Category: Saving Money

24 Different Ways to Automate Your Life

I love, love, love things that save time and make life easier (who doesn’t?).  I’m always on the lookout for cool gadgets, awesome life hacks, and basically anything that helps me get more things done with less time and effort. So it should come as no surprise that I’m a sucker for anything that enables you to automate your life.  As the saying goes – set it and forget it!

Automation is one of the best way to build wealth, increase your productivity through the day, and now it even helps me clean the house (seriously!).  Believe it or not, it’s also a great way to save money and just live a happier life.

So it’s time to share!  These are all the ways that I automate my life…and a few extras that I should be doing (or wish I could do):

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Why You DON’T Want to Invest in Real Estate

A big part of me loves investing in real estate and it’s a big part of my plan for the future.  Yet, for some reason this was still one of the easiest posts I’ve ever written…because the truth is, I lose soooo much sleep over some of the worries that come with this type of investing (at least for buy and hold real estate investing).  It is not an easy thing to do and it is TOUGH work.  And not just the getting-your-hands-dirty kind of work (though it certainly can be that), but the dreadful how-the-heck-am-I-going-to-fix-this kind of work.  The kind of thing you think about all day and lose tons of sleep over.  And until you’ve really hit it big, it’s hard to tell if you’re even doing things right.

So before you jump head first into your first property (which I still hope you will consider!), make sure to read this carefully because real estate investing is not as glamorous as you think and it’s definitely not for everyone!

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14 Different Ways to Save for Retirement

I am obsessed with saving for retirement.  I’m also obsessed with collecting things. So it’s probably not surprisingly that I love finding different types of retirement accounts, different ways to save for retirement, and OBVIOUSLY any way to get “free” retirement money.

So I think it’s time to share!  Not only do I know you all love posts like this, but I also can’t wait to hear your suggestions and ideas for MORE ways that we can hoard away money for our golden years. So don’t hold back!  Hopefully my suggestions can help you as much as yours will help us. 🙂

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The Baby Products I Wish I Hadn’t Bought…And Definitely Didn’t Need

I’m definitely not a minimalist (though I wish I was).  In fact, I probably carry more traits of a hoarder than I do of a minimalist.  Yet I STILL found that there were quite a few baby products that I just didn’t need, wish I didn’t have, or was so unbelievably grateful that I DIDN’T get.  

I mean, these little babies come with a ton of stuff. And in my case, my son rarely left my arms, so what was the point of half of them? At one point his room had literally turned into a storage facility for the overabundance of his “things”, while the stuff he actually needed just moved into my space.

Related post: The Baby Products You Actually Want on Your Baby Registry

So to save you the trouble (and money), here are the things you may not actually need to buy:

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The Best Free Tools for Entrepreneurs

I love, love, love free stuff.  Soooo, so much.  If it’s free, I’ll definitely give it a try. No matter what.  Of course, sometimes I get what I pay for and it sucks.  But then I will eventually stumble upon a gem that I can’t get enough of.  The kind of thing that I can’t believe is free and then I become totally hooked.

So obviously through my years of entrepreneurial pursuits I’ve gathered some pretty amazing free tools that help me do whatever it is I’m passionate about at the moment. These are those tools.  Some might not be strictly business, but as we all know, when you’re an entrepreneur your life and business become so intertwined that at times they are indistinguishable.  Which is the BEST part of being an entrepreneur.

So here we go!  The absolute best free tools for entrepreneurs:

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The Life-Changing Power of Goal Setting

I know this sounds ridiculously corny, so I’m hesitant to even write an entire post about it, but I’m telling you – this one simple activity is how my husband and I have (and are) achieving all of our dreams in record timing.  It’s why I’m able to stay at home with my son, how we bought two investment properties, are learning a second language, have spent our summer traveling, have become vegan, the list goes on and on…

So here’s the really simplistic, dumbed-down gist of how we’ve made it all happen:  Every few months (if we’re lucky, weeks), we sit down and formally Goal Set.  I’m emphasizing formally and capitalizing Goal Set on purpose – it’s that big of a deal and that big of an event for us…it’s better than a date night (actually, we love it so much that it basically is a date night). But most importantly, it consistently and reliably always works – sometimes it’s scary how much so.

So here’s what we do, and how you can (and should) do it too:

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