photo credit: Unhindered by Talent

So you’ve set yourself some financial goals, and one of them is to start on your journey towards financial freedom. This can seem daunting at times, but don’t despair, if you take the journey step-by-step, you’ll find that your dedication, frugal attitudes, and time is all you need to start on your road to wealth.
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photo credit: dcJohnSaving money on school supplies is a must for many families, but easy for very few. Don’t despair, though, savings are much easier than you think; just follow these easy tips for back-to-school supplies savings:

• Start at home: Dig through your closets and supply drawers for reusable and nearly-new items. Company logos are easily covered-up with fancy stickers, and backpacks can easily be used year after year.
• Patronize your neighborhood dollar store: You may not shop here often, but now is certainly the time to do so: many of your kid’s basic school supplies can be found at rock-bottom prices.
• Set a budget for back-to-school clothes: It’s not likely that your kids have grown out of every, single shirt, short and pant, despite their claims. Lay the ground rules for the clothing trip before stepping out of the house, and stick to it. Buy as many neutral pieces as possible to maximize wear and use.
• Easy on the tech: It’s always tempting to buy the latest computer or calculator, but think before you leap. If you really need such an item, you’ll get amazing deals on eBay, Craigslist, and even in your local classifieds.
• Practice prudent backpack shopping: Kids shouldn’t carry more than 20% of their weight, so if your child has the tendency to shove every school book, binder, and supply into his backpack, buy a smaller backpack.

For the complete list, check out MSNBC’s back-to-school savings tips.

A surprising number of American families do not invest in 529 college savings plans, even though their deposits are tax-deductable and their income is tax-free. While everyone seems to have their own reasons to not use these funds, the experts are clear on this point: whether your child is just-born or already talking about college, a 529 college fund is an ideal way to fund his education.
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photo credit: iChaz

We all want our children to be financially responsible and independent when they grow up, but many of us don’t know how to prepare them for such a task. School does little to teach money management, and children’s programming is also woefully deficient in this area, so it really is up to you. Not to worry though, follow these steps to help your kids learn the value of a dollar:

• Be a good example: You will be your child’s only ongoing example of money management, so start by being financially responsible. Save your receipts and balance your checkbook, and invite you child to “help” you. Don’t hesitate to explain what you’re doing, either.
• Start early: A child’s formative years really are the best time to teach, so help promote good saving and spending habits when they’re young. For example, encourage them to save up for special purchases, and help them hunt down the best deals once they’ve saved the dough.
• Be honest: If you’re child asks you questions about money, don’t respond with the typical, unhelpful, frustrated-parent “money doesn’t grow on trees” response. Instead, use these moments to teach where money really does come from, and help you children understand basic finances.
• Make allowances: Experts debate whether allowances for daily chores help or hurt personal finance lessons. A good compromise is to have set amounts for chores outside daily duties — like extra dish washing or car washing — which allow your child to make his own fortune.
• Make it interesting: Do anything you can do to interest your child in saving. Decorate a piggy bank, create a monthly savings-counting ritual, or even offer to match each dollar spent with $0.50-$1 of your own.

For more tips, see how to teach your children the value of money.

Originally used as a term to describe wealthy individuals who funded theater productions in great Britain, angel investors have become the go-to people when your start-up needs seed money, but not enough warrant a full fledged venture capitalist firm. Acquiring an angel investors can involve everything from full on formal proposals to an individual visiting your dorm room and writing a check. What follows are some of those individuals.

Ron Conway – Arguably the most famous angel investor of them all, Ron Conway is a founding general partner in the investment fund, “Angel Investors LP.” Ron’s fame (infamy?) in the angel investment world has earned him the unofficial title of, “Godfather of Silicon Valley”. Ron was one of the first investors in Ask Jeeves, Google, and Paypal. Currently he also works as an advisor for Facebook.

Andy Bechtolsheim – Co-founder of Sun Microsystems, Andy made one of the most famous angel investments when he gave $100,000 to two boys in their dorm room after they showed him their search engine software. The boys’ names were Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Their software was Google. Andy also founded Granite Systems and Kealia, which which were later bought by Cisco, and Sun respectively. Currently, he is the chief architect at Sun.

Chris Sacca – One of the more recent employees of Google to move into angel investing, Chris Sacca began in 2006 with his investment in Photobucket. Up until recently, Chris was Head of Speical Initiatives at Google Inc., where he headed Google’s efforts to install a WiFi network in San Francisco. He also headed a similar project in Mountain View.

Loic Le Meur – A well known French blogger and entrepreneur, Loic Le Meur had his start when he founded his first company, an interactive agency, B2L. At the same time, Loic also founded RapidSite France, which grew to be the number one web-hosting company for small business’s in France. Loic would go on to sell both B2L and Rapidsite. Since then, Loic has founded and sold Tekora, an application service provider, as well purchased Ublog, which he merged with Six Apart where he was named Executive Vice President. Loic has served as an angel investor in a number of tech startups and currently serves on the RSS advisory board who are in charge of creating the RSS 2.0 specification.

Aydin Senkut – Founder and President of of Felicis Ventures, Aydin was originally a Senior Manager at Google in charge of strategic partner development and account management in Asia Pacific. Since moving into angel investing Aydin’s investments have rivaled even Ron Conway’s. Companies in his portfolio have included RapLeaf and webs.com. He also funds Lead2, a conservative organization focused on public policies regarding entrepreneurship and technological innovation.

Marc Andreessen – Marc will forever be cemented in the internet’s history as one of the two creators of the very first popular web browser Mosaic, which Marc programmed while he was a student at the University of Illinois. When Mosaic was brought into the commercial world it was given a new name, Netscape. When AOL bought Netscape for $4.2 billion, Marc became AOL’s CTO. Since then he has served as founder and chair of Loudcloud (later known as Opsware before being purchased by Hewlett-Packard), and is now co-founder of Ning. Marc has invested in such companies as Digg, Plazes, and Twitter.

Peter Thiel – Co-founder and former CEO of PayPal, Peter is now President of Clarium Capital Management LLC and a managing partner of The Founders Fund. Earning a degree in 20^th Century Philosophy, as well as a Juris Doctorate from Stanford, Peter practiced law for a short period before forming Thiel Capital Management. Co-Founding PayPal, he would take it public and sell it to eBay for $1.5 billion. His personal stake has been valued at roughly $55 million. After the sale he reformed Thiel Capital Management under the new name Carium Capital Management. Peter has made investments in companies such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Friendster.

Josh Kopelman – Founder of Half.com, an online store that connected sellers of used books, music, and movies to prospective buyers, Josh successfully sold Half.com in 2000 to Ebay for $350 million. In 2001, Josh and his wife created the Kopelman Foundation, a non-profit organization focused on angel investing. Currently, Josh is Managing Director of First Round Capital. He has invested in a number of tech companies including StumbleUpon, del.icio.us, and Wikia.

Dr. Ian Sobieski – Managing director and founder of the “Band of Angels Fund L.P.”, Dr. Sobieski oversees a fund amounting to roughly $50 million. His Ph.D. is in Aeronautics from Stanford University. Beyond that he also has an MS in Aeronautics, a BS in Aerospace Engineering, and a BA in Philosophy. Before managing the “Band of Angels Fund”, Dr. Sobieski was a director and executive at Evite.com. He is also a founding member of the Angel Capital Association and a member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and the Young Venture Capitalists Association.

Joe Kraus – Founder of Excite, JotSpot, and DigitalConsumer.org, Joe had his start when he joined with five engineering friends to found Excite. After leaving Excite a year before it went bankrupt, Josh would co-found Digitalconsumer.org a non-profit group dedicated to fair-use rights in digital media. Josh would also serve as co-founder and CEO of Jotspot, which was bought by Google, where Josh now serves as director of product management. He has also been involved as an angel investor in a number of tech startups including LinkedIn.

Gil Penchina – A graduate of the Kellogg School of Business at Northwestern University, Gil gained most of his fame as Vice President and General Manager at eBay. He made news when he left eBay in 2006 to become the CEO of Wikia, Wikipedia’s for profit sister company. Although currently “on hiatus” from angel investing, Gil has invested in such companies as Paypal, Evite, Properazzi, and Qype.

Despite their varying background and training, angel investors to all be ambitious trailblazers with their eyes on the future and the funds to push towards it.

When it comes to cartoons and comparisons of wealth, the problem invariably arises that these characters, at least most of the time, exist in different worlds. Where a million dollars might make one the richest man on Earth in one world, the same amount could make one a pauper in another. That being said, some characters are just blatantly the richest cartoon characters out there.

Scrooge McDuck, Disney/Duck Tales – The guy has a ten story vault… filled with gold coins… that he swims in. Need I say more? Scrooge McDuck began his wealth as a child when he was given a dime for shining a man’s shoes. He would keep that “#1 Dime” as his luck charm and to this day considers it the most valuable thing he owns. Scrooge McDuck is the epitome of the richest man, er duck in the world. It’s his whole reason for existing.

Flintheart Glomgold, Disney/Duck Tales – If you’re going to mention Scrooge McDuck then you have to mention his rival, Flintheart Glomgold. If Flintheart has 98 cents, then Scrooge has 99. Unfortunately for Flintheart, this is how things have always been despite any of Flintheart’s dastardly plans. At the very least you have to credit him for one thing, he’s not lazy.

Bruce Wayne, DC Comics – Billionaire playboy by day (or so he’d have you think), caped crusader by night. Bruce Wayne’s wealth began with the inheritance from his murdered parents. From those beginnings, his wealth has grown exponentially. Lex Luthor would have made this main list too if it weren’t for the fact that Bruce Wayne now also owns everything Lex once had.

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