Celebrities and Money, Entrepreneurship, Film Reviews, Financial Freedom, Financial Independence, Saving, Self-Made Millionaires

Fiscal Gentleman Are Tailor Made: Money Lessons From Keanu Reeves John Wick

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Fashion is the vocabulary of the wealthy. – Evan R. Lawson, Royal Pains

Keanu Reeves is arguably one of the most stylish and successful actors of a generation. His latest film John Wick 3: Parabellum earned over $300 million dollars at the box office spawning another sequel from Lionsgate for a John Wick 4 coming on May 21, 2021. So if you haven’t heard the news already then you’re hearing it here first! BREAKING NEWS: John Wick 4 is coming!

His hugely successful career has made him a bankable action star with an estimated net worth of over $350 million.

Let’s find out out millionaires are minted and tailor made.

There are three John Wick movies, so I will give you three money lessons.

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The Continental in New York
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Lesson One: If you’re going to do something, then you may as well look good while doing it I love this Buzzfeed interview with Keanu Reeves or KR as they refer to him. It is a film about suits. A ballet of bullets. Those suits are pristine mortuary chic.

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Custom made finely tuned works of art in clothe. It adds to the prestige and dark mystic of the film.

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The costuming and fashion is top notch. Definitely reminds me of suits I have seen on other men that come straight from suit designer to the stars Savile Row in London England.

Savile Row, founded by Henry Poole in 1846, bespoke suits are so popular that shops in that district have received the Royal Warrant (seal of approval from HRH the Queen of England or Prince Charles) to outfit the royals and all those who wear a crown. Getting a thumbs up from The Crown of England is no small feat as you have to be the top 0.01 percent of your craft.

Savile Row is the world’s most famous suiting street as reported by Maxim where suits on Savile Row can start at $5,000.

And speaking of Maxim, the magazines late founder Felix Dennis had some great advice on money. Considering he was worth an estimated $400 million, I would say listen to what he has to say.

The top financial advice he offers is to always pay your taxes. In addition, he states the following:

“To become rich you must be an owner. And you must try to own it all. You must strive with every fibre of your being, while recognising the idiocy of your behaviour, to own and retain control of as near to 100 per cent of any company as you can. – Felix Dennis, How to get rich “

If it flies, floats or fornicates, always rent it. It’s cheaper in the long run.” ― Felix Dennis

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Now back to the suits.

The suits designed for this movie are no exception. They almost take on a life of their own. This movie would make Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris or NPH for short) of How I Met Your Mother proud. He was known on HIMYM for constantly wearing suits and saying suit up.

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John Wick #1 or JW1
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JW2

One of my favorite things in this film are the manners. Everyone is respectful and well-mannered even when fighting or speaking with enemies. Parlay? haha This reminds me of that scene in the 1979 film The Warriors.

Anyway, I love a man in a suit. Any suit really. Or uniform. Uniforms means a man is employed. And a retired man means he has income. Wink, wink.

A man that can balance a check book, hang a suit (look good in it that is), and has great manners is my kind of guy! I’m just saying. Like any good host, in the film you regularly see people treat each other with human decency, courtesy, and respect.

Lesson Two: Save money and build up your savings muscle There’s my girl Halle Berry. You know in my previous post I wrote about why she and I continue to save so much.

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If you want to be a fiscal gentleman or lady, you must learn to invest your money.

You have to learn to move the needle on your savings and investment accounts the same way you do when you fill up on a tank of gas.

For more info on your girl Greenbacks Magnet money tips and tricks check out my interviews on the websites Financially Alert and Think Save Retire.

That is why I started with saving $1 a day and slowly went upwards to $13,333 a year. Now that is what I call upward savings mobility. It took years to do this. You think Keanu can do all those stunts without proper training?

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I once read in a magazine interview that he said to pull off The Matrix stunts he had to do two hours of stretching. It took months of work and preparation including weapons and martial arts training.

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A retrospective look back at Keanu.

1999: I need guns. Lots of guns.
2017: I need something Robust… Precise.
2019: I need guns. Lots of guns.

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Man has he evolved. haha

Therefore, you need to understand that it could take years to build your fortune. You must have patience or it will eat you up inside to try to get rich quick.

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Lesson Three: Make sure you have a safety cushion and that people owe you a favor because time is always of the essence

One the most intense parts of JW3 is his constant looking at his watch in the beginning of the film. As time is ticking by and he is in short supply of it.

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The intensity and emotions you feel in those scenes are the same way I want you to feel when it comes to paying off debt. It must go.

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Another part of this film I like was when you saw he had a stash of things he needed hidden in a book at the library. This is classic if you don’t want people to find something, then hide it in the books rhetoric.

It is always good to have a hidden nugget or money stash just in case. I explore that topic further in my post on Disney’s film National Treasure and Money Lessons I Learned From Scrooge McDuck.

And last but certainly not least, always make sure someone owes you a favor. I am known to help people out and at times ask for a favor in return.

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Life is about building relationships, or so Ryan Reynold’s character Van Wilder says; therefore, it is in your best interest to help your fellow man. There may come a time when you need to ask for help.

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People are 90 percent more likely to help those that have previously helped them in the past. So if you get a chance help others because remember that time in finite and you must show people today how you feel as tomorrow may be too late.

Good luck on all your money endeavors!

I’ll be seeing you.

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Celebrities and Money, Financial Freedom, Financial Independence, Saving, Wealth

The Secret To Wealth Building: Avoiding Debt

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Debt is like any other trap, easy enough to get into, but hard enough to get out of.  – Josh Billings

That’s right. Avoid debt like the plague. Well there you go. The secret to building wealth is wide open. Cat’s out.

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I will give you some great insight here. You cannot go bankrupt if you are debt free. When you owe $0, then you are truly free my friends.

Nothing puts people in a financial fiasco quicker than leverage.

Debt, we’ve learned, is the match that lights the fire of every crisis. Every crisis has its own set of villains – pick your favorite: bankers, regulators, central bankers, politicians, overzealous consumers, credit rating agencies – but all require one similar ingredient to create a true crisis: too much leverage. – Andrew Ross Sorkin

Let me provide you with some cautionary tales. They are truly scary. So please avert the kids eyes when you are reading this.

Okay, here it goes. I am no Chaucer, but I will do my best to make this plot jump right out to you. Hopefully it will inspire you to action. Please be forewarned. STAY. AWAY. FROM. DEBT. It has the ability to turn happy people into bitter human beings. People are more likely to tell you about their political, romantic, or extracurricular actives than they are the amount of credit card debt they are in.

Cautionary tale numero uno: Adrian Peterson. According to CNBC, NFL star Adrian Peterson made close to $100 million but apparently can’t pay his debts. The star running back is in court against a McAdoo, Pennsylvania-based creditor over failure to pay a $5.2 million loan. With interest and legal fees, the sum claimed is about $6.6 million.

He currently owes a total of $10 million in debt obligations, but recently signed an NFL contract for a two-year extension for $5 million.

Now I’m no mathematician, but if I subtract 10 from 5 that would equal 5. Meaning he is $5 million dollars short of being able to pay what he owes. This does not include any other cost of living expenses he has. In addition, Mr. Peterson is in his twilight years.

Just investing 1 percent of his $100 million in earnings, $1 million, could have netted him another cool million in investment returns if he earned 8 percent. That is without catching another pass, running an interception, or even showing up for work. He LITERALLY would have only had to keep breathing to make that money.

Losing $100 million is my worst nightmare. This is one of the worst horror tales I have ever read and that is because this is reality: Pure fact and not fiction.

Cautionary tale numero dos: Pamela Anderson. One of the most recognizable female celebrities in the world as she has graced the covers of hundreds of magazines including having the distinction of being the most photographed Playboy Playmate 1989-2016, with a record 14 Playboy magazine covers.

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She too had a run in with Mister Debt. At one point, she was in $1 million of debt due to housing costs. She stated at the time that it happened to a lot of people in Hollywood. Although, she stated that she is now okay, she did state that was a very stressful couple of years.

My suggestion is this: stay away from buying huge homes. Mansions costs tons of money to upkeep.

For example, a $3.6 million-dollar mansion will likely cost you $100,000 annually for maintenance, utilities, property taxes and upkeep. Over 10 years, you would have paid $1 million dollars just to have a place to put those $500 Manolo’s.

Let’s think for a second. A $90 million-dollar mansion in Beverly Hills could cost you $2.5 million annually. Over a decade that is $25 million dollars! I am starting to see how people like Charlie Sheen, who famously once earned over $1 million per episode of Two and a half men, could end up in court stating he is in dire financial straits less than 10 years later. With expenses like these, who can save! I am also starting to see how Nicolas Cage ended up owing $6.2 million to the IRS! My last tale will surely leave you shaking in your financial boots (hopefully paid for with cash).

Cautionary tale numero dos: Johnny Depp. After earning $20 million-dollar paychecks with Pirates of the Caribbean (Disney fired him from this role in 2019), and estimated lifetime career earnings of $650 million, it was revealed that Captain Jack had a spending and debt problem.

According to CNBC, this is what Mr. Depp spent every month:

  • $30,000 on wine
  • $300,000 on staff, including 40 full-time employees
  • $150,000 on security for himself and his family
  • $200,000 for a private jet

You could support small countries on what he is spending!

For $30,000 a month on wine, it better heal the sick, make the blind see again, and wash away all sins!

This last fiscal tale truly has me quaking in my paid for running shoes.

In every story I have ever heard or read, people built their wealth by living on less than they earn.

That is how I was able to pay off $50,000 of debt and then begin saving and investing over 40 percent of my income. I did it by earning and saving one dollar at a time.

Ditch the plastic and embrace cash my friends. It seems the folks in Hollywood all have humongous mortgages that are handcuffing their wallets and keeping their financials in a tailspin. Please do the opposite and keep low fixed expenses. Thank you for listening. I’ll be here all week.

Celebrities and Money, Financial Freedom, Financial Independence, Saving, Self-Made Millionaires, Wealth

I Like To Write Big Fat Checks Just Like Cardi B

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Big fat checks, big large bills.  – Cardi B

I’m a lot like Cardi B in that song Money and I like it because like her, Now I like dollars, I like diamonds! However, in order to fund that lifestyle you have to have money in the bank.

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I want deep-pockets; therefore, I avoid debt, save and invest.

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And between you and me, I can’t stand debt. That’s no secret if you have been reading my blog. It just weighs you down.

I figured out a way to make myself feel better about paying off debt. I tend to use the debt-snowball method. I like small wins. And you should too, if it helps you continue to work on paying off your debt over several years, which can be 2-5 years.

The debt–snowball method is a debt reduction strategy, whereby one who owes on more than one account pays off the accounts starting with the smallest balances first, while paying the minimum payment on larger debts. You typically use this method when paying off revolving credit card debt.

Dave Ramsey discusses this and the debt avalanche, paying off debt with highest interest rate first, both are good methods of paying off debt.

But my favorite is the debt-snowball method. This strategy is where you pay off debt in order of smallest to largest, gaining momentum as you knock out each balance.

When the smallest debt is paid in full, you roll the money you were paying on that debt into the next smallest balance. You get a chance to celebrate your hard work by knocking out small debts and slowly working your way toward paying them all off.

For example, I have done the following:

Paying off my payday loan in the early 2000’s, I wrote the final check for $333.

Paying off my car note in 2009, once it got down to under $2,000, I wrote the final check for $1,500 and paid that sucker off!

Paying off my personal loan for $20,000, once I got down to the end, I wrote the final check for $3,500.

Paying off my credit card I got in 2005, once I got it down under $15,000, I wrote the final check (electronic) payment for $14,745, so then I could continue to live my best life.

I did this by saving up my money, paying the minimums on all my accounts until I saved up a certain dollar amount and then I wrote big fat checks to pay off what I owe. I like to pay in lump sums and pay off huge chunks of debt at a time. It makes me feel better. I call it the debt-chunk method. I like to see big results.

I got this idea from reading personal finance blogs like Millennial Money and books like I Will Teach You To Be Rich and Set For Life. In addition to studying the self-made. I combined my knowledge of reading about the money habits of Grammy-winner John Legend and Millennial Money founder Grant Sabatier.

See my posts How Millennial Money Inspired Me To Start Saving $13,333.06 A Year

Money Advice I Got From John Legend

Basically, I combined two different philosophies on saving and debt.

From John Legend I learned that once you have money in your hand you should pay off your debt IMMEDIATELY. If you have the full amount, then pay it all off. Thereby, paying off debt in huge chunks!

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From Millennial Money I learned to save huge amounts of money over time by making small increases in may savings rate. I also make sure to take other good advice as well.

For instance, over the years, I have learned to listen to the following:

My partner Charlie says there is only three ways a smart person can go broke: liquor, ladies and leverage – Warren Buffett

Find ways to advertise for less or free. Leverage what you know by thinking outside the box. – Daymond John, The Power Of Broke

Find ways to start or build a business for less, cheaper alternatives out there or for $0 to start. – Zac Bissonnette, Debt Free U

There has never been a time when reading a book has not helped me. Work 10X harder, get 10X the results. – Grant Cardone, The 10X Rule

Work out. Have Discipline. Save and invest your money. I started in real estate and built wealth that allowed me to devote more time to the things I wanted to do. – Arnold Schwarzenegger

See my post How Arnold Schwarzenegger Totally Recalls Making $20-Million-Dollar Paychecks

Try to save $5 a day. And increase your savings by 1% a month or more. Network. I bought coffee for those I wanted to learn from every week! – Grant Sabatier, Millennial Money

Save $25,000 to stop living paycheck-to-paycheck. Spend more on fun not less. Spend money on the things you care about and cut spending on the things you don’t. – Scott Trench. Set For Life, Bigger Pockets podcast

Spend extravagantly on the things you love, and cut costs mercilessly on the things you don’t. – Ramit Sethi

Focus your energy on the big wins!

If you can cut your housing and car costs, your stand a chance to save $500 or more per month. That is a nice amount to start stashing away in your 401k.

Cutting out $5 lattes and couponing alone are not going to get you to amassing a fortune. But first, before you do anything, you must save!

It is far easier to control and cut your spending than it is to go out and earn more.

Besides, the more you make the more Uncle Sam takes! I am all for people earning more money, but it will make no difference if you spend every last dime.

Therefore, start focusing on slashing expenses, cutting costs, saving an emergency fund (for big expenses), a rainy day fund (for short-term expenses i.e. a flat tire) and paying off ALL YOUR DEBT!!! Doing those five things can start you on the path from broke millennial to millionaire.

And that is because all millionaires know you get there by saving $10 bucks at a time. – Mr. Money Mustache

Therefore, if you want to get rich, just start by saving $10 bucks at a time.

Celebrities and Money, Financial Freedom, Financial Independence, Saving, Self-Made Millionaires, Wealth

Choose Experiences Over Things: My Experience At The JLO It’s My Party Tour Concert

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You get what you give. What you put into things is what you get out of them. – Jennifer Lopez

I took this picture while I was waiting to get in to the concert.

I have learned to choose experiences over things. You put those pair of expensive jeans on a credit card and 10 years later those $80 jeans could really cost you $300 with 25 percent interest attached. That wasn’t on the price tag! Those jeans will be long gone by then, but that time you went camping with your family and friends will be great memories that last a lifetime.

In the last several years, I have decided to spend money more on experiences. After seeing that episode of Gilmore Girls Concert Interruptus, I knew one day I would go to a concert so I could be as happy as Loreali and Sookie was to go see their favorite band. Those great feelings you get from actually doing something and paying for it with cash are priceless.

That is exactly what I did on July 17, 2019. I went to see Jennifer Lopez in concert. And I loved every minute of it!

Took this short video on my phone while at the concert.

She stopped by DC and performed at Capital One Arena after doing her make-up concert in Madison Square Garden in NY after the blackout on Saturday July 13. What a professional.

And let me tell you. I looked into what it takes to do concerts and JLo’s setlist and tour dates. Performing is grueling work.

See my posts

Jennifer Lopez: From Jenny From The Block To JLO And $100 Million

How Dave Grohl Turned Passion Into Profits

Jennifer Lopez – It’s My Party – The Forum – Inglewood, California – June 7 2019 – setlist

Want to help celebrate JLO’s birthday with her! See remaining tour dates below.
Jennifer Lopez – It’s My Party Tour dates:
June 10 – San Diego, CA – Pechanga Arena
June 12 – Sacramento, CA – Golden 1 Center
June 13 – San Jose, CA – SAP Center
June 15 – Las Vegas, NV – T-Mobile Arena
June 16 – Phoenix, AZ – Talking Stick Resort Arena
June 19 – Denver, CO – Pepsi Center
June 21 – San Antonio, TX – AT&T Center
June 22 – Edinburg, TX – Bert Ogden Arena
June 24 – Dallas, TX – American Airlines Center
June 25 – Houston, TX – Toyota Center
June 28 – St. Paul, MN – Xcel Energy Center
June 29 – Chicago, IL – United Center
July 3 – Milwaukee, WI – Summerfest
July 5 – Detroit, MI – Little Caesar’s Arena
July 7 – Toronto, ON, CA – Scotiabank Arena
July 10 – Montreal, QC, CA – Centre Ball
July 12 – New York, NY – Madison Square Garden
July 16 – Mansfield, MA – Xfinity Center
July 17 – Washington, DC – Capital One Arena
July 19 – Newark, NJ – Prudential Arena
July 20 – Philadelphia, PA – Wells Fargo Center
July 22 – Atlanta, GA – State Farm Arena
July 23 – Orlando, FL – Amway Center
July 25 – Miami, FL – American Airlines Arena

Instead of spending a fortune and being close enough to the stage to reach out and touch the artist and see the white of their eyes, I selected a seat that just fine to see how different my experience would be. My seat cost $49.95 and I have a blast!

You do not have to go in debt or sell your belongings on Craigslist or drive for Uber or Lyft just to spend $500 on concert tickets. The jumbo screens show you all the action just fine in my book.

This was also her first tour since ending her Las Vegas Residency which made like $100 million in ticket sales!

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For a night out on the town it cost me about $100 bucks!

So if you want to paint the tow red, I suggest you stay in the black and pay cash and not go in the red and use credit. Cause you know your girl Greenbacks Magnet is all about saving a dollar!

See my post Why Halle Berry And I Continue To Save So Much

If you read my tweets then you know I can’t stand debt. I would stop doing just about everything in order to save up huge chunks of money to pay off debt. I once saved up $15,000 to pay off $14,745 worth of debt! Paying debt off in chunks feels awesome.

I learned to pay off my credit card and other debt in lump sums from reading about how Grammy award-winning artist John Legend doing it after he got his first big paycheck. Smart!

See my post Money Advice I Got From John Legend

How how I hate DEBT. Let me tweet the ways!!

Just hearing about another pro athlete going broke is enough for me to change my free willing money spending ways.

Breaking News: Adrian Peterson is in debt after making $100 million in earnings in the NFL. This is my version of Scared Straight. Scared Debt Straight that is. Is he not reading my blog?!!!

I encourage you all out there to stop what you are doing and find a way to start saving 5 percent of your income.

Start with just $500 in the bank and work your way up to one month of expenses. That Is how I went from $25 in the bank to $5,000. Save for the things you want. Paying with cash is freedom.

https://twitter.com/FrugalToFI/status/1149887056224477184

It’s like JLo says, “you get what you give.” You have to work for what you want. She says she gets nothing for free. And that she has to pay for everything.

The harder you work, the more you get. I’m taking my money earning and saving cues from Jlo. I like to study the self-made. And Jenny from the Bronx is as self-made as they come. So happy birthday JLo. Make a wish. I’ll tell you mine. It’s simple really. I want to always spend less than I earn. Your turn.

Retirement, Wealth

Frugality begets wealth: Why It Pays To Be A Mustachian

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If you are part of the financial blog-sphere, then you have heard of a personal finance blogger by the name of Mr. Money Mustache (MMM for short).

He retired early with a net worth of $800,000.

He his famous for his no nonsense approach to cutting out buying crap and not being a Sucka Consumer. I’ll give you an example.

Physical health FIRST: whole system will only perform well if you place its wellbeing first, before anything else. Salads and barbells every day, no goddamned excuses.

– Mr. Money Mustache, The FIRE Movement blog post

Being frugal and fit, as MMM shows, has its advantages. Let’s explore this further.

1. Being frugal could turn you into a millionaire sooner than you think

While reading up on real estate, I came a cross the website Bigger Pockets and also wrote a blog post on them.

One of the co-hosts on Bigger Pockets is Brandon Turner, is an active real estate investor and entrepreneur, stated he brown bagged his lunch to work for 10 years and was able to become a millionaire by putting all his discretionary cash to work investing in real estate instead of happy hours.

2. Simple MATH is the answer

If you can add and subtract, then basically you have the skills to manage your money. Do some million-dollar math. What will it take to make the Almighty Dollar one million times? Sell 100,000 books at $10 a pop. Boom. One million.

Invest $100,000 in an index fund and let it ride for 30 years at an 8 percent return you’ve got your million bucks right there.

Basically, MMM puts it best.

And dozens of ten-dollar bills start to add up to real money pretty quickly, which is something most people don’t realize. The vast majority of wealthy people are the ones who have figured out that a millionaire is made ten bucks at a time.

-Mr. Money Mustache

3. Incomes are not as important as spending habits

Most people are pretty bad at math, even simple math unfortunately.

That partially why so many people are in debt up to their necks. If a credit card company gives you a $35,000 credit line and you are only pulling down $40,000 a year, then you can start to see right there that if you max that sucker out, you will have given away 88 percent of your income. Screw that!

On the opposite end of the income spectrum, an Amazon engineer making $175,000 a year or a Goldman Sachs investment banker making $350,000 a year that likes to tip strippers in $100’s and order $1500 bottle service could blow through a wade of cash in a few months of partying. A coke head with a nasty drug habit could snort millions and lose everything in one crazy summer.

When Google engineers are crying on the news about not being able to afford housing in San Francisco while making $200,000 a year, then something is seriously wrong out here.

They then must decide HOW FRUGAL they are willing to be to change their situation. Living in shared housing with 8 other people, living inside of a moving van, or renting a garage apartment to invest upwards of 60 percent of your income are just a few of the things you will have to consider.

It is not the size of you paycheck that matters, it is what you do with it that counts.

If you ever read that book, Your Money Or Your Life, then you know one of the authors favorite lines was yelling, “how big is yours?” He was talking about your paycheck. This guy worked on Wall St. and still managed to retire early while many folks he saw making millions were living paycheck-to-paycheck.

If you make a million, but spend one million and one dollar, sorry to break this to you, but you are still broke. It is not enough to live at your means, you must live below your means in order to have money to save and invest.

Most high-income people are still within just a few paychecks of insolvency, because it is possible to blow almost any paycheck, simply by adding or upgrading more cars, houses, and vacations.

-Mr. Money Mustache

Therefore, I urge you to slash expenses, take stock of what you have and be grateful.

Focus more on the giving than getting.

Aim at saving 20 percent or more of your income.

If you want to retire early, you are going to have to aim at saving 50-70 percent or more.

Live like it will all end tomorrow, but save like you are going to live forever. You got that? You have to save.

Who wants to be the guy living in a $500,000 home that can only afford to fill it with Christmas trees because he can’t afford furniture?

So get out there and save!!! no goddamned excuses.

Cause living in a rat infested motel is not an option because when the lights go out its a roach motel and their lease is permanent.

All I am asking is for you to do what most people won’t: Save money instead of spending it.

Fictional characters Cartoons and Money, Investing

Stock Splits And Misfits

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Once you start getting interested in finances, it is inevitable that you will eventually start researching individual stocks.

All the financial pundits and mathematical experts will tell you not to invest in individual stocks. I get it. It’s the age old active versus passive investing argument.

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If you buy one stock and it goes under, you have lost all your money in that stock.

However, if you buy a passively managed index fund, then if one company fails, it is replaced by another and your money is still out there working for you.

Although most of my stock portfolio is invested in index funds like the VFINX, I too own single stocks.

It’s the thrill of the chase that gets be going after these companies. I love researching companies. Some of these businesses have more drama behind the scenes and among the management than Gossip Girl!

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See my post Money Advice From Gossip Girl

So sit back and relax while I bring you some stock gossip. You can stop flipping through that latest Cosmo or Barron’s article for just one second, put down that New York Times crossword puzzle, pause that rerun of Billions, book mark your spot in The Wall Street Journal, while Greenbacks Magnet presents to you Stock Splits and Misfits.

Cause you know, everyone just loves juicy gossip. XOXO 💋

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DECIDE TO GO ROGUE

Just between you and me, I am especially fond of these two stock holdings. I will let you in on which two stocks I enjoy individually owning: Apple and Berkshire Hathaway. The year was 2013. I wanted to have a little fun and invest some money. Therefore, I decided to buy shares of Apple and Berkshire.

For those who may not know, Berkshire Hathaway is the most expensive stock in the world priced at 321,600 as of 01:56 EDT PM 07/02/2019. For some added perspective on this stock, in 2011 it was priced for the low, low cost of $115,750; therefore, this one stock has almost tripled in price. That is incredible!

Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.A) is the holding company of famed investor, Warren Buffett. Notable companies under the Berkshire umbrella include Geico Auto Insurance, Helzberg Diamonds and The Pampered Chef. Buffett, long a critic of short-term trading, has kept the A shares at a high valuation in order to decrease the volatility that comes from short-term trading.

Unless you have over $300,000 lying around in your personal bank vault, then you will have to stick with buying the B shares of this stock.

In January 2010, Berkshire’s B shares (NYSE:BRK.B) underwent a 50 to 1 stock split, bringing its price down from around $3,476 to about $69.50 per share. That is a huge discount! To get a piece of the Buffet pie, I will gladly pay this price. Unfortunately, I bought when prices were higher; I paid about $75-$100 bucks a share. However, I still came out ahead as now the stock is going for $213 a share. Not bad. That’s a pretty good haul for just pressing the buy button.

See my post Precious Stones Of Wisdom: Life Lessons From Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom

WHAT IS A STOCK SPLIT

A stock split or stock divide increases the number of shares in a company. A stock split is an issue of new shares in a company to existing shareholders in proportion to their current holdings. The price is adjusted such that the before and after market capitalization of the company remains the same and dilution does not occur.

IS A STOCK SPLIT GOOD OR BAD

According to Nerdwallet, when you had to split something as a kid, that generally didn’t feel like a perk. But when you’re an investor, splitting can be a good thing. Stock splits are a way a company’s board of directors can increase the number of shares outstanding while lowering the share price.

WHY WOULD A COMPANY SPLIT ITS STOCK

A stock split is used primarily by companies that have seen their share prices increase substantially and although the number of outstanding shares increases and price per share decreases, the market capitalization (and the value of the company) does not change. Simply put, just like the value of the $100 bill does not change if it is exchanged for two $50s.

However, not all stocks are created equal. That is why I do my homework first before buying ANY STOCK. There are some misfits out there that you do not want to buy. Basically, you get what you pay for. It kind of reminds me of The Misfits from the Jem and the Holograms cartoons.

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If you read my Meet Miriam page, then you know it’s one of my favorite cartoons.

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And because July fourth is around the corner, here is a shout out from The Misfits themselves!!!

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SPLITTING THE APPLE

And last but most certainly not least, I give you Apple! I purchased stock in Apple (APPL) in 2013, when it was going for around $60 a share. Fast forward to 2019, and the stock is over $200 a share! I got in just in time.

It just so happens that the year after I purchased 5 shares for my birthday, in 2014, Apple split the stock. It all went down on 06/09/2014 as Apple did a 7 for 1 split.

My 5 shares turned into 35 shares overnight!

All this happened simply because I did some homework and took action. Calculated risks can pay off. Remember that fortune favors the bold. In the illustrious words of Jem, “outrageous!”

Financial Freedom built attracting one dollar at a time