“Keeping Motivated” Archive

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Poof… there goes the Health Insurance…

I received a letter of healthcare cancellation for my husband this weekend. His benefits run out at the end of the month.

I expected his benefits to expire but I did not expect the high cost to maintain his health insurance through COBRA. We’re looking at $250 a month for an active healthy guy who hasn’t been to the hospital for a medical reason since birth.

This expense isn’t an option for us. It’s either healthcare or our mortgage payment and since healthcare won’t keep us sheltered at night… it lost.

In light of this, I have restricted him from doing anything dangerous. He is officially banned from riding a dirt bike, surfing near sharks, standing on ladders, and clipping his toe nails. I have also encased him in bubble wrap and tied large sofa cushions to his stomach.

I think it will work.

Posted by Beks on October 20, 2009 at 5:00 AM in :), Keeping Motivated, Misc, job loss | 34 Comments »
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Financial Advice from an Odd Source…

My office is putting my through a 12 week management training course. While I have sincerely enjoyed the teachings about management techniques and understanding people, I have benefited the most from one statement…

Begin with an end in mind.

OK, so here’s the sad part, I don’t remember how exactly they applied that statement to management. BUT, that statement is HUGE for me personally.

Often times, I pick a task with no end. I want to get more fit or I want to eat a healthy diet or I want to live as a penny pincher and on and on and on. Here’s the problem: Unending goals like these will lead to burnout.

Head smackingly obvious right? Then why do I keep making these stupid never-ending goals?

I think that’s what I appreciated about the Dave Ramsey program and why it has worked for me. I was convinced to pay off one debt at a time. It’s a goal with an end followed by another goal with an end. I also think that’s why training for a marathon and a triathlon has kept me more motivated than working out without an end in mind. If I want to quit after I finish I can, but I have a feeling I’ll be signing up for another one as soon as I cross the finish line.

Rather than say, ‘I want to be debt free forever’, say ‘I want to pay off my car by next summer’.

Begin with an end in mind.

What is your end?

Posted by Beks on September 15, 2009 at 5:00 AM in General Personal Finance, Good Info, Keeping Motivated, Reducing Debt, work | 16 Comments »
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Still Pushing…

As I mentioned earlier, the motivation from the results of reducing debt has pushed me to set other goals I did not think possible. I’ve been training to run in next year’s marathon (though the heat wave has halted me for the last two weeks). A close friend of mine has decided to participate in her first triathlon and asked me to do it with her… in 6 weeks. She is doing a Sprint (half triathlon) so I crazily thought maybe I had a chance to be ready despite the fact that…

I don’t know how to swim.

I won’t drown, I’m simply limited to a doggie paddle and as it turns out, that won’t get me very far.

Even worse, I SHOULD know how to swim. My father set a state record in competitive swimming. As if that wasn’t bad enough, I married a competitive swimmer who also played water polo.

Unfortunately, I realized that three of the six weeks before the triathlon are blacked out for wedding events and will severely cut down on my preparedness – and I have yet to stick a toe in water. I turned my friend down but now I’m looking at the next one in March and… I think I can do it.

Posted by Beks on September 10, 2009 at 5:00 AM in About Me, Keeping Motivated | 8 Comments »
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Generosity…

The San Diego County Chula Vista Little League team won the Little League World Series…

But that’s not the big part of the story.

I was listening to the radio last week and the announcer spoke of the success of the fundraiser to not only pay the travel expenses of the team… but for their families as well. In this economy, where everyone is scraping nickels and pennies, residents were able to pool together well over $100,000 to be a part of a life changing event for those young boys.

The city actually STOPPED accepting money because they had MORE than they needed.

Congratulations to the Chula Vista Little League team but more importantly…

Congratulations to those who made the dreams of those boys and their families come true.

Posted by Beks on September 1, 2009 at 5:00 AM in General Personal Finance, Keeping Motivated, Kids & Money | 7 Comments »
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Little Rewards for Big Financial Steps…

High School Reunions and Financial Success…

Yesterday, my husband notified me we would have guests – one hour before their expected arrival time. I think he does this on purpose because I keep a clean house but I tend to go a little over the top when we have guests over. I wash the baseboards, scrub the fan blades, clean the oven… you get it. The more time I have, the more likely I am to get to cotton swab level.

Then, he casually mentioned that the guests were old high school buddies and this was really important to him.

On the inside, our home is nice. On the outside… well, let’s just say we usually wait until the sun has set and our guests have had a glass or two (preferably three) of Chardonnay. We can’t afford landscaping so our yard is a grouping of well mowed weeds and raked dirt piles.

Before we went on this recovery from debt diet, we had planned to landscape our backyard and remodel our 50 year old kitchen. Take out another loan – it would have been so easy. But now, we’re living within our means and paying off debt. It will likely be another 5 years before we can pay cash.

It’s hard to deal with the pressures of keeping up with our peers. It’s hard to not feel a little embarrassed at our less than presentable yard (though to be fair, his friends had nothing but nice things to say).

Sometimes it’s hard not to feel frustrated but…

It’s not hard to feel relief from the lifting debt. Seeing we’re only about a year away from being debt free is like breathing again.

Posted by Beks on August 15, 2009 at 5:00 AM in General Personal Finance, Home Ownership, Keeping Motivated, Life Experiences, Living Frugal, Spending Money | 16 Comments »
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Slowing Financial Progress… on Purpose

My husband works a lot. He works days and nights and I do what odd jobs I can to help pay our bills more quickly.

We don’t see each other often. Perhaps that’s why our marriage is so great. We don’t have time to fight – heck we’re just so darn excited to see one another we don’t really… um… talk much.

He took a rare three nights off last week and we went running and cycling together every day. We made dinner. We walked the dogs. We watched movies. We remembered what it was like to be married.

I couldn’t help but think about how wonderful it was to have him around – to see him relax, even for just a night or two. He must have been thinking the same thing. He said, ‘I want to work less and live my life more.’ He has decided to work 6 days per week and 2 nights per week – and yes, that’s a cut-back (he was working 6 days and 6 nights).

I can’t agree with him more. As he toils to pay our debt, I can’t help but wonder if our self-inflicted punishment of hard labor is worse than the crime of spending. I wonder if one day, we’ll look back and regret the time we missed when our life was just us. We can cover our bills plus some without the extra work so we’ve decided to slow down.

So… we will pay things off more slowly BUT I have my husband back – and I’ve missed him dearly.

Posted by Beks on August 11, 2009 at 5:00 AM in General Debt, Keeping Motivated, Life Experiences, Living Frugal, Making Money, Money & Relationships, Reducing Debt, Spending Money, work | 10 Comments »
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