May 2007

Motivation and Money Tip # 1: Remember the Past

May 31, 2007

Photo Credit: Mike9Alive Sometimes motivation to live below our means, pay down debt and invest comes from experiencing some sort of financial crisis. Perhaps we’ve maxed out our credit cards, or lost a home, or filed for bankruptcy. Or maybe we’re just tired of running out of money before we get to the end of [...]

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Five Million Easy Steps to Financial Independence

May 30, 2007

This is one of those good news–bad news situations. Which do you want to hear first? Before we get to that, I was in the bookstore yesterday and noticed that there are a lot of “X steps to Financial Freedom” type books. Here are a few that I saw: 9 Steps to Financial Freedom: Practical [...]

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1,000 Ideas for Remodeling Your Kitchen

May 29, 2007

We are in the early stages of a major remodeling of our kitchen. As much as I enjoy our home and improving it, the project has been very stressful and time-consuming, and we haven’t even started construction! I’ll be writing about the process and the cost as we move forward, but today wanted to share [...]

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Three Important Ways to Calculate Net Worth

May 28, 2007

If you’ve ever read one of Warren Buffet’s famous letters to Berkshire’s shareholders, you know that he starts the letter the same way each. Each letter begins with how the company’s book value changed from the prior year. Here’s how he opened his must recent letter: The per-share book value of both our Class A [...]

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The 1% Solution to Real Estate Investing

May 28, 2007

When I first began looking into real estate investing, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what criteria I would use in selecting which property to buy. I have built many Excel spreadsheets with mind-numbing calculations and data, all geared to finding that perfect investment property. Having now purchased four rental properties [...]

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What does Financial Independence Mean to You?

May 27, 2007

If you have read the About page you know The Dough Roller is about my (and I hope your) journey toward Financial Independence. But what is Financial Independence? Are we financially independent when we are debt free, when our portfolio reaches a certain balance, or when we retire? I was recently introduced to one concept [...]

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