The Bucket List

Once in a great while, there is a truly remarkable movie worth watching, and The Bucket List is one of those.

and now you’re thinking, “wait a sec… this is a personal finance blog, not a movie review site!”, but bear with me…

In the movie, (which, btw, is absolutely worth watching, and I not only recommend it, but HIGHLY recommend it), Carter (Morgan Freeman’s character) told Edward (Jack Nicholson’s character) a story about the Egyptians’ theory of death… and it goes something like this:

Basically, when you die, you are taken to the gates of Heaven and asked two questions. How you answer those questions determine whether or not you get admitted…

The first question is “Have you found joy in your life?”

The second question, and the more poignant one, is this: “Has your life brought joy to others?”

Regardless of my particular beliefs, I still feel these questions bear asking. So in considering these questions, the easier to answer of the two is obviously the first one; although, I am realizing that the burden of debt seems to decrease the amount of joy I find in life.

But what about the second one?

Is the joy that I bring to others limited because of my position financially? I believe that it is.

The key is, I can’t let this be the over-riding factor in my life. But I think it is still good to realize how much better I can be, and allow that realization to spur me on to further accomplishment.

Site Changes

I did the 3-column layout a few weeks ago, but I wanted to get a few tweaks in there.  First of all, I’ve wanted to have a visual representation of my current debt picture posted so that I can remind myself that people can look and see my progress every month.  I made a few changes to my spreadsheet, so now I can run the numbers very quickly whenever I need to edit it.

I also have added a blog list – a new feature in blogger – on the right side.  This will have the most recent post of the blogs that I stay up-to-date with.  Well, the blogs that pertain to personal finance, anyway.

Since my advertising is pretty minimal anyway, I’ve decided to move that over and below the blog history on the left.

Let me know what you think!

My Thoughts on Dave Ramsey

Rich over at Richer and Better (an excellent blogger, btw, you should definitely check out his thought-provoking site) asked what my take on Dave Ramsey was, so here are my thoughts:

1. I believe the man knows exactly what works good for him, and he sticks to it, and recommends that others do the same.  So, while I may disagree with him on a subject, I still have the utmost respect for him.  He, obviously, has been more than successful at employing his methods, and so I value his opinion highly.
2. I agree that intensity is more important that mathematically figuring out the most effective way of paying down debt.  I really feel that it is 80% attitude and 20% math.  I do, however, have a few differences from his plan that I employ:
   1. I have not sold my vehicles to drive beaters.  I am pretty “car-heavy” right now, given his thoughts on how much car you should own, but I have decided to own more expensive, reliable, and newer cars simply because of my extreme bad luck in cases where I’ve driven beaters.  The beaters end up costing me as much or more than a new vehicle, and I spend less time worrying/fixing the newer vehicles.  I still adhere to the philosophy that the “cheapest car I can drive is the one I’m in now”, for the most part.  Hopefully, I’ll pay off the vehicles faster than their life, and have enough time to purchase my next vehicle outright.
   2. I have a credit score, according to Credit Karma, of 821, and that’s up 4 points from last month.  Although I know that Dave refers to this as an “I love debt score”, I’m really not willing or ready to sacrifice that yet.  Prudent use of credit cards, if it is possible, will end up saving me more money than not having a credit score will.  (My wife’s cell phone is what jumps to mind first)  Now, if you are the type that is prone to abuse credit cards, I recommend staying away from them.  I take the same stance on alcohol.  I don’t feel there’s anything inherently evil about alcohol, but if you are prone to being an alcoholic, its probably best to stay away from it…
3. Beyond his debt-reduction strategy, I don’t know too much, because I’ve not gotten to that point personally.  However, I do have some sub-thoughts that I’m willing to explore a bit further…
1. He is a big fan of term life vs. whole life/cash value insurance.  I haven’t investigated this fully, since I intend on getting life insurance after we either a) pay off all credit card debt, or b) the first kiddo comes along (whichever is first).
2. I’m not sure about his investing ideas, although he seems to do well by them.  I know less than I really should about stocks, mutual funds, etc., but, then, I’m not out of debt yet, so I don’t really need to be spending my time thinking about investing.  Right now, my best investment is the elimination of my debt.
4. “If you live like no one else today, tomorrow, you will be able to live like no one else.”  It makes sense.  If I am willing to limit my spending today, and, rather, invest that money, it seems to be reasonable to assume that later I will have more to spend than the ones who didn’t live on less than they made.

Bottom line, I respect Dave where he’s gotten in life, and I value his opinion for where I am in life.  Do I disagree with him in some areas?  Sure.  But there are very few people that I agree with on everything, even within a given subject.

As to his ELPs, (Endorsed Local Providers) I’ve never used their services, and don’t know if I will in the future or not.  I don’t know that I’ll buy insurance from Zander Insurance, or subscribe to MealTimeMakeover.com, or buy into whatever his next endorsement is, but, at the same time, I don’t fault him for endorsing products/services, and promoting people who follow his line.

I hope that answers your question, Rich…  If not, just let me know what you’d like answered more specifically and I’ll get to it…  (This was just too long of a reply to leave it in the comments section… :-)

Butt Scratching and Bass Fishing

Dave Ramsey goes off!  This is a good read…

Here’s the text…

Spending Pressure

I’ve spent a little extra every week for the past few weeks.  Our storage room needed organizing, so I bought shelves and containers for it.  Our cables needed organizing, so I bought pegboard for that.  I “needed” a break, so I bought a 360 for that.  Everywhere I turn, headway on debt is slowed by pressure (inward or outward) to spend, spend, spend.  The latest and greatest is only one small step away.  Getting out of debt is at least five large steps away.

I wish that I could just release myself from the pressure, simplify my life, and have just enough to get by without worrying about whether or not my next decision is going to set us back.

I’m posting this more as a personal reminder when I begin to feel pressured to spend money that the pressure isn’t always good – and if there’s an alternate route to take, I need to at least consider it.