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Stay Creative

September 24, 2011 By

CreativityEver felt like you have no creativity?

Everyone can create and imagine.  You just have to realize you can.  Sometimes ideas come to you in the spur of the moment.  Sometimes they are there when you wake up from a dream.  Other times you will need to search for the creative solution.

The following video was made by TO-FU and has 29 was to keep up your creativity. I think if you do #26 for a couple of weeks you will realize you are more creative than you think.

Creativity image courtesy of Sean MacEntee.

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99 Days Until Christmas

September 17, 2011 By

Disney ChristmasIt is 99 days until Christmas! I know, I know but I want to tell you a secret. Come closer to your screen and listen closely. Ready? It is possible to go through the holiday season without time or financial stress.

Really, it is possible. There are only two things you really need to do it and that is a calendar and a budget.

Calendar

I recommend you look online for a printable monthly calendar.  Print out September, October, November, and December.  Pick an afternoon within the next week (or right now) and right out all of the things that will come up over the next 3 1/2 months:  birthdays, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, church events, appointments, etc.  Once completed lay them all out in front of you.  You have just relieved a hefty part of that stress if you will keep this handy and look at it daily.

Remember to add new things as they come along such as your kid’s school functions and parties so you know when everything is.  This helps get these dates out of your mind and put somewhere that you will look.  It reduces a lot of stress and that dreaded feeling that you are forgetting something.

Calendar Part 2

Now that you have the events on your calendar you know you need to attend or do something for now you need to set dates to complete the tasks involved with them.  It is really easy:

  1. Go through and look at each event.  On a separate sheet write down what events you will need to complete a task for.  Example:  Samantha’s Birthday.
  2. Beside the event write down what tasks needs to be completed.  Example: Samantha’s Birthday – Purchase Gift
  3. Return to your calendar and choose a date that is your deadline for purchasing the gift.  I would suggest at least three weeks out in order to retain the low level of stress that I hope your calendar has allowed you to have.

This simple task should not take you more than an hour to complete for most people.  It gives you a goal – yes, you just set goals for one of the busiest times of the year.  This will allow you to have your grocery shopping for Thanksgiving and Christmas done a week or two in advance, your shopping completed before the holiday gets here, and most importantly allows you to spend time with your family near the holiday instead of running around.

Budget

The dreaded word has peaked it’s head out!  However, a budget can be an extremely easy tool to put together and again should not take more than an hour get finished.

All you need to do is figure out how much you are willing to spend for each event.  Take that amount and divide it by the number of paydays you have until your deadline to have the tasks completed and now you know how much to save from each check.  If you do not already do this the first year may be a little hit or miss but starting December 26 you need to prepare for next year and take a little out of every check.  This saves you from having to come up with all the money at the last minute or worse yet paying for the holidays with credit cards so they follow you into next year.

Need more help?

100 Days to ChristmasOne of my favorite places to find pages to help keep me organized is List PlanIt.  The woman who runs the site is Jennifer Tankersley and she wrote an ebook called 100 Days to Christmas which outlines action items to do each day for 100 days leading to December 25th.

It is only $4.99 and I highly recommend picking this up.  If you have trouble staying on task or would like an easy to follow guide to make your holiday season even less stressful then take a look.

Purchase the book here.

Bonus part of the book is Jennifer includes the planning pages (including the calendar pages mentioned above) from List PlanIt so you have everything you need to have one of the best holiday seasons you have ever had.

Filed Under: Organization, Time Management Tagged With: , , , ,
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Opportunity Cost

September 10, 2011 By
Friedrich von Wieser

Friedrich von Wieser - Developer of the Opportunity Cost Theory

When you choose to do something there is always a cost.  If you decide to get up at 6am instead of sleep in you have cost yourself sleep but gained more time awake which could mean more productivity.  Such things are referred to as opportunity cost.

We all have a finite amount of time.  When we choose to do something the cost is that we cannot get that time back and therefore have lost that time to do something else.  We all have 168 hours in a week and if we choose to watch television for 40 of those hours then that is 40 hours we cannot get back to exercise, read, work, or anything else.

Want to get more productive time out of your day and lower your opportunity cost?  Set up a time budget much like you would your household financial budget.  See where time is being wasted or could be used better.  This can help you improve outlook, reduce stress, and increase your productivity both at work and at home.

 

Filed Under: Time Management Tagged With: , ,
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Time Management

September 3, 2011 By

Randy PauschFinding enough time in our lives is hard.  I have mentioned before about having 168 hours in your week and one way to get more time is to plan.  Another way is to watch the lecture below and learn.

Giving the lecture is Professor Randy Pausch.  You are likely to remember the name as he is the author of “The Last Lecture” which was released in 2008.  The premise of the last lecture in the academic world is to give the professors a chance to answer “If you could only give one final lecture before you pass what would you tell the world?”  Unfortunately this was more true for Randy Pausch as he had pancreatic cancer at the time he wrote his.

The following video is another lecture he gave during this same time frame on time management.  What better way to learn about time management than from someone who has not choice but to prioritize?

Filed Under: Life Coaching, Time Management Tagged With: , ,
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Indecision

August 27, 2011 By

IndecisionHave you ever had a hard time making a decision?  Has the delay in making one cost you something (time, money, job promotion, etc)?  In my job I have seen it cost all of these things to people and it was simply because they could not make up their mind.

Indecision can effect you and your loved ones, cost you opportunities in your home and work life, and keep your mind occupied so you cannot focus on tasks.  No matter whether your need to make a career decision or what to eat for dinner a delay can cost you.

Dan Miller in his book “48 Days to the Work You Love” says that he and his wife limit themselves to a two week window to make any kind of decision.  To help make their decisions they have a 5 step process:

  1. State the problem.
  2. Get the advice and opinions of others.
  3. List the alternatives.
  4. Choose the best alternative.
  5. Act.

And just like your third grade teacher telling you during those standardized tests that if you don’t know the answer 100% to take the first one that came to your mind, that can be good advice here.  In many instances your first thought of the right answer is going to be what is good for you.  Don’t make your decision based on your first assumption but look at that as a really good starting point and work from there.

Being able to make a decision is just as important as having goals and dreams.  If you have a dream and cannot decide whether or not to act upon it then where does that leave you?

Photo courtesy of spaceamoeba.

Filed Under: Life Coaching, Time Management Tagged With: , , , ,
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Failure Is An Event Not A Person

August 20, 2011 By

Walt Disney

“Remember that failure is an event, not a person” – Zig Ziglar

Everyone fails at one time or another and it can often feel like you will not recover.  How many times have you had the wind knocked out of you because of a “failure” only to discover a little ways down the road it wasn’t so bad?

Would you consider Walt Disney a failure?  Why would you not?  He was fired by a newspaper editor because “he lacked imagination and had no good ideas.”  He went bankrupt several times.  So why do you say he is not a failure?

Walt Disney took the failures and built on them and now we have the largest media conglomerate in the world based on his visions.  When you have a “failure” in your life see how you can learn from it and get back on your feet.  You never know what is waiting for you just around the corner.

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Is it that hard to care?

August 13, 2011 By

Argue & TwistHave you ever had a problem with the service in any kind of establishment?  Sure, we all have at one time or another.

Have you ever asked to speak with the manager only to ind that though they are not arguing back you know you are going to walk out unsatisfied?

Any industry that has a customer needs to have customer service skills.  This means ALL businesses need customer service skills.  But how many times do you find the office manager who just doesn’t have the time to talk to you or in my case a dentist that can’t make himself apologize?

This past week my daughter went in to see the dentist.  She was getting a little work done which she has had previously with little issue.  She told the dentist twice that she was hurting and rather than take a moment to explain to my wife what the problem was he turned to his hygienist and told her to make an appointment where she could be sedated, tossed down the drill, and walked out.  Of course, my wife was upset by the lack of care so I called and talked to him to find out was going on.

After several minutes of explaining to him that the problem was not that he felt that he could not perform the work but that he didn’t take the time to explain what the problem was when my wife was sitting in the same room he continued to say “I assumed she knew what the problem was.” and “If she had a question she should have spoken up.”

Really?

The average person can see where the flaw in basic customer service is here.  All I wanted was to find out the problem and a simple apology for acting the way he did.  I really got neither since he didn’t care.  He didn’t even bother to argue his point.  It was simply our fault for not asking.

Your customers should not have to ask.  You should be out seeking their problems and finding solutions to them.  This is what keeps your customers happy and keeps them coming back to you.

If you are at a grocery store and there are no carts available at the door you have the option to go out and get one yourself.  It is your problem since you are the one wanting to shop.  How would you feel if his was the response you got at that store?

At Walt Disney World guests were forgetting where their cars were in the parking lot all the time.  The tram operators took it upon themselves to start writing down where they were in the parking lot at a certain time and this list of times is handed to cast members at the end of the day.  If you can not find your car but know what time you parked they can help you get in the general area of where you were picked up.  Where your car is parked is not their problem but they saw an opportunity to help their guests and did so.  By doing this you have less frustrated people who see their visit to your location as pleasant.  Was this a hard thing to do?  Absolutely not.

Now you have a decision to make.  Are you going to be like the dentist who will no longer be getting our business (he lost two patients with one unapologetic attitude) or are you going to be the tram operator who took the initiative?

Photo courtesy of Fimb.

Filed Under: Customer Service, Life Coaching Tagged With: , , , ,
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Not Enough Time?

August 6, 2011 By

clockIf you are like many people I know you never have enough time to do everything you need to do. I see it all the time on social media that there just isn’t enough time to do _____________.  Why is it so many people feel this way?  It is because not enough people plan their time.

Everyone in the world has the same amount of time in a week.  168 hours in fact.  Now, if you are working full time deduct 40 hours from that and it leaves you 128 hours.  Remove 8 hours per night for sleeping (if in fact you sleep that much) and that gives you 72 waking hours during the week to do what you want to do.

If you are working a 5 day work week that means you have two days off.  Minus time for sleep that gives you 32 hours on your off days for the week.  How do you make the most of this time?  Try the “Rule of 3.”

The”Rule of 3″ is simple but you’ll have to make an effort to plan for it until it becomes habit.  Laura Vanderkam describes her rules in this way:

So here’s the rule of three for weekends: plan three meaningful, enjoyable things, beyond life maintenance, that you intend to do on the weekend. There will be different for everyone, but could look like this:

  • Go for a run, have date night dinner, go to church
  • Volunteer at food bank, meet friend for coffee, go for a family hike
  • Visit an art museum, take kid bowling, go for bike ride
  • Go to a birthday party, have a picnic, do weight-lifting session

That sounds incredibly simple right?  Simple doesn’t mean easy but if you plan your time, set the goal, and make it a habit then the simply becomes easy.

In This Post: Laura Vanderkam is the author of 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think and writes a blog at my168Hours.com

Filed Under: Time Management Tagged With: , ,
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$479 per month please…

May 29, 2011 By

Car PaymentDave Ramsey has preached for years to not ever have a car payment.  He explains why all the time but day in and day out people go and sign for a new car payment.  We live in a society where if we can make the payment then it is okay to finance it.  Well, if you want to retire very comfortably then it isn’t okay.

According to a 2007 MSN article the average car payment in the United States is $479.00.  If you carry a car payment from age 18-68 you would spend $287,400.00 in car payments.  The average household income is currently around $40,000.00 meaning you could live over 7 years without having to work and live at a standard that the average American does.  If you were to invest that money you would be a multi-millionaire when factoring in for compound interest.

The Urban Country recently posted an article stating that the average American worker works 2 hours of their day just to make the car payment:

Imagine you could work 500 hours less every year. That works out to be an extra 12.5 weeks of vacation. Alternatively, imagine you got paid for an extra 500 hours of work each year, without having to work those extra 500 hours. That would work out to be an extra $11,000 every year for an average American making $22 per hour.

500 hours a year – or 2 hours each day – is roughly the equivalent to what the average American worker will work in order to pay for their cars (the average is between 1.46 hour/day and 2.90 hours/day depending on which data is used).

Want to get a little more disturbed?  The average car loses 65% of it’s value by the end of the 5th year with Kia and Suzuki brands losing 75% in that time frame according to Wired.

So, before you plunk down a $2,4000 down payment realize you could very well purchase the 5 year old model outright and not have a payment to worry about.

Now is a car payment worth it?

Filed Under: Personal Finance Tagged With:
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How much to pay for toilet paper…

May 1, 2011 By

toilet paperHave you ever paid attention to what you are actually paying for toilet paper and want to know when to stock up?  Check out this excellent article over at Save The Coupons.

*Article moved or deleted*

Filed Under: Money Saving Tagged With: , , , ,
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Coupons

May 1, 2011 By

couponsCoupons are getting a lot more attention now then they used to thanks to television.  However, this can still be dangerous territory if you are not careful.  It is very easy to get sucked in to “getting a deal” and going out and shopping only to discover the same item on your shelf months later.  You never really wanted it but the deal was just “to good to pass up.”

That being said, you can get some really good deals on essentials like toothpaste, toilet papers, and laundry detergent if you pay attention to what you are buying and when you are buying it.  I am not going to go into the how-tos here as many sites already do this but I wanted to give you a list of my favorite places to check out:

A lot of these sites repeat information with each other but every now and then they will have exclusive offers or exclusive content.  Find your favorite one and have fun.

*Side Note:  Remember that some coupons and inserts are regional and not carried in all papers.  I have found that sometimes papers at the convenience store are missing one insert that the home delivery people received.  This is also true for advertising inserts – the advertiser only wants to pay for guaranteed deliveries.  So when you are looking at these sites cross check the information before going out.  I have missed a few deals thinking that all the stores carried something when it was a regional special.

Getting Coupons

Two major ways of getting coupons are buying the Sunday newspaper and printing them online.  You can get them online in a lot of places but here are the major players:

 

Filed Under: Money Saving Tagged With: ,
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Welcome

April 23, 2011 By

welcomeWelcome to my blog.  The purpose of this part of the site is to post random thoughts about personal finance, saving money, and general life topics I think would be helpful.

Extreme Couponing and catching store deals is on the rise since the TLC program so I will cover some of that throughout the course of this blog.

Sit back, relax, and enjoy!

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6 Expenses You Should Never Put On A Credit Card

March 18, 2011 By

Pay CashThis is an interesting article on six things you should never use a credit card to pay for. It is an interesting read especially if you are one that always puts it on the plastic just because it is slightly more convenient.

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A 59.9% APR? Seriously?

February 12, 2011 By

Down The ToiletABC News posted an article about First Premier Bank in South Dakota. The bank did a small test where it took around 9000 applications for a credit card that carried an interest rate of 79.9% interest. This is ridiculous that they would offer such a banking product but on the flip side 9000 people sent in an application for it!

After receiving the applications the bank decided to lower the interest rate as this was a test product. While it was a significant drop from a numbers stand point it only went down to 59.9%. The average APR in 2010 was 13.78%.

What is wrong with this? Many people will read the article and see that it is marketed towards people who have bad credit/low credit scores and they keep the credit lines around $300.00. Is this still okay? No, now they are taking advantage of those that can least afford it.

What is wrong with this is many of the people will carry a $300.00 balance and pay the high interest and will continue to be in debt and struggle. There is a reason they have bad credit and this causes these people to stay there because many of them feel they have no other options but to go with something like this.

The second thing wrong with it is their fee structure. This may be worse than the interest rate because if you are getting the card “just for an emergency” then you are paying way to much for something you are not even using. According to the article the card comes with $45.00 fee to open the account, a $30.00 annual fee (which raises $15.00 the second year), and a $6.25 monthly servicing fee. In the first 12 months assuming you do not use the card at all you will still pay $150.00 for the “privilege” of carrying it and then you will pay $120.00 per year thereafter the maintain it.

Banks like this are what keep people in debt. People who have financial troubles or are just starting out and feel like they need to build their credit score and this is the only way to do it end up paying massive amounts of fees and interest. One way to cut down on this is to teach personal finance in high schools to prepare those who will be turning 18 in the coming few years that you do not need to turn to fee-harvester banks and high interest to build your credit.

Now, in all fairness, it is the persons fault for signing up for it as well. Private business has a right to charge what the market will bare and as long as people are buying their products at higher prices they will continue to sell at higher prices. Think of it from a bank perspective: Do you give 10 people $1000.00 credit lines at 15% interest or 5 people $300.00 credit lines with 59% interest?

Filed Under: Personal Finance Tagged With: , ,