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Swinging for the Fences or Settling for a Single
Several different books I’ve read in the last few years – Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers being one – have argued that the best way (without an inherent genetic advantage) to become an “outlier” in a particular skill is to practice a tremendous amount. The number often used is 10,000 hours of practice.
If you divide that up, you can figure that three hours a day of practice every single day for ten years will get you in the ballpark of the level of practice you’d need.
No matter how you slice it, that takes a tremendous amount of focus and dedication over a long period of time. If you put aside three hours each and every day to building a skill, in ten years, you’ll have an exceptional skill, one that at least has the possibility of opening professional doors for you and opening the door to a lot of money.
A Day of Consumption
One of my favorite achievements during my early financial recovery was discovering the power of “money free weekends” and, later, “money free weeks.”
Money free weekends are a really powerful way to keep your spending in check – and it’s also a great way to discover free things that you enjoy doing. Here are 100 free things to do during such a weekend if you want to try it out. Just avoid spending any extra money over the course of a weekend.
Of course, there is a catch. There’s always a catch.
In modern life, we consume every single day. In a given day…
Ten Pieces of Inspiration #170
Each week, I highlight ten things each week that inspired me to greater financial, personal, and professional success. Hopefully, they will inspire you as well.
I’ve been reading a great deal about Bill Gates in the last week, so this week’s edition is heavy with inspirational quotes from him. The work he’s done with the Gates Foundation has been amazing.
1. Bill Gates on uniqueness
“Don’t compare yourself with anyone in this world… If you do so, you are insulting yourself.” – Bill Gates
No one else has your set of traits and experiences.
2. Nicki Bluhm & The Gramblers – Little Too Late
I love the acoustic instruments here. It just comes together well.
3. Bill Gates on failure
The Challenge of Frugality and Good Nutrition
The other day, I went through a local grocery store flyer and marked items as either being “healthy” or “unhealthy.” I was curious as to whether items on sale were items that provided good long-term nutrition for people or not.
Of course, the first problem is defining what “healthy” and “unhealthy” means. Part of the challenge that people have when figuring out what foods are “good” for them and “bad” for them is that there is so much contrasting information out there.
For example, what’s better for you, skim milk or whole milk? There are reasonable arguments on both sides of that coin. In truth, it has a lot to do with what makes up the rest of your diet.
Does something have to be organic or treated in certain ways in order to be “healthy” and provide “good nutrition”? What about GMOs? You’re simply opening the door to endless arguments that simply aren’t resolvable in any satisfying way.
How to Find the Best Savings Account in 2014
Looking for places to grow your money without much risk is difficult these days, but finding the best savings account might be a good place to start. Although your money will be safe there, the average American is hardly capitalizing on any gains.
According to CNN Money, the average savings account last year had only a 0.06% APY (annual percentage yield, or interest). Many of the nation’s biggest banks have rates as low as 0.01%. That’s a hard pill to swallow for savers who want to have their cash in a safe account far from the effects of the global market turmoil we have experienced over the last few years.
The key to finding the best online savings account is to look for rates close to 1% APY.
Personal Finance 101: Percentages
Markie writes in:
My biggest struggle with personal finance is the numbers. I am terrible at math. When I look at percentages and stuff, I just want to lock down and tune out.
This is actually a pretty common thing. One of the brightest people I know – an amazing writer who is a creator of endless good ideas – struggles with the math needed to balance her checkbook. She has endless skills in many areas of life, but math just stumps her.
While I can’t possibly address every math question, I do regularly hear about percentages and interest rates from readers. So, here’s a basic explanation of how percentages and interest rates work.
Let’s say you see a credit card offer with a 19.9% interest rate. What does that actually mean in terms of dollars and cents?
Ten Useful Things To Do With Your Tax Return Money
We try really hard to not get a tax return each year. For the last several years, we’ve usually had to pay some money on April 15, which is fine with us – that means more money for us throughout the year.
For many people, March and April means that a sizable check will arrive in the mail. When that check arrives, it can be really tempting to use it for a splurge – and it’s fine to use some of it for a splurge.
If you use all of it up, though, you’re going to find yourself missing out on an opportunity to genuinely improve your financial situation over the long haul. You can transform that tax return money into something that will contribute to your peace of mind for quite a while. In fact, it can help you out forever if you continue to make reasonable decisions further down the road.
Here are ten things you can do with your tax return check that will help you out financially over the long haul.
Pay off debt
Reader Mailbag: Reusing Things
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. Cash out of pension?
2. Store credit card as coupon?
3. Stomaching stock market fluctuation
4. Emergency supply question
5. Food while unemployed
6. 4% for retirement?
7. Spousal Social Security question
8. Family vacation on the cheap
9. Volunteer work
Measuring Frugality
Most of the time, when I’m evaluating the usefulness of a frugal tactic, I convert that tactic into dollars per hour. I’ll figure out how much I save, how long it takes me to complete that tactic, and then use a bit of basic math to convert it to that standard unit.
For example, let’s say you want to figure out the dollar per hour rate of emptying out a tube of toothpaste (which happens to be something I looked at about a week ago and that I’ve received a few questions on regarding the math, so I’m using it again). Your tube of toothpaste costs $3. You use it each morning and you find that the tube is almost empty after 45 days. You also find that if you spend a minute tightly wrapping the tube up from the bottom, you can get enough toothpaste out of the tube to last for another five days.
The Simple Dollar Weekly Roundup: OneNote Edition
Evernote is a software package I use several times each day. I use it for quick note keeping and some simple project organization.
However, before I switched to using Evernote, I was a big user of Microsoft OneNote. I actually used that package for casual notes as well as organizing tons of different projects.
Why did I switch? The cost was a big issue, as OneNote was part of Microsoft Office. Another big issue was portability, as I couldn’t use OneNote on my phone.
Over the last few years, Microsoft has released portable versions of OneNote for almost every kind of phone for free, solving one of the problems. Now, it appears the other problem is about to be solved, as Microsoft has released desktop versions of OneNote for free for both Mac and Windows.
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