Greetings and welcome back to Consumers and Creators!   If you are new to C&C,  check out the  Start Here  post.  Today we'll continue to work our way around the  Creator's Wheel  looking at the  Invested  trait of the creator and contrasting it with the  Indebted  trait of the consumer.  This trait is part of the  Proactive  hallmark of the creator.  This will complete the seventh of the twelve creator traits.  Here's what we've covered so far: Proactive: Creators are Responsible and Consumers are Victimized Passionate: Creators are Disciplined and Consumers are Negligent Creators are Honest and Consumers are Defensive Grateful: Creators are Compassionate and Consumers are Selfish Creators are Encouraging and Consumers are Judgmental Creative: Creators are Lean and Consumers are Wasteful So, let's talk about investing.  I like to think of investing like planting seeds.  We all have a bag of seeds we are given every day.  These seeds represe

So, I've made several updates to the Creator's Financial Independence Calculator including some improved aesthetics, an actual calculation of time and $ needed to reach Financial Independence, and some input / output guidance and explanations.  There's a ton more that I could do with it like warnings for improper input, allowance for pensions and social security, and allowance for company 401k matching, ..., etc.  But, I'm going to take a break for now and focus on some non-programming efforts for the blog.  Swing by and play with it.  Perhaps one of you out there would like to take up the gantlet and improve on this calculator.  There's nothing hidden in the JavaScript source on the page, so feel free to play with it and reach out if you have some improvements.... or steal it and improve on it on your own page.  I'm ok with that, too. I hope this efforts provides a tool to inspire people to create and invest instead of consume.  Additionally, I pl

Welcome back to Consumers and Creators! As you likely know we have been going through the Creator's Path to Financial Independence series.  My first article in this series is by far my most viewed article on the blog.  It gives an example of how you can grow great wealth by simply avoiding lifestyle inflation.  I included some nifty Excel plots, but I was getting feedback that the scenarios I used were very specific and not relevant to all readers.   So, in response, it's time for me to put my money where my mouth is and create something useful. Introducing, the Creators's Path to Financial Independence Calculator (beta)!  This calculator allows you to run a simplified version of my calculations from Part I. You can get to the calculator from the "pages" heading on the left-hand side of the site.  I call it "beta" because I still need to add some text on how to operate it and I'm still considering adding some features, but I figure

Ok all you creators out there, I am hereby declaring August 11th "Adopt a Problem Day."  If you remember back in the Responsible and Victimized post, we talked about how crucial it is for creators to be uncommonly responsible  for the outcome of things they value.  So, to put that into practice, your homework assignment for August 11th is to adopt a problem.  What does it mean to adopt a problem?  Just take these four steps: Step 1 (Pick it): Take five minutes to think about the problems that nag you on a daily basis.  Maybe the garage is a complete mess.  Maybe there's a fence that needs painted.  Maybe one of the kids is not doing so well in math class.  If you are like me, there's no shortage of things that you just never get around to... but today you only get to pick one.  If you have your personal life completely in order, there's bonus points for adopting someone else's problem!  Step 2 (Plan it it): Come up with a plan to resolv

Greetings and welcome back to Consumers and Creators! If you are new to C&C, you can check out my Start Here post.  We are slowly working our way around the Creator’s Wheel , but just before we get started, below are links to the areas we've discussed to date if you need to get caught up: Creators are Responsible and Consumers are Victimized Creators are Honest and Consumers are Defensive Creators are Encouraging and Consumers are Judgmental  Creators are Lean and Consumers are Wasteful Creators are Disciplined and Consumers are Negligent  Today we’ll continue working our way around the  wheel by looking at the compassionate trait of the creator and contrasting it to the selfish trait of the consumer, so let’s get started. There is a branch in the earth that I encounter every day.  No, it’s not a proverbial branch, it is an actual stick in my backyard.  It reaches high above the other foliage on my back hill.  It appears to have some sort of root system since it

There have been a lot of positive events in my life that I can attribute to my dad, but certainly one of the most memorable was the day he brought home our first computer.  It was one of the first IBM PCs and included a monochrome monitor.  There wasn’t even a mouse.  I was probably five years old and remember clearly the sound of it booting up (which took five minutes or so) and the smell of hot circuitry that blew from its vent ports.  I explored on it constantly.  Eventually at the ripe old age of nine, I saved up enough birthday and Christmas money to buy a used IBM PS-2 of my own which I proudly kept on a desk in my room.  This was, of course, perfectly safe for a young man in the early 90's since it was still years before folks in Appalachia knew about the internet.  So, what on earth does a nine-year-old boy do with a computer without internet?   Well, I had a few games, MS Paint, and an encyclopedia, but I was still curious.   I remember my dad walking in one