“Making Money” Archive

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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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Tough Employment Decisions…

Do you remember that government job my husband applied to get? He was one of well over one thousand to apply.

We were elated when he received a call back and a position test date… that is, until they dropped a bomb. The job market in Southern California, like in most places, is a tight one. They are only offering the very bottom pay bracket. If my husband received the position, he would take a 25% pay cut.

Short term, this is a bad decision. This job would put us back to making minimum payments on our debt. Our finances would become the tightest they’ve ever been.

Long term, the position offers a retirement and health package unrivaled by the private sector and offers more stability. On top of that, my husband is at the highest position he can go with his current employer. The new job is one he can stay at and grow in for the next 30 years.

What would you do?

Posted by Beks on June 24, 2009 at 5:00 AM in General Personal Finance, Making Money, work | 25 Comments »
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A Case for Roommates…

When my husband and I first moved in to our home, my brother moved in with us. He needed a place to stay and we aren’t the type to turn family – or their money – down. Soon, our house became a haven for ‘orphans’ and bachelors as roommates.

For the first few years, we didn’t need the money to clear our bills and we certainly enjoyed using it on dinners out and hotel stays. When I lost my job last year, the rent from our two roommates was vital in keeping our heads above water. Sure, it’s awkward to be nearly 30 and referring to ‘my roommates’, but it’s significantly less awkward than saying, ‘My debt collector’, ‘My bankruptcy attorney’, or ‘My foreclosure officer’.

If times are tough, maybe roommates should be a consideration.

Fortunately we haven’t had a bad experience yet, but this is a very serious decision and should be heavily thought out. We’ve stuck by some clear, yet simple, guidelines:

1.) Write a lease agreement – even if (and especially if) it’s a friend and you only expect them to stay a month or two.
2.) Have very clear rules – i.e. don’t go into my bedroom, don’t eat my food, don’t leave messes in common areas.

Some recommendations for roommates:

Firefighters: Their 24 hour shifts give you some much needed space – plus they are good to have around when you accidentally set something on fire.

Guys with girlfriends: I saw our roommate’s rent check more than I saw him.

Brothers/Sisters: You survived growing up with them, what are a few more years? Plus, it’s easier to yell at family about dirty dishes in the sink.

Some people you should never consider:

Perfect Strangers: I’d rather my family not appear on Dateline talking about how the new roommate seemed so nice… until he killed me.

College Girls: I lived through that once and it was enough. More drama than Jerry Springer.

College Boys: Not a lot of drama but I was over keg stands and frat parties eight years ago.

People with animals and/or children: Who needs pee on the floor and chewed shoes – oh, and animals are destructive too.

Do any of you have roommates? How is it working out?

Posted by Beks on May 11, 2009 at 5:00 AM in Home Ownership, Life Experiences, Living Frugal, Making Money, Monthly Spending | 20 Comments »
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Three Lessons My Garage Has Taught Me

We’ve been ‘encouraged’ (ie. sternly scolded and forced) by the members of our debt reduction class to sell everything to pay off debt.

We dug around our garage for a few hours and it taught me three very important things:

1) I’m a pack rat.

In this day and age, no one… and I mean NO ONE… should still have a Tae Bo video or a Chia Pet.

2) If I don’t see it, I don’t care if it’s sold.

I can’t remember what is out there. If my husband sells it before I see it… it’s fair game.

3) The things I thought were so important to me… aren’t.

There are very few things I use on a daily basis. I don’t need the rest. It’s time to simplify.

What are you selling?

Posted by Beks on April 22, 2009 at 12:03 AM in Making Money, Reducing Debt | 14 Comments »
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Deciding That Enough Is Enough

I was pulling stray carts from the parking lot at my former job at the ‘big box’ store when two gentlemen walked by and said, “Don’t they have a machine to do that?!?!?”

I smiled and said, “The machine isn’t reliable. I am, so they send me out here.”

One of the men looked down at my dirty hands and scuffed tennis shoes and said, “That’s when I’d tell the boss to take his job and shove it. I’d never push shopping carts for a living.”

The other man laughed and said, “Oh geez, no!”

They pushed their cart toward me and left. I stacked ten carts in a line and began to push them to the cart corral. As the tears started to trickle down my face, I couldn’t help but think that those words were probably something I would have said before I lost my job. I have a university degree with high honors and over a decade of management experience. I would have never seen myself at this point either.

I stopped, leaned my head on the cart handle (I know – germs – but I was distraught), and thought, ‘I have two options. I can either quit and go home OR I can bust my butt and get a paycheck – tiny or otherwise.’

I wish I could say it was an easy decision – but I had my head on that darn handle for at least 5 minutes.

I finally wiped my face and got back to work.

If this is what it takes to pay my bills, THIS is what it takes.

Our successes and failures are based on our attitudes. We can give up and fail… or we can decide that enough is enough and bear down for a fight.

I’m ready to fight.

Are you with me?

Posted by Beks on April 18, 2009 at 2:56 AM in Keeping Motivated, Life Experiences, Making Money | 40 Comments »
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Ideas on How to Make Extra Money

I have been doing some “computer cleaning” and I came across an article that I saved to share on here but never did. It’s from January, but the ideas are still valid:

Making Extra Money Without Getting a Second Job

I like their idea about Etsy. I didn’t know too much about the site. If you are crafty, it’s a place where you can sell your crafts. Back in the day, I used to paint. My dad would sell my creations at a local farmer’s market and I’d make a few bucks from it. Of course, once I had a taste of the money I could earn, I turned my painting into an assembly line so I could mass paint to produce more sellable items LOL. I wouldn’t mind getting back into it when I have time. Overall, it was relaxing to do and thanks to Etsy maybe I could sell them online.

If you read the article, make sure you read the comments too! There are some spammy comments, but some readers gave some great suggestions as well.

NOTE: The Yahoo site was acting a little funny for me and not finding the page. I had to refresh to get it to come up.

Posted by Tricia on April 8, 2009 at 10:23 PM in Making Money | 7 Comments »
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A Helpful Book to Us – The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferris

Boy, that title sure sounds like one of those, “Too good to be true” type books, doesn’t it? The tag line doesn’t help either, “Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich.” That’s what I thought at first too. Then I read a review from a blogger who tends to have the same philosophies as myself and I started to think that maybe there was something to this book that could be interesting to us.

I received a gift certificate to Amazon.com so I decided to purchase it (this was a while ago). I’m glad I did.

I was going to do a book review, but I agreed with the review that originally led me to purchase the book. So I am going to provide a link to that review for everyone to read and then just discuss how the book has affected us.

The 4-Hour Workweek Book Review at Get Rich Slowly

Like JD, there were parts of the book that I wasn’t interested in, but there were many parts that I was interested in. It gave me a lot of food for thought when thinking about certain aspects of our business.

Ferris talks about becoming an expert in a certain area. I don’t agree with the suggestions on how to become an expert. Joining some organizations and reading a few books and then promoting yourself as an expert doesn’t sit well with me. It makes me question every “expert” out there. I think to be an expert you have to really immerse yourself in a subject.

Even before I read this book, my husband was doing that. He hasn’t always been paid for all of the work he has done, but he is becoming respected among peers (including a person who works for someone my husband would love to work for). Others are coming to him for answers so he is very close to becoming an expert. That is thanks to all of the studying he has done the past three years. We knew his expertise would help the business, but reading about it in Ferris’ book gave us more ideas on how to utilize it in other ways.

Ferris also talks about outsourcing your life. Our business was geared towards outsourcing some tasks to keep our time commitment low. But after reading this book I realized that we could outsource even more so we shifted our business model a little bit. As it works now, we create products and then some of the products are produced & shipped by a third party. After reading the book, we realized that we could outsource more. You do pay for that outsourcing in terms of a lower profit margin, but you have more time to work on the more important parts of the business. I also got some ideas on how to automate some of the administrative parts of the business as well.

So our business is not traditional. There is no physical store front. Is a path like ours right for everyone? No – just like I believe that this book is not right for everyone. I chuckle because I know someone who would call the book rubbish. I think it depends on what you where you are in your life and what you want. For us, we read the book at the right time. If I had this book in my hands fresh out of college I probably would have called the book rubbish too.

Posted by Tricia on March 2, 2009 at 1:18 AM in Making Money | 1 Comment »
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