- Up at 5 two days in a row. Sleepy. #
- May your…year be filled w/ magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you…kiss someone who thinks you’re wonderful. @neilhimself #
- Woo! First all-cash grocery trip ever. Felt neat. #
- I accidentally took a 3 hour nap yesterday, so I had a hard time sleeping. 5am is difficult. #
- Wee! Got included in the Carnival of Personal Finance, again. http://su.pr/2AKnDB #
- Son’s wrestling season starts in two days. My next 3 months just got hectic. #
- RT @Moneymonk: A real emergency is something that threatens your survival, not just your desire to be comfortable -David Bach # [Read more…] about Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-01-09
Sammy’s Story, Part 4
If you haven’t been following along with Sammy’s story, please take a few minutes to do so here, here, and here.
We left off in September, with the yard done and the house almost ready to rent. Sammy and his guys worked their butts off getting the work done. It cost more than we had expected, but it got done.
Over the winter, we hired the crew to handle the snow at both of our properties. We paid Sammy a flat fee and he made sure the driveways and sidewalks were clear every time it snowed. We started paying him in November, and ran through until March, so he got a pretty good deal and we didn’t have to worry about the snow.
When spring came, Sammy told me he needed to take a break from his business. Putting a yard care business on hold when spring hits is a bad idea, but it happened. He was dealing with some problems with his housing and couldn’t focus on anything else, even though the money would have helped him a lot.
When he lost his apartment, we let him store some of his things in the extra garage stall at the rental. This stall was reserved in the lease for us to use, and was the base of operations for the yard care business, since he was using our lawn mower and snow blower anyway.
And that was the last we saw of him for a month.
When we started nagging him to take care of his stuff, he kept telling us that he wanted to keep his business going, but he couldn’t, yet.
Then he’d leave his stuff for another month.
By the end of the summer, he’d gotten most of his stuff out and we’d only hear from him if he thought he could borrow money from us, which didn’t happen.
Finally, my wife called him and told him to get his crap out by the end of September.
Or else.
A week into October, we found out that he’d spent September in jail. Supposedly, he broke up with his(literal) crackhead girlfriend and she called the police and made up stories. He got arrested and couldn’t make bail.
Last week, he came to borrow our trailer to get the last of his stuff out, then returned it in the evening without moving any of his stuff. He said he was moving the stuff he had stored elsewhere and he’d be back on Monday.
Monday? Nothing.
Our relationship with Sammy has gone from helping him launch a business that helps fatherless teens, recovering crackheads, and the homeless to lies and getting begged for money.
My wife is ready to put his stuff on the curb.
What would you do? Toss his stuff? Give him another chance?
The Best Financial Advice I Ever Received
Read through any financial book, newspaper, magazine, or blog and you’ll find no shortage of advice. It seems everyone has their own opinion on what you should be doing with your money. One book tells you to invest in real estate. Another says index funds. Another says tax liens.
After awhile it can become pretty frustrating trying to figure out what exactly is the best course of action. If all these experts have different opinions, whose advice do you trust?
Personally, the best financial advice I ever received didn’t come from a financial guru. It didn’t come from a personal finance book or magazine. It didn’t come from the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times.
It came from my dad.
I was probably about eight or nine years old and I was sitting on the floor playing with my Star Wars action figures while he sat in his chair flipping though a trade magazine. Out of the blue, he asked me for ideas on what kind of products he could sell for extra income.
Being an 8 year old boy the only things that came to mind were whoopee cushions and magic sets. But that wasn’t exactly what my dad had in mind.
“Why do you want to sell stuff anyway?” I asked him.
“To make extra money. Gotta keep food on the table,” he replied.
“But you already have a job. Just ask for a raise or something if you need more money.”
My dad just shook his head. And then he sat me down and gave me the best financial advice anyone has ever given me.
“Mike, my boss doesn’t give a damn about me. He cares about himself and his own job. If it helps him to have me around then that’s good for me. But if he decides he’s better off without me, then I’m gone. That’s the way it is. It will be the same when you get older and get a job. You’ve got to look after yourself because no one else is looking out for you. You can’t rely on your boss, or the government, or anyone else to help you look after your family. You’ve got to take the bull by the horns and do it yourself.”
Now, my dad wasn’t a financial guru. In fact he was practically broke when he died. Several years after we had our talk his company decided they could hire someone younger to do his job for a lot less money and they laid him off. Several attempts at entrepreneurship failed and he ended up burning through the family savings while racking up debt.
But his words still echo with me today. I harbor an inherent mistrust of corporate America and the knowledge that no matter how well I perform my job I could be let go without warning if they decide to send my job overseas to India or the Philippines.
But my father’s words also fill me with a need for independence and the need to build multiple streams of income to protect myself against the loss of one. Without that little speech all those years ago I might not have learned how to make websites to supplement my income. And I wouldn’t be progressing toward my ultimate plan of quitting my day job so I can focus solely on my own business while having the freedom to spend more time with my family.
Most importantly, I have goals and a plan to reach them. Without that I would be like so many of my friends who march off to work day after day with no real sense of power or purpose.
What about you? What was the best financial advice you ever received?
Written by Mike Collins of http://SavingMoneyToday.net
How We Handled The Windfall
Three years ago, my mother-in-law died. She didn’t have a will, but that’s a story for another day.
My wife, being an only child, inherited everything. All of the assets, and all of the problems.
She inherited the house, which was completely paid off. That was nice.
My mother-in-law was a hoarder who didn’t buy into the idea of maintaining your property. That was not nice.
Between the life insurance policies and the ready cash, she inherited about $60,000. Also nice.
It’s all gone. Not so nice.
Now, I know you’re asking where it went. Lucky for you, that’s what this post is about.
We paid off the last $10,000 of our credit card debt, and haven’t accumulated a balance since. Now our cards are paid off in full every month.
We put $5,000 down on the Chevy Tahoe we bought in 2012 and paid off in full 9 months later.
Every last cent of the rest went into the house we inherited.
Huh? 45 fricking grand to get the house ready to rent?
Yep.
- $3000 to clear out the brush and landscape the yard
- A few hundred to have the hardwood floors sanded, stained, sealed, and buffed
- An intense carpet-cleaning
- Painting every single room
- 3 large dumpsters to handle the garbage we pulled out of the house
- New refrigerator
- New washing machine
- New boiler
- New stove
- New patio door
- New locks for the doors and windows
- Security lights
- Food for all of our helpers whom we can never thank enough
- Finishing the basement
All of that pretty, pretty money, gone in less than a year.
What did we get out of it? A rentable asset that is bringing in $1200 every month, with minimal work.
We could have chosen to sell the place, but we would have had to do nearly all of that work, anyway, so it wouldn’t have saved anything.
I like having the new stream of income, even though it will take several years to turn a profit. That house isn’t going anywhere, and since it’s only 3 miles from Minneapolis and 5 miles from downtown Minneapolis, it will always be an in-demand area for renters.
It was just a lot of work turning it into a useful property instead of a year-long drain on time, patience, and money.
Make Extra Money, Part 5: Domains and Hosting
In this installment of the Make Extra Money series, I’m going to show you how to pick a domain and a host.
If you remember from the last installment, I’ve decided to promote The Master Wedding Planning Guide. Since then, I have bought the product and read enough to decide that’s it worth promoting. That is the secret to ethical internet product. Never promote a crap product. Now, when I bought the Guide, I used my own affiliate link, so the $37 product will have cost me about $13, once the commission check comes through. You can’t do that just to get a discount because Clickbank has measures in place to ensure that you are actually selling products.
Domain Name
The first thing we need is a domain name.
You can skip this if you want to host on blogger, but I wouldn’t do that, unless $10 is a major financial hardship. I dislike the idea of leaving everything in Google’s hands. Even if you use blogger for hosting(discussed later), pop for the domain name. That way, if you change your mind about hosting, you can move without losing everything.
Where should you go for your domain name? I use NameCheap and GoDaddy. I try to divide my domain names across each of the providers so all of my sites don’t look identical to Google. I may be paranoid, but it works for me.
Before you order, hit Google for a coupon code. Search for “namecheap coupon” or “godaddy coupon” and save some money. GoDaddy is offering $7.49 domains.
How do you pick a domain name?
I try to pick something that matches the product name, or the product’s site. In this case, the product’s site is http://www.masterweddingplanning.com and http://www.masterweddingplanning.net was available, so I grabbed it. I would have been happy with .com, .net, or .org. I won’t touch a .info domain. They are generally cheap, but they cost more to renew and people assume they are spam sites.
If the exact match domain isn’t available, I look for exact matches for the product. If that’s not available, I stick other words at the end that would be attractive to people looking to buy a product.
Acceptable domains would include:
- http://www.masterweddingplanning.org
- http://www.masterweddingplanningreview.com
- http://www.masterweddingplanningguide.net
- http://www.masterweddingplanningreviewed.org
Or nearly anything along those lines. Other good words to attach would be “revealed”, “exposed”, or something similar. Just put yourself in the shoes of a buyer. Would the domain name look like something that could help you decide whether or not to buy a product?
Hosting
Your host is where your website lives. Without a host, you can’t have a website.
When it comes to picking a host, you have some choices to make.
First, do you want to go free or paid? Free sounds great, and if money is tight, it’s not a bad choice, but it does limit your options.
If you’re going free, you’re going with Google’s Blogger. WordPress.com’s hosting eliminates your advertising options, as does almost every other free host. I do know of a couple of free WordPress hosts that will let you run ads and advertising campaigns, but the performance is horrible.
Another problem with using Google is that they can decide your site violates their Terms of Service and shut it down. It shouldn’t happen, but it’s not unheard of with affiliate marketing sites. If you go this route, plan to move to paid hosting when you start making money.
That leaves us with paid hosting.
There are a ton of hosts out there, but only three I have personal experience with.
I won’t use GoDaddy for hosting. I’ve never been happy with their technical support.
I have most of my domains on HostGator (c0upon code: HOSTINGBUDDY). I’m happy with them. Performance is good and the customer service is excellent. Their hosting packages start at $3.96 per month.
I also have a hosting account at HostTheName. I got that because, using coupon code “STARTUPWARRIOR”, hosting prices get down to $1 per month. At $36 for 3 years, I couldn’t turn it down. Initially performance was rocky, but they’ve upgraded and it’s good, now.
Once you’ve created your hosting account, you’ll need to go back to your domain name registrar and set the name servers. At NameCheap, after you log in, you’ll go to Domains > Manage Domains and click on the domain name. From there, click on “Domain Name Server Setup” on the left of the screen and enter the custom name server information listed on your hosting account.
When that’s done, go to your hosting account and add the domain. If you’re creating a new hosting account, this will be your main domain and the hosting company will ask you for the information during setup. If you’re adding this to an existing hosting account, log in, look for “Addon Domains” and follow the prompts.
At this point, you’ve chosen a product to promote and keywords/search terms to go with it. You’ve chosen and registered a domain name and you’ve set up a hosting account to hold your website. Next time, I’ll walk through setting up a WordPress site to make some money.
Any questions?
Ending A Streak
The first year I decorated our yard for Halloween was 1999. The first year we through a Halloween party was 1998.
Our parties tend to fall on the legendary side. Between setup, cleanup, and out-of-town guests, the party is a 3-4 day affair. People reserve our spare beds a year in advance. The day of the party itself, we’re going from 10AM until 5AM, cooking, drinking, and talking. Over the 10 hours the party is actively going, we have 50-60 guests in and out.
Our yard is a neighborhood attraction. We’ve been on the news and in the newspaper. By the end of Halloween night, the path through the yard is nearly worn down to bare dirt. The spot the large coffin sits takes 6 weeks to rejuvenate in the spring. I’ve literally scared kids right out of their masks. Little old ladies have jumped out in the air, shrieking, only to ask me to hide again, so they can bring their husbands over to enjoy the startle.
This year, we end the 13-year unbroken streak of fear and debauchery. We’ve been doing this since before any my oldest kid was weaned.
It’s hard to take a break, but…
Dealing with my mother-in-law’s house has been far too much work for us. We spent all summer cleaning out the hoarding mess.
And fixing up the yard.
And replacing the boiler.
And fixing the plumbing.
And updating the electrical system.
And fixing up the basement.
And patching the walls.
And selling the cars.
And sorting through 30 years of every scrap of paper that has ever come through the house.
And dealing with all of the memories, and the pictures, and the past.
It’s been too much, and it’s not done.
Now, it’s the middle of October, and the idea of stealing the extra time to add the extra stress of setting up the yard and throwing a big party makes me want to break down.
Two days to set up the yard, only to have some kid steal my favorite, irreplaceable pieces, then two days to pack it all up.
A day of decorating inside, followed by a party and a hungover day of cleaning it all up.
All of that, while losing time from the side business and pushing through to the end of the property preparation from hell.
I can’t do it, so, as sad as it makes me, we’re taking the year off. No Halloween events at my house this year.
