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Reader Mailbag: Better Resume Writing
What’s inside? Here are the questions answered in today’s reader mailbag, boiled down to five word summaries. Click on the number to jump straight down to the question.
1. Dropshipping
2. Job “upgrade”?
3. Refinancing for interest and cash
4. SmartyPig
5. Bicycle advice
6. Checking account requirements
7. Evaluating investment options
8. Card game evening?
9. Meditation and/or prayer
Using the Reality of the Moment
Yesterday, I read a wonderful article by Leo Babauta at Zen Habits entitled The Reality of This Moment. The article encourages people to think about how we’re okay in the moment:
As we go through our day, we’re often stressed because of all the things we have to do, the things we’re not doing. We worry about how things will go in the future, and procrastinate because we’re afraid of an overwhelming task. We feel we’re not good enough, we compare ourselves to others, we fall short of some ideal. We replay a conversation that already happened.
That’s all in our heads, but it’s all fantasy. The reality of this specific moment is that you’re OK. Better than OK, actually: there are so many good things to be grateful for, in this moment.
The Simple Dollar Weekly Roundup: Child Medical Issues Edition
At almost the exact same time, our youngest child got a large facial rash and our daughter got an extremely sore baby tooth. This led to medications. Doctor’s appointments. Worry.
Being a parent would be far easier if you could simply rely on perfect health from your children. Human lives are fragile, though.
I am thankful for the health that they do have.
How to Stop Buying Clothes You Never Wear I think this advice applies to anything that people buy without using. I’ve been guilty of doing this with books and games in the past. (@ get rich slowly)
7 Excuses People Use to Avoid Financial Responsibility – And Why They’re Useless
This article first appeared in U.S. News and World Report Money.
The recipe for finding financial success is an easy one. Spend less than you earn and do something sensible with the difference. If you do that over and over, you will see financial success. The challenge is actually making that happen. It’s not easy and most of us eventually hit a bump or two along the way.
The challenge comes when you recover from that misstep. Do you brush yourself off and get back to work?
Many people don’t. Instead, they find excuses for why they made that move. Even better, that excuse usually still works for the next mistake – and the one after that. Soon, the excuse is a “rule” by which they live their life. Unfortunately, it’s a “rule” that ensures their continued financial misery.
Discover the Forest
One of the coolest online tools I’ve seen in a long time came to my attention this past weekend as I was thinking about our family’s weekend plans between now and Memorial Day. With the arrival of spring, I was looking for outdoor activities, when I came across DiscoverTheForest.org.
DiscoverTheForest is a website that allows you to see all of the parks, hiking trails, forests, and other natural areas within a small radius of where you live. Simply type in your zip code and set a radius (say, 25 miles) and a map pops up showing you all of these locations. You can click on each one to find out more about it, typically including a link to find out more information about that specific site.
I typed in our zip code, set the radius to 50 miles, and I quickly found a very long list of hiking trails, parks, and other such places near our home.
Underpromise. Overdeliver.
One common tactic that people use to wow their clients or bosses is to promise a little less than what can be achieved, then deliver more than what was promised.
If you promise everything you think you can achieve, you create a very tight and difficult schedule for yourself, one that’s prone to disaster if you begin to fall behind, and you’re also struggling to simply deliver what was promised.
On the other hand, if you promise a little less than you can achieve, you create a looser schedule for yourself, one that can deal with a few small setbacks without disaster. Not only that, you’ve also left the possibility of going above and beyond what was asked of you, which is sure to leave the client extremely happy with what you’ve provided and set the stage for future work.
This idea actually translates really well to some aspects of personal finance.
Reader Mailbag: Mushrooms
What’s inside? Here are the questions answered in today’s reader mailbag, boiled down to five word summaries. Click on the number to jump straight down to the question.
1. Balancing savings and risk
2. Cheap automobile situation
3. Finding auction deals
4. Property and income tax
5. Children and careers
6. Archiving old magazines
7. Trying to avoid more mistakes
8. Prepping for a home sale
9. Long road trips?
Considering Self-Employment? Six Things You Need to Know from Someone Who Has Done It for Years
I’ve been fully self-employed since 2008, starting from a side business that was around in some form since 2004. Over that decade, I’ve learned quite a lot about the financial and practical realities of self-employment.
When I first made the leap to full-time self employment, it was scary. It felt like the number of things I needed to do was overwhelming.
What I found over time was that some of the stuff was important – and some of it wasn’t. Here are the six things that I’m really glad I did during the first stages of self-employment. You should do most of these even if you’re self-employed on a part-time basis or in your spare time.
Start your corporate structure as early as possible
If you’re just earning a few hundred dollars a year from self-employment, this probably isn’t necessary. You can file that extra income on your income taxes easily and not really worry about it.
The Challenge of Rebooting Your Routines
No matter what change you want to introduce into your life, it involves removing, modifying, and replacing routines.
For example, if you’re trying to spend less money, you’re probably trying to replace or eliminate routines that involve spending money each day. You’re trimming out visits to the coffee shop or cutting out your visits to particular shops or websites.
If you’re trying to lose weight, you’re probably trying to replace or eliminate routines that involve eating unhealthy foods, and you may also be trying to add routines that involve exercise.
It doesn’t matter what the life change is. Routines are going to be altered.
Human beings are creatures of habit. We settle into those habits because they’re reasonably efficient or convenient methods of handling the challenges of life while also allowing us a little pleasure sometimes, too. We stick to routines because they work, at least in terms of the goals we set for ourselves.
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