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Put Your Money Where Your Heart Is

Sarah Winfrey — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 22:28:17 +0000

We all think about money.

On one hand, it's hard not to right now, with oil prices soaring, interest rates falling, and mortgages crumbling all over the place. In fact, even people who don't normally think about money are thinking about it now. Non-budgeters are budgeting, non-investors are investing, non-savers are saving. And these are all good things! Overall, people are reining in materialistic lifestyles and substituting wise, frugal ones instead. We're gaining patience and discipline with our finances that can only help us over the long run.

The problem with anthing that requires a large dose of discipline, though, is that it's easy to burn out. It's one thing to bike to work for a month, and entirely another to do it all summer, for six months, or even to make it a lifestyle. Discipline is good, but when we push ourselves too far, too fast, we tend to get tired. Since discipline takes energy, feeling tired means we can't maintain our usual pace.

But maybe you're someone who has been disciplined about money for a long time. Maybe our current economy's prospects don't shake you because you're prepared and you've weathered storms before. Even then, it's easy for your financial routines to become blah. Saving doesn't give you the same rush it used to, or investing starts to feel overwhelming, dull, or uninteresting. You know you should look into that new fund or put $50 extra into your "New Car" savings account this month, but you just don't have the energy. Managing your money feels like work, and you're not sure it's worth the time and energy anymore.

Either of these scenarios are possible when you're managing your money with your head and not with your heart. While the idea is counterintuitive to most frugal people, listening to your heart when it comes to your money can help you create financial routines that stick with you, even through the most drastic of life's changes.

Bear with me here. I'm not talking about making stupid financial decisons, buying on impulse, or thinking only in the short-term. Instead, I'm suggesting that you ask yourself one simple question. The answer to this question can make your finances into something life-giving, something that feeds your soul, instead of something that drags you down. It can liven up dead financial routines and give you the strength to endure toward your financial goals even when you're tired or a new HDTV sounds better than saving toward that down payment. It can make your financial routines truly reflect you, and not someone else's idea of who you should be.

Now, I suppose you want to know the question...and here it is.

What do you care about? That's right, I said, What do you care about?

As in, what makes your clock tick? What wakes you up in the middle of the night because you care, you want it, or it's just so cool? What lights your fire, scoots your boot, rocks your world, or soothes your soul? This is the thing (or the set of things) that could motivate you to move mountains, let alone handle your money like you know you want to.

Really, it's as easy as all that. Find out what you care about, and then incorporate that into your financial life. When managing your money well is tied directly to something you care deeply about, you'll be motivated to overcome being tired and will create financial routines that will not leave you bored.

There are a million ways to incorporate what you care about into your financial routines. Invest green, designate a portion of your savings towards that eco-trip, manage your income so you can buy organic, local, or gourmet food. Lend money via micro-loans, help out someone nearby who is struggling, save money so you can quit your job and go freelance or pursue another dream.

Seriously, the possibilities never end.

So, what are you waiting for? Give it a go, and let me know what fabulous ideas you come up with!

This article is from Sarah Winfrey of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

Exercise (and alcohol) good for your brain

Philip Brewer — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 18:26:27 +0000

As a bit of a follow-up to my article on how Alcohol is good for your heart, I wanted to link to this New York Times article: Lobes of Steel.

The article describes a study showing that exercise helps human brains build more neurons (a process called neurogenesis). It also reports on some mouse studies that indicate that the exercise actually improves intelligence, at least in mice.

It also goes on to list some other things that induce neurogenesis including not only exercise but also marijuana, alcohol (in moderation), sociability, and chocolate.

Bad for neurogenesis are saturated fat, sugar, and stress.

This article is from Philip Brewer of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

Alcohol is good for your heart

Philip Brewer — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 00:35:58 +0000

After quitting smoking, having one or two drinks a day is the best single thing you can do for your cardiovascular health. It's better than losing weight, better than getting more exercise, and better than lowering your cholesterol.

As the evidence mounted over the past few years, I've grown more and more grumpy with the medical community's hesitance to support moderate alcohol consumption. After doing some research, though, I guess I understand.

The benefits to alcohol consumption are absolutely clear. Drinking five to six drinks a week reduces the risk of sudden cardiac death by 79 percent. It cuts heart attack risk, both in men who exercise and eat right and in men with hypertension. It also protects against type-2 diabetes and gallstones. In middle-aged women, moderate consumption of alcohol is associated with a 17% reduction in death from all causes.

But it's that "all causes" thing that turns the medical community into cowards on this issue. Death and injury rates due to things like accidents, suicide, and liver disease start increasing even at moderate levels of drinking (one to two drinks a day) and spike up very quickly with higher alcohol consumption.

Although there are probably some additional benefits from the antioxidents found in red wine and some beers, most of the benefit seems to come from the alcohol itself, which both raises HDL cholesterol and reduces dangerous blood clots, according to the Harvard School of Public Health, which goes on to talk about other good things associated with moderate alcohol consumption:

The social and psychological benefits of alcohol can't be ignored. A drink before a meal can improve digestion or offer a soothing respite at the end of a stressful day; the occasional drink with friends can be a social tonic. These physical and psychic effects may contribute to health and wellbeing.

I can see why health experts don't want to give people the idea that having a couple of drinks is a substitute for a healthy lifesetyle, nor find themselves acting as enablers for an alcoholic in denial. But even after looking at those downsides, I wish they'd be a bit more willing to recommend light-to-moderate drinking for its health benefits. It would save lives.

This article is from Philip Brewer of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

Pom - Wonderful?

Andrea Karim — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 19:16:46 +0000

The health benefits of pomegranates are something like folk wisdom outside of the Western world, and like green tea, are only starting to seep into the American consumer's consciousness. Not only are pomegranate-derived juices very popular, but the flavor is showing up in weird places, like yogurt. You know a flavor has made it once it's enshrined in yogurt.

Anyway, because the pomegranate is SO popular with everyone right now, I have to raise my objections over the company that really got the craze going. POM Wonderful, with their snazzy bottles and their brilliant marketing and their Oprah endorsement, found a way to turn acres of unwanted fruit trees into a massive trend. And bully for them. But I'm not buying it.

Well, I'm not buying POM Wonderful. Here's why:

It's just too expensive for what you get out of it. The POM Wonderful at my local Safeway sells for $4.50 for a 16 oz bottle. Custom bottles means a higher cost. Nice advertising means higher costs. I've noticed that POM changed their packaging from their distinctive glass bottles to distinctive plastic bottles. You may or may not know how I feel about that already.
Although POM claims now that neither they nor any of their subsidiaries conduct animal testing, all of their health claims (see below) were based on animal testing that they paid for. While I like pomegranate juice, I don't like the way POM went about makreting the product using all sorts of health claims about it - health claims that were taken from their OWN studies. It reminds me of that Kentucky Fried Chicken poster that explained how KFC can be a healthy part of a balanced diet. Sure, pomegranates are better for you than fried chicken, but doesn't it seem cynical that the company that is finding all these benefits is the same company that stands to make so much money from people believing in the benefits?
POM's juice cocktails contain more juices than just pomegranate, blueberry, and cherry. (POM does make pure pomegrante juice as well)Although the cocktails are pretty darn tasty, they're still getting away with giving you less pomegranate for your money. POM Wonderful's Pomegranate Cherry juice contains: pomegranate, cherry, apple, pineapple, plum, and aronia juices.

Here are my preferred alternatives:

Knudsen makes a variety of pure juices, one of which is pomegranate. That's pure pomegranate juice, with no other juices added. This was going to be my end-all solution to the issue of pomegranate juice, but this stuff is almost as expensive as POM. I swear that, a couple of years ago, it didn't cost as much - so I look for it on sale. When it goes on sale, it's maybe 70% the cost of POM Wonderful. I almost never see POM Wonderful on sale, but that might be because it's very popular here.
Trader Joe's sells organic, pure pomegrante juice at HALF the price of POM Wonderful - about $4 for 32 fl oz. Trader Joe's the solution to many of my frugal problems, but unfortunately, isn't a solution for people who live outside of metropolitan areas. Trader Joe's also does a nice variety of other juices - I like aronia and cherry.
I don't drink pure juice anymore - I like to cut it with soda water. It makes the juice go further, and I can reduce my caloric intake without sacrificing a tasty treat. Pure juice sugars are absorbed much more quickly by your blood stream than the sugars from, say, raw fruit because juices don't have nearly the amount of fiber to slow down the sugar absorbtion. A 16 oz bottle of pomegranate juice has roughly 300 calories - that's a lot, especially for something that doesn't really satisfy hunger or anything.

(Photo by kowabungat)

This article is from Andrea Karim of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread: