Firevalt Blog - Personal finance and entrepreneurship » Firevalt

International Firevalt

Jared — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 17:54:37 +0000

We believe proper money management in developing countries can be a powerful tool in helping individuals accumulate personal wealth. That’s why we’re working towards releasing Firevalt in South America and Africa. We lived in Brazil for a few years and Firevalt’s programmer grew up in Ghana. We are anxious to translate and release Firevalt to these countries where we believe it will be an influence for good in the lives of those who seek to improve their financial circumstances. Keep checking back! Firevalt is close to completion! голова болит секс

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Firevalt is on the way!

Jared — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 04:54:59 +0000

It’s been a while since we’ve posted here on the blog. We’re working hard at finishing the Firevalt web app and hope to release the first version within the next few months. We’re really excited about Firevalt and believe it will be fun to use and a great way to manage your finances online. We’ll be starting up our blog posts again so keep checking back often so you can be among the first to test run Firevalt!

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Financial Illiteracy

Richard — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 14:36:19 +0000

A recent article in the Las Vegas Review-Journal shows that most teenagers are financially illiterate. On average, most high school seniors “could correctly answer barely half of the questions on a test about personal finance and economics.” They were also oblivious to the dangers of government spending and the concept of having to pay for the retirement of others through Social Security.

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It wasn’t a matter of demographics. “From the richest families to the poorest, most parents aren’t talking to their children about money.”

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Source: Las Vegas Review-Journal

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Debt-Proof Living

Richard — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 13:10:10 +0000

I really liked how Mary Hunt, author of a book by the same title, defined “debt-proof living”. This concept touches on so many virtues:

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Debt-proof living is a lifestyle where you spend less than you earn; you give, save, and invest confidently and consistently; your financial decisions are purposeful; you turn away from compulsive behavior; you shun unsecured debt; you borrow cautiously; you anticipate the unexpected; you scrutinize your purchases; and you reach for your goals by following a specific plan.

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Debt-proof living is about generosity, gratitude, and obedience. It is about sound choices and effective decisions. To debt-proof your life means to know exactly what to do with your money and have the freedom to earn and spend it when and how you choose. Debt-proof living is a way of life — a financially disciplined lifestyle that produces peace and joy.

Via: Debtspiration

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Grassroots lending and borrowing

Richard — Wed, 05 Apr 2006 07:07:50 +0000

I’m fascinated by a new company called Prosper that recently sprung up. It is an online market for lending and borrowing money — sort of an eBay for financing. For instance, a borrower could post a request for $8,000 at 8% to purchase a new car. A lender might find and accept that offer, in which case the lender’s money goes directly to the borrower. Prosper takes care of running credit checks on the borrowers, intermediating the transfer of money, and skims off 1% as a fee.

As you might expect, the potential for good here is enormous. Since banks charge high interest rates to borrowers and offer very low interest rates to savers, Prosper’s smaller margins could mean real savings (and earnings) for borrowers and lenders.

Cry-Baby full Of course there is some sense of security in dealing with a bank, but I’ll be interested to see how Prosper does over time and whether or not this becomes more mainstream.

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P.S. There is another company like this in the U.K. called Zopa Back to the Future Part II divx

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Information vs. wisdom

Richard — Sun, 12 Mar 2006 02:37:43 +0000

I’m a Mac user now, but when I had a PC I used Microsoft Money. I used it for a couple of years, keeping track of all my incomes and outgoes. Sometimes I typed the entries, sometimes I downloaded them from my bank’s website, but each transaction always included the date, the payee, the amount, and a category I assigned it to. I prided myself on managing all the data so well and keeping it all clean — e.g. no derivative spellings such as Walmart, Wal-mart, etc. At the end of the year I found it fascinating to see how much I had spent at Wendy’s, or on shoes, or how many of the transactions were for the same exact amount.

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Cape Fear film But I’m not sure if all that data helped me much. I don’t believe complicated or even interesting reports made me a better steward of my money. I had tons of information but not much wisdom. That was the natural outcome of what I believe is a common practice for many people — copying their bank statements to a computer program.

What we need is wisdom, and it would probably help if there weren’t so much information to get in the way.

Do you pay yourself — putting aside a portion to savings or investment — each paycheck? Do you live within your means? Do you live frugally? Wisdom is to live these principles.

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From Debt to Stability to Freedom

Richard — Sun, 05 Mar 2006 08:13:23 +0000

Pay It Forward psp If you’re in debt, we want to help you get out. If you’re already out, we want to help you save and invest. Our goal is that everyone should be free of consumer debt and be saving, or especially investing, a portion of their income each paycheck.

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Get-rich-quick schemes are everywhere, but they haven’t prevented us from reaching an all time high in consumer debt and personal bankruptcies. While every retailer, car dealer, and credit card company makes it easy to get into debt, no one has made it easy to manage or get out of. We want to fix that.

Getting out of debt is the baseline. Once you’re living within your means (outgo < income) and have paid off all your debts, you'll need to plan for your future. That includes both "rainy day" emergency funds and your formal retirement. Expect that you are the only person who will be responsible for your retirement. You'll need to set aside savings now to get there.

But then for some, retiring comfortably at 65 isn’t ambitious enough. Many people want financial independence and the resulting freedom, and they want it soon. That’s unlikely to happen from savings alone. To really become financially free, you’ll need to make calculated risks, whether by investing in yourself (entrepreneurship) or by investing in other avenues you’ve studied out.

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Like other aspects of life, we can learn to be masters of our finances and free ourselves from them. Then we’ll have time and energy for more important things.

MIT Knows Simplicity

Jared — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 16:05:48 +0000

MIT has started a research program called SIMPLICITY Awake film One Night at McCools

. Their focus is “developing technologies for design—designs that are simpler to understand, easier to use, and, ultimately, more enjoyable.” Their vision of simplicity in design is right in tune with our goals for Firevalt, the financial managment web app we’re creating. Here’s an excerpt from MIT’s SIMPLICITY vision statement:

“[SIMPLICITY] is a radical reexamination of ways to break free from the intimidating complexity of today’s technology and the frustration of information overload. It is about inventing a future where less is more.”

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“The vision of SIMPLICITY is one in which “simple” is not cheap or single-function, but rather elegant and easy to use. Think, for instance, of the beautiful iPod, which has less performance at a higher price than most if its competitors, yet still dominates the market.”

Read the rest of their vision statement here.

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Interest never sleeps

Richard — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 08:35:04 +0000

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Confetti rip One man’s perspective on why not to get into debt:

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“Interest never sleeps nor sickens nor dies; it never goes to the hospital; it works on Sundays and holidays; it never takes a vacation; it never visits nor travels; it takes no pleasure; it is never laid off work nor discharged from employment; it never works on reduced hours. . . . Once in debt, interest is your companion every minute of the day and night; you cannot shun it or slip away from it; you cannot dismiss it; it yields neither to entreaties, demands, or orders; and whenever you get in its way or cross its course or fail to meet its demands, it crushes you.” — J. Reuben Clark, namesake of the Brigham Young University Law School

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Is Wealth Bad?

Jared — Thu, 16 Feb 2006 20:13:03 +0000

Many people believe that the ambitious pursuit of wealth is evil and greedy. I believe that wealth creation is inherently good and improves our society. It’s important to distinguish, however, between the desire to create wealth and the craving for more money. Paul Graham

explains the distinction between wealth and money:

“Wealth is the fundamental thing. Wealth is stuff we want: food, clothes, houses, cars, gadgets, travel to interesting places, and so on. You can have wealth without having money… Wealth is what you want, not money. But if wealth is the important thing, why does everyone talk about making money? It is a kind of shorthand: money is a way of moving wealth, and in practice they are usually interchangeable. But they are not the same thing, and unless you plan to get rich by counterfeiting, talking about making money can make it harder to understand how to make money.”

Seeking and creating wealth is the process of growing the whole economic pie, not taking pie from others so our portion is bigger. Making money is the by-product

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Wealth is not evil. The desire to accumulate and add to your wealth is not wrong if your motives are correct. America’s free market capitalism makes it possible for everyone to increase their wealth at no one else’s expense. The key is to seek that wealth by delivering value to the economy and by being responsible stewards of the money we earn. By responsibly managing our money we’ll be even more enabled to grow the economic pie and help others add to their wealth.

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