Rule of 72

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post8One of the most powerful forces in the universe for wealth creation is compound interest.

The rule of 72 is a tool you can use to easy estimate the number of years it will take for your money to double if you are compounding your money at a certain rate each year.

Take for example a 4% rate of return. If you divide that into 72, you will get 18. That means if you are getting 4% on your money each year, in 18 years the money will double.

Now if you could get say…12% you would double your money every 6 years. And the results are exponential, which I’ll show you in just a second.

But first, the rule of 72 can work for you…but also against you.

It works against you when we’re talking about inflation.

Government statistics say inflation is about 2-3%. Most people with an ounce of common sense know that’s not true. In fact, all you have to do is look at the way the government used to calculate inflation back in 1980 and see how they’ve changed it to realize, they exclude key items to make the numbers suit themselves.

Some experts show that if you factored inflation they same way they did in 1980, we would be closer to 10%.

I’ll write another article in this series on inflation to address that specifically but lets just look at what inflation does to your wealth.

If you were 47 years old living off 100,000 per year, and inflation was 4%, 18 years later you reach retirement age of 65.

The rule of 72 states that your money doubles or in this case, gets cut in half every 18 years at 4%, because of inflation.

So now your 100,000 at age 47 is really like living off $50,000 at age 65.

Bad news huh?

Well it doesn’t stop there.

Are you going to live past age 65? I hope so.. Many people are living well into their 80’s and sometimes 90’s.

Lets say you live to age 83. That’s another 18 years, and now that 100k you were living off at age 47, is really worth 25,000.

How comfortable would you be living off $25,000 right now?

That’s why inflation is one of the enemies of wealth. The other 3 are Taxes, Market Loss and Interest.

It is critical that we win the inflation battle to create financial security.

How do we do that?

You get your money to compound for you at a rate of return that is higher than the rate of inflation.

Take a 30 year old who invests 10,000 at 4%.

In 18 years that money at age 48 is now 20,000.

In another 18 years you are now 65 and the money has doubled again to $40,000.

Not great, but you would be hopefully keeping up with inflation.

What happens if you were to increase your rate of return by 4% to 8%.

Now, using the rule of 72, your money is doubling every 9 years, instead of 18.

Lets look at what that does…you might think it would double your money, since you doubled the rate of return.

You would be wrong.

If you start with 10,000 at age 30, your money doubles to $20,000 by age 39. Then at 48 you have $40,000, 57 you have $80,000 and 66 you have $160,000.

$160,000, that’s 4 times more than you would have at 4%!

A minor increase, just 4% in the interest rate you earn, quadrupled the money you made.

This is the power of the rule of 72 and compound interest.

And this is why it’s so important to get a decent rate of return safely. Letting your money sit in accounts where you get paid little to know interest is like going backwards 4% per year!

Using Safe Money Millionaire strategies you can safely grow your money and get a good rate of return.

To Freedom, Prosperity and Independence,
Brett Kitchen

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday of the year.

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We always get together with Grandma and Grandpa, aunts and uncles and cousins. The food is, of course, wonderful, and I love watching football and playing together with my kids and family.

Brett

The real reason I love thanksgiving is because my father.

He always made a big deal out of Thanksgiving. He made sure we understood how blessed we were. We would sing songs about thanksgiving, and have a family gathering where we would write down what we were grateful for, and share that with the other family members.

I still have fond memories of those days with my mom at the piano and dad and us kids in the living room together.

Dad never let us to be “spoiled”. He hated the entitlement mentality. If we wanted something he taught us we needed to go out and earn it.

Once we had done that, he taught us we should still be grateful for it. He worked extremely hard building his company when I was a little boy, and he always acknowledged God’s hand in all the blessings we received as a result of it.

Everyone who lives in American has something to be grateful for. Many of us have so many blessings it would be virtually impossible to count them all. Our standard of living far surpasses most of the world, and even those who live in extreme poverty have opportunity to raise themselves up through hard work and education, both of which are available in abundance in America.

The shift from the focus on family and gratitude to shopping, shopping and more shopping on Thanksgiving is not only blatantly disrespectful, but damaging to our society.

family

Society’s endless desire for more, more, more, never satisfies and people are always left unhappy wanting more but never being satisfied. They are left unhappy because they aren’t grateful.

Regardless of societal changes some things never change.

50 million people could agree that gravity doesn’t exist. They could demonize you and make you feel stupid for believing in gravity, but that will NEVER change the principle of gravity.

Principles are not based on opinions or social acceptance. Principles don’t change. There are certain laws and facts that, no matter what the masses decide to believe, will simply never change.

The more we can find those principles of truth, and live our lives in harmony with them, the easier it becomes to achieve our goals and reach the success we want financially, spiritually, etc. Ultimately the happier we can become.

That’s why I make an effort to seek out true principles and try to live by them. One of these principles is the principle of gratitude.

Being grateful is a principle of happiness. Have you ever met someone who is never satisfied with what they have? No matter what happens they find something to complain about. These people are perpetually unhappy.

Focusing on our blessings and being grateful for what we do have is the best way to live in peace and happiness.

Living this way we are content and peaceful…and it allows God to bless us with more blessings in the future.

That is why I consider Thanksgiving to be a sacred holiday. I don’t go shopping, I don’t worry about black Friday sales, and I hate that stores are open now thanksgiving for shopping.

It’s the one day of the year dedicated to being grateful for what we DO have…and society has turned it into a day focused on what we don’t. (I always feel bad for the many people who have to leave their families and go to work on Thanksgiving just so the rest of the people can go buy something they don’t need.)

Thanksgiving is my day to spend with my family and focus on the goodness and blessings I’ve been given. I love it and look forward to it and I hope I can teach my children to do the same.

Hopefully you have a great Thanksgiving holiday we have so much to be grateful for in this great country!

To Freedom, Prosperity and Independence,
Brett Kitchen

Why Christians (and many others) are wrong about Phil Robertson’s freedom of speech.

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A lot has been said about freedom of speech in America based on A&E’s response to Phil Robertson’s comments about gays.

Many feel he’s being censored, that he should be able to say what he wants to say, without being pressured to be politically correct. ( I Hate the entire concept of politically correct btw!)

I’ve seen a ton of comments of people outraged about how “We live in America!” “Phil can say what he wants, it’s his right!” “It’s freedom of speech and A&E has to respect that!”

Here’s the problem…

I’m a business owner. I have employees. I have clients.

I’m in business to provide for my family, and make sure my employees, who depend on me for their livelihood, have a job tomorrow.

In this case, A&E is Phil’s employer and the viewers are their clients.

They are in business to keep clients happy and make a profit.

If I had an employee publicly say something that offended a group of my customers, it’s my right to fire that person for losing me money.

That’s a good business decision; get rid of people who are losing you money.

This is not a matter of whether or not the constitution allows any person to say whatever they want.

That much is true.

However, the constitution does not guarantee that anyone can say whatever they want without consequences.

It’s A&E’s freedom to do whatever they see fit with their company and the people who work for them. If that means they need to fire someone, so be it.

So, this is not a freedom of speech issue. It’s bigger than that.

There are more significant issues at play here than fighting over whether Phil should have been fired for what he said.

The majority of the Duck Dynasty fans are obviously in support of Phil. They share his Christian faith, as do I. We agree that homosexuality is a sin, and brings with it the destruction of communities, families, and ultimately god has destroyed entire civilizations because of this perversion.

If viewers don’t agree with his ideology, many still believe he should be able to share his views without being penalized and punished by losing his show.

So here’s the curious question…

…and here’s what gets me passionate about this subject…

You see, I’ve had enough.

I’m sick and tired of having homosexuality shoved down my throat every time I turn around.

So why did A&E fire Phil if it isn’t a freedom of speech issue?

Could it have been for more profits? Could it have been to appease their millions of viewers?

Not likely. I can’t imagine they are that dumb.

The majority of Duck Dynasty fans support Phil. A&E would definitely have known this well before this incident, based on the content and viewership of the show.

They would also know that by firing Phil, they would be alienating many of the viewers of the most popular show in Cable history.

This is obviously not a good business decision.

So why did A&E do it then?

Because it’s not about profits; it’s not about freedom of speech; it’s about morality.

It’s about good and evil. It’s about right and wrong.

The media in this country is Hell bent on destroying any morality left in the culture of America.

Just look at the video games put out these days; disgusting, filthy, and violent.

Celebrated movies chock full of the F-word, have made this filthy language socially acceptable and common place in business, sports and in the daily use of many Americans without a second thought.

Taking the Lord’s name in vain is now done so incessantly that you can’t even watch a family show without kids hearing it half a dozen times.

Sexual promiscuity is rampant in almost all entertainment. Sex before marriage is the norm, sex for teenagers is just fine, and going home with someone the night you meet them is acceptable behavior. In what world does this lead to good things?

It’s no wonder the family unit is so decimated. This is what kids and teenagers are learning in their young years…it’s no wonder poverty is so rampant. It’s no wonder sexually transmitted diseases are on the rise in young people, and bi-sexual and gay men.

And if this wasn’t bad enough…

…then there’s the homosexuality.

Most statistics I’ve seen show somewhere between 2-3% of the entire US population is homosexual.

Statistically speaking this is a tiny percentage of the whole…

…yet everywhere we turn homosexuality is being shoved down our throats.

I just did a quick survey of 4 of my family members asking them what TV shows have homosexual characters or inappropriate sexual storylines in them. Starting with the Macys Thanksgiving Day parade promoting cross dressing men in dresses, the discussion led to many of the other most popular shows on prime time TV…there seems to always have to be a gay or lesbian character promoted.

A few we came up with in 2 minutes were; Nashville, Chicago Fire, Survivor (often has gay cast members), along with The Biggest Loser and the Amazing Race. There’s The Talk, The Chew, Greys Anatomy, Modern Family, and of course Glee which is directly targeting the youth.

I, for one, am sick and tired of seeing it everywhere.

This is why I wrote A&E, and GLAAD. This is why I wrote to Cracker Barrel and they immediately changed their position (Which, by the way, is a testament to the power of the people, you and me making OUR voices known.)

This is why I am writing this blog post. Blogging is not my business. I own 2 very successful companies, and I’m a father of 3 and a husband. I have better things to do than fight about inconsequential matters. But this is not inconsequential. This is a fight about the future of our country.

And lest I’m misunderstood…I’m sure I will be attacked for it, like many others…I don’t hate gay people. I am not homophobic. I believe that Jesus Christ taught us to love one another. I try to live by that teaching.

If someone wants to be gay, that is their right, I’m not going to agree with it, but so be it.

Do you ever ask yourself “Why does the vocal gay and lesbian crowd find it necessary to push their agenda on me?”

Just do your thing and leave us alone. But that’s not going to happen. That’s not part of the agenda to spread their way of life.

However, you and I will be attacked if we make our voices known in this fight.

It is right out of the liberal playbook to label anyone who doesn’t agree with them, anyone who doesn’t want this filth in front of their kids (or themselves) homophobic, hateful bigots with no tolerance.

They use a form of bullying to get people on their side of the issue…

…in psychology this is called Demonizing. It’s a tactic used to manipulate people into softening their position or abandoning it altogether so they don’t feel stupid.

This is a psychological form of bullying.

The thought process is this…

“If all people who oppose homosexuality being shoved down their faces are hateful, homophobic bigots…Geeze,” people think”, “I don’t want to be a hateful bigot, so I’ll just let it go.”

That’s the effect that demonizing has on people. It’s incredibly effective, but it’s a way to manipulate you and I, to make us feel bad for standing our ground.

I am raising 3 young children and I am teaching them what is right and what is wrong. Homosexuality is wrong.

When you are trying to stay clean you don’t go out and roll around in the mud.

A&E is either part of Hollywood’s agenda to push filth, sex, homosexuality, vulgarity and destroy the family unit. Or they are being bullied by the vocal LBGT group, GLAAD.

Either way, it’s not going to end well for them until they listen to their viewers and bring Phil back.

This is how we take back control of our media, of our country, of our culture. Not standing down when someone calls us bigots for standing up for what is right. Not sitting idly by when our voices are needed to let people know what we stand for.

One of my favorite quotes is from Edmund Burke “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”

It’s our obligation to take action, to make sure the country we live in is made by us, so our freedom of religion, choice, speech, and financial freedoms are protected.

To Freedom, Prosperity and Independence,
Brett Kitchen