Bryan C. Fleming

Hey everyone,

I'm leaving blogger and continuing my blog on it's own site:

http://www.BryanCFleming.com

If you subscribe to my RSS Feed, you will automatically be updated.

Why am I leaving?

I don't think many people understand the long term value blogging. As these pages sit on the web they gain value in search engine placement and traffic. It would be a real sad day to log into your free blogger account and see they decided to cancel it.

Who would you call? Who would you email?

You can contact anyone.

I'd rather have a little more control over this blog since it is growing in popularity.

I do apologize in advance for any inconvience.

Sincerely,

Bryan C. Fleming

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This post is an update to the Million Dollar Savings Club. If you are not familiar with this club, you can learn more by reading my post describing it.

Wow. It's been 65 Days already. So how's it comming? Have you been able to set your dollar away in each pile?

If you have, you'd be sitting on just a hair under $200. As I look at my piles of money there are lot of 20's, 10's, 5's and ones. I haven't traded in some 20's for a 50 dollar bill. But you can bet I'll do that soon. As you may recall, I did give a big tip at a dinner but never took the money out of my giveaway pile. So I'm sitting at $195 as of today.

Would you feel a little different today if you had $195 in your back pocket? $195 to do anything you want with? That's the power of saving money. If you haven't tried saving a dollar per day, why not give it a try? It's a lot of fun and you can play along. I know a lot of you have been reading a long saying to yourself "I'll start on my next paycheck". Just start today and give it a try.

Today I want to focus on the Investment Pile. Is $65 a lot of money for investing? It's certainly enough to get started with.

Maybe you've always wanted to invest money in the stock market but were too afraid to try. Well, that's what that $65 is for. You see, you'll probably loose money in the begning as you're learning. That's OK. That's what investing is all about. Learning from your mistakes. Afterall, do you want to make a mistake with $65 or $65,000?

$65 can buy you a share of stock in a lot of companies. Here are a few you could be an owner in:

Ebay - $32
General Motors - $34
Costco - $53
Ford Motor Company - $8

Let's say you invested in one share of General Motors for $34. Everytime you see a commercial for one of their trucks or cars you can feel the pride of being on the owners side of the fence. It's a great feeling. Everytime they announce a big profit you'll be excited. Everytime they come out with a new flavor of their Hummer Truck, you'll watch for how many are on the road.

It's very empowering being an owner of a company rather than someone who just buys their stuff. If you haven't tried buying stock in a company here's your chance.

The funny thing is that it feeds on itself. Instead of buying a Hummer Truck, you'll start thinking "Maybe I could buy more ownership in the company and keep driving my used car". Now, that's millionaire thinking. But it won't happen until you start taking the first baby steps.

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I really like the titles of the posts this week. We're not doing categories this week but the posts are broken up into groups for easier reading. I'm going to go back to categories next week. They just work better. Enjoy the articles.

Tracy Coenen presents 6 excuses why people don’t save money
Jane Chin presents Improv and Three Secrets to Success
Madeleine Begun Kane presents How To Disorganize Your Life
Mental Health Source Page presents Ten Years Ago and Ten Years From Now
Christine Kane presents Healing Bulimia and Addictive Eating (Part 5)
Peter Kua presents To CONsult or to be brilliant?
Travis Wright presents Let Your Children Be Children

Ravi Raman presents The Power of Affirmation
Jason Dutt presents "I'm just not that kind of person."
Aleksandr Kavokin, MD, PhD presents Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Quiz
Gleb Reys presents 3 Golden Rules of Goal Setting
Lynn DeVries presents Forgiveness
Andy Smith presents The 7 Biggest Mistakes In Goal Setting


Bob Carter presents How to Become an Extrovert in 4 Easy Steps
Patricia presents How To Know Who You Are In 20 Minutes
Hueina Su presents From Self Sacrifice to Self Love
oovs presents Lessons from The Dog Whisperer
David Maister presents Repairing Fences

Reb Chaim HaQoton presents The Fire Within
Tim King presents Why Leaders Never Assign Blame
John Buehler presents So, You’re Starting a Small Business
Jack Yoest presents Business Etiquette Between Manager and Employee
Mary Jo Manzanares presents Stop Concentrating on Concentrating


Victor Fam presents The Risk Of Missed Opportunities
Randy Yniguez presents Let's Not Burn Bridges
Erek Ostrowski presents Heroes and Role Models


Michael K. Dawson presents There Is a Certain SOMETHING Needed Before You Can Find Financial Freedom

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of personal
growth carnival using my carnival submission form.

Technorati tags:

personal
growth carnival,
blog carnival.

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You've probably seen the late night infomercials pitching get-rich-quick schemes. These usually involve making money in RealEstate, Classified Ads, and recently even the Internet. Maybe you've even ordered one of these businesses in a box.

They all promise that with a little hard work, and by working "smart", you'll be able to retire in a few years time.

JD over at GetRichSlowly.org has a great article about Casey Serin. Casey is a kid who's trying to get rich quick in Real-Estate. Here's his story:

I'm a 24-year-old aspiring real estate investor from Sacramento CA. After going to few seminars I bought 8 houses in 8 months across 4 states with no money down. I fixed and sold 2 and then ran out of cash. I am now facing foreclosure on 6 5 houses. I'm learning my lessons, finding solutions and blogging about it.

Investing is different from buying-and-selling homes to make a buck. I suspected a lot of people would be hurting right now as the realestate boom is cooling off.

The best way to make money long term is save a little bit off the top. You do this each and everytime you make any money. Over time you'll amass a fortune. If you haven't been able to start saving money, why not try the Million Dollar Savings Club ? You can start with a dollar per day to build the habit. You can read more about it here .

Enjoy JD's article.

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Well another record this week for the Personal Growth Carnival. We had 38 submissions which is almost twice what we've gotten in the past.

Some writers submit more than one article, so I left in the one that I feel is their best work. Also, I'm starting to see carnival Spam!

Truthfully, I'm not too surprised. How long did we think it would take for someone to figure out they could start spamming blog carnivals? I pulled the articles that I thought were spam. What you're left with now are the best articles of the bunch.

Enjoy this week's carnival!


Goal Settings
Alexander Becker presents WOW: How to Double Your Productivity
Hjalte presents Goal setting for beginners
Nelly Nandes presents Passion or Career?

Money
Michael K. Dawson presents Saying Goodbye to the Time for Money Swap
Steve Faber presents Are You Really Saving? You May Be Wasting Instead!

Personal Growth
Madeleine Begun Kane presents De-Stress Or Distress?
Beverly Keaton Smith presents Finding Peace Through Forgiveness
Jane Chin presents Many Dimensions of Money
Erek Ostrowski presents Facing the Unknown
Alexander Becker presents WOW: How to Avoid Misunderstandings
Wenchypoo presents Memo to Old-Line Feminists
Debra Moorhead presents The Power of a Smile
supermom_in_ny presents I Was Sinking
Jeff presents The Shaman in the Mirror
David Maister presents How Did You Lose Your Innocence?
Nelly Nandes presents The Strength of Weakness
Patricia presents Waiting on a Biopsy: How to Handle Uncertainty
Bill Losapio presents Drawing Inspiration in Uncertain Times
Patricia presents Car Accidents: Will You Make It Home Today?
Jack Yoest presents 9 Tips for Interviewers
Chris presents How to be Cooler Coping with Nervousness
Edward Mills presents Technology and Personal Growth - Holosync Solution
Nneka presents Positive Speaking
Peter Kua presents Why white elephants reign in office
Brandon Peele presents Why get an MBA?

Time Management
Gleb Reys presents Why I Always Have Time To Do Things
Jim Goss presents Looking Busy
Daniel Scocco presents Future-Storming

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of personal growth carnival using my carnival submission form.

Technorati tags: personal growth carnival, blog carnival .

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This post is an update to the Million Dollar Savings Club. If you are not familiar with this club, read my post describing it and play along.

Here we are at day 52 of the Million Dollar Savings Club. As I said before these piles of money are building up. With over $50 in the giveaway pile I decided to finally give some away.

Last Saturday, Sherry (my wife) and I were having dinner at a restaurant. The waitress looked stressed. She was having some back problems and shouldn't have been working. I felt bad for her. I don't know her, but she was probably working because she really needed the money. So, I thought why not unload some of the giveaway pile right now?

Our bill came to around $50. A "good" tip would have been 20% or $10. Why not use the giveaway pile to leave a 30% tip? So that's what I did.

It felt really good to leave a $15 tip for the meal. I'm sure it made her night to get a nice tip. All the waitresses I've known always judge their night by how much they're earning in tips. A "good" night means someone tipped them well.

Keep in mind it didn't cost me anything extra to leave a bigger tip. The giveaway pile paid for it. Could I have left her a $20 or $30 tip? Certainly. But I would have felt a little odd. I didn't want to draw too much attention to myself.

Being able to give is an incredible feeling. It's much different to give for the sake of giving rather than feeling obligated to give. That's why the giveaway pile is so important. You see, many times we look at our bill from a meal and think "What's the minimum I'd feel good about leaving". Have you ever done this? I know I have. I've even seen couples argue over leaving a $5 or $7 tip. I'm telling you, you're robbing yourself of the feeling of giving.

The giveaway pile will start teaching you the real power in giving. Because you already have the money to give, you'll give more.

You want to know the strangest thing of all?

It felt so good to leave that extra tip, I never paid myself back from the giveaway pile.

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This post is an update to the Million Dollar Savings Club. If you are not familiar with this club, you can learn more by reading my post describing it.

Travis Wright writes:

So, I have now arrived at day 30. I put $1 in each of the three piles each
morning when I first wake up. One in a savings pile, one in an investing pile
and one in a charity/give away pile. I now have $90 dollars sitting on the
dresser. Each pile consists mostly of ones, with the savings pile and investing
pile having one five in it. The charity pile is all ones, and the stacks are
growing quite nicely.

I actually went to the bank this week and got $50
worth of ones from the teller so that I will have enough for 2 weeks worth of
savings. The power of this project is magnificent, each day, I start out on the
right foot by SAVING money. Not handing it to Starbucks for a glorified cup of
coffee, or giving it to a fast food joint. I’m starting my day by putting money
in three stacks and watching them grow.

I like how Travis starts his day out by saving money. It’s brilliant because no matter what happens during your day you’ll always know you have more money than you did yesterday. As I’ve been saying in a previous post, seeing these piles build up is truly amazing. You have to try it for yourself!

If you have not joined the Million Dollar Savings club, why not make that first commitment? Why not pay yourself first right when you get out of bed in the morning? It’s a great way to start the day!

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Hey gang - You know I can’t help but notice how many blog carnivals start up, probably with great intentions, only be to be abandoned. The carnival of Personal Growth has been around for a while and I don’t plan on bailing out anytime soon.

If you’ve been reading along, you’ll see a lot of the same authors submitting their articles every week. These guys (gals) are in it for the long haul. You may want to subscribe to their blogs because they’re certainly not the fly-by-night types and almost always have great stories.

Of course we get new talent added too. Time will tell. Hopefully they too will continue to submit articles and make it to the more elite group.

In any case, enjoy this week’s carnival…

Inspiration

Matt Hutter presents Swallow That Frog!
Gleb Reys presents Don’t Be Afraid To Be The First

Money

Peter Kua presents I’ll only expire at 91… Darn!

Personal Growth

oovs presents The Motivation Behind Our Behavior
Virtual Magic presents Stanford Prison Experiment
Karl Staib presents 10,000 Swimming Pools Inside Our Minds
Donald Latumahina presents How to Have a Joyful Day
michelle presents 10 Valuable Life Lessons ..
David Maister presents It's THEIR fault
Emmanuel presents Learn What You Need to Learn
Rick Cockrum presents Don’t Look For the Easy Life
Erek Ostrowski presents Heroes and Role Models
Jeff presents Personal Development Starter Kit
Basil Vandegriend presents Personal Learning by Doing

Time Management

Peter Kua presents Mental sickness behind email swamp
Alexandra Levit presents Procrastination Addiction?
My Bubble Life presents Words Are Containers for What We Believe

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of
personal growth carnival
using my carnival submission form.
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personal growth carnival, blog carnival.

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This post is an update to the Million Dollar Savings Club. If you are not familiar with this club, you can learn more by reading my post describing it.

Until you are a few weeks into the Million Dollar Savings Club you won’t really know what I’m talking about in this post. If you haven’t made the commitment yet to save a dollar a day you can read my posts from the beginning and play along. I’m telling you; even at a dollar a day the money builds up fast.

These piles of money are getting heavy. The paperclips I’m using are hardly working anymore. The piles are too big. The paperclips are pushed apart. I don’t know how I’m going to keep all this money together. Each pile is filled with singles, fives, tens and some twenties. But where did it all come from?

We’re at day 45. That’s $45 in each pile for a total of $135. If you’ve ever seen $135 in singles (mostly) then you’ll know it’s a lot of bills. You couldn’t fit all the money in your wallet even if you wanted to.

Saving works by taking a little money off the top of what you earn and putting it away over long periods of time. That’s the idea of the Million Dollar Savings Club – To teach you how to save money. We’re starting at a dollar a day because anybody can commit to it.

Will you have a million dollars from being in the club? Yes, you will. But this is the first step. You see we need to see all that cash build up so we really learn first hand what were doing. As we get further along, we’ll make bigger commitments. But a dollar a day is all you need for now.

Start thinking about unloading some of the give away pile. A $45 gift to someone who doesn’t expect it would be almost outrageous. Personally, I’m thinking of giving $10 or $20 to one of the homeless people I see on the side of the road here in Detroit. I wonder how many people give them that kind of money?

Keep saving each and every day. Keep saving and you’ll see the money build up. Keep saving and your money problems will soon be behind you.

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Here's this week's carnival with a lot of good submissions. Enjoy....

General Personal Growth

Phil B. presents Phil for Humanity: Greed is Good and Bad
Peter Kua presents The best PDA in town – the Hipster PDA
David Maister presents Us and Them
Patricia presents Eating Disorder Recovery, 14 Years Free
Hieu Doan presents How to Expand Consciousness
Che Jaafar Che Man presents How To Accept Mistakes and Dont Blame Others
Peter Kua presents 50 strategies for making yourself write, work, or do anything

Goal Setting

Thom Singer presents Don't Lock The Doors, Even Though You Can

Money Management

Michelle presents A finance website can’t say that!

Personal Growth

Peter Kua presents The FASTEST way to be put off by yoga

Time Management

muse presents Another "fine line"
Patricia presents 4 Secrets to Time Management That Define You
oovs presents What Level of Time Management are You At?

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of
personal growth carnival
using my carnival submission form.
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personal growth carnival, blog carnival.

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