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Category: Money

How to Recover From Personal Budget Setbacks

Posted by Mr. TFRSeptember 13, 2016Life, Money, Workbudget, saving

Budget setback? Don’t worry.

The following is a guest post from my friend Ethan. Given the retirement crisis, learning how to handle setbacks in personal budgets is relevant to many. I hope you find it useful.

Effective budgeting typically lies at the core of a successful, long-term financial strategy. Whether it is a relatively informal register of income and expenses, or a detailed, categorical log of household cash flow, keeping track of your money increases financial security.

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Mr. TFR

Raman Venkatesh is the founder of Ten Factorial Rocks. Raman is a ‘Gen X’ corporate executive in his mid 40’s. In addition to having a Ph.D. in engineering, he has worked in almost all continents of the world. Ten Factorial Rocks (TFR) was created to chronicle his journey towards retirement while sharing his views on the absurdities and pitfalls along the way. The name was taken from the mathematical function 10! (ten factorial) which is equal to 10 x 9 x 8 x 7 x 6 x 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1 = 3,628,800.

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Get Mental

Posted by Mr. TFRSeptember 10, 20162Life, Money, Relationships, WorkMental fitness, relationships

Fitness, that is! In the professional world, we spend a lot of effort trying to look good. This ‘looking good’ can happen by dressing, demeanor, dialogue or documentation (the last one is also part of how you are judged). All of this looking good business can leave you tired and chasing the wrong habits. There are coping mechanisms to retain your sanity and stay mentally fit.

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Mr. TFR

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A Peek Into a Real 1%er

Posted by Mr. TFRSeptember 7, 201626Life, Money1%, rich

Too showy for this 1%er.

It is not easy to peek into the mind of a top tier 1%er for most of us 99%ers, no matter how close we are to the cut-off line. They travel in different groups, socialize with their own limited peers and generally frequent places that we don’t get admitted to or where the price of admission would not be justified even for those with ‘entry-level’ seven figure net worths.

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Mr. TFR

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What is Enough?

Posted by Mr. TFRSeptember 5, 201614Life, Moneyearly retirement, enough, financial independence, net worth

Even this doesn’t come along for the last ride.

“Even an eye-less needle doesn’t come with you on your last journey” says an old proverb. A sewing needle is a trivial item anyone can afford and its essential part is the hole or the ‘eye’ where you pass the sewing thread. If that is broken, the sewing needle is useless. You cannot carry even such a useless item on your final journey, leave alone the nice things and the people you love. This is the inner meaning of that proverb. It may be depressing but that’s the stark truth. (more…)

Mr. TFR

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Not Another Buy vs. Rent Post!

Posted by Mr. TFRAugust 30, 201614Investing, Money

Haven’t we seen a lot of those already? The personal finance blogosphere is filled with material, both strongly for and vehemently against, homeownership. Due to my preference for a globally mobile career and the ‘invincible’ DC market saga, you know which side of the fence I am on. But the real estate asset class can’t be broad brushed by individual experiences. It can be a delicious entree or a nice side dish in a fulfilling financial meal, if done well and in moderation. I will give you my personal recipe here.

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Mr. TFR

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Are You Biased?

Posted by Mr. TFRAugust 26, 201612Investing, Life, Money

It’s not so obvious always.

Of course, you are! We all are. We just don’t want to admit it. The biases we have are so hidden and yet, so effective, that they pretty much control how we think, speak and act in many situations. That’s a pretty tall claim, I know. In my life and in my corporate experience, I have often found that those who feel they are objective or unbiased often have deep-rooted biases that they think actually make them unbiased! Ironical, isn’t it? Such is the nature of cognitive bias (as psychologists call them) that it spares no one on its path. They can stop you from investing efficiently. They are enemies on your path to financial independence.

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Mr. TFR

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How To Invest Efficiently

Posted by Mr. TFRAugust 24, 201617Investing, Money

The real path. No gimmicks or short-cuts.

My past articles have been on many essential topics relating to life, work, savings and even relationships. Those posts serve as preparatory work for getting into a serious topic in this article – on investing. Before starting on our investing journey, it is clear that we should learn to save more and be sensibly frugal. The next step is to understand what efficient investing is – nobody taught me this but I learned the hard way by making mistakes, which I hope you will avoid. You are smart to learn from my past investment mistakes. Efficient investing is an important concept that will make a huge impact on your future, easily adding over $100,000 to your retirement stash with no effort on your part!

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Mr. TFR

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Simple Trick To Save More

Posted by Mr. TFRAugust 22, 20162Money

This trick is a cute little devil that helps you reach FI!

This trick is a little devil that works for your FI!

If you have read the article about retirement crisis, you would have rightly concluded that it is in many ways a ‘savings crisis’. Here at Ten Factorial Rocks, we believe in earning more income as a better way to increase savings, but let’s face it – for many people, that’s not an immediate possibility. However, that’s the direction to put efforts in the long-term if you want to accelerate your journey to Financial Independence (FI). In the meanwhile, should you use ‘less income’ as an excuse to put off savings? Clearly, that’s not sustainable behavior. The 10! way is ‘devilish’ about both income and expenses, but in a sensible manner.

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Mr. TFR

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Money & Relationships: Rules That Work

Posted by Mr. TFRAugust 19, 20167Life, Money, Relationships

Love may be blind but life isn’t! Long term domestic partnerships are not the garden path of roses leading to a velvety beach that romantic novels, movies and dating websites want you to believe. As a married man for over 12 years, and also, raising a kid together, I think I have earned the right to comment about domestic partnerships. 🙂 This post is about a topic that any person with a ‘significant other’ must confront at some point on their journey towards financial independence.

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Mr. TFR

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What gets measured gets GROWING!

Posted by Mr. TFRAugust 16, 2016Money

Get your net worth growing and retire confidently! Quick, what’s your net worth today? Can you answer this question within a couple of minutes? It is vital to measure where you are in your journey towards financial independence (FI). With just a few keystrokes, there are modern tools available to track what you own, […]

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