Everybody Wants to Be Rich

Hello My Peoples and others,

With this year drawing to a close, Frugal Frank OTBS just wanted to drop a note. As my mother used to say, "Everybody wants to get rich, but we settle for a black man's heaven". We spend too much time projecting wealth rather than having it. During my years talking to people about investing money and planning for their financial future, I found that many people that I talked to wanted to project more wealth than they really had. I would visit people living in $500,000 homes and a driveway full of high end vehicles with no savings and very little retirement. Even though they were educationally at the top of their professions, they were financially ignorant. I would get the same spills, "I see myself doubling my salary in five-ten years and I am not in a position to do more investing yet." or "I already have this great annuity through my bank." Others would present me with some great investment they saw on television or heard at the barber shop like Silver Eagle coins, Bitcoin,  or Pyramid church schemes.

Now, I know that this blog is not palatable to all that read it. It's not meant to be. One of the reasons I got into investments was to help my people, but then I found out that a lot of them didn't have enough money to support me, so I had to turn to the man. Yes, the man. The truth is that the real "man" sees colors in green. If you are credentialed and smart they will write a check without blinking because if you have old or conservative money you know how to make more. They are not new to the game and so they know about investing and growing wealth. Now for some hard truth. Our people are behind the eight ball on financial awareness. We depend too much on banks and investment advisors to educate us.

If you have less than than a million, you are not generating enough income for your advisor, investor or counselor to make a living on. (Yes, they make money off of you) They will either try to put you in high commission products or sell you a plan or multiple products. With a little education you can invest and get pretty good returns yourself. And you should monitor your investments every 2-3 months.

Another hard truth is that if you haven't accumulated $100,000 in retirement by age 30, you should find you a job you love and keep working. Retirement with no money looks like a Walmart greeter.

So, with this knowledge do the following for Christmas:
1. Buy yourself some books on investments,if they suggest annuities skip them
2. Have a family meeting and review your finances
3. Figure out how to increase your retirement savings to 15%
4. Get yourself some insurance

Peace out,
Frugal Frank OTBS