Rennie Gabriel

If you’re having any financial struggles you first need to know it is not your fault. After discovering the solutions to my financial struggles I recognized it was not my fault. And I bet the same applies to you. Here are the reasons it’s not your fault: 1. How to handle money, write a check, save for the future, invest, and understand how to construct a budget – none of this is taught in school. 2. Parents can’t teach it either if they didn’t learn how to do it. 3. Society programs you to believe it is better to be poor than to be wealthy. Just look at Hollywood movies, TV shows, books,... Continue Reading

While you may have heard me talk about this in the past, I am constantly reminded of how often smart and educated people are not taking the most basic actions to create a better financial future for themselves. Very often when I am the guest on a podcast, radio or TV show I will put the host on the spot with some questions. The questions start with this one: “Have you heard of the expression, pay yourself first?” In every case the answer is, “Yes.” The next question is, “Can you explain what it means?” And now the fun begins: 9 out of 10 times they stumble around and get close, but... Continue Reading

You will see below an email I recently received in an attempt to have me call a phone number so a malicious virus can be downloaded to infect my smartphone. Let’s look at some of the clues this is a scam: 1. Using the phrase “actuated the subscription.” 2. Addressed to “Dear Client.” 3. Bad grammar and puctuation: “sub_scription have has been terminated.” 4. I could go on and on, but read it for yourself and you can see how bad the sentence structure is and silly phrases like the above and “interface on us.” There are so many scams that arrive by email and text you have to be... Continue Reading

Recently I was a guest on the podcast of Fred Diamond who focuses on sales training for women in large organizations. (You can find out more about that interview at the end of this post.)After being on the podcast and reading the transcript I was reminded of my unsuccessful career in sales.Maybe it would be considered successful to other people because I was earning over six figures in the 1990s, but it didn’t feel that way to me. Read an excerpt of the transcript below to understand what I am trying to say. ‘One of the things that I was confronted with personally, because I was in sales for... Continue Reading

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to interview Perry Marshall for Episode 132 of my Wealth On Any Income Podcast. If you have not checked out any of those episodes, it is worth your time. The interviews are short, generally 15-20 minutes, and provide insights, information and inspiration for your business or your money. Perry sent out a valuable email the other day that I am repeating here with almost no editing: —————————————- Years ago one of my customer service people called with a question. It was an issue that should have never ended up in my lap. It had bounced... Continue Reading

This is the seventh and final of a series of emails that deal with our relationship with money. (You can read the other ones here). Most of this is based on the work of Morgan Housel, the author of The Psychology of Money. 7. Social aspiration spending: Trickle-down consumption patterns from one socioeconomic group to the next. Economist Joseph Stiglitz once wrote: “Trickle-down economics may be a chimera but trickle-down behaviorism is very real.” There is no such thing as an objective level of wealth. Everything is relative to something else. People look around and say, “What’s that... Continue Reading

This is the sixth and final of a series of emails that deal with our relationship with money. (You can read the other ones here). Most of this is based on the work of Morgan Housel, the author of The Psychology of Money. 6. Are you asking $3 questions when $30,000 questions are all that matter? There’s a saying: Save a little bit of money each month and at the end of the year you’ll be surprised at how little you still have. Author Ramit Sethi says too many people ask $3 questions (can I afford this latte?) when all that matters to financial success are $30,000 questions (what college should... Continue Reading

This is the fifth in a series of articles that deal with our relationship with money.  (You can read the other ones here). Most of this is based on the work of Morgan Housel, the author of The Psychology of Money. 5. The joy of spending can diminish as income rises because there’s less struggle, sacrifice, and sweat represented in purchases. In his 1903 book The Quest for the Simple Life, William Dawson writes: The thing that is least perceived about wealth is that all pleasure in money ends at the point where economy becomes unnecessary. The man who can buy anything he covets, without any... Continue Reading

This is the fourth in a series of articles that deal with our relationship with money.  (You can read the other ones here). Most of this is based on the work of Morgan Housel, the author of The Psychology of Money. 4. You have an emotional attachment to large purchases, particularly a house. It would be nice if my wife and could make unemotional financial decisions. We currently live in a desirable neighborhood where builders buy the houses for the land value, tear them down, and build huge homes. I’m saying they’ll buy an 1800 square foot ranch-style house for $1.5 million, tear it down... Continue Reading

This is the third in a series of articles that deal with our relationship with money.  (You can read the other ones here). Most of this is based on the work of Morgan Housel, the author of The Psychology of Money. 3. Frugality Inertia: A lifetime of good savings habits can’t be transitioned to a spending phase. Morgan says that what many people really want from money is the ability to stop thinking about it. They want to have enough money so that they can stop thinking about it and focus on other stuff. He goes on to say, “But that ultimate goal can break down when your relationship with... Continue Reading