Think back. What are your fondest memories in life? One of my best was a 9 day white water rafting, hiking, and outdoor adventure down the Grand Canyon with my mom. A few other that come to mind are building snow forts with my Mom and friends, a little-league no-hitter, and the craziness that was my Freshman year at college. Take a few seconds and think about yours best memories… If you are like most people the things that came to mind had little to do with stuff and a lot to do with people and experiences. We often go [...]
Read MoreMaterialism
I talked about how success requires bold decisions, so I figured I should share the decisions that where bold and went against the grain to get me were I am at today. Where am I today, you ask? Well…awesome growing marriage, beautiful wife, two wonderful children, paid off 70,000 in debt, no debt except for a mortgage, 32% equity in a home, $12,000 emergency fund, and a net worth of about $150,000 at age 29 to list a few. I am ecstatic about my as it stands, I truly am, not one complaint. The question remains, what decisions stand out [...]
Read MoreOur culture constantly bombards us with the message that home ownership is the pinnacle of financial maturity and success. The problem is that there are a lot of factors and costs that are hard to anticipate as a renter. Don’t get me wrong, there are numerous wonderful benefits to home ownership like tax breaks and the freedom to do whatever you want with the property, but it isn’t necessarily the obvious winner over renting. Below are my top ten hidden costs that I experienced since making the transition from renting: Property Taxes – They started at $190 a month and [...]
Read MoreIn the last post I asked some questions about the nature of Christmas spending and what we could do to change. I wanted to share some of the changes that my family has undergone in the last for years to fight the consumerism onslaught and then a few lessons learned. The Happy Rockette’s Family To set the stage, my wife is one a five sisters. Four of them are married, and we have 8 nieces and nephews(ages 1-6) between us. We do Christmas morning with at the Rockette’s parent’s house, and everyone was buying gifts for each other and the [...]
Read MoreThe unthankful heart… discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep through the day and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings! -Henry Ward Beecher As I drove home from the second of our family’s Thanksgiving meals, I was struck by the fact that I hadn’t given thanks for much of anything. WOW, on a day that the US is supposed to collectively express gratitude for everything in our lives, I hadn’t let the spirit of the Thanksgiving change me. I was so wrapped up in the business of the [...]
Read MoreOne of the best tips for digging out from under a mountain of debt is to get a bigger shovel. Outside of finding deep meaningful motivation for getting out of debt, increasing the amount of money you put towards debt each month will probably the next biggest catalyst for overcoming debt. Note that if you haven’t truly figured out your financial purpose, you may not have the motivation to finish the job. But if getting out of debt is truly important, why only use your current income to get you there? Here is a list of some ways to create [...]
Read MoreOften, a huge part of getting out debt and achieving financial security is removing the option of purchasing with payments and credit from our brains. See, payments set you up to stay in debt and spend more then you can afford. We end up looking at purchases through a short term lens rather then thinking about the long term impact. Breaking things down into small conquerable pieces is a great strategy for achieving goals that seem too big, but when we do that with purchases we are remove ourselves to far from the real impact of the decision. The drawbacks [...]
Read MoreWe recently talked about financially changing your family tree as financial motivation, but for those of us needed some more convincing here is evidence that our decisions about money go much deeper than just dollars and cents. Our choices are crucially importance to our children and this offers early stage evidence that our choices can cover over ‘bad’ genetics. The researchers “studied 109 children who had been removed from their parents’ care due to reports of abuse or neglect and 87 control children with no reports of abuse or maltreatment.” The children also had two gene polymorphisms that put them [...]
Read MoreGot an old car that is giving you problems? Scared that your junker is going to leave you stranded? Well, then you might be struggling with the question of when to let go of the old car and get a new one. It is a question I often see people struggle with, and one that people seem to make decision based on emotion or to justify their desire for a newer car. Deciding that your current set of wheels is more hassle than it is worth isn’t an easy decision. I am not even sure that there is a correct [...]
Read MoreWe usually talk like we own the car, but this is just a delusion. If you secure financing for an automobile, the bank or financing company probably owns your car. The person with the auto loan is most likely granted non-possessory security interest in the vehicle. Basically, the bank owns the car and you are not able to sell the car without the loan being paid in full. The reason I mention it, is to clear up what I think is a major reason it is so easy to be in debt. The lending industry wants debt to sound rosy [...]
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