Who Moved My Cheese? – Not Bad
September 15th, 2006
Last night I couldn’t find the book I was planning on reading mostly because I thought it was in the car so I grabbed a book off the shelf. That book was Who Moved My Cheese and I managed to get the whole thing done in under an hour. The story and the post story discussion in the book are fairly simple but when you really think about them they carry deeper meaning. The focus of the book is change and it uses four characters to describe what many people do during situations of change. I won’t go into details because that’s what reading the book is all about but I think the elements that were described not only apply to change but also to business and investment.
We can all just sit there and do virtually nothing, happy as a clam as our debts increase year over year as we try in vain to keep up with the Jones’ who miraculously aren’t in debt. We fear the results of our investment and risks. I say we because I know I can’t possibly be the only person that was afraid of taking a look at their finances because of what he might see, not only the bad but the opportunities lost and potential still within. I was afraid of taking the risk of investing in stocks, not because I might loose the money, heck I’ve been doing that for years why should I be afraid of that? I was scared of the possibility of success, the potential for Change.
I’ve come to realize this on my own but the book did highlight a few things of interest for me, which is why I found it interesting. I’m less afraid of change now than I was a couple years ago and its time to take a point from the book of never letting complacency get the best of me again.
Tags: Business, books, Business Books, Change, Fear
Posted in Books | No Comments
Saving Ideas – Things I’m Doing
September 14th, 2006
Well since I’ve been reading a bunch of personal finance blogs lately I’ve been encountering a fair amount of entries dedicated exclusively to frugality. Personally I’m not a very frugal person, I have no problem spending money on things that I like and that I want as long as I can afford it. But with that said I’m pretty far in debt and I have an investment goal that I want to achieve. To achieve this goal of mine I’m going to need some money to invest in the opportunities that I see and for that I need to get rid of most of my debt.
In an effort to accomplish this I’ve been trying to save money by cutting back on a few things, for example I’ve been brown bagging it to work. Has this been successful? Well to a point I still like to get away from the desk from time to time but I’m only eating out once maybe twice a week at worst. This is a definite improvement over eating out every day. The cost savings alone become staggering if you start adding the numbers. Even at $10/day saved gives me between $30-$50 per week or roughly $120-$200 per month that I’ve saved that I can put towards debt. Unfortunately my initial budgeting was a bit optimistic and with the brown bagging I’m getting closer to realistic numbers.
Another thing that I’ve been doing to save money is cut back on the entertainment. By this I’m primarily thinking about dinners out or going to the bar with some friends. Along with those this also includes the amount of alcohol that we drink. This number is definitely one that could be scaled back to save some money. In a stressful work environment with long commutes a couple glasses of wine after dinner is definitely high up there on my list of things to do. But cutting back on this has already meant I’m not struggling from pay to pay and if I cut it back a bit more I should be able to increase the amount of money going to debt by probably close to $200 per month.
Finally in my Want vs Need post I mentioned the distinction between the wants and needs in life. I’ve been actively stopping myself from buying things because they are not items that I really need. I don’t have a exact number on this because most of the purchases were never budgeted for and are almost always impulse buys. I think between these three things alone I might be able to put an extra $300-$400 against debt which would definitely be a good start, maybe more. I just wanted to share a few things that I’ve been doing. If anyone has any ideas please feel free to share them.
Tags:Saving tips, Debt, Budgeting
Posted in Saving Ideas | 2 Comments
Moderation
September 13th, 2006
I’ve been writing about how I’ve been trying to cut down on things such as going out in an effort to get out of debt. But what I haven’t really been putting into the posts that I’m taking all of this in moderation. I will buy in bulk from Costco and brown bag my lunch as often as possible but I will still spend money on the things I’m trying to cut back on.
I identified that I spend a fair bit of money on alcohol, instead of trying to cut it out entirely I merely cut back a bit. Do I still have wine with dinner? Of course but I won’t have it with dinner as often as I used to. For me moderation is the key, I don’t want to deprive myself of having fun and enjoying life, I want to have a good sense of why I’m spending my money the way I am and ensure that I’m not spending money I really don’t have.
Moderation has always seemed like negative word where you’re cutting back on something because it’s bad but in my case moderation is a vehicle to reduce some of the spending that belongs in the want category rather than the need one. I want to reduce where I’m hemorrhaging money but I don’t want to stop enjoying my life entirely.
Tags: Money, Goals, Budgeting, Finances
Posted in Budgeting and Planning, Saving Ideas | No Comments
Want VS. Need
September 12th, 2006
To want something is a natural thing, we even have goals associated with how we’re going to get the things we want. We learn early on that wanting something isn’t a bad thing and that we should strive to get the things we want in life. For many people this involves cars, houses, getting married, but:
So when does want become a bad thing?
Well for me the answer is pretty simple: When I buy the things I want because I think I need them and I both can’t afford them and really don’t need them. For me there is a very distinct difference between want and need, for example I want a new car and to some extent I need a car. I want a new BMW but I have a perfectly good SUV right now, so in essence I want a BMW but don’t NEED one.
For years I lived off of my pay in addition to hitting my credit cards routinely. What was happening was that I was spending a lot of my money on things I wanted but really didn’t need. I got into this habit shortly after I was given my first credit card (I’m still baffled how an unemployed student can possibly qualify for a card). Over time this habit grew and grew and I became less and less conscious of it until I became the consumer junkie that most people now seem to be.
I’m relearning the definitions of what want and need are for me and it has been a struggle at times. I got so into the habit of going out for lunch that I didn’t even pay attention to it. But when I started looking at the costs associated with this I was blown away. Food is a very basic need that we all have and it needs to be met to survive. I discovered that my going out to lunch was more of a want than a need so I’ve started bringing my lunch to work with me. I still go out for lunch from time to time but brown bagging lunch in an effort to save some money to get out of debt is far better than accruing more debt because you like having a $25 lunch every day.
Tags:Goals
Posted in Budgeting and Planning | 4 Comments
The Definitive “How To” list
September 11th, 2006
JPL put up a great list of “How To..” topics up on his site and since I’m still pretty new to the world of PF it’s been pretty informative. Unfortunately I can’t spend all day looking at it, lunch is only an hour long! Definitely check it out.
Posted in Sites/Articles | No Comments
A reminder of what I’m trying to achieve
September 11th, 2006
Over the weekend I had a very nice reminder of the purpose of this site and of my overall goal to have a million in liquid assets by the time I hit 35. The reminder was a very simple one in that I got to see some of the things that I want in life. My fiancé and I went sailing this weekend on my little rinky-dink boat and while we were at the marina we got to talking to a couple who was wrapping their boat up for the winter. They just brought it in last weekend and they were describing their summer, they spent 181 days on the boat this year. Not that they used it often, they lived on their boat. They continued to describe their winter activities (Skiing from November to April), which made me appreciate my goal that much more. These people had the freedom to do whatever they wanted whenever they wanted it. I don’t know what they did for a living but they did not look old enough to be retired so I have to assume that they worked to achieve their dream lives and were living them.
I want to have the freedom to do what I want when I want to (within reason of course) and my goal is to that end.
I got a second reminder the following morning as we were motoring around. I have always wanted a cottage but the cottages that I can afford are not what I’ve always envisioned myself having. The cottages that we went by were gorgeous! I want one. This was a very visual reminder to keep at my goals and to keep seeing myself in them. I think I enjoyed this weekend more than I have many this summer because it gave me hope, it let me see what I want to get to, and it made me less apprehensive about the fact that I’m swimming in debt at the moment. The debt is surmountable but without the visual elements my goal is a number on a piece of paper that can hold little meaning unless I give it one. This weekend I gave it more meaning.
Posted in Budgeting and Planning, Investments | No Comments
The Importance of Goals
September 9th, 2006
I’ve been writing lately about my thoughts and the things that I’ve been when it comes to debt and what I’m doing to help realize where my money is going. But if I didn’t have goals there would be no point to doing this. My goal to have more than a million dollars in liquid assets is a very lofty one but I think I can achieve it and I’m making plans to get there. I’m starting making adjustments in my spending to start getting out of debt and I’m starting to look into opportunities.
I’m hesitant to give details because the partnership I’ve got with a friend of mine is still in the very early stages but we are planning to make an investment and open a fly by night operation over Christmas. Now this isn’t the type of fly by night operation where we’re offloading garbage. We’ve got a potential Christmas product that we’re looking to sell through December locally. The investment from my point of view will be limited but the returns will be decent. I’m thinking the outlay of cash will be close to 5000 but the returns could be close to 7-10,000. If this is the case I’ve turned my money and grown it 100% if not more. But thankfully if it fails it’s a relatively small set back.
The reason I mention this is because I have a goal and not only am I trying to save money to get out debt and have the ability to invest in opportunities I’m going to take the risk and get try achieving something that will potentially bring me closer to my goal. Goals are an important part of getting to where you’re going, without them you may make plans but without a destination you really don’t know were you’re going.
I can quote numerous sources that expound on this but that would be time consuming and redundant. We’ve all seen the power of goals; we just need to look around us. Michael Jordan had a goal, look where he got.
Posted in Budgeting and Planning, Investments | 1 Comment
Issues with Strange Characters
September 8th, 2006
Whenever I look at my site I’m seeing some strange characters, my apologies to anyone who’s reading this and is seeing them as well. I’m planning on investigating this over the weekend. Has anyone else had this happen to them?? Is anyone else seeing them (or am I just going crazy?)
Posted in News/Misc | 2 Comments
Do You Know Where Your Money Has Gone?
September 8th, 2006
Up until not too long ago I would have said ‘Yeah I know where my money goes’ then I’d wonder why I had barely enough money for gas three or four days before payday. Did I really know where my money went? No, I knew where my bill payments went and that was quite true since I paid those shortly after getting my pay. It’s very easy to spend money when you have it, most people happily spend their money from pay to pay not realizing just how much they spend on consumer good. Take today for example I’m sharing a bottle of wine with my fiancé, two days from now I won’t know that this happened because it’s a bottle of wine with dinner that will be gone and in the recycling bin before I know it. This is true of so many things: your morning coffee or a pack of smokes, before you know it you’ve chewed through all the money in your account and you’re hitting the credit card and accumulating debt.
This brings up a very valid question: How do you know where your money goes? What I’ve been doing (off and on) over the past year is actually keeping detailed notes of what I’ve been spending my money on. Most people would laugh to the detail that I go because I keep track of every penny and dime, but the sad truth is if you don’t go to this detail for about a month how will you know what you spend your money on? If you were to buy two coffees for $1.50 each day for a month you’d be down $90. Now this isn’t a big deal for most people but you add up 4 or 5 things like this and all of a sudden you realize why you don’t have any money just before pay time.
For me I use this as an exercise to help keep track of my money and to help me budget. If I’m spending more than I should be on something like food I can alter what I buy and if I go out but if I’m still consistently over then maybe I’m just not budgeting enough for food. It’s an additional tool to help get your finances in order (at least for me). The other reason I like doing this it helps me cut down on spending money on things that I really don’t need to buy (for those of you who are coffee lovers it’s the 2nd cup of coffee when you really didn’t need one but wanted a break - $1.50 a day for a month is about $45).
Before anyone makes a comment that this is a burden to do something like this, once you get into the habit of doing it, it really isn’t difficult (just keeping your recipts is often enough). And secondly the benefit that it will give you to budgeting is immense. Although I still spend way too much money I intend to keep doing this to know where my money is going.
Tags: Budgeting, Finances, Money, Saving tips, Savings
Posted in Budgeting and Planning, Saving Ideas | No Comments
Budgeting and Planning
September 7th, 2006
I was thinking about starting off with this post but when I started the site up and started looking around it became pretty obvious to me that the people who are already looking into finances are already doing some sort of planning and budgeting or at the very least hoping to do more. But why is it important? Well very simply if you don’t know where you are and what you’re trying to achieve you spend all of your extra money on things that you don’t need or in some cases don’t want. The worst situations are when you don’t even know where you spend the money (but that’s a different story)/p>
I started budgeting a few years back to little avail but at least I started getting my bills paid on time. This for a person who is in debt and struggling with it is probably the very first benefit. Why do you ask? Well once you know where you NEED to send your money it becomes more apparent what you’ve got left over. Even if you end up spending it you will realize at some point that going beyond that certain amount you’re going into debt.
Once you get your debt under some semblance control even if you’re not making headway you do get one additional benefit: you won’t go further into debt.
But once you mix budgeting with some longer term planning you’ll make headway whether it’s to start accumulating assets or to get yourself slowly out of the hole. Initially my goals are pretty simple and that is to get out of debt so I have some additional money to work with to accumulate assets. Having an end goal or a plan will allow you to see where you’re going and note the progress as you slowly get there. Remember even slow achievement of your goals and plans is achievement!
Tags:Goals, Budgeting, Finances, Bills, Debt, Growth
Posted in Budgeting and Planning | No Comments
