If We can Do it, You can Do it too.

Our guiding principal about investing and financial achievement is quite simple.  It is not what you have in life, it is what you did with what you were given in life.  By given we mean financial assets you had early on or at the start.  Did you inherit some assets of size, did you come into a family business, did you move into some real estate income, or even did you happen to be given an employment position with substantial income at an early point in your working life.  Any of these say you were given a lot in life and if you did not grow these assets and most importantly share your blessing with those of less means then you basically have done nothing more than lived a lifetime of welfare and pleasure.  We are not into the current PC thinking of "giving it back", we are into being good stewards of what you are given and obtain in life.  

We find those that started with nothing and have created good value and lived a purposeful life of some charity to be the most blessed of all.  Seriously only when you had nothing does one appreciate, TRULY appreciate, having something in life to pass on and yes even enjoy some.  Over the years we have met many people such as that and find our friendships with them tend to be the best. 

Some years ago we decided to take about half of our assets and place them in what we call the Dixon Charitable Trust to be passed on to certain Christian charities when we pass on.  We harbor those assets and work hard to push them forward in value in our so called retirement years. They essentially are our trading account.  From time to time we reach into this asset and make a bequest to something immediate, but the main purpose is to use our God given talents to reach for the stars and make the final bequest as much as we can do so.   Christian charitable giving is the highest purpose in life and all the assets in our trust go for that purpose. The blessings of having been given skills to achieve by God makes one obedient to the purpose of using those skills as a steward for God. 

We began with basically nothing financially in life, but did have good parents who instilled Christian values.  We also find it a huge blessing we were raised in a small town. There was a time early on when frankly we did not have a "pot to piss in" as they say in the South.    Over three decades of work and career we used our parent taught savings habits, blessed God given and learned investing skills,  and compound interest to accumulate assets enough to leave work early and go forward with building our charitable trust.  We began this blog some three years ago to educate those with little investing knowledge and to improve the skills of those with some investing knowledge. However the most important aspect of this blog is to push the idea that if we can do it you can do it too. 

The simple values of learning to save just a little of your income regularly and salting it away forever is the start of something big if you continue to do it day by day. Having wealth is a CHOICE not a happening despite what current politicians and others might want you to believe. We tell our children that a well funded life is built each day by getting up going to work and making sure some part of the money you earn that day is salted away as one brick in the wall. After some time and days the bricks begin to build into what can be seen as a wall and an even higher wall as the years go on.  The most wonderful thing about this wall building is from the very start that wall is being aided by compound interest. Compound interest or more precisely compound wealth is how one of no means achieves something of great means. Compounding is like having someone help build that wall for you and as you go on there comes a point where the someones building that wall for you are putting more bricks in the wall than your very own work is putting bricks in the wall. 

The key to all of this is getting started early.  Literally from day one of your work life. Sorta like being able to say one knows where the very first dollar one made is today.   If you do this somewhere down the line you have enough to retire on and in our opinion there is nothing like buying your freedom from work.  Not work per se, but work that you do to enrich others who employ you.  Moving from a point where much of your work skills is going to enrich someone else to where almost all of your work skills is going to enrich you and Christian causes is a truly liberating moment for someone. Work life continues on if one is wise and you find other outlets for your skills and the most enjoyable part of achieving that freedom is of course to be able to pass it on to others. 

When is the best time to begin investing? Today or better yesterday.  We personally believe for most people investing in financial assets such as stocks and bonds are the best choice.  The best part of investing in financial assets and not real estate or business ownership is the freedom from not having to manage and sometimes timely depose of those non financial assets. Furthermore investing in stocks is literally being an owner of business and having others work for you.  THAT is the most important part of gaining any wealth in life the ability to have the labor of others working to make you money. Sometimes you have employed someone like the owners of Google or Apple to work for you and that my readers beats any other ownership of any asset.  Essentially turning the employer/employee relationship with YOU being the employee to a employer/employee with YOU being the employer. Using the 401-k at work and a Roth IRA too are the two best ways to invest. Placing your money in an index fund is the best and easiest way to invest. We suggest if you have a choice for long term investing use the Vanguard 500 Fund,  place your money there each payday and forget about it.  Over many years we have come to the conclusion that managed funds are fools gold, great this year, no so much next year.  Therefore an index fund is best and is frankly cheaper too. The idea is to change some of your personal income to personal WEALTH.  Wealth is freedom giving, wealth gives you options. 

If you are able to max out a 401-k and a Roth IRA do so and frankly most people should try and reach for that max out goal as these two investing vehicles are your best choices for the future. Then if you have access to a Health Savings Account max that out as well.  All three of these are tax advantaged as well. We find it amazing how many people buy into investment frauds thinking there is a quick way to wealth and frankly there are no shortcuts to wealth.  Using a trustworthy well known national investment firm like Vanguard or Fidelity is the wiser choice.  One can plan on around no less than 6.5% to 7.0% compounding of your money over time if placed correctly.  That should achieve a doubling of your money every 10 plus years or so, making three doubles if you work three decades.  Anyone, yes ANYONE, can be a millionaire if that is one's goal and you start early. 

Simply put with a steady investment in a index stock fund and Social Security one can reach a point where your income is protected from inflation and will last forever. 

One final point here there are some managers of money that are blessed to have achieved something like 12% gains over many years, but those people we can count on one hand.  They are few and very far between so do not get fooled.  If is rare that someone hitches a ride with such investors early on so do not risk your life's savings trying doing such.