- RT @mymoneyshrugged: The government breaks your leg, and hands you a crutch saying "see without me, you couldn't walk." #
- @bargainr What weeks do you need a FoF host for? in reply to bargainr #
- Awesome tagline: The coolest you'll look pooping your pants. Yay, @Huggies! #
- A textbook is not the real world. Not all business management professors understand marketing. #
- RT @thegoodhuman: Walden on work "spending best part of one's life earning money in order to enjoy (cont) http://tl.gd/2gugo6 #
Quality Time – The Best Way to Enjoy Time With Your Kids
- Image via Wikipedia
It’s hard to know your kids.
We live in a world of constant distraction. Working full time, chasing the kids to whatever activities they’re enrolled in, play-dates, and other commitments all conspire to chase you away from the one thing that truly matters: your family. It’s not enough to be merely present, you have to be engaged.
How can you carve some time out of your hectic schedule to spend time that your kids will never forget?
We play a lot of games in my family and we start far younger than the recommended ages on any of the games we own. I taught my oldest kid to play chess when he was 4 and he caught on well enough to teach his grandmother within a few months. If a game doesn’t require reading, the recommended age is complete fiction. A two-year-old can count, so Sorry! is a good game. 5-year-olds can add, so Monopoly is a good choice that reinforces math skills.
To keep it fun, we have a few generic rules for playing games.
1. We play for blood. Nobody gets to win a game without earning it. It took my son 5 years to beat me in a game of chess. Two years later, he’s still bragging about it.
2. Losers don’t cry. Sportsmanship is important. It’s no fun to play with someone who throws a tantrum for losing. My son’s friends learned that lesson in a hurry.
3. If you’re not a good winner, you won’t play the next game. We talk a little smack when we play, but it’s only in fun. When someone gets mean, their gaming privileges get suspended.
4. The TV is off. We don’t need more distractions. No TV, no texting, no phone, no nothing. Game time is about family time, not about letting the outside world in. Guard this time with your life. I even hesitate to bring in other friends.
5. Video games don’t count. You get far less interaction when you’re staring at a screen. The goal is to have a good conversation while you’re playing and really get to know your family. You can’t do that when the only words coming out of your mouth are “Ack! Zombie Nazis! Shoot him!”
Board games and card games are relatively inexpensive. Settlers of Catan costs less than a trip to the movies. The games don’t wear out quickly, though we are on our third copy of Phase 10. For the price and the time, you don’t have any excuses.
How do you spend time with your kids?
Top 7 Reasons To Trade Forex Over Other Financial Instruments
This is a guest post provided by ForexTraders.com
The foreign exchange market has literally exploded over the last 10 years. Before the 1990’s, the only players allowed to speculate in the forex market were banks, large hedge funds, and very wealthy individuals. The reason was simple. The minimum contract size was usually $100,000 and it ranged up to $1,000,000; therefore, most traders simply could not afford to trade in the market. The advance of technology and internet changed that. Today, traders can open an account with as little as $100 and begin trading in the spot fx market. This change has caused traders around the world to rush into the market and the Bank of International Settlements now estimates that average daily turnover in the fx market is around $4 trillion! Let’s examine a few of the top reasons why the fx market is drawing so many traders.
Leverage
In the United States, traders that engage in fx trading can leverage 50:1. Leverage was much higher in recent years, but government regulations have now capped leverage at 50:1 effective late October. This means that a forex trader can control a position of $50,000 with only $1,000 on deposit with his broker. Leverage is definitely a two-edged sword that can help a trader garner very quick and substantial profits, but it can also lead to debilitating losses and should therefore be used with caution.
Liquidity
The huge amount of volume that is present in the forex market each day makes it basically impossible for any single financial institution or even group of market participants to manipulate price movements. It also makes it much easier for large traders to enter and exit the market without trading against themselves, which is a common problem in the stock and commodity markets.
24 Hour Market
The forex market is a loosely connected network of international banks; therefore, the market never closes from Sunday evening until Friday afternoon. Liquidity simply flows from financial center to financial center as time zones open and close business operations for the day. This is a huge advantage for small, retail traders because those who still have full-time jobs can trade at night.
Small Initial Account Size
Traders can open accounts with as little as $1 at some brokers, and then trade positions where each 1 point movement is equivalent to $0.01 (in the U.S. this would be lower since the leverages are capped at 1:50). This will obviously never get a trader rich, but it does allow traders a very low risk entrance into the market. Traders generally need $20,000 in order to day trade the stock market. This very low account size at an online forex broker is a big draw for many traders.
Long Trends
The currency market tends to develop very clear, long trends. It is not uncommon for specific currencies to head in the same direction for 5+ years. Of course, there are many dramatic price swings that make real-time trading difficult and challenging, but a quick look at longer-term currency price charts makes it clear that currencies develop strong trends.
Macro Economics
The currency market is very big picture-based. This means there are not a million and one little things that a trader has to track as is common in other financial markets. Currencies react to major macroeconomic developments around the world. Seasoned fx professionals argue that this makes the job of economic analysis much different in the currency market.
Continued Growth and Volatility
The foreign exchange market is expected to continue to grow in coming years, and volatility is expected to remain quite strong as the world continues to move toward a more globalized economy. As globalization continues to change the world economy, investor interest in currencies will most likely continue to grow steadily.
Jason’s commentary: I’ve never looked into forex trading, mostly because I’m not in the “invest & grow rich” stage of my financial life. Have you invested in the forex market?
30 Day Project – January
This month, I have two 30 Day Projects.
My first project is to start waking up at 5am. This will add an extra 90 minutes to my day, which will give me time to manage all of my other 30 day projects. I’ll be able to wake up to a quiet house, walk the dog, eat breakfast and not start every day in a rush to get out of the house. Today was my exception. After watching 2010 arrive, I didn’t get up early.
The second project is to start reading to my children every night before bed. We read to the kids often, but not every day. That’s going to change. We are also working on breaking the girls of the family bed. If I can read them to sleep each night, it will help. Good, educational family time that makes it easier to sleep every night.
These are both habits I want to keep long after the month is up.
Failure! 30 Day Project Summary – March
My 30 Day Project for the month of March has been to do 100 sit-ups in a single set. Based on February’s results, I had a plan.
I will be doing 5 sets, morning and night, as follows:
Set 1: Half of my maximum amount.
Sets 2-4: 3/4 of my max.
Set 5: Do sit-ups until my abs start to cramp, thus setting my max for the next session.
I failed miserably.
It started off perfectly. My base amount was 20 sit-ups. I had a plan. I’d proven, at least to myself, that I was able to follow an intense workout plan, even through pain. I was encouraged by February’s results, so I dove in.
The first 3 or 4 days went well. I had some muscle strain, but that was expected. I hadn’t done sit-ups for years. I discovered muscles I actually hadn’t known existed, just from how they hurt. This was the good pain, the pain that shows progress. After doing the push-ups in February, this pain wasn’t as bad as I had expected. Push-ups are an excellent ab workout.
Maybe I became complacent. Either my form slipped, or I was going too fast and “bounced” through the sit-ups, but I pulled a muscle in my back. This was the bad pain, the pain that warns of fundamental problems. My form, my size, my history of back problems, who knows? One or more of those possible problems reared up to turn an excellent idea into a disaster. March’s plan got sidelined for a few days.
When my back was better, I started again. Again, everything was fine for 3 or 4 days. Then my back betrayed me, again. Another break, another try, another strain and I gave up. I made it to 50, then just stopped. Too much more, and I wouldn’t be able to tolerate sitting at my desk. Or maybe I just wimped out, afraid to hurt my back again.
I’m disappointed. I haven’t done a single sit-up in the last week.
To make matters worse, without the sit-ups to do in the morning, I’ve been letting myself snooze my alarm clock instead of getting up at 5. March has been such a slacker month.
Lesson learned: Always listen to your body. Don’t get tied into a specific routine–even one you created for yourself–if your body is demanding to stop. Watch your form and make sure you aren’t putting undue strain on anything that can cause long-term damage.
Lesson learned, part II: Push-ups are more fun and less painful than sit-ups. They will be getting incorporated into my ongoing routine.
Ending the sit-ups did leave me enough energy to get an early start on April’s 30 Day Project. The goal for next month is to declutter every room in the house: Every closet, every dresser, every drawer.
To start, we replaced our son’s dresser, bed, and desk with a loft-bed that combines the three. While transferring items from the desk and dresser to the new bed, everything was sorted to make sure it still fit and was used and useful. If it didn’t meet those criteria, it was either tossed or priced and boxed for a garage sale.
In the girls’ room, we removed a dresser, the changing table, a toddler bed, a convertible crib/toddler bed. It all got replaced with a set of bunk beds and the dresser we took from our son. Everything got the same garage-sale check before it was put away.
Both of these changes easily tripled the usable floor space in each room and all of the kids love their new beds. Using the magic of Craigslist, I think we got the new furniture for 10-15% of retail, and have old furniture to add to our sale, which will further defray the cost.
This leaves the master bedroom, the bathroom, the front closet, the kitchen and our entire basement to go. Shoes and jackets that have never been worn. Books that will never be reread. Bye-bye. Some of it will be painful, but we all realize it’s necessary. We’ve already filled more than 2 dozen boxes of stuff to sell. None of it is coming back in the house. If it doesn’t sell, we’re donating it.
More to come as we progress through the mountains of crap.
Chains of Servitude Update
It’s been almost exactly one year since I told my wife that we were either going to take control of our finances or file bankruptcy.
At that time, we were spending at least $500 more each month than we made, and often, it was $1000 more. We had more than $5000 accumulated on our overdraft line of credit, more than $30,000 in credit card debt, $2500 on a student loan, $12,000 on a car note, and our mortgage.
Our savings were nonexistent. We had automatic deposits established, but we’d transfer the money out right away to cover other expenses. Everything that came up was an emergency and a surprise. We had no real idea how much our lifestyles cost or what it actually took to maintain.
Maintaining our finances took several hours every payday to balance the checkbook and pay bills.
Fast forward 1 year. The student loan is gone, the line of credit will be gone next month, and the car loan will be paid off before the end of the year. We’ve reduced our total debt load by more than 20%.
We have a useful emergency fund and we’re meeting our other savings goals, including a college fund for the kids. We don’t have extremely high balances, but it’s reassuring to have more than a couple of months of expenses in our savings accounts.
We’ve automated almost everything and gone to a cash-only system. I now spend about 20 minutes a month balancing the checkbook and less than 5 minutes paying bills.
A year ago, we were in a hole, digging as fast as we could. Now, we can see the end of the debt tunnel and we are rushing as fast as we can to get there. According to my debt spreadsheet, we will be completely debt free in just under 4 years, ignoring any money coming from our side-hustles and work bonuses.
We’re making better progress than I had hoped for, and it keeps getting easier. Smart spending is becoming a habit, instead of a just wishful thinking.
Update: This post has been included in the Carnival of Debt Reduction.
