Live Real, Now

The no-pants guide to spending, saving, and thriving in the real world.

Search Results for: how-much-should-you-tip/INGDirect/subscribe-by-email/money-problems-day-1-setting-goals/consumer-action-handbook/mistakes-made/questions-from-a-reader/budget-lesson-part-2/shaving-for-real/5-life-altering-lessons-i-learned-from-my-debt

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?
Enhanced by Zemanta

Link Roundup

Misc

Wrestling season is finally over.    Q1 is always such a busy time in my house.   Now, spring has sprung and it’s time to start enjoying the weather.

On to the links.

Finance:

Here’s an intro guide to settling IRS debts.

Only someone who’s never had to deal with the full default process could think this was a good idea.  The Department of Education outsources its collections for a reason.  Eliminating private lenders will raise the students’ costs and eliminate options for troubled debtors.  Yes, I worked in the industry for several years.

The Guide to Buying Glasses Online.   I currently have 6 pairs of glasses that cost me  a grand total of $150, with no loss in quality.

PenFed:  Credit cards done right.

Not finance:

This is the coolest picture I’ve seen this year.  Space pics for under $1000.  NASA could take lessons, I think.

I miss the days when napping was possible.

38 Random Acts of Robyn. I’m thinking about incorporating this as a 30 day project.

Lawdog has a great idea to fix the problems with our legislature.  It’s a beautiful Constitutional Amendment.  If they have to play by the rules they set, the might start setting better rules.

“Only excepting such limited protection as offered by Article One, Section Six, Congress is hereby prohibited from exempting its Members from each, any, and all effects, duties or obligations rendered upon any citizen, or citizens, by any Law, Tax, or other action passed by Congress.”

Saturday Roundup

Finance, Life, Misc

First, the shameless self-promotion:

If you want to see the glorious wisdom that is my Twitter feed, follow me on Twitter. I’m @LiveRealNow.

Please take a moment to subscribe to Live Real, Now by email. You get a choice between having all of the posts delivered to your inbox, or just occasional updates and deals. Both options get my Budget Lessons, free of charge, including exclusive access to articles that are not published anywhere else. Woo!

If you prefer to get all of you information and interaction on Facebook, become a fan!

And of course, there is always the wonderful RSS subscription.

The Best Posts of the Week:

Give the gift of kidneys so that Larry Correia can murder you for charity.  Larry is the author of Monster Hunter International and Monster Hunter: Vendetta.   Both books are excellent mind-candy, if you like explosions and monsters that, well, explode.  Save a life and get murdered at the same time.  Who could ask for more?

A V-8 only insinuates virility; multiple child seats prove it. With a title like this, and multiple car seats in my car, I have to include the post.

And finally, here are some tips to save time with email: Email Sucks.

Finally, a list of the carnivals and blogs I’ve participated in:

Dustin at Engaged Marriage was kind enough to run my guest post: Arguing Fairly with your Spouse.

I was included in the Carnival of Personal Finance with Check Your Bills.

Repair Plans, Appliances, and Rancid Meat…Oh, My! was included in the Carnival of Money Stories.

Selling Your Home: The Real Estate Agent was included in the Festival of Frugality.

If I missed a carnival, please let me know.  Thanks to those who have included me!

Integrity

Life

I’ve spent my entire adult life trying to live to a fairly strict code of behavior.

Dragon-Knights
Dragon-Knights (Photo credit: JimmytheJ)

I don’t cheat.  Not at games, in my relationships, on my taxes, nothing.  I don’t cut corners or try to get away with things.

The reason isn’t that I’m trying to be some fictional knight in a storybook.  It’s been my experience that cutting those corners always seems to be more expensive in the long run, whether it’s fines, lost friends and relationships, or even a general crappiness of life.  The people I know who are always trying to get away with stuff or get ahead at someone else’s expense have the least, whether that’s money, friends, loved ones, or happiness.

Living a noble, honorable life has benefits.  

I don’t pay fines and penalties often.  Just the occasional speeding ticket, but that’s been one in the last 10+ years.  Not getting fined for parking in a handicap spot or cheating on my taxes makes it far easier to save my money and build my wealth than constantly handing money over to the government.  I’ve got a friend who can’t keep himself away from the justice system.  Spending 3 or more months in jail every year makes it hard to keep a job or have a relationship with your family.

My friends know they are my friends.  They can count on me and that means I can count on them.  They also know that if that equation falls out of balance, it will be over.  I only want friends I can count on.  If you can’t have my back, or you feel a need to gossip about my life, I don’t want you in it.

My kids have no insecurities about my love.  They know I am here for them, no matter what happens.  Even if the occasional temper tantrum has them screaming that I clearly hate them, they know better.  They know this father’s love is unconditional.

Work trusts me.  Last year, I basically created the department I work in my telling my boss that I was sure I could make it work.

I have some badass karma.  In general my life if pretty good, and I like to think it’s because I work to be a good person, do good things, and treat the people in my life right.

There are some downsides.   Not everyone lives like this and I have problems relating to them.   I’m not a sympathetic person to someone who tries to duck out on child support or who has to spend 30 days in the workhouse for trying to hock a stolen stereo.  I can come across as a bit self-righteous.

I expect the people in my life to live the same way and treat me the same way.  When that fails to happen, those people are nearly always evicted from life.

Life’s too short for people willing to screw you over.

Sometimes, though, that eviction is too complicated to do quickly, cleanly, or easily.  That’s can be a turmoil in my life, and I hate turmoil.   I don’t normally have to debate the correct course of action.   Something is either right or it’s not.  If it’s not, I know it and it doesn’t get done.   If I have to wonder, then it’s definitely not right.

Every once in a while, I get stuck with a choice between shitty options and that’s where this system fails.   Sometimes, no option is good, right, and proper.  Every choice has a big downside, and none of the choices are clearly right.

That’s turmoil.  Indecisive, emotional, horrible turmoil.

How was your day?

Enhanced by Zemanta

Black Friday

Finance

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Today being the biggest shopping day of the year, I thought I’d get in the game.

First, instead of helping you spend money, I’m going to help you save it.  As I’ve mentioned before, I am a big fan of INGDirect.   They make it easy to create savings accounts for specific savings goals and they have a decent interest rate.  I’ve never had a problem with any of my accounts.

For Black Friday(through Sunday!), they are offering the following:

  • Earn $103. Open Electric Orange November 26th – 28th, and make a total of 7 purchases using your Electric Orange Card or Person2Person Payments (or any combination of the two) within 45 days.
  • Open a Kids Savings Account November 26th – 28th and we’ll(ING) put a $25 bonus into your new account.
  • Use your Electric Orange Debit MasterCard® at least one time from  8:00 AM ET, November 26th – 7:59 PM ET, November 26th, and you’ll be automatically entered into the 100% Cash Back Giveaway.
  • Open a 36-month IRA CD with ING DIRECT November 26th – November 28th and get 2.00% Annual Percentage Yield (APY). Ask them about work at home moms and dads spousal IRA.
  • Apply online November 26th – 28th for Easy Orange or the Orange Mortgage or call a Mortgage Specialist at 1-866-327-4599 and get up to $2,000 off closing costs. If your costs are less than $2,000, you pay nothing.
  • 25% rebate on Sharebuilder trades that execute today or Monday.

Click here to open an account with the best bank to ever hold my money.

Now, to help you spend some money.

All of my websites are hosted by HostGator.   I’ve never had noticeable downtime or any technical problems.  The one issue I had that couldn’t be controlled by their interface was fixed by technical support in minutes.  Not hours, minutes.  They are having an amazing deal today.   From 5AM to 9AM CST, all of their products are 80% off.    The rest of the day, it’s all 50% off.  Unfortunately, this doesn’t apply to existing customers, but if you are looking for a website host, paying $35 for 3 years of hosting can’t be beat.

Click here to open an account.

Answer: How Much Term Life Insurance Do I Need to Buy?

Finance

From a question posted here:

Thank you for all your help in my previous question. After meeting with the agent, I’ve decided on term life insurance over whole life. But I am still not sure how much term life I should buy. Should I buy as much as I could afford or some specific amount?

My answer(edited a bit):

That question is far too open-ended.

Are you married?  If yes, are you the primary breadwinner?  Do you have children?  Investments?  Savings?

Here’s my situation:

I am married, with three children.  I have the primary income.

We have a mortgage, a car payment, and some consumer debt.

I added up all of the debt as my base level of term life insurance.  My family will not be burdened with debt if anything happens to me.

To the base level, I added 5 years of my net income.  Without changing a thing, my family will be supported exactly as is for 5 years if I die.   They won’t, however, have the same level of expenses, due to the base level of insurance paying off all debt.   All of my living expenses also evaporate.  For example, there will be one car sold, one less mouth to feed and body to dress, etc.

I figure with the lower expenses and no debt, my insurance will support my family for 10 to 15 years if my wife manages the money right.   If she continues to work, it should last almost forever.

How do you figure the “right” amount of life insurance?[ad name=”inlineright”]