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Meditation

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?

Ten Easy Ways to Cut Spending at Home

Finance

With the sorry state of the economy over recent years, most home-owners are looking at ways to cut down on monthly spends without being frugal. These are ten simple steps to save your household £100s without missing out on home comforts;

Invest in ISAs. Taxes are becoming a bigger pain than ever before, the only way to avoid the sting in the governments tail is to invest in ISAs. Although there are standard cash ISAs, Stocks and Shares ISAs offer the opportunity to invest for less. This can be risky so only invest what you could afford to lose in the worst case scenario, however if you invest wisely you could potentially bring in a handy amount of cash at the end of your ISA investment term. [Ed. For my American readers, ISAs are tax-sheltered savings or investment accounts.]
Do the weekly shop online. A site like mysupermarket.co.uk offers up all your regular shopping goods but compares the price from all major supermarkets (Tesco, Asda, Ocado and Sainsburys) to make sure you pay the best price for your weekly shop. It saves you the time and effort of battling through supermarket crowds and paying over the odds for your weekly shop. Sites such as Topcashback offer money back on your total bill (up for 10%), giving you something for nothing, which these days can’t be ignored!
Homemade not Homepride! It might be the easy option, but ready meals come with a large mark up. By ditching the meals in favour of freshly prepared food you can save yourself a packet and learn a new skill to capitalise on in the future perhaps. Visit local markets for your produce at a far lower price than the local supermarket. So overall, you’re saving money and benefiting from the best, freshest local produce.
Satellite vs. Freeview. When it comes to your TV package you must choose wisely. Packages range from around £50 a month for those who demand all the sports and movie channels, to £13 one off cost for Freeview, dependant on what box you chose. Weigh up if you really need most, hundreds of channels you never watch or an extra £50 a month. [Ed. My basic currency conversion is £1 = $2. It’s not perfect, but it is close enough.]
Household insurance shouldn’t cost the earth. Although this is a safety net, not a legal necessity, most households prefer the security of knowing that if disaster strikes, it won’t strike your bank balance. With sites like moneysupermarket.com it is simple to find the cheapest policy for you, only taking a few minutes but potentially saving hundreds.
Ditch the DIY bodging. With the majority of households carrying out regular DIY, hardware stores are raking in the profits when it all goes wrong. We can’t all be natural born handymen and women but with the help of local courses you can be trained in the art of household maintenance for around £100, a bargain when you compare the costs of getting in the professionals to fix DIY disasters. [Ed. Youtube is also a great resource to learn DIY repairs.]
Auction your clutter. If we’re being honest, we all have that cupboard at home filled with things we really don’t need and will never use! It’s time to be cutthroat and unemotional, get the laptop out and auction everything that hasn’t been used for a year. Don’t use the excuse of ‘it might come back into fashion’ or ‘that’ll come in handy one day’, it won’t and by getting rid you benefit from extra cash and extra space – win/win.
Swap top brands for own brand. I’m not saying settle for foods you dislike, but often you can benefit from supermarket own brands without your taste buds suffering. Items like tinned fruit and veg, bread and butter all taste extremely similar, weather you penny pinch or splash the cash. So trade in your £1.25 loaf of bread in favour for one costing 20p and see if you notice the difference.
Stick to a shopping list. By shopping for a list and sticking to it, it cuts out impulse buys that are responsible for the shock you receive when you get to the tills. Plan your weekly meals and simply buy what you need, cutting waste and potentially cutting your waistline! Also try to avoid 3 for the price of 2 deals on products with a shelf life, as often this results in a bin full of gone off food!
Invest in Skype. To cut down on costly phone bills, use Skype where necessary. An internet let service, it allows you to call and video call people with Skype for free, or phone normal phone lines for a fraction of the cost of using your usual phone line. With free to download software, you would be silly to throw away money on costly phone bills.

Article written by Moneysupermarket.com.

Watching My Debt

Finance

: Image by Getty Images via @daylife

I’m so excited. Yesterday, I transferred the final payment for my personal line of credit. This LOC was originally my overdraft protection LOC that had worked it’s way up to $6000 at 21%. Today, it is non-existent.

We started to pay down debt on April 15th, 2009. Since that time, we have paid off $22, 370.70 of our debt. That isn’t $22,370.00 in payments, that is a $22k reduction in our total debt! By my calculations, we have made approximately $28,000 in payments to get that reduction. Next week, we cross the line for 25% of debt eliminated. This is a good day.

Over the last 14 months, we’ve settled into much more responsible spending and saving habits. It no longer feels like we’re sacrificing our lifestyle. We’ve built up a useful emergency fund and set aside money for some things that we know are coming, like braces for my son. In 6 weeks, we are taking our first debt-less vacation.

Now, we start on the long slog to the end. We have 3 debts left to pay: Our last car loan(ever!), one credit card which was an accumulation of pretending we were making progress on our debt by combining many debts onto one card, and finally, our mortgage. The car will be paid by the end of the year. When summer childcare expenses are over, we’ll be making triple payments until it is gone. After that, we have a long, slow couple of years paying off the credit card.

It hasn’t always been easy, but right now, it feels good to look at the progress we’ve made.

Update: This post has been included in the Carnival of Debt Reduction.

Time vs Money Redux

Finance

Saving money is a good thing

Saving time is a good thing.

Somewhere in between, there has to be a balance. It’s possible to spend far too much time to save very little money.

For example, on September 30th, I left for the Financial Blogger’s Conference. Thinking I’d be frugal and save a little money, I told my GPS to avoid the toll roads. According to Google maps, the cheap route should have added 20 minutes to my trip. Coming into Illinois from Wisconsin on the toll roads, it’s easy to spend that much time waiting to pay the toll, since I don’t own an Illinois magic toll-paying box.

Unfortunately, the little smart-a** suction-cupped to my windshield sent mebthrough every construction zone between Wisconsin and Schaumberg, Illinois.

That sucks.

I went through a series of little towns with speed limits that randomly changed from block to block. Road construction had half of the roads down to just one lane. All told, I saved $3.40, judging by the tolls heading home, but the horrible detour cost me well over an hour and a half of time.

I saved $3.40, but lost 90 minutes. That’s not a good return on investment.

Just a month ago, I was ripping into my mother-in-law for wasting half an hour to save 75 cents. Then I have to go and demonstrate how horrible I am at making that save time vs money judgement.

I need to work on that.

What’s the most time you’ve spent to save a small amount of money?

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.”

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.