Creating Wealth

So I started reading another book. I'm at the point where I've read enough books that none of the ideas are really surprising or new anymore. I'm trying to spur myself on to set goals and think big, though. And stay motivated. This particular book is about as old as me, but I figured the ideas would remain the same. I'm only into the first couple chapters but here are some common themes.

1. You can't tell who's wealthy by looking at their material possessions. I think naturally I make the assumption that if someone has a fancy car and a big house and many clothes, etc, they are wealthy. But you don't need to be wealthy to spend like you are.

2. On that note, many of the world's wealthy are actually very frugal. The average person wouldn't be able to look at their things and tell if they are wealthy.

3. Most wealthy people stepped out of the 9-5 world and paved another road.

I have no problem with the first two. I've changed my thinking to look at people and wonder, when they spend money like it grows on trees, if they're charging up their credit cards. Or if they're saving for retirement. Also, I grew up thinking that my parents weren't doing very well since they wouldn't buy us all the things my school mates had. Now I know better. They were just being frugal, their eyes on the future.

The third point is where it gets tricky. I love my job and I appreciate the security it brings. At this point I don't care if I don't get rich. But I want to retire comfortably when the time comes. And I'd like to develop a cushion such that if I lost my job or felt I wanted to leave, I'd have a small secondary income flowing. Still working on those goals.

PS My splurging of last month was mostly orchids. I went to an orchid show and got quite a few. Then I can home and bought some flasks of babies on eBay. It continues - I wanted one more plant to add to my collection this year but I was somewhat restrained at the show so I left without it. Now I'm shopping for a good deal online :)

Monthly Update

Pay off car loan - 19.8% (Up 1.7%)
Pay off student loan - 9.4% (Up .6%)
House down payment - 45.3% (Up 5.8%)

Build emergency fund to 6 mo expenses - still 100%

Yay for another good month. And! My W2 is ready today so I put the information into TurboTax. I'm still waiting on a couple of 1099s but I have a little money spread over a lot of places so my estimate so far should be pretty close. I didn't have much in the way of dividends this year outside of my 401k. I'm liking my estimate so far :) The refunds are ear-marked for my house DP/closing costs fund. I still occasionally think of accelerating the car loan pay off though.

In the expenses department it was kind of a bad month between paying my car insurance for the next 6 months and doing some shopping :) I got myself a belated Christmas present. Next month should be better in that respect.