeling down? This time of Year, can be hard for people depending on what their situation is and what has happened in their world in the past. For myself when I am watching Christmas and Holiday shows on TV it can get me down really easy in the past. Even today there is times t...

There are a lot of different philosophies on the subject of if you should stay in the market through the up and down times or not. Some of my friends say they get out when it is high and then buy when it is low. They swear they make a ton of money doing it that way. Yet, I don’t have a crystal ball on when the Stock Market is at around the top and not going any higher. I would have felt bad jumpin...

We have taught our boys to shop around for the best Financial Planner that they like. We have told them to do research on different Financial Planners from what they charge and more. We want them to feel good about who they work with and are able to talk with them comfortably. If they do choose one to work with, we prefer Free of course or if they do pay, then to pay a fixed cost. I have talked to...

Everyone has different situations and goals in life. Not everyone may need to have a Financial Team or if they have one maybe they don’t need to see them yearly. For instance, my Mom who has no Assets and lives in a Nursing Home doesn’t need a Financial Team. We hope though our boys will acquire a lot of Assets in their lifetime and need a Financial Team along their journey to Financial Freedom. A...

Most people that work at a job hopes to get a pay raise each year. Some employees want them more than once a year. Wages is one of the largest expenses they have to run their business. If you own a business then you know if you want to stay in business then you need to show a profit. If wages go up then you need to find a way to cover that expense. Most businesses raise the prices to cover the cos...

Bottom line with all the news and experts out there the final decision when it comes to our Personal Finances is our own. That is what we teach our boys when we are teaching them our rules to Financial Freedom. As always, I am not giving you any Financial Advice and you should seek advice from your Professional Advisors to see what is best for your situation. See my Disclaimer at MillsWay.com. Thi...

Pensions aren’t as common as they were back when my Dad was working at International Harvester. They made Farm Equipment there in Rock Island, IL. They had a Union there which my Dad was a Shop Steward for the Union. They also had a Pension and Health Care for life for Mom and Dad. Pretty good deal. I am going by what he told me I never read all the details of it. In todays world it seems like few...

Many people I have talked to said one of the things they worry about is running out of money during their retirement years. I have those worries also myself. The more studies that I read about and people I talk to that withdrew 4% of their retirement funds and it worked out for them gives me a calming feeling. No one has that magical crystal ball to know what the future may bring us. Especially wi...

Who are people trying to impress with expensive Apple Cell Phones and having Cable TV with all the Streaming Channels? If people are in debt or not even half ways towards their Financial Freedom goals, do they need these two items? What lessons are they teaching their kids if they have kids? We made this a rule for our kids to help them reach their Financial Freedom goals and not get sucked into s...

We get phone calls, emails and texts daily at our house of people trying to get our information or to scam us. Everything from someone in England that died and left us 8.5 million dollars to call this number right away or the IRS will be taking you to court. It has gotten worse since the Internet I feel. Now there is so much information that people can find out about other people on Social Media a...

Darlene and myself have many different checking accounts from Personal Accounts to Business Accounts. We teach our boys to have separate personal checking accounts if they are married or in a relationship. Also, we suggest they set up one checking account for each of the following; Home Bills, Debt Payments, investing to other accounts if needed. Darlene and myself don’t need a Debt Payment accoun...

Whether you are married, in a committed relationship to being single we teach our boys to agree with their significant other or if single than a friend or relative before a large purchase. This is really important if you are married or in a committed relationship and living together with plans to get married someday. You need to be able to both agree on large purchases and I you don’t then keep ta...

Communication is so important in any relationship. When we have our monthly review meetings with our Spouse or significant other one it can be a stressful time when money is involved. Seems hard for some couples to be able to openly discuss money and finances. That is why I suggest to people if they have problems communicating with their spouse then maybe have a third person at their monthly and y...

This is something I look forward to do each month and at the end of the year. I know I may sound weird but I like to work with numbers and analyze how we did for the month or year. Darlene and myself have recaps of years past and then I have my recaps back from in the 1980’s. Yes, I am an old timer to some. LOL It is fun to look back at how low the numbers were on our Profit and Loss recaps back i...

To know if you are winning or losing you need to keep score. Just like in golf. You need to count all your strokes to know what your score was for the round and if you hit your goal or not. Also, you can see what areas that you need to improve in your golf game. Like I track not only my score per hole, but also how many fairways I hit, how many greens I hit and how many putts I made during the rou...

Over the years I have known many people that spent too much on a home they bought or a place they wanted to rent. Then something happens to them like a job loss or going to a new job where they made less money and now, they couldn’t make their payments anymore. That is a reason that we taught our boys to have their total Home Mortgage plus Property Taxes and Insurance to be less than 25% of their...

Last year when the Navy recruiters came over to our house the one recruiter brought up about how he wished his parents would have taught him the things we are teaching our boys. I told him that is why we are teaching our boys these lessons and why I am sharing it with the world with my Podcast, Blog and my book to be released hopefully before 2021. The recruiter talked about how he paid his debt o...

During my working years I always paid for Disability Insurance to make sure I was covered. Back in the days I had heard many stories of people who had freak accidents and were out of work for quite a while and needed the Disability Insurance to help maintain their living expenses for their family. Insurance is a part of protecting yourself and family in case of an accident and can help with your F...