October 15, 2008 in
I Was Broke. Now I'm Not, Leadership and Growth with
I don’t understand our economy at all. Why in the world are we so credit driven? In the midst of our terrible financial crisis I am still receiving credit offers in the mail. I haven’t opened any new credit in 5 years. We went through a tough time when our credit score became trbl (that’s Charles Barkley for terrible). Our score is just now beginning to get better but shouldn’t we still have big red flags on our history that would prevent lending agencies from being so eager to lend us money that we don’t even want? It makes me worried that the lending and credit problem in our society isn’t going to be fixed despite this $700 billion bailout that is so necessary to get these fools out of trouble and prevent our economy from collapsing.
I have to admit Shawna and I have learned the hard way about getting over our head, but we learned and stopped borrowing. How do I know everyone else has learned and will stop calling the 800 number to get the loan on the mailer they received – KNOWING they can’t afford to pay it??? How do I know our economy won’t be in this same situation or worse in just a few months or years when more debt goes bad and wall street is on the verge of disaster again? God help us through this mess – forgive us for being bad stewards – thank you for providing for our needs – please give us and our legislators wisdom in our financial decisions.
October 13, 2008 in
Business, I Was Broke. Now I'm Not, Leadership and Growth with
Recently I got word that the Milliken plant (called the Defore plant in Clemson, SC) where I used to be Supply Chain Manager before I started my current job HAS BEEN CLOSED. They called it a consolidation according to my source which just means they still had some business and it was moved to other Milliken plants in other cities. This is sorta sad news because I feel bad for all the folks I worked with there who were still there, but I’m really not surprised. In fact one of the reasons I left was because I suspected the plant would be closed and I didn’t want to be there when it did because I’ve known other people who experienced plant closings and were either forced to relocate or just plain given the shaft. I didn’t know it would take a few more years before it happened but I was pretty confident it would indeed happen. I just pray the people who were affected are being taken care of or finding other work so they can provide for their families.
August 8, 2008 in
I Was Broke. Now I'm Not, Marriage and Relationships, Reading with
Just read Joe Sangl’s book. I have a note from Joe in my copy along with his autograph, so that makes it valuable – but I’m not selling it. It’s priceless to me because of the information in it.
I’ve heard Joe teach pretty much everything he has written in the book either in his FLE or in one on one counseling with him. But it was reinvigorating to read it all in the book and make notes of some things I need to re-focus on regarding our finances. In the year and a half that we’ve been following Joe’s methods we have made huge progress toward improving our finances. It is very exciting.
In case you haven’t read Joe’s book – I HIGHLY recommend it. It is the most simple material to read AND apply that I have ever come across (it took me about 3 hours to read it and I stopped to jot some personal notes in several places). I also highly recommend scheduling one on one counseling with Joe so he can share his insight in to your finances. He is not bossy or judgemental (in fact he’s the exact opposite) but he is inspiring and challenging in sharing his experience and knowledge and using it to offer suggestions that will help your unique situation.
Now that I’m going on and on about it I’ll go so far as to say that if you haven’t read Joe’s book you are really missing out. And if you think you don’t need to read Joe’s book you are a freakin idiot. There is something for everybody to learn in Joe’s book. I don’t care if you’re wiping with $100 bills – there is still something for you to learn from Joe’s book (like you might get some better ideas of something good you could be doing with your money besides wiping with it).
Shawna and I just love Joe and Jenn – both as friends and as financial mentors. I can’t say much else about it.
August 2, 2008 in
Business, I Was Broke. Now I'm Not with
I upgraded my office!
Anybody who has known me for more than two seconds probably knows I work from home, and we have a small house with three children so space is limited. Therefore my office is set up in a corner of the garage. Very plush except for when it’s so hot outside that it’s 95 degrees in the garage.
For 4 summers now I’ve managed to survive by running a fan in the garage until the temperature got to 85 degrees and once it got to 85 I would go inside and work in our bedroom. It was that or stay out in the garage and literally bake as the temperature continued to rise.
BUT now, in my 5th summer of working at home (in the garage) I have upgraded my luxurious office to make it more plush than ever. I got a portable air conditioner unit!!! That combined with my faithful fan allows me to beat the heat to at least a tolerable temperature.
One of these days my goal is to have a space that is mine and mine alone (I won’t have to share it with the cars, lawn equipment, tools, kids toys, and miscellaneous other junk). The options for how to achieve that are endless and all cost money that I’m not ready to spend, so as for now I’m just as productive in my little corner with A/C.
May 16, 2008 in
Business, I Was Broke. Now I'm Not with
My job has been very rewarding lately. I’ve got steady clients giving me plenty to do (I enjoy serving my clients) and new clients bringing excitement for the future.
The relationship with my boss is as good as it’s ever been. I think it took quite some time for us to understand each other and learn to work through the daily grind without always rubbing each other the wrong way. I think it also took some time out on the road traveling together and sharing a hotel room to get to know each other on a more personal level. It’s amazing what having a good relationship with your employer can do for your morale. I see it not only in my work but in my home life too, because when I’m in the dumps about work no matter how hard I try to prevent it my family can tell.
It doesn’t hurt that my numbers have been really good lately (I work on straight commission – scary). It is great having the peace of mind to know that there won’t be a struggle to stay in the budget next month or the next (I know 2-3 months in advance what my pay will be). We’re no where near where I want us to be, but having a little peace of mind from month to month sure makes me feel like I’m bringing home the bacon and not just the bacon bits.
Finances is a sensitive subject for me because I’ve been almost to hell and back learning the hard way with money, but I hope to muster up the transparency to share some of where we’ve been, where we are, and what our goals are for the future.
May 15, 2008 in
I Was Broke. Now I'm Not with
I am so fed up with health insurance. Insurance is costing me a small fortune for our perfectly healthy family of 5 – and that’s on a high deductible plan. The monthly premium was raised over $100 when Kylee was born, and it’s going up another $35 I guess because I just turned 30. It’s extremely frustrating. We plan to go shopping for health insurance again. We might even raise our deductible even higher. What’s even more disturbing to me about insurance is all the fine print that says what is or isn’t covered. Have you ever read all that nonsense? It’s impossible to keep up with all of it to know whether or not you’re covered when something comes up. So I’d almost rather save money to bet on never needing it as opposed to paying money to bet on whether or not the insurance is going to honor a claim.
I can’t wait to see if any of the big talking presidential candidates are really going to do something about the screwed up health-care crisis in our country. It’s ridiculous.
February 21, 2008 in
I Was Broke. Now I'm Not, Misc with
Recently I noticed a little scent of coolant coming from my car. I got under the hood to check because usually that means a leak from any number of possible broken parts throughout the complex cooling system. It wasn’t hard to find – right on top of the plastic inlet tank there was a tiny crack letting fluid leak ever so slowly.
I knew I wouldn’t be able to fix that one myself so I called Gerald’s Radiator here in Anderson. I met Gerald on one other occasion and he seemed like a pretty professional good ole boy who knows what he’s doing, so I decided to take my repair need to him. The bill was way better than what I would have had to pay the Cadillac people, but even more valuable than that was the lesson he gave me about Dex Cool.
He showed me articles about Dex Cool clogging up and corroding cooling systems which eventually breaks critical parts all over the engine and transmission because they all depend on the cooling system working properly. I was intrigued because I drive a Cadillac Catera – which comes with Dex Cool in the system. There were pictures of broken and corroded parts all through these trade magazines he had. I was convinced – get that crap out of my car and put in regular antifreeze.
After Gerald was done working on my car he told me he had to unclog one third of my radiator because it was stopped up with sludge that Dex Cool causes. That would explain why in the summer my car would out of the blue run really hot until I turned off the a/c then it would cool back down. I was probably on the verge of major breakdown. I just hope there aren’t any corroded parts that will break later on.
I decided to just do a general google search for what’s out there on the net regarding Dex Cool. There is a ton of stuff about the problems, the lawsuits, and even the good intentions GM has for using it. The hard evidence is convincing enough to me. Good intentions or not – I think Dex Cool is a bad product. I mostly just read the consumer affairs writeup on the Dex Cool issue, and I also read some of the consumer complaints about it.
The article says not to replace Dex Cool with regular Antifreeze, but Gerald was confident it would be ok. I just hope he flushed it out good enough that they didn’t mix because it seems that is the concern with changing to regular from dex cool – they don’t mix well. But it’s a catch 22 – if you don’t change it you’re stuck with a chemical that will eventually tear up your car, and if you do change them you risk mixing the new with the old and having a bad mix in your car. I’m living on the edge I guess and going with the changed fluid that hopefully is pure enough to keep me running a lot longer. I’ll just have it flushed more often to be sure.
Thanks to Gerald for looking out for me. If anyone else has Dex Cool in your car you might have some decisions to make – or at least get that crap flushed often. Whatever you do don’t go by GM’s non-warrantied statement that Dex Cool is good for 100,000 – 150,000 miles because that just isn’t true.
February 7, 2008 in
I Was Broke. Now I'm Not with
I just finished filing my taxes FOR FREE!! About 4 or 5 years ago I started using TurboTax to file my taxes because I was tired of paying H&R Block hundreds of dollars to sit in a cubicle with a person who didn’t seem any smarter than me and answer questions that they were prompted to ask by a computer system. I figured I could do that myself and decided to try TurboTax. Since then I’ve gotten larger returns because their system does such a good job helping you find your maximum deductions, and I’ve paid less for it – under $100 a year.
BUT THIS YEAR IT IS ABSOLUTELY FREE!!! Since I read several blogs, some of which are money-specific content, I read more than once that you can get TurboTax service for free by going through State Farm. All you have to do is have accounts with State Farm, have online access to those State Farm accounts, and click the link to TurboTax right from the State Farm site. It was just as easy as always, and TurboTax has REALLY improved their application more and more every year to make it easier than ever. It is especially easy after the first year because they transfer all your info from year to year.
I’m just extremely thrilled that I got it for free this time. Now I can’t wait to get my return so I can pay for baby Kylee (who is due pretty much any time now). If you are a State Farm customer I highly recommend getting online access so you can take advantage of free TurboTax. And if you’ve never used TurboTax I highly recommend you do – it’s really great.
October 22, 2007 in
Business, I Was Broke. Now I'm Not with
Baby boomers are spending money on their pets like it is going out of style. I read about 6 or 8 years ago that it would happen and it is proving to be true. The kids are out of the house so baby boomers are pampering their pets. The article I read several years ago was about good businesses to start. Of course this is another opportunity I didn’t take advantage of, but it is one that I probably am not intended for either because I am probably considered in-humane to unruly animals.
PetSmart is doing great with the pet spending trend and their pet hotel initiative is brilliant. I travel on business just enough to cringe at hotel costs and the uncertainty of never knowing what to expect if I reserve one online that is ‘cheap’ (that’s why I usually stick to hotel chains that are consistent everywhere). Anyway, I’d like to ask PetSmart – how much is it per night and can I stay if my dog stays? Rascal – you’re going to earn it. When your lazy butt wakes up make yourself useful and get a place for us to stay for my trip to Raleigh.
October 15, 2007 in
Family and Parenting, I Was Broke. Now I'm Not with
I’m reading more and more money related blogs – usually because I subscribe to one that sounds interesting and then they link to something else that is interesting. That is how I stumbled upon this post. I love it. I feel the same way but unfortunately I’m not DOING the same thing. My kids are big enough now to know what they got and they’re even starting to pay a little attention to who they got it from. So it’s nice to at least get them a little something from us even though I’d much rather put that money in an interest earning fund for them. But ‘a little something’ seems to get bigger with every birthday. Maybe I’ll get it right with this third one we have on the way and give her a college fund for her birthday. Then I’ll have to play catch up with the other two, and don’t get me started on how much interest I would have earned on Devin’s by now – he’s five years old. We’ve made so many mistakes. Do you ever wish you could go back and just fix stuff?
