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Financial Freedom

The one-tweet financial plan

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“Before you speak, listen. Before you write, think. Before you spend, earn. Before you invest, investigate. Before you criticize, wait. Before you pray, forgive. Before you quit, try. Before you retire, save. Before you die, give.” — William A. Ward

That’s right folks. Step right up. Don’t be shy.

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I’m about to simplify your life. Your financial life anyway. A one-tweet financial plan is the way to go.

You see that quote at the start of this blog post.

There, I just gave it to you in the quote stated above. The end.

Just kidding. But seriously, it is in the quote above. I will just expand upon it.

Warning this post is full of tweets! But lots of information. Stay with me! 😉

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WHAT IS A ONE-TWEET FINANCIAL PLAN?

A financial plan that is 240 characters or less and can be sent out in a tweet.

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I know what you’re thinking. Yeah, right. Well, since seeing is believing I will show you exactly what I mean.

Here is my one-tweet financial plan.

And due to the recent government shutdown, I have also created a one-tweet financial plan government shutdown edition. 😉 It’s kind of like how they created the Scrabble game deluxe. You take an already good thing and then just expand upon it and make it even better.

I also like to think ahead to the future and plan for my taxes. You need to save today because the future gets more expensive. What costs a $1 today will cost $1.25 in the future. Plan ahead.

Speaking of Scrabble…

LISTEN

It is one of the best qualities you can have. Being a good listener can lead to lasting marriages, better employment, and happier relationships.

You see #2 there. @mjp2520. Yes, that’s me. 😉

I started reading about personal finance and attending seminars or conferences long before I started writing and tweeting about it. Coming from a place of experience and information gives you a different point of view (POV). That POV can make you an expert in your field. Never underestimate the power of just listening and observing.

THINK

I want you to write down your goals, thoughts, wants, needs, and desires. Like I said before, seeing is believing. Think before you act.

There is nothing wrong with moving slowly or with caution. However, that does not give you the right to move like a turtle. First, think. Then act and move expeditiously once a decision has been made. Move quick. Make haste. Do not overthink it. This can lead to analysis paralysis.

Moving slowly does allow you to more clearly see the path ahead. But once you see it, I want you to run toward your goal. Not walk. RUN!

EARN

You have to earn money to save it. It is just that simple.

I was in debt up to my eyeballs. However, I did not toss my hands in the air and say who cares as I will be in debt forever. Nope. Not me. I chipped away at my debt. Then, I slowly started to have savings. I emerged from the debt cocoon I was in and became a soon to be debt-free butterfly.

I found ways to get rid of my debt. By any means necessary. It didn’t matter if I had to sell items, save my change, get 0% deals on every item I purchased, or stop buying chewing gum just to save a buck.

Once the debt started going away, I had tons of disposable income. Go figure.

INVEST

I cannot stress this enough. Investing can be the difference between you being one of the haves or have nots. I hate to break it to you, but the top earners invest.

Investing is a long game.

I read the wealthy invest up to 20 percent or more of their income each and every year.

The 1 percent are making a killing in the stock market. And you can too.

When I decided I was going to be rich, I turned my attention toward investing. If you want to know where Greenbacks Magnet is investing, then check out my post below. 😉

See my post How I turned a $450 car payment into $100,000

Here are some of my tweets on some good investment books to read.

The wealthy also read A LOT!!!

According to Grant Cardone, CEO’s read 60 books and attend 6 conferences a year. The average person reads less than one book a year. I read that in the 10X Rule.

Read the 10x rule. Took his advice. Set 10x goals and do 10x more action. It worked. Many thanks! Went from saving $10 to $10k a year. #OBSESSED

WAIT

Yes, like the Maroon 5 song. Wait.

Anything worth having is worth the wait.

You know all those overnight success stories you hear? Well, those are garbage. It takes years of hard work, persistence, determination and sacrifice to get anywhere worth going.

All those bands you hear about or people you see on television. They were honing their craft long before records executives starting signing them to deals.

Gene Simmons said he was going from gig to gig in an old van living off hot dogs with his bandmates in KISS.

Pat Benatar left her job as a bank teller to start working as a singing waitress making $4,000 a month before she hit it big.

You know their names now, but there was a time they were broke and unknown.

Success comes from doing not luck. And the toiling to make that success happen, can take years or even decades. So, prepare yourself.

Don’t be like Beetlejuice. Remember that scene in the movie where he took his number and was impatient. It was hilarious. One of Michael Keaton’s most memorable roles.

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The point is that you have to be patient. I do not mean wait forever. I just mean that all good things do take some amount of time.

Don’t be so quick to judge or criticize others, before you know the full story.

“I praise loudly. I blame softly.” – Catherine II, Catherine the Great

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FORGIVE

They say it’s divine.

“Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.” – Oscar Wilde

And I make sure to forgive. I always forgive, once.

See my post A Christmas Carol: Lessons in Finance, Business, and Life

TRY

Don’t be a quitter. Try first. You will never know if you have got the goods to make it, unless you get out there and do it. Do something. Don’t just wait to be discovered. Get out there and meet people. Shake some hands. Knock down some doors. Make some phone calls. Just try.

SAVE

This one thing can change your life. Saving. It is the start of all things to come. The act alone is a reflection of who you are and what you value.

The foundation for all your future wealth is derived from this word and your ability to do it.

See my post How Millennial Money inspired me to start saving $13,333.06 a year

GIVE

You give as a way to reach back and help those that come after you. It is a way to show your gratitude for all the things those that came before you have done.

There was a time there was no stock market. Or anesthesia. 😮

Let’s take a little walk down Wall Street.

The NYSE celebrated its 200th anniversary in 1992. Wall Street started under a tree in 1792 with commodities.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) was founded in 1896 with only 12 industrial stocks. Those 12 companies: American Cotton Oil, American Sugar, American Tobacco, Chicago Gas, Distilling & Cattle Feeding, General Electric, Laclede Gas, National Lead, North American, Tennessee Coal and Iron, U.S. Leather and U.S. Rubber. 

My how things have changed. None of those stocks are now part of the DJIA.

The good thing about indexes is that unlike individual stocks, when things go south and a business performs badly or goes under, it is culled. That’s right. They remove it from the DJIA and replace it with another business. Usually one that is performing well. That is the reason you invest in indexes. For the protection against a business going out of business and you losing your shirt!

General Electric (GE) is the only member of the Dow Jones Industrial Average that has been in the index since it’s beginning in 1896. It is being taken out and replaced by Walgreens (WBA) as reported of July 2018. That’s a 122-year run.

They have made it easier for you to invest now than 100 years ago.

Dale Carnegie had to ask his mother to mortgage the house so that he could invest the funds in stocks that he knew. That was how he built his fortune. Remember to invest in what you know.  Earn a fortune and then give it away.

Giving is one of the best ways to be philanthropic.

Remember that part in the movie Troy where Achilles asks his mother if he should go to Troy. And she says to him only if he wants his name to be remembered and live on throughout the ages.

Giving is a way to have immortality.

Case in point, Ms. Oseola McCarty inspired many others to donate to charity as well after she donated her life savings of $150,000 to a college in 1995. How’s that for a swan song? One of the biggest donors she inspired: Media Magnate and Mogul Ted Turner.

So why is it even noteworthy when Oseola McCarty, an elderly woman, donates $150,000 to the University of Southern Mississippi? In the case of Ms. McCarty, it is the heart behind the gift, and the lifetime of effort that went into it. For her act of kindness, she was awarded the Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor and got to ring the stock market opening bell.

How about that for recognition in helping others? And she asked nothing for herself or in return. These things were given to her for her charitable contribution to society.

Giving is passed down from generation to generation.

So, if you want to be immortal and have your memory live on forever, one word: give.

Want to know more. Tweet me. I’ll be at @mjp2520 

Xoxo Miriam Joy AKA Greenbacks Magnet 💋

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Generosity can go a long way

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“Think of giving not as a duty but as a privilege.” John D. Rockefeller

“I believe that it is my duty to make money and use it for the benefit of my neighbors. This is what my conscience tells me.” John D. Rockefeller

“No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.” Charles Dickens

Every now and then I read stories that just lifts my heart. Recently there have been articles of heroes saving lives and people donating to charitable causes close to their heart. It reminded me of a story I heard about many years ago, but is still very inspiring today.

This article was reported on the front page of the New York Times in 1995:

All She Has, $150,000, Is Going to a University

She may be gone, but her act of charity is remembered. This tweet is from 2017. Ms. McCarty passed away in 1999. Therefore, the good you do is still remembered long after you are gone.

Her name was Oseola McCarty. And here is her story.

MEET OSEOLA MCCARTY

Oseola McCarty was born on March 7, 1908 in Mississippi. As a young child, she had to quit school in order to tend to a sick family member. Quitting school in the sixth grade, she went straight to work as a laundress like her grandmother before her. She would go on to do this for about 75 years. Leaving school was one of her biggest regrets. She wanted to go back, but all the kids in her class had moved on ahead and so she didn’t go back because she wanted to be with her class. She decided to just keep working.

HOW SHE SAVED $150,000

She was never idle. She was working since she was a young child until she retired in 1994. She worked for many years and just put almost every dollar she made into the bank. She learned to save from her mother and kept the habit for life.

The following is what she did over 70 years:

  • She took one short vacation to Niagara Falls
  • She did not travel
  • She did not fly on planes
  • She did not stay in hotels
  • She never owned a car (she walked everywhere)
  • All her immediate family passed away and she never married or had children
  • She had lived alone since 1967
  • She lived in a family home her uncle gave her in 1947 for the rest of her life
  • Money she received from the passing of her mother and aunt went into savings
  • She spent almost nothing and lived very frugally
  • Repaired instead of replaced items for brand new ones
  • Covered her old bible in Scotch tape to keep Corinthians from falling out
  • Cut wholes in her shoes if they did not fit
  • Bought her first air-conditioner in 1992 and only uses it when company comes over
  • Owns one tiny black and white television (that only gets one channel) but she rarely watches
  • She did not retire until she was around 85 years old
  • Keeps her utility bills low
  • Never subscribed to a newspaper because it cost too much (an extravagance)
  • She would pay her bills and deposit the rest of her money (even coins) into savings
  • Over time this grew into $280,000

How she donated her life savings

One day she decided she would gift her money to a local university. Not as a bequest, but immediately as she wanted to be alive to see a recipient graduate from college as he one wish. In July 1995, she would go on to start a scholarship fund to help finance college tuition for students, preferably of African-American descent, who would be unable to attend college due to financial hardship. at the University of Mississippi. When asked why she chose that school, she simply said, because it was close.

A banker at one of her financial institutions assisted her. In 1995, he wanted to help an 87-year-old Ms. McCarty, but was unsure how to assist a woman with a fifth-grade education through estate planning. He came up with the novel idea of giving her 10 dimes, each representing 10 percent of her assets. He gave her five slips of paper to write down the names of the beneficiaries and divide up the coins. She deposited one dime to her church, one for each of her cousins and the last six for a scholarship fund, after setting aside enough money to live on.

She signed an irrevocable living trust and the bank managed her funds while she received a regular check for her living expenses.

WHY SHE DONATED

She decided to give because she knew the importance of education. She had struggled all her life doing manual labor (scrubbing laundry by hand on a scrub board). She did not want that for the younger generation coming up so she gifted them money to help them not have to do what she did and get a degree she was never able to get herself.

FOR EVERY ACTION THERE IS A REACTION

The news hit the media and overnight she went from obscurity to a celebrity. She wanted no monuments or other recognition’s of her selflessness, but they came to her.

Once word spread of what she had done, it spread far and fast. Accolades and recognition for her act of charity in anticipation of her death was almost immediate. Goodness and kindness tend to spread. There was a chain reaction to her charitable action that had people wanting to reciprocate what she had done by also donating. This is what happened over four years:

  • She was honored by the United Nations
  • She received more than 300 awards
  • Contributions poured in from other donations adding almost $330,000 to her gift
  • Ted Turner donated a billion dollars to charity after hearing her act of philanthropy
  • She received the Presidential Citizen’s Medal, the nation’s second-highest civilian award
  • She received an honorary doctorate from Harvard University
  • She carried the Olympic torch through part of Mississippi in 1996
  • In December 1996, hers was the hand on the switch that dropped the ball in Times Square in New York’s New Year’s Eve celebration (also the first time she stayed up past midnight, rode an airplane, and stayed in a hotel)
  • McCarty received the Award for Greatest Public Service Benefiting the Disadvantaged, an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards
  • She was awarded an honorary degree from USM, the first such degree awarded by the university in 1998
  • McCarty was also recognized with an Essence Award and Patti LaBelle sang tribute to her during the ceremony at Madison Square Garden in New York.
  • She even met President Clinton
  • She became an author; she wrote a book called Simple Wisdom for Rich Living, published in 1996

Ms. McCarty gave out pearls of wisdom, if people wanted to listen, but mostly it was common decency and sense she had said. She also said you should know the difference between a need and a want. Just because something is free does not mean you need it. It is okay to turn down something that is free, if you really do not need it. ”There’s a lot of talk about self-esteem these days,” she once said. ”It seems pretty basic to me. If you want to feel proud of yourself, you’ve got to do things you can be proud of. Feelings follow actions.”

It was reported that her home will be turned into a museum.

When asked what she wanted to do with her money right before she donated it, Ms. McCarty replied: “I want to help some child go to college.”

And just in case you were wondering, the recipient of the very first Oseola McCarty award not only met Ms. McCarty in person to say thank you, but she also went to the University of Mississippi and graduated.  Ms. Oseola McCarty also lived long enough to get her wish: to live to see a recipient graduate.