Author Archives: Money Reasons

About Money Reasons

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

Home Security! Deciding to Spend or Not to Spend

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It’s Jan 1, 2012 at 4:14am, my dog started barking like an entire gang was at my front door trying to break in.

Beagle Boys

Much like the dad in Clement Clarke Moore’s poem “Twas the night before Christmas“, I sprang out of my bed in an adrenaline pumping state ready to encounter whatever threat might exist.

As I flew to the window to see what the environment looked like outside.  After a quick scan of the well-lite front yard, I suddenly came to realize that it’s not “bad guys” breaking in (most likely they are hung over, sleeping off the alcohol they consumed during New Years Eve), but instead the intruder was of a different “four-legged” sort.  Yes the big emergency was another dog, a collared Beagle to be exact.  Now my dog (a chocolate lab), doesn’t ever bark in the middle of the night.  To be honest, I thought she couldn’t hear well.  There has been times when I’ve come downstairs, turned on the lights, then turned on the TV and our dog never even moved, let along bat an eyelid…

The entire incident made me rethink my home protection philosophy!  You see right now I don’t have much in the way of worth at home.  Most of my money is in investments and other financial vehicles that are not lying around  in my house.  When I was in college, this was especially true, but things are different now.  Kids change the equation, burglars breaking in taking possessions is one thing, but burglars breaking in and potentially harming my kids in the process is another.  So since Jan 1, I’ve been thinking about increasing security for our home.

The following are some of the steps I’m considering to enhance my Home Security:

  • Buy a shotgun and put it in a lock protected plastic case.  Actually I want to do this anyway because I would like to go skeet shooting someday.
  • Researching the services provided by ADT Security.  I probably won’t go with them but if I had more money they would definitely be a worthwhile consideration.
  • Search for an individual electronic House Security system for that isn’t tied into a service.  I will probably go with such a system instead of ADT!
  • Keep my dog.  Like I was going to get rid of her (lol).  It’s nice to know that she responds to sounds that she doesn’t recognize.
  • Consider purchasing security signs, if possible.  Sometimes just the warning is enough.
  • Creating a home monitoring solution from old computers that I still have.  Mostly these would be used to capture video of a motion detector triggered it.  I’m just playing around with this idea currently.  No solid plans.
  • Automate lights turning on and off at certain times at night to leave the impression that someone is home (this would be very useful for times when your family goes on vacation).  During the day, the turning on and off of a radio via an automated timer would be of benefit too (although not very green friendly for the environment).

Family is important, and any form of deterrent may be of benefit.  Sometimes just knowing a house is being monitored will be enough to sway crooks from attempt to break in.

Are you well protected from the Home Security perspective?

MR

 

Evolving Ideas to Make Better Financial Solutions and Experiments

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I find that my ideas are continually evolving instead of being cast in stone (or near stone), and this works fine for me.

Ideas cast in stone

Some people see their idea before they even start to write their thoughts down.  It’s fully formed and they carve out all of the smallest details before they even take their first action.  Kind of like the way Mozart would do his compositions in his head and playing on the piano before writing it down to paper.  Beethoven was a direct contrast to Mozart, and although I’m no Beethoven, tend to follow a similar path with my ideas.

One of my most successful ideas that I’ve had on this blog is my “Lunch Dividend Experiment“, but this is not how the idea started!  The real formation of my Lunch Dividend Experiment began as a thought in a post called: “Paying an Adult Allowance“.  And to be honest, it actually went through a few other posts before the name “Lunch Dividend Experiment” was the title that I decided to stick with.

Another example of an idea that is still evolving for me (albeit much slower than the comparatively simple “Lunch Dividend Experiment”), is an article that I wrote called: Skipping The Inheritance, Creating Income Streams For My Kids.  This idea is still a work in process although I have invested some money for them into growth and dividends stocks.  I’m not really crazy about the length of the title, I need to simplify it and compress the ideas into a more actionable plan, but at least it’s a start.

The thing I find is that initially my ideas are not very clear, but usually somewhat original, or at least in my opinion, clever.  I’ve noticed that I was more forthcoming with such ideas when I started blogging, but then scaled back, perhaps because I wanted to be more professionally, or perhaps it was because of a few other bloggers that didn’t get it.  For instance one of my thoughts was called “Paying Off Your Mortgage is Like Working at a Second Job“, in it, one particular blogger tried to take the post in an entirely different path.  Instead of following the increased cashflow, the blogger focused on basic financial and tax specifics that were obvious.  This blogger missed the forest for the trees in that the amount of discretionary income in my pockets increased by over $1,000 once my mortgage was gone and I became totally debt free!

I’m determined that next year, I will no longer let such comments pollute the idea and crux of the posts that I create.  And so, I will again try to become more financially creative in my thoughts and experiments.

Here’s to the New Year!!!

MR

The Week Before The New Year

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There aren’t many magical times in the year, but the week before New Years is one of them.

Why?  you might be wondering…

Reasons the Week Before New Years is Special:

  • This most productive time straddles the two holidays Christmas and New Years!
  • Most people have this time off because of two holidays being so close together.
  • This is an incredible time when many see friends and family not typically seen.
  • While this is a resting period when many parents play with their children in new games and other activities.
  • The week is a paradox of time, where people are both more restful and more active mentally at the same time.
  • This is the time when planning for the next year happen

Okay, above I mentioned the paradox of time, which is the entire basis of this post!  I find it fascinating that many of us take off the time between Christmas and New Years, and during that time we rest the most and at the same time we pull out of the ether our entire plans for the following year!  If that’s not magical, then what is?

At  the end of year 2010, I decided to keep it loose and just let what happens happen…  In one sense that experiment was an incredible flop in that I didn’t really did get any traction on any of the loose goals that I half imagined that I would undertake.  But on the other had it was a great success in that I’ve been able to take a very deep analysis of my life and the way that it’s being consumed by time.  This has enabled me to realize that I do have room to improve it.

In 2011, I’ve come up with what I consider some interesting new ideas, many of which I’ll choose and track in the coming new year.  So while I physically rest on my couch writing stuff on my laptop, I’ll be thinking hard creatively and in a goal oriented fashion!

So hopefully this “week before the new year” will be a magically productive time for me creatively!

MR

Christmas 2011

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Well, I’m enjoying Christmas, but thought if you were at this site, you could check out the following videos!

 

U2 Baby Please Come Home (my wife’s favorite song):

 

Blue Christmas (Porky Pig version) Classic:

 

Last Christmas (Chipmunk’s version, Daughter’s pick)

 

Baby It’s Cold Outside (Elf the movie version, with Zooey Deschanel)

 

Santa Claus is Coming To Town (Zooey Dechanel again).


I especially like the part in the movie “Elf” when Zooey sings “Santa Claus is coming to Town”.  The song is just okay, but the way that the writers have the character played by Zooey get up, face her fears and pretty much save Christmas by putting it all out there on the line was incredible.  I especially like the scene where Will Ferrel look out of the sleigh, and Zooey is looking up smiling at him.  What an awesome scene!

Here is wishing you a Merry Christmas!

MR