One liability at a time

Exterior picture of my new Civic.

Have you ever read a piece of popular literature and been surprised by the impact it had on your outlook? I recently read, "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" by Robert Kiyosaki. People have been encouraging me to read it for quite some time and I finally got around to it.

I'm not going to list every last detail of the book, but one of the major ideas that I took away from it is the idea of "reducing financial liabilities" and "building financial assets." Kiyosaki states that this is one of the main ways to build a better financial portfolio. Most people never get ahead financially because they don't think in these terms.

Once I finished reading the book, I took a look at my monthly expenses and started some serious pruning. I figured out how to save $200 / month right away. Then I gave a little thought to what I drive. I was spending a lot of money each month (between payment, insurance and gas) to drive a 2007 Toyota FJ Cruiser that I have had since July 2006. I decided to look for something that would be much more economical. After visiting five local dealerships, I found a 2005 Honda Civic with only 13,000 miles. I made the trade and after everything was said and done, I saved an additional $350 / month. That's a total of $550 / month in savings.

I still think there are a few more things I can prune from my monthly budget. Once the pruning is done, I plan to take the savings and invest them in some local real estate. Specifically, I hope to buy a few "double-block" houses in the Wilkes-Barre area. The goal is to start creating sources of "passive income" that can be reinvested into other sources of "passive income."

I have also made the decision to sell my 1990 Mazda Miata, a fun, but unecessary monthly expense. I listed it on AutoTrader.com and was just contacted by someone who is interested in buying it. Pray that it sells.

So that's what I'm up to and I think it's going to work.

Interior picture of my Civic.