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30 Day Project – February

Life, Relationships

My 30 Day Project for February is to be able to do 100 push-ups in a single set.   The most common reaction when I talk about it?  “You’re nuts!”

Is it ambitious to the point of being aggressive?  You bet.   30 Day Projects aren’t supposed to be easy.   This is going to be a difficult painful month.

On the other hand, I have five fingers.   How many people do you know able to do 100 pushups?  I don’t know any.  In 4 weeks, I will know one.

What have I done to prepare?  Nada.  Nothing.  Zip.  Zilch.  I am starting this from scratch.

Here’s my plan:

At this moment, I can d0 20 pushups.  I am going to start with 5 sets of 2/3 of my max(14) with a one minute break in between sets .  That will happen in the morning and before bed.   Each session will involve more pushups.  I need to add about 3 to a set each day to get to 100 by the end of the month.

Now, it’s entirely possible that I won’t be able to manage 5 sets of 14, or that my progression is unmanageable.  That’s ok.  I refuse to test my endurance on this, and I’ve done no research.  I’m flexible and willing to adjust my plan to match reality.

Aggressive and painful.  Wish me luck.

Link Roundup

Misc

In an effort to make sure that both of my readers can’t possibly miss the things I think are important, I’m going to start doing a weekly roundup of the best of the internet.   Judged solely, and arbitrarily, by me.

On topic:

These, naturally, are the posts that fit the theme of this site.

How To Check Your Federal IRS Tax Refund Status. When I checked a couple of days ago, they were about 2 weeks out.

TurboTax has screwed up the property tax refund form for Minnesota.  Thankfully, I haven’t filed this, yet, but I did verify the problem.

Where do you want to be in 5 years? Start taking those steps, now, or you will never get there.   Find something, no matter how small, and do it.

Deficit Neutrality doesn’t count, if a massive initial purchase is offset by future intentions to cut spending.

Off topic:

This is just some of the random crap I think is worth sharing.

If you’re going to argue on the internet, make sure you have your sources right. Primary sources are better than secondary.

Bring back dueling to ensure good manners.

Here’s a guide to saving water-damaged books.

I am a shameless geek and reformed DnD player, so this room was exciting to see.

Saturday Roundup: Winter Wonderland

Misc

Today, I am planning to be on the receiving end of a foot of snow coming in at 30 miles per hour. Tomorrow, when it’s time to clean all that crap out, it will be 30 degrees below zero. Fun!

The drawing for a $100 Amazon gift card is still going on!   Go here for details.  It ends on the 15th, so you have 4 more days.

Best Posts

Santa’s got a new phone number!   It plays a simple message when you call it, but it’s an easy way to make a little kids smile.

How many days of your life did that that new gadget cost you?

Go watch Crystal get all survivalist and stuff.  Have you ever though about what would happen if the world as you knew it ended?  Even for a few days, say, after a hurricane hit?

It’s great to live in the future.  I can’t wait to hit Lunar Starbucks.

LRN Timewarp

For those unfortunate enough to not have been tuned in since the beginning, I’m going to spend some time reviewing posts from a year ago.

In How to Have a Perfect Life, I layout the planning necessary to live a life you don’t regret on your deathbed.   Just take the first step.

Babies are Expensive is one of my most-visited posts to date, and was my first carnival submission, and my first editor’s pick for that submission.  The truth is, babies are expensive, but they don’t have to break the bank.

Don’t Screw Future-You was a fun post to write.  What would the you from 20 years in the future have to say to you?

Carnivals I’ve Rocked

Consumer Action Handbook was included in the Carnival of Personal Finance.

Mistakes Made was included in the Carnival of Money Stories.

Thank you! If I missed anyone, please let me know.

You’re Gonna Die, Part 1

Life

Death of a surrealist soldier
Image by funadium via Flickr

If you knew you were going to die tomorrow, what would you do today? How would you spend your last hours?  Would you go skydiving before the chance evaporated forever, or would you spend the day talking with your loved ones?

If you knew you would die in a month, what would you do?  Would you plan a trip to the one place in the world you’ve always wanted to see?  Would you look up all the friends you’ve been too busy to see?

What would you regret?  Is there something you have always wished you’d done, but have put off for some reason or another?  Do you want to write a novel, or backpack Europe, or watch a shuttle launch?   Far more people regret opportunities missed than those they’ve taken.  If there is something that you could do that would let you die happy, take steps today to make that a reality.  Remember that you are probably not going to die in a day or a month, but don’t let your entire life slip away without doing the things that matter most to you.

Our lives are short.  Far too short to waste time on the things that add no value.  Everything you do should advance your happiness, either short-term or long.  That doesn’t mean you should waste your life pursuing hedonism.  Lives need meaning.  Chase that meaning.

Find out what gives your life meaning.  What do you do that lets you go to bed with a smile on your face?  Those are the activities that you should maximize.  What is wasting your time?  You can probably shut off the news and never miss it.   It’s just too much information that doesn’t add anything to your life.   Does obsessing over Charlie Sheen’s latest antics ad any value to your life?   Take that time and write a screenplay, take a walk, smell a flower, hug your kids, anything that provides actual value for you.  Don’t waste your life on meaningless activities that do nothing more than kill time.  Time is the one thing we have that we will not get back.

Many people go to their deathbeds thinking, “I wish I had X.”  What is your X?  What would you wish you had done?

 

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Selling Your Car

Finance

English: Jalopy car in Joshua Tree National Pa...

English: Jalopy car in Joshua Tree National Park in Hidden Valley Campground (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When it’s time to replace your car, most people focus on the new car, instead of the old, but that is ignoring real money.  Your old car–unless it has disintegrated–still has value.  Sometimes, it’s just time to ask yourself, “When should I sell my car?”

When you’re looking to sell your car (like with We Will Buy Your Car), you generally have several options:

  1. Tow & crush. If your car has been wrecked, doesn’t run, or is just old and beat up, you may be stuck with calling a junkyard and accepting $50 for them to pick up your car and crush it for scrap.
  2. Trade it in. This is probably the least hassle, but–other than #1–doesn’t pay well.  Dealerships are willing to pay something under what they will get at a wholesale auction, which is quite a bit less than the blue book value.
  3. Sell it yourself. Now you’re thinking, “He’s going to buy my car! Oh, bother.”  It can be a pain, but it’s also the best way to get a decent price for your wheels.

When you sell your car, there are a few things to keep in mind, much like when you sell something on Craigslist.

  • Don’t be alone. There are bad people in the world, but they don’t like witnesses.  Bad things are much less likely to happen if you have company.
  • Know your price. Specifically, know three price: your dream price, the price that would make you happy, and the absolute lowest price you are willing to accept.  Make sure you figure these numbers out ahead of time.  Know what you are comfortable with before it comes time to close the deal.
  • Check IDs. The buyer is going to want to test-drive your car.  That’s fine, but you want to make sure you know who is driving off in your car.  “Officer, Sumdood took my car.  He was wearing jeans.”  That won’t get your car back.
  • Clean it up. Get the car detailed before you show it to a potential buyer.   A sparkling-clean car will almost always bring in a few hundred extra dollars.  It’s well worth the expense.

Following this plan should make the sale go as smoothly as possible and bring you the most possible money.

Readers, what have you done to dispose of an old car?

This is a sponsored post written to provide some insight into the world of used car retail.

 

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Priorities

Business

I once saw a sign on the wall in a junkyard that said, “Failure to plan on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part.”

Another good one: “If everything is top priority, nothing is top priority.”

Once a week, I meet with my boss to discuss my progress for the previous week and my priorities for the coming week.   This is supposed to make sure that my productivity stays in line with the company’s goals.

Great.

Once a day, my boss comes into my office to change my top priority based on whichever account manager has most recently asked for a status update for their customer.

Not so great.

At least twice a week, he asks for a status update on my highest priority items.   Each time, he could mean the items we prioritized in the weekly meeting, or the items he chose to escalate later.   Somehow, getting a new task escalated doesn’t deescalate an existing task.

Everything is a top priority.

To compensate, I’ve been working a few 12 hour days each week, and occasionally coming in on the weekends.

I’m dedicated and still behind.

Prioritizing is treated as an art, or in the case I just mentioned, a juggling act.  It should be considered a science.  It’s usually pretty simple.

  • Is the problem costing you money? +1
  • Is the problem costing your customer money? +2
  • Is the problem going to hurt your reputation? +1
  • Is there a deadline? +1
  • Is it soon? +2
  • Is it urgent? +1
  • Is it important? +2
  • Are there absolutely no real consequences for anyone if it doesn’t get completed? -500

That’s it.    Too many times, we get hung up on urgent-but-not-important items and neglect the important things.

The hard part comes when it’s someone else setting your priorities, particularly when that person doesn’t rate things on urgency, importance, and cost but rather “Who has bitched the loudest recently?”

Can I tell my boss that I’m not going to do things the way he told me too?  No.  A former coworker very recently found out what happens when you do this.

Can I remind him that I’m busting my butt as hard as I can?  Yes, but it will just earn me a request to come in on the weekend, too.

Can I ignore the official priorities part of the time, and work on what I feel is most important to keeping our customers happy?  Yes, but it’s easy to go too far.  “Boss, I ignored what you said, but this customer is happy, now!” won’t score me any points if it happens every week.

Priorities are simple, but not always easy.  How do you balance your priorities?

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