Retire Early & Follow A Maverick

Isn't it great to dream of retiring early? Well, your dream could be much closer than you think.

This story is about a woman who started a movement many years ago. She was a real maverick back in the day and wrote a best-selling book. Today she is having a revival of sorts with millennials.

Her basic premise is to think about how many hours it takes you to earn the money that you are about to spend on some trivial item. Ask yourself "Is this pair of shoes worth working 10 hours to pay for?"

The woman I'm talking about is Vicki Robin - co-author of a best-selling book entitled Your Money or Your Life. She is currently working on a revised edition, but the original is still a great read.

I know that buying less stuff is the opposite of what Madison Avenue would like us all to believe. Marketing and advertising drives us to want more, want newer, and keep up with the Joneses.

If you can fight that impulse you can really simplify your life. Buying a used car and driving it for 10 or 15 years is not what television ads tell us to do. But if you want to retire early, you might give it some serious thought.

Okay, you've figured out how to live your life without a 9 to 5 job. What next? That might be an even tougher question to answer. We will tackle that in a future article, so stay tuned.

Original article appeared here: http://time.com/money/5241566/vicki-robin-financial-independence-retire-early/

Photo Credit: Ian Allen

This post was first seen on the I Love Fortunes, LLC blog site. All legal rights reserved.

The Way to Wealth

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Maintaining Your Financial Records: The Importance of Being Organized

An important part of managing your personal finances is keeping your financial records organized. Whether it's a utility bill to show proof of residency or a Social Security card for wage reporting purposes, there may be times when you need to locate a financial record or document--and you'll need to locate it relatively quickly.

By taking the time to clear out and organize your financial records, you'll be able to find what you need exactly when you need it.

What should you keep?

If you tend to keep stuff because you "might need it someday," your desk or home office is probably overflowing with nonessential documents. One of the first steps in determining what records to keep is to ask yourself, "Why do I need to keep this?"

Documents you should keep are likely to be those that are difficult to obtain, such as:

•     Tax returns
•     Legal contracts
•     Insurance claims
•     Proof of identity

On the other hand, if you have documents and records that are easily duplicated elsewhere, such as online banking and credit-card statements, you probably do not need to keep paper copies of the same information.

How long should you keep your records?

Generally, a good rule of thumb is to keep financial records and documents only as long as necessary. For example, you may want to keep ATM and credit-card receipts only temporarily, until you've reconciled them with your bank and/or credit-card statement. On the other hand, if a document is legal in nature and/or difficult to replace, you'll want to keep it for a longer period or even indefinitely.

Some financial records may have more specific timetables. For example, the IRS generally recommends that taxpayers keep federal tax returns and supporting documents for a minimum of three years up to seven years after the date of filing. Certain circumstances may even warrant keeping your tax records indefinitely.


This article was first posted in http://personalfinance.janney.com/2017/06/maintaining-your-financial-records.html