hartman

If you want to build wealth and keep it, you’re going to have to get serious about financial management, and better sooner than later. What is financial management? It sounds like a fuddy duddy term that only old dudes in three-piece suits should be bothering with. Wrong! Unless you like the idea of working the drive-thru window at McDonalds the rest of your life and burning through every penny as soon as you make it – you need to learn about financial management.

Let’s define what we’re talking about. Financial management means taking the actions necessary to insure that your personal cash flow remains positive. That sounds like a good thing, right? Positive cash flow is an idea we all should be able to get behind. Most of us have experienced the opposite at some point in our lives. Maintaining positive cash flow is possible at any age but the sooner you learn it, the more likely you are to have extra cash to throw around as you get older.

Financial management is about managing risk. Risk is what can destroy your assets. Protecting them should be job number one. And wandering blithely through life waiting for the risks to wave a red flag normally doesn’t work. You’re going to need the knowledge to identify them, which comes only with education and experience. Experience – well that kind of unrolls at it’s own pace. Education is something you can accelerate on your own. When should you be in stocks? Bonds? Real estate? How can you protect assets from the tax man? These are all questions that you answer on a day-to-day basis as you go about the financial management of your growing portfolio.

We’re not big fans of turning all this over to a financial planner. That’s just adding another set of fingers to the mix and another chance for a screw-up. Manage your own finances and watch the wealth rise.

Jason Hartman is joined on this episode by Greg Farrell, author of Crash of the Titans: Greed, Hubris, The Fall of Merrill Lynch, and the Near Collapse of Bank of America, for a discussion of the economic crash and the resulting bailouts, as well as some of the inside dealings with some of the major banks, such as the buyouts by Bank of America. Greg explains how these banks that participated in the buyouts grossly underestimated the depth of problems in their own banks and in those they acquired. Listen at:www.JasonHartman.com. Greg relates his research on Merrill Lynch’s attempt in the 1980s to become more like Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street banks, which was to their detriment because they lacked the expertise for such business practices, and became involved in and in the middle of many of the scandals of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. Like CitiGroup, they were in over their head. Jason and Greg discuss Wall Street in general and then specific financial groups regarding the recklessness and risky businesses, funds, etc, that they entertained to give the impression of higher rates of returns. As the plot unfolded, large bonuses to CEOs and high-producing brokers came into play, which encouraged an all or nothing attitude toward the company and fostered a “me” attitude versus long-term stability of the company. Greg also talks about what he calls the “Charlotte Mafia,” the clash of company cultures.

Greg Farrell is a correspondent for the Financial Times. In January 2009, he broke the news that Merrill Lynch had paid out its 2008 bonuses a month ahead of schedule, in December, even though Merrill was in the process of losing $28 billion for the year, and Bank of America needed an extra $20 billion in taxpayer funds to complete its acquisition of the firm. That story sparked an investigation by New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo. Greg is a past winner of the American Business Press’s Jesse Neal Award for investigative reporting and a recipient of the Knight-Bagehot Fellowship for business journalism. He earned a BA from Harvard University and an MBA from the Graduate School of Business at Columbia University.

Maybe you’ve been studying stocks for a while now but, as a young investor, find it difficult to pull the trigger and risk real money in the marketplace. Never fear, your friends at Young Wealth have an idea that might help.

The trick is how to get a close approximation to live trading conditions without losing real money. Currency market brokers had this figured out a long time ago and now we’ve begun to notice stock brokers taking the cue – practice accounts are what we’re talking about.

A practice account with an online broker is exactly what it sounds like. You register at no charge, open an account, and are immersed in a real world computer screen with charts, graphs, news, live streaming quotes. There’s money in your account even though but it’s not real. This is how to simulate trading and not lose a penny.

In almost any endeavor, practice makes perfect, or at least a lot better than you were before you started practice. With a simulated trading account you can execute trades, lose or gain money, test strategies, or just find out if you’re ready for the big time of making trades with real money.

We think it’s a great idea for a young investor to use his practice account as long as it takes to prove himself a profitable trader. If you can’t trade profitably on a practice account, why the heck would you want to move on to a real one? Be patient. Sooner or later, you’ll get there.

We’ve been hearing the economic and laid-off worker horror stories for a while now, and most of it is true, but what if you happen to be young money, one of those fortunate few twenty-somethings with a great job and nice income. You want to invest it somewhere besides that train wreck of a stock market.

The housing market has crashed and burned in many areas, or so says conventional wisdom. Well, the Young Wealth Team is here to tell you this is the very time you should be looking to invest in real estate. We’re not talking about randomly buying any old house in any old bottomed out market. Chances are you should stay away from those.

What you should be looking for is single family residential real estate that you can rent out. If you haven’t heard it before, let us be the first to tell you, there is no overall “housing market.” Like politics, all housing markets are local and there are plenty of them offering great investments for young money ready to invest right now.

Our sister company, Platinum Properties Investor Network, finds real estate deals every day and shares them at no cost via our free membership services. If you’re interested in learning how to uncover safe, profitable property deals on your own, listen to the latest episode of Jason Hartman’s Creating Wealth Show to learn how we are finding properties right now in places like Indianapolis, projected to earn 23% annually. You’re not going to beat that burying your cash in mayonnaise jars in the back yard.

At the start of your working life, it may be hard to imagine where exactly you’re going to pry loose a few dollars to invest when you’re living paycheck to paycheck and barely paying all the bills. True, it’s not easy. Nobody promised that but clever money management skills can go a long ways towards finding extra cash to put to work building wealth for later.

The secret to finding money to invest in a tight budget? Learn to save first. Even if you make a modest salary, say $30,000 and live in an expensive city, you can develop the habit of saving by practice, practice, practice. It’s just like exercise. Get used to doing it and soon it will be second nature. Don’t start with the intention of putting back some crazy amount that equals half your income.

That’s a recipe for failure.

Pick a sane amount and stick to it, even if it’s only $25 a month. Soon you’ll realize that you can create a savings account, and there are all kinds of nifty uses for that extra money. Save for a new car, house, or…INVESTING! See how easy that little bit of money management can be? You may be living paycheck to paycheck now but it doesn’t have to be forever. Change your financial future by learning how to save.

At some point in this walk through life we begin to think about the impact our decisions have on the next generation, namely, our kids. If you happen to start a family early, it’s critical to teach the fundamentals of financial literacy from the start. In this culture of buy now and pay later or never, cultivating a sense of financial responsibility in the little ones is one of the most important roles of a parent.

After all, do you want them to grow up and spend money they don’t have, like the government? Or worse, start printing it when they run out, once more, like the government? The obvious answers to these questions are “No!” and “Hell, no!” The temptation for financial irresponsibility is even greater if you happen to have a moderate amount of wealth and can afford to spend on non-essentials.

So what are you going to do about it?

Our first suggestion is set limits. Teach them to understand the difference between needs and wants. Other ideas are:

1.  Discuss how money works in an age-appropriate way. Explain the bills and everyday expenses your money pays for.

2. Get a piggybank and have your child divide the contents into spending and saving. This helps instill the idea of long term planning. Don’t get frustrated if it takes them a while to catch on. Some reach the age of ten before internalizing the idea.

3. Playing is learning. Even pre-schoolers enjoy a game of shop that simulates a retail environment complete with play money and receipts.

Hopefully, by now you get the idea. The goal is to send your kids out into the real world with a solid grasp of how being a good money steward will improve their lives forever.

Jason Hartman interviews returning guest and founder and CEO, Harry Dent, Jr., of HS Dent, an economic think tank and research company, about the next coming crash. For more details, listen at:  www.JasonHartman.com. Mr. Dent accurately predicted the boom of the 1990s, which was contrary to what many other forecasters predicted. He explains why America is on a path to the next Great Depression through its mounting debt to boost the economy. He talks about how the U.S. creates bubble after bubble in all areas, such as the housing bubble, the gold and silver bubble, the commodity bubble, etc. Trillions of dollars in stimulus money has poured forth from the government, along with the lowering of interest rates, thereby inciting inflation that will continue to grow with the current system of bailouts and lack of lending. He also discusses the peaks and deflation of spending with the switch between the Baby Boomer and current generations, and how this will affect America's economic future. Mr. Dent also paints the dark picture of China’s future, where they are overbuilding just to keep their workers employed, which will become a worldwide crisis when their building bubble bursts. Jason and Mr. Dent talk about the condition of other countries and how everything interplays to lead to the next crash that Mr. Dent forecasts. He suggests some strategies for investors and what people might expect.

Using exciting new research developed from years of hands-on business experience, Harry S. Dent, Jr. offers a refreshingly positive and understandable view of the economic future. As a bestselling author on economics, Mr. Dent is the developer of The Dent Method - an economic forecasting approach based on changes in demographic trends. In all of his past books since 1989, Dent saw an end to the Baby Boom spending cycle around the end of this decade. In his book, The Great Depression Ahead, (Free Press, 2009), Harry Dent outlined how this next great downturn is likely to unfold in three stages, with an interim boom stage between 2012 and 2017 before the long-term slowdown finally turns into the next global boom in the early 2020s. He continued to educate audiences about his predictions for the next and possibly last great bull market, from late 2005 into early to mid 2010. Since 1992 he has authored two consecutive best sellers, The Roaring 2000s and The Roaring 2000s Investor (Simon and Schuster). In his latest book, The Next Great Bubble Boom, he offers a comprehensive forecast for the next two decades and explains how fundamental trends suggest strong growth ahead, followed by a longer-term economic contraction. Mr. Dent also publishes the HS Dent Forecast newsletter, which offers current analysis of economic and financial market trends.

Here’s an easy way to score some free cash, especially if you’re opening a bank account for the first time. As you might guess, banks are scrambling for your business and some of them will even pay a bonus to get it. The process is incredibly simple. Just open up a savings or checking account, sometimes a Certificate of Deposit will count, and wait for 90 days or whatever other period of time imposed by the bank and, voila, a free cash deposit will be made into your account ranging from $125 to a $1,000 or more.

Keep in mind there are restrictions!

A typical scenario is this: Be a first time applicant to open a checking account at Bank X. Minimum deposit is $100. You have to make at least five debit card transactions and keep the account in good standing for at least 90 days. Do all this and Bank X pays you $125 in cold, hard cash.

Obviously, the details regarding such an arrangement can vary greatly depending upon the bank you’re using. National chains tend to all have some sort of comparable program but read the fine print closely. If you have to jump through too many hoops for a small return, maybe it’s not worth it. A little bird told us that Internet banks have the best deals when it comes to cash back accounts.

The secret is do your research and don’t go with a bank you have a bad feeling about just because they’re giving you free money. Ultimately, you’re in it for the long haul, so choose a suitable partner.

We love entrepreneurial thinking and startup business ideas. It’s the American Dream. If you’re one of those creative types itching to get out of the regimentation of traditional schooling spread your wings, we say – beware! Not because starting your own business is a bad idea, but because sneak attack factors can derail your grand plans faster than we can say, “I told you so.”

Here are a few dangers in particular.

1.Family Concerns – Like it or not, the whole family is going to be involved in your business venture to one extent or another. Keep them in the loop. Let them help if they want. Lay out beforehand the time drain and sacrifices that you will have to make, especially in the early days. This should help nip the “I didn’t know it was going to take THIS much time” whining in the bud.

2.Isolation – When burning the startup candle at both ends, it’s easy to let business and personal relationships suffer. Remember there is a world outside your eternally churning brain. Take time out to participate in it every once in while. And don’t let your networking skills lie fallow. Networking could turn out to be the make it or break it factor in your venture.

3.Don’t network too much – Having just said you need to maintain your business network relationships, that doesn’t entail hitting the golf links every sunny afternoon at 2 pm with a friend. It’s easy to murder productivity. There will be time for that later, after the business is up and running and you hire a competent manager. Then go golfing all you want.

There are, of course, other spots of quicksand to be wary of along the way. Ultimately, it comes down to the fact that a new business needs time, attention, and loving care. Don’t abandon it to the vagaries of the world too soon or you might kill it.

Now get out there and start something!

When you’re a young gun, full of vim and vigor, just out of school, looking for a job is part of the game. You figure you’ll find one sooner or later. But what about those crazy unemployment numbers? The Atlantic Monthly claims there are six people looking for each single job that opens. Without intervention by the federal government, millions of people will have run out of unemployment benefits within a few months, which opens up yet another can of worms – can/should the government be throwing money they don’t have in that direction?

Everyone agrees unemployment is bad but here are some specific reasons why.

1.Outsourcing of white collar jobs to countries where labor is cheaper causes U.S. Unemployment to keep climbing.

2.Higher depression rates, which leads to drinking, drugs, marital stress, poor nutrition and health.

3.Anti-immigrant feelings towards those who will do the job for less money.

4.Residents of high unemployment neighborhoods may turn to illegal ventures (drugs and crime) for income.

5.Less happiness at work because you’re afraid to leave the job no matter how much it sucks.

And the biggest result of high unemployment might be less tax money for states. Think about it. With so many people out of work, less comes into the coffers via income tax, and less is spent by consumers to be collected on the back end of sales tax. This thing is a vicious cycle. That’s why politicians talk incessantly about creating new jobs with every election cycle. It matters to us all that as many people as possible can find gainful work.

Despite popular belief, China is no longer a cheap place to do business with labor costs and real estate costs soaring. Join Jason Hartman as he interviews Shaun Rein, author of The End of Cheap China and Managing Director of China Market Research Group in Shanghai, about debunking common myths, such as China is stealing U.S. jobs. Many companies have begun doing business in China, due to what Shaun refers to as “capitalism on steroids.”  Tune into www.JasonHartman.com for more details. Labor costs have increased in China to the tune of around 20 percent, and the government is trying to increase wages yearly over the next five years. Another factor affecting manufacturing costs over time is that fewer of the younger generation wants to be employed in manufacturing jobs, wanting to realize their white class dreams. China is also pushing middle class development to offset the manufacturing issue.
Shaun Rein is the Managing Director of CMR, the world's leading strategic market intelligence firm. He is one of the world's recognized thought leaders on strategy consulting.

He is a columnist for Forbes on Leadership, Marketing, and China and for BusinessWeek's Asia Insight section. He is often featured in the Wall Street Journal, the Harvard Business Review, The Economist, The Financial Times, Newsweek International, Bloomberg, Time, and the New York Times. He is regularly interviewed by American Public Radio's Marketplace and NPR. He frequently appears to deliver commentary on CNBC's Squawk Box, Bloomberg TV, CBS News, and CNN International TV. Before founding CMR, he was the Chief of Research for venture capital firm Inter-Asia Venture Management. He also was the Managing Director, Country Head China for e-learning software company WebCT where he also ran the company's Taiwan and South Korean operations. He also served as the Assistant Director of the Centre for East Asian Research at McGill University. He earned his Master's degree from Harvard University focused on China's economy and received a BA Honours from McGill University.

Recent graduates are notorious for not having a freakin’ clue where their money goes. If you’re going to thwart financial disaster in the adult world, you need to have a budgeting plan. Seriously, don’t even think about investing until you get a handle on this subject.

It’s not hard. Just do it.

The first part of any budgeting process is to figure out where your money is going right now. Keep track of every penny you spend for a month. Hit Burger King (or the fast food franchise of your choosing) twice a week and you’re coughing up over $500 a year. Toss in a couple of daily sodas from the vending machine and you’re looking at another $300 annually. Geez, you could have taken a modest vacation with that coin. Or maybe began saving for investments.

It doesn’t mean you’re a bad person; just that you have a few bad habits to break. Tracking your expenses for a month will give you an idea of how to handle routine expenses but you can’t ignore the unexpected. It’s a lack of planning for the sudden expense out of left field that will waylay your financial plans.

Here are some items to think about: car repairs, medical costs, holidays and birthdays, weddings and baby showers, emergency travel, office parties, broken appliances, job loss, and much, much more.

In the coming days and months we’ll revisit basic budgeting. It’s that important. For now, get busy with your 30 days of logging expenses.

Americans like to flaunt real or imaginary social/financial status with cars. To prove this fact of life takes no more effort than a drive through the “other” side of town – chances are you’ll find driveway after driveway displaying tricked out, ramped up, and chromed over examples of vehicles that seem out of touch with the surroundings.

As a newbie to the professional world, get over that silliness now!

Drive the sort of car your budget can afford and no more. Your investments will thank you for it later. Before the economy tanked, budget experts suggested that your total outlay of car expenses, no matter how many you own, should never be more than 20% of your net monthly income.

These days, you might even want to shoot for a more modest number than that. Remember the cost of owning a car doesn’t magically stop at the sticker price. Factor in fuel, repairs, and insurance for a more accurate picture.

When car shopping, consider obtaining a pre-approval letter that you can show to dealers. Put down at least a 15% down payment and the payoff will be a lower monthly payment. These days, house mortgages aren’t the only thing people can get “upside down” on. You don’t want to end up owing more than the car is worth.

Is a new car absolutely necessary? “Used” is not synonymous with “junk.” There are plenty of perfectly snazzy previously owned vehicles across the street from the new car dealer. Take a look at them and save about 30%.

If you thought that the only benefits to serving in the military were travel to exotic places and running gunfights with the locals, you would be wrong. Your Uncle Sam thinks that enlisted or warrant officer U.S. military personnel should not have to pay federal tax on any income received during any month they are assigned to a combat zone.

You read right.

If you’re getting shot at, you don’t owe Sammy a single cent. While maybe not enough of an incentive to actively seek a combat assignment, if you’re already there or on the way, it could help when you get back. The Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kosovo theaters all apply. Even better, you can use this tax free pay to contribute to your Individual Retirement Account (IRA). Since you don’t have to pay taxes on IRA holdings until withdrawal, it makes a lot of sense to contribute as much tax free dinero as you can today.

There are a few other tax related items to keep in mind when taking shelter behind that Iraqi sand dune. While engaged in combat operations you qualify for up to a 180 day extension to:

1. File your return
2. Pay your taxes
3. Claim a refund
4. Contribute to an IRA

Other tax deductions you should investigate are related to 1) moving expenses 2) transitioning back to civilian life 3) free tax assistance.

Are you still a slave to your hard copy portfolio, lugging binders, folders, and pictures with you on the job interview circuit? Here’s some advice. Stop. In this brave new cyberworld of ours, some companies have turned to online portfolio banks to scout new talent. We don’t suggest you make a beeline for the trashcan to dump all those folders. As with all technology, not everyone is an early or even middle to late term adapter.

But for those eager to make an early and positive impression on potential employers, check out the following websites:

1. Carbonmade
2. Knowledge Genie
3. Jobrary

Carbonmade allows you to post your portfolio/resume by category and skill. Use Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash and more to make yourself stand out in a sea of bland. Knowledge Genie lets you track the users who visit your account and even offers the option for people to buy your work through PayPal, Google Checkout or Amazon.com. Jobrary is a user friendly option that allows easy navigation via preview thumbnails.

These three websites are especially handy for those looking for art or graphic media oriented e

Jason Hartman interviews author, former Wall Street senior banker, and best-selling investigative journalist, William (Bill) D. Cohan on the events that led up to the current economic crisis. Bill explains the choices that the big firms, such as Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, etc, made regarding what type of institution they were going to be, the path of these firms that led up to the current crisis, and how they used the bailout money gifted to them. He said it was one big party on Wall Street, during which brokers were to bring in revenue using a lot of whacky products, until everything came crashing down. Huge bonuses were paid out from the revenue collected from unsuspecting clients. For more details, listen at:  www.JasonHartman.com. Bill and Jason also discuss the Occupy Wall Street Movement. Bill expressed disappointment in the message of the movement, saying it isn’t clear and they need to learn how Wall Street really works so that they can be more effective in bringing about reform. Wall Street has been influencing what goes on in Washington and paying lobbyists and donating to congressional coffers so that they can get the regulations, or lack thereof, that they want, i.e. the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Bill talks about how the expansion of Wall Street into Middle Class America was not an accident, using the example of Merrill Lynch being a public company. This ultimately led to broken trust between Wall Street and Main Street, as people have now shied away from risk taking.

To solve the problems, Bill suggests changing the incentive system on Wall Street, in that it can no longer be okay to take huge risks with people’s money or get paid big bonuses whether they lose money for the firms or not, as well as going back to having to use their partner’s capital to operate. William D. Cohan offers audiences a unique, close-up perspective of the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression. He combines deep knowledge of the investment banking world with the fine storytelling skills of an award-winning investigative journalist. Bill’s new book is titled Money and Power: How Goldman Sachs Came To Rule The World, a revelatory history of Goldman Sachs. His previous book, House of Cards: A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street, lays out in gory detail how the financial crisis began with the collapses of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers. The Last Tycoons: The Secret History of Lazard Frères & Co. won the 2007 Financial Times/Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award for its candid revelations about how Wall Street works. He should know; he spent six years at the firm. Bill Cohan has a long-time insider’s in-depth knowledge of investment banking—he was a Wall Street banker for 17 years. In addition to his years as Associate and then Vice President at Lazard Frères, he was a Director in the Mergers & Acquisitions Group at Merrill Lynch and a Managing Director at JPMorgan Chase. He left JPMorgan to write The Last Tycoons, which appeared on the bestseller lists of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and USA Today. It edged out Alan Greenspan’s Age of Turbulence to win the FT/Goldman Sachs award. Bloomberg.com and The Evening Standard named it Book of the Year. William D. Cohan writes regularly for The New York Times, Vanity Fair, Fortune, The Daily Beast, ArtNews, and The Financial Times. His columns have also appeared in The Washington Post. He is a contributing editor for Bloomberg TV and is a contributor to Bloomberg View. His series of articles on the controversy of the ‘recently discovered’ Degas plaster casts in ARTNews won the Silurians 2011 Excellence in Journalism Award.

Be sure to check out our prior shows with Richard Kiyosaki, G. Edward Griffin, Peter Schiff, Doug Casey, Chris Mayer, T. Harv Ecker, Denis Waitley, John Stapleford, Addison Wiggin, Thomas E. Woods, and many more.

No, it’s not Underdog this time. Today we’re going to talk about a simple little financial survival technique that you should get busy on whether a recent grad or still in school. Think you’re too cool for an emergency fund? Think again. Unless overwhelming stress and financial Armageddon are things you crave, listen up to this one.

Every single person on this planet other than Bill Gates and Warren Buffett need an emergency fund. Okay, maybe we can add most professional athletes to this list also but you get the point.

Let’s say you’ve started with the baby step of recording every expense for a solid month to find out where it’s all going. Let’s even say you took that information and came up with an honest-to-goodness budget and you’re even sort of sticking to it.

Congratulations! You’re ahead of most of us. The trouble is, unless you have an emergency fund ($1,000 is a good number), your budget is a ticking time bomb waiting to get blown to smithereens. What happens when you or your car gets sick? Or you have to book a last minute plane ticket to bail your mother out of a Tijuana jail? You gotta do it – get the car fixed, bail her out, whatever IT is.

These count as emergencies. If you have an emergency fund, life goes on. If you don’t, your budget gets destroyed, you have to sell blood plasma for grocery money, and bad luck multiplies.

Don’t be a doofus. Make saving until you have a $1,000 emergency fund a HIGH priority.

Entering the work force after college is a great time to develop good budgetary habits. In the beginning, you may not be able to control how much you earn but you sure as heck can get a grip on how much you spend. The following items are a sequel to the recent list of ways to stop the money hemorrhage. Yes, you will probably shriek and curl up in a ball on the floor when first contemplating these changes but give it a change to bounce around in your cranium.

1. Kill the Friday afternoon/evening Happy Hour. In case you haven’t noticed, even the cheap drinks are expensive, especially if you end up with a DUI on the way home. Why not limit yourself to one drink, gather at a friend’s house, or give it up completely and spend the extra money on a gym membership instead?

2. Speaking of gym memberships, if you haven’t noticed, March attendance is but a shadow of January. Don’t fall for the high-pressure, multi-year sales pitch. If there’s even a smidgin of a chance you’re going to bail on workouts, opt for the month-to-month plan instead.

3. Tony Stewart driving habits. Jack rabbit starts, slamming stops, and speeding can decrease your gas mileage by 30%. Try the speed limit in town and 60 mph on the highway. Sure, everyone will hate you for the slowpoke that you are but drop that extra moolah in a savings account instead. Take that, speed bunnies!

4. Shoes. How much footwear does one human being need? Probably less than you might think.

Put one or all of these suggestions into practice and you’re going to be light years ahead, financially speaking, of your boozing, speeding, shoe abusing, lazy compadres.

Is Bill Gates financially successful? Uh, yeah Captain Obvious, most people would give an unqualified “Yes!” answer to that statement. But do you have to have access to billions of dollars to qualify as financially successful? Maybe. The truth is every person is going to have to answer that question for themselves.

To some, only a Bill Gates type fortune is acceptable. For others, we can lower the bar a bit and phrase it something like:

“A comfortable feeling that your financial resources will be adequate to fulfill any needs you have as well as most of your wants.”

Are you looking to have a nest egg saved and invested and absence of debt? More? Less? Whatever the ultimate answer is, only YOU can define it. The Jason Hartman Foundation believes you need to have some idea of where you’re going before you start off. If you’re just finishing school or find yourself in the early stages of real-worldism, take a moment and think about what financial success means to you. Seriously. Get a cool beverage, an adult beverage if you must and are of legal age in your state, then sit down and think about it.

One thing we can say with almost complete certainty. If you haven’t taken the time to define financial success, how the bloody heck are you ever going to know when you get there?

Just our opinion.

We recently discussed the large bite that dining out can take from your budget but it doesn’t stop there. Oh no, not even close. Take a look at the following budget busters and think about changing them too.

1. Smoking: Coffin nails cost the serious smoker about $1,600 yearly. Not to mention turning your lungs the consistency of the track at Daytona after a long day of racing. If you want to ever be taken seriously as a thinking human being, give up this habit.

2. Drop the pop: We talked about this one already. Daily liquid sugar overdoses are about as good for your immune system as smoking is for your lungs. Have you noticed how expensive pop drinks are at your favorite fast food franchise?

3. Lattes: This fancy caffeine injections costs about $4. Is this a good business decision for the young wealth builder? We say no.

4. Turn off electronics: Ignore the computer geeks. It saves noticeable money to switch off the gadgets before going to bed or when you’re gone. Opt for energy star models when you can.

5. Television: Do you really watch all those extra channels in the nose bleed subscription and, if so, should you? Go with the basic package or, better yet, none at all. Crack a book and find some real entertainment. Seriously, you won’t die if the television is off.

That’s probably about all the budget busting a person can be expected to handle in one sitting but we’re not done yet. Come back tomorrow, if you dare, for five more habits that are killing your budget.