Dumont - Kicking financial ass: punch debt in the face, invest for the future, and retire early!

Copyright 2019 by Paul Christopher Dumont.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without the written consent of the author.

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-9991326-0-6

E-book ISBN: 978-1-9991326-1-3

To anyone who has ever struggled with debt.

LEGAL DISCLAIMER

The views expressed by Mr. Dumont in Kicking Financial Ass are solely his and not intended as investment advice nor a guarantee of any financial return. Mr. Dumont is not an investment or tax professional, so the information contained in this book is not a substitute for professional advice. The contents of this book are accurate to the best of his knowledge at the time of printing, but rules and laws are ever-changing. Please do your research to confirm that you have the current information.

CONTENTS

NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

I wrote Kicking Financial Ass because I, like many Millennials, struggled with the challenges that our generation faces, including enormous student debt, lack of economic opportunity, and competitiveness in the job market. While searching for answers to questions like, Why do we spend money? and What do I need to know to be financially secure? I determined that there was a not a single book on the market addressing my concerns. Years after my debt was paid off and had bought my first property, friends and family started asking me for financial advice. After seeing success after success, I decided to share my experience with others.

Most books fail to address how our values toward money influence our buying decisions. We chase happiness by trying to buy our way there. Furthermore, most books do not definitively answer the key questions: How much money do you need to retire? Why use retirement accounts? Should you buy or lease a car? Is real estate a good investment? This book tackles those questions by condensing a wide breadth of material into simple concepts you can apply in your daily life.

This work rests heavily on the shoulders of countless other books, blogs, studies, and articles written about financial affairs and the contributions of individuals acknowledged at the end of the book. Moreover, I have been interested in personal finance for over 15 years, investing in the stock market since I was 18, and have applied all I learned from my finance undergraduate degree, M.B.A., and CFA charter. From this research and experience, I consolidated the best financial advice into an easy-to-read how to guide on retiring earlier and living your life to the fullest. As a side note, I work 9 to 5 like most of my readers, but I am on track to retire in 10 years even though I had $50,000 of debt only four years ago.

WHY SHOULD YOU READ THIS BOOK?

This book is not a boring lecture on money but rather a roadmap and tool you can use for your situation. It does not need to be read in order, so start at the beginning and continue to the end or flip to the chapter you feel will be most beneficial. Each chapter has actionable advice you can apply immediately to improve your finances.

You will come away with strategies to help you save, even if you are barely scraping by today. You will receive clear advice on paying down your debtscredit cards, student loans, or mortgages. I provide transportation advice on whether you should buy a new or used car, lease, or use ride sharing. You will discover the differences between 401(k) and IRA accounts for Americans and RRSPs and TFSAs for Canadians. I also discuss tricky situations such as negotiating salaries and raises. You will learn what to invest in and whether it is better to rent or buy a home. You will also learn the most crucial lesson of investing: Start early and why that matters. But most importantly, you will learn how to retire in as few as 10 years.

Take your time when reading this book and reread sections when necessary. For example, focus on Chapter 8: Negotiate Salaries & Raises when you start looking for a new job to maximize your income. I discuss financial concepts and stats throughout the book but in a way that anyone can understand. After reading this book, you will be much more confident with your finances instead of being overwhelmed when trying to balance a budget.

While some of the examples are extreme, they illustrate how saving even $10 a day allows you to retire years earlier. This book is not about being a hermit, saving every dollar you possibly can, and eating Kraft Dinner every night in hopes of a better future. It is about maximizing lifes fun at minimal expense by using a simple, effective investment strategy of investing in index funds.

So, whether you choose the sections that most apply to your life or read the entire book, I hope you take away a few ideas that you can use to improve your personal finances and are prepared to retire in as few as 10 years.

Now, its time for you to start Kicking Financial Ass!

Paul Christopher Dumont, MBA, CFA

INTRODUCTION

Saving money is hard. We want to budget, but we spend more than we realizeor admit to ourselves. For most, money seems to come and go, and we are left wondering why we are in debt. Life gets in the way, and unexpected expenses pop up. At the same time, costs for education, housing, and healthcare tend to increase every year, outpacing the raises we receive. The media does not help either. We turn on the TV and are overwhelmed by the information that is available. We ask ourselves where to even start. Between investment accounts, budgeting, and what to invest in, there is a lot to take in. Not only that, but the media portrays happiness as being for sale, and modern life pressures us into overspending with new cars, new watches, and new iPhones. It is no wonder that it is hard to save. We keep postponing saving money until later, thinking once we get that promotion or raise then we can start.

I used to think this way, especially when I was younger. I remember buying a new MacBook Pro for school and spared no expense getting the 15-inch version with bumped up specs when I only needed the 13-inch base model. I upgraded my iPhone every year when my current iPhone still worked fine. I bought the latest and greatest TVs to keep up with technology. And, I spent countless hours looking at new cars when I could afford them the least. Fortunately, common sense reeled my car fantasies back in. This behavior did not mean that I was a bad person. In fact, most people live life this way.

GROWING UP WITHOUT

As a child, my brother and I grew up with a single mom. Our dad left when we were young, so we did not have a lot. During the day, my mom worked multiple jobs to try and make ends meet. I remember on more than one occasion seeing my mom walk in the door with a box of food, knowing she had gone to the food bank. In school, I was picked on for having odd clothes and glasses because we could not afford what the other kids were wearing. Through it all, I thought that if only I had what the other kids had, then I would be popular, happy, and normal. My urge to impress others came from this. I thought if I worked hard and bought everything my mom could not afford, then I could impress others in school, be liked, and have more friends.

Why am I sharing such a personal story right off the bat? Because coming from nothing, I know how hard it is to get your life on track and how it is easy to feel frustrated, exhausted, scared, resentful, or guilty over your financial situation. My experience growing up also taught me that happiness is a state of mind and how the insecure boy wanting to keep up with everyone else to be happy was wrong. I only became happier when I was satisfied with what I had.