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New Year Goals

Misc

I’m not a fan of New Year’s Resolutions.  They are generally drunken promises made  on December 31st that are broken by the middle of January, if they are remembered at all.  I don’t make resolutions.

My goal for 2010 is to complete one major self-improvement project each month.  That’s an entire year of 30-day projects.   As each month goes on, I will be updating this blog with the status of each project.  Some of the projects will be physical, some will be mental, some will be improvements on my relationships.  My goal is to do something meaningful, useful and challenging each month.

Here’s my list:

  • January:   Wake up at 5am AND read to my kids every night before bed.
  • February:  Do 100 push-ups at one time by the end of the month.  There is also a secret project this month.  I’ll be keeping notes and posting in March.
  • March:  Do 100 sit-ups at one time by the end of the month.
  • April:  Spring Cleaning.  I will declutter every room in my house this month.
  • May:  Have a sit-down dinner with my family, at the dining room table at least 3 times per week.
  • June:  No computer use, while anyone else in the family is awake, except for household necessities, such as bills.
  • July:  Write fiction every day.
  • August:  Buy nothing new this month.
  • September:  Attempt to learn a new language.  http://ijaar.com/29-free-websites-to-learn-a-new-language/
  • October:   No yelling at the kids.
  • November:  No complaining.  Not at home, not at work.
  • December:  I will have done 14 projects this year.  December is a month off.

Build a Bunker: How to make a vault without breaking the bank

Life

The door to the walk-in vault in the Winona Sa...
Image via Wikipedia

In your home, you should be safe.  When the crappy things happen and somebody decides they want what you have, how easy will it be for them to get it?   Is your home a convenience store, or is it more trouble than it’s worth?

Some people will avoid making themselves safer because they think that will make them a “paranoid nut”.  In reality, they are just making themselves easy victims.  The sad fact is that evil exists and it does not care how you feel about it.

Other people think that it will be too expensive to fix up their home.  While you can spend as much as you want on a security system, it’s possible to get started for little-to-no money and still be more effective than 95% of everyone else.

There are a few simple things you can do to make your house less attractive to thieves, and to protect what you have if they do decide to make your home a target.

  1. Lock your doors. This costs nothing, but gives you a first line of defense that can’t be beat.  If someone is going to break into your house, make them work for it and force them to be noisy about getting in.  Keep the door locked, even if you are awake and alert.  It’s a simple thing that can make a huge difference.  Most exterior doorknobs have a setting to stay locked at all times, so there’s nothing for you to remember.
  2. Reinforce your door. If you’ve ever installed a doorknob, you’ve seen the little screws they give you to attach the strike-plate.   Those screws aren’t long enough to make it through the decorative trim.   One swift kick and those screws will pop right out and let your door swing open.  The $2 fix? Replace those cute little baby screws with 3 inch screws that can reach the studs in your wall.  Do that where the hinges attach, too.  Tada!  You’ve made your house a bit more of a pain in the butt for a thief.  Don’t forget to treat the door to an attached garage the same way.
  3. Install a motion-activated security light. When a thief is thinking about getting into your house, they don’t want the lights on, so install a light for them.  If possibly, put it too high for someone to reach.
  4. Lock your screen door. If someone comes to your door, and you open your door, you are removing any protection a door would normally offer.  If you have a screen door, and it’s locked, you are gaining precious seconds to shut and lock your main door if the person on the other side doesn’t have your best interests at heart.
  5. Lock your car in your driveway. If you have an attached garage, keep a garage door opener in your car, and don’t lock your car, you are giving every crook who passes by a free pass into your home.  Lock your car and at least make life difficult for the little thug.
  6. Consider getting an alarm system. You can get an unmonitored wireless alarm system for about $100.  It won’t call the cops, but it will let you know if someone comes into your house and it’s a snap to install.
  7. Put your cell-phone charger in your bedroom. If you need to call 911, you don’t want to have to run to the kitchen to get your phone.  Keep it where you will be if and when you’ll need it.

There, seven tips that will cost you less than $150 to implement, but will go a long way towards keeping yourself safe.

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Balance Your Borked Budget

Finance

You’ve got a budget worked out to the penny.  You know every dollar that comes in and every dime that you spend.    All of your bills are getting paid on time.  Then, one day, it all comes crashing down. Your budget is no longer even a reasonable approximation of your cash flow.  You’ve got no idea what’s coming in or going out.   Bills are piling up and fees are digging you deeper in debt.

What happened?  More importantly, how do you get back on track?

The first thing you need to do is identify the problem. What, exactly, went wrong?  Did you lose your job or need a surprise botox injection?  Your car died or your kid developed a hockey habit?  Sports car or shoe sale?  Whatever the cause, if you can’t identify it, you can’t deal with it.  Some of the possible problems may be things that can get clubbed and buried in the backyard, while other things may be expenses that won’t be going away.    If it’s a one-time expense, you can simply refocus your debt repayment to take it into account.  If it’s an ongoing expense, you will need to adjust your other expenses, possibly in a drastic manner, to make ends meet.  You can’t know which way to go without knowing what caused the problem.

Next, commit to to making it right. Don’t leave it at a mere commitment.  Actually commit and actually do it right. Future-you is counting on you to fix the problem before he gets screwed.   This is important.  Without firm–and real–commitment, nothing else will matter.  At best, you will be treading water.  At worst, you will drown yourself in unanticipated bills.

Cut everything extra.   Every expense–whether it’s your mortgage or your maid–is a rock in your pocket, one hundred miles from shore.  How much can you carry and stay afloat?  This isn’t the time to keep paying something because you enjoy it.  If it isn’t absolutely necessary, it’s got to go.  Cut your internet, cancel Netflix, learn to shut off the lights when you aren’t using them.   Is the early termination fee less than 6 months of your cable bill, your satellite bill?  Cancel it.    You can always sign up again later.  This is the time to be ruthless.

Is there a way to bring in some extra cash?  Can you pick up a second job, or land a freelancing gig?  If you’ve suddenly found yourself unemployed, can you spend some time on being a Mechanical Turk?  Sell all of the things you don’t use anymore, or, more likely, never should have bought in the first place?  Do you have a spare kidney?

Remember, this is a drastic situation calling for drastic measures.  Your future is depending on you.  Don’t make him come back and kick your butt.

Update:  This post has been included in the Carnival of Personal Finance.

3 Habits Every Soon-to-be-Successful Debtor Needs to Cultivate

Finance

Getting out of debt is primarily a matter of changing your habits.   We’ve all heard people swear by skipping your morning cup of coffee to get rich, but that’s just a small habit.   Much more important are the big habits, the lifestyle habits.  Here are 5 habits to cultivate for financial success.

Frugality

“Beware of little expenses; a small leak will sink a great ship”– Benjamin Franklin

As Chris Farrel wrote in “The New Frugality“, being frugal is not about being cheap, but finding the best value for your money.  When my wife and I had our second baby, we couldn’t justify spending $170 on a breast pump, so we bought the $30 model.   It was quite a bit slower than the expensive model, and was only a “single action”, but for $140 of savings, it seemed worth the trade.   Six weeks later, it burned out so we bought a new one, still afraid to justify $170 on quality.   This thing took at least 45 minutes to do its job.  When it burned out 6 weeks later, we decided to go with the high-end model.   This beauty had dual pumps, “baby-mouth simulation” and it was fast.  The time was cut from a minimum of 45 minutes to a maximum of 15.   That’s 3 hours of life reclaimed each day fro $140. Six months of breastfeeding for each of two kids means my wife regained 45 days of her life in exchange for that small amount of money.   At the rate of 6 weeks per burnout, we would have gone through 8 cheap pumps, costing $240.   The high-end unit was still going strong when we weaned baby #3.  Buying quality saved us both time and money. I wish we would have gone with the good one from the start.  Sometimes, the expensive option is also the cheap option.

Maturity

A very sad, sad panda :(
Image via Wikipedia

“Maturity is achieved when a person postpones immediate pleasures for long-term values.” -Joshua Loth Liebman

Being a mature, rational adult is hard.   It means accepting delayed gratification over the more enjoyable instant variety. We save for retirement instead of charging a vacation.  It takes a lot of restraint to put off buying the latest toys, clothes, gadgets,  cars or whatever else is currently turning your crank until you actually have the money to actually afford it.   It means planning your future instead of looking like a surprised bunny caught in a spotlight every time your property taxes come due.   (Who knew that the year changed every year?  Do they really expect annual payments annually?  Geez!  There’s so much to learn!)   It means thinking about your purchases and buying what you actually need, actually want, and will actually use instead of resorting to retail therapy whenever you feel like a sad panda.    The only benefit to mature, rational management of your finances is that, given time, you will have the security of knowing that, no matter what happens, you will be okay.   That’s a huge benefit.

Pleasure

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“Do not bite at the bait of pleasure, till you know there is no hook beneath it.” – Thomas Jefferson

If it hurts, you won’t do it.   You have to learn to take pleasure from from things that won’t make you broke and you have to learn not to hate putting off the things you can’t afford.    Take pleasure in the little things.  Enjoy the time with your family.  Presence means so much more than presents. So many people never learn how to enjoy themselves.  Take the time to experience life and enjoy doing it.

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

Focusing on the Now

Life, Relationships

Delorean DMC-12
Delorean DMC-12 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

My company uses a service called KnowYourCompany, that sends three emails each week to the entire staff.   Each email asks a question that the staff can either respond to publicly, or just to the company leadership team.

The questions follow a formula.

On Monday, we get an email asking what we are working on.  This allows us to see what everyone is doing, and in theory, makes offering your skills easier to do because you can see what you might be able to help with.

On Wednesday, the question is something about the company or our interaction with the company.  One week this question was as simple as “Are there any company policies that aren’t completely clear?”

On Friday, the question is more personal.  It’s a getting-to-know-each-other question.  Last Friday’s question was “What’s something you want to do in the next year that you’ve never done before?”

I found that I don’t have an answer.

Right now, I don’t have any long-term goals.  Recently, my personal life has been complicated enough that the idea of planning for later this year–much less the next 5 or 10 years–is more than I can deal with.

My side hustle goals are focused entirely on what needs to happen in the next week.  Work goals are only a month out.    My personal goals involve making it through the next few days without letting anything collapse.

Sometimes, life kicks you in the crotch so hard, you have to let the future worry about itself while you focus on what’s happening right now.  Without a functional present, the future doesn’t matter.  You have to focus on the Now first, or everything else evaporates.

It’s not a great situation, but it is an interesting perspective.  I’ve spent so much of the last decade focusing on what comes next that what’s happening right now has suffered.

Focus on Now.  Sometimes, What’s Next can take care of itself for a while.

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