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The no-pants guide to spending, saving, and thriving in the real world.

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Don’t Screw Future-You

Finance, Life

A conversation between me and my temporally displaced self.
Future Me: Excuse me, Jason?
Me: Yes?
FMe: <Slap!>
Me: May I ask what that was for?
FMe: Of course.
Me: What was that for, jerk?
FMe: That was payback for all of the hell you have put me through.
Me: What?!?  I’ve never even met you, before.
FMe: Of course you have.  I am future-you, and I’m sick of getting screwed by past-me, that is, you.
Me: Huh?
FMe: Listen close.  You’re not  the sharpest brick in the box and I don’t want to explain this twice.
Me: ???
FMe: A long time ago, when you first met our wife, you were dumb.
Me: I don’t appreciate….
FMe: Shut up.  I was dumb then, too.  Remember?  You…err…we bought a new truck, built an addition on our…err…your…err…whomever’s house, got married in the same year.  On top of many other expensive decisions.  Do your recall?
Me: Yes, I do.  So what?
FMe: If that wasn’t enough, you and your smoking-hot bride are still shopping like you’re rich. You drive a new car.  Your kids wear new clothes.  You’ve got a house full of new furniture.  How did you pay for all of that?
Me: Naturally, I charged it.  Zero payments, zero interest for a year!  Pretty smart, huh?
FMe: What happens in a year?
Me: I don’t know.  I’ve got a full year to figure that out.
FMe: <Slap!>  I’ll tell you what happens!  Future-you, that’s me, gets screwed!   Your raise didn’t come through.  You had a baby. The truck broke down.  Your wife took maternity leave.  A roommate moved out.  You took a loss in the stock market.  You didn’t plan!  You had no savings to cover any of those problems because you were too busy servicing debt to pay for your current life.
Me: How was I to know?
FMe: <Slap!>  Life happens!  You never know what is coming next.  You need to plan and save for what might happen.  Otherwise, you’ll just accumulate more debt to be serviced by yours-truly.  That is not acceptable.
Me:  So?  What are you going to do about it?
FMe: <Slap!>
Me: Really?  Again?
FMe: <Slap!>  I’m struggling to pay your debt. Your son starts college next year, but you’ve left me completely unable to help.  Your daughter wants to get married in a couple of years, but the Father-of-the-Bride can’t afford a tux.  My wife, your beatiful bride, wants a vacation that I can’t afford.   You’ve screwed me, dude.
Me: I’m sorry.  What can I do to fix it?
FMe: Buy me dinner, first.
Me: Huh?!?!?
FMe: Stop the excess spending. Spend less than you make, for a change.  No credit.
Me: None?
FMe: None.  Nada.  Zip.  Zilch.  Only spend what you can afford. Budget.  Pay off those nasty bills.  Don’t leave me hanging.
Me: So, what you’re saying is that, if I don’t have the money, I shouldn’t buy it?
FMe: Exactly.  That’s the path to wealth, freedom, and financial independence.  Live in the real world.
Me: Gee, thanks, Future-Me!  Now I know.
FMe: And knowing is half the battle.

What would your future-you have to say to you?

 

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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Money Hacks Carnival #105: The All Government, All the Time Edition

Misc

Jefferson Memorial
Carnival Time

Welcome to the 105th edition of the Money Hacks Carnival:  The All Government, All the Time Edition. Deep in the bowels of tax season, it’s not surprising that tax- and government-related articles are popular.

Editor’s Picks

LeanLifeCoach presents What Is Your Learning Style? This is an important lesson for anyone trying to teach.  My main side hustle involves teaching.  We try to address each learning style to engage all of our students.  I’m a visual learner.  In school, I always read ahead and I’ve never been able to focus while someone reads to me.

Consumer Boomer presents The Best IRA for You.  Holy Educational Post, Batman!  Be careful, you’ll learn something if you read this post.

PT presents How to Find Free Stuff Online Without Getting Spammed.  I like free things.   I hate spam.  I’m a part of the target audience of this post.  I use an active Gmail account for getting freebies.  The spam filter can’t be beat.

Fanny Seto presents 5 Tips on How to Get a Job in this Economy.  I’m glad I haven’t had to deal with this recently.   If you’re unemployed, take the opportunity to develop a hobby or explore other opportunities.  You may be out of work, but that means you have the one thing you can’t replace: time.  Use it wisely.

Taxes or Feeding the Monster

Jeff Rose presents How to File Taxes with Your 1099s.  All you’ve ever wanted to know (and more!) about the 1099.

Paul Williams presents Deduct Haiti Earthquake Relief Donations on Your 2009 Tax Return.  If you itemize, make sure you include any donations to Haiti relief.

freefrombroke presents TurboTax Online 2009 Overview.  I love TurboTax.  I use it every year and have done so since I discovered I wasn’t capable of figuring out the Earned Income Credit.

Four Pillars presents What Happens If You Lose Your W2 Form?.  Keeping track of your tax documents is always important, but what do you do if that doesn’t work?

Matthew Paulson presents Troublesome Tax Myths.   Taxes aren’t optional.  Ask Wesley Snipes.

Working for a Living or Earning the Monster’s Feed

Darwin presents 10 Highest Paying Degrees 2010 – Best Majors in Demand Now.  The part that doesn’t surprise me is that the hard sciences pay well.   Art-as-science comes with a smaller paycheck.   Hmm….

J. Money presents Life in Grad School Doesn’t Have to Suck…All Your Money.  I’ve didn’t make it to grad school, but I did work my way through college with a small baby.  It’s good to have a support network.

The Financial Blogger presents Getting Ready for Another Purchase!.  I’ve never given any thought to buying a blog.  It’s a fascinating read.  Make sure you read the related posts to get the full value.

Banking, Credit, and Investing or He Who Pays the Piper Calls the Tune

GLBL presents What to Expect From Mortgage Rate Trends for 2010.  I learn something every day.  Define “intraday”.

pkamp3 presents Cutting Up the Card.  It may be caused by a down economy, but less consumer debt isn’t a bad thing.

D4L presents 20 Dividend Stocks Riding The Tsunami Of Dividend Increases.  My first dividend-paying stock paid me 16 cents once.  Stocks kind of scare me.  In my mind, they’re not much different than a slot machine, so I don’t buy much.  I think I had 20 shares of that first stock.

Personal Finance or The Government Doesn’t Have to Be Involved

Matt_SF presents Personal Finance Equations You Should Know: the Cash Flow Equation.  If equations make you smile, this is the post for you.

Craig Ford presents 101 Ways To Improve Your Marriage Money Relationship.  This goes beyond finance and dips firmly into happy relationship territory.

Hedy presents My Better Business Bureau experience.  I’ve found that the sincere threat of a Better Business Bureau complaint can be effective, too.

2 Cents presents Economics: Your Personal Finance Weather Forecast.  As a sci-fi junkie, I love the quote at the beginning of the article.

Dodging Taxes and Anarchism

Nope.  No submissions in this category.

That’s all.  While you’re here, don’t forget to subscribe to my rss feed and follow me on twitter.

Sunday Roundup: Diet Redux

Misc

Emergency "Twitter was down so I wrote my...
Image via Wikipedia

I had total diet fail last month.

From April to May, across 4 consecutive weekends, I put a bit over 1500 miles on my car on 4 separate trips.  That is something like 10 times my average mileage.

That’s a lot of driving, squeezed around a regular schedule of work.   Have you ever tried a drive through for low-carb food?   Because of that, and the circumstances of some of my trips, I abandoned my diet on those weekends.   Funeral food is rarely low-carb.

By the time those trips were over, I had spent so much time off my diet that “What’s one more sandwich?” became an easy justification.  There is a reason I don’t break the rules I give myself.  I can’t seem to cheat just once.  Once I cross that line, it’s over.

So, instead of cheating on my diet and feeling guilty, I officially dropped it for most of the month of May.  I decided it would be easier to get it out of my system than to continue worrying about it.

May’s over, and I’m back on the Slow Carb diet.  My little fail cost me 7 pounds and 6.5 total inches(waist , hips, biceps, and thighs).  I’m reasonably sure that most of that is water and will evaporate before next weekend.

Best Posts

My goal is to live my life so that I have no regrets at the end of it.  That means pursuing my dreams and doing the things I love.

It’s easier to do the things I love when my life isn’t weighed down by the crap I don’t need.

Sweating the Big Stuff wrote a killer post on saving money simply by asking.  Often, the easy things work.

Carnivals I’ve Rocked and Guest Posts I’ve Rolled

Shopping Online: The Money-Saving Secret was included in the Festival of Frugality.

Money Problems: Paying Off Debt was included in the Carnival of Personal Finance.

5 Ways to Help Your Friends Stay Out of Debt was included in the Totally Money Blog Carnival.

Should Pupils Focus on Personal Finance was included in the Yakezie Carnival.

 

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

Get More Out of Live Real, Now

There are so many ways you can read and interact with this site.

You can subscribe by RSS and get the posts in your favorite news reader.  I prefer Google Reader.

You can subscribe by email and get, not only the posts delivered to your inbox, but occasional giveaways and tidbits not available elsewhere.

You can ‘Like’ LRN on Facebook.   Facebook gets more use than Google.  It can’t hurt to see what you want where you want.

You can follow LRN on Twitter.   This comes with some nearly-instant interaction.

You can send me an email, telling me what you liked, what you didn’t like, or what you’d like to see more(or less) of.   I promise to reply to any email that isn’t purely spam.

Have a great week!

 

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Carnivals

Misc

I spent the day consoling (read: napping with) a tonsillitis-infected little monster.

Live Real, Now was included in two carnivals last week:

Festival of Frugality #327 hosted by Budgeting with the Bushmans

Yakezie Carnival – Setting Your Clocks Edition hosted by 20 and Engaged

Thanks to all of the hosts for including my posts.

Get More Out of Live Real, Now

There are so many ways you can read and interact with this site.

You can subscribe by RSS and get the posts in your favorite news reader.  I prefer Google Reader.

You can subscribe by email and get, not only the posts delivered to your inbox, but occasional giveaways and tidbits not available elsewhere.

You can ‘Like’ LRN on Facebook.   Facebook gets more use than Google.  It can’t hurt to see what you want where you want.

You can follow LRN on Twitter.   This comes with some nearly-instant interaction.

You can send me an email, telling me what you liked, what you didn’t like, or what you’d like to see more(or less) of.   I promise to reply to any email that isn’t purely spam.

Have a great week!

Carnival Roundup

Misc

Horse season starts today.  That means that almost every weekend my wife and daughters will be at horse shows.   The days I don’t go with are among the most productive I have.  The days I go, I’m just herding whichever kid is bored or has been recently snubbed while everyone else enjoys themselves.

Live Real, Now was included in the following carnivals recently:

Yakezie Carnival – The Facebook IPO Edition hosted by One Cent at a Time

Financial Carnival for Young Adults #11 hosted by 20’s Finances

Yakezie Carnival – My Momma Told Me Edition hosted by Weel Heeled Blog

Carnival of Money Pros hosted by Little Miss Money Bags

Carnival of Financial Camaraderie #33 hosted by One Smart Dollar

Yakezie Carnival – Will Smith Slap Edition hosted by Young Adult Finance

Totally Money Carnival #67 hosted by Don’t Quit Your Day Job

Carnival of Money Pros hosted by Miss Wallstreet

Carnival of Financial Planning – Edition #237 hosted by The Skilled Investor

Carnival of Financial Camaraderie #33 hosted by My University Money

Financial Carnival for Young Adults #14 hosted by 20’s Finances

Yakezie Carnival – The Power Ballad Edition hosted by Daily Money Shot

Totally Money Carnival #69 hosted by Thirty-Six Months

Lifestyle Carnival #4 hosted by Free Ticket to Japan

Thanks for including my posts.

Thanks for including my posts.

Get More Out of Live Real, Now

There are so many ways you can read and interact with this site.

You can subscribe by RSS and get the posts in your favorite news reader.  I prefer Google Reader.

You can subscribe by email and get, not only the posts delivered to your inbox, but occasional giveaways and tidbits not available elsewhere.

You can ‘Like’ LRN on Facebook.   Facebook gets more use than Google.  It can’t hurt to see what you want where you want.

You can follow LRN on Twitter.   This comes with some nearly-instant interaction.

You can send me an email, telling me what you liked, what you didn’t like, or what you’d like to see more(or less) of.   I promise to reply to any email that isn’t purely spam.

Have a great weekend!