Monthly Archives: June 2009

When Stranded In A Forest Of Debt, Just Keep Chopping

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Since I was a teenager, I’ve drawn a lot of inspiration from sports. For me, the life-lessons learned through sports are so relevant to many of the same struggles we face in real life. Little did I know that something I picked up from following college football would help me stay motivated on my plan to become debt free.

In 2006 the Rutgers football team made a big splash in the world of college football. They even knocked off Lousville that year, who at the time was ranked as the #3 football team in the country. It was a huge win for the Rutgers program, and their new coach, who began to draw national media attention.

I noticed during the game that players were making a “chopping” motion after big plays, and a number of coaches joined in. I didn’t understand the celebration, because it looked to me like they were simulating the referee’s call for a personal foul. After searching around the web, I discovered they were “chopping wood,” which was the visual representation of a mantra the coach had brought to Rutgers.

An AP story from that year describes the motivation behind the phrase “keep chopping wood.” Apparently, the idea was developed by a sport psychologist, and adopted by a number of coaches as a battle cry for teams trying to rally from behind. I like how Rutgers coach Greg Schiano summed it up:

“Right now we’re in a bad spot, we’re in the middle of the forest, it’s all dark, we can’t see. Get an ax and just start chopping away.”

That’s the approach we have taken to debt repayment. Some trees (debts) were taller than others; some bigger around. It didn’t matter, we just kept chopping, and eventually those trees began to fall. To most people, it might seem like it would be easier to borrow a chainsaw-it’s more efficient than an old ax. But swinging that ax hurts, and that pain is an important part of the process because it is a constant reminder of why you’ll never venture out into the forest again.

Some months you’ll chop more wood than others. Illnesses, emergencies, and other unforeseen events will inevitably slow you down. Just keep chopping! One word of caution. After a few months of swinging your ax you’ll start to create a little space. Don’t get comfortable. Complacency is the enemy of progress. If you decide to put down the ax and take a little nap, you might wake up to find things overgrown again. Now you’re tired, sore, and once again surrounded by debt.

How do you psyche yourself up to face similar challenges?

Weekly Roundup: Sink Or Swim Edition

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Our kids are in the process of learning to swim. It is something we probably put off too long, but that we’ve become more dedicated to both as a survival skill and a form of summertime entertainment. Teaching kids to swim takes a lot of patience, a virtue I was not born with, but one I’ve tried to cultivate over time.

Things like having kids young, coaching youth soccer, and settling down to write all help develop patience, and it’s a good thing because patience is a key factor in financial success. The most serious screw-ups I’ve committed with money were made when I moved too fast.  When not teaching the doggy-paddle, or how to float on your back, to the kids in my spare time, I managed to run across a few excellent posts this past week.

The Fab Five

Can You Survive As a One Income Family? Yes, we’ve been doing it for over ten years now. But living on one income is not easy, and it requires a tremendous sacrifice. (@ The Wisdom Journal)

Retired at 31: An Early Retirement Story. I read these stories and wish I could go back to 20 years-old and have a mulligan. If I only knew then what I know now. Still, I find these posts to be extremely inspiring for those in their early twenties because it is a decade of so much opportunity!(@ Million Dollar Journey)

Junky Car Club. Cool idea here. Register your “junky” car here and agree to use at least some of what you used to pay for a car payment for charity. (@Stiletto Money Online)

15 Ways To Get Started On Snowflaking. The idea of “snowflaking” is one of the best ways to get out of debt. I’ve used it to pay off thousands of dollars of debt in small increments of micro-payments from various side hustles. Believe me; they add up over time! (@The Simple Dollar)

Poor Man Wins Lottery – Will it Help or Hurt Him? After any sizable lottery winnings the media instantly reports all those who have been cursed by the winnings. I still believe the idea that it is the love of money that is the root of all evil.  Money alone is simply a tool. (@Money Help For Christians)

Best of the Rest

The Path To Contentment

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From the time we were small we’ve had ingrained in us the idea that climbing the corporate ladder was the result of hard work, ethical behavior, and networking with the right people. For the most part that is still true. However, corporate life is not quite as revered as it once was.

I was no different growing up. I dreamed of becoming a football player, or a doctor, or a successful businessman. Those were big dreams, but dreams that kept me on track, academically, throughout high school. After a back injury my senior year of high school derailed any hopes of playing football, I turned my attention to my studies and finished on a high note, intending to enter college the next year and declare pre-medicine as a major.

office061709
Photo courtesy of TimWilson

Somewhere along the way I burned out on the whole process. I grew tired of college, the idea of being a doctor, and I was really floundering. After a death in the family, I returned home and lived with my grandfather while working a string of part time jobs, because I couldn’t find a full-time one.

Not long after marrying my college sweetheart I found a full time job as a customer service representative at a bankcard call center. The starting salary was $18,000, but I could earn 10% more by taking the graveyard shift, so I did. Looking back, we felt rich! My wife and I worked opposite schedules for a few months, until the stress at her job, and being seven months pregnant, brought her home.

I bounced around the bank from the call center to back office operations, credit, fraud investigations, disputes, etc, eventually landing in software development, which was the focus of my studies after returning to school after the birth of my daughter. Again, I thought I was on the fast track up the corporate ladder. I ultimately landed a better job after finishing my online business degree, but again, somewhere along the way I had a change of heart.

Reflecting back, I don’t remember a specific event that changed my perspective, rather a combination of events that changed my priorities. I had spent a decade living above my means, acquiring things, and racking up debt to finish school. The events of September 11th drew me closer to my then 1 year-old baby. The thought of traveling away from her, and my wife, terrified me, and the first time I flew after 9/11 (only a few months after) I remember feeling a panic that I had never felt before. I was lucky my new job would not require travel, because it was something I endured prior to 9/11, and downright dreaded after (not necessarily out of fear, but because of the new restrictions and the increased hassle that came with traveling).

Then my family was dealt a double-whammy as the economy started to turn late last summer. My mom was diagnosed with a giant cerebral aneurysm in early August at 53 years young. My mom raised me as a single parent, and had done well climbing the corporate ladder herself, despite lacking a college degree, and being the lone female manager in a male-dominated industry. She remains an inspiration to me. But the aneurysm, seven surgeries, a stroke, and a 102-day hospital stay from September to December wiped her out, financially, emotionally, and physically. She and my stepdad survived without an income as he cared for her for 6 months until long-term disability insurance kicked in.

A second scare came in February of this year when we almost lost my mom because of a new bleed in the aneurysm. She endured an 11-hour brain surgery, and despite even the doctor’s dire predictions, she survived. This time her hospital stay was 45 days. Today she is wheelchair-bound, unable to walk and use her right arm. Her vision and speech were affected, but she still has her wit, and we still love spending time with her.

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Photo courtesy of ellievanhoutte

I share all this because it sort of explains how I got to here. It’s funny the things that shape our beliefs, and our dreams. Twelve months ago I viewed a 6-month emergency fund as a luxury; now I think it is a necessity. Same for disability insurance. Being debt free went from a nice-to-have goal to our number one priority.  Next we’ll work to pay off our house early.

I’ve become content with my current career, and my “side hustle” here at Frugal Dad. No longer do I long for a corner office and a six-figure salary. I long for a mortgage-free, modest home in the country with a garden, some room to roam, and the abiliy to spend some extra time with my kids, and one day, my grandkids.  I’d gladly trade in that office chair for a comfy rocking chair on our front porch overlooking our land. Flashy cars, big houses, expensive clothes and gadgets are all just obstacles in my way of achieving this goal.

Organizing Your Way To Frugality

Posted on by  at  6:00 am
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On the surface, it may not seem like organizing and frugality have very much in common, but I strongly believe they are intimately related. I think they can – and often do – feed off of and encourage one another.

Today, I want to share with you four ways that being organized helps you live frugally as well:

1. Prevent Double Purchases

Let’s face it, when things are unorganized and cluttered, it’s easy to either forget you have something or simply not be able to find it when you need it, resulting in double – or triple or quadruple – purchases of the same item.

I’ve talked before about how an organized pantry prevents this from happening, but the truth is that it’s applicable to virtually every area of our lives, from home improvement projects and school supplies to seasonal gear and toiletries. A lot of people live frugally by stockpiling necessities such as children’s clothing, household products and gifts when there’s a great deal to be had, but if you can’t find things in your stockpile, then you’re actually wasting money and time in the process.

2. Organized Spaces Are Addictive

Although organizing is an ongoing task that you have to approach regularly rather than as a one-time event, having an organized space can actually motivate you to be frugal. Once you organize an area of your home, you’re more likely to think twice before making a purchase as you consider whether you have space for that item and how it will fit into your current system.

Of course, there will be times when you need or want to make a purchase that simply won’t fit with your system, and in those cases you’ll need to reorganize to make space for it. Hopefully the thought of redoing your hard work will make you consider whether it’s truly worth it. Thinking about purchases this way clearly quantifies the money and time that we invest in every purchase we make.

3. See the Results of Impulse Purchases

The first step to getting organized is to declutter and get rid of those items that are simply taking up space without enhancing your life. You will be able to clearly see the result of many of your impulse purchases as you realize that the kitchen gadget or tool or organizing item that you just had to have has been rarely used and often forgotten. This process helps inoculate you against future impulse purchases as you calculate the amount of money you’ve wasted on such purchases.

4. Break the Ties to Stuff

Finally, decluttering is also a valuable exercise in letting go of stuff (and yes, I emphasize the word stuff because I think I think it’s important to realize that a lot of the things in our home are simply that – stuff that wastes time, space and energy because we place more value on it than we should).

Obviously there is value in keeping sentimental items that take you back in time to a memory or a connection with a loved one. However, it’s important to differentiate between the items that truly accomplish this – such as a worn photo of your great grandparents, a toy that your mother played with as a child or the outfit your brought your firstborn child home from the hospital in – and items that you’re simply holding onto in an effort to create those memories – such as a cheap trinket from vacation or all 25 onesies that your firstborn wore as a baby.

I’m not trying to imply that organizing or decluttering are easy tasks or that they’ll automatically lead to a more frugal lifestyle. However, I do believe that purposeful organizing and decluttering will help you accomplish your goals of living more frugally while also helping you to live more simply. I’ve seen it happen in my own life!

Mandi Ehman is the blogger behind Organizing Your Way: A Personalized Approach to Decluttering Your Life and Simple Nest: Where Beauty Meets Simplicity. She believes that living simply makes for a rich and fulfilling life and that time invested in organizing and decluttering pays back exponentially!

Personal Finance Magazine Portfolio For Beginners

Posted on by  at  2:00 pm
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Growing up, I took little interest in the subject of money. I’ve had a job since the day I turned 16 years-old, and I spent nearly everything I earned those first ten years! Recognizing my lack of a solid financial education, I started to look for ways to learn about money without turning to what I call “textbook materials.” After all, I was good with numbers, but I wasn’t what I would consider a “numbers” person.

Advanced finance concepts bored me, and for the most part still do. However, the concepts of personal finance, or “family finance” as I like to call it, are of great interest to me. Fortunately, radio introduced me to these concepts and my interest took off from there.

While working a graveyard shift in a customer service call center I stumbled on this guy named Bruce Williams, host of The Bruce Williams show.  Williams doled out advice from callers on subjects ranging from credit issues, retirement investing and small business dilemmas. His style reminded me of my grandfather, imagining he had his own radio talk show.

From there I started looking for other personal finance radio shows on the internet and found a website for this guy based out of Nashville, TN. His show was only broadcast on a handful of stations, but they did stream the show on the internet – which was still fairly new at the time. I started listening with great interest as this guy railed against the credit card companies (who I worked for at the time, oddly enough). That was how I found Dave Ramsey, and as they say, the rest is history.

Dave piqued my curiosity for family finances, and I began to take steps to create my own financial turnaround. I started hanging around the “business” section of bookstores and magazine stands. I subscribed to a number of personal finance magazines and newspapers, and soaked up all I could find on the subject.

Here were a few of my favorites that helped get me started:

Personal Finance Magazines/Newspapers

 

Kiplinger’s Personal Finance remains my favorite personal finance magazine. To me, it has just the right balance of “family finance” topics and more advanced investing advice. I particularly enjoy their “Living” section which often runs articles on how to save money on used cars, where to find the best CD rates, and a personal story feature.  To me, Kiplinger’s is a true “personal finance” magazine.

Kiplinger’s is available at Amazon.com for $12.00 per year, or $1.00 per issue

 

Money is  a close second favorite in the category of personal finance magazines. I think Money appeals to a wider group of people, including those not typically interested in finance. Like most anything, I don’t agree with their advice 100% of the time. Personally, I think their family profiles often feature too many suggestions involving turning to debt for answers (i.e. suggesting a reverse mortgage to an elderly person short on cash, tapping home equity to pay for kid’s college, etc.). I realize these are mainstream ideas, but I don’t necessarily agree with them.

Money magazine is available at Amazon.com for $19.95, or $$1.66 per issue

 

Smart Money was a magazine I added on after about a year of reading both Money and Kiplinger’s. Smart Money features more advanced columns on investing and they overall economy, and they typically follow some political trends as they relate to the world of finance. I particularly enjoy senior writer Anne Kadet’s contribution, which appears on the very last page, but is the first thing I read.

Smart Money is available at Amazon.com for $11.00 per year, or $0.92 an issue.


The Wall Street Journal is great for those that want daily insight into the markets, personal finances, and news on the global markets. I let my subscription run out when I was in frugal, cost-cutting mode, but there are plenty of places to look for great deals for new subscribers.

Get The Wall Street Journal for 75% off!

What is your favorite personal finance magazine or print news source?