The Money Mastermind

Saturday, 3 March 2018

HOW TO CUT YOUR MORTGAGE IN HALF

ONE SIMPLE STRATEGY THAT WILL SAVE YOU HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS

Posted by: Team Tony

Legal Disclosure: Tony Robbins is a board member and Chief of Investor Psychology at Creative Planning, Inc., an SEC Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) with wealth managers serving all 50 states. Mr. Robbins receives compensation for serving in this capacity and based on increased business derived by Creative Planning from his services.

“It’s a pity,” mortgage expert Marc Eisenson, author of The Banker’s Secret, told The New York Times. “There are millions of people out there who faithfully make their regular mortgage payments because they don’t understand […] the benefits of pocket-change prepayments.”Although there is still some debate about whether or not you should pay off your mortgage early, the truth is that the math is almost always in your favor. By paying off your mortgage early you will end up paying as little as half your mortgage payments, which is far less than any tax write-off you would otherwise receive.

WHAT ARE POCKET-CHANGE PREPAYMENTS?

When you sign on the dotted line and take on that 30-year fixed-rate mortgage at 6%, as much as 80% of your mortgage payments will go toward interest. Ouch. In fact, your interest payments will tack on an additional 100% or more to your loan value. To find out how much you’ll pay in interest on your own home, use this calculator.

In order to maximize your payments and end up paying less interest, you simply need to start making payments against your principal along with your normal monthly payment. So the next time you write your monthly mortgage check, write a second check for the “principal only” portion of next month’s payment.

Image © Yulia Grigoryeva/shutterstock

THE NOT-SO-MAGIC MATH, IN ACTION

For example, the average American home is $270,000. (This strategy, however, works whatever the cost of your home). A 30-year loan at 6% requires an initial monthly payment of $1,618.

With this technique you would make your usual monthly payment, and then you would also write a second check for an extra $270, which will cover next month’s principal balance. If the whole $270 – or whatever your number is – seems out of reach right now, pay whatever you can. It will still add up. If you continue to do this every month, you will never have to pay interest on the principal that is pre-paid.

To be clear, you are not paying extra money; you are simply paying a little bit sooner, and saving yourself potentially hundreds of thousands in the process. Imagine being free from mortgage payments in just 15 years instead of 30. Would that make those small sacrifices now worth it?

If you aspire to home ownership – or if where you live, owning a home makes more financial sense than renting – taking this one simple step can eliminate one of the single largest expenses of your life.

Header image © V. J. Matthew/shutterstock

Team Tony

Team Tony cultivates, curates and shares Tony Robbins’ stories and core principles, to help others achieve an extraordinary life.

Source: https://www.tonyrobbins.com/wealth-lifestyle/how-to-cut-your-mortgage-in-half/

Friday, 2 March 2018

10 Ways to Guarantee Prosperity - Grant Cardone

The one and only Grant Cardone on 10 ways to guarantee prosperity!

Can you afford to NOT watch this? Let's us know which is your favourite in the comments below!

5 Things that Will Actually Make You Poor

I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth. I have worked hard my whole life to create wealth and success for myself, my family, and my community. I do not ever blame someone or fault them for being poor. But I do not tolerate people who continue to stay in the mindset that being poor is a permanent condition. Throughout my life, I have built my success by showing others how to increase their income. I have heard the worst cases, people who were handicapped, people who were addicted to drugs, people with too much debt. I have heard it all and I tell you that there is nothing so severe that you can't overcome it and create massive success.

HERE ARE 5 THINGS THAT MIGHT BE MAKING YOU POOR:

Living in the past. The successful don’t live in the past, they’re always looking to the future. Surround your environment with the images of the things you want in the future. Look, you don't have it now. You don't need pictures of what you got now and what you had in the past. It's keeping you stuck in now and the past. You don't want to be in the now or the past. Look, the now is what? It's the past now! Do you get it? I want to be in the future.
All talk, no action. You must readily take action and not just talk. Whether it’s by way of getting others to take action for them, getting attention for their products or ideas, or just grinding it out day and night, the successful have been consistently taking high levels of action – before anyone knew of their names—that’s how they became successful! Stop talking about a plan for action but instead, assume that your future achievements rely on investing your time and energy in actions that may not pay off today but when taken consistently and persistently over time will produce unlimited success.
Punching the clock—People who struggle with money usually work for time, not production. This means they get paid for working a certain amount of time (usually 40 hours) and after that they quit working. People who work with the idea of production don’t care how long they’re working, they are after producing. Nobody gets rich just working the clock because there isn’t enough time to accumulate a big payoff. Flip your mindset and start focusing on how you can produce, not count the hours until 5 o’clock.
Having small goals—Successful people dream big and have immense goals. They are not “realistic.” They leave that to the masses who fight for leftovers. The poor are taught to be realistic and average, whereas the successful think in terms of how extensively they can spread themselves. The greatest regret of my life is that I initially set targets and goals based on what was realistic rather than on giant, radical thinking. “Big think” changes the world!
Talking about hump day and TGIF—Successful, rich people aren’t always telling their co-workers every Wednesday about hump day, they’re not high-fiving on Friday mornings shouting out “TGIF!” Monday morning, for the successful, is a new chance to make their dreams a reality. If you find yourself on Sunday evenings dreading the thought of Monday morning, you are probably not doing well financially.

If any of these 5 things hit close to home, just flip the switch. You can change, it all starts with a simple decision to do so. Then you must make a commitment to not go back. Real commitments require time and money. If you’re serious about it, you will commit time and money to investing in yourself to make sure you become a person living toward the future, take action, work towards production, have big goals, and look forward to Monday morning.

Be great,

Source: https://grantcardone.com/blogs/grantcardone/5-things-that-will-actually-make-you-poor

Thursday, 1 March 2018

How to Master Selling on the Phone

Do you have a love/hate relationship with selling? Why is that?

Selling is serving!

HOW MONEY-SAVVY IS YOUR TEEN?

WHY WE NEED TO GET SERIOUS ABOUT TEACHING KIDS TO BE FINANCIALLY LITERATE

Posted by: Team Tony

Meet Megan. Megan just graduated from college and has about $35,000 in student loans and $5,000 in credit card debt. Fortunately, Megan was able to secure a job, which pays $45,000 annually — the average across the country for recent college grads — which means that every month, she will take home roughly $2,700.

Like most recent grads in her position, Megan doesn’t set a budget for herself. She’s not thinking about saving for the future or putting money into an emergency fund. After all, retirement is 43 years away and as it is right now, she can barely afford rent. And rather than making a concerted effort to pay down her credit card debt, she pays the minimum balance due. In fact, some months, she misses the payment altogether, because she’s not completely aware of how important her credit score is.

Fast forward 15 years. Megan is still making many of the same financial mistakes. But now, her credit card debt has increased substantially, the interest on that debt has skyrocketed, and she is still paying off her student loan debt. And because of missed payments and increased debt, her credit score has plummeted. On the plus side, she has started thinking about retirement, but she still only has less than $25,000 put away.

Does Megan’s story sound familiar? It may, because it’s the story of tens of millions of Americans today.

The alarming truth is that, in total, American consumers owe $918.5 billion in credit card debt and $1.19 trillion in student loans. As for retirement, most Americans are grossly unprepared, with 57% reporting to have less than $25,000 put away in savings or investments for the future. And money continues to be the leading cause of stress for Americans and the most common cause of conflict in a marriage, with a whopping 76% of people saying that they feel out of control when it comes to their finances.

How did we get here? If money is such a critical factor in the quality of our lives, why were we never taught the importance of personal finance?

What if we were able to go back to Megan and give her better guidance on her personal finances? What if she were required to learn the basics of paying bills, building good credit, budgeting her income and paying off debt in high school? Would this make a difference in her financial future and ultimately, her quality of life?

Perhaps.

A recent study conducted by the Center for Financial Literacy at Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont, graded states on their efforts to improve financial literacy in high schools. Only five states across the country scored an A. These states — Alabama, Missouri, Tennessee, Virginia and Utah — require students take a dedicated semester of personal finance courses. Utah, the only state to receive an A+, mandates students learn about savings, investments, credit and online banking. Students there are also required to take and end-of-course financial literacy assessment administered by the state. And teachers of the personal finance course receive special training on topics like financial training, credit and investing.

On the other end of the spectrum, nearly a quarter of the states — including California, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania — received a failing grade. These states have, according to the report, virtually no requirements for teaching financial literacy at the high school level.

In lieu of high school courses, a number of students have to rely on their parents for financial guidance, which can be particularly problematic. For one, parents may be uncomfortable talking about money. In a 2014 survey from T. Rowe Price, parents were more inclined to talk to their children about alcohol and drugs than finances. Many adults may also lack the necessary financial knowledge to give sound advice. According to a recent survey from GoBankingRates.com, more than 60% of adults do not have a financial cushion for emergencies.

“When you look at the adult behavior, you can’t help but wonder whether or not these adults are doing a good job teaching their children,” said John Pelletier, director of the Center for Financial Literacy and author of the report.

This means students will ultimately have to learn financial lessons through trial-and-error, which can deal a hefty blow, especially considering that the majority of young people have no baseline to attach their expectations to. Pelletier has noted that he’s walked into a number of classrooms where the bulk of students believe their chosen career will make them at least $100,000 a year.

“You can see how people, based on that flawed analysis, think that they can afford $70,000, $80,000 or $90,000 in debt,” he said. “What needs to be taught is more career exploration, more understanding about income.”

This is particularly critical for the 71% of bachelor’s degree recipients who will graduate with a student loan. According to a recent survey from the Pew Charitable Trusts, nearly a third of white student loan borrowers and roughly a half of black and Hispanic student loan borrowers under the age of 50 said they would have found a different way to finance their education if they could make their borrowing decision again.

Of course, whether or not high schools should be responsible for teaching students personal finance skills is still up for debate. If financial literacy were mandated by the state, schools would have to train or hire new staff and implement new resources, which could put additional strain on already strapped budgets. But it is clear something must be done. Students need to understand that no matter what career path they pursue — whether they become a teacher, a physician, an artist or an engineer — they will need personal finance skills. And in an age of predatory lending, speculative investments and rampant consumerism, the earlier they can begin to become financially literate, the more prepared they will be to make the best financial decisions for their future.