Julie this is an excellent post and you have collated the criteria pretty neatly. In the online fora as well, you will see that most leaders/companies are more focused on 'broadcasting'. Such entities fail to leverage social media simply because they were not listening.
Carrie - I have to agree with a lot of this. I spent the first 5 months of this year working out an hour a day, 3-4-5 times a week and lost maybe a pound. I started using the LoseIt! app on my iphone in June and have lost 13 pounds in 3 months. I still exercise 1-2 times a week but the key for me is that I can see exactly how many calories I have consumed in a day or week. It's simple. No gimmicks. No restrictions. Just an honest accounting of calories.
Downsizing is hard, especially with kids. We're going through that now, trying to figure out which toys the kids will part with when we don't have a special room devoted to play anymore. If you can't get rid of it at a garage sale, don't throw it away. It's tax-deductible as a charitable donation, up to 30% of your income!
@Kasey
Your right. This is a tough economy. That is why we each need to look at the worse case scenario and decide if that is something we are willing to risk. I think the problem is that too often people don't even consider the worst they just assume it will be terrible. If the worst case scenario is bad then don't do it. But if it is not as bad as you assumed then go for it.
I'm not a fan at all of self-help stuff. I think it often leaves us disappointed.
@Laura
Your right. That's why I added #3 - how likely is it. If we take the doomsday approach then the same worst case scenario could apply to your current job. You lose your job then ...
@Oliva
Thanks for your suggestions!
hmm the most important thing to me that money cant buy is strength- i mean strength in different ways one type is it takes time to build up body muscle another type is strength to forgive another type is strength to handle human emotions without breaking, another is strength to be strong enough to handle life and not commit suicide, another is strength to become independent strength to find a way to live without money(which could be done by hunting or farming plants and lastly is the strength to follow gods path not the devils-after all money cant buy your way into heaven in the afterlife think about that people.
I heard on the radio being content with your finances is relative to how you feel about what others have around you. Ie. if you have a new car and then your neighbor gets a new car that all of a sudden your car is not as special to you. Don't know if it's true but I do see a lot of keeping up with the jones to just collect more material goods.
As a student living on my own with a friend, we have transformed our house into a small brewery with the help of a few friend for almost free. We sell the beer under the table to people and it actually brings in a lot of profit. Brewing beer pays for the rent which is relatively cheap most importantly it pays for my tuitions. I recommend brewing your own beer as it is easy to make stronger beer with a good taste which gets you more "hammered" and i guess that s what my generation is looking for in beer these days.
What I've learned from working at a bank.......That there is a lack of basic money commonsense.
I had to tell someone that their checking account was overdrawn. She looked at me and said "That's impossible. I still have checks." I was dumbfounded!!!
Richness means a lot to me. I want to be rich in which I wont think of too much savings and budgeting anymore. However, Im stick to this kind of life where I need to spend less and save more. How I wish I could get over with my personal finances.
I want to thank you for the consistently great articles that you write, the encouraging words to motivate your readers, the way you share your life with us. We all have crappy depressing days. We all feel like phonies from time to time. That's being human. You're one of the most inspiring humans that I know. Please keep up the writing - I never fail to learn or smile or think from reading your words.
Excellent article. Only one so far that doesn't presume it is women being taken for a ride. I am appalled at how many women - and there are some national issues here - are so materialistic and Machiavellian and see marriage as just another form of career advancement. Having said that, I know one man and one woman who have both been stung by spouses forging their signature on loan documents. The woman was stung for $100,000 and the man for $600,000. The woman's legal advice was that she had to pay up even though she never signed anything because she couldn't prove she hadn't without a lot of stress, money and court battles. I really wonder whether this was correct advice. My male friend also never signed anything but seems to be trying to pay it probably because it would be too embarrassing in his line of work to take legal action against her. It is another aspect of Sexually Transmitted Debt where spouses can be utterly innocent of any financial ill judgment except merging their financial affairs with an untrustworthy spouse.
I agree in full with what's being said here. These days, the average customer just keeps getting smaller, meaner, and more and more selfish...and despite the fact that such behaviors are inherently upsetting to the worker, do managers side with their employees when they try to stand up for themselves? No. Instead, they mark such incidents as "being unfriendly," letting them build up until they can get away with firing said employee. Never mind that said employee might be a hard worker, one who treats most of the customers in the store fairly. Never mind that said employee might have been a faithful worker for up to 4 years. No, they'll just throw you to the wolves, because apparently, selfish, lazy customers are more important. Because they pay MONEY.
I don't know about you, but I call that outright BRIBERY.
Here's just a sample of what I've seen customers getting away with:
-Leaving trash in shopping carts, ranging from rotten food to...well, I won't go into detail. But seriously...carts are NOT trash cans on wheels. Why aren't these people being told to throw out their OWN garbage?
-Taking carts from a store and leaving them in ANOTHER store's parking lot. Never mind that it just means more stress on the cart attendants, who are often juggling other tasks as well.
-Being favored by managers whenever they complain about employees...never mind whatever THEY did to upset the employee in the first place. That's never even considered.
-Flagging down random employees when they're right in the middle of a strenuous task, without even bothering to say: "I'm sorry to bother you, sir/ma'am."
-Displaying poor hygiene in public restrooms.
-Taking merchandise from some aisle and leaving it in a completely un-related section.
-Assuming that because an employee wears a uniform, they're supposed to know every single thing about the whole store, including any deals and sales that might've been made by the corporation.
-Blowing simple little goofs--like a cart-pusher accidentally nudging against THEIR cart--WAY out of proportion.
I know all of these incidents, because I suffered them. They turned my job into a nightmare. And, eventually, the unfair customer favoritism by my managers ended up in me losing my job, after four faithful years of service. How is that justice?
Something has to be done. Someone's got to stand up and say, "enough." Because this is nothing more than the 21st-century form of bigotry...the general public assumes that we retail workers are nothing but mindless drones, meant to smile and do every little thing we want. And that's got to change.
Summers are always bad for my husband the teacher - We get thru due to slick manouvering....This summer was harder than most - we actually qualified for unemployment insurance, and I have been getting my social security since last year. But we did get health insurance from an employer....
We have used this time this summer for cleaning up/cleaning out, and have had several yard sales at various locations & we have some more to come. We did pawn some of my instruments (they go in & out of pawn) - and I have been leaning on the freebies. (I get something almost every day in the mail.)
We do have our boat - which is our vacation location. Our apartment is small, but that + the boat slip fee = normal city rent here. And we have spent quite a few long 4 day weekends there.
The landlord of the apartment offered to give us new wood flooring in the living room/hall areas - & hubby spent a lot of time clearing out to get ready for that. Now the floors are in & they look lovely - and we are trying to figure out how to re-do the space....
We also took advantage of cheap Hollywood Bowl tix to see some world-class music & performers at the Hollywood Bowl - (who we couldn't afford to see indoors!)
Hubby went to the free local municipal putting green & driving range a lot. And we took walks in the park.
Oh, I also was mainly "shopping in my own closet" & restricted my thrift shop shopping heavily (whereas we were MAKING DONATIONS.) Recycling books up at a used bookstore for credits & getting "new" books that way. Also discovered a couple of new book-sharing shelves for paperbacks. Still lots of books to go!
We played music with a buddy of ours at a few coffee shops & sometimes even got free coffee! And we made our meals on the boat instead of eating out...
We not only grow our own veggies and fruits, we go enough to share with the local food banks. we can tons of veggies each yr and they taste alot better than the ones in the stores.
I do have to disagree about Chegg.com though - I had a horrible experience with them. I tried to rent a book from them and two weeks later (after it was supposed to have shipped and just as classes were starting), I received notification that the book was supposedly out of stock. Not only did this leave me scrambling to find a replacement after classes (law school classes no less) had started, but after I went on the site, I noticed that the same book (same edition everything) was actually still on their site, just at a higher price. I never heard back from their customer service.
Additionally, if you buy a used book and then resell it online or to friends, you are highly likely to break even on your textbooks. By renting from Chegg, your upfront costs are lower because you are just renting, but that cost is sunk because you lose the opportunity to resell your books.
My wish is regarding education and employment- I wish that it were affordable and reasonable. I just turned 30 and have been putting off going to college... first because i didn't know what i wanted to do, then because i had too much debt & couldn't afford to stop working, and now because I realize that all of the things I want to do would mean making less money then I make right now.
Were I able to afford to go to college to learn how to do one of my dream jobs, then get out of college and be able to live off the salary of said dream job... that would be my dream come true. sadly all the things I'm interested in- teaching, counseling, writing... just don't make the kind of money to make it worth it to ditch the soul sucking corporate job.
Really not a fan of apps such as 'Rate my professor'. I dont' think there's enough protection against slander, nor a decent way for the accused to respond.
I also make sure I'm updated with baby product contests. One that has just recently been launched is the baby toy contest - http://www.chicco.com.au/promotionau.html
It just takes minutes to join and saves me dollars if I win, I have won a few from baby blogs so I'm really crossing my fingers on this one, too.
Julie this is an excellent post and you have collated the criteria pretty neatly. In the online fora as well, you will see that most leaders/companies are more focused on 'broadcasting'. Such entities fail to leverage social media simply because they were not listening.
Loved reading this through
Have you ever thought of making your own brown rice flour? Just wondering, that stuff is expensive!
Carrie - I have to agree with a lot of this. I spent the first 5 months of this year working out an hour a day, 3-4-5 times a week and lost maybe a pound. I started using the LoseIt! app on my iphone in June and have lost 13 pounds in 3 months. I still exercise 1-2 times a week but the key for me is that I can see exactly how many calories I have consumed in a day or week. It's simple. No gimmicks. No restrictions. Just an honest accounting of calories.
Downsizing is hard, especially with kids. We're going through that now, trying to figure out which toys the kids will part with when we don't have a special room devoted to play anymore. If you can't get rid of it at a garage sale, don't throw it away. It's tax-deductible as a charitable donation, up to 30% of your income!
@Kasey
Your right. This is a tough economy. That is why we each need to look at the worse case scenario and decide if that is something we are willing to risk. I think the problem is that too often people don't even consider the worst they just assume it will be terrible. If the worst case scenario is bad then don't do it. But if it is not as bad as you assumed then go for it.
I'm not a fan at all of self-help stuff. I think it often leaves us disappointed.
@Laura
Your right. That's why I added #3 - how likely is it. If we take the doomsday approach then the same worst case scenario could apply to your current job. You lose your job then ...
@Oliva
Thanks for your suggestions!
hmm the most important thing to me that money cant buy is strength- i mean strength in different ways one type is it takes time to build up body muscle another type is strength to forgive another type is strength to handle human emotions without breaking, another is strength to be strong enough to handle life and not commit suicide, another is strength to become independent strength to find a way to live without money(which could be done by hunting or farming plants and lastly is the strength to follow gods path not the devils-after all money cant buy your way into heaven in the afterlife think about that people.
I heard on the radio being content with your finances is relative to how you feel about what others have around you. Ie. if you have a new car and then your neighbor gets a new car that all of a sudden your car is not as special to you. Don't know if it's true but I do see a lot of keeping up with the jones to just collect more material goods.
As a student living on my own with a friend, we have transformed our house into a small brewery with the help of a few friend for almost free. We sell the beer under the table to people and it actually brings in a lot of profit. Brewing beer pays for the rent which is relatively cheap most importantly it pays for my tuitions. I recommend brewing your own beer as it is easy to make stronger beer with a good taste which gets you more "hammered" and i guess that s what my generation is looking for in beer these days.
What I've learned from working at a bank.......That there is a lack of basic money commonsense.
I had to tell someone that their checking account was overdrawn. She looked at me and said "That's impossible. I still have checks." I was dumbfounded!!!
Richness means a lot to me. I want to be rich in which I wont think of too much savings and budgeting anymore. However, Im stick to this kind of life where I need to spend less and save more. How I wish I could get over with my personal finances.
I want to thank you for the consistently great articles that you write, the encouraging words to motivate your readers, the way you share your life with us. We all have crappy depressing days. We all feel like phonies from time to time. That's being human. You're one of the most inspiring humans that I know. Please keep up the writing - I never fail to learn or smile or think from reading your words.
I just tried it this weekend. I used Pamela's mix, and it came out pretty good.
Seriously? How much should you "charge"? Nice.
Excellent article. Only one so far that doesn't presume it is women being taken for a ride. I am appalled at how many women - and there are some national issues here - are so materialistic and Machiavellian and see marriage as just another form of career advancement. Having said that, I know one man and one woman who have both been stung by spouses forging their signature on loan documents. The woman was stung for $100,000 and the man for $600,000. The woman's legal advice was that she had to pay up even though she never signed anything because she couldn't prove she hadn't without a lot of stress, money and court battles. I really wonder whether this was correct advice. My male friend also never signed anything but seems to be trying to pay it probably because it would be too embarrassing in his line of work to take legal action against her. It is another aspect of Sexually Transmitted Debt where spouses can be utterly innocent of any financial ill judgment except merging their financial affairs with an untrustworthy spouse.
I agree in full with what's being said here. These days, the average customer just keeps getting smaller, meaner, and more and more selfish...and despite the fact that such behaviors are inherently upsetting to the worker, do managers side with their employees when they try to stand up for themselves? No. Instead, they mark such incidents as "being unfriendly," letting them build up until they can get away with firing said employee. Never mind that said employee might be a hard worker, one who treats most of the customers in the store fairly. Never mind that said employee might have been a faithful worker for up to 4 years. No, they'll just throw you to the wolves, because apparently, selfish, lazy customers are more important. Because they pay MONEY.
I don't know about you, but I call that outright BRIBERY.
Here's just a sample of what I've seen customers getting away with:
-Leaving trash in shopping carts, ranging from rotten food to...well, I won't go into detail. But seriously...carts are NOT trash cans on wheels. Why aren't these people being told to throw out their OWN garbage?
-Taking carts from a store and leaving them in ANOTHER store's parking lot. Never mind that it just means more stress on the cart attendants, who are often juggling other tasks as well.
-Being favored by managers whenever they complain about employees...never mind whatever THEY did to upset the employee in the first place. That's never even considered.
-Flagging down random employees when they're right in the middle of a strenuous task, without even bothering to say: "I'm sorry to bother you, sir/ma'am."
-Displaying poor hygiene in public restrooms.
-Taking merchandise from some aisle and leaving it in a completely un-related section.
-Assuming that because an employee wears a uniform, they're supposed to know every single thing about the whole store, including any deals and sales that might've been made by the corporation.
-Blowing simple little goofs--like a cart-pusher accidentally nudging against THEIR cart--WAY out of proportion.
I know all of these incidents, because I suffered them. They turned my job into a nightmare. And, eventually, the unfair customer favoritism by my managers ended up in me losing my job, after four faithful years of service. How is that justice?
Something has to be done. Someone's got to stand up and say, "enough." Because this is nothing more than the 21st-century form of bigotry...the general public assumes that we retail workers are nothing but mindless drones, meant to smile and do every little thing we want. And that's got to change.
Summers are always bad for my husband the teacher - We get thru due to slick manouvering....This summer was harder than most - we actually qualified for unemployment insurance, and I have been getting my social security since last year. But we did get health insurance from an employer....
We have used this time this summer for cleaning up/cleaning out, and have had several yard sales at various locations & we have some more to come. We did pawn some of my instruments (they go in & out of pawn) - and I have been leaning on the freebies. (I get something almost every day in the mail.)
We do have our boat - which is our vacation location. Our apartment is small, but that + the boat slip fee = normal city rent here. And we have spent quite a few long 4 day weekends there.
The landlord of the apartment offered to give us new wood flooring in the living room/hall areas - & hubby spent a lot of time clearing out to get ready for that. Now the floors are in & they look lovely - and we are trying to figure out how to re-do the space....
We also took advantage of cheap Hollywood Bowl tix to see some world-class music & performers at the Hollywood Bowl - (who we couldn't afford to see indoors!)
Hubby went to the free local municipal putting green & driving range a lot. And we took walks in the park.
Oh, I also was mainly "shopping in my own closet" & restricted my thrift shop shopping heavily (whereas we were MAKING DONATIONS.) Recycling books up at a used bookstore for credits & getting "new" books that way. Also discovered a couple of new book-sharing shelves for paperbacks. Still lots of books to go!
We played music with a buddy of ours at a few coffee shops & sometimes even got free coffee! And we made our meals on the boat instead of eating out...
And still we had a nice summer....It can be done.
We not only grow our own veggies and fruits, we go enough to share with the local food banks. we can tons of veggies each yr and they taste alot better than the ones in the stores.
Resale shops!!! All my maternity clothes i bought for under $50. The only things i bought were my underclothes
I do have to disagree about Chegg.com though - I had a horrible experience with them. I tried to rent a book from them and two weeks later (after it was supposed to have shipped and just as classes were starting), I received notification that the book was supposedly out of stock. Not only did this leave me scrambling to find a replacement after classes (law school classes no less) had started, but after I went on the site, I noticed that the same book (same edition everything) was actually still on their site, just at a higher price. I never heard back from their customer service.
Additionally, if you buy a used book and then resell it online or to friends, you are highly likely to break even on your textbooks. By renting from Chegg, your upfront costs are lower because you are just renting, but that cost is sunk because you lose the opportunity to resell your books.
My wish is regarding education and employment- I wish that it were affordable and reasonable. I just turned 30 and have been putting off going to college... first because i didn't know what i wanted to do, then because i had too much debt & couldn't afford to stop working, and now because I realize that all of the things I want to do would mean making less money then I make right now.
Were I able to afford to go to college to learn how to do one of my dream jobs, then get out of college and be able to live off the salary of said dream job... that would be my dream come true. sadly all the things I'm interested in- teaching, counseling, writing... just don't make the kind of money to make it worth it to ditch the soul sucking corporate job.
Really not a fan of apps such as 'Rate my professor'. I dont' think there's enough protection against slander, nor a decent way for the accused to respond.
This is a great perspective piece and really has some good concepts in it for those of us contemplating the same things that the author does.
Great stuff.
I agree wholeheartedly on all points!
These types of articles can do a lot more for the "average American Joe" than "three ways to save on your cable bill".
BEVERAGE KINGS is a good way to let off steam after those tough classes.
I also make sure I'm updated with baby product contests. One that has just recently been launched is the baby toy contest - http://www.chicco.com.au/promotionau.html
It just takes minutes to join and saves me dollars if I win, I have won a few from baby blogs so I'm really crossing my fingers on this one, too.
Why pay $1.99 for free books when Stanza is free and gives you access to the Gutenberg project?