Author Archives: Money Reasons

About Money Reasons

A offbeat personal finance blogger that comes from the tech world.

Are You Trying to Become Financially Independent?

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Can you honestly say that you are trying to become financially independent?

I wasted a lot of the earlier stages in my life watching way too many TV shows, which provided no value whatsoever.  I watch a lot of the TV shows at the time so I could relate with my classmates and other so it would enable me to fit in when others talked about such shows, and because I believed this is what everybody else was doing.  Now I realize what a horrible waste of time TV was!

Ten years out from whatever shows you might be watching today will no longer be relevant, and no longer talked about, and besides who wants to talk about shows from ten years ago anyway?

Another way that I wasted time was believing that only the rich can build wealth or you have to get lucky to become rich.  This was a huge mistake.  How can you expect to become financially independent if you don’t believe that you can become rich, and you don’t try?

So after wasting time watching TV and finally believing, these past ten years I’m finally created and started following a path to become financially independent.  While still considered poor by the very rich (read uncomfortably poor), for me it’s a stage that I believe I can accomplish in the next eight years if I keep my eye on the goal…

Some sacrifice is required with my plan (especially during the first few years), but now I’m on my way and each year I’m able to loosen the purse strings and spend money on things that would increase my enjoyment in life.

More to come,

MR

 

P.S. I’m currently in my third year, and we’re on vacation for spring break.  This is something new for us and in past years we would do something local to save money.  From this year going forward, I’m planning for such a vacation to continue to be in our plans going forward (barring some unforeseen financial crisis).

 

Knowing When To Try Something New

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Life is too short to life in a stalled state.

These past few month, I’m really starting to examine everything that I do and all the plans that I currently have.  I’m finding that I’m unnaturally holding some things that shouldn’t be.  This doesn’t bode well for me or those involved and makes for an artificial environment that should not be.

So this got me thinking, how does one know when it’s time to try something new or different?  After all, trying something new is risky and you can gain the world or lose it all, or stay stagnant in the muck?  So here is what has been spinning in my head lately:

  1. Do you like where you live?  Is this where you want to retire to some day?  When you are older, you might not have the chance to move…
  2. Do you wake up excited to live life or are you just waiting for the day to end so you can start another day that you hate tomorrow?
  3. Have weekends become less enjoyable than the middle of the week?
  4. Is time at work now more enjoyable than other times?
  5. Do you look from the outside and think that you are lucky to be you, or can it be better?
  6. Are you doing activities that make you happy?
  7. Are you waiting for something magically to happy or people to become something that they are not and will never become?
  8. Are you putting all your eggs in the idea of retirement nirvana in the future, thinking somehow it will magically be better too?

If you paint your current picture based on those questions above, perhaps the picture looks a lot different from you thought it looked like?  Perhaps it’s time to get a new canvas?

Just thinking out lout today…

MR

 

 

Accelerating Weight Loss Cheaply With Light Exercise

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So what exactly do I mean “Accelerating Weight Loss Cheaply With Light Exercise?  And why didn’t I start out with such an exercise program to begin with?

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been able to loss more than 10 pounds!  Considering how out of shape I was, that’s the magical number than means I have some wiggle room to be more aggressive with my weight loss program.

My theory is that by losing some weight before I start working out means that I would be less prone to injury or feeling sick from working out.  I think too many people jump right into a rigorous exercise program at the start of a weight loss effort and get discourage because they make themselves sick because they lack that wiggle room that I mentioned.  The last thing I want to do is defeat my weight loss program practically before I start.

 

The advantage of losing some weight before exercising are as follows:

  • By weighting less your body is still used to the extra weight, so your body is stronger than it was when you were heavier.
  • You have more energy because your body doesn’t have to work as hard to accomplish the same things as before when you weight more.
  • Hopefully the harmful impact to your body will be reduced since you are slightly lighter.  This is the wiggle room that I mentioned above.
  • You can visually see and feel that you are smaller and feel more mobile and agile when you move.

My Cheap, Light Exercise Program!

So to start my “Light Exercise” program, I’m going to increase both my anaerobic and aerobic activities.  Now having a two targeted approach to weight loss might not sound cheap, but don’t be deceived, it’s not a complex nor as expensive as it sounds  since I don’t plan on working out more than two or three hours a week at home!

Anaerobic Portion:

For this portion of my workout routine, I plan on taking 15 minutes in the morning (or afternoon), every other day to do the following “Light” workout routine:

  • 2 sets of pushups, doing 10 repetitions each.
  • 2 sets of situps (or crunches) again, doing 10 repetitions each.
  • 2 set of leg bends, for 10 repetitions each.

Now I plan to do the three types of exercise above in a casual circuit like style.  so the combination of (pushups, situps, and leg bends) will be done as a continuous superset with a couple minutes break between the 2 supersets.

The supersets are primarily for time reasons, not necessarily some secret weight loss secret.

After I lose 10 more additional pounds for a total of 20 pounds of total loss from the beginning of my weight loss program, I’ll increase my sets to 3 each per exercise, and also increase the number of reps in each set above to 15 then 20.  The reasoning for this is that if I’m an additional 10 pounds lighter, I should have more energy and strength that I do now at my current level of fitness.

Aerobic Portion:

With this part of the “Light Exercise” routing, I’m just planning on mowing my lawn at a brisk pace once (or twice a week), and then walking the dog a few times a week for 10 to 15 minute walk intervals.  Nothing to strenuous on this portion of my exercise program, but still it’s a start!

Weight Loss Cheaply:

All aspects of my weight loss is that fact that I can do it cheaply.  I’m not going to join an expensive gym, nor am I buying a type of new exercise equipment.  Now I’m mentioned a similar approach in the past in the article called: Frugal Weight Loss and Body Shaping, and basically I’m following that principal because I know that it works for me.

The big difference between today and my prior article  is that I’m slowing the weight loss pace down more than I did last time.

I’m excited to add this new element to my informal weight loss program!

Cheers,

MR

 

 

 

Can A Side Blogging Business Help You At Your Primary Job

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I didn’t start out wanting to improve my productivity and efficiency at my primary “employed” job by blogging on the side, but it seems to have happened that way.

This wasn’t so at first, in fact I felt a bit overwhelmed because its like working two full-time jobs instead of one, but now I’ve learned to pace myself and my ability to handle a greater capacity has increased too.  I liken it to lifting weights…  At first you can only press or curl small amounts of weight, but over time and if you stick to a schedule, your body adapts and is able to handle greater amounts of weight.  I believe the brain is like that too.  As I think more often and in different ways, why isn’t it conceivable that the brain is increasing it’s ability to think in quicker, stronger and different ways?

Just the other days, I was doing something at work were I followed path that I followed for years, when all of a sudden I though, why not try this different way instead?  I wasn’t looking for a new way to do the old task, but the new more efficient way just popped in my head…  This is happening more frequently lately, and things that were once intimidating for me are now getting much, much easier.

I think that my side business in blogging has caused these changes.  As yet another analogy, I think I was like a 6 cylinder car running on 5 pistons.  Yeah I ran, but my performance was just okay and I wasted a lot of energy…  With blogging, it seems like somehow that 6th piston has started working too, making me a more productive individual.

Getting Smarter?

In my case, my weakness was communication and writing, but I think that over the course of the past two years, my skill in both has increased!  As a bonus, it has really helped me with getting my routine work done.  Being on a blogging schedule also helps me with my organization skills at work.  It’s truly a win/win.

It’ll be interesting to see where it takes me over the next few years…

Bests,

MR