Free Books

One of my biggest beliefs, and the one that my business is founded on, is that we should all take an active part in our money health by learning about money.  Would you start lifting weights without learning proper techniques?  No, because that can lead to injury!  The same can be said for money, if you don’t learn the best techniques then how can you expect to not get injured?  So to encourage people to start 2009 off right with their money health I am giving away books to a lucky few winners who sign up for our money fitness newsletter between now and January 7, 2009.  Start 2009 off right by getting Money Fit!!! 

http://www.smartstepomaha.com/newsletter

Having patience and intention with Money

One of the hardest issues with money is having discipline and intention with money.  Most of us were raised in an environment where we were taught that you deserve anything you want when you want it.  Unfortunately that is not the path to success with money.      

Being intentional and patient with money has been on my mind a lot lately, with all the market and economy in turmoil and all the snow that we have gotten lately!  SNOW?!  Yes, snow makes me think of being intentional with our money because my car is awful in the snow.  Every year when it snows I talk about buying a new car.  (It is more like bitching about needing a new car, just ask my sister she get the pleasure of hearing it every year.)  So you may wonder why I have not made the move to a different car in the past six years.  Because we are very deliberate with our money, we have two very specific long range goals (have a beach house and retire early) that we gear most of our decisions towards.  We know that we cannot get there in our desired timeframe without doing the necessary planning and forgoing of stuff now.  So how do we handle being intentional with our money? 

1.    Taking lots of time on big purchases – I would have had a new car on Monday night if we did not have a belief to do things slowly.  Stop and ask yourself do you really need this, how else can this money be used, is it a want or need – really grill yourself like a coach or financial planner would.  Most of the time you can talk yourself out of the purchase.

2.    Cash rule – we do all major purchases with cash, no debt for us.  This really makes you think about your purchases, it is harder to spend cash out of your bank account than to sign up for payments.  I had to stop and think if a new car for the handful of times that is snows was a smart move with our cash; the car is fabulous every other day of the year so why waste the money! 

3.    Long term planning – every year we sit down and decide what projects we would like to do with our cash AFTER we invest what we need to in order to reach our goals.  Sometimes this means putting wants on a list that may not get done that year.  For example, we have wanted new kitchen counter tops, back splash and a new sink for going on 4 years now.  But it never quite makes the list of projects even though we really want them.  Using credit or not investing money takes us away from our goals not to them, and the planning helps keep us on task.

4.     Adjust our planning when the unexpected happens.  We had planned on doing the kitchen this past summer, but on June 27^th were hit by a storm that caused damage that our insurance company was not going to cover (that is an entirely different blog post to rant about).  So we had to sit down and redo our list of wants to pay for the damage that was not covered.  Doing this allowed us to manage the unexpected without adding debt or stress to our lives.  We keep our list year round in the order of when we want to do it and how much it will take so that when we need to it is just a quick review and adjustment.

5.    Build in fun and wants to our list.  Our list includes things we enjoy so that we do not feel like it is all work and no play!  We love to travel, so part of our planning includes a good vacation budget every year.

6.    Allow room for error – if we make a mistake with our money we forgive ourselves and readjust to get back on track.  Small mistakes are not worth beating ourselves up over.  So we forgive and move on.

I encourage you to be intentional with your money in the New Year.  Set goals and really focus on achieving them – even if it means making hard decisions about where your money is spent.  Financial health is possible for everyone with a little bit of attention to your finances!

Scary

While driving Max to daycare today I was going over in my mind everything going on with our markets and economic news in general.  It seems like every day there is more bad news, and not just tiny stuff, being announced.  I have tried REALLY hard to stay upbeat and positive about the future, but it seems like lately that has been harder and harder to accomplish.  I still firmly believe we are going to be just fine and even stronger when we get through all of this; the hard part right now is maintaining that belief on a continual basis.  I have said for a few months now that this is going to be a long and hard recession.  We are not going to just spring back.  The issues are too many and they are too intertwined for it to be a “standard” recession.  However I don’t want to focus on what is wrong; I want to share how I am getting myself through all the bad news! 

So how am I staying positive?

• Pulled out my old book:  A Random Walk down Wall Street – this book is fabulous for explaining the market.  Especially the chapter on bubbles.  Having the education that crazy things have happened before has helped me remember that world moves on.
• No media – I know I have said this before, but I notice for myself a direct correlation on my stress level and how much I watch the news.
• Hard work – I just keep working and do the best that I can do.  I have to mentally choose to keep going everyday and not let the recession affect me.  I have not stopped marketing, developing or working to make my business move forward.  I do not planning on stopping that because our market has slowed.
• Consistently repeating “this will be okay”.  May seem odd, but I do just keep repeating this to myself.  Usually my mind catches on and moves forward with the day. 
• Planning – I am constantly game planning the next few months.  Both financially and with my business, knowing where I am headed makes the rest easier.
• Remind myself that the market is on sale and if I continue managing my finances the way that I have the past 6 years that I can put us in a position to have fantastic gains when the market moves in the right direction.

Staying positive is hard, but every day I do my best to stay positive.  Find what works for you and focus on being positive, we will make it out of this okay.

Live on less than you make

To me the best thing that you can do during a recession is to make sure that you are doing what you need to do to become financially healthy.  Even if you don’t feel the pressure of a lost job, or a postponed retirement, use this time to confirm that you are on the right track with your money.  Where to begin?  In my opinion the best place to start is to make sure you are living on less than you make.  The best way to live on less that you make – is to start living on a budget (or spending plan if you prefer those words).  Budget forms are all over the internet, grab one and start going. 

Need one?  Get one from our site:  http://www.smartstepomaha.com/budget

Finding the good in the bad

This weekend we went to Kansas City to visit my sister.  On this trip we went to UNO in the plaza and had what ended up being one of the worst meals we have ever had. 

We arrived at the restaurant and sat down at about 5:30.  It took at least five minutes for our server to come to our table for drink orders and to greet us. It took him so long in fact that our party of 9 had decided not only what they wanted to drink, but also what they wanted to eat.  Then it took another ridiculous amount of time for our drinks to come out.  Finally the drinks arrive – only 30 minutes to get our drinks!  As this time marker occurs we realize that our reservation for our carriage ride at 7 PM was not going to be achieved.  After another 15 or 20 minutes our appetizers came out.  Sadly they did not come with plates or silverware.  Another five minutes goes by before we get plates, I ended up asking the hostess to bring us silverware and as the minutes just kept adding up while waiting for silverware!  Next my niece had ordered one of the kids make their own pizzas and it still had not come out, so we had to remind the waiter about that so that she would be eating with the rest of us!  Finally the food arrived, by this point I had quit watching the clock as it was less painful that way, but it was a little over an hour since we had sat down.  Talk about slow service, we would have been further ahead to have ordered pizza at home.

You would think that bad slow service was all that could happen – not so it just kept getting worse.  My sister’s pizza had hair on it!  At this point our waiter really wanted to be anywhere but work, to give him some credit I do believe he was fairly new and probably never should have been given a table of 9 people.  So the manager came over, apologized and went to make her a new one.  Best part of this – they left the old pizza with the hair on it sitting in front of my sister.  It took at least five minutes for the plate to get picked up after the manager left the table!  Add to that my hamburger was dry and falling apart and we had three kids under the age of 4 with us.  So a dinner of pizza (everyone but me and the kids had pizza) took almost 2 hours and that did not involve us hanging out after we ate that was all waiting and eating time!  (This looks even worse when you think that our full order was given to the waiter within about the first 15 minutes of us arriving.)

So you may be wondering what my good in the bad is?  Well, my husband and I analyzed the events of the evening, as you do when both of you used to be restaurant managers, and both came to the conclusion that the appetizer we had – steak quesadillas were the best quesadillas we had EVER had.  How ironic that the meal we put at the top of our list for bad dinners produced the best quesadilla ever. 

It made me stop and think about what good is hidden in all the negative talk about our current recession.  To me two major things come up.  First, it always makes people stop and think about where they are in life and then try to get things going on the right track.  Second, this particular recession will force us as a nation and individuals to reassess what we believe is good use of debt and who should be given credit.  Without it being readily available at all times, we might have to stop and think about our purchases.  This hopefully will help us make better decisions because we do have to think about what we are spending our money on.  To me those two benefits alone make it not as bad of a recession.

Have you looked at the good amongst your bad lately?

Use of Coupons

What am I doing differently now that the economy is slowing?  Honestly not much, why?  We have always lived below our means and tried to save as much money as possible.  However there is one big change that I have made to try to increase our savings – more coupons!  I have always used coupons, but now I am using more of them and seeking them out versus my old method of just using them when they came along.  

One of the ways I do this is by signing up for the email list at stores I frequent.  For example, I am on the Borders mailing list and they send out coupons via email.  So when I decided to buy my Dad a book for Christmas I waited until the coupons for the month came out and then went in and bought the book.  The savings might not have been much but I figure every $4 that I save is that much more in my savings and puts us that much closer to retiring early with no financial worries.  Most stores have these lists and it can be an easy way to save money on things you were already going to purchase!  So how can you save $4?

To save Detroit or not?

With all the talk of bailouts and Detroit I think it is time we really evaluate if it is good for us to give Detroit any money.  I believe it is time for a BIG change in Detroit.  If small business ran their companies like the big 3 run theirs we would have been out of business a long time ago.  Inefficiencies, large payroll costs, lack of forward thinking have killed them and if they can’t fix that then why let them stay in business (this is not a new issue that they are facing).  The result of them closing would be bad at first, but the American economy and people will move on and prosper!  Let them suffer their own bad management, why throw good money after bad money.  Not only that but if we do let one of them go down for their poor management then maybe the other two would wake up and try to really reform their businesses.  If nothing else it will alter the supply and demand equation thus making it easier for the other two to survive.  Give it a thought do you want your tax money going to companies that are poorly run and most likely will not change that fact?