It’s accountability Friday, my friends. In last Friday’s roundup I mentioned my desire to have an emergency fund and NOT touch it. In Monday’s post I declared it’s time for me to finally MAN UP and DO IT. Today is the first day of the month which marks the beginning of a new bi-monthly budget cycle for the Pizels. As specified in the post earlier this week, as part of our bill paying / spending plan activity, $100 has been placed into our savings account to begin my challenge to have a $1000 emergency fund by February 28th. Each Friday […] Read more »
Emergency Fund: Time To “Man Up”
I dreamt about finances on Friday night, which was odd for me because my dreams typically revolve around a very different subject matter. I’m almost positive the source of my dream was my increasingly frequent thoughts about the status of our emergency fund, and the fact I mentioned them in my roundup post last Friday. In my dream Vonnie and I were talking to a financial planner who was telling us the same thing I stated in my post on Friday. Each budget period we should set aside a fixed amount of money into our emergency fund and not touch […] Read more »
I Love You Like a Blogger Roundup – 10/25
I read quite a few posts this week about emergency funds, one of which gets a fist pump below. It made me think a lot about our emergency fund situation. We build it up a little bit, and then we use it – and not necessarily for an emergency. An emergency fund is the first baby step towards financial freedom. It gives a person the ability to handle those nasty unexpected breakdowns of water heaters and cars and whatever else without affecting your base budget of food, clothes and the necessites of life. But it also provides peace of mind […] Read more »
What the Check Engine Light Taught Me about Myself, My Finances, and My Relationship With My Wife
“I’m not happy with you, by the way,” Vonnie stated in a matter of fact tone. “You can’t keep things from me like that. You know that.” Driving north through Iowa on our way home from St. Louis, the check engine light remained illuminated on the dashboard of our rental car, reminding me of my mistake. It started a few days earlier during our 4 day trip to St. Louis when we had asked the valet at our hotel to retrieve our rental car so we could get some paperwork out of the car. I sat down in the drivers […] Read more »
I Love You Like a Blogger Roundup – 10/18
It’s Friday, and this post is coming at you courtesy of a cram writing session between sessions at the Financial Blogger Conference in St. Louis! The question you might ask yourself is, “Do Personal Finance Bloggers try to save money even when they’re at a conference?” I think the fact that we crammed so many of us into a taxi van that we were sitting on each others laps just to save a few bucks answers that question. 🙂 Enjoy your weekend! Posts That Make Me Fist Pump What’s Busting Your Budget? from Boomer and Echo Message Monday – Credit […] Read more »
Will You Accept the Challenge?
I am not the first person to point out the many parallels between financial and fitness goals. The mental and emotional tools we use to motivate ourselves to eat healthfully and workout are pretty much the same tools we use to save more money and make better purchasing decisions. Both require extensive discipline. Both require the ability to say “no” to short term temptations in order to live better in the long term. So I had a thought. When I find myself lagging with my financial goals, why not jumpstart my healthy financial habits in much the same way […] Read more »
Paying Off Debt With Gazelle Intensity Isn’t Enough
I’ve seen it happen to friends and family. It’s even happened to me. A person loses a large amount of weight very quickly through the use of a very restrictive diet. Unfortunately, as time passes the weight begins to return because the restrictive diet is abandoned. The question commonly asked is why would a person who had so much weight loss success just give up and go back to their old habits, reversing all their progress? To me, the answer is simple: being on a restrictive diet is not real life. Such a program teaches people one thing, to unconditionally […] Read more »
Convenience Versus Cost – A Financial Mindset
We all view the world through our own particular perspective, and an observation that I’ve made over the years is how people are willing to trade more of their money for something that’s more convenient. It leads me to believe that many people have more money than time, and others have more money than the good sense to handle it wisely. For me, it’s easy to trade off convenience to save money, and often it’s the right choice, but not always. I am reminded of the classic comparison of how a woman takes her car to the local oil change outfit and is on her way back home in 90 minutes and it cost her $30. Meanwhile, the guy spends half the day with a couple of his buddies and $75 by the time all the materials, supplies, trips to the auto parts store and a case of beer are taken into consideration. Well, that might not be exactly representative of men and women make decisions when it comes to time and money, but I still think it’s a good one. Read more »
Creating The Right Mindset to Get Out of Debt
Many of you are constantly thinking about ways to change your habits, your finances, your life, and whatever else you can to help make the future better. That’s what smart people do. When it comes to making change happen, the first step you have to take is to create a mindset for yourself that’s going to allow you to succeed. Let’s face it, if you decide you want to make changes big or small, but you don’t really take the step of preparing for that change, then it’s just wishful thinking- you’re living in a fantasy world. Good preparation breeds […] Read more »
I Love You Like a Blogger Roundup – 10/11
Last Sunday, I ran the Twin Cities 10 mile race. It was a beautiful morning, with the temperature in the low 40’s at start time. I also spent a few hours walking through the health and fitness expo on Saturday held at the Excel Energy center coinciding with race packet pickup. I just felt like I was right where I was supposed to be, like I belonged there. Runners are such an incredible group of people that strive to do their very best, while supporting their fellow runners at the same time. I ran the 10 mile course in 1:27:09, […] Read more »
Waiting For An Emergency Will Cost You Money
I looked down at the dashboard and noticed all the lights on the dash were flickering. Suddenly the radio cut out, and turned back on. I could feel my heart thumping in my chest when it happened a second time. When the radio came back on again, it was accompanied by a “ding” and several warning lights on the dash board which remained illuminated. Not exactly something you want to happen while driving in rush hour traffic. We carefully drove to my brother-in-law’s house, as we discussed our course of action. We knew the battery was due to be replaced, […] Read more »
I Love You Like a Blogger Roundup – 10/04
Race weekend is here, RACE WEEKEND IS HERE! I’m so excited for the Twin Cities 10 Mile on Sunday I’m having trouble sleeping. The temps look to be great running weather (lows in the 40’s, highs in the 50’s). As I mentally prepare for the race, I cannot get the lyrics for “Hall Of Fame” by The Script out of my head. Check back here next Friday to hear how the race went. 🙂 I have to tell you how I found one of my fist pumping posts this week. If you like reading personal finance blogs you should check […] Read more »
5 Ways to Shake up Your Routine
News flash, we are all super stressed out. Okay, not a news flash. It’s actually pretty well documented just how stressed out most of us are these days. There happens to be a ton of advice on how to combat this stress. The advice is pretty standard and goes a like this: Work out more, eat less, use your vacation days to find a hobby while you are slowing down to enjoy the view and find any and all means to chillax. Although sound advice, the reality is it just feels a little like one more thing to add to […] Read more »
You Can’t Out Earn Bad Spending Habits
My doctor expressed some concern over my rising weight during my recent annual physical. I told him that I have a solid exercise regiment, working out six or seven days a week. Unfortunately, I use my massive amount of exercise to justify eating anything I want. What he said next shocked me: Losing and maintaining your weight is 80% diet. He must have seen the skepticism on my face, so he gave me an example. He asked me how long it would take me to eat a combo meal from a fast food place. My response was less than 10 […] Read more »