5 Year Plan

Free Credit Report Without a Credit Card – Really!

Digigirl — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 02:32:07 +0000

If you’ve ever tried one of those “free” credit report sites like freecreditreports.com, you know that it’s not *really* free. Actually, it’s a free trial period that automatically signs you up for a monthly fee after that and you have to have a credit card to sign up for it. AND you have to provide your social security number.

Well, I’ve found a site that actually provides a truly free credit report! I did it myself, so I know it’s true. It’s a free service, it does NOT require a credit card and in most cases, you don’t even have to put your social security number in either!

The site is www.Quizzle.com. You fill out a little web form and it sends you an email confirmation. You click on the link in that email and you end up back on the Quizzle site with a bit more extensive questionnaire – nothing too major, just 30 seconds to fill it out. Here’s the thing thing to know – you only have a couple of minutes to fill it out once you get to the questionnaire part. If you happen to click away to another screen and don’t notice that (like I did), your time will expire and then you have to call them to verify your identification.

But as long as you fill it out within the allotted time – and there’s a little timer at the top to tell you – it will then pull a free credit report and show it to you! No muss, no fuss, no credit cards, no subscriptions that you have to cancel. It will remind you every six months when you have another free one available.

Of course, they have some upgrades available – get an update on your credit report at any time for $7.00 (still pretty cheap) if you don’t want to wait 6 months and that sort of thing, but it’s a much better deal than I’ve found anywhere else. I HATE those auto-subscription things.

Ways to Make Money – It’s Working!

Digigirl — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 18:35:04 +0000

Our main focus right now is finding ways to make money to help with debt reduction. We are learning ways to make money online as well, but the quickest way to get some fast cash right away was to start selling off things around the house (most of which was just collecting dust anyway).

Here’s an update on our progress:

Selling Used Books, Videos & Music on Amazon.com

This has worked out very well for us. We collected all the books, DVDs, CDs and games we had around the house and put them all up on Amazon. Check out our settlement report from Amazon for our first month selling:

Some additional stats:

Days selling: 27
Items sold: 146 (avg 5.41 per day)
Avg profit: $3.69
Total Amazon profit** to date: $538.80

**Profit number is sale price less selling fees, postage & supplies

We would have made a lot less money per item if we sold them at a garage sale, so I think this is definitely the way to go despite the additional work of listing, packaging and mailing. We still have a bunch of items listed and waiting to be purchased, PLUS we still have tons of stuff at home to list. So this has a lot of ongoing potential for us.

Selling Household Items on Craigslist.com

We’ve only sold 4 items so far (weight bench set, punching bag set, set of 2 garden benches and a dress form), but we have lots of other things to list. We just need to get them out, dusted off and a picture taken.

This method is even easier than Amazon, but I think it’s really best for larger household type items that are hard to ship. I doubt we’d do as well with the books & videos on Craigslist. Craigslist is totally free, and we just put in the ad that the buyer needs to pick up the item, so there are no fees or supplies to subtract. This one is pure profit.

Total Craigslist profit to date: $531.00

Selling on Ebay

This is the time-honored way to make money online, but my feeling is that Ebay just isn’t the powerhouse it once was. When I moved from California to Texas, I sold a lot of stuff on Ebay and had some great success. But as I look up items now it seems there there is not much bidding going on and very few completed sales of similar items to use for comparisons. I think Ebay has really become more of an online merchant conglomeration rather than the global garage sale it used to be.

Nevertheless, it is the still only good place to sell some things that don’t work well on Amazon or Craigslist. We’ve only sold a couple of things there so far (back issues of expensive magazines). We do have quite a few things that will end up here, though (Bill’s old comic books, for instance), so we’ll see what happens.

Total Ebay profit to date: $10.30.

So in our first month, we managed to find ways to make money that earned us an additional $1,080.10! This helped us keep current on our bills but more importantly, allowed us to pay off debts (2) that were just sitting out there collecting interest every month!

What will next month bring?

Surf Report: Visual Economics

Digigirl — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 18:19:43 +0000

Sometimes it’s hard to get into an article you know has good information. Financial topics can often be dry and boring. And we readers of today are such a visually oriented lot, aren’t we?

Enter Visual Economics. Check out these fun visual snapshots of interesting financial topics. I find that they make me want to go research into the data behind them. Either way, it’s a great way to get a quick idea about something.

For instance:

How American Consumers Spend Their Paycheck

The Financial Journey of Life

Fun, no?

Book Review: All Your Worth

Digigirl — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 18:28:45 +0000

It’s amazing how things that were once way too boring to be bothered with can suddenly become an obsession. That’s how it is with me and personal finance topics, lately. In my usual fashion, once I decide to do something, I become obsessed with it. I scour the Internet, I read books, I watch videos. I learn everything I can about the topic at hand. Right now, the topic is personal finance. Hopefully by the time this obsession passes, I’ll be in great financial shape!

All Your Worth: The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan by Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi will definitely help me along.

This book says right in the beginning that a lot of other personal finance books are really written for people who already have money and just want to know how to make more money. This book is not for them! This book is for regular people working regular jobs, trying to get their finances in order. It’s for those of us who make a decent wage, but not necessarily a great one, who struggle from paycheck to paycheck. It’s for those of us who wonder why others in similar situations seem to do fine, and yet we never have enough money to do more than barely scrape by. They wrote a book for ME!!

The premise of the book is basic. Just as we should eat a balanced diet for optimal health, so we should have a balanced plan for how to spend our money in order to remain financially healthy. Such a simple concept, and yet I’ve never seen it stated quite this way before. Does everybody else already know about this? How did I miss out?

Obviously, hard dollar amounts won’t work, as everyone’s situation is different. Instead, they provide percentage amounts for you to use when dividing up your take-home dollars. Yes, that’s right – TAKE HOME dollars. The after tax ones. The ones you actually end up with! Wow, common sense. What a novel idea!

Must-Haves – 50%

They suggest that an ideal balanced money plan allows 50% of your take home pay to go toward “Must-Haves” – Must Haves include those things we all need to live a basic life with dignity – housing, basic transportation, utilities, food. Also included in this section are things that you are contractually obligated to pay – student loans, for instance.

Savings – 20%

Next, 20% goes to Savings. That sounds like a lot, but when they break it down and tell you how you should be saving it, it all makes a lot of sense. First, the entire 20% goes towards building some basic funds that you should always have on hand. A $1,000 emergency fund should remain in your account, liquid and ready to go at all times. Once that is in place, you build your Security Fund – this is an amount equaling 6 months of your “Must-Haves” spending to be used in case you lose your job, major illness or something similar. Again, it should remain pretty liquid and easy to get to without major penalty.

Once those funds are in place, you start working it a little differently. Of your total 20%, 10% goes toward retirement savings, 5% is for paying down your mortgage, and the remaining 5% goes towards your personal goals – buying a house, starting a business, whatever it is you dream of.

So, while 20% of my take home pay seems like a lot for savings, when they put it that way, it does seem really important. All of those are things we really need. How can we not address them?

Wants – 30%

Finally, the remaining 30% of your take home pay goes towards Wants. That’s right – WANTS. First you have to realize that Wants include some things you might currently be thinking of as Must-Haves – cable TV for instance. High speed Internet. How about food above and beyond subsistence level? Those types of things all fall within Wants. But it also includes your fun money – movies, shopping, whatever blows your skirt up.

If you can't afford fun, you can't afford your life!

You may be thinking – but why should I be so frivolous? Why so much for Wants? As the authors say, “If you can’t afford fun, you can’t afford your life.” Wants are what life is all about! It’s what gets us up every day, it’s what makes life interesting. Nobody should have to live with only the basics, and a balanced money plan provides for that. So get your money balanced and spend your Wants money guilt-free.

Coloring Inside the Lines

The trick here is getting your spending within those guidelines. There are a lot of little worksheets and questionnaires to help you identify where you’ve been going wrong thus far, but the bottom line is that you’re going to have to spend some time tracking your spending to figure out exactly where your dollars are going. The upside is that once you’ve done that, and adjust what you’re doing to bring yourself into line, you shouldn’t have to track every dollar you spend going forward. Once you know your fixed costs are right, and set up your savings to get pulled out automatically, basically the remaining amount is what you get to spend on your Wants.

Much easier than a big, hairy budget.

As many personal finance gurus do, the authors suggest using an envelope system for your spending cash. Once you figure out what your monthly Wants amount is, divide it into 4 weekly amounts. Each week, pull that cash out, put it into an envelope in your purse or pocket and that’s it. As long as you have money in your envelope, you can spend it however you like. The kicker is – when it’s gone, it’s gone. No more spending.

We’ve identified that our problem is actually in the Must-Haves area, not the Wants. It’s not going to be quick or simple to get those more into line, as our credit scores (way less than perfect right now) have to improve and some major home repairs / upgrades need to take place before we can really affect those monthly costs. But at least now we know what, where and how.

Goals & Inspirations

Maybe the Balance Money Formula is a no-brainer for other people. But for me it was an epiphany. Now that I have a framework, I can work towards getting things in line. Reading this book not only gave me the information I needed to set concrete goals and the tools to get where I want to go, but it gave me inspiration to really want it, even more than I already did! I can’t wait to get those debts paid off! I can’t wait to see that credit score improve so I can refinance my mortgage! I can’t wait to get a big, fat Savings Account statement one of these days!

It will happen. We’re going to make it happen! You just watch.

Hey, wanna buy some books or videos?

Bits and pieces…

Freelyx — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 19:45:50 +0000

Breaking it up:

We’ve been talking about the plan and how we broke it into smaller bits to make it more manageable. What we really haven’t done is talk about how we did it or why we are trying to do it that way. Let me attempt to explain it based in part on a post I read on the Zen Habits web blog.

Why’d they do that?:

We’ve all had things we needed to do for work, or for ourselves that seemed like insurmountable projects. Something so big you think to yourself, sometimes completely unconsciously, “I’ll never get this done.” Well as soon as you think that, you won’t. You destroy half your ability to complete a task simply by convincing yourself that its not something that can be accomplished.

Thus we decided to break our huge life project into smaller parts, something that we can see as, “easy to accomplish.” Then when we get that first success under our belt, we tackle the next project. We are trying to pick things that will not only help us get the overall picture of the big plan in control, but also give us that satisfaction of crossing a finish line. Little wins set off mental motivations, they give us the impression that we can do things. When you win a hard fought battle to get something done, you always feel like you can do something bigger. It’s true too. With that win, you can start the next challenge, motivated and better equipped to win it.

The break down:

You know we broke it into these three parts;

Sell everything
Pay off our current debt
Relocate to a place we love

But those are each still pretty big projects in and of themselves. So what could we do to get that first win under our belts? We found smaller projects that helped to lead us towards multiple parts of these three plans and further broke those down. Confused? I was too, here’s how it worked.

Obviously if we can sell off everything we have that we are not using, or can be replaced easily where ever we decide to move to, we will be making money off those sells. That money can be used to pay off those debts in the second part of the plan. Those are easily connected. And it stands to reason that if your debts are paid off, you’ll have more money to relocate. So that common thread is what we are looking at to find smaller parts to succeed at.

It seems the common thread in most things in life can be boiled down into these four things in no particular order;

Resources
Motivation
Time
Energy

Resources = Something that can be used for support or help.

Money is the obvious first thought. Money can buy you many of the other things you need to get your task’s completed. But it’s not the only thing you have. Local city free resources are libraries, courts, schools, or any other public works you might think of. There are places here in Houston Texas such as the Texas Worksource Commission, that offer you free access to Internet, printers, and counselors for job placement and training and such. There are support groups, recreation centers, parks, beaches, mountains, nature… these are all resources we take for granted. And of course there are friends, family and the kindness of others that can help too.

Motivation = The internal drive, inspiration, or incentive to do something.

I couldn’t find a definition I liked for this one, so I wrote it myself. Motivation is derived from the word motive. Motive in crimes are what reasons the police believe a suspect had to commit the crime. Well, the same holds true for everything we do in life. There has to be an underlying reason for us to desire to accomplish a task or goal, otherwise why would we do it? Something that we love, or desire to get. The proverbial carrot on the string hanging in front of the stubborn donkey to urge it forward. Yes in that analogy, we are the jackass.

Time = A period or interval, as between two successive events. The duration it takes for an event or task to be accomplished.

Proper goal setting requires you give yourself a deadline. When will you have the goal done by? This is because a project that has no set time it must be accomplished by, is much easier to procrastinate. Also, setting a time to accomplish the task gives you the ability to plan a timeline. We have a timeline, its unspoken, its not really prominent in our current task, but its there. I mean hell we did call it “a five year plan”.

Energy = Available power or capacity for activity.

You must have energy to move yourself. If you dangle the carrot in the earlier analogy, but forget to feed the donkey enough to get him up the first place, he’s more than just stubborn, he’s unable to move to get the carrot. For proper energy one needs rest, food, and muscle.

So if we have the motivation to do it, the energy to move the resources, and the time to accomplish the task, we will get to eat our carrot.

Getting to the point:

Selling everything we own requires us to do several things.

1.) Search for things we aren’t using in our everyday life right now. Things like the sheets for the twin bed we no longer have because my kid broke it. The books that have sat in our “craft room” (Which is really more of a junk accumulation room right now) since we moved in and have not been touched or looked at in years. All the movies I’ve bought over the years. All the exercise equipment that collects dust in the corner. And any other doodads, odds or ends that we happen to come across and think “We don’t really need this.”

2.) Clean and fix these items up, figure out their worth, price them, and get them advertised as available for purchase. This will include taking pictures, scanning, and giving detailed descriptions for the item. We use various web based methods and of course word of mouth. Our biggest success has come from Amazon.com where we have created our own little store. But there is also Craigslist, and Ebay. We don’t use Ebay at all right now as we have had bad experiences with them and Paypal in the past that have lead us not to trust them any longer. “Once bitten twice shy”‘ as they say. But we are realistic enough to know that they are obviously a large and successful syndicate, and you may have better luck and customer service than we did. If you choose to go that route, good luck.

3.) Collect the money and ship the items in a timely and professional manner. Also, keeping our buyers happy. Customer service isn’t just lip service.

Paying off our debt is boosted by the sales, but there are other things to do as well,

1.) Taking some of the monies from our sales and using it to boost the amounts we are already paying towards debts.

2.) Cutting down on the luxuries we buy. Eat out less, fewer trips to the movies, less comic books, stop replacing things that are still working just because something newer and reportedly better comes along, and buy the generic brand groceries and or less expensive brands when we can. Val is already a very frugal shopper, I just have to get her to teach me better. Also I have to curb my impulse buying habits. Just yesterday I bought a couple of downloads from iTunes that I really like, but didn’t really need. Now just because we are tightening the belt, doesn’t mean we are cutting off all our fun though. A few small purchases are allowed.

3.) Selling the Harley-Davidson bike and getting that big chunk out of our monthly expenses will help a huge amount. The problem is the value of the bike is not equal to the amount owed. And because the lien against the bike is held by Harley finance, they will not allow transfer of title until I pay the entire amount. Thus if I sell the bike for $18 to $19k as suggested by NADA.com but owe $23k after the extras and finance through Harley, I have to pay the other $4.5K out of pocket. Not sure that’s going to be an easy task yet… but not giving up.

4.) With each debt we pay off there will be an amount of money that we are no longer having to send off to that creditor. We will then take that money and pay it towards the next debt owed and pay it off. Not suddenly splurge and celebrate by running out and buying something just because the money is there.

5.) Paying off the debt is only part of the finance issues we have. We will also use the money to help correct some of our past indiscretions that have hurt our credit. Building up the credit score with better debt to income ratio, and having paid debts not just on time but also early, will increase our ability to buy a decent home when we get to step three.

Relocating is helped both by having the money from sales, and the other debts out of the way.

1.) The fun part for me is the brainstorming about where in the country we could move to. But that has to be tempered by our needs. One of the main reasons we are moving is that Valerie and I both are sick to death of the heat and humidity of Houston. We’ve just seen almost two weeks with very little rain and temperatures that with the heat index hit over 100 degrees almost every day. But I hate cold. I’d rather sweat than shiver any day of the week. So our list of needs;

Comfortable climate, not too cold, not too hot.
Not a big step up in cost of living.
Good employment opportunities

Also it’d be nice to have some nature around us for me, and Val wants quick easy access to a largish city.

2.) Shopping for the house can partly be done online. But we will have to travel there to see the place at some time, of course. Pictures are usually not entirely representative of the actual scale of the place. Doors may seem larger simply because that’s what you are used to. The shower heads may not be high enough for my 6′ 1″ tall self. The elbow room in the hallways, the size of the rooms themselves. Its all of importance when you are trying to live there.

3.) So lets say we find the perfect house at the perfect location and offer the perfect price…Did the word free suddenly leap into your mind as well as mine? Well we make the offer and wait, we get back word that we can buy the house. Now we have a problem. Our jobs are here in Sugar Land and I understand the commute from Colorado (or where ever) is a beast. So we have to get jobs there. Well if we did our planning right, we have saved up enough money in the emergency fund to live on for a few months without jobs, so, one of us quits our job and heads up there to search for the replacement. Then the other follows suit when the first is settled and there is at least one income to lean on. (That’s how I think we should do it anyway.)

4.) Prep for the move will be really simple with everything sold off. All we will have to bring with us are the pets and our vital documents and such. Clothes, computers, and our cell phones. We pack up and route the trip, and we’re off on the next adventure in our lives. Starting all over.

Yeah it sounds like we have a plan, and it sounds like it should be doable, but we all know there will be bumps in the road. I can’t remember where I heard it, but the best thought here is, ‘Prepare for the worst, hope for the best, and roll with the punches’.

The wreckin’ crew

Freelyx — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 01:55:05 +0000

Funny thing the way times and situations get you down in life. How one minute you have what seems to be the world on a platter, and the next you realize how far off you are. Talking to my dad on fathers day brought a few insights to light for me. The world isn’t the nicest place to live in, and even though we are in the “greatest country in the world”, there are folks out there looking to take advantage of us every second of every day.

Examples?

This house Valerie and I bought and live in. The previous occupants were renters, maybe the previous three occupants before that were renters. The landlord who sold it to us, came in, slapped a coat of paint on it, threw down some cheap tile and dressed it up to sell it. Valerie and I were not experienced home shoppers. We saw what looked to be a house in our price range, with the space and location close to where she worked, and gave a nibble. They sold us the house and we were, at the time, happy. Now however we find a lot of things wrong with it. The rotted wood in the window sills, the ducting in the A/C unit, the termite damage, the faulty wiring and substandard plumbing. Basically the home we have been living in is as close to a condemned structure as I want to deal with. It’s as energy inefficient as living in a cardboard box in a rain forest. Couple that with the destruct-o-matic 18 year old I raised and we’d almost be better off living in the street. We paid a lot of money to get this house, and now we are stuck with problems we never counted on. Worse, the guy who sold us this dump has moved on with our money.

Safety net?:

When you are spending tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars, there should be some kind of a safety net for you. Unfortunately the old adage, “Buyer beware” is about all you have to go on. Home insurance and financing “home improvement projects” are supposed to pay you back when you resell the place. But what if you like us are in a market where the real estate bubble has popped? What if when you moved into the house, it was represented as worth more than it turns out it really is? What can we as home owners do to protect our investment? There are two main factors to consider:

Location

Condition

Okay, so we bought in what was at the time one of the “top 5 places to live” in Texas. We bought in Sugar Land. It was close to most major shopping and schools of the area, in a better tax rate, and close to where Val worked. All these things, to us at that time anyway, meant great location. What we didn’t take into account was the area’s number of rental homes versus number of owned homes. We did some checking through the net and a few of my local contacts to find out the crime rate wasn’t all that bad, but we didn’t check the school’s reported incidents. Nor did we talk to any of the folks who already lived in the neighborhood.

Location:

So as I said, we chose our current home based on school district and how close it was to Valerie’s work. I changed jobs after we moved due to circumstances with my prior job that were… lets just call them unexpected and leave it at that. But for our next search there are a lot of other things we need to consider;

1.)Economy= Local businesses and shopping as well as the overall neighborhoods. Are they places people are moving to? Is the cost of living equivalent to the local job market? Are the shopping areas convenient and competitive?

2.)Schools= What does the local school district offer? Is it close to the house? Are they rated well educationally? What is the security like for their students? We don’t have any kids moving in with us, but how the community treats its kids is a way to see what they are doing for the future. Also, the larger the school district and more kids attending the school tells you a lot about the density of the population in the area. Is there just one school? Is there several? What was the last couple of graduating classes numbered at?

3.)Taxes and or HOA dues= What are the basic costs built into the area that you will be stuck with? This kind of thing can vary quite considerably from area to area and needs to be looked into. Real Estate agents will give you the information if you ask, but for my money its better to find out from neutral informational sources. Check the government websites, look into the HOA (Home Owners Association) and what your dues pay for and why. Make sure the cost to benefit ratio meets with your approval.

4.)Other services= Speaking of government stuff, how close is the local DMV or DPS. What days are garbage pickup and is there any special requirements such as recycling bins or things they won’t pick up? Is there a fire department close by, police, hospital? What about courts? Or if you are Valerie, where is the closest public library (j/k sweetheart)?

5.)The local neighborhood itself= How well to do is it? Is it surrounded by other nice neighborhoods or is there a degree of “less desirables” in the area? Is that a growing population or just one or two folks? Homes on the street that are in disrepair like mine , can reduce the value of others in the proximity. The curb appeal of all the houses in the area are reflected in the value of each, not just the one you are interested in buying. Also if your neighborhood backs up to a major freeway or really busy street, sounds of traffic and folks cutting through your streets can reduce its desirability for sale later. Not to mention the problems getting a good nights rest when trucks and such are passing close enough to vibrate your house walls.

Condition:

Well as you read above the laundry list of things to repair just to make this place livable is longer than my forearm… and I have very long arms. So what we are trying to do is tackle the projects in order of priority. That is to say what does the home have to have to make it a place folks would live in, followed by what the home could have that people would be attracted to live in. Necessity versus luxury so to speak. And they are not mutually exclusive either as I have recently discovered. Air conditioning is really getting a top billing for us right now. The last several days we have been up in the low 100’s for temperature outside. This causes your AC unit to work twice as hard to keep your house cool enough to live in. If your insulation is crap, your house so old it leaks air from every major and minor port of entry into or out of the place, and the ducting hasn’t been dealt with in 12 to 13 years, not to mention the fact that you live in a 2400 sq ft home with only a four ton unit servicing it for A/C… well you sweat at night, and try not to be home during the day. Plus your electric bills are astronomical numbers that almost match your mortgage every month.

Our average electric bill would pay for a nice air conditioning unit if we could afford to get it started. The problem as many folks in America have found is that we are way over our heads in debt already and not able to take on another payment yet. We have a plan to help that, but its not the quick fix most hope to find in such cases. And its going to cost me dearly to make it happen. I’m going to sell my prized possession. My 2008 Harley-Davidson FLHX (Street Glide) with loads of extras. We are going to take a part of the money from that sale and buy the AC unit. the rest we will pay the bike loan way down. The remainder of the loan, we will attempt to refinance at a low APR and pay it off as fast as possible. This will serve three purposes:

lowers our monthly debt owed giving us more money to pay other debts.

helps the credit with the debt to income ratio.

gets the AC unit to save money on electric.

Overall, the profit versus the loss works quite well on paper. Its a big step for me though. I have not gone without a bike in some time and I’m not looking forward to losing this one. Its just about the perfect Harley. I can’t think of anything else it needs other than a few chrome trinkets and such. But for the greater good, I have agreed to let my baby go. But what you need to think about is;

Comfort versus Needs:

You need solid shelter with strong foundation. You need good plumbing and heat/cooling that stays where you want it and doesn’t get outside where you are paying for nothing. You need secure doors and windows that work properly. You need locks and hot and cold running water, you need clean food storage that is critter resistant. A decent kitchen to prepare your meals in. Closets and decent storage areas. You need electric service that is reliable and not too costly. You need tubs/showers that don’t leak. Flushing toilets that work. Floors that feel strong enough to support you and ceiling/roofs that don’t look like they are going to come down or drip water on your otherwise solid floors.

Comforts include, paint on the walls, padded carpets or good looking wood/tile floors, a shower head that doesn’t force you to lean so far over your back hurts when washing your hair. A nice view out your windows. A decent yard to play in for your friends, family and pets if you have any. Fence around said yard to keep said pets from straying too far and to keep your lawn furniture in your yard. Maybe a fireplace for cold nights, or a ceiling fan for hot days. If we decide to move to Colorado, I want a nice deck where I can grill food and a jacuzzi to relax in after a long day. These are comforts, not needs, I know this. But they could also increase property value. I want a nice garage with a shop for tools and such that can be secured. Again, do we need it? No. Will it improve the overall desirability of the property if we should ever decide to sell? Yes.

To to recap:

Prioritize your needs versus your desires. Fix the stuff that could create more trouble later first. Once that’s done, seal the cracks and holes up and paint the place or if its nice wood, treat it, seal it, and take care of it. Finally if there is money left and you have wants, pick the ones that might pay you back in the long run. Buy with a thought to what you would like, but also what others will like too. Build your home for comfort, for security, for value, and for life. Don’t stop dreaming, but get your head below the clouds long enough to see the whole picture, then build towards that dream with the big picture in mind.

Life happens, enjoy it responsibly.

Journey to Simplicity

Digigirl — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 20:05:31 +0000

Article: 72 Ideas to Simplify Your Life

A Life Racing By

I remember hearing that as you get older, the days go by slower but the years go by faster. I am actually finding that it ALL goes by faster – hours, days, years, decades. For the last few years, I’ve been feeling as if at any moment I could wake up, discover I am very old and wonder where my life went.

I believe that a lot of that has to do with the complexity of our lives. We have so much going on these days – work, community, family, friends, movies, Internet, decisions, choices – too much input! Our brains are so busy thinking about what’s coming next that we miss the true experience of the moment. At its core, our 5 Year Plan is really about simplifying – getting rid of the stress of too much stuff and debt, and focusing on life, making it as rich as it can be and enjoying it as it happens.

Journey to Simplicity

...getting to simplicity isn’t always a simple process. It’s a journey, not a destination, and it can often be a journey of two steps forward, and one backward.

This quote comes from a post on a wonderful blog called Zen Habits. The site is filled with wonderful posts, but this one really seemed to hit home for me:

72 Ideas to Simplify Your Life

I know, seems like a long list for being a site about simplicity, right? But it’s all really good stuff. Reading it inspires me to take the time to look at each thing on the list and really think about it. It’s not a one time quick read, but rather a go-back-to-it article and get something new every time.

I’ve started my journey. What about you?

Taking off the Blinders

Digigirl — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 16:37:19 +0000

Stages of Personal Finance

Fumbling in the dark
A candle in the dark
The light at the end of the tunnel
Lighting the way
Financial independence

Get Rich Slowly has a series of articles about the stages of personal finance that he (and many others) go through.

His descriptions really resonate with me as we are just beginning along the same journey he documented on his blog. But as I research ways to improve our situation, rather than finding a candle in the dark I feel more like blinders are coming off. As if I have been purposely hiding my eyes for all these years from the many simple ways I could have managed my money better. Granted, there are a lot of great online services available now that weren’t previously, but that doesn’t mean that I couldn’t have done more before this. I COULD have done more. I SHOULD have done more. But I didn’t. I kept the blinders on.

Seeing the Light

I’ve never been comfortable with numbers. Math and I don’t get along. I think that is part of the reason I avoided learning anything more than the absolute basics of personal finance. I had visions of complex accounting, constantly crunching numbers, pulling out my hair because I’d never be able to get the right results.

Now that I have finally put some bone into my back and turned to face the problem instead of ignoring it, I am finding that while some topics are still ominous and overwhelming to me (like, the stock market), there are so many easy things I can do right now that are not any more scary than the basic banking we all do every day.

Better Banking

One of the easiest things we can do to maximize the money we do currently have is to get a better bank account. It’s so easy to just pick a bank account and then forget about it as years pass. I’m amazed at all the benefits I can get at other banks for the same exact money I currently have, sitting in a plain ol’ checking account.

Interest on checking accounts with zero minimum balance requirements
Higher interest online savings accounts
Refunds on ATM fees charged by other banks

All without doing anything different than we are currently doing – except switching to the new bank. How do these plain bank accounts even still exist, I wonder? To take advantage of all of us who aren’t paying attention, apparently. Well, unfortunately for them – we’re now paying attention.

Look at this site listing high yield checking accounts: HighYieldCheckingDeals.com

Paying Attention

Last year, I lost 35 pounds. One of the biggest lessons I learned during that process was to PAY ATTENTION. It was so easy for years before to just not think about my weight, not step on the scale because I knew I wouldn’t like the number. Wear baggy clothes so I wouldn’t have to worry about the body underneath. Then, one day I looked in the mirror and saw how terrible I looked, realized how sluggish I felt and knew I had to do something. It took nearly an entire year of carefully counting calories and revamping my eating habits to get in a better place. And I still have work to do! Even though I’m at a better size than I was before, I’m not at the optimum size for me.

Our finances are exactly the same. We’ve just been cruising along all this time, not paying attention. Then when we finally looked up, we realized we’d really dug ourselves a hole. I can already tell the lesson will be the same – PAY ATTENTION! Make sure bills get paid on time so you avoid fees. Watch the banking trends so you can take advantage of better bank accounts as they come along. Right now our finances are just like my weight last year – we’re just starting to pay attention, learning how we need to act, and what to do to be healthy going forward.

Getting out of my Nation

Freelyx — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 22:40:04 +0000

getting to the now from Procrasti

Procrasti-Nation that is. Its where I seem to live perpetually according to Val, and I have to say, if there is something I don’t really want to do, I’m really good at finding reasons not to do it. Thus I am not writing this so much for everyone else’s benefit as it is mine. Not that you might not get something out of it as well.

Setting goals and making plans that get us to those goals isn’t always enough. Getting out of my own way and putting my mind to actually doing something is what I need to do. Yesterday Val and I took pictures of my weight bench and placed an add on Craigslist to try and sell it. She took the pictures and wrote the add, I just gave her the information regarding the bench and moved furniture around to let her get the pictures. I really do want to get rid of the old life and start a new one. My heart is there, but my mind is still looking at all the work between us and the goal. Therein lies quite a bit of my problem I think. I dream big, I see what could be and reach for it, but then the work to get there rears its ugly head and I hear that familiar groan in the back of my skull that tells me I could be playing the computer game. Or if something like the bench, which sold this afternoon, works out, the dream shines and I look at it and then a bit of that money runs through my fingers like trying to hold sand.

As if proof was needed:

Today we decided to stay home and not spend any money. We ate a frozen pizza from the freezer, and played around on the computers. We let the ferrets out and watched some TV… that’s where I let it all go bad. I bought a pay per view, then after the pizza, my sweet tooth acted up, so Val let me go buy some doughnuts.. on the way home from the Shipleys, I stopped at Sonic and bought a couple of their Blizzards for us too. It wasn’t until I got home and had eaten the sweets that sense kicked in and I knew I had wasted money that could have helped us get debt free and moved. I’m a pretty weak willed shopper. Impulse buys are big for me. I see something I want, and I let it gnaw at me for a while, then I just go buy it. It’s how I got myself into all the trouble with Harley-Davidson too.

The FIX is?!:

So how can I fix this? What do I need to do to become a more responsible goal seeker? Does that make me a goalee? Well trying to get the things done that I need to accomplish needs to be something I can break into smaller bites. That old adage about ‘biting off more than you can chew’, yeah, that’s how I usually feel. So to break the larger goal of getting moved and into a better life, we broke it into several smaller parts;

Begin getting out of debt.

Begin searching areas we would like to live.

Begin studying what things about our life we have the power to improve and plan to make the necessary changes.

Debt free:

So the debt issue is several parts already. We are selling everything we own to use monies gained from those sales to pay off the debt. We are using the snowball theory, the one that says pay off the accessible debts first, then take the money you were using for those debts and add it to the next one you want to get rid of, then take the money from both of those and go after the next. and so on and so on. Thus you build the amount of money you are able to use to pay your debts off, thus you are able to pay off the larger less reachable debts. Looks good on paper, but not a lot of fun, thus the hesitation, leading to the procrastination.

Where to now?!:

Next is the searching for the places we want to go live. I like to travel, that part already seems fun. But there is a down side. I see hundreds upon thousands of options of where to go. That and every step we take towards the day we move is a step taken away from the familiar stomping grounds. Not to mention my family and friends that all live here. So how do I break the mental blockade that’s telling me to stay here? As much as I dislike the monotony, it is a structured and secure feeling to know what your schedule is every day. Its nice to know you have friends and family to fall back on. So cutting the strings and getting away from that safety net… hesitation leading to procrastination.

This cocoon is kinda tight:

The last thing is when we move the job changes, the things in my home that held that air of familiar will be gone, sold, somebody else will be building an air of familiar. People I don’t yet know in a place I don’t know, leaving the job, friends, and acquaintances here that I do know how to deal with. Valerie already did all this once, she dropped her entire life in California and moved out here to Texas to be with me. She jokingly claims that her doing that proves she loves me more. Well its a sorta joke. That is a joke on the surface with that underlain truth implied. Her coming here to live with me made me fall that much deeper in love with her too, though. And the great changes and support she has given me in my life and all the times she has had to stand by me while I pick myself up out of what ever new life hurdle has knocked my proverbial butt in the dirt, well it reaffirms that love for me every time.

So all the hesitation can be divided up into two categories really;

My desire to stay in the “familiar”.

My desire to keep things in life “Easy going”.

Reaction to action:

Knowing all this doesn’t really help me do anything about it. That’s going to just have to come from the dream that things can and will be better. I get to keep Valerie, and there is something familiar to hang onto. And she is a great organizer and able to sometimes show me the smaller parts of the big picture to keep it in an “easy going” prospective i suppose. But then a lot of that implies there would be no plan without her, that she is the linchpin or keystone for our foundation. That doesn’t work for me. I need to take more ownership in the problems and the solutions that we as a couple are trying to get through.

So I have decided I am moving out of the nation! The procrasti-Nation. The first steps have been taken, now I guess I just need to do it. Any thoughts suggestions, or extra support appreciated.

Pins and needles

Freelyx — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 00:55:12 +0000

Anticipation is high for this plan to take effect. I want it all to fall into place and just be here now! Debt gone, the home selling/shopping and worries about starting over in a new job, state, and or life – just a funny story to talk about with family and friends.

Truth for breakfast:

Reality is that every place you live, work or play will have things you do and don’t like about it. Its a hard truth to swallow if you, like us, are just so ready for the change to take effect. I’m like every other guy on the planet. I want my satisfaction now. Instant gratification and payoff is what we men are most chided for and I don’t understand why. I mean come on. If we’ve done it since caveman times and are still doing it, why would you think we are going to change now? What, in all your experience with our gender, has lead you to believe that one day we’ll wake up and just say, “Okay, I can wait.”

Ramble over, back on track here… if there is a track:

I want the trips to the places we want to live to be over and the choices made. I want all the debt and all the “stuff” in our house already “purged”. I want us to have sold down to the bare walls and packed our meager clothes, laptop, and her Kitchenaid into our jeep (my dream vehicle) with the animals and be headed for the new house. There’s going to be a lot of work to do whereever we move to. You never find the perfect house with all the perfect things you want already done. So we’ll end up using the nest egg (part of the plan) to begin buying furnishings, repairing the minor fixes and applying the coat of paint to the new house. We’ll scout the new neighborhood for best grocery shopping areas, restaurants, and routes to and from our new jobs. We’ll make sure the yard has a decent fence for the dog to get out and play (along with her other outdoor activity). We’ll start the court paperwork for new state license and registration of our vehicle(s). We’ll have to look into phone, cable/satellite, high speed Internet, water, electricity, and H.O.A. stuff. Garbage pick up, local taxes, where the closest cinema is.

Moving is a lot of work:

We are planning on selling everything that isn’t nailed down and starting from scratch, but that doesn’t mean we won’t end up taking a few things along with us that were not expected originally. Things change fast – you never know. So, aside from the bed we love, there could be some other furniture to move. Plus we will have to re-buy a lot of large purchases when we get where ever we are going. Refrigerator, big screen TV, microwave, assorted furniture, probably a new desk set up for the office/study we are planning on etc. etc. Towels, window coverings, maybe lawn equipment depending on where we end up. Did I mention the big screen TV?

Thoughts:

I’ve been thinking about life and how different it will/could all be. I’ve been thinking how great it would be to not have utility bills that rival mortgage payments in the summer. About living on a small plot of land with my nice rustic homey lifestyle. Being able to sit out on the porch swing or throw the ball with Luna (my dog) and not instantly break out into sweat. Having fun outdoorsy stuff to do and not having weather that makes you just want to stay indoors ALL THE DAMN TIME!!! The peace of coming home to Val and the pets and being able to relax and not worry about what new hole in the wall or broken window or destroyed (insert expensive home whatcha’ call it here). Don’t get me wrong, I love my kid, wouldn’t trade him for all the tea in China, but I’ve raised him by myself since he was 3, he’s almost 18 now and lets just say he’s a handful. He’s got the next five years to figure it out and get going. After that papa bird puts him out of the nest – with or without his wings.

Me time:

Hey we all gotta have our dreams. Mine is not all that complicated. Life where there is money at the end of my bills, comfort and relaxation at the homestead, and something to do besides hide in the air conditioning hoping not to pass out from heat exhaustion. While I prefer to be hot over really cold, I’d rather just be comfortable. Call it the Taurus in me. ;P

5 Year Plan

Free Credit Report Without a Credit Card – Really!

Related Reading:

Ways to Make Money – It’s Working!

Related Reading:

Surf Report: Visual Economics

Related Reading:

Book Review: All Your Worth

Must-Haves – 50%

Savings – 20%

Wants – 30%

Coloring Inside the Lines

Goals & Inspirations

Related Reading:

Bits and pieces…

Breaking it up:

Why’d they do that?:

The break down:

Getting to the point:

Related Reading:

The wreckin’ crew

Examples?

Safety net?:

Location:

Condition:

Comfort versus Needs:

To to recap:

Related Reading:

Journey to Simplicity

Article: 72 Ideas to Simplify Your Life

A Life Racing By

Journey to Simplicity

Related Reading:

Taking off the Blinders

Seeing the Light

Better Banking

Paying Attention

Related Reading:

Getting out of my Nation

getting to the now from Procrasti

As if proof was needed:

The FIX is?!:

Begin getting out of debt. Begin searching areas we would like to live. Begin studying what things about our life we have the power to improve and plan to make the necessary changes.

Debt free:

Where to now?!:

This cocoon is kinda tight:

My desire to stay in the “familiar”. My desire to keep things in life “Easy going”.

Reaction to action:

Related Reading:

Pins and needles

Truth for breakfast:

Ramble over, back on track here… if there is a track:

Moving is a lot of work:

Thoughts:

Me time:

Related Reading:

Begin getting out of debt.

Begin searching areas we would like to live.

Begin studying what things about our life we have the power to improve and plan to make the necessary changes.

My desire to stay in the “familiar”.

My desire to keep things in life “Easy going”.