Author Archives: Money Reasons

About Money Reasons

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

For Christmas, My Eleven Year Old Son Wants a Laptop!

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Well I just posted a few months ago about how my son got his first Cell Phone: “Buying My Son His First Cell Phone“, well now he wants a laptop!

At first I though, we perhaps he sees me with my laptop and want to follow suite, perhaps he wants to learn to program, or download some cool function software like Gimp or Open Office….

So I asked him why he wanted a laptop, and he said so he could play certain computer games while he watched kid shows on TV…

Now I’m sure your thinking: hard life huh.  Most likely, you’re thinking that my son is a slacker and lazy, but that’s not so.  He’s plays both soccer and basketball, and he’s a straight A student to boot.

Now my daughter has been begging for an iPod touch like my son has in the past (he now has an iPod Touch), so if I were to buy him a computer, well obviously, I would have to buy her an iPod Touch too!  Then before you know it, I have a very expensive Christmas suddenly on my hands!

You might think that this is a no brainer, but actually for me it isn’t!  My son is a great kid and doesn’t really ask for much, and he’s both courteous and kind.  Yeah his answer to my question about why he wanted a laptop wasn’t the most prudent, but at least he was honest, and I know he’ll use it for school work too.

So today, I’m going to ask you the reader, what would you do, especially if you child hasn’t asked from much in the past?  It’s obviously, more powerful than the iPod touch and ironically cost practically the same amount…

What would you do?

MR

 

A Blogging Black Friday Spending Spree

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This year may be the first year that I’m excited about Black Friday, because I”m going on a blogging spending spree!

The past few years, I’ve been sticking my nose up on the fabulous sales that take place on Black Friday, but this year is different!

This year I’m going to buy some if not all of the following on Black Friday:

  • Online presence with another internet hosting company.  Yes, I plan on being that busy next year!
  • Specialized software that will help me advance my skills, starting with new theme.  My current theme is a beta version with some issues that I’ve only recently discovered.
  • A decent quality camera, I need better pictures to upload!
  • A smart phone of some sort.  Just having the internet access from one of these phones would really make my blogging life much more easy and productive (I hope).
  • Other things I have yet to think of.

Are you considering any purchases this coming Black Friday?

And if you’re not into Black Friday this year (like I really wasn’t last year), check out these great articles:

  • Budgeting in the Fun Stuff:  Can Anyone Be a Successful Blogger? – This is a very appropriate article as Crystal’s blog, considering she’s doing exactly as the article describes!
  • Retire by 40:  What is Your Retirement Plan? – It’s good to shoot high and miss by a little than shoot low and stagnate.
  • Everyday Tips and Thoughts:  How to Avoid Blowing Your Savings On Christmas – Too late for use, but perhaps not for others?
  • First Gen American:  Returning Cabbages – Gotta love the unique information at Sandy’s site, very interesting story as usual!
  • Little House in the Valley: Modesty Allows for Early Retirement – Slow and steady wins the race… unless you run like a Rabbit like Corey is!  Reminds me a lot of Crystal… Must be your name start with “C” thing…
  • Financially Consumed:  Made In America – Shop Local – I so believe in this and even to this myself, check out: Buy Local, How I Support My Community, lately I’ve started buying at a quaint bookstore in town that use to be a bank!

I could honestly continue adding great articles from super bloggers all day, but it’s the weekend and time to spend more time with the family!

Here’s hoping you had a great weekend!

MR

Alternative Plans For Financial Independence

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Is My Financial Independence Plan Flawed?

With respect to Financial Independence, I now realize that previously, I’ve put my entire financial independence strategy in just one well known plan.

My “Financial Independence Plan A” is pretty much your standard run-of-the-mill savings by frugal means and invest that savings like a fiend.  To be honest, so far Plan A is working for me, I’m doing about as well as can be expected in this economic environment.  While I’m not a millionaire yet, I’m on my way to achieving a net worth of a million in the next eight years following this path (fingers crossed).

But, what if something happens? What if Unemployment keeps rising and I get laid off? 

Getting laid off would severely affect my current employer paying income stream, and would be a serious blow to my investment strategy since eating and feeding my family would get in the way of investing (my family members are so inconsiderate that way, lol).

What if I get Madoffed?  Then I find myself much older and less inclined to want (or even able) to work as diligently?  Is having only one plan analogous to having all your eggs in one basket?

Alternative Plans for Financial Independence

I’m now pursuing at least two other paths for Financial Independence!

Financial Independence Plan B – “Side Job Income“:  Find a job (or create one via entrepreneurship) that in five years should pay at least a quarter of your current “primary job” salary earnings (or self-employed income).  Then take the entire income stream (minus taxes) and invest it in dividend stocks or decent bonds (perhaps municipal bonds – do this when and if the bond market comes back) with a decent yield that are still safe.

The advantages of Financial Independence Plan B are as follows:

  • In combination with Plan A, you should be able to save twice as much as you do if you are just using a Plan A.  This is a great accelerator to achieving Financial Independence!
  • The dividend stream should be invested back into your dividend investments, but alternatively (if you are willing to sacrifice slower growth), you can use a portion of that dividend stream for rewards such as vacations and other family/personal fun activities.  The family/personal fun activities provided by a dividend stream is the route that I am following as seen in the following articles:
  • If something happens to my primary job, I have this one to serve as a backup.  This second income source, dividend streams and the fact that I’m totally totally debt free means that I can get by without any real hardships.  However, my lifestyle (and especially my kids) would definitely have a dip in enjoyment since I would have to forgo vacations and they kids would have to stop playing sports and other fun and educational activities!

The primary disadvantage of Plan B is time.  You will have less time to spend watching TV, being with family, and leisure in general.

Financial Independence Plan C – “Being Smart about spending and saving money” – This is about getting the best deal on a product without doing something foolish like driving wasting gas money, while trying to save a dollar.  And about detecting and taking advantages of income making opportunities instead of giving away time, your work, and stuff away for free.  I will have a more detailed post about this in the future.

Both of my Plans B and C are evolving, so in the future, I’ll expand on each!

Do you have 2 or 3 alternative plans on becoming financially independent?  The beauty of such plans is that as long as they aren’t too expensive, anything goes since they aren’t necessary for you or your family’s livelihood.

Have a great weekend!

MR

Being Too Frugal Almost Got Me Arrested

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Frugal During College

Sometimes, I was too frugal back in my college days.

Since money was tight back then, my friends and I were always looking to do things on the cheap!

Back then, my friends and I all worked out regularly.  My best friend (at the time) and I were especially into fitness and our appearance.  We routinely worked out and not to brag, but we looked pretty good.  Well, one year along came spring break and neither of us can afford to go.

Since we didn’t want to look like we didn’t go somewhere, we decide to try and get a tan during spring break.  There were three of us that couldn’t afford to go anywhere that year.  Well, my one friend Matt decided that he wanted to sunbath on the roof of the dorm that we were staying at.

So we strolled up to the door, and it was locked.  Now, that was enough for me to start back the way we came, and that’s what I started to do, at least until I heard the loud crash.  Lo and behold, Matt (who is build like the comic book version of the juggernaut) kicked the steel door open. Both my best friend and I looked at each other, shook our heads, then went through the door to the outside with Matt.

Being Too Frugal Did Get Other Friends Arrest

While neither my best friend nor I was into the stupid act of kicking the door open, we figured, hey we’re here…  So we all went out in 40 to 50 degree weather to sunbath (we just took off our shirts, we were already wearing workout short).  After 20 minutes, I wimped out and went back to my dorm room.  We did this for the entire week, with me going out the least.  My friends, while freezing out on the roof, managed to stay out in the cold for 45 minutes sessions. 

At the end of the week, then they told me something interesting.  After they were done and coming in out of the cold, they saw some other guys coming up.  Matt told the other guys what we were doing but obviously didn’t tell them he kicked in the door.  The other guys were friends with us too, but not very close.  Well they decided that they liked the idea too, and got towels and a radio so they could sunbath too.

Unfortunately, the security guard came around, and they left the door ajar slightly and with a small portable radio playing… well he caught them, and they got busted.  I’m not sure of the exact details, but I think the police were involved, but the boys that were caught were just made to pay the damages to the door.  My friend that kicked in the door also payed a percentage of the cost of the door, but he wasn’t arrested, he just felt guilty.

If we just went to the tanning beds, it would have been the safest route to get a tan so that we wouldn’t be outcast in our social group, and looked good for those tanned girls coming back from spring break.  Ironically, the door upstairs was never the same and could be opened with a bit of work.  I didn’t want anything to do with that door after the sunbathing session on the roof, but that didn’t stop my friends…

If I were one of the boys caught it would have been a large expense that I didn’t want to pay, not to mention potential vandalism charges!

Have you ever done stupid things to save a buck?

Cheers,

MR