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College, Financial Freedom, Financial Independence, Wealth

Why I think college should only be 8 months

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University, Boston, College

“No. I can survive well enough on my own— if given the proper reading material.” ― Sarah J. Maas, Throne of Glass

Where do I begin?

Let’s start here. The cost of college.

College is expensive. According to the College Board, the average cost of a 4-year in-state public university hovers around $9,970, at private colleges $34,740, and $25,620 for out-of-state residents attending public universities.

Many folks don’t just have $10,000-$30,000 sitting around in their bank accounts.

According to numerous reports, many Americans do not even have $400 for an emergency. How the heck are they going to come up with 10 times that amount or more for college?

I, myself, had to become an extremely massive saver in order to stop living paycheck-to-paycheck.

This required me to become very frugal and find ways to earn more, cut spending, or both from my household budget.

Most of my problem was the revolving credit card debt I had. So, I had to come up with a plan to get it paid off. Every time I paid off one debt, I started saving that money.

I went from saving $1 a day to $13,000 a year.

Want to know how I did it?

See my post How Millennial Money inspired me to start saving $13,333.06 a year

What I really noticed about college besides just the price was that many of the things we’re learning came from equally expensive textbooks. Couldn’t I have saved tons of money by just skipping college and reading the textbook instead? Literally, all I would have needed is the syllabus of the course.

I went on Amazon to see books about the cost of college being worth it. It is right? Well, maybe.

Image result for ivy league admissions chart

The point I am trying to make with this article is to examine the following:

  1. Challenge the conventional wisdom that college will solve all your problems
  2. Going to college will make you rich
  3. Prestige is to be pursued at all and any cost

THE COST OF COLLEGE

It has been well-documented that college is coasting more and more every year.

The amount of student loan debt in the United States alone stands a $1.5 trillion.

I cannot even wrap my head around that number. Basically, it means that many people are either going to be paying back their loans for a long time or will not ever be able to repay them. That is a sad fact indeed.

We are mortgaging our young people’s future.

Many are unable to buy homes, start families, get married, and put down roots.

The cost of college is especially hard to manage for those that are of low-income. The issues of poverty do not stop with a college acceptance letter.

We are starting to create a reality in where the poor inherit their parents’ poverty while the rich hoard opportunities for their kids.

That glass floor is real. When poor kids are getting 1200 to 1600 SAT scores and pulling hard A’s but still unable to graduate, while trust fund babies are barely pulling soft C’s is just ridiculous. That means, a rich kid can get a college degree simply because their parents have wealth, income, and resources.

I have heard stories of low-income college students dropping out for owing less than $1,000 to get their degree. Frankly, this saddens and alarms me.

And I am not buying avocado toast at $10, according to one politician, who will remain nameless.

The cost of a Bachelor’s (BA/BS) degree is just too darn expensive. The worst part is that an education is not an equalizer. Just because you went to Harvard doesn’t mean you are going to get the corner office. That fancy C-Suite is the carrot being dangled in front of all those Ivy League hopefuls.

Many do not make it there.

Don’t believe me.

Check this out.

When I looked up books on colleges, admissions, and the Ivy League online, I found the following titles:

  • Excellent Sheep
  • Nudge
  • No Sucker Left Behind
  • Where you go is not who’ll you be
  • The Chosen: The Hidden History of Admission at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton
  • The Price of Privilege
  • Paying for the party
  • Pedigree Elite: How Elite Students Get Elite Jobs
  • The Blessing of the B Minus
  • Academically Adrift
  • Winners Take All
  • Generation Debt: How Our Future Was Sold Out for Student Loans, Bad Jobs, No Benefits, and Tax Cuts for Rich Geezers–And How to Fight Back
  • Equity and Excellence in American Higher Education
  • How to Raise an Adult
  • iGen: Today’s super connected kids are growing up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy – And completely unprepared for Adulthood

I have read a few of the books listed above. Many are eye-opening recounts of their experiences with elitism, the Ivy League, college admissions, debt, student loans, finances, etc. Paying high prices, as much as $100 an hour for instruction, for college, taking on tons of debt and then receiving low starting salaries.

Stagnant wages and student loans are a dangerous cocktail.

The one book that still haunts me is No Sucker Left Behind. In this book, he describes college as a rip-off as he feels that colleges are involved in price-gauging schemes. Colleges, in his opinion, have become profit-obsessed businesses with an approach that is more reserved for used car salesman.

There are some Ivy Leaguer’s that become Corporate America rock stars. However, the majority go on to careers in the same type of jobs that those that do not go to top tier colleges.

COLLEGE EARNINGS

You think the Ivy League is the only way to go. Well, think again.

You hear all the time that a college degree means higher earnings, like $1 million more in income over a working lifetime. What you do not hear are the tales of people paying $100,000 for that sheepskin and then getting a $35,000 starting salary right out of college.

A blogger by the name of Sam has a website called Financial Samurai. He wrote a very eye-opening article called What If You Go To Harvard And End Up A Nobody?

He looked up profiles of people that went to Elite Schools.

Mostly more of the same from elites: people chasing money.

Surprise, surprise many end up in investment banking and consulting. If places like Harvard are the playgrounds of the rich, then places like investment banks are close behind. The Elite School graduate sandlots.

I have come to believe that you should pursue what is in your heart and your God given talent. Whatever that may be. God does not give anyone anything he doesn’t want them to use. Sacrificing doing any less than your best is to sacrifice the gift. Figure out what you are good at and then pursue that! The money tends to follow.

Some studies have followed, like the one above, people who attended Ivy League schools and others accepted to those schools but who chose lower ranked schools instead.  The result: There wasn’t a difference in lifetime earnings.  In other words, Ivy League caliber people don’t need an Ivy League education to have high earnings.

WHY FOUR YEARS OF COLLEGE?

Remember that $100 an hour for instruction that I previously stated? Due to that, the real cost of college is costing some students $100,000 a year, according to the book No Sucker Left Behind. So, that is what part of the reasoning behind four years is. Collecting the tuition and fees.

The BA/BS degree takes no less than 120 credits to complete.

Why is this?

Should we not question this? I get it. You do not want a doctor that is immature performing surgery on you. However, I value work ethic and experience over age.

Why not have a degree take 48 credits to complete?

How we would do this is to cut out all the unnecessary courses one needs to graduate. Forget the gen eds and endless electives. Stick to what we need to graduate.

A college degree should be done as quickly as possible so that people can get out there and work. Most families do not have 4 years to let junior go off and explore. They need him out there working and bringing home the bacon today!

I read an online forum called college confidential where it asked why is college in America so long. Great question. Here are some of the responses. This is how it went down.

Why is it that it takes so long to get a professional degree in the US?

In order to study Optometry or Medicine or Dentistry etc you need to do 4 years in college first, not even 1 or 2 years but 4 years whereas in the UK the 16-18 education is enough to prepare you for it.

People may want to start/support a family and at the same time pursue their passion but the length of study is off putting.

Answers were the following:

Gen eds.

The US is looking for mature people to be their doctors and lawyers, not a 21 year old whose frontal lobe is not yet fully developed.

If you have many AP/IB credits, you can get your degree in 3 years, too.

I would not want my doctor/dentist to have had only 1 year of formal education.

It’s a business. The more classes one is required to take, the more money the school makes.

What I suggest is that colleges get straight to teaching you all you need to know in your field. This would cut down on the time and expense of school.

And as for those who say people need to mature. Sure, I’m all for that, but how many people know 30 year-olds that are still wet behind the ears? Lots.

If you want people to mature, put them to work. Nothing makes people grow up faster than responsibility and accountability.

If maturity is really an issue, then have people start in at the bottom.

Nothing beats entitlement out of you like taking orders, scrubbing toilets, and fetching coffee.

Make people work their way up. After college, they could apprentice and work while learning their jobs. Get paid to train and work instead of paying for more training. It is just that simple.

I think college should allow student s to do an intensive 8 months and 48 credits

You would take 4 three-credit classes every 8 weeks. This would mean doing 4 eight-week semesters instead of 8 three-month ones. You would earn 12 credits every 2 months.

A college schedule could be like this:

Year One. English, Economics, major, major.

Year Two. Economics, Science, major, major.

Year Three. History, Math, major, major.

Year Four. Economics, major, major, major.

You see what I did there. I focused on the major and getting people out of college. That should be the point of college, right?

Why the focus on finance? Other than the fact Greenbacks Magnet is a financial blog, it just makes sense to teach people about money as they have to manage it for their whole lives.  

After 8 months, you earn 48 credits and graduate. That took less than one year. It also saves you heaps of money. If four years costs you $40,000, then 8 months should run you $6,667. That is huge savings!

I was gobsmacked to hear of doctors owing $300,000 to $1 million in student loan debt. Do you know what type of interest you pay on that kind of debt? It’s immoral.

Interest of 5% on $1,000,000 is $50k a year. That means after income taxes you have to pay $50,000 just to pay the interest on this debt. To service this type of debt, you would have to pay more than $50,000 a year just to touch the principal.  

I remember reading one lawyer say that he expected to have that student loan bill tacked to his coffin.

Just utterly insane!

 PRESTIGE AND CLASS

I read a book called Class Matters by the New York Times and Bill Keller. The book discusses how people chase money and prestige. Class determines everything about you: where you live, who you marry, what you do to earn a living, where you shop, and who your friends are.

The zip code you grow up in can ultimately make or break you.

In the book, it discusses how Americans have long thought of themselves as unburdened by class distinctions. There is no hereditary aristocracy or landed gentry, and even the poorest among us feel that they can become rich through education, hard work, or sheer gumption. And yet social class remains a powerful force in American life.

Class―defined as a combination of income, education, wealth, and occupation―influences destiny in a society that likes to think of itself as a land of opportunity.

What was jaw-dropping was this part of the book: And we see how class disparities manifest themselves at the doctor’s office and at the marriage altar.

For anyone concerned about the future of the American dream, Class Matters is truly essential reading. I agree with that assessment given to the book.

THE CREDENTIAL RACE

Grades are important. Sort of. Those getting straight A’s have to conform. Visionaries are not conformists. A New York Times (NYT) article quoted Dr. Karen Arnold as saying, “Valedictorians aren’t likely to be the future’s visionaries.”

The NYT article also noted the following:

This might explain why Steve Jobs finished high school with a 2.65 G.P.A., J.K. Rowling graduated from the University of Exeter with roughly a C average, and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. got only one A in his four years at Morehouse.

THE REAL GRADUATION RATE

Did you know that the average graduation rate is 6 years?

Roughly 57% of students graduate in 6 years. Only 20% of American students graduate in 4 years.

Most students are not even graduating in the already exceedingly long period of 4 years’ time.

According to Complete College America, for a non-flagship public university, only 19% of students graduate on time and even at flagship research public universities, the on-time graduation rate is only 36%. Only 50 of the more than 580 public four-year institutions have graduation rates above 50%.

According to 2013 data from the University of Texas at Austin, students who graduate on time will spend 40% less than those who graduate in six years.

That means more time out of the work force and more debt.

According to Forbes, staying out of debt and saving are the best ways to build wealth.

WHY SHOULD COLLEGE BE 8 MONTHS?

Why can’t you do your 10-year plan in 6 months? – Peter Thiel, angel investor of Facebook

I whittle it down to this one reason: No student loans or a lesser amount of them.

Building wealth requires you staying away from and out of debt.

They say student loans are good debt.

I say that all debt is debt. You must repay it. Not having to pay back $20,000 or more of debt with interest is life changing.

If you want to be wealthy, stay away from debt. Save every penny. Learn to turn every dollar into two.

Good Luck!

Interviews

MEET NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLING AUTHOR BRENDA JACKSON

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Ms. Brenda Jackson has written numerous romance novels over the past two decades. One of her most notable book series is for a family named the Westmoreland’s. I was able to speak with Ms. Jackson for a peek behind the writing curtain and found out how she went from novice middle school writer to full-time novelist for Harlequin, the world’s largest romance book publisher.

I was outside reading one her books entitled; The Secret Affair, a Westmoreland novel, and a complete stranger saw me and said, “that’s a good book.” I know. That was probably my 30th time reading it at that point! It also happens to be my favorite Brenda Jackson novel. Just in case you couldn’t tell.

I got a chance to interview the best-selling author with a Q&A session. You can read my interview with Ms. Jackson here and find out more about the woman behind the romance.

And here we go…

Thank you Ms. Jackson for taking the time for me to interview you. Let’s get right into it!

What made you become a writer? How did you get started writing romance?

My mother asked me what I wanted to be when I grow up. During those days many women went into the teaching profession because during the 1960’s and 1970’s, becoming a teacher was the job most available to women. I said that I want to be a professional woman, go to the office, and wear a nice suit.

However, until then, I liked to write stories. In school, around the 8th grade, after meeting my future husband Mr. Jackson, I started writing innocent little love stories.

What were your stories about?

I would write about school stories and outings. Like an American beach story. My church sponsored beach trips and I would write stores like the beach movies I saw. Similar to the Gidget and Moondoggie stories from the Gidget movies.

I would hand-write stories on notebook paper and write it out about four or five times and then pass it out to groups of kids at school.

How did you start writing for Harlequin?

It actually took some time. Harlequin was not my first publisher. This happened years later after writing books for another book publisher.

When did you start writing professionally?

I did not start out a writer. I went to work for State Farm and stayed there for over 30 years while working my way up into management before retiring.

While I was working and moving up the ranks, I ended up going to my high school reunion. It was there that people kept asking me what I did for a living and when I told them the most common response was that they all said they thought I would be a writer.

So, I decided I would start writing again. I sent out requests to get published, but major publishers and Harlequin rejected me. Those publishers said, unless there was a market for the types of novels I was writing that they were not interested.

I received 40 to 50 rejections.

However, I did not give up and was given a contract with Kensington books.

How did it feel to get accepted? What happened after you got your book deal?

It felt good. First, I started out writing as a hobby and now I am being paid for it. It was wonderful.

I started writing manuscripts with African-American characters. Those books were initially rejected and denied by other publishers, but Kensington was the one publisher that took a chance and felt there was a market for this genre.

I started writing and publishing my books and then they took off.

How did you get started with Harlequin?

After writing 20 or so books, I had a following and with that success Harlequin then reached out to me.

Harlequin wanted me write for them and so after my agent called and then speaking with them I decided to accept. At this point, I was writing for more than one publisher.

However, it took many years of writing and hard work before I started writing for Harlequin. I had positioned for that and one day I received an offer to write for them.

Harlequin later asked me to be exclusive. I told them that they would have to pay me for exclusivity. They made me a deal of a lifetime. My contract was good. Even more than Kensington.

The deal was so good that I left my six-figure salary job with State Farm.

I had made more money writing books than I ever dreamed of making.

How long have you been a writer?

I started writing over 20 years ago. I was still working for State Farm and began writing in the 1980’s and 1990’s. I would go away on conferences and write in my hotel room when I was not attending any workshops making sure to that I wrote on my time and not theirs.

While at State Farm, they supported my career and my dreams as a writer. They also helped promote my career. State Farm sent me to college and I majored in business at Jacksonville University in Florida. They would sponsor me to go on book tours. And I would do books signings.

I would represent my company wherever I went. I also later got football sponsors from HBCU’s such as the Bayou East West Classics.

In the beginning, I would go around to libraries and ask them if they would carry my books.

While in college, I mapped out what I wanted to do. I also became a Delta after joining their sorority and have kept a relationship with my fellow Deltas to this day.

Where do you write?

I essentially had two incomes while still working at State Farm and writing and made sure to purchase a home and paid off the mortgage. So, my home in Florida is paid for and I have no mortgage.

And this where I write. From home. I built an in-home office where I go and work. I still had a morning routine where I would get up, get dressed, and go downstairs to work.

What was your first published work?

The Madaris Family. One of their novels was my very first work. It was called Tonight and Forever.

What are your favorite characters? What types of romance novels do you like to write?

I have so many favorites. Just too many.

I like to write reunion books and about first love. How love starts, grows, and blossoms and becomes full circle. It feels so good.

Did your husband inspire any of the stories you have written? Are any characters based on him?

He always has and always will. He influences my writing. I write my characters as I see him, which is as the Alpha male. In my novels, you are the king. I get that feeling and like romance.  I feel that that could be in any man and so I write them that way.

I married my high school sweetheart, Gerald, and I still have the going-steady ring he gave me at 15.

I read that you are a New York Times (NYT) Best Selling Author. Congratulations! What book(s) have made it onto this prestigious list? Are there more than one?

I have had most of my books on the USA Today Best Sellers List but some titles like the Westmoreland’s and Madaris have made the NYT list series genre.

Some books do not qualify for the market so I started my own publishing company, Madaris Publishing Company. Those books as well as my other titles are sold on my online store.

How many books have you written?

I have written 120 books. I am now on my 124th book.

Wow! How many books do you write each year?

I used to write six to eight books a year when I started writing exclusively for Harlequin. I now write two to three a year. Typically, I submit a book for Harlequin every nine months or basically one a year.

Some of my books are now being turned into films. One of my publishers, BET, made one into a movie.

Do you have a favorite book you have written? Any favorite characters?

Ties that Bind is my favorite. It’s longer than my other books. It’s about four couples that met in 1968 on campus at Howard University. It’s during the time of MLK, civil rights, Black Panthers, and Vietnam. It was also featured in the Washington Post.

Zion is one of my favorite characters. He is a jewelry maker and a bad boy.

Are you currently reading any good books?

Not presently. I spend so much time writing that I do not always get a chance to read other books.

However, I am doing research for a book of mine that is being turned into a movie. The Grangers is a three book series and the climax is in the third book. I get script approval, so I am studying how to promote A Brother’s Honor. The film will be on the Passionflix network. We want to make sure the script still has the Happily Ever After (HEA) in there.

Any inspirational words or advice for aspiring authors?

Know your genre and do your research. Focus on tone. Write from the heart.

Where can people find you?

You can find me on Twitter, Facebook, via email, and my website.

Thank you Ms. Jackson for your time as it was an absolute pleasure to speak with you!

If you would like to know more about Brenda Jackson, as well as purchase any of her books, you can go to her website www.brendajackson.net

You can also connect with her on Twitter at @AuthorBJackson 

 

 

Budgeting, College, Philanthropy, Saving

Generosity can go a long way

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“Think of giving not as a duty but as a privilege.” John D. Rockefeller

“I believe that it is my duty to make money and use it for the benefit of my neighbors. This is what my conscience tells me.” John D. Rockefeller

“No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.” Charles Dickens

Every now and then I read stories that just lifts my heart. Recently there have been articles of heroes saving lives and people donating to charitable causes close to their heart. It reminded me of a story I heard about many years ago, but is still very inspiring today.

This article was reported on the front page of the New York Times in 1995:

All She Has, $150,000, Is Going to a University

She may be gone, but her act of charity is remembered. This tweet is from 2017. Ms. McCarty passed away in 1999. Therefore, the good you do is still remembered long after you are gone.

Her name was Oseola McCarty. And here is her story.

MEET OSEOLA MCCARTY

Oseola McCarty was born on March 7, 1908 in Mississippi. As a young child, she had to quit school in order to tend to a sick family member. Quitting school in the sixth grade, she went straight to work as a laundress like her grandmother before her. She would go on to do this for about 75 years. Leaving school was one of her biggest regrets. She wanted to go back, but all the kids in her class had moved on ahead and so she didn’t go back because she wanted to be with her class. She decided to just keep working.

HOW SHE SAVED $150,000

She was never idle. She was working since she was a young child until she retired in 1994. She worked for many years and just put almost every dollar she made into the bank. She learned to save from her mother and kept the habit for life.

The following is what she did over 70 years:

  • She took one short vacation to Niagara Falls
  • She did not travel
  • She did not fly on planes
  • She did not stay in hotels
  • She never owned a car (she walked everywhere)
  • All her immediate family passed away and she never married or had children
  • She had lived alone since 1967
  • She lived in a family home her uncle gave her in 1947 for the rest of her life
  • Money she received from the passing of her mother and aunt went into savings
  • She spent almost nothing and lived very frugally
  • Repaired instead of replaced items for brand new ones
  • Covered her old bible in Scotch tape to keep Corinthians from falling out
  • Cut wholes in her shoes if they did not fit
  • Bought her first air-conditioner in 1992 and only uses it when company comes over
  • Owns one tiny black and white television (that only gets one channel) but she rarely watches
  • She did not retire until she was around 85 years old
  • Keeps her utility bills low
  • Never subscribed to a newspaper because it cost too much (an extravagance)
  • She would pay her bills and deposit the rest of her money (even coins) into savings
  • Over time this grew into $280,000

How she donated her life savings

One day she decided she would gift her money to a local university. Not as a bequest, but immediately as she wanted to be alive to see a recipient graduate from college as he one wish. In July 1995, she would go on to start a scholarship fund to help finance college tuition for students, preferably of African-American descent, who would be unable to attend college due to financial hardship. at the University of Mississippi. When asked why she chose that school, she simply said, because it was close.

A banker at one of her financial institutions assisted her. In 1995, he wanted to help an 87-year-old Ms. McCarty, but was unsure how to assist a woman with a fifth-grade education through estate planning. He came up with the novel idea of giving her 10 dimes, each representing 10 percent of her assets. He gave her five slips of paper to write down the names of the beneficiaries and divide up the coins. She deposited one dime to her church, one for each of her cousins and the last six for a scholarship fund, after setting aside enough money to live on.

She signed an irrevocable living trust and the bank managed her funds while she received a regular check for her living expenses.

WHY SHE DONATED

She decided to give because she knew the importance of education. She had struggled all her life doing manual labor (scrubbing laundry by hand on a scrub board). She did not want that for the younger generation coming up so she gifted them money to help them not have to do what she did and get a degree she was never able to get herself.

FOR EVERY ACTION THERE IS A REACTION

The news hit the media and overnight she went from obscurity to a celebrity. She wanted no monuments or other recognition’s of her selflessness, but they came to her.

Once word spread of what she had done, it spread far and fast. Accolades and recognition for her act of charity in anticipation of her death was almost immediate. Goodness and kindness tend to spread. There was a chain reaction to her charitable action that had people wanting to reciprocate what she had done by also donating. This is what happened over four years:

  • She was honored by the United Nations
  • She received more than 300 awards
  • Contributions poured in from other donations adding almost $330,000 to her gift
  • Ted Turner donated a billion dollars to charity after hearing her act of philanthropy
  • She received the Presidential Citizen’s Medal, the nation’s second-highest civilian award
  • She received an honorary doctorate from Harvard University
  • She carried the Olympic torch through part of Mississippi in 1996
  • In December 1996, hers was the hand on the switch that dropped the ball in Times Square in New York’s New Year’s Eve celebration (also the first time she stayed up past midnight, rode an airplane, and stayed in a hotel)
  • McCarty received the Award for Greatest Public Service Benefiting the Disadvantaged, an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards
  • She was awarded an honorary degree from USM, the first such degree awarded by the university in 1998
  • McCarty was also recognized with an Essence Award and Patti LaBelle sang tribute to her during the ceremony at Madison Square Garden in New York.
  • She even met President Clinton
  • She became an author; she wrote a book called Simple Wisdom for Rich Living, published in 1996

Ms. McCarty gave out pearls of wisdom, if people wanted to listen, but mostly it was common decency and sense she had said. She also said you should know the difference between a need and a want. Just because something is free does not mean you need it. It is okay to turn down something that is free, if you really do not need it. ”There’s a lot of talk about self-esteem these days,” she once said. ”It seems pretty basic to me. If you want to feel proud of yourself, you’ve got to do things you can be proud of. Feelings follow actions.”

It was reported that her home will be turned into a museum.

When asked what she wanted to do with her money right before she donated it, Ms. McCarty replied: “I want to help some child go to college.”

And just in case you were wondering, the recipient of the very first Oseola McCarty award not only met Ms. McCarty in person to say thank you, but she also went to the University of Mississippi and graduated.  Ms. Oseola McCarty also lived long enough to get her wish: to live to see a recipient graduate.

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

3 Rich Habits of Millionaires

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After doing some research on millionaires and billionaires, I have noticed some recurring attributes among them, which include: reading, pursuing a passion, and setting goals.

READ

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”

― Dr. Seuss, I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!

Many of the affluent read daily or often. They seem to set aside at least 30 minutes a day for reading. This greatly improves their knowledge of their products, brands, and businesses. When you know what drives the market, then it makes it easier to compete with everyone else. I even read that Marilyn Monroe was also said to be a voracious reader.

I know in my life reading has helped me a great deal. I was able to do better in school, make better informed personal and professional decisions, and increase my investment knowledge.

One of the most successful investors of all time, Warren Buffet, says he reads every day.  Buffet typically spends 80% of his day reading. Here are some quotes from interviews he has done over the years in regards to how to become successful.

THE KEY TO SUCCESS

The CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, when asked once about the key to success, pointed to a stack of books and said, “Read 500 pages like this every day. That’s how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest. All of you can do it, but I guarantee not many of you will do it.”

WHAT BUFFET READS?

Warren Buffet starts his days with an assortment of national and local news. The billionaire investor tells CNBC he reads the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, the New York Times, USA Today, the Omaha World-Herald, and the American Banker in the mornings.

Even though Buffet reads tremendously, it would mean nothing if he did not retain what he has read. Buffets says that knowledge builds up over time. Here are some tips to remember what you read – take notes, skim the text, read out load – are just a few things you can do to retain what you read.

PURSUE YOUR PASSION OR GIFT

“To give anything less than your best, is to sacrifice the gift.” – Steve Prefontaine

I have always had an affinity for writing. I write pretty much every day. My goals are that my writing helps to plant the seed that inspire people, motivate them, and make them feel good about themselves. Writing about finances is the cherry on top of the sundae for me. And I give it everything I’ve got. No less. When I’m sick. I write. When I’m tired. I write. When I was down to my last $2. Still wrote. I would write down my thoughts, hopes, dreams, and goals. I have crossed off at least 5 items on my 10 year to do list. If it can work for me and countless others, then I know it can for you.

Dreams can come true. You just have to believe and lay down the groundwork. There is no builder of a home that would not first lay down the foundation and then build up. The same goes for life. You do not start in at the top. Otherwise, if you do, you are more likely to have created a house of cards, that can easily come tumbling down.  Like the three little pigs, you want bricks and not sticks or straw. You want something that is concrete. Construct your life blueprint on building or creating something that is solid.

If you can, find a mentor. Mentors help guide and keep people on the right path to succeed. I suggest finding someone who has already done what you want to do successfully and then asking them for advice. You can also read their books or attend their workshops. Either way study their success and see if you can imitate it.

SET GOALS

“Set your goals high, and don’t stop till you get there.” – Bo Jackson

The best advice I have ever read was to write down your goals. I have heard this from numerous celebrities including Beyoncé. She said she would write down her goals; and that she wanted to go platinum and sell a million records. Well, she wanted to be financially secure. Well, she can scratch that off her checklist. Simply heed these words: Write it down.

When you set goals and pursue your passion it is a winning combination for success. Instead of watching the clock, you just keep on working. There are too many hours on the clock when you do something you detest, but no enough hours in the day when you do something you love.

Forget the naysayers. They are not you and you are not them.  Focus your energy on doing what you enjoy putting your effort into. The energy you use to pursue your passion or anything that you do well is never wasted.  When you can focus and limit or ignore distractions, you are well on your way toward success.