Money Tree - Millionaire on the Prairie

Start Planting Your Money Tree

Everyone wants their very own money tree. Financial problems would be so much easier to solve if you could just pick money off a tree and pay whatever needs to be paid. Well, I’m here to tell you that you do have the power to do this. All it takes is a little bit of disposable income, a plan, and time.

By keeping such a magnificent type of fauna alive and at your disposal, you’ll reap the rewards of the harvest for a good long time. The key is to plant the moeny-seeds. In layman’s terms, you have to start investing your money. Then you have to consistently continue to invest your money. The sooner your money-seeds are planted, the sooner they will grow into an orchard of money trees. And who wouldn’t like an orchard filled with money trees?

Planting Seeds Leads to an Orchard

Each time I invest a portion of my paycheque, I’m planting seeds. They’re simply money-seeds, or atleast that’s how I like to think of them. They’re deposited to my portfolio account so that I can buy more units in my exchange-traded funds. Those ETFs are on the dividend re-investment plan. When the ETFs pay me dividends and capital gains, those monies are automatically re-invested into more units of the same ETFs. This creates a perpetually growing dividend-and-capital-gains-paying cycle.

I liken this cycle to the growth of the tree. In other words, my money tree gets bigger and bigger each month as my dividends and capital gains are re-invested.

When I retire, I can let the cycle continue to grow month-in-month-out, or I can stop the cycle by cancelling the DRIP. The dividends and capital gains will still be paid out every single month. Instead of being re-invested, they’ll go towards making my retirement just a wee bit more comfortable. You know – flying first/business class on my travels, monthly massages, grocery-shopping without scrutinizing the prices, whatever little extras my heart desires…

Money I Didn’t Have to Sweat For

Planting money-seeds leads me to earning money that I didn’t have to work for. Dividends and capital gains are passive income. Once I’ve laboured to earn the money-seeds, my labour stops once I’ve invested them. Thirty years ago, I opened my first RRSP and invested my contribution. That investment is still generating money for me… and I haven’t had to lift a finger.

Most of us work hard for our money. In colloquial terms, we have to sweat for it. Some of us have to bleed for it. Wouldn’t it be nice to earn money the easiest, legal way possible? Can you imagine having money just flow to you every single month?

There is a way to do it, and it’s called investing. You put in the work up-front and invest part of every paycheque that you earn. The third step is to sit back and watch the money roll in.

I will be very honest with you. Dividend investing takes a very long time, unless you have 5-figure sums to invest every month. If you do it long enough, you’ll be earning amounts every month like this Anonymous Fellow. In the interests of transparency, I’m willing to admit that it’s taken me 12 years to get to an annual dividend amount that would sustain my current lifestyle. However, I’m an amateur dividend investor. Had I made smarter choices way back when, then I would be in a much better situations. No sense dwelling on it now because I cannot go back and change things.

What I can do is give you some suggestions of people to learn from if you have any interest in learning how to plant a money tree for yourself:

Tawcan

Dividend Dream

My Own Advisor

And I’m sure there are many others out there. These are just the people whose stories I’ve followed for the past few years. They’re teachers. They’re transparent. They’re honest about the challenges they’ve faced and the mistakes they’ve made. I’ve learned a lot from them and I wish they’d bee around when I started my own investment journey. But since I’m almost older than the internet, I won’t blame myself too, too much for not having found them sooner.

Choices Have Consequences

We’re all old enough to know that there are consequences for everything we do… and don’t do. It’s no different with investing. If you invest consistently & profitably, for a decent period of time, you’ll have a nice cushion of cash waiting for you in the future. Planting your money tree today is one of the very best things you can do for Future You.

It’s always a good idea to choose yourself. Unless you’re a child, you’re the only one responsible for identifying what you want from you life and how to make your dreams a reality. Doing so will take some planning, a fair amount of time, and definitely a little bit of money. And as one dream made real, you’ll be able to set your sights on make another one come true. In the words of Ramit Sethi, you need to know how to build your Rich Life.

And if you choose not to invest, well… then you’ll have to depend on the kindness of strangers, your family & friends, or a job for the rest of your life. You’ll need money until the day you die. Pretending otherwise is foolish and short-sighted. At the end of the day, it’s better to take control now and take the steps necessary to build up a cash cushion that will keep Future You fed, warm, and happy. And don’t you want that for Future You?

The Wisdom of my Folks

When I was growing up, my parents always encouraged to be a professional. I was told to aim for dentistry, medicine, and law. My parents wanted me to be a professional so that I could always create a job for myself. They knew, and wanted me to understand, that working for someone else meant that my financial security would be subject to my employer’s whim. They wanted me to have the security that comes from having the power to earn my own income.

This post is about reminding you that your wage is a burden your employer tolerates until such time as it can be eliminated. It’s not personal – it’s just business. The goal of a business is to maximize profits. This goal is met by lowering a business’ expenses. Your salary is an expense that your employer is always looking to trim and/or eliminate.

One of your goals should be to start, maintain, and grow a financial foundation. You shouldn’t be at the mercy of an employer forever. There should come a point in your life where you’re working because you want to, not because you have to.

Not everyone can be a professional, Blue Lobster!

I hear you, and I agree with that sentiment. Fortunately for you, there is one proven way for you to protect your financial health from the risk of losing your paycheque.

That method is called planting your money tree and making it grow. Not everyone can be a professional – this is true. But nearly everyone has the ability to set some money aside to create an investment portfolio.

Protect your financial health by having a stream of income that’s independent from your paycheque. Work on increasing that money stream until it’s big enough for you to survive on just in case your paycheque disappears at an inconvenient moment. Dividends, capital gains, interest on savings accounts – these are all forms of income that, if sufficient in quantity, can be used to replace your paycheque should the need arise.

You have an obligation to Future You to construct a solid financial foundation. Building your investment portfolio will create a waterfall of income that will eventually replace your paycheque. Investing your money for long-term growth today will allow you to substitute your paycheque with investment income tomorrow.

Nothing lasts forever.

Make no mistake – your paycheque will eventually disappear for one reason or another. You’ll get fired. Or maybe you’ll get too sick to work. Maybe your employer’s business will fail. Hopefully, you’ll retire on your own terms. Only the poorest among us are required to work until the day they die because of their finances. If you choose to work until your dying breath, make sure that you’re doing so because you want to and not because you have to.

The wisdom of my folks boils down to the following. A professional has more control over their income stream than an employee. If you’re a professional working for yourself, then there’s no conflict of interest because you’re both the boss and the employee. In both roles, your goal is to increase your profit because it is your income. When you work for someone else, they will increase their profit by reducing your income if they can. And if your salary can’t be reduced, then there’s always the option of simply not increasing it. This is a situation where the interests of the employer and the employee are at odds. As a professional, working for yourself puts the interests of the employer (you) and the employee (also you) in alignment.

I remember working in a grocery store when I was in high school and undergrad. I started at $6/hr. My salary went up every six months until I hit $9/hr. My boss told me that was the top range for a cashier. At the time, I just accepted it because what choice did I have? Well, I had a lot of choices but was not knowledgeable about them. I could’ve found another part-time job. I could’ve moved to the competitor, who was paying more. However, I didn’t know any better so I stayed. My point is that my employer imposed a limit on how much I could earn. I couldn’t do anything about that situation since I wasn’t my own boss. I wasn’t a professional.

It’s your choice.

Always remember that you have choices about where to put your disposable income. By my definition, disposable income is what is spent on the wants and not on the needs. If you’re already tucking a good chunk of your disposable income into your investment portfolio, then good on you. For the rest of you, what are you waiting for?

Having disposable income allows you to increase the odds that you will have a stream of income when your paycheque eventually goes away. Invest your money for long-term growth so that it’s working as hard as you do. Consistently invest from every paycheque you receive. People will tell you not to invest until all your other debt is gone. I no longer agree with that view. To my mind, time is too precious a resource. You need your investments to bake for as long as possible, even as you’re working hard to eliminate your debts.

Similarly, there’s a lot of debate about how much to save. Some argue for a bare minimum of 10%. Others push for 15%. My personal view is that you should save as much as you can, as soon as you can. Building an investment portfolio whose income stream will eventually replace your paycheque will take a long time for most of us. The sooner you start, the better.

We can’t all be professionals working for ourselves. Yet, it is still possible for the majority of us to reduce the fear of losing our paycheques. All that needs to be done is to start, build, and maintain an investment portfolio of our very own. It’s a very big goal and it might take decades to achieve. That doesn’t matter and you shouldn’t let it deter you. Future You needs to be fed, clothed, housed, and nurtured. Start taking care of Future You today.

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Weekly Tip: Cut back on how much TV you watch so you can get rid of cable. And you need not subscribe to every streaming service out there. Doing so means that eventually, your subscriptions will cost just as much as cable and you will be no further ahead.

Plant Your Money Tree

“Daddy, can I have some money?” asks a 6-year old Blue Lobster.

“Sure – let me go pick it off the Money-Tree,” Daddy replied, in a tone I can now identify as sarcastic.

“Wait! What? There’s something called a Money Tree?” Little Blue Lobster thinks to herself. “I need to get one of those.”

And that, Gentle Readers, is when the wheels started turning…

Every tree starts from a seed. Your money tree is no different. The seed is your first nickel.

I read an interesting article this week about the distinction between “rich” and “wealthy”. Apparently, rich is when your have a high income. You can do what you want so long as the money continues to roll in. Once the money stops, so does the status of being rich. Rich is living a paycheque-to-paycheque lifestyle but the paycheques are simply much bigger. By contrast, wealthy is a status that is independent of income. Wealth is achieved when you have a cash flow sufficient to fund your lifestyle without having to work. You can work if you want to but you have sufficient assets to fund your lifestyle when you’re no longer enchanted with paid employment.

You can’t get wealthy without first having some money. In other words, you’ll need to find a seed in order to plant your money tree.

Step 1 – Get an income

I don’t mean to be an ass but I want to be exceedingly clear. You will need some kind of income in order to acquire the money to be invested at a later step.

How you make this income is entirely your choice. You can work for someone else, or you can be self-employed. It matters not whether you’re chained to a desk, or a digital nomad, or sitting on your couch to earn an income.

All that really matters in this step is that you have found a legal way to acquire money.

Got an income? Great! Now set up at least two bank accounts – a chequing account for your day-to-day living expenses and a savings account for the money that will be poured into your investments. This is the money that is going to feed your money tree for many years to come.

Again, to be perfectly clear: an empty savings account is utterly useless.

Step 2 – Set up an automatic transfer

Your automatic transfer is one of the most important tools in your arsenal if you want to become wealthy. This tool is second only to having an income when it comes to ensuring your money tree thrives.

Ideally, you will set up an automatic transfer to move at least 15% of your income into a savings account.

Is 15% too much right off the hop? Okay – start with less. You know your numbers better than I do. Start small and commit to working your way up to 15% as soon as you possibly can.

Do you want to save more than 15%? Then go for it! Pick whatever amount you want, so long as you won’t be required to use credit to fund the rest of your life.

In my perfect world, I’d already be saving 50% of my income but, alas, I’m not yet able to do so.

Step 3 – Plant your money tree

Learn about the various ways to invest your money.

Your money tree is meant to create cash flow for you. You’re going to be investing for a long time. In the beginning, you feed your money tree and, then later on, your money tree will feed you.

There are so many investments to choose from. I use exchange traded funds and index funds. They’re less expensive than mutual funds and they invest in the same equity markets.

Never invest in anything that you don’t understand. Don’t let anyone talk you into investing your money if you don’t understand the risks and volatility of the proposed investment.

Once you do find an investment that your understand, get your money into it as fast as you can to give your money tree as much time as possible to grow big and strong.

Step 4 – Keep learning about investments

Why are you surprised by this step?

I hate to break it to but your learning doesn’t stop just because you’ve invested some money. You have a responsibility to Tomorrow You to do the best you can to ensure your money tree is properly planted in fertile soil. The better your investments are, the better your money tree will grow.

Twenty years ago, I was huge fan of guaranteed investment certificates (GICs) because they are paying more than 5% interest. Woohoo! Guaranteed money – how could that be a problem?

It was a problem because inflation was more than 5%.

The purchasing power of my money was decreasing every day that my money was locked into my GICs.

As soon as I learned about inflation and purchasing power, I started investing in mutual funds. I knew they were more volatile but I also knew that their higher long-term returns would likely outpace inflation. Mutual funds would protect the purchasing power of my money.

And then I learned about exchange traded funds and index funds. They would deliver the same or better returns than mutual funds. ETFs and index funds would be volatile too, but I already knew that I could live with that. They offered the same benefits as mutual funds but at a fraction of the price.

So I started by investing in dividend exchange traded funds. I love the monthly cash flow. Lately, I’ve made a tweak to my investments in that future contributions will go towards a global equity fund.

If you don’t know where to start, might I suggest Quit Like a Millionaire by Kristy Shen & Bryce Leung and The Simple Path to Wealth by J.L. Collins? (I am not getting paid for endorsing these books.) Both books are easy to read and they lay out the concepts of personal finance in easily-digestible chunks. You won’t go wrong if you follow the path laid out in either of these books.

Step 5 – Grow your money tree.

Here’s where the steak starts to sizzle.

The more money you save to invest, the faster your money tree can grow.

Ignore the talking heads in the media. They don’t know the future – recessions are normal – daily gyrations of the stock market don’t matter very much when you’re investing for decades.

Step 6 – Repeat steps 3-5

Unless you’re ridiculously lucky, it’s going to take a good long while before your money tree is producing enough of a cash flow to fund your life.

Until that day arrives, you owe it to yourself to save a portion of your paycheque for the purpose of investing. You also owe it to yourself to continue learning about the various investment options that are out there.

You can do this, but your money tree won’t plant itself. Instead of waiting for some mythical “right time” to begin, plant your money tree today.