My friend Craig is an architect. A couple of years ago, he took me on a tour of his company's offices. "The cool thing about this building," he told me, "is that it's especially resilient." I could tell from the way he said it that the word resilient meant something a little different to him than it did to me.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

Three thousand years ago, there lived a great hero named Ulysses (or Odysseus, if you prefer), king of Ithaca, champion of the Trojan War, and, it turns out, pioneer of personal finance.

Ulysses wrestled Ajax, retrieved the body of Achilles (the hero shot in his heel), and devised the clever Trojan horse, which allowed the Greek army to infiltrate Troy and end the decade-long struggle.

When the conflict was over, Ulysses spent another ten years desperately trying to sail home to Ithaca. He visited the lotus-eaters, was captured by (and escaped from) the cyclops, evaded both cannibals and the witch-god Circe. He slipped past the six-headed monster Scylla and the whirlpool called Charybdis. After all these troubles (and more!), Ulysses reached Ithaca and regained his throne.

I had lunch with Sabino yesterday. He's my accountant -- but he's also my friend (and a loyal Get Rich Slowly reader).

I told Sabino about how our house has been a money pit over the nine months since we bought it. I told him how much fun I've been having with Get Rich Slowly since I bought it back, and about how much work it has turned out to be to get the site renovated.

Sabino told me about his businesses (he doesn't just own the accounting firm, but bits and pieces of several other companies too) and about his kids (who, to the surprise of both of us, are all teenagers now). He's worked hard all of his life to give his family a solid future, and now -- at age 48 -- all of his dreams seem to be coming true.

Note: During the month of March, I'm migrating old Money Boss material to Get Rich Slowly -- including the articles that describe the "Money Boss method". This is the second of those articles. Part one answered the question, "What is financial independence?"

For the past several years -- since I published the Get Rich Slowly course in 2014 -- I've been trying to teach people to think like a CFO. Here's my fundamental premise: You should manage your personal finances the way a business owner would manage hers.

To illustrate why I think this is so important, let me introduce you to my friend Harlan...

There's this idea in our society that if you want something amazing, there's got to be some secret to getting it.

People want "magic bullet" answers. They think if they look long enough and hard enough then maybe, just maybe, they'll stumble upon the SECRETS "THEY" DON'T WANT YOU TO KNOW.

A couple of years ago, the CBC published an article about how Kristy Shen and Bryce Leung got rich and retired by not joining the home ownership 'cult'.

The couple, who blog about travel and early retirement at Millennial Revolution "managed to save $500,000 by working hard and living modestly," writes Sophia Harris. "The couple was ready to spend it on a down payment — until they saw what was on offer. They scoped out dilapidated houses selling for half a million dollars."

Instead of buying a home, they invested their savings...and got lucky. Their portfolio doubled in four years. (Even without the good fortune, they were well on their way to financial freedom.) Today "they live on $30,000 to $40,000 a year, money that largely comes from dividend payments generated from their stock portfolio." Continue reading...

A few years ago, I polled my Twitter followers to ask: "What did your parents teach you about money? Anything? Did it work?"

A lot of folks responded to say that their parents were poor examples:

• @MoneyMateKate wrote: My parents didn't teach me — I taught them! I was paying my own dental bills (no insurance) from age 12 onwards with babysitting dollars.
• @liberryteacher wrote: My parents never had any money, and life was hard. So they taught me by example that that was not a good way to live.
• @mike_strock wrote: My parents gave me money whenever I asked. Needless to say, that wasn't helpful later in life. I'm learning!
• @tcita wrote: My parents taught me absolutely nothing: no chores, allowance, budgeting, spending money, savings — nothing. Though I guess that taught me value of work.

But not all parents fail at training their children about money. Plenty of folks picked up good habits from the Bank of Mom and Dad. Here are some of my favorite anecdotes and tips:

Every night, I listen to audiobooks all night long. They lull me to sleep.

If I tried to listen to new books, of course, that'd be a problem. I wouldn't hear 90% of the story. But I've learned to listen to books I know and love -- books like True Grit and The Lord of the Rings -- because then it doesn't matter when I miss large chunks of the story. I already know what happens. If I wake up for five minutes at 2 a.m., I can listen as Frodo and Sam tramp through the Dead Marshes then drift back to sleep again.

This week, I've been listening to one of my favorites: Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird (read by Sissy Spacek). It's terrific.

Earlier this week, I encouraged readers to become proactive by developing an internal locus of control. In that article, I wrote:

You are the boss of you. You don’t need anybody’s permission to get out of debt or to buy a house or to ask for a raise. And nobody’s going to come to you out of the blue to explain investing or health insurance or your credit card contract. Take charge yourself.

"I get it," you might be thinking. "Self-reliance is great. But how do I change? How do I get from where I am to becoming a more self-reliant person?"

Frugalists aren't averse to spending. They're just canny about how they buy, or whether they buy at all.

That's a tough sell, so to speak, in a country where we're persistently pressured to keep up with the Joneses (or the Kardashians). Flash sales, one-click shopping apps, deal websites, and near-weekly sales at brick and mortar stores make it soooo easy to buy.

Haul photos on social media, hot deals shared by friends, clothing or cosmetics worn by favorite celebrities, that bling your sister-in-law sported at Christmas – spending triggers, every one of them. Continue reading...