September garage sales in Monroe MI
I’ll post a garage sale roundup every Thursday for the Monroe, Mich., area until the fall sale season is done in late October. Here’s a link to the community and fundraiser sales for September that are posted in the MonroeTalks calendar. That link will refresh automatically as additions and updates are made. The fundraiser and [...]
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From Monroe on a Budget.
The Simple Dollar Weekly Roundup: Making It All Work Edition
After the universal positive response to my idea of doing a chapter-by-chapter discussion of David Allen’s Making It All Work, I’ve decided to go ahead with it. Expect it to begin in a few weeks (I usually like to have several posts already in the bag for series like that before I start posting them).
Meanwhile, here are some interesting articles I’ve read from around the web this week.
Professionals, Amateurs, and the Great Unwashed Which are you? And which one would you be most likely to hire? I think it depends on the job, but I agree that enthusiasm and passion make up for a lot. (@ seth godin)
How To Get Hired & Get The Job You Want By Volunteering The people that do this kind of thing are the people that stand out from the crowd and get hired. At the same time, the people who do this kind of thing are people who have enough financial stability in their life to pull it off. (@ the digerati life)
Can’t stand the heat? Get into the kitchen — but only long enough to make iced tea. My wife and I are enormous fans of tea. We almost constantly have a sun tea jar sitting out on our deck during the summer. It’s incredibly inexpensive and tasty. It’s just our beverage of choice, hands down, and it has a lot of health benefits, too. (@ surviving and thriving)
Preparing for a Baby – What Do You Really Need? I’m linking to this because it’s a great example of how two frugal people think differently. She thinks that a changing table “is the single most important piece of furniture in the nursery.” I thought it was basically useless – we just have a “portable changing table” with a towel and the stuff we needed in a bag, meaning you can change the baby pretty much anywhere. (@ cool to be frugal)
Big Difference Between Average and Median Net Worths “Average” means you add up all of the net worth in America and divide it by the number of people. “Median” means you line everybody up in order of their net worth and ask the person in the middle what their net worth is. The two numbers are vastly different. (@ free money finance)
Advice from Financial Planners for Members of Generation Y I’ve never been quite able to determine whether I’m part of Generation X or Generation Y – or why it really matters. (@ gen y wealth)
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From The Simple Dollar.
The Simple Dollar Weekly Roundup: Making It All Work Edition
Earlier this year, I did a very popular series on David Allen’s book Getting Things Done, one that’s still generating a fair amount of email.
Given that I personally found at least as much value in Allen’s follow-up, Making It All Work (which approaches GTD a bit more philosophically), I’m wondering if there would be interest in a similar chapter-by-chapter review of this latter book as well. Here’s my review of that book.
I really like the “book club” format for deep discussions about particularly strong books.
Five Surefire Ways to Strengthen Your Willpower Willpower often makes the difference between succeeding and failing at something challenging. The stronger your willpower is, the more likely you are to get what you want. (@ dumb little man)
How to Replace Six Vital Documents These are just good things to know, because countless things can happen to our key documents. (@ get rich slowly)
Moving On Seth is no longer going to publish books in the “traditional” fashion. I’m actually going to attempt this with my next book, publishing by myself primarily in an electronic format with a print version available, too. (@ seth’s blog)
Diving Into Our Emergency Fund – Again When I read stories like this, I’m reminded how easy a well-stocked emergency fund makes our life. If a person went through this kind of stuff without an emergency fund, it would have been a very rough patch, indeed. (@ blogging away debt)
Why personal-finance “experts” continue giving worthless advice This article hits on why tiny individual personal finance bloggers have a larger monthly audience than many huge “prestigious” personal finance publications. We focus on actual problems that people have, not “financial literacy.” (@ i will teach you to be rich)
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From The Simple Dollar.
Fall garage and Mom 2 Mom sales in Monroe MI
I haven’t done a garage sale roundup in a long time. I spent many Saturday mornings last year checking out the sales and posted links every week. It just wasn’t possible for me to do that this summer. But I want to give my local readers in Monroe County, Mich., a reminder that the fall [...]
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From Monroe on a Budget.
The Simple Dollar Weekly Roundup: Your Money Matters Interview Edition
This past weekend, I had an hourlong interview on the syndicated Your Money Matters radio show, hosted by Marc Pearlman. You can listen to it on his site or listen to it in iTunes.
Also, I’ve recently written a few articles for OPEN Forum that you may want to read that focus on frugality and small businesses.
Building Success Without Huge Debts You don’t have to incur a mountain of debts to build a small business. There are many, many quietly successful small business out there, and here’s a tale of one.
Be Where Your Customers Are Many businesses fail simply because they assume their customer base knows about them. Often, they don’t, and here’s a perfect example of a business failing because they failed to reach their target customers (me, in this case).
From Details to Vision A business succeeds when a business owner can identify what their true goals are with the business – and not every business has the same goals.
The Hard Choices Running a small business means that you are often stuck with some hard choices. Often, it’s a matter of choosing the least of all evils.
Here are some interesting articles on personal finance from around the ‘net.
Dipping Into Our Emergency Fund I haven’t had to dip into our emergency fund in a long time, though we have had a few emergencies that would probably warrant it (especially during the final year of owning our old rusty truck). (@ five cent nickel)
Should You Relocate to Cut Costs & Decrease Living Expenses? This is an option that a lot of people overlook when they’re thinking about cutting costs. If you have a job that you could find in any city – or any town of any size – then relocating should always be an option on the table for you. (@ fiscal geek)
“Decide What You Want or Need to Do, and Then Do It With All Your Power.” I believe that a lot of unhappiness and struggle in the world (including personal finance problems) comes about from people not doing this. Life just flows so much better when you’re chasing something with all your might. (@ happiness project)
Preparing for Economic Collapse I agree with the conclusion here – if you’re actually afraid of economic collapse, you’re better off investing in tangible things (like sustainable water, sustainable energy, and sustainable food) than buying a lot of gold or silver, because if the dollar is worthless, we’re not going to be using gold and silver as a means of exchange. We’ll be using tangible goods. (@ frugal dad)
How big is your red zone? This is a very profound argument on behalf of a “training buddy” or a coach or a teacher. They’re the “green dot” that helps you get past the point where the hassle of a new behavior exceeds the joy. Many people don’t have the kind of self-motivation to get there themselves. (@ seth godin)
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From The Simple Dollar.
Monroe MI grocery and drugstore fliers Aug. 15
My sales and deals reports are for the Monroe, Mich., area: Yes, my Sunday sales flier post is a day late. I was busy with friends and family yesterday, and didn’t even look at my Sunday paper until this morning. That’s why I posted a note that this roundup would be late. If you want [...]
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From Monroe on a Budget.
The Simple Dollar Weekly Roundup: Audiobook Edition
Quite a few people have requested an audio version of my recent book, The Simple Dollar: How One Man Wiped Out His Debts and Achieved the Life of His Dreams. You’re in luck. The audio book is now available for download via Amazon or you can sign up for an Audible.com membership and get it at a discounted rate. Alternately, if you’re already an Audible member, you can download it there. Stefan Rudnicki did a great job with the reading (in my opinion) – he’s won 11 Audie awards from the Audio Publishers Association for his excellent work over a broad scope of audiobooks.
Anyway, on with some interesting articles I’ve read recently.
Negativity: A Motivation Killer I’m coming around to the belief that negativity is the absolute biggest opponent people have for individual success. Negativity does nothing but hold you back. (@ pick the brain)
US recession changes spending priorities, doesn’t reduce spending “As a nation, we’re not really cutting back, we’re just giving the outward impression that we are.” In the end, it’s still all about what other people think for an awful lot of people. Success comes from within, not from without. (@ unclutterer)
If You Don’t Ask, The Answer is Always No I agree when it comes to people you’ll never have to socially interact with in the future. The problem is introduced when you’ll have to be around these people in the future, in which case it makes sense (to me) to tread more carefully. (@ man vs. debt)
Stopping Shopping Momentum My solution to this is to focus much more heavily on the “choosing” rather than the actual “buying.” (@ get rich slowly)
What Will Retirement Look Like for Younger Generations? I think the traditional definition of “retire and sit in the Barcalounger at age 65″ is dying, if not already dead. (@ frugal dad)
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From The Simple Dollar.
The Simple Dollar Weekly Roundup: Side Writings Edition
As some of you know, I have an off-and-on side gig writing for OPEN Forum, a website that focuses on small business issues. I mostly write about small business frugality – how to reduce your spending without reducing the quality of your business – but I often touch on other topics. Anyway, here are a few of my most recent articles on there.
Making Continuity Sales Work For You Continuity sales occur when you’re able to sell an ongoing series of items. Think of a punch card where if you buy X items, you get 1 free, or when you buy a package of coupons for the same item.
The Power of 2: Business-Building Relationships in Your Community A few weeks ago, I reviewed the excellent book Power of 2, and in this article, I talk about how the ideas from that book apply well to small businesses.
Is the Nonprofit Boom Right for Your Business? There is a lot of value for a small business using some of their proceeds for charitable purposes – or even becoming entirely nonprofit.
Beating the Competition with Frugality Frugality is an incredible tactic for small business success, and here I lay out why.
With that, here are some personal finance articles I’ve enjoyed over the past week.
A Frugal Daughter’s Guide to Back to School Shopping I’m just about to get my first dose of “back-to-school” shopping, as my son is attending preschool for the first time this fall. We’re rumored to have a supply list in the next week or two. (@ frugal dad)
3 Reasons Why Most People Will Never Earn More Money — And What You Can Do About It! So many things that business and career experts recommend is a complete waste of time. (@ man vs. debt)
Reader Story: Widowed Young This is something that my wife and I have greatly feared over the years. (@ get rich slowly)
How To Make A Dream Reality: Fear vs. Courage It’s a lot harder to accomplish a goal if you’re afraid to start tackling it. (@ pick the brain)
the manifesto of encouragement On the flip side of that fear, it often takes just a little encouragement to cause a dream to get off the runway. (@ white hot truth)
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From The Simple Dollar.
The Simple Dollar Weekly Roundup: Memorizing Poetry Edition
All through my life, I’ve spent time memorizing various poems. The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost. anyone lived in a pretty how town by e. e. cummings. Pioneers! O Pioneers! by Walt Whitman (probably my favorite).
I like the way the sounds roll off the tongue and paint pictures. I like reciting them (or pieces of them) to my children. I like the flavor of the words.
How to Adopt an Attitude of Gratitude Lately, I’ve been focused on seeing the good in every situation. There are many situations where it’s easy, but if you look deeply, there is good in every situation. (@ dumb little man)
Wants that Morph Into Needs This is lifestyle inflation and it’s one of the most dangerous opponents people have to building a sustainable free life. (@ personal finance advice)
See The Impact When You Donate To Charity I think the big reason that many people struggle with charitable giving is that it feels like a “give and see nothing in return” exchange. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with wanting to see what your money is going for. (@ christianpf)
I’m So Judgmental. I Want to Conquer This! Any Suggestions? Everyone has their own path. You can’t fairly judge others by the path you’re on. It’s like comparing a track sprinter’s times to that of a cross-country skiier. (@ happiness project)
It’s So Easy to Talk About Lunch I love this. If you want someone to talk, give them something very easy to talk about. Seth suggests talking about what to have for lunch, because everyone has an opinion. (@ seth godin)
Ask Unclutterer: Encouraging kids to help out at home My technique is to do it in very small timed batches. Our kitchen clock has a countdown timer, so we’ll designate a very specific task – “Pick up the Lincoln logs!” – with a very specific time frame – “Can we get it done in five minutes!?” – and then set the timer. The immediate focus and the short term really helps our kids (ages four and two) to take care of their stuff. (@ unclutterer)
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The Simple Dollar Weekly Roundup: Rainy Days Edition
It’s raining outside. My children want to go to the park.
That means it’s time to come up with an indoor solution. That means, of course, that it’s time for an elaborate blanket-and-chairs fort in the living room.
Live Within My Means? How? It’s not too hard to live within your means if you just follow one rule: spend less than you earn. The hard decisions of what to cut are up to you. (@ studenomics)
With perspective, it’s normal to feel an emotional attachment to your possessions For me, perspective was the real key to this. I’ve reached a point where, if I have too much stuff, I recognize that I don’t have the time to adequately spend with any of it. That’s a problem – it takes up money and space and gives me no positive value in return. I focus on keeping my stuff down to the items I have time for and actually bring positive value into my life. (@ unclutterer)
Future Proofing Your Passion The message here is that the way to keep your passion alive is to keep your life simple so your passion isn’t strangled by the life clutter. Good message. (@ 43 folders)
Cheap Wedding Ideas On A Small Budget My wife’s family has something of a tradition of having all of the closer family members (siblings, parents, and often aunts and uncles) pitching in to help with catering, decorating, and so on so that the wedding can be done at a low cost. I think this is a brilliant idea. (@ the digerati life)
Worth More Than Money: Taking A Detour on the Road to Riches Everyone’s path to where they want to be is different. (@ get rich slowly)
Are Your Financial Habits Just Bad? I think this article hints at the real truth: bad financial habits often arise from a life that’s got other concerns – too many activities balanced with exhaustion, for example. (@ wise bread)
What To Do With a Pile of Change? I liked that the answers here didn’t just immediately revolve around the typical responses of what to do with a small windfall. (@ frugal dad)
The Clean-Slate Guide to Simplicity I think that sometimes a clean slate is the best solution to fixing the problems in your life. (@ zen habits)
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From The Simple Dollar.