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Meditation

Life

Life is crazy.

 “Really, Jason, that’s news?”
I spend so much time going in so many different directions.
Cleaning out our inherited hoarding house, managing the remodel, work, side hustles, kids, friends, family, relationships, maintaining our house, maintaining a relationship with my wife, garage sales, school starting, junior high football season, insurance policies, probate, rush hour, insomnia.
Some days, I feel insanely scattered.  I can’t focus.  I have a hard time making decisions.  I waste time.
Those days, I need to clear my head.
That’s where meditation comes in.
I don’t do the money hum. (Om mone padme, Om)
Instead, I have three activities that demand a total focus.  They drive out any scattered thoughts or unimportant concerns.
They have to because, quite frankly, they can be dangerous if I don’t concentrate.
1. I shave.  I use a double-edged safety razor, so bleeding for the throat is a real concern.   For 10 minutes, nothing else in the world matters.   It has only recently struck me how valuable this is.  That value makes me want to start shaving every day, with a straight razor.  More focus, more often.
2.  I ride.  For the past couple of years, it’s been hard to find time get my motorcycle out.   Small children seem to want attention every day.   It got to the point where I was ready to sell my bike.   This spring, it was seriously misbehaving.  Finally, at the end of the summer, a friend got it running better than it ever has.   I took it out for a couple of hours and came back feeling more clearheaded than I have in a long time.  I won’t be selling my bike until I have its replacement.
3.  I shoot.  Shooting involves a series of simple actions that require concentration to do well. Load the gun, line up the sights, which eye is dominant, breathe, don’t breathe, squeeze the trigger, hole in the paper.   Again, it’s not an activity that’s conducive to worrying about the bills or work.  It’s a way to shut out the world for a few minutes.
For me, a few moments or a few hours of shutting down everything except one thing is the way to stay sane and focused.
How do you deal with it when the world comes crashing in from every direction?
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George Zimmerman: The High Cost of a Legal Defense

News

2012 Trayvon Martin Case
2012 Trayvon Martin Case (Photo credit: werthmedia)

Most people have heard of the controversial nature of the George Zimmerman murder trial. Zimmerman, who defends his actions and is claiming self-defense, is on trial for murdering Trayvon Martin, a 17-year old with a social media profile that projects anything but innocence. While his defense attorneys claim that race had nothing to do with the murder, the prosecution thinks differently. In fact, a majority believe that Trayvon Martin would still be alive today if he hadn’t attacked Zimmerman. Regardless of your stance on the case, there is no denying the fact that Zimmerman’s trial is building strong emotions from both sides.

In an effort to get a not guilty verdict, Zimmerman has hired a top-rated legal defense team to argue his case. Trials are expensive and the average person may not be able to afford a team willing to take a case for the fame. If you are charged for a crime, you have to consider the cost for legal defense. Here is what you need to know about how much you can expect to spend on a legal defense team.

Fixed Prices Versus Variable Prices

Not everyone has a group of supporters raising money to pay for their legal defense. Just because Zimmerman has bad credit does not mean that he had to leave his legal defense up to a public defender in Sanford. If you do not have a Legal Defense Fund where people can donate money to your defense costs online, you will need to distinguish between fixed prices and variable prices for legal defense. During your consultation, the defense attorney should be able to quote you a fixed price based on the case details. Experienced attorneys do not charge on a pay as you go basis because they are confident their abilities. The actual fixed price of the attorney depends on the case, and can range anywhere between a $1000 and hundreds of thousands of dollars. O’Mara and West, who are defending Zimmerman, have quoted $1 million for their services in total. While they have not be paid completely by the Zimmerman Defense Fund, this is money that is due to them.

The Cost For Expert Witnesses

Zimmerman’s team introduced several expert witnesses including an animator, a medical examiner, and a self defense expert. All of these witnesses are paid to testify, and the cost is not always included in the initial quote. If your case is complex, there may be a need for an expert witness. When you are pricing the cost of defense, see if this is included. Assume that you will spend about 10% more than quoted so that you can cover all of the outside costs.

Zimmerman may have been unemployed and working as a volunteer neighborhood watch member, but he does have one of the most experienced legal defense teams working for him to get a not guilty verdict. You may not need a million dollars, but legal defense is not cheap. Keep in mind that you get what you pay for when legal defense is concerned.

Insurance

If you must use lethal force, you should be prepared to spend tens of thousands of dollars defending yourself.   It’s worth looking into self-defense insurance.   The USCCA is the only such company that offers up-front expenses and is willing to cover bail.
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Cheap Vacations

Finance

Hotel Bristol w Warszawie
Image via Wikipedia

Last month, we went on vacation for a week.  It was our first debt-free vacation, ever!  We had a busy week, full of fun activities and it didn’t break the bank.  We saved money on everything we could.

Hotel

We save a lot of money by staying at a casino/hotel that was a 20 minute trip away from our vacation city.   This won’t save money if you have a problem with gambling.  The only time we went to the casino was to get to the connected restaurant.

We made the hotel even cheaper by arriving on a Sunday and leaving on a Friday, avoiding the weekend rates.  That gave us a full 6 day vacation with no rush to pack and 2 days to recover and relax when we were done.  We just didn’t see the point of checking out on Saturday, just to head home, when we could check out on Friday, spend the day seeing the sights, then leave late.

Meals

I like good food, but feeding a family of five for a week costs far too much.  So we compromised.

We brought milk and cereal to the hotel.  Instead of rushing to get out of the hotel for breakfast, we had a leisurely breakfast in our jammies and took our time getting moving.  No stress.  For our daytrips, we packed sandwiches, juice, and snacks; avoiding the need for lunchtime restaurants.  Dinner was our extravagance.  Every night, we ate someplace nice.   Not fancy, but nice.  Our food budget was about $30 for the week, not counting dinner.

Attractions

I had  a plan to keep every day fun, without resorting to using an agenda.  We were far to flexible to call it an agenda.  They just don’t make vacations fun for me.   We had one thing planned each morning, one each afternoon, and one each evening.  Every day, one of those things was spending a couple of hours in the hotel pool.  No stress.

The first thing I did was hit the city’s tourism website for coupons.  Yay us!

We tried to group our activities geographically to save on parking.  For example, one day we went on a sight-seeing boat tour, then walked over the a retired-ore-freighter-turned-museum and only paid one parking fee, which was actually reimbursed by the tour company.

We also hit a lot of state parks, which was mostly free, except for the daily parking permits.

Some of the museums had gotten together to offer a “3 attractions for the price of 2” deal.  This was available to us, but I didn’t find out about it until the end of the week.  Luckily, it only cost us a few dollars more to use the other coupons.

When we had some spare time, we did other things, like bowling or catching a matinee.   They were just some cheap  time-fillers, but still good times.

All in all, we had a great time.  Nobody was bored and we didn’t end up broke.  A good time was had by all, and I got to teach my son how to play poker.

How do you save money on vacation?

The Benefits of Ignorance

Finance

SASEBO, Japan (Dec. 18, 2009) Master-at-Arms 3...
Image via Wikipedia

For years, we had a sweet deal with day care. We had three kids and we were the only family with three kids, so we got a bulk discount that essentially made my oldest free.  Compared to the regular price, I think we were paying about ten dollars a week for him to be in daycare, which was great, since he was only there before and after school.

Then he aged out of daycare, and we lost our sweet, sweet deal.

Then the prices went up across the board.

We lost the sweet deal, and then the price went up and our youngest hit the next age bracket.

On the price sheet, the age brackets went from birth to 1, from 1 to 2, and from 2 to kindergarten.  I made the mistake of interpreting that to mean that her fee would change when Baby Brat turned three, not when she turned two.   I’ve been making that mistake since December when the price went up.

A few weeks ago, I dropped off the kids and forgot to pay for the week, so my wife paid when she picked up the girls. When my wife picked up the girls, she noticed that we hadn’t paid. She had no idea how much we needed to pay because she has never been the one that’s been responsible for making the payments.

Our provider added up the cost and found it was $15 per week less than we’d been paying.

When I balanced the checkbook the following weekend,  I noticed that she paid less than our normal rate. We called daycare and now we’re making up for the last 17 weeks of overpayments by paying less each week.  We’re paying about $65 less per week.  When we’re caught up, we’ll be paying $60-75 less per month, depending on the month.

All due to sweet, sweet ignorance. Ignorance really can be bliss. Sometimes when you know what’s going on, you just assume that you’re making the right decision and you’re afraid to ask questions for fear of looking stupid.  If you don’t know, and there’s nothing you should have known, and it’s possible to save quite a bit of money by just acknowledging the fact that you don’t know.

Also, lesson learned: If you’re not sure, ask!  Don’t assume when there’s a  chance your assumption could be costing you money.

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Credit Counseling: Swimming Out of the Mess

Finance

I once read a news story about a horse that slipped into a manure pit.

Some people–much like the unfortunate horse–are up to their necks in a mess, paddling for all they’re worth, wondering how to get out and panicking about the apparent hopelessness of their situation.

The mess I’m referring to is–of course–debt.

Fortunately, there are some life preservers out there.

The simplest option is a debt snowball.   You just list all your debts in order from smallest balance to largest.  Then, focus all you energy on paying off the smallest, while making minimum payments on the rest.   When the smallest debt is paid off, throw that money at the next smallest balance.   Eventually, all of your debts go away.

What are your other options?

There are debt consolidation loans, debt consolidation programs, horrible debt settlement plans, and even bankruptcy.   There’s a whole shark-infested reef of options, some of which will make things much, much worse for you.  What to do?

Take a look at credit counseling.   Credit counseling is designed as a way to educate debtors on their options, and how to pursue those options.  A good counselor will look at your income, your debt, and your spending habits and help you understand what went wrong and how to avoid it.

The trick is to find a good counselor.

First, search for approved and licensed counseling organizations here.

Once you have a list of candidates, you can start trimming it using these steps:

  • Ask them for information.  Good agencies will send you information about itself and its services at no charge.  If the balk, run.
  • Are they nonprofit?  In many places, credit counselor must be nonprofit to operate legally.  Whether or not it’s a legal requirement, consider making it your requirement.
  • Ask about their fees and get it in writing.  Is there a setup fee?  Monthly fees?
  • Will there be a signed agreement?  If there is, be sure to read it, first.
  • How do they train their counselors?  What are their qualifications?
  • How are the employees compensated?  Do they get bonuses if you sign up for certain services?  If they do, go elsewhere.  Their first priority should be your needs, not getting a bonus.

Once you’ve found a company you’re comfortable with, schedule a counseling appointment.  At the appointment, you can expect to go over your finances in detail, including your income, expenses, debt, and financial goals.  You’ll review your options with the counselor and build an action plan.

From there, your job will be to stay on the plan and get yourself out of debt.

Have you ever met with a credit counselor?

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5 Ds of Identity Theft

Finance

Scanned image of author's US Social Security card.
Scanned image of author's US Social Security card. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Identity theft is, at its most basic level, the act of using someone else’s identity or credit without permission.   From a stolen credit card to a forged phone bill in Moscow, it all involves your good money paying for the bad habits of another.    Thankfully, there are ways to reduce the odds of having your identity stolen.  LTC David Grossman reviews the “5 Ds of Survival” in his seminars and books.   Today, I bring you the 5 Ds of Identity Theft.

In the words of the master, “Denial has no survival value.” Denying the possibility of identity theft will not keep it from happening.  You have to take steps to keep yourself safe.  “It could never happen to me” is not a valid defense mechanism in any situation, financial or otherwise.

Deterrence means keeping the information away from identity thieves. The harder it is for the criminals to get your information, the more likely it is that they will move on to an easier target.  And yes, a kid stealing Grandma’s credit card is a criminal and needs to be treated as such.

  • Some people use a shredder, but not me.  I have a fire pit that catches all of my personal documents.  I’d like to see an thief get my social security number from the ashes in the bottom of the pit.
  • Don’t carry your social security card.  If you lose your wallet, your driver’s license and social security card contain all of the information needed to steal your identity.  Keep it locked up at home and don’t give the number out unless absolutely necessary.
  • Don’t use stupid passwords.  Anything listed on yourFacebook profile or otherwise available on Google in association with your name is a stupid password.  Don’t make life easy for the people looking to screw you.  Your birthdate, maiden name, and “password” all qualify as stupid passwords.  Use KeePass to securely generate and store your passwords.
  • Lock up your personal information.  I throw two large parties every year.   Purses and wallets get stored in a locked bedroom, so nobody can grab them.  That was a lesson learned the hard way.  If there’s someone in your home you don’t trust absolutely, lock up anything that can be used against you.
  • Don’t release personal information to anyone, for any reason, unless you have initiated the contact.  Don’t give a credit card number to a telemarketer.  Don’t give a spammer your personal information.  It’s your privacy, use it.
  • Don’t click anything in an email.  If it’s a company you have a relationship with, type the address in your browser by hand.

Detection is up to you. Some credit card companies will alert you to suspicious purchases, but you can’t rely on it.  I was once called because I went to the gas station and Best Buy, which is apparently a common pattern for a stolen credit card.

  • Examine your credit card statements.  If there’s a purchase you don’t recognize, find out what it is.
  • Watch for bills to arrive as expected.  You do know when you pay the gas bill every month, right?
  • Watch for unexpected bills to arrive.  If you get a statement for a credit card you don’t have, it’s a problem.
  • Check your credit report three times per year.  AnnualCreditReport.com will let you see each of the three major credit reports each year.  Space them out so you see your report every 4 months.

Defending your identity happens after you’ve detected a theft. This involves getting your credit and sometimes, your money, back.

  • File a fraud report with the credit bureaus.  This will force potential creditor to follow certain procedures before opening new credit accounts for your identity, including calling your cell phone, if you choose.  Stop the identity theft in its tracks.
  • Close the fraudulent accounts.   Don’t leave them open for abuse.
  • File a police report and report the fraud to the FTC at ftc.gov/idtheft .  This may or may not help catch the criminal, but without it, there will never be a punishment.  Make stealing your identity an expensive proposition.   Hopefully, 1o years of his life will be wasted in jail in return for the theft.

Destroy.  Unfortunately, fraud and identity theft are not yet capital crimes.   Maybe someday.

Deter, detect, defend.  These are the secrets to avoiding, and recovering from, identity theft.