Posted By Paul
As someone who has spent nearly all of their adult life budgeting, saving towards goals, AND trying to live a fairly healthy lifestyle, I was intrigued by the thoughts that came to me after reading the following article:
Why Budgets Fail: Leave My Latte Alone
It's a list of reasons why people are unable to stick to budgets and ways to help. I noticed the entry in the article called the "Gung-Ho Backfire":
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The Gung-Ho Backfire - You set up a strict budget and then wonder why you can't stick to it. By trying to cut spending too drastically, you create an unsustainable budget that is sure to buckle under pressure.
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I realized that the unhealthy approach described here was like the "crash diet" for saving money, where you create a goal that is so hard to maintain that you are practically guaranteed to fail.
For example:
I had a friend who was carrying some credit card debt that they wanted to eliminate (a great goal for sure). I was talking with them about the budget they had set up and discovered that they had set a goal of putting aside a certain amount of money each month to pay off their credit cards (I think it was something like $500 a month). I told them that I thought this was a great goal and since their debt wasn't huge they figured that they would be able to pay it off in about 6 months at this rate.
What actually happened? Well the first month went well. They managed to hit their goal and pay down their debt by $500.
The next month an unexpected car repair came up and since they didn't have a "rainy day fund" set up that had to come out of the money they hoped to set aside for their credit card debt.
The month after that they decided to splurge a little since the last two months had been all about saving, saving, saving. So they went on a shopping spree that ended up eating the savings for that month.
Things got worse after that and before long the budget and goal were simply forgotten.
I realized just now that this whole experience felt a lot like someone who was going through a crash diet.
By creating this specific savings goal my friend had slashed their budget to the bone. They had left no money for incidentals or the occasional bit of fun. Sort of like the crazy diet where you decide you'll only eat celery in anticipation of the pounds melting off of you.
The car repair was kind of like the holiday season or the vacation where you find it impossible to stick to your diet. So you get discouraged and feel like a failure, and you feel like maybe the goal is impossible.
The month where they decided to treat themselves is like the cheeseburger and ice cream sundae splurge after the miserable time spent on your crazy diet.
What follows is the same phenomenon you see with crash diets where the person can't stick with the diet and ends up quitting early. They often lose the dramatic results they gained at the start of the program (my friend quickly re-accumulated the credit card debt and then some).
At the time I thought the problem was that my friend didn't have the discipline to follow through on their plan, but now I think that a big part of the problem was that they set their expectations too high (just like with a crash diet).
You might be able to live the "pinch every penny" lifestyle like that for a while, but when you just can't keep it up anymore you give up on the plan AND the goal. This is too bad since the goal was probably attainable if you had just been able to accept a more moderate change with less dramatic results.
By creating such a hefty savings goal my friend had put budget constraints on them that were so strict that they couldn't follow them for more than a couple of months. If they had set a savings goal of $250 a month they might have been able to stick with their program and payoff their debt. Sure it would have taken twice as long but they would have reached it. It's the same way with a more moderate weight loss program where you make more moderate changes. Your results won't be as dramatic but at least you'll create a system that you'll be able to live with and maintain.
Maybe the problem with "crash dieting" and "crash budgeting" is that the goal is to create a temporary process so that you can fix a problem and then forget about it. What you really need in both cases is a long term plan that you can maintain so that the results actually last.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Article: 10 products to always buy generic
Posted By Paul
I thought this was a pretty cool article:
10 products to always buy generic
Now that we have a little one with various toys we seem to go through batteries more quickly and we now just get whatever battery is cheapest and we haven't noticed any difference.
We often buy generic or store brands and only switch back to the name brand if we have a reason.
For example I have a cheesecake recipe that I'm rather proud of and I've noticed that whenever I make it with generic cream cheese it doesn't turn out as well. So I always go for the name brand when I'm going to make that particular recipe.
An interesting little article, check it out!
I thought this was a pretty cool article:
10 products to always buy generic
Now that we have a little one with various toys we seem to go through batteries more quickly and we now just get whatever battery is cheapest and we haven't noticed any difference.
We often buy generic or store brands and only switch back to the name brand if we have a reason.
For example I have a cheesecake recipe that I'm rather proud of and I've noticed that whenever I make it with generic cream cheese it doesn't turn out as well. So I always go for the name brand when I'm going to make that particular recipe.
An interesting little article, check it out!
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
The Hunt For The Perfect House
Posted By Paul
My wife and I have been in our current house (which was our first house) for about seven years and we recently started talking about moving. Having been in our place for a while we've learned a lot about what we would like in our next house.
So now we were faced with some really tough questions:
-Should we move?
-Can we move?
-What can we afford to move into?
I now appreciate what people mean when they say that buying your first house is the simplest since you don't have to deal with selling your OLD house as well. We decided to take it step-by-step.
We started off by browsing properties on the internet. We wanted to see if properties existed in the area that met our criteria to get an idea of what they cost.
That ended up being pretty easy. We discovered several properties that met the basic criteria of what we wanted. That told us that properties like we hoped for did exist (we wanted a little bit of land) and what they cost.
We then did some research to get an idea of what we could get for our house if we sold it. We tried to factor in a cushion to cover what we would do if there was a long gap between selling our old house and finding a new one.
We quickly end up with a spreadsheet where a lot of the numbers were guesses, but at least they were hopefully guesses grounded in the fact.
Based on a general idea of cost and a guess of what we could get for our current house it was simple math to figure out the mortgage payment we would need to swing in order to make it happen (based on the current mortgage rates).
Unfortunately that is where the process ended. The way the numbers worked out it looked like the mortgage payment for our dream house would be much bigger than we wanted to take on.
So now what? Well we're going to do three things:
1) Keep browsing the web for properties. You never know, maybe some amazing bargain will pop up.
2) Get our current house in shape for selling. This just means that any projects we decide to bite off will be based on the idea that we'll be selling this house in the semi-near future (so projects that help the resale value of the house get priority).
3) Save, save, save! Just because we can't afford our dream house now doesn't mean we can't get there. Towards that end we're focusing on paying down the mortgage (giving us more equity to put towards the next house) as quickly as we can without sacrificing our other "required" savings vehicles (rainy day fund, college fund, retirement, etc.).
It was tough looking at all of these cool properties and trying to figure out a way to get the numbers to work. Phrases like: "Well that mortgage payment wouldn't be TOO bad." keep going through your head. Luckily with a quickly growing toddler in the house it was easy to remember that unexpected expenses come up and that even if we COULD manage a bigger payment every month, it doesn't mean that we SHOULD.
Our hope is that if we stick to our plan that eventually we'll be able to afford our dream house and we won't be stuck in that "house poor" mode where we have a great house but we struggle to make the payment every month.
We'll keep you posted!
My wife and I have been in our current house (which was our first house) for about seven years and we recently started talking about moving. Having been in our place for a while we've learned a lot about what we would like in our next house.
So now we were faced with some really tough questions:
-Should we move?
-Can we move?
-What can we afford to move into?
I now appreciate what people mean when they say that buying your first house is the simplest since you don't have to deal with selling your OLD house as well. We decided to take it step-by-step.
We started off by browsing properties on the internet. We wanted to see if properties existed in the area that met our criteria to get an idea of what they cost.
That ended up being pretty easy. We discovered several properties that met the basic criteria of what we wanted. That told us that properties like we hoped for did exist (we wanted a little bit of land) and what they cost.
We then did some research to get an idea of what we could get for our house if we sold it. We tried to factor in a cushion to cover what we would do if there was a long gap between selling our old house and finding a new one.
We quickly end up with a spreadsheet where a lot of the numbers were guesses, but at least they were hopefully guesses grounded in the fact.
Based on a general idea of cost and a guess of what we could get for our current house it was simple math to figure out the mortgage payment we would need to swing in order to make it happen (based on the current mortgage rates).
Unfortunately that is where the process ended. The way the numbers worked out it looked like the mortgage payment for our dream house would be much bigger than we wanted to take on.
So now what? Well we're going to do three things:
1) Keep browsing the web for properties. You never know, maybe some amazing bargain will pop up.
2) Get our current house in shape for selling. This just means that any projects we decide to bite off will be based on the idea that we'll be selling this house in the semi-near future (so projects that help the resale value of the house get priority).
3) Save, save, save! Just because we can't afford our dream house now doesn't mean we can't get there. Towards that end we're focusing on paying down the mortgage (giving us more equity to put towards the next house) as quickly as we can without sacrificing our other "required" savings vehicles (rainy day fund, college fund, retirement, etc.).
It was tough looking at all of these cool properties and trying to figure out a way to get the numbers to work. Phrases like: "Well that mortgage payment wouldn't be TOO bad." keep going through your head. Luckily with a quickly growing toddler in the house it was easy to remember that unexpected expenses come up and that even if we COULD manage a bigger payment every month, it doesn't mean that we SHOULD.
Our hope is that if we stick to our plan that eventually we'll be able to afford our dream house and we won't be stuck in that "house poor" mode where we have a great house but we struggle to make the payment every month.
We'll keep you posted!
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Article: Dirty tricks financial advisers play
Posted By Paul
Hi Everyone,
I saw an article on CNN that I wanted to pass on. If you are a frequent reader of this blog you might get the feeling that I am "anti-adviser" from some of my earlier posts:
Adviser or Not?
What are you really paying for advice?
-and-
Article: Before of free financial advice.
It would be fair to say that I am very 'adviser skeptical' since it seems like so often the information they provide you can easily be obtained by just doing a little research, and the cost to you can be significant if you're not careful. There have been so many times where someone I know will mention a financial adviser that "works for free". When I ask my friend if the adviser has suggested a life insurance annuity and my friend says they haven't my standard response is: "Wait a few months, they will." I seem to always be right. To read more about annuities just select the posting label 'annuities' in this blog to bring up the articles where I discuss them.
Considering the role they play in your life, I think a certain level of adviser skepticism is healthy.
Here is the article:
Dirty tricks financial advisers play.
Hi Everyone,
I saw an article on CNN that I wanted to pass on. If you are a frequent reader of this blog you might get the feeling that I am "anti-adviser" from some of my earlier posts:
Adviser or Not?
What are you really paying for advice?
-and-
Article: Before of free financial advice.
It would be fair to say that I am very 'adviser skeptical' since it seems like so often the information they provide you can easily be obtained by just doing a little research, and the cost to you can be significant if you're not careful. There have been so many times where someone I know will mention a financial adviser that "works for free". When I ask my friend if the adviser has suggested a life insurance annuity and my friend says they haven't my standard response is: "Wait a few months, they will." I seem to always be right. To read more about annuities just select the posting label 'annuities' in this blog to bring up the articles where I discuss them.
Considering the role they play in your life, I think a certain level of adviser skepticism is healthy.
Here is the article:
Dirty tricks financial advisers play.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Article: Financial Peace In Tough Times
Posted By Paul
I liked this article on Debt Kid that talked about how an emergency fund was useful in a time of family crisis. We often think of emergency funds for times where our car breaks down or we discover a hole in our roof, but this was a great example of how having some extra money can also help when a family emergency comes up:
Feeling Financial Peace In Tough Times
I liked this article on Debt Kid that talked about how an emergency fund was useful in a time of family crisis. We often think of emergency funds for times where our car breaks down or we discover a hole in our roof, but this was a great example of how having some extra money can also help when a family emergency comes up:
Feeling Financial Peace In Tough Times
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Article: America's Biggest Rip-offs
Posted By Paul
A cool article on CNNMoney about the biggest rip offs in America.
It defined a rip-off as something you use or consume that has a REALLY high mark up.
I thought that made some good choices. Ones in the list that I especially liked:
Text Messages - I rarely send text messages (at least in part because I'm not very practiced at typing them out on my phone) but when you think about the amount of data that is being sent, the prices are pretty ridiculous.
Movie theater popcorn - I've never been one to get snacks at a movie (usually because I feel like eating at the same time distracts me from the movie), but it comes as no surprise that movie theater popcorn was one of the major rip-offs. I liked the quote that was listed in this section:
"A lot of theater owners tell me, 'I consider myself working in concessions, not movies.'"
'Free' Credit Reports that aren't - beware of the 'free' services that sign you up for 'credit monitoring' for $15 a month and hope you don't notice.
Worth a read:
America's Biggest Rip-offs
A cool article on CNNMoney about the biggest rip offs in America.
It defined a rip-off as something you use or consume that has a REALLY high mark up.
I thought that made some good choices. Ones in the list that I especially liked:
Text Messages - I rarely send text messages (at least in part because I'm not very practiced at typing them out on my phone) but when you think about the amount of data that is being sent, the prices are pretty ridiculous.
Movie theater popcorn - I've never been one to get snacks at a movie (usually because I feel like eating at the same time distracts me from the movie), but it comes as no surprise that movie theater popcorn was one of the major rip-offs. I liked the quote that was listed in this section:
"A lot of theater owners tell me, 'I consider myself working in concessions, not movies.'"
'Free' Credit Reports that aren't - beware of the 'free' services that sign you up for 'credit monitoring' for $15 a month and hope you don't notice.
Worth a read:
America's Biggest Rip-offs
Friday, April 16, 2010
Follow up on my system for saving
Posted By Paul
One thing that I've been doing that has worked well for me is based on a REALLY old post of mine that talks about how I save money. Here is the article:
Simple System For Saving Money
I still use this system but now I tailor it a bit in that I keep a list of places that I like to put money when I have a little extra. For example here is my current list:
Roth
Mortgage
Car Loan
Child College Fund
Fun Fund
Rainy Day Fund
I just keep this list in a text document and whenever I have more than my 'target amount' in my checking account I transfer $100 to the item that is at the top of the list and then that item moves to the bottom.
I like this system because I can change the list easily if I ever want to divert money to saving for a new goal. I can even put the same item in the list multiple times if I ever want to save towards a specific goal faster.
You may notice too that I have 'Fun Fund' in the list. This has been a great addition in that every dollar that goes into that account (which is just an account in my ISA that I labeled 'Fun Fund') is intended to be spent on something fun. It's a great way to give yourself a reward for saving. It's also a really nice way to save up money in preparation for a vacation or some other fun event. We don't even know what exactly we're saving for (though it'll probably be some sort of vacation when our child is old enough to travel), but it's great to have the money set aside and to see it growing.
One thing that I've been doing that has worked well for me is based on a REALLY old post of mine that talks about how I save money. Here is the article:
Simple System For Saving Money
I still use this system but now I tailor it a bit in that I keep a list of places that I like to put money when I have a little extra. For example here is my current list:
Roth
Mortgage
Car Loan
Child College Fund
Fun Fund
Rainy Day Fund
I just keep this list in a text document and whenever I have more than my 'target amount' in my checking account I transfer $100 to the item that is at the top of the list and then that item moves to the bottom.
I like this system because I can change the list easily if I ever want to divert money to saving for a new goal. I can even put the same item in the list multiple times if I ever want to save towards a specific goal faster.
You may notice too that I have 'Fun Fund' in the list. This has been a great addition in that every dollar that goes into that account (which is just an account in my ISA that I labeled 'Fun Fund') is intended to be spent on something fun. It's a great way to give yourself a reward for saving. It's also a really nice way to save up money in preparation for a vacation or some other fun event. We don't even know what exactly we're saving for (though it'll probably be some sort of vacation when our child is old enough to travel), but it's great to have the money set aside and to see it growing.
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