WYTI Links: 11.02.2007 -- Productivity Edition

Being a responsible steward of God's blessings goes much deeper than just how we handle and view money. We must be responsible for all of the blessings He sends our way.

When we stand on judgment, we will be held accountable for how we used the time we were given. There is only so much of it to go around. No one has any more or any less than anyone else. Therefore, how we use our time goes a long way determining our success in all areas of life.

Here are some "productivity" links for this week. Remember, I'm not necessarily the most productive guy out there, but I did read about it on the internet/play one on TV/stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night...

• David Seah. The subtitle for his blog is, "Better Living Through New Media." He has created many helpful applications for helping get things done more effectively and efficiently. Personally, I use the Compact Calendar for planning (right now, my 2008 version is covered in black, blue, and red ink) and the Desktop Flash version of the Emergent Task Timer (part of the Printable CEO Series).

• Skrbl. I haven't really used this site, but it looks like fun and sounds interesting if you work in a team setting. It's an internet-based whiteboard. All you do is share the URL to your specific board, and others can log in and edit the notes and information written there.

• Mozilla Firefox Cheat Sheet. If you're not using Mozilla's Firefox as your primary internet browser, you're missing out. Most importantly, it's more secure than IE. Additionally, it's far more customizable and efficient. Here's a comprehensive list of shortcuts and cheats for the browser.

• Classic Tie Knots (via Brooks Brothers). Here's a "how-to" guide for several different tie knots. Since many of us wear ties on a regular basis, this might be helpful.

• Building Strong and Memorable Passwords (via Corvus Consulting). You can't be too safe on the internet today. This is a helpful suggestion to creating unique--but memorable--passwords for each site you need login information. I've started using this technique for the various sites to which I login.

• How to Get Up Right Away When Your Alarm Goes Off (via Steve Pavlina). Helpful tip here. Boy do I need to implement it into my routine.

• Make a 12 Sided Calendar (via Lifehacker). This is a fun little project. Definitely needs to be printed on cardstock.
  

Quotables: Your Money or Your Life -- Chapter 1 (part 1)

I've not fallen down on my reading of Your Money or Your Life...I've just neglected the opportunity to post interesting and helpful quotes from the chapters.

Today, let's begin looking at Chapter 1: The Money Trap the Old Road Map for Money.

• "Your money or your life." If someone thrust a gun in your ribs and said that sentence, what would you do? Most of us would turn over our wallets. The threat works because we value our lives more than we value our money. Or do we?

• Even the best of jobs have trade-offs. Midlife comes and we discover we've been living our parents' agenda. Or worse, we've been filling teeth for twenty years because some seventeen-year-old (was that really me?) decided that being a dentist would be the best of all possible worlds.

• And they call [the modern career path] making a living? Think about it. How many people have you seen who are more alive at the end of the work day that they were at the beginning? Do we come home from our "making a living" activity with more life? Do we bound through the door, refreshed and energized, ready for a great evening with the family? Where's all the life we supposedly made at work? For many of us, isn't the truth of it closer to "making a dying"? Aren't we killing ourselves--our health, our relationships, our sense of joy and wonder for our jobs? We are sacrificing our lives for money--but it's happening so slowly that we barely notice.

• Even if we aren't any happier, you'd think that we'd at least have the traditional symbol of success: money in the bank. Not so...The savings rate was 4.5 percent in 1990 [I have an older edition ;)]...The Japanese, by the way, save over 15 percent of their disposable income.

The book does an excellent job of living up to its subtitle, "Transforming Your Relationship with Money..." How we view money will determine how we treat money.

I'll post more quotables from chapter 1 later...

Check out the Prologue if you missed it last month...

"The Automatic Millionarie" (Introduction)

For our third book review on this blog, we turn to another best-seller. David Bach's The Automatic Millionaire is an intriguing book that I have read more than once.

At the outset, I will tell you my biases, both for and against this book. You will probably notice that they will come up several times in this brief series.

First, the negative. I don't fully agree with Bach's strategy. While some of what he has to say is wonderful, and I will praise a couple of his principles several times, I don't like his lack of focus. I follow Dave Ramsey on this one: do one thing with total focus until it's done. Bach likes to divide our focus into more than one thing at times, and I don't like that.

The positive--besides the principles I like--is that the book is extremely readable and brief. I have read it three times, and actually read over half of the book in one day (without even reading all day) last year. It is one of the few financial books I enjoy reading.

Introduction

The book begins by promising to help in a practical way, and promises to do so in a short amount of time. Like many books, this volume does not give you "hot stock tips" or other such financial information. It, rather, changes our attitude about money.

After laying out some practical points ("You don't have to make a lot of money to be rich," for example--page 7), Bach gives is overriding theme, and the one for which the book is named:

If your financial plan is not automatic, you will fail! (7)

If you can remember that point, you will do well with this book. It comes up in every single chapter, and makes the book simple to understand.

The introduction is short, but it does grab the reader's attention. If you don't have a copy of The Automatic Millionaire, you may purchase it from the link below. While you may or may not agree with everything Bach says, the book is definitely worth the price of a used copy.

What I'm Thinking

As I continue to think about the car situation (scroll down to the last article if you don't know what's going on), I keep thinking about the decision my wife and I made quite a while ago.

We are paying for a car right now, and we really don't ever want to do that again. We know that there is a chance we might have to, but we really hate doing it.

I'm a guy. I get car fever every so often. Yeah, I'm one of those who likes to go to the lots after they close and look around; you know, when the sales persons aren't flocking to you like sharks to blood. I know I've bought my last new car (the car we are paying on is used, in fact), but I still enjoy looking.

So, what are we going to do about our car situation? We're still deciding, but I found a short presentation that makes it harder to even consider a payment. Here it is. Enjoy.

Let's see...live with one car for a while and have over a million dollars, or go more deeply into debt...

We may decide to buy a car, but we are doing our best to avoid a payment.

Just as an update, my wife and I--yes, together--sat down last night with our budget, our bills, etc., and talked about this situation. We feel like Step One is complete: just getting "the numbers" in front of us will help us decide.

Is It an Emergency?

Part of having an emergency fund is knowing what is, and what is not, an emergency. For those who are following Dave Ramsey's "Baby Steps," you know that step #1 is to put $1000 (or $500 if you are single and living alone) in the bank as a "beginner emergency fund."

After you are debt free, the third step is to "finish" the emergency fund; fully funding it to have 3- to 6-months worth of household expenses.

The reason a solid financial plan includes an emergency fund is because there are rainy days. While we don't like to think about it, we will have an emergency at some point. Having the money available is such a help.

I am now faced with the family dilemma of whether we are really in an "emergency" or not. We have our $1000 fund (it's actually nearly $1100), and we are now working the debt snowball. While we have quite a way to go (almost $20000), we are really making good progress.

And then...

The engine blows on our second car.

Here is what makes this a dilemma: we already have one car, and it is really good. While we think we need two vehicles, we might be able to make it on one for awhile. And, we really don't want to go deeper into debt just to have a second car! Add to that the fact that $1000 would not buy much of a car, and we don't want to completely deplete our emergency fund for this purpose.

Such are the times that make our heads spin!

What would you suggest?

WYTI Links: 10.25.07

Thursday links this week:

• How I Live Without Using Credit Cards - My Simple System for Living on a Budget (via No Credit Needed) Thanks to Adam for recommending this worthwhile write-up.
  

• Budgeting is Like Baking Cookies (via ChristianPF) I'm a big fan of analogy/comparison articles. These are some excellent points about budgeting.

• An Annoying Email I Got (via I Will Teach You to Be Rich) The end of this conversation is where this really gets interesting. Finances are no different from faith in this perspective: advice (even Biblical) is of no use unless we are willing to change.

• Where To Stash Your Emergency Cash (via Michelle Singletary, Washington Post)
  

• Inexpensive Ways to Woo Your Wife (via Clever Dude) This is a guest post by Clever Dudette (Clever Dude's wife) about cheap ways to keep the spark lit with your wife. You've still got time this afternoon to implement some of these suggestions :).
  

Paying for Gas: Reader Reaction

No, this isn't an article dealing with the high price of gasoline (although we might get more interaction with such an article). We understand that gas prices are "up there," and that they are not coming down any time soon...despite all the emails of ways to "stick it to" the major companies.

This post is a way for you to share you ideas. When my wife and I plan our budget for each month, the hardest expense to figure out is gasoline. We always try to list any places we are going during the month (visiting family, speaking engagements, etc.). We also try to leave some "extra" room for just filling up the car normally (visiting around town, going to work, etc.).

However, at the end of the month, we are nearly always way off. Sometimes (although not often) we have planned too much money for gas. More often than not, though, we have not planned enough. It doesn't usually destroy our budget, it just means that we have less money to attack our debts with.

The two major factors are usually "hidden" trips and unknown gas prices. We always seem to make an extra trip shopping to Florence (round trip, about 120 miles) or we go visit family and gas where they are is 15 cents per gallon more expensive.

One of our first "series" on this blog was ways to save money on gasoline. Those tips still help me, but I need help in this area. How do you budget for gas? It is such an ever-changing amount of money, what are some of your better tips? Please leave comments and help all our readers--and this writer--with this area of their budget.

An Interesting Look

Before reading this brief article, please take a moment to read "A Guideline Budget: How Do You Compare?" on Gathering Little by Little.

If you do much reading on financial planning, or any reading on budgeting, you will probably find a similar breakdown of how to allocate your funds. I find the comparison in the article to be quite interesting.

I also find it eye-opening. Did you notice that nowhere in the "guideline" was there a line item for "Church" or even "charitable giving"? Even if you looked at the miscellaneous category as that kind of spending, it would only be 8% of the budget (at most).

Recently, Wes wrote an article on this blog that I hope you will go back and read. Sometimes faithful Christians really have a struggle with their attitude towards money. The reason is quite simple: we either give like we should and stay deeply in debt (or just waaaay behind the "Joneses"), or we live like everyone else without giving anything but a token to the Lord.

Christians need to remember that, in our "budget meetings," the Lord doesn't just come first. What? Isn't that what we always say? Write down what you make and put "Church" or "Giving" as the first item on the list? Yes, we should do that. God shouldn't get the leftovers, He should get our first "fruits."

However, that's not the only place God should be in our budget meetings. The Lord shouldn't just come first on the piece of paper or on the spreadsheet. He should be in charge of the meeting! Every decision, from the debt reduction to eating out, should have our spiritual lives in focus.

When we do that, we will adjust our "percentages" accordingly.

WYTI Links: 10.19.2007 (Almost) The "Third Saturday in October" Edition

The "Third Saturday in October" is always a big day in the south...'Bama vs. Tennessee. Too bad it's been relegated to the 11:30 am slot on LFS. Here's Friday's links...

• Why Money Doesn't Buy Happiness (via Newsweek)

• How to Best Handle Old Credit Card Accounts (via Consumerism Commentary) Having "old" credit card accounts can be a good problem to have...here's some advice on what to do with them.

• 10 Ways to Build the Habit of Saving Money (via Get Rich Slowly) It's subtle, but I love how the title says "Build the Habit of Saving Money." Becoming a responsible steward is a process. Hopefully, children are reared in this direction from an early age. If not, adults need to have the patience to change bad habits into healthy ones over time.

• Thirteen Ways to Reduce the Effect of "Bad Luck" in Your Financial Life (via The Simple Dollar)

• Two for one: 5 Ways Paperless Personal Finance Saves You Money & Risks of Paperless Finance (both via Blueprint for Financial Prosperity)

Have a great weekend...

Ramsey's First Show a Success

I love DVR! Our young people were involved in our Area-Wide Bible Bowl last night, so I was going to miss Dave Ramsey's first show on the new Fox Business Network. However, due to DVR, I was able to record the show and watch it later with my wife.

The first show, which Ramsey admitted was a little different from the way the format will regularly be, featured more of Dave giving his usual opening speech (middle-class roots, quickly became a millionaire, lost it all, learned more about how money really works, etc.). He also took one entire segment to outline the 7 Baby Steps that serve as the basis of his advice.

There were several phone calls and emails throughout the show, and these will form the major portion of the show on most nights. The only drawback, in my mind, is that the show is only one hour in length. The reason that is a drawback is because Ramsey seemed to hurry through the phone calls to cover more ground. Maybe that will change when the show is almost entirely phone calls and emails.

Overall, I enjoyed the show. If you like Ramsey's radio show, you will like the TV show. The graphics are well-done and easy to read, and the premise is simple: Dave behind a desk answering questions.

Catch the show each weekday at 8 Eastern/7 Central on Fox Business. If you are on DirecTV, the channel is 359.

ATM Blues

A couple weeks ago I was at school taking a Saturday class. My wife had come to town with me, and we were planning to meet some friends for lunch. So over my first break I called to see where they were planning to eat, and they had decided on Chinese food. Knowing that the Chinese restaurant in town didn't take any type of plastic or out of town checks, I went to the student center, and withdrew some cash. Usually I would have had enough cash for the meal, but it was near the end of a busy week. The ATM fee for withdrawing the $20 was $2...pretty steep, but I knew it would be that high. Yesterday as I checked my account balance, I noticed a ATM charge separate from the $22 ATM withdrawal for $1.75 for using a 'foreign' ATM. Since I rarely withdraw cash out of ATMs I had forgotten that our bank charges us if we don't use their ATMs, and of course the bank whose ATM I use charges us as well. So to get $20 in cash I paid fees of $3.75 - that's 18.75%!!! Those rates compare to cash advances on a credit card! Now in all fairness, if I had withdrawn $100 the fees would have been the same, working out to 3.75%, but all I needed was a $20. The lesson of frugality, of course, is to either carry enough cash to pay for the meal, skip a meal, or go where you can use the debit/credit card you intended to use in the first place. Oh, and after all of that....we ate at Subway where I could have used my card.

Just another example that shows frugality often requires planning ahead to avoid unnecessary fees and costs.

Debt: Sacrificially Speaking...

It is a simple fact that every single person (or family) lives off of a specific percentage of his or her (or their) total income. Some are able to live comfortably off 60-80% of their income, while many spend every dime--100%--just in time to get their next paycheck. Unfortunately, many Americans have begun living off more than 100% of their income. The ease of obtaining credit and the pressure to "have it now" have suckered us into buying what we want, even if we can't afford it...we can just swipe it and pay for it later (and for even more money because of outrageous interest).

Debt should be on the mind of Christians for many reasons. Notice just one as we think about living off of a certain percentage:

As Christians, we are expected to give regularly (1 Cor. 16:2) and proportionally (2 Cor. 8:3). Additionally, we should be willing to serve the Lord with our financial blessings (e.g., helping the needy, giving to reputable charities, etc.) (Mt. 25:31-46).

We must ask ourselves a tough question when we consider these financial responsibilities in light of debt (especially irresponsible debt like unpaid-off credit cards, payday loans, etc.): "Am I able to give sacrificially to the Lord if I'm living off more than 100% of my income?"

I don't think it's possible. Notice a little hypothetical math: If I make 10,000 dollars annually, and give $1,000 of it to the church (roughly $20 weekly), I technically give 10% of my income. If, over the course of the year, I put $1,000 on a high-interest credit card without paying it all off, I've just raised the ceiling of my living expenses without raising the level of income. Therefore, I've not really made any sacrifices in order to give that $20 a week to the local church. Theoretically, I could give $5,000 a year--and it would seem as though I was giving an amazing 50%--and turn to a credit card instead of adjusting my spending habits. I get almost anything I want and still give to the church. But that's not the point.

God knows we could use the percentage we give for additional things at our disposal, yet he wants us to trust him (and our elders) to use it in much better ways than we would personally. What if we read that the widow gave all she had--those two mites--but then went and borrowed two more from a Pharisee so that she could buy some more clothes or living amenities? It wouldn't be giving all she had if she kept going back for more beyond her affluence.

May we always consider our financial decisions in light of our relationship to the Lord.

"Be not one of those who give pledges, who put up security for debts." Proverbs 22:26