Thoughts on Millionaire Teacher by Andrew Hallam – Rule 1

-->

Recently, I purchased Andrew Hallam’s Millionaire Teacher – The Nine Rules of Wealth You Should Have Learned in School.  Maybe I should have read his book first before Peter Lynch’s Learn to Earn, John Bogle’s Common Sense on Mutual Funds or Suze Orman’s The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom.  Then again, Andrew's book was only published in 2011.  I am definitely reading this book much faster and understanding it much easier that those books.  Better late than never but my English teacher, Mr. Tan, taught me that it is “better never late". 

(You may be wondering, "What does this have to do with cooking, eating, drinking and traveling?"  Well, I want to be able to afford cooking, eating, drinking and traveling, and blogging about it, until I am 120 years old without having to work full-time until I am 70 years old.)

Below are some real-life conversations I have had over the past year.   (Names of the people have been changed because I have not obtained their consent to share their stories, but I have not changed the gist of the stories.)  I felt the need to start this new post after reading Rule 1.  Don’t know what Rule 1 is?  Buy Andrew’s book!

Adam

By right, Adam technically had 10 months to work before he could officially retire with a comfortable pension.  But by left (I love writing/saying this), he now has to work for another 4 years because he bought a brand new truck in summer and needed the money to pay for the installments.  

“What was wrong with your old truck?” I asked. 

“It wasn’t powerful enough to pull the new RV (recreational vehicle) I bought for summer.”

“Therefore, you need the money to pay for the new RV and the new truck?”

“Yes,” he answered with a smile.

Basically, he sabotaged his own retirement!

Mr. & Mrs. Donnelly

I was looking at the brand new Subaru Crosstrek with the salesperson who was trying to sell it to me when Mr. and Mrs. Donnelly walked in.  They were both retired, in their 70’s, drove a old-ish Subaru Legacy, and they wanted to buy a brand new Subaru Crosstrek.

“I don’t understand why they want to buy a brand new Crosstrek.  They are retired and their Legacy is working well,” the salesperson whispered to me. 

I was surprised by his remark.  I thought he would have been happy to sell that car to them and make some commission. 

A few days later, I met up with the salesperson again to write a cheque for my 2010 Subaru Forester.  I found out that Mr. and Mrs. Donnelly bought a 2013 Subaru Crosstrek.  I didn’t want to know if they took out a loan.

"Just because you can, doesn't mean you should."  Unknown