What are You Going to do About it?

July 16, 2011 5 Comments

There’s a lot of shit I’m not very good at.

I don’t have the body I’d like. I’m not as good at rock climbing as I want to be. I can’t run a marathon. These are only a few examples, but the list is endless.

I suppose I could be like a lot of other people, and make excuses about why I’m not good at these things. I can tell myself that I was born this way. That it’s not for lack of trying, it’s my body. I’m not meant to be muscular. I could ignore the fact that I don’t always push myself as hard as I could. Or the days that I wasn’t feeling it, and didn’t go to the gym. The times when I set the treadmill a couple clicks slower. When I walked, and didn’t run. I can pretend that I eat healthy, and that the soda isn’t a big deal. Or the bag of potato chips. The M&Ms. I can forget about the times when I quit. When I could have reached for the next hold while climbing but instead yelled “Take!”

There are a million excuses…

But I’m going to let you in on a little secret; people don’t give a shit about the excuses, and they don’t want to listen to you (or me, or anyone) complain about why you can’t do something. Why would they? The excuses don’t matter to them. Excuses aren’t for anyone else, they’re for you. You make them to justify the choices you make in your life…and no one else cares.

So, what are you doing to do about it?

If you want to make excuses, that’s fine. But remember that those excuses are for yourself, not other people. If you’re not doing anything to change, no one cares. If you are having trouble losing weight, but aren’t exercising and eating healthy, don’t complain about your weight. If you can’t run for more than thirty seconds without feeling like you’re going to die, but refuse to push yourself the next day to run a little longer, STFU. If you’re broke, but continue spending money on shit you don’t need, you only have yourself to blame, so don’t complain to your friends about not having any money.

If you want to make changes, just do it. Accept that you’re responsible for your actions, stop making excuses, and get to work. Change is difficult. It might even be painful, emotional, stressful. But if you’re ever going to improve, you’re going to have to face these challenges, and push through them. You have to dedicate yourself to the change, and be willing to put in the effort. You can’t just show up at the gym and expect to lose weight. You have to work. I can’t expect to become a better rock climber if I keep climbing 5.8 routes. I have to push myself to climb more difficult routes.

Are you going to keep making excuses, or are you going to do something about it?

Filed under Dieting, Exercising, Fitness, Health, Money, Spending

Drive it ’til the Wheels Fall Off

October 20, 2010 7 Comments

Goal #17 on the list is to drive a car until it breaks down.

By “break down”, I mean until it literally won’t go any further. I don’t mean until it runs out of gas, or needs a new transmission. I want it to dissolve into a bucket of rust with brand new wheels. “Brand new wheels?” That’s right. I don’t want to accomplish this goal simply by neglecting to care for my car. No. I plan on doing everything I can to keep my car on the road for as long as possible. I’ll use duct tape to keep the bumper on if I must.

Why?

Most people wouldn’t be caught dead driving an old beater and the benefits of a new car are many. If something were to happen to a new car, it would be covered under warranty. A new car is typically reliable and you don’t have to worry if it’s going to leave you stranded in the middle of nowhere. Heated leather seats, DVD players, wiper blades for your headlights, GPS navigation systems, self-parking, back-up assistance, keyless ignition, traction control…

You get the point.

The number of features and gadgets a new car offers are mind-boggling…and tempting. It’s no wonder the average person only keeps their car for about 3 or 4 years before trading it in for a new one! That’s probably not even enough time to pay off the old loan! And so you trade in your car, get almost nothing of what you paid for it and roll over your old loan into a new one. You sign on the dotted line and walk out with a new set of keys and another 3 or 4 years of car payments. And the cycle continues, again a few years later and then again and again and again.

Think of your car as a savings account (it isn’t but let’s pretend). Would you deposit $20,000 if you knew that in 3 or 4 years the bank would only give you $5,000? Hell no, you wouldn’t! So why should buying a car be any different? After four years of payments, you’ve already put more money into the car than it was worth in the first place and now you’re selling it for pennies on the dollar. That’s not good financial strategy.

What if, instead of trading in your car every few years, you just keep the one you already have, pay it off and drive it until it breaks down on the side of the road? If you didn’t have a car payment each month, what could you do with all that “extra” money? You could save it to buy a new car with cash once the car you have now does fall apart. Doing that would save you a bunch of money you’d otherwise waste on interest if you had to take out another loan. Or you could use it to pay down other debts or open a retirement account.

Or, if you’re already debt-free and saving for the future, why not use that money to have a bit of fun? I’m sure there are better things that you can think of to spend your money on than a car payment each month…the heated leather seats aren’t really that cool anyway.

Filed under Frugality, Money, Spending

Travel the World for Two Dollars a Day

October 17, 2010 4 Comments

The other day on the Hundred Goals Facebook Page I asked “What can you buy for two dollars?”  It didn’t take long for some really interesting (and admittedly strange) responses to start coming in.  Tony from Venezuela says he “can’t buy shit” in his country for two dollars.  Isaac can park his car for two hours in the metered parking on campus and two dollars will pay for Sheena’s ATM fees for withdrawing cash from her bank account.

It seems that our feelings for two dollars isn’t much different from two cents…in other words, pretty worthless.  On its own, two dollars really isn’t much.  Maybe it’d get you a couple of McDonald’s cheeseburgers or a few minutes on a payphone but you probably won’t get very much more than that.  You can’t even get a Starbucks coffee for less than two dollars!

If two dollars is such a measly sum, how can anyone possibly travel the world on that kind of money?

In the book The Art of Non-Conformity, Chris Guillebeau points out on page 194 that you can get to almost anywhere in the world for two dollars a day:

I’ve found that even people who say they don’t like travel can usually think of at least one place somewhere in the world they’d like to visit before they die.  I believe that if you can save as little as $2 a day, you can get to that place within two years or less.  Many places cost less, and if you can save more than $2 a day, you can get there sooner.

Two years, 365 days a year, two dollars a day: $1,460.

Seeing it like that makes it look like a pretty impressive amount of money, doesn’t it?  And all you thought two dollars could get you was nothing.  But the question now is, can $1,460 really get you anywhere in the world?  In my experience, yes.  I’ve never paid that much for a plane ticket, so you’ll probably even have money left over to pay for other expenses like a room and the cost of food while you are there.  Okay, it’s probably true that getting to Bora Bora might cost a little more, but in all honesty, not that much more.  To get there in two years, just save a little more each day or save a little while longer.

Maybe you can’t afford to be a world traveler at this point in your life but that doesn’t mean you can’t see the world.  Saving even a small amount of money each day will eventually get you to anywhere you want to be.  Egypt, Japan, Italy, Brazil, Alaska, Russia…anywhere you can imagine.

The next time you think two dollars can’t buy you anything, or that the ATM fee isn’t a big deal, think about what you might be missing out on.  Change your perspective about those two dollars and give your money its value again.  Just imagine yourself wandering around the ancient cities in Greece or riding through the Serengeti on safari and adjust your spending habits accordingly.

Think of your money in terms of how it will bring you closer to accomplishing your goal.  Ask yourself, “What can two dollars buy me in France?”  The answer might be “Not much!” but wouldn’t you rather spend your two dollars in France than wherever you are now?  I don’t know about you, but it always seems just a little better sipping on a soda halfway around the world than it does on the couch in my living room.

Spend wisely my friends!

Filed under Goals, Money, Opportunity, Prioritizing, Savings, Spending, Travel

Loaning Money is Stupid

September 15, 2010 Leave a comment

I won’t loan money to anyone.

I wouldn’t loan someone a penny to buy a candy bar.  I don’t care how much they might think they need their chocolate and even with the crazed looks of desperation, wild handwaving and dramatic music playing in the background, I just don’t care.  “No” will always be my answer.  Forever and always, anyone asking to borrow money from me will get the same response.  No.  No!  NO!!!  A million times, no.

Why?

The answer is simple.  Loaning money changes the dynamics of the relationship.  Now, instead of a friend, brother, sister, son or daughter, that person is a debtor.  In encounters and engagements which would’ve otherwise been carefree, now you begin questioning the intentions of that person, especially if they’ve had a hard time paying you back.  That doubt lingers in your mind like a fart in a crowded room.  You wonder if they’re thinking what you’re thinking but you’re afraid to ask because it would be awkward.  So you sit silently, brooding to yourself, counting the lost money and contemplating all the things that money could have been better used for.

I wish to avoid ever having to feel that way about anyone I care for, so that’s why when people ask me if they can borrow money I always tell them “No, but you can have it.”

If someone you know asks for money, especially an amount more than just chump change for a Hershey bar, chances are, they really need the help.  It takes a lot of courage to tell someone you’re having trouble making ends meet and that you could really use their help.

If you just loan the person money, what good does that do?  It only places yet another burden on them and it alters the relationship, sometimes in an irreparable way.  By giving them what financial support you can offer, you’re helping them instead of shuffling their problems from one hand to another.

A few dollars to someone in a bad situation will make a world of difference.  It can put food on the table for the next few days, keep a roof over someone’s head for the next month or keep the lights on a little while longer.  Knowing that you’re able to give that to someone is one of the best feelings in the world.  And for them, knowing that you expect nothing in return lifts some of the weight from their shoulders.

Here are a few suggestions for giving money:

Expect nothing in return.  This is unorthodox in our society, so expect wails of protest.  Insist and don’t end the conversation until you win.  If there is no winning, tell them that when they’re back on their feet they can buy you lunch.

You are not a charity.  People in need often flounder for a while before finding their footing.  Decide for yourself how much you’re willing to support them and make it clear.  If this is a one time deal, say so.  It’s hard to refuse money to someone who is in need but you must also take care of your own financial responsibilities.

Offer advice.  Sometimes all a person needs is someone to talk to.  Other times they need someone who can help them find resources or give them a ride somewhere.  Be that person if you are able.  There’s nothing worse than feeling like you are in it all alone.  Be a friend, give your shoulder to lean on and show them you care.

 …and “NO!” I won’t give you money to buy a candy bar either!!!  Sheesh!

Filed under Debt, Money, Relationships, Spending

Fashion & Frugality

August 21, 2010 3 Comments

“Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new.”
     ~Henry David Thoreau

I have a confession to make: I’ve never bought clothes at a thrift store.

I have browsed the selection to see what sorts of “treasures” I could find but came out empty-handed each time.  Even though I firmly believe in living a minimalist and simple lifestyle, I diverge from the frugality gurus when it comes to clothing and fashion.

The experts want us to believe that secondhand stores are the best option for fashion on a budget.  It is true that used clothes will cover our bodies just as well as a brand new pair of designer jeans, and for a lot less money, but should cost always be the only consideration?

“Who cares about the clothes I wear?  What matters is what’s on the inside.”

Philosophically, the content of our character is the only thing that matters.  Our clothes, the cars we drive or the house in which we live don’t define who we are as a person, yet in today’s society, appearances do matter.  How we dress influences our ability to attract a mate, find a great career or meet new people.  Ninety-three percent of how you are perceived during the first seven seconds of meeting a person is based on appearance.  Are you sending the right signals?

Clothes are more than just functional pieces of fabric meant to cover our jiggly bits.  They are an outward reflection of how we perceive ourselves on the inside.  Shy people wear plain clothes so they won’t stand out in a crowd.  People who are insecure about their weight wear clothes to hide the extra pounds.  Punks wear clothes that represent their frustration with the mainstream.  Our personal identity is directly expressed through the clothes we wear, so while our clothes may not define who we are as a person, we do communicate who we are through our style of dress.

And clothes aren’t just about style or creating an image.  Have you ever noticed how good you feel after a haircut?  Your confidence is lifted and you feel better about how you look.  Instead of feeling insecure or uncomfortable about your appearance, you feel sexy and strong.  Clothing has the same power.   A stylish outfit can boost your self-esteem and make you feel bold.  You may even find yourself asking out that cute girl you’ve been checking out for the last couple of weeks.

All this isn’t to say that we need a closet full of designer clothes.  Having a few key articles of quality clothing is far superior to owning a bunch of Stuff you don’t wear.  A wardrobe that you can mix and match to create different outfits is better than a different outfit for each occasion.  It is about getting the best value for your money, which means buying clothes that you will wear often and regularly.

Frugality is never about the money.  It is about finding the best value.  A carefully picked wardrobe can do wonders to improve your self-esteem and open doors to new opportunities in your career and love-life.  Money spent on quality clothing in timeless styles that will raise your self-esteem is money well-spent, at any price.

Filed under Fashion, Frugality, Spending

The Life You’ve Always Wanted?

August 8, 2010 10 Comments

We all have our ideas of what the “perfect life” would be like but often the images in our mind are a far cry from the reality we are living.  If you were able to travel back in time and ask a younger version of yourself if this is the future they’d choose for themselves, what would their answer be?  Twenty years ago, could you have envisioned the life you have today?  Is it everything you’d imagined or have your dreams evaporated into thin air?

Chances are, the life you are living today is nothing like the life you expected to have.  You sold your ideals for a dollar bill.  Why?  “Because that’s just what adults do.” We have to make a living to pay the bills.  There’s food to buy and television to watch.  How are we supposed to save the world when we’re up to our eyeballs in debt?  The mortgage isn’t going to pay for itself, is it?

“It is what it is.” There’s no time for dreams.  Dreams don’t pay the bills or put food on the table.  Our younger selves didn’t understand what it meant to be adults.  We have obligations now and we’ve built our lives around some idea of what it means to be a “responsible adult” in today’s world.  What we ended up with is a career that steals our time and energy, a mortgage that drains our income and debt from all the Stuff we bought to furnish and decorate our home.  We have many thousands of dollars in Student Loans and a couple of cars to pay for.  Oh yeah, and the credit cards…

It looks like being an adult isn’t all that we’ve been led to believe.  All of our lives we’ve been told that adults are “responsible”, implying that it’s somehow more virtuous to fall in line and follow the leader than it is to follow our youthful ambitions.  The “responsible” thing to do is find a job, get married and have children, buy a house and a couple of cars, then keep your nose to the grindstone until it’s finally time to retire.  When that day does come, we hope that our health will last long enough to enjoy the life of our dreams; the life we’ve been waiting our whole life to live.

And what has it all amounted to?  A garage full of Stuff we never really needed in the first place, kids that seem to resent our very existence unless we’re buying them something, a spouse that we barely seem to know anymore and a huge house we aren’t able to enjoy because we are at the office earning a paycheck to pay the mortgage.

Sure, we have all the Stuff we could ever imagine.  We drive nice cars and wear nice clothes.  Our home is decorated like a magazine cover and on the weekends we are able to relax with a cold beer in the backyard.  On the surface things seem wonderful.  A little deeper though and things don’t look as good anymore.

What are we sacrificing to create this image of the “perfect” life?  Our time, our energy, our sanity?  If the average person starts working fresh out of college at the age of 22 and retires at 67, that’s 45 years of life sold for a dollar bill.  We’re trading our life to fill our garage with junk, for a heap of metal to take us to a job so that we can pay for that same heap of metal.

What if there were a different way?  What if you didn’t have to spend your entire life working?  Would you do it?  If you knew that in 10 years you could be financially able to walk away from your job with enough money to pay for all your expenses, would you have the ambition to make it happen?

There is a way, it is possible!  The only problem – of course there’s a problem – is that to get there, you have to minimize your spending and save.  “But that’s Un-American!” Our entire lives we’ve been told to “get out there and boost the economy.”  After the attacks on September 11 we were told to go shopping as a way to stand up against terrorism.  Does that mean we’re supporting terrorism by saving money?  Of course not!

What I’m talking about isn’t a new concept.  It isn’t impossible.  It’s been done before and it’ll be done again.  And not just by a few outliers but by many thousands of people.  Will you be one of them???

What’s the secret?

Live Frugally: Cut your expenses to the bone.  Anything that doesn’t offer real value to your life is out.  That might mean going without a contracted cell phone, cable television, TiVo or Netflix.  Find alternatives or other ways to occupy your time.  It may seem impossible now but you can live without these things.

Get Out of Debt: You can’t be financially independent when you’re in debt.  Get out, get out, get out! By adopting a frugal lifestyle, the extra money you’re able to save can be applied towards eliminating your debt.  After you’ve saved up enough money to cover six months of living expenses, every penny should be thrown at your debt.

Save: Once you’ve paid off the last of your debt it’s time to save like never before.  It may take you a few years, maybe even ten or 15, to save enough money to become financially independent but that’s better than 45 years!

Invest: This is where the magic is!  With the money you’ve saved, you can invest it into conservative investment vehicles which will pay you interest in fixed intervals over a specific length of time.  If you’ve saved and invested enough, this interest will cover all of your monthly expenses.  Now your money is working for you, not the other way around!

If you’d like to learn more about the process outlined above, I recommend checking out the book Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez.

Filed under Book Reviews, Budgeting, Career, Consumerism, Debt, Employment, Family, Freedom, Frugality, Goals, Investing, Lifestyle Engineering, Money, Opportunity, Potential, Preparation, Prioritizing, Retirement, Savings, Spending

Guest Post: Credit Cards, Fancy Cars and Caviar

July 3, 2010 2 Comments

The following is an article written by Brandon Bailey.  Brandon’s blog, Adventure Deficit Disorder, is about enjoying life in the present, simplicity, and seeking adventure.  If you enjoy this article, check out his blog and be sure to sign up for free email updates!

As humans, we are horrible at knowing what will make us happy.  From a psychology standpoint, we generally avoid actions that will inflict some kind of pain or suffering and actively pursue what we think will make us happy.  In our modern capitalist culture we have been socialized to think the consumption of goods will make us happy.

But does it?

On a recent trip through Aspen, Colorado I found myself falling into a sort of trap.  Seeing the smiles on the faces of all the beautiful people drinking expensive wines on restaurant patios, the flashy cars rolling through the streets and the gorgeous ski-in ski-out mansions made me envious of the wonderful lives these people seemed to live.  Then I started asking myself questions like,  “Why am I envious of such a lifestyle?”, “Are these people really as happy as they seem?”, “How do so many afford a lifestyle of such luxury and extravagance?”

Envy is a powerful emotion.  According to British philosopher Bertrand Russell, “envy is one of the most potent causes of unhappiness” because it reveals our self-perceptions and desires in relation to others.  At a time when the MTV-lifestyle is seen as the epitome of success and credit cards are readily available, we (or at least people under 35) have been taught to think we need - and deserve – a celebrity lifestyle.  This kind of entitled attitude is dangerous and despite having previously explored a high-life image of expensive dinners, exclusive parties, “celebrity” friends, penthouse apartments and European cars, only to discover that I was more unhappy than ever, I still find myself occasionally drawn in by the Siren’s song of the high-life.

A few years ago it dawned on me how absurd and unsustainable such a lifestyle is while in the VIP section of a nightclub with several well-known NFL players.   I found myself surrounded by so-called beautiful people, wearing oversized watches embedded with diamonds - one more extravagant than the next, drinking bottles of champagne costing several hundred dollars each.  I could feel envious eyes peering in from beyond the red velvet ropes – wasn’t this what I was supposed to aspire to?  MTV and other social indicators told me so, but I couldn’t have felt any more like a fraud.  After I left the club that night, early and alone, I never heard from any of my “friends” again, confirming that I had made the right choice to walk away from that lifestyle.   Through this experience, I now realize that the so-called happiness derived from living this type of lifestyle is fleeting and only surface deep.  

In the subsequent years I’ve discovered that by cutting my expenses, not increasing my earnings, I have more time and freedom to pursue the same things I enjoyed and dreamed about as a kid.

So what did I cut?

Big nights out.  Dinners at trendy restaurants.  Drinks into the early morning hours.  These things can add up to big bucks.  A nice dinner here or there with people that you really enjoy is perfectly fine, if not important, but should not be a lifestyle.

The wardrobe.  I can’t figure out why anyone really needs multiple pairs of jeans or shirts that are exactly the same (especially t-shirts that cost upwards of $100).  If you are worried that people will notice whether or not you wear the same thing every day, they won’t.  Think you will never have enough clean clothes?  You will.  Clothes are rarely legitimately dirty after one wearing.  Donate anything you have not worn in a year, even if it is a “nice” article of clothing that you “forgot about”.  You probably won’t wear it again anyway.  When getting new clothes, buy things that will serve multiple purposes and can be worn year-round.

The fancy car. This doesn’t mean we should all drive a beater - a car should be safe - but it does mean that having a car that is losing value faster than Lehman Brothers is going to hurt you.  For some reason people seem to forget that cars depreciate and are therefore not an asset.  You’ll also save on insurance and registration if the car is even just a few years old.  Better yet, ride a bike.  Gas is expensive.

The cable. According to the A.C. Nielsen Co., the average American watches more than 4 hours of TV each day.  That is 28 hours each week and 2 months of nonstop TV-watching per year!  In a 65-year life, that person will have spent 9 years glued to the tube.  Figuring in a fixed average cable bill of $71 per month for those 9 years ($71 x 12 months x 9 years) you would save $7,668 just by cutting out cable.  If you think you need television for news or entertainment, try going without it for a little while.  Suddenly that extra 28 hours per week will be obvious.

So how do so many people afford a lifestyle of such luxury and extravagance?  Well, many don’t.  If you follow the news even just a little, you’ve probably heard that the average American carries more the $8,000 in credit card debt.  According to Liz Pulliam Weston at MSN, this isn’t entirely true, claiming that 50% of credit card users owe $8,000 or less.  Still, 1% of the 84 million American households who have at least one credit card owe $21,400 or more – that’s 840,000 households that have racked up some serious credit card debt.  Additionally, as of May 2010 there were 2,082,113 foreclosed homes in the US.  In some states, the foreclosure rates are as high as 1 in 78.

As for the smiles, fancy cars, and castles in Aspen - it’s mostly surface deep and difficult to maintain.  Credit cards are maxed, the fancy cars are just for show, and the ski castles are for sale.  There are a lot of $30,000-millionaires out there living lives well beyond their means who will never achieve the freedom to pursue their childhood dreams.  Don’t be one of them.  Cut your expenses to get the time and finances for doing the things you really want.

Filed under Consumerism, Debt, Freedom, Guest Posts, Money, Prioritizing, Spending

Feeling a Little Like John Kerry

June 10, 2010 2 Comments

I’m the type of person that when I make up my mind, I stick to the plan.  Lately, though, this hasn’t been the case.  I’ve struggled to stick to spending plans, failed to keep a balanced budget and have been indecisive about whether to save money or pay down debt.  Cue the Swift Boat Veterans!

Even more than you’re probably sick of hearing about my struggle with my spending and the battle to balance savings and debt repayment, I’m sick of struggling to reach a solution to the problems.  It is frustrating to continually fail at reaching my spending goals and even more troubling to realize that what had been a surplus at the beginning of the year has become a deficit.

Exposing these challenges fills me with fear and discomfort.  It is a lot more fun to share the accomplishments, the highlights of life and inspirational stories.  It isn’t as enjoyable to broadcast my weaknesses and uncertainties and I don’t like sharing my insecurities and self-doubt.  I don’t like it but I want you to know that I struggle with the same challenges as anyone and I want you to realize that doing the right thing isn’t always the easiest.

It is a battle always in perpetuity.

I will continue to struggle and fight these battles so that when I come out at the end of all of this, I will have the comfort of knowing that I have fought to do the right thing the entire time.  In the process surely I will make mistakes and maybe even fail.  I will be wrong and do stupid things at times.  I will satisfy my impulses one day and regret the decision the next.

Despite all of this, there is an end to the war and it isn’t over until I have won.  It isn’t over until I have defeated my enemy; debt.  It isn’t over until I am consistently reaching my savings and retirement goals.  This battle cannot be lost until I choose to give up and accept defeat and as much as I may vacillate from time to time, I will persist and I will win.

We must fight the battles in our lives that are worthy of fighting and realize that defeat only happens if we make that choice.

*     *     *

Check out Pop Economics’ Carnival of Personal Finance #261 which featured this Hundred Goals’ article!!!

Filed under Budgeting, Debt, Goals, Life, Money, Preparation, Prioritizing, Random Thoughts, Savings, Spending, Success

Eating Ourselves into Debt

June 6, 2010 1 Comment

With all the ventures we have been pursuing in our lives, no doubt a lot has changed in the past few months.  Some of us have had children, moved into a new home, started a new job or lost an old one.  Maybe we are on the cusp of a new beginning, starting our own company or thinking of marriage.  No matter where we are in our lives, even if it seems as though life has been pretty dull lately, now is a great time to take another look at our budget.

“I don’t have a budget.”  Then today is your lucky day!  It is time to take control of your finances and create one.  You get to tell your money where it will be spent.  There will be no more uncertainty of where your money is going.  It is the dawn of a new era in your finances!

I created a budget at the beginning of the year based on actual and expected expenses.  When I made my budget I was running a surplus.  I budgeted for debt repayment and savings and still had money left over to use for pocket cash.  I used the extra money to help pay for some of the expenses of my travels around the world and a candy bar here or there when I wanted one.

Since setting up my budget, my life has remained relatively unchanged.  I didn’t move, no babies were born, marriage is still somewhere beyond the horizon.  Everything seemed to be headed in the right direction, yet, despite the appearance of a stable financial situation, when I re-evaluated my budget recently, something was amiss.  I found myself with a monthly deficit.  In a year’s time, the balance in my bank account would drop hundreds of dollars even though I was doing everything I should have been doing according to my budget.

What had changed?

When I revised my budget, I replaced the expected expenses of the original budget with actual expenditures over the last few months.  In addition to some recently added expenses, our actual grocery expenses were much higher than I had budgeted for at the beginning of the year.  This comes as no surprise considering how challenging it has been to bring this expense down in recent months.

Earlier this year we were eating meals that were cheap and unhealthy.  Processed food was all too common and fresh vegetables were pretty much absent from our diet.  When we prepared meals at home most of the ingredients came from a box, can, carton or bag.  Cheaper?  Yes.  Healthy?  Not at all.

We wanted to dramatically change our diet so we donated all of our processed food from our cupboards to the local church and restocked our shelves with foods that were healthy.  Fresh fruits, vegetables, fresh meat.  The recipes we used called for ingredients we had never heard of.  Strange and exotic spices began filling our cupboards and our grocery bill climbed.

Even as our spending grew, our budget didn’t change to reflect the increased costs.  We were making smarter decisions about what we ate but ignored the cost.  The money we were spending in restaurants was declining now that we were cooking meals at home and we weren’t eating out as often, however, the drop in restaurant spending didn’t make up for the inflated expense of the groceries.

How do I plan to turn the deficit back into a surplus?

Grocery spending (and restaurant spending) is what got me into this mess in the first place and will be the first category that will be cut.  I will not be buying macaroni and cheese to make these cuts.  The reduction in spending will boil down to meal planning.  Now that we have many of the basic ingredients for our new diet, I expect the costs associated with our diet to begin to decline.

I will create a zero-based budget, which means every penny will be accounted for somewhere on my budget.  No more surplus money floating around.  I will create individual accounts for specific goals such as my Emergency Fund and  Travel expenses.  My debt repayment goal will remain unchanged for the time being, though once my budget is balanced and flowing correctly, I hope to increase the monthly payment by an additional $100.  Each month I will transfer the budgeted amount into those accounts.

I have also added another category to my budget; Entertainment.  When there was extra money every month, it was easy to spend $30 to $40 on a date with Erin.  Now that I am spending more money than I bring in, it is time to tighten the belt and adjust accordingly.

That’s the plan!  Cut spending, begin a zero-based budget, no more slush fund and new budget categories for Travel and Entertainment expenses.

How often do you check your budget?  Once a month is probably better than twice a year!

Filed under Balanced Diet, Budgeting, Food, Money, Spending

The Borrower is Servant to the Lender…Maybe Not?

June 3, 2010 3 Comments

I have $31,829.47 in Student Loans.

Even though my loans are in deferment, I am paying these loans back while still in school.  As I mentioned last week, I am paying $350 each month towards this debt.  I’ve been crunching the numbers and came up with some scenarios.  At the current rate of repayment, it will take 9.3 years to repay the loan in its entirety.  By increasing the monthly payment to $450, I can have the entire balance of the loan paid off in 6.8 years, a full two and a half years earlier.

In order to reach my original goal of paying off $14,417.68 by next year I would have to pay $1,246.19 each month.  In as few words as possible, “It ain’t happenin’.”  If I were to eliminate all travel expenses (estimated at $3,000 to $5,000 a year), as some readers have suggested, it would take 4.8 to 3.6 years to pay the loan off in full.  By giving up travel, I could cut the loan time practically in half.

Maybe of more concern than the length of the loan is how much money can be saved.  The interest accrued on the loan when payments are $350 a month comes to $9,363.24.  Adding $100 a month would reduce the interest charges to $6,634.26, a difference of $2,728.98.  The accrued interests at $600 and $775 are $4,637.04 and $3,444.60, respectively.  The savings on interest charges could be as much as $5,918.64.

I could be out of debt in 3.6 years and save myself $5,918.64 if I eliminated all travel and applied the money towards debt repayment.  That really sounds great but the question becomes, “At what cost?”

Should money be the only consideration when getting out of debt?

The benefits of paying down the debt as quickly as possible are obvious and living with debt limits our potential.  Debt forces us to make decisions based on servicing our financial obligations rather than making choices that will bring happiness and satisfaction to our lives.  We are slaves to our lenders.

Or so we’ve been told.

The phrase “the borrower is servant to the lender” has been around since Proverbs 22:7 and in so many ways, this idea has weathered the test of time.  As I mentioned above, debt limits our potential and becomes the driving force behind so many of our decisions.  If we are in debt, taking the risk of quitting a job to pursue a dream becomes almost impossible.  Our ambitions are stifled by our obligations to our lenders.

Still, I wonder…is it possible to live a rewarding life while in debt?  Can a balance be found?  If we are methodically paying down our debts and meeting our financial obligations by building our savings and preparing for retirement, are we slaves to our lenders?  If we are able to balance these financial responsibilities while enjoying the moment we are occupying, does that make us slaves to our lenders?  There must be something more to this idea of being a slave to our lenders.

We become slaves to our lenders when all of our life energy is focused on servicing our debts.  We become slaves to our lenders when each penny we earn is not able to be enjoyed because it must be used to pay off debt.  We becomes slaves when we go to work for the sole reason of paying the bills when they come due.  Slavery to our lenders means the money we earn doesn’t belong to us anymore.  We become the middle man, working for one to give to another.  That is slavery.

Can we escape the financial slavery while still having debt?

I believe we can.  Being a slave to debt is a very real situation for many people but for a lot of us, it is a self-imposed sentence.  It was an imbalance in our finances that got us into trouble in the first place and it is an imbalance that is forcing us into a feeling of slavery.  If all of our energy is being spent to earn money to pay down our debts, of course we will feel like slaves.  If we work to create a balance between paying down our debt, building our savings and pursuing our passions and hobbies, the feeling of slavery disappears.  Paying our debts no longer feels like drudgery.

It will take longer and cost more money to reach an endpoint but the end will come.  Does it make sense to put yourself through 3 years of pure Hell to get out of debt faster and save some money or does it make more sense to create a plan that falls somewhere in the middle while you are still able to enjoy the precious few moments we are given on this earth?

That is a decision each of us must make on our own.  As for me, I am going to try to fall somewhere in the middle to get out of debt a little sooner while still chasing after my dreams and ambitions.  I am going to review my budget, find areas that can be cut and use that money to pay off my debt.

And as for cutting travel?

…

Filed under Attitude, Behavior, Debt, Freedom, Money, Passion, Preparation, Prioritizing, Spending, Student Loans

← Older posts

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 242 other followers