David, it was great to meet you today in Costa Mesa. You signed my book and I told you I would let you know all of the things I have done. I realized that before reading Smart Women, and listening to the Automatic Millionaire CD’s, I was automatically paying myself about 7%, but that is going to change.
1. A few months ago, I lowered my interest rate on my American Express card to 10%.
2. I called Visa today and they lowered my rate from 15% to 11%
3. I am a state employee so I already have an automatic retirement account, but I also have a 401k. Last week I increased my contribution by about 30% and I called a financial advisor to get advice on what different allocations I should make.
4. I own my own home so I am going to pay one extra house payment a year.
5. I already had an automatic payroll deduction to ING Direct which I’m using solely for real estate investments, I am going to increase that before the end of the year. I also have automatic payroll deductions for my niece and nephews’ college accounts, I’m going to increase that each year.
6. I have one IRA account of $2,000. I called my fin. advisor and we are going to invest it differently since it’s made basically NOTHING!
7. I have been investing in real estate the past 3 years, I own or co-own several single family houses, and I just purchased a few multi-units (all out of state of course since it’s hard to get cash flow here in Cal.), I plan on increasing my real estate portfolio.
8. I already give my time and money to charity, however, my main goal in making more money is to start my own foundation, so in the next few years I hope to do that.
