Author Archives: Money Reasons

About Money Reasons

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

Blaming Your Credit Card Debt On Your Spouse

by

Do you blame your credit card problems on your wife or husband spending habits while ignoring your own?

How I View Credit Cards:

First, let me say that I personally enjoy and using credit cards, but only when it’s to my financial advantage. I even use my Chase Freedom Credit Card when I buy items from fast food restaurants (every little bit adds up for reward credit cards!) That said, whenever I do use credit cards I try to live by 1 golden rule: “Pay My Total Credit Card Balance Off Each And Every Month”. This is my mantra and what I live by, not being able to do so means I lose the credit card game.

I guess to me, credit cards really are a game, and a game that so far I’m good at. I use the cards for the discounts on products but always pay off the balance in full each month so I don’t pay any fees of any sort.

But I’m fortunate in that I have a spouse that is playing the same game as I am, and even better at it, which leads me into my primary topic for this article:

Blaming Your Credit Card Debt On Your Spouse:

A few years ago, I had a friend that was complaining to me about how his wife continually spend money via their credit cards. He was telling me how buying “happy meals” at McDonalds and other small purchases like clothes for the kids, added up and was the crux of all of their credit card problems. Now I could have believe him, thinking that perhaps his wife wasn’t shopping frugally and that she would could cook at home instead of going to McDonalds every other day, but then he told me how he was going out to Vegas next month and again in late summer.

So my friend would come home and find McDonald’s toys from the “Happy Meals” and complain to his wife, but he would silently ignore his “big” purchases in the same breathe. Oh his wife would find out about some of his big purchases, after all, it’s kind of hard to hide a new big screen TV, but he would always have some deal saving story about how it only cost half the price it normally would have, or was almost free, or was sold to him by a friend cheap.

Credit Cards

Credit Cards

Dissection of Credit Card Debt:

So you might be thinking, what a jerk that guy must be, and to be honest, I thought so too. But a good chuck of people (if not the majority) that live by impulse. This is probably why the “pet rock” was able to somehow be a selling sensation… This action and behavior can be controlled much like any behavior can be controlled with the proper tools.

So if you aren’t logical and you don’t have any fear of spending money or going into debt, how will you improve? I hate to say this but I would recommend a decent “fee only” financial adviser. Someone that has a good reputation in your area that can dissect both your debt and who and how your money is getting spent.

Like Charles Dicken’s quote in his book “David Copperfield“:

“Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery”

A good financial adviser should be able to give you tips to save money on certain spending habit you have, and could even setup some sort of practical budget for you and your spouse to follow.

If you are having credit card problems, consider using a spreadsheet to add up and account for the items that you purchased over the last 4 or 6 months, perhaps you’ll be surprise to find that the real credit card problem may be you…

Good luck,

MR

 

 

The Very Wealthy Do Not Know How Much Wealth They Have

by

I remember reading an article on Donald Trump many year ago when he claimed that he wasn’t absolutely sure what his net worth was!

At the time, I thought “The Donald” was trying to avoid stating his true value because he wasn’t worth as much as he claimed, but now I’ve changed my mind.

For us average Americans, it’s easy to calculate our wealth level since most of us have just a few saving/investing accounts and a lot of debt.  Debt in the form of credit card debt, car loans, and mortgages.  So to calculate our net worth is fairly simple because of the simple assets and liabilities that we have.  But if we had multiple companies and partnerships along with many different types of investments in diverse assets, well the calculation of wealth would apparently be a much more daunting task.

I have some friends that are what I consider wealthy (having a few million dollars in net worth), but they have a pretty good idea of what they are worth.  So having a few million is definitely not the “Very Wealthy“!  Recently, Mitt Romney stated that he wasn’t sure of how much he made last year, let alone his calculated wealth.  He wasn’t totally avoiding the issue, I believe that he really didn’t know at the time.  Obviously, he is really wealthy…

Rich Dad Poor Dad

Even famous personal finance authors don’t really know their true net worth.  Rich Dad, Poor Dad Robert Kiyosaki has states that he didn’t know how much he was worth in interviews also.  If a financial author doesn’t know how much he is worth, I’m sure the rest of the wealthy don’t either.

This leads me to wonder what that magical threshold is where a person has a difficult time determining their net worth?  Just a wild guess I would venture perhaps somewhere over the twenty million mark.  Wouldn’t it be nice to be so wealthy that having a “number” didn’t really matter?

What do you think would be the number where you no long would even really care to know how wealthy you are?

Spending Money On Kids

by

Today my son asked if he could spend $2 to buy special armor for some free online tank game.

Since I knew it was a free game, I instantly shot down that idea, actually making him feel a little bad in the process.  While I didn’t mean to make him feel bad, sometime the way my mind works, when it get on a topic, it flushes out all the details in a combative manner.  Of course I wasn’t yelling, but I think there was anger in my voice because of the FREE game would cost my son or me money.  I was mad at the game creators not my son.

It’s kind of ironic really…  in 4 or 5 more years I’ll be buying him a car (used of course), but here and now, today… I’m complaining to him about spending two dollars.  Ten minutes later, I explained to him that since he has his own business submitting blogger articles to social engines that he could use the paypal account that we’ll setup for him to buy that two dollar free armor (yes I’m still a bit upset).  After all, I give him an allowance so that he learns to spend and save money in an intelligent way, and to date, he has done very well!

Rich Kid

If you’re a frequent reader, you know that I recently bought my son a laptop, so you might be thinking I’m over reacting…  But with the laptop, I knew he would use it for many things, so that seemed like a smart way to spend money, versus armor that if he got enough points by playing he could buy without spending real money (the money he would spend would give him points so he could buy the armor early).

Okay you’ve read my situation, now for a money tips with kids.  Much like adults, if the instant gratification factor is ignored, a kid (or person) will find that the item they wanted to spend money on will lessen with time.  So I’ll wait until next week, and then if he still says he wants to spend the two dollars I’ll let him.  But honestly, this will probably be the last I hear about the matter.

Time and desire are inversely related.  The more time runs, the less desirable an object becomes.

Cheers,

Mr

Quitting When Things Go Wrong

by

Last night was a horrible night for my daughter.

For the past few years she has been involved in the yearly talent show at school.  Each year she has been able to wow the audience with her skills in various area.  Last night, she was doing a gymnastics routine and she forgot her next step during the routine.  Instead of improvising, she shut down and quit right there and then.

Up to that point, the routine was excellent and she was far enough into the choreography that I thought that perhaps she just went too fast with it finished before the song was over.  The only think that made me kind of suspicious was the fact that she exited the stage a bit too quickly.

Once she got back to her seat, she started crying.  The funny thing was that this year the talent show was a bit lame, and even with my daughter’s unknown mistakes, her performance was one of the best if not the best in the show.  Directly after she left the stage, I hear people behind talk to each other about how incredible it was.

In contrast, there were a few jump rope routines where the jump roping girls got tangled up more than they were successful at actually jump roping, and even a boy who did a lame attempt at lip syncing a song…  lip syncing?  What kind of talent is that?  Of course none of these kids were affected at all, and they were giggling and running around without a care in the world.  My daughter, whose performance was top  notch even with the small error, was crying like her dog died.

The climate of the entire evening happened when the principal of her school came over and told her how amazing the routine was.  After that point, she really started crying, this obviously mad me made because of her reaction.

This is a skill, or behavior that I’m going to have to work on with her.  Being the best in the show and then afterward crying because you didn’t do an absolutely perfect presentation, even though it was the best, is wrong and needs addressed.  We should all learn to realize that even the best of us make mistakes.  It those that learn how to handle, improvise, and make little of their mistakes that excel in life.  Realize what you did do right during such a routine and make the best of it.

Life is too short to cry over little mistakes, especially when you are the best in show.  If the performance was beautiful, then realize that even with little mistakes, it can still be beautiful!

leaning tower of pisa

 

Sad evening all around,

MR