It is possible to determine the class a person comes from by their attitude toward money. You can spot a spendthrift a mile away before they spend a single penny. The same is true of frugal folks. You should also note that wealthy people are more frugal than middle class families. There are exceptions to the rules, but they are rare. Frugal people gather a million dollar plus liquid net worth in a relatively short time and no one knows it by the way they act. Poor folks spend what they can to look richer and the middle class spendthrift lives beyond his means on borrowed money ( and borrowed time) exuding the illusion of wealth.
I know people that carry a card in their shirt pocket that lists what they earn at their job by the year, month, week, day, hour, minute, and second. Tell said person to buy a soda from a vending machine and you will get a quick answer that they need to work just over two minutes for that one soda.
Here is what the card looks like:
$60,000/yr
5,000/mo
1153.85/wk
230.77/day
28.85/hr
0.48/min
.008/sec
The example is a hypothetical person, not a real person or client. However, a lot of people make $60,000 per year. Adjust the numbers to fit your personal situation.
These experiences pushed front and center as I started reading Jeff Yeager's latest book, The Cheapskate Next Door. When he states in chapter one that he knows people that carry an income card in their pocket a few clients came to mind. Every one of these clients is well off or wealthy with a liquid net worth of seven figures or higher.
My dad always said, "Son, it is not what you make; it is what you do with what you make." It took me forty years to figure it out. It is easier deciding if you want to spend money when you can equate it with how much time you will spend at work earning it. Spend $50 and you need to work another two hours.
The slow economic recovery has people thinking about money in ways not done for decades. It is survival mode for many. When unemployment is about to run out it takes desperate measures. Why wait. Take the necessary steps now so desperation is averted later.
It is always a good idea to wait before making a purchase. Think through what it will really cost you in life spent at work paying for it. And heaven forbid you pay interest to pay for a toy. Many folks pay a third or more of their income on their home. That means you spend nearly three hours at work every day just to pay the loan. Is it worth considering a smaller home and taking those extra hours with family? The choice is yours.
Try this for a week only. I do not want a lawsuit if someone goes into septic shock on my advice. Write down your income by year, month, week, day, hour, minute, and second. Keep it with you at all times. Before every purchase anything, check your chart to see how long you need to work to pay for the purchase. I bet you will put several items back on the shelf. Then you can cut your hours at work or retire years or decades early. Like I said, the choice is yours.
Showing posts with label clean living. Show all posts
Showing posts with label clean living. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Sunday, May 1, 2011
All Good Things
It was easy to see when it was Friday afternoon in my office for a long time. The boss, me, had an extra lively bounce in his step as the week approached end. And everyone knew why. It was card night.
"Playing cards with grandpa tonight?" I was asked by everyone. You bet I am. In my home, in my dining room, my grandfather, dad, two nephews, friends, neighbors, and I would gather for a night of sheepshead, the best card game ever played. My daughters watched four generations of Schroeder's sit at the same table week after week and play an old German game of cards, tell stories, and laugh. But all good things must end.
For years I deluded myself, wanting to believe it would last forever. This tax season lost that bounce as my grandfather felt the weight of the timekeeper. In mid-March he played his last game of cards at my daughter's birthday party before heading to the hospital and then nursing home. I visited often, watching a strong man yield to ninety years of life. Then, around 3:30 Good Friday afternoon, the card game ended forever. Easter Monday the family gathered one last time to honor our patriarch.
Last Friday we gathered for cards again without grandpa. It was a quiet night. It felt wrong. In honor of grandpa, we will continue on, enjoying the company of friends and family. All will remember in their own way.
I stopped writing for months as the workload of tax season and the desire to spend quality time with family left me without time to write. I'll get back in the saddle and write more. Grandpa would have wanted that. Next tax season should be happier.
I have no regrets spending time with family all these years. At times my workload left me so tired I could hardly think; I still made time for family. I do not regret one moment of it.
One his deathbed, my grandfather never once talked about money or work. He talked nonstop about family and that game of cards. He was the hardest working man I ever knew, but what he found most valuable was family and the time he spent with us. There is a lesson in there for all of us.
"Playing cards with grandpa tonight?" I was asked by everyone. You bet I am. In my home, in my dining room, my grandfather, dad, two nephews, friends, neighbors, and I would gather for a night of sheepshead, the best card game ever played. My daughters watched four generations of Schroeder's sit at the same table week after week and play an old German game of cards, tell stories, and laugh. But all good things must end.
For years I deluded myself, wanting to believe it would last forever. This tax season lost that bounce as my grandfather felt the weight of the timekeeper. In mid-March he played his last game of cards at my daughter's birthday party before heading to the hospital and then nursing home. I visited often, watching a strong man yield to ninety years of life. Then, around 3:30 Good Friday afternoon, the card game ended forever. Easter Monday the family gathered one last time to honor our patriarch.
Last Friday we gathered for cards again without grandpa. It was a quiet night. It felt wrong. In honor of grandpa, we will continue on, enjoying the company of friends and family. All will remember in their own way.
I stopped writing for months as the workload of tax season and the desire to spend quality time with family left me without time to write. I'll get back in the saddle and write more. Grandpa would have wanted that. Next tax season should be happier.
I have no regrets spending time with family all these years. At times my workload left me so tired I could hardly think; I still made time for family. I do not regret one moment of it.
One his deathbed, my grandfather never once talked about money or work. He talked nonstop about family and that game of cards. He was the hardest working man I ever knew, but what he found most valuable was family and the time he spent with us. There is a lesson in there for all of us.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
How to Declutter Your Life For Fun, Sanity, and Profit
For the last six months clutter has been my enemy number one. The accumulation of crap junk things in my life sapped my sanity and productivity. The effort is slow, but progressing. Each step taken improves my peace of mind and reduces stress.
No one will accuse me of a clutter-free life. The goal is to reduce a little bit of clutter each day. Yesterday I took a huge step. At the office there is a side storage room that leads to the basement. The closet/hall is lined with shelves of old tax journals, tax code, and other junk accumulated over 27 years of business. The storage space is less cluttered today.
There were some real beauties in there: two complete volumes of the tax code with regulation and explanation from 1988 and 1992, a Wisconsin unemployment handbook from 1994, binders, Who's Who for 1996, practice builder sales literature from who knows when, and an old Section 105 administration guide.
The shelves under all that weight were stressed to the max and an accident waiting to happen. The shelves no longer groan. All paper is in the shredding room and the binders were either recycled or burned. Office paper is cross-cut shred and ends up a fibrous mass good for bedding my animals at home. The office feels better for the effort. The shredding room should return to normal in a few days.
My desk and office floor were recently covered from end to end with stacks of papers and works in progress. My office is still cluttered and requires more drastic action, but in the last several months I have been complimented with comments like, "Keith, I can see your floor," and ""You have a desk!"
Yes, most of my floor is clear. Most. You can actually see bits and pieces of my desktop most days. Vigilance is required daily. The clutter bomb is always waiting to reassert itself.
If you desire your life back (as I did), peace of mind, less stress, and a better quality of life, declutter. Here are a few tips I used to declutter:
Now you can breathe.
No one will accuse me of a clutter-free life. The goal is to reduce a little bit of clutter each day. Yesterday I took a huge step. At the office there is a side storage room that leads to the basement. The closet/hall is lined with shelves of old tax journals, tax code, and other junk accumulated over 27 years of business. The storage space is less cluttered today.
There were some real beauties in there: two complete volumes of the tax code with regulation and explanation from 1988 and 1992, a Wisconsin unemployment handbook from 1994, binders, Who's Who for 1996, practice builder sales literature from who knows when, and an old Section 105 administration guide.
The shelves under all that weight were stressed to the max and an accident waiting to happen. The shelves no longer groan. All paper is in the shredding room and the binders were either recycled or burned. Office paper is cross-cut shred and ends up a fibrous mass good for bedding my animals at home. The office feels better for the effort. The shredding room should return to normal in a few days.
My desk and office floor were recently covered from end to end with stacks of papers and works in progress. My office is still cluttered and requires more drastic action, but in the last several months I have been complimented with comments like, "Keith, I can see your floor," and ""You have a desk!"
Yes, most of my floor is clear. Most. You can actually see bits and pieces of my desktop most days. Vigilance is required daily. The clutter bomb is always waiting to reassert itself.
If you desire your life back (as I did), peace of mind, less stress, and a better quality of life, declutter. Here are a few tips I used to declutter:
- Think Small Clutter takes a lifetime to build, it will take less time to dispose of, but it will take time. Dealing with a lifetime of clutter is overwhelming. Start with one room or closet and get the low hanging fruit first. Worn out clothes should be sent to recycling or the thrift shop, depending on condition. Old magazines and junk mail are easy choices for most of us.
- One Thing a Day Schedules are tight. If you don't have hours, or even an hour or fifteen minutes, commit to one thing a day. Get rid of one thing, one piece of clutter, and don't replace it.
- Focus on the Important My desk and floor required immediate attention. Perfection never entered the equation. My focus was to get papers off the floor and clean my desk so the desktop could be seen. Sometimes decluttering life means ending procrastination. A lot of little jobs can reduce productivity when working the big jobs. I like to take one-half day a week and dig into all the little projects that accumulated and clean them up.
- Electronic Clutter In my line of work electronic clutter is an issue. I turn my email off for most of the day. I deal with email, correspondence, and phone calls at selected times. This allows for greater productivity. Since I get more work done this way, it frees up time for things I prefer to do. Take steps to reduce email. Make good use of the junk mail folder. Turn off the interruptions of cell phones and other devices that sap your lifeblood.
- Tough Decisions A large number of items are difficult to throw out. My back issues (20 years worth) of Science News and science fiction magazines fall into this category for me. I never know when I might need to review a copy of the June 23rd 1987 issue of Science News or when I might want to reread a short story from the January 1993 issue of Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. There are even tougher issues to decide when throwing stuff out. I give myself permission to keep things for later consideration. But seriously, those issues of Asimov's would get great use at the local jail. Someday. Someday.
- Enjoy the Moment There is no feeling like the feeling of freedom. As you clear out a little each day the cumulative effect becomes real. The open space feels super. Cleaning the house is easier and unrealized stress is reduced. Enjoy each room or closet as you free it from the albatross of decades of stuff.
Now you can breathe.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Use Drugs and Drive
I watch little television and when I do it is usually football, the history or learning channels. When I watch football I mute the sound and read, peaking above the pages to see how things are going every so often. As I write this, the Giants are edging the Cowboys and the sound is off.
Outside football season I watch even less TV. In August of this year I watched zero television. None. Not even a second. Not even with the sound off. Normally I enjoy a good science or history program several times a week and will indulge with a movie once or twice a month. Not this August. And it wasn’t intentional. I just noticed in September I hadn’t watched TV in over a month.
Now that the holidays are here I sometimes watch the game with the sound on. If I don’t fall into a pleasant slumber, I quickly bore from all the commercials. Then I start flicking between games as commercials come on. Before long a commercial storm blankets all the games on at the same time. I counter by checking the science and history channels. Then, as it always happens, every channel spends an eon spewing “important messages.”
Last night and part of this afternoon I watched and listened to the game, flicked between games when necessary, and diverted to the science and history channels as desperation set in. I noticed something disturbing about the advertisements: most were selling drugs or gas-guzzling vehicles. Let’s explore the message.
What advertisers want us to do is ask our doctor about everything, as if we are so stupid and need a pill for everything, even things we didn’t know was wrong. If I listened to these ads I would be erect 39 hours a day, would need to see my doctor because after four hours I may have a serious problem, and I should piss better, faster, more often, less often, and probably shake off the last drop with the wrong hand.
I did learn a few things from these ads. First, if a drug is advertised, don’t use it. My reasoning: If a medication really does the job your doctor will prescribe it for you if it is necessary. If the drug requires advertising to push the product, I have serious doubts about the medication. My guess is that it is very expensive and other cheaper medications may perform as well or better. I think they count on you being stupid and sending the bill to your insurance company, but when your employer’s insurance premiums go up, there is less money available to give you a raise or even pay you at all. So, is it that important to piss well with a hard-on?
Next, we tackle the vehicle ads. It seems that the only vehicles offered on TV are big, gas-guzzling trucks and SUVs. Detroit still hasn’t learned their lesson. Eventually, the government will turn us into a third- world nation bailing out idiot corporations. Letting them fail now is easier than bailing them out and watching them fail later anyway.
Once you add all the commercials together you get one simple message: Get a ton of over-priced drugs from your doctor and drive the biggest vehicle you can finance. Folks, if you want quality of life, use as few medications as possible, drive a reasonable vehicle that doesn’t destroy the environment and you financially at the same time.
Am I the only one that feels this way? I encourage you to follow my example and turn off the idiot box before it causes you permanent damage. You know, there are really good books and magazines available for entertainment. I also bet the kids would love extra time with mom and dad. And as long as we are talking mom and dad, when is the last time you had a heart-to-heart talk with yours. What about your siblings, friends, and neighbors? They are good people to know, too.
And remember: Don’t drink and drive.
Outside football season I watch even less TV. In August of this year I watched zero television. None. Not even a second. Not even with the sound off. Normally I enjoy a good science or history program several times a week and will indulge with a movie once or twice a month. Not this August. And it wasn’t intentional. I just noticed in September I hadn’t watched TV in over a month.
Now that the holidays are here I sometimes watch the game with the sound on. If I don’t fall into a pleasant slumber, I quickly bore from all the commercials. Then I start flicking between games as commercials come on. Before long a commercial storm blankets all the games on at the same time. I counter by checking the science and history channels. Then, as it always happens, every channel spends an eon spewing “important messages.”
Last night and part of this afternoon I watched and listened to the game, flicked between games when necessary, and diverted to the science and history channels as desperation set in. I noticed something disturbing about the advertisements: most were selling drugs or gas-guzzling vehicles. Let’s explore the message.
What advertisers want us to do is ask our doctor about everything, as if we are so stupid and need a pill for everything, even things we didn’t know was wrong. If I listened to these ads I would be erect 39 hours a day, would need to see my doctor because after four hours I may have a serious problem, and I should piss better, faster, more often, less often, and probably shake off the last drop with the wrong hand.
I did learn a few things from these ads. First, if a drug is advertised, don’t use it. My reasoning: If a medication really does the job your doctor will prescribe it for you if it is necessary. If the drug requires advertising to push the product, I have serious doubts about the medication. My guess is that it is very expensive and other cheaper medications may perform as well or better. I think they count on you being stupid and sending the bill to your insurance company, but when your employer’s insurance premiums go up, there is less money available to give you a raise or even pay you at all. So, is it that important to piss well with a hard-on?
Next, we tackle the vehicle ads. It seems that the only vehicles offered on TV are big, gas-guzzling trucks and SUVs. Detroit still hasn’t learned their lesson. Eventually, the government will turn us into a third- world nation bailing out idiot corporations. Letting them fail now is easier than bailing them out and watching them fail later anyway.
Once you add all the commercials together you get one simple message: Get a ton of over-priced drugs from your doctor and drive the biggest vehicle you can finance. Folks, if you want quality of life, use as few medications as possible, drive a reasonable vehicle that doesn’t destroy the environment and you financially at the same time.
Am I the only one that feels this way? I encourage you to follow my example and turn off the idiot box before it causes you permanent damage. You know, there are really good books and magazines available for entertainment. I also bet the kids would love extra time with mom and dad. And as long as we are talking mom and dad, when is the last time you had a heart-to-heart talk with yours. What about your siblings, friends, and neighbors? They are good people to know, too.
And remember: Don’t drink and drive.
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