1. Build a team. I was offered a position at a commercial construction company yesterday. What do I know about construction? Absolutely nothing. Most places hire you for skills that you already possess. This man was looking for ambition, someone with heart, someone ready to use her resources with an open mind to learn and grow with his company. I think that he was on to something.

2. Target your pitch. I love the phrase, “narrow your focus; broaden your appeal.” I think it’s exactly what has to be done for success.

3. Be consistent. Providing a constant level of results, processes, and attitude seem essential. Nothing like finding a roofer that does fantastic work on one property for you only to discover that on the next project you hire him for, the roof leaks cats and dogs and the bill is twice as much.

4. Smile. Sometimes, I want to grit my teeth’how could someone be so stupid? Yeah, I get frustrated rather quickly. Yet no one will do business with me or return to me if I’m bitter. Be nice, Katie, be nice.

5. Jump the cliff. We have two ways to live: in safety or with risk. It seems to me that every truly successful person lived the life of risk. A lot of unsuccessful people also lived the life of risk. But you never know if a risk is going to generate a million bucks or send you to ground zero. Are you willing to jump?

6. Find free cheerleaders. Anyone believes in you if it means they can get a few more bucks out of the deal. (Readers, are you thinking of real estate agents, too?) The key is the people who do this stuff for free…i.e. your family. I think they have to be behind you to some degree’you know, pick you up when you’re bouncing off the rocks when you chose to jump the cliff.

Earlier this week I had a brief break from ‘boring mundane task #1’ and ‘boring mundane task #2.’ During this time I had to accomplish absolutely as much as possible in this amount of time as I could.

One quick note, when I say boring mundane task, I am referring to something that is obligated to be done, but won’t increase your wealth.

As BMT1 wrapped up, I immediately went to work attempting to get one step closer to my dreams. In this case, it was two important phone calls and tweaking some code. Both of the phone issues still need a follow-up, but the other item on the list is good forever.

Of course every time that I get a break it doesn’t end up as productive as this one, and hopefully I can have more such as this one in the future. Life takes planning, and there is an element of strategy involved as well. So when your 15 minutes comes around be ready for it. Have your time planned out and go accomplish things!

Today my husband and I celebrate our one-year anniversary. I honestly feel aghast to know that I am 23, married, and thinking constantly about how to create a million dollars through intelligent financial decisions’things I never associated with myself before I met “Mr. Perfect.”

We started off like every newlywed couple’shopping and lounging on the weekends and eating out. Then we started to realize that we didn’t want to have to work for someone else forever. I was finishing my last semester of college, so not really working yet anyway. Yet somehow, I knew I had to change the way my future was already going.

The next thing I know, our spare time disappears. In addition to our weekday work and school, we start working every Saturday and Sunday from sun up to sun down. On Saturday and Sunday, we work for ourselves; we are our own bosses. We’re driven by the idea of financial independence. This search, of course, makes it difficult for me to convince employers of my absolute commitment to them as I search for a post-graduate job. Yet I think that we all have to have something that drives us forward. What causes you to cruise? Set that goal, and I think that you’ll jump into cruise control.

Our cruise control is definitely locked in. We work like crazy… and we couldn’t be happier. Since March we have taken off two days from our seven-day workweeks: Father’s Day and the Fourth of July. We love the sense of freedom we’re creating. No day off? No big deal. The other thing we’ve learned’you have to set goals and reward yourself when they’re done. We’ve finished the project we started in March; we’re taking a three-day weekend off right now.

So there you go:
1. find a purpose for yourself, seek change
2. set a long-term goal like our desire for financial freedom
3. set a short-term goal of several months or so
4. reward yourself when you reach that goal

When I think of this step-by-step process, I can easily identify one aspect that makes them successful for me: I have a business partner who shares my ambition. My husband is there to rub my shoulders, flag down the ice cream man driving down the street, and share the millionth peanut butter and jelly sandwich lunch with me every weekend; I’d do the same. We each see opportunity and troubles the other might miss’how does that dorky line go?
the mind of 1 person = 1
the mind of 1 person + the mind of 1 person = 11

5. consider a partner you can count on…and who can count on you, then cheer each other on

Thanks, my boy!

1. The stock market is the result of potentially billions of calculations in which millions of variables are changing values and alternating their direction every second.Or you could take the easy way out and say, “the stock market is a bunch of random numbers with derived colorations to the real world.” Let me amend my easy definition so it is a little simpler, “the stock market is a bunch of changing price tags.”
2. The stock market preys on the weak.Anyone who isn’t doing their homework is fair game to both the sharks and the system itself. While the system isn’t out to get you, it certainly has no qualms about taking you out.
3. The thoughts expressed by Jim Cramer are those of his own.You are responsible for your own portfolio at all times. Any recommendations by anyone are simply that, recommendations. That’s why we’re not all go-zillionaires like Warren Buffet. That’s why there is a 10 page essay as a disclaimer at the beginning of every episode of “Mad Money.” That’s why this article should probably have been called, “Everything I *think* I know about the stock market.” And that’s why every time in the past 7 months that I have a conversation about stocks with my dad, he ended it with, “But what do I know? I bought stock in a company that makes robots that go around and vacuum”
4. Market Cap is real and does matter.How much are you going to be personally be affected when a tidal wave hits your investment ship? If you’re in a hugonic cruise liner, you are simply going to continue playing shuffleboard right through it. But if you’re sitting with 2 other investors in a small cap dingy, you are going to be in for the ride of your life!
5. It’s better to invest smaller amounts often than large amounts rarely.This might just be my own little philosophy, but I think it’s better to invest more often. That way you are constantly watching the market. You are watching for trends. You know what is going on in the sector and industry. If you don’t then you will become target to the second rule. But if you do follow these things, your gain will be substantial, if not initially in fiscal value, but in your trading and investing abilities. And with stock commissions at a super low price, you don’t have to save up for months to invest.

There it is, everything I know about the stock market. Of course I’d like to hear what you know about it, so please leave me a comment.