Tentmaking Tips

Is that a Baby Step worth following?

Absolutely, but with a caveat!

I think the percentage is too low.

Really?

Yep, here’s why.

Let’s assume you are in your early 40s like me (some of these variables will change with your age).

Average net worth of someone in their early 40s is: $549,600

Now, don’t panic if you’re my age or older and you’re not there. Some say median net worth is a more accurate estimate than the average (likely due to some people who are worth tens of millions or more at that age).

Median net worth of someone in their early 40s is: $135,600

Median household income: $74,580

Plugging in the median net worth & income at networthify.com with a 15% savings rate, you’ll be financially free (able to live on your investments) in 33.1 years, or when you’re in your mid 70s.

Is that what you’re hoping for? I would guess not.

Let’s increase the numbers a bit.

Let’s say your house

“Treat making money as a hobby.”

For most of us, we don’t think about making money this way.

A hobby implies you do it on the side for fun. That it’s not your main gig.

But, for most of us, making money is a full-time job or a business that we work in full-time.

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with that.

But how great would it be if you made all the money you needed as a hobby and you could spend most of your time doing whatever the Lord led you to do?

Some pastors have told me that they’d probably be in a different ministry position if it wasn’t for the money. And they mean this in the most sincere way possible. Not that they’re in their current position for the money, just that what they have a vision for doing doesn’t pay much or anything at all. As a result, they feel they can’t pursue that passion yet, because they need more money than it can provide.

But, if you make money as a hobby, on the side, i

I’m constantly amazed by how much student loan debt is out there.

Even people who didn’t do masters or doctoral work can have tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of student loan debt.

And I know it is suffocating so many people.

If you have student loan debt, I want to help you get it paid off ASAP. For many of you, it’s hung around way too long.

While paying off a little at time will eventually get you there (after years & years), putting huge chunks of cash on it will certainly get you there much quicker.

Where can you get huge chunks of cash?

You may be able to guess my answer.

Real estate.

In real estate, you are paid for value delivered, not for time spent. As a result, you can generate significant chunks of cash without spending the time you’d have to spend working overtime or at an hourly side gig.

There’s multiple ways to do this.

I’ll list several here:

1. Ge...

That article spoke about the why.

Today, I’ll share about the how.

Of the many advantages of broad-based index funds, two stand out:

1. You’re buying the entire market, so you win with the winners & lose with the losers & make the average market return (which is better than most fund advisors can do for you over time)

2. The expense ratios can be very low because it’s not actively managed (and thus you’re not having to pay a significant amount for salaries, research, etc)

For long-term investments, I like to buy broad-based index funds, rather than sector-focused index funds.

Broad-based index funds are funds that buy most of the market.

Sector-based index funds are funds that buy a portion of the market.

The best broad-based index funds are the ones with the lowest fees.

Vanguard & Fidelity are two brokerages known for having very low cost in

Here’s the link: https://account.chase.com/investing/self-directedoffer

The Self-Directed Account doesn’t charge fees or commissions when you purchase most stocks/bonds/funds online. It will charge you if you use a representative to transact for you, so you should definitely do it yourself.

They do charge a $75 fee if you ever withdraw all of the money.

But that is more than offset by the bonus you receive if you transfer a significant amount of investments in.

You can see their fees here: https://www.jpmorgan.com/content/dam/jpm/global/documents/self-directed-fee-schedule.pdf

Another benefit of transferring investments in is that you may qualify for Chase Private Client as a result, which is a concierge banking service. https://www.chase.com/personal/checking/private-client

The current offer from JP Morgan is:

$50 bonus when you transfer in $5,000-$24,999

$150

I want to share 3 streams of income you can easily add this year with resources you already have & 1 stream of income you can add with just a little bit of work.

1. Interest Income

   If money is just sitting in your checking account, chances are you’re losing money. There are several ways to have your cash making 5% or more for you right now. I wrote about some of those recently here. Over the past few years, your extra cash wasn’t a great income stream because it was earning very little interest. Now it can earn significant interest. Make sure you are leveraging this. Invest that extra cash in a HYSA, a CD, or a short-term Treasury. This will immediately add an additional stream of income leveraging money you already have.

2. Cash/Rewards from Cards

   If you strategically make your daily purchases on certain credit cards, you can add an additional income stream (or reduce the cos

   ...

By “conservative” I mean government-insured or government-sponsored accounts — CDs, HYSAs, and Treasuries.

It’s not laughable anymore!

Right now you can buy CDs or invest in Treasuries and get a yield above 5%. Unbelievable!

Now, I’ve recommended in this newsletter that you should probably consider a more aggressive (i.e. less conservative) approach to investing for long-term returns (like retirement savings).

I like stock index funds the best for this.

But all of us need a more “conservative” place to put short-term funds like our emergency fund or savings for an upcoming purchase.

The good news is you have lots of vehicles to choose between right now to get a great return.

For HYSAs, check out the Marcus savings account by Goldman Sachs.

For CDs, check out your local bank or use a broker like Vanguard to buy brokered CDs.

For Treasuries, you can buy direct at TreasuryDirect.gov...

Too often we don’t treat our personal finances like a business.

We don’t watch them closely. We aren’t as active in cutting costs. We aren’t looking for ways to generate extra income. We aren’t investing wisely. We aren’t looking for a “profit” at the end of the month.

But we actively do all of these things when we run a business. You have to.

A number of years ago I paid an extra $25/mo for a Quickbooks account for my personal finances. Quickbooks is business accounting software.

I was already using Quickbooks for my businesses, but I thought it was time to begin treating my personal finances like a business.

Sure, we had lived on a budget for years, but I felt like that was not enough. A budget is just trying to help you not spend more than you make. A business is trying to generate a profit. I wanted our “fami