The World Cup is starting up next month in South Africa and I am excited. Click here to check out the official World Cup website. The US has a tough pull with England in their pool, but the other two teams don’t look like they will be too much trouble.
England has a commanding 7 to 2 wins against the US in head-to-head play but the US has won the only game when they have met in the World Cup.
I still remember the days of Alexi Lalas, when the US National Team was still struggling to gain a little respect in the world. They have come a long way, but we will see how far they have really come next month.
My goal is to see the 2014 World Cup in person in 2014. It will be held in Brazil, that should be an amazing experience!
While reading this book, this diagram was the one that really hit home for me. I find that many people believe that this is what life is all about and how it should be lived. Now I have no right to tell anyone how to live, but I wholeheartedly believe that people should seriously consider the alternatives.
Every single step on this time line is questionable, in my opinion. Take “Go to a good university,” for example. I believe that going to college only prepares you to get a job. Of course there is nothing wrong with getting a job, everyone should have one at some point…to see how much it sucks!
However, I believe that to be truly fulfilled, you need to create something that is yours. Something that not only provides a living, but something that you love to do. Then there is no such thing as retirement and you are enjoying life all the time!
If you set your business up properly, you can possibly do it from anywhere in the world.
I have been using a free goal setting website to track my goals for the past two weeks and I really like it. My primary issue with respect to goal setting is that I set a goal and I get busy and forget about it until later. I have trouble keeping it in the front of my mind.
What I really like about this website is that it keeps me on track by emailing about my progress whenever I want it to. This keeps the goals in front of me and does not let me forget them. Another cool feature about the website is that you can become friends with other people that have similar goals as you and together you can form a support group.
The website is called The Community and it was started by Stephen Covey of 7 Habits of Highly Successful People fame. The goals on the website are separated into 5 separate areas: Mind, Body, Spirit, Heart and General. I would have liked to see Financial as a goal, but General is good enough.
Happy Friday! Today I just wanted to mention that regardless of your current situation, there is always something that you can be grateful for. It can be hard for us to progress if we are stuck in feeling of frustration, jealousy or poverty. Focusing on the good things attracts more good things to us.
One of the things I am grateful for is where I live. What a view! This is a picture taken at lunch in Waikiki.
Today I have a free eBook for you from Rob Booker. It’s pretty short and an easy read, but in my opinion, it goes over the what it really means to be a trader and the overall psychology of how you should approach the markets. I really agree with Rob’s philosophy of how trading should enrich your life, not define it.
One of my biggest goals in life is to be able to live what is known as the location independent lifestyle. What does this mean?
It means that I can make a living from anywhere in the world and live anywhere I want for any amount of time. Not that I would necessarily want to live a completely nomadic lifestyle, but I just want the option of being able to go anywhere in the world and still make a very good living on my own.
There is so much out there and so little time!
That is one of the primary reasons I have chosen to become a trader. I can trade from almost anywhere in the world with an internet connection and even some places without internet.
As fun and grand as this sounds, there are some very serious practical considerations that must be taken into account before embarking on such a lifestyle. For example, say you live in the US but want to live in the South of France for 6 months. How will you get your mail? How will you access your money? How will you pay your bills? What kind of mobile phone will you need? How will you get internet access?
And the list goes on and on.
I’m not at the point where I need to be worrying about these things too much because I still need to reach my first goal of trading for a living, but it is something that I am keeping in the back of my mind and whenever I have a little free time, I read some articles about things that need to be taken into consideration.
There isn’t too much information out there, but there is enough to start my research and start building a knowledge base that will be ready when the day comes. I will let you know what I find in future posts.
Would you like to be location independent? If so, where are some of the places you would live? Feel free to leave a comment below.
I am always looking at other blogs and trading forums, trying to find good ideas for this blog. Information that you could use to become a better trader: news, biographies, answers to problems or stuff you would just find entertaining. In my web surfing, I came across the term “The Trading Lifestyle” while reading through Raghee Horner’s blog and a Facebook group.
As I thought about it, I realized that this is what I am really going for with my trading and this blog. I want The Trading Lifestyle and I want to help you achieve it too (assuming that is what you want). But what does this mean? It will be different things to different people, but I think it is first helpful to consider the following quote:
“Wealth is what you have left when you have lost all your money.” -Roger Hamilton
Think about that for a second. What would YOU have left if you had no money?
To me, the most important thing about learning how to trade well is
Today’s topic isn’t a pleasant trading topic but I felt that it might give you a few good ideas if you are in this situation.
I have never blown out a forex account, but have have gotten close when I used to trade futures. It is not fun. So many hopes and dream shattered. But if you really want to create a significant income from trading, you have to get back up on the horse.
So let’s say you have blown out an account and all your trading capital is gone. What can you do? Well, obviously, if you make more money doing other things like another business or a J.O.B. and can afford to fund another account, then that is the easiest way.
However, if you are like most independent traders trying to get good enough to make a living trading, then risk capital may not be so readily available. If that is the case, then here are five ways you can raise the money from the comfort of your own home.
I just got through reading, err, listening to Dr. Wayne Dyer’s book Excuses Begone!
Even though this isn’t a trading book per se, I believe that it is important to explore different points of view when it comes to examining my own psychology.
I usually get the audio version of a book whenever possible because that allows me to do two things at once. For example, I listened to this entire audio book over the course of several sessions at the gym. I have finished other audio books while cleaning my car or sitting on the toilet. Audiobooks have to be one of the best inventions ever! But I digress.
If you have never read or listened to any of Dr. Dyer’s books before,
I find television to be very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go in the other room and read a book.
-Groucho Marx
If you are like me, I’m sure you have amassed quite a sizable library over the years on topics of interest, especially trading. At a certain point though, I realized that there were a lot of books that I would never read again.
So as I was doing a little New Year’s cleaning, I did some research on how I could get these books to people who could make use of them.
Here is my list of things that you can do with old books that you do not want anymore. I was actually surprised at the number of options there are out there.
Sell!
My first suggestion would be to see if you books have any resale value. At least you could get some money back to buy more books.
One way to do it is you can find out if a book reseller will be willing to buy your books. Obviously they will only pay a fraction of the retail value because they need to turn a profit. The benefit to you is that you at least get some money for your books and they usually pay for your shipping.
Most sites have an online database where you can just enter the ISBN of the book and it will tell you how much they are currently paying. Here are a few of the many sites out there:
I hope you are all having a great holiday. Take a break from trading related activities and spend some time with people that are important to you. The holiday season is a great time to stop and reflect on what we are grateful for and why we trade.
It is actually raining here in Hawaii. The rain is the closest thing we will ever get to a white Christmas, but I’m not complaining. The temperature according to The Weather Channel app on my iPhone says the temperature is 75 degrees Fahrenheit, which suits me just fine.
I hope you got everything you wished for and even if you didn’t, you have the ability to go out and get it yourself.
If you have been reading this blog for some time, you probably know that I am a big fan of the Porsche 911 GT3 and the 911 Turbo. However, after watching this video, the Nissan GT-R warrants consideration. I have always loved the Nissan Z car and I have one, but I never imagined that they could come out with a car that would rival a Porsche. BTW, this guy is drifting a 4-wheel drive, crazy! Check it out:
That was a trick question, I hope you don’t spend any money on crack because crack is bad for you.
However, if you ever wanted to know how much you are spending on your drug habit or any other habit for that matter, I have found a great free app for iPhone and iPod Touch. CashTrails allows me to track my expenses and is very easy to use and extract data from. You can even download the results to your computer.
You can categorize anything you want to track…gas, food, fuzzy handcuffs, movie tickets, etc. and get reports on how much you are spending by category or by month or week.
The reason I find this helpful is because in order trade for a living, I need to not only make more money as a trader, but figure out how to reduce my living expenses. When I can get my living expenses low enough and trade well enough to more than cover my living expenses, I am FREE!
When I don’t have to go to a 9-5 job anymore, I can devote more time to trading and other things I like to do. This in turn will give me the time to become a better trader and allow me to make more money.
Check out this cool little app for iPhone on their website: CashTrails
This is kind of a random post but I just thought I would share my recent experience with CashForSilverUSA.com. I guess it is kind of related to trading being that it is silver (big stretch).
Anyway, I had seen their ads on TV where you can get cash for your gold or silver if you just send it in the prepaid envelope. I checked out the website and
Forex trading is a high risk endeavor and may not be suitable for everyone, click here to read our complete disclosure statement. Everything on this website is for informational purposes only and is NOT financial, legal or tax advice of any kind.
The World Cup is starting up next month in South Africa and I am excited. Click here to check out the official World Cup website. The US has a tough pull with England in their pool, but the other two teams don’t look like they will be too much trouble.
I have been using a free goal setting website to track my goals for the past two weeks and I really like it. My primary issue with respect to goal setting is that I set a goal and I get busy and forget about it until later. I have trouble keeping it in the front of my mind.
