Get Rich Quick

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It is very rare that someone hits it big overnight and goes from Average Joe to Joe Millionaire. When I’m counseling my clients, I always encourage them to look at their personal finances and wealth building as a process, not an occurrence. It may be boring, but things like living within a specified budget, eliminating non-mortgage debt, investing in retirement accounts, saving for kid’s college, paying cash for cars – and buying them used, are all vital components to a long term strategy that helps us develop financial security over a lifetime. I’m constantly in that mode personally and always advising in that manner.

When I ran across Seth Godin’s blog this past week titled Get Rich Quick, it caught my attention. But as I quickly realized, he took a different slant. He is obviously not talking about building monetary wealth, but enriching our lives. I thought it was incredible and worth sharing. Here is how you really get rich quick:

  • Enrich your world by creating value for others.
  • Enrich your health by walking twenty minutes a day.
  • Enrich your community by contributing to someone, without keeping score.
  • Enrich your relationships by saying what needs to be said.
  • Enrich your standing by trusting someone else.
  • Enrich your organization by doing more than you're asked.
  • Enrich your skills by learning something new, something scary.
  • Enrich your productivity by rejecting false shortcuts.
  • Enrich your peace of mind by being trusted.

If you are ever interested in reading prior weekly emails, please visit my Facebook page: Mike Smalling Mortgage Advisor

The Week Ahead
Next week, ISM Services will be released on Monday. The JOLTS report, measuring job openings and labor turnover, will come out on Friday. There will be Treasury auctions on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. A meeting of the European Central Bank (ECB) on Thursday also may influence US markets. The ECB is considering a bond purchase program similar to the one in the US that is currently being wound down.

The Week That Was
The major economic data released last week continued to show an even better than expected bounce back from a weather-related slowdown during the winter. Despite the economic strength, though, there were few signs of inflationary pressures, helping mortgage rates end the week lower, near the best levels of the year.

The economy added 288K jobs in April, far more than expected, and the largest monthly increase since January 2012. Average job gains over the last three months were a healthy 238K, up from 167K over the prior three months. The Unemployment Rate unexpectedly dropped from 6.7% to 6.3%, the lowest level since September 2008. Looking below the surface, though, a large part of the decline in the Unemployment Rate was due to people leaving the labor force. Average Hourly Earnings, a proxy for wage growth, were flat, limiting the upward pressure on inflation.

The impact of unusually severe winter weather appears to have taken an even bigger bite out of economic activity during the first three months of this year than what had been expected. The initial reading for first quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the broadest measure of economic growth, was just 0.1%, down from 2.6% during the fourth quarter. This report often receives large revisions, though, as more data is collected.