I sure picked a heck of a week to be out of town.  It was probably the most important week our country has seen financially in the last twenty years and I wasn’t in the position to provide new material.  I hope you enjoyed the content I had lined up while I was out, but MAN do I wish I had been in town.

I did manage to stay up on my blog reading so here is what I found interesting from last week.

James’s Picks

• The Baglady: It Needs to Get Worse Before It Gets Better.  These are pretty much my thoughts about our country’s current financial dilemma.  It seems like there needs to be some reckoning–it may be us as taxpayers or companies and their shareholders, but someone will eventually have to face the consequences of all these risky mortgage investments–and it’s not going to be pretty.
• Frugal Dad: How the Market Crisis Can Help Your Roth IRA .  I love it!  Finding the good in a bad situation.

The Rest of the Best

• The Wisdom Journal: 50 Frugal Things You Aren’t Doing .  I usually don’t like posts with long lists like this, but this one includes some personal development suggestions that people don’t always think of when they think of “being frugal.”
• The Positivity Blog: How to Flip Things Around: Act as You Would Like to Feel .  The title says it all.  if you want to feel better, act in more positive ways.  Be more giving, forgiving, and kind and you will be happier.
• Bible Money Matters: David Porter from A Boomer in the Pew writes : Wanna Save the Planet? - Buy a Used Mercedes .  My favorite quote from the post: “Wealthy people buy assets.  Poor people buy depreciating assets.”  Here’s a guide for purchasing cars in a way that doesn’t waste your money.

That’s going to do it for this week.  There were a few others that sounded good earlier in the week, but when I read them again, they just weren’t doing it for me.  It’s weird how that happens, eh?

Thanks to joshbousel for the photo.

We talk about pretty serious issues here, although we try to be a little light-hearted about it.  But I like to take a day each week to lighten the mood.  We need to take our financial situations seriously and we need to work to improve them, but there’s no point in making ourselves miserable.  In that spirit, take a minute or two to read these clever financial jokes I pulled together.

Financial-Freedom-Made-SImple.com

A woman proudly told her friend, “I’m responsible for making my husband a millionaire.” “Well what was he before he married you?” the friend asked. “A billionaire.”

It was graduation day and Mom was trying to take a picture of their son in a cap and gown, posed with his father. “Let’s try to make this look natural” she said. “Junior, put your arm around your dad’s shoulder.” The father answered, “If you want it to look natural, why not have him put his hand in my pocket?”

GetAmused.com/jokes

Late one night a mugger wearing a ski mask jumped into the path of a well-dressed man and stuck a gun in his ribs.

“Give me your money,” he demanded.

Indignant, the affluent man replied, “You can’t do this–I’m a US Congressman!”

“In that case,” replied the robber, “Give me MY money!”

I know they’re kind of cheesy, but I hope you enjoyed.  You’ve got to have a sense of humor people, or you’ll never make it through life.  Our financial situation can be really difficult to laugh about, especially if it’s not that great.  It causes so much stress, tension, and just general difficulty in our lives that seeing the lighter side is challenging at best.

Still it’s worth it.  We’re going to make it through it…and you might as well do it smiling.

Thanks to c-reel.com for the photo.

If you’re married or in a committed relationship, you’ll never save more or spend less money unless you’re working together.  But it’s not just about both of you being on the same page and creating a budget and a plan to get yourselves into a better financial situation.  You also need to find what each of you is good at.  What I mean is, how can each of you best contribute to your goals?

There are definitely big picture ideas that you both need to be focused on, such as earning more and spending less, but how, exactly do you propose to do these things and what will each of you specifically do?

Earning More Income

This is probably the best way to improve your finances but each of you may have strengths and weaknesses when it comes to actually doing it.  For instance, maybe you’re the entrepreneur in the relationship and your strength is creating and growing businesses.  Maybe you’re skilled in making some type of craft that you can sell online.

Your partner, on the other hand, may have been wanting to get rid of junk that has been accumulating.  They can start selling things on Craigslist or get ready for a garage sale.  The point is that you can both work towards the same overall goal (earning more income), but approach it by doing what you’re better at or more motivated to do.

Spending Less

Chances are, you don’t share the same bad spending habits as your partner.  One may get the proverbial morning latte, while the other may have a penchant for going out to lunch.  Look for ways that you can cut out your own spending–don’t go after your partner’s.

Also, chances are if you’re reading this, then you have an interest in personal finance and may have a knack for coming up with ways to save money.  Share these with your partner, but don’t overwhelm them and don’t expect them to agree with everything you propose.  Everyone has different levels of frugality and you can’t expect others to be like you.  In other words, don’t nitpick.  This is one of the 10 Financial Mistakes in Relationships and I did this at first, but after learning a little, I’ve backed off.  Trust me, its better for your relationship and your finances in the long run.

Other Things

I happen to be better at keeping track of our finances (at least most of the time) and researching options for retirement, savings, insurance, investment, etc.  It’s just interesting to me, and I have a little more free time than my wife, so I’m glad to take care of it.  It’s what I do.

So make sure and find the ways that you can personally contribute to your family’s financial well being.  Getting your finances in better shape is going to take a joint effort, but it all starts with you. It’s like putting your savings where it will get the best interest.  Remember this, and focus your energy where it will get the most return on your investment.

My wife and I have had a real problem lately (at least for the last two days!) remembering to thaw things out for dinner.  Presently, we really don’t have any food that can be nuked or prepared without thawing, so we’ve been going out.  We’ve got to eat right?

Obviously, this isn’t a satisfactory solution.  Sure, it’s nice to go out and we’ve just been taking money from other budget categories so we don’t have a net increase in expenses, but still, it’s a bad habit and we’re going to break it.  Here are some of the ideas that my wife and I have come up with to save us from ourselves.

Have an Emergency Food

I’m thinking frozen pizza, but I’m not sure that it wouldn’t get eaten if we had it in our freezer.  It’s a nice thought, though.  If we always had a pizza stashed for those times when our memory gets away from us, then we could definitely save ourselves from “having” to go out to dinner a time or two during the week.  I suppose it doesn’t even have to be a pizza; just keep something on hand and don’t eat it unless you don’t have anything else ready to eat.

Have an Emergency Food Fund

OK…this isn’t really that great an idea, but you could always budget extra money for just this purpose.  But that’s kind of like giving in to your shortcomings rather than working to overcome them and improve your habits in the future.  I guess this is kind of the easy way out.  Do this and you don’t have to worry about changing anything.

Plan Your Meals to Accommodate Your Life–(Ami’s Idea)

If you both work 40 hours a week and have other engagements during the evenings (church groups, kids sports, etc.), then maybe when you go to the grocery store you should be buying things that are simple to fix.  For us this would mean buying some Morningstar Farms corn dogs and black bean burgers.  These are always great to have and take just a couple minutes to warm up.  Make some soup or keep a few cans around.  Buy some pasta and sauce.  Basically, you just need to make sure you always have things on hand that are easy to fix and don’t have to be thawed out.

Prepare Food on the Weekends–(Ami’s Idea)

We’ve been pretty lazy lately.  Ami’s pregnant and exhausted, and I’m…well…lazy.  We need to be better about cutting up fresh fruits and veggies on the weekends so they’re ready to eat throughout the week.  This is great for packing lunches too!  Essentially, we just need to make eating during the week as simple as possible.

Freeze Meals Ahead of Time

This isn’t something we do, but I’ve read about plenty of people doing it.  It generally takes a deep freezer (which we don’t have), but the payoff is worth it (so I hear).  Prepare meals specifically to freeze them.  Do it when you have lots of time on your hands or a long weekend.  You can freeze just about anything and it will allow you to save money as well as plan better.

Save Me From Myself!

That’s what it all comes down to isn’t it?  Know your tendencies and your weaknesses and adjust accordingly so that you don’t inadvertently cost yourself money.  The problem isn’t that you don’t have enough food, it’s that you’re not making it available when you need it.   This makes me a little curious though: What do you do to save you from yourself?

Thanks to MBK (Marjie) for the photo.

Getting out of debt is hard.  The basics are easy: spend less than you earn, sell your junk, save your change, use coupons, shop smart, etc.  I can do these standing on my head.  But it’s hard to actually plug away at your debt month after month after month, particularly when things that require your money keep popping up.  Here are some things that I’ve learned that are helping my wife and I as we slowly…slowly work to pay down our debt.

Getting Out of Debt Takes Patience

…and lots of it.  When you’re dealing with all the curve balls that life throws at you, it’s tough to stay encouraged and excited about becoming debt free.  Suddenly, your priorities have to shift a little and the marvelous plan you’d created to get out of debt is extended for six months or a year.  This can be such a blow to your confidence particularly if you’re just starting out.  My wife and I are in this situation.  We were looking to have our credit card debt paid off by Christmas and now…we don’t know when.  We’ll have to reevaluate after the baby arrives, but hopefully it will be by the end of next year.

This takes patience, but I wouldn’t change a thing.

Getting Out of Debt Takes Persistence

I don’t know about you guys, but my wife and I aren’t going to get out of debt unless we work at it for four or five years…and I mean work. We have to:

• Watch our nickel and dimes
• Remember the basics (see above)
• Find new ways to make money

It means ignoring the stumbling blocks and finding ways to get over them.  It means doing the same things over and over and over even though we only see our debt balances going down slowly.

Getting Out of Debt Takes a Plan

You’ve got to have a long-term plan if you want to get rid of those creditors.  This means getting to know your debts.  What are their balances and interest rates?  Which ones cause you the most distress?  Maybe you have creditors calling you or a family member that’s holding debt over your head.  You’ve got to base your debt reduction plan on your needs.  You’ve got to find your own style. Otherwise, it will never work for you.

Don’t Give Up!

Next time you feel like you should already be there, just remember that you’re doing your best and that as long as you continue, YOU WILL MAKE IT!  Spending less than you earn = getting out of debt…

…eventually!

Thanks to slworking2 for the photo.

Well as you read this, I’m on my way to some job training in Palm Coast, Florida.  I’ll be there all week, but have scheduled some posts for when I’m gone.  Sorry if I’m a little slow replying to emails and such because I’m not sure how much access I’ll have to a computer.  Here are some of my favorite posts from last week.  There are some in there that don’t really have to do with personal finance, but I enjoyed them nonetheless so I wanted to make sure and share them with you all.

James’s Picks

I wanted to kick it off with this post from The Positivity Blog, titled “Six Timeless Thoughts on Forgiveness.”  I could be better at this and I imagine a lot of you could be too, and its almost a skill that you have to cultivate.  My favorite is number 1: “Forgiveness Sets You Free.”  Read the whole thing.

Blunt Money posted an interview with one of her readers about how he and his wife are coping with the aftermath of financial deception.  I posted on the Coming Clean About Hidden Spending earlier this month, but this is a great contribution because it’s an inside story of the damage that this kind of deceit can actually cause to a relationship.

This one’s pretty funny, at least for someone who doesn’t have any kids!  Fear the Catalog! by John over at Borrow From None describes the dangers of letting your kids get their hands on these instruments of parental torture.

The Rest of the Best

Jim over at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity tells us how to Reset Our Rooms.  Is it just me or is it virtually impossible not to collect junk, despite our best intentions.  It seems to take periodic–or even continual–purgings to keep the crap from burying us.

Something I like about PF bloggers is they’re a pretty ethical crowd.  Even better, sometimes they write about ethical dilemmas that arise from people trying to be frugal.  Simply Thrifty discusses the ethics of printing multiple copies of online coupons.   I think that if the site doesn’t indicate that they don’t want you to, then that’s tacit consent.  How about you?

Money Ning conducts a financial experiment while his wife is out of town.  He lives on $34.01 for the entire week, including food and utilities.  I wonder how little I could live on?  I do pretty well at saving money, but I’m not sure I want to try and pull something like this off, at least not just to see if I can.

Here’s a fun post, especially if you’re into movies.  Frugal Dad and his readers discuss whether Netflix and Blockbuster Online are really frugal alternatives to traditional video stores.   It includes a comment from yours truly so make sure and head over and check it out.

Blueprint for Financial Prosperity hosts Connie Brooks who writes about Including a Baby in Your Financial Plans.  This one has lots of great advice and she’s incredibly thorough.  I’d have to disagree with her about getting life insurance on your baby though.  All you need is enough money to cover the funeral, God forbid, and this could be covered by your emergency fund.

Paid Twice demonstrates by personal example how being persistent and patient will help you pay down your debt.  Just stick to the basics and you’ll get there.  It’s worth it.

Hope everyone enjoys these.  Make sure and subscribe to everyone’s feeds if you did because these are all great blogs.  Have a great week!

I just want give a huge…

THANK YOU!!!

…to my readers who made yesterday the highest traffic day my blog has ever had.  It was truly amazing because most of my high traffic days are due to posts that have been Stumbled.  On those days, most posts get moderate to no traffic, and the Stumbled post gets tons.

Yesterday was different.

Yesterday, I had hits on A MAJORITY OF THE POSTS THAT I’VE WRITTEN.  That, my friends, is incredible.  You really came through for me, and I appreciate it.  Let me know if I can return the favor.

James

I just wanted to take a moment to thank all my readers and let them know how much I appreciate their interest.  It amazes me sometimes that people actually care what I have to say, but that’s why it’s important to make sure they feel appreciated, I suppose.  I also wanted to take a quick moment to kindly ask my readers to email their friends about the blog or to send them your favorite post.  Anything you can do to spread word about the blog like submitting posts to your favorite social networking sites would also be a tremendous help.

I’m very interested in any suggestions or questions you may have.  It’s always a treat to stay connected with my readers so feel free to contact me anytime. You can also find me at Twitter, Digg, and Sumbleupon.

Thanks again for your continued support.

James

Many of you are familiar with Dave Ramsey, but for those of you who aren’t, he’s a financial radio/TV show host, author, and motivator extraordinaire.  His website features a collection of stories about peoples’ stupid taxes, i.e. exremely poor purchases or financial decisions they’ve made that cost them a bunch of money.  I’ve excerpted a few I few I included particularly funny.  The last two are particularly good, so make sure and check them out!

A Magazine Subscription I Didn’t Want, by Raychel in KY

I went to an athletic store to purchase my little boy new tennis shoes.  At the checkout, the cashier asked if I would like to get 3 months free of sports Illustrated - sounded great.

I signed up for the subscription and completed the transaction with my debit card.  After about 4 months, checks started over-drafting…I went to the bank and found that they had drafted a whole year’s subscription out of my checking account using my debit card…

…When I called [SI], they said I had signed the agreement and that they would not reimburse me for anything…The bank agreed with SI.

…Total cost of that “free” 3-month subscription: $158.50 (including all the overdraft fees.

$20,000 for a Car Worth $5000, by Aisling in Indiana

We bought a 2002 Dodge Stratus from a dealership 18 months ago for $15,000 including all the warranties they talked us into.  It ended up being $20,000 by the time we count the interest.

A year later I tried to sell the car back to the dealership, and they offered me $3,000 for it!  The Kelley Blue Book value was just $5,000.  We paid a bunch of Stupid Tax on this car!

This is my personal favorite.  Thank GOD I haven’t done anything quite this stupid.

We Snoballed INTO More Debt, by Julia in Cincinnati

We financed the mini-van when our second daughter was born.  After a few months into the loan, we decided to get a second mortgage to pay off the car loan - you know, for the “tax advantage - Ha Ha! Well, 6 years later and that second mortgage is still there because we got an interest-only loan and haven’t paid much toward the principle!

If only we had just kept the traditional loan, we would have had the van paid off last year!  But instead we’ve paid almost $18,000 in interest and still owe $27,000 for a $27,000 mini-van that is now only worth about $10,000!  Ugh.

How about you folks?  Have you done anything like this?  This stupidest financial mistake I’ve probably made is going $40,000 into student loan debt for a career field that I decided I didn’t like and will never use.  What I wouldn’t give to have that money back.  Oh well…live and learn, eh!?

Thanks to Treehugger for the photo.

It’s easy to make plans for your money.  It’s easy to write down what you’re going to do with it and how you’re going to achieve your goals.  What’s not-so-easy is having a life that doesn’t interfere with those written plans.  Life gets in the way sometimes! How do you get past the unexpected stumbling blocks that suddenly appear?

Right now, my wife and I need to save some serious money.  Since we’re having a baby and she doesn’t get paid time off, we need to enough money in our savings account to replace her income for about three months.  We also need money for additional expenses, like baby furniture and medical bills that will also be coming up quickly.

We’ve landed on $8000 as our target and we have until April 19th or around then (assuming all goes well and my wife can work through the entire pregnancy) to get it.  We have about $1400 in the bank, so that leaves us with $6600 to save over the course of the next seven or eight months, which comes to around $800-$900 a month.  This is a pretty steep goal for us, but not unachievable, assuming everything goes according to plan…

…which it never does.

In August, we suddenly received an unexpected medical bill left over from an accident I had in June 2007.  It seems I had a balance left at the physical therapy office, that they hadn’t billed me for all year. This hit us for about $500.  Then, we decided to get some car repairs that we’d been putting off taken care of–you know those noises and vibrations that don’t need immediate attention?  We wanted to make sure the car was safe and sound for the wife and the baby so we fixed those last month too, to the tune of another $500.  Then, the tailpipe fell off.  Because the muffler was under warranty, it only cost about $70 for labor.  Then an unexpected medical expense cost $115 and will cost us another $330 over the course of the next few months.

$1500 Later!

So what are we doing to get past this hurdle?

• Reassessing–Will we still be able to achieve our savings goals given these hurdles?
• Re-budgetting–If we need to find ways to save more, we’re going to have to adjust our budget, i.e. reduce our spending/increase our income
• Re-thinking–Perhaps we need to plan for expenses such as these better?  We didn’t have to tap into our savings to pay for them, but it would have been nice to have money set aside for these expenses.  Maybe we need to set (some or more) money aside each month for car repairs and medical expenses?

I don’t think we need to beat oursleves up too bad.  We’re just starting out trying to get our finances in better shape and have been focusing on paying down debt and getting some money in our emergency fund.  Adding categories for car repairs should be a priority once we get out of savings mode and I don’t think we need to add money to our medical budget category because this was just kind of a freak thing.

Anyways, I’m curious to know…What kind of stumbling blocks have you had pop up lately?  What are you doing to get past them?

Thanks to Leo Reynolds for the photo.