Author Archives: Money Reasons

About Money Reasons

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

A Quick Take on The 1st Financial Blogger Conference

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financial blogger conference

financial blogger conference

Since I came late to the Financial Blogger Conference, I ended up starting my first day at the conference by going to the refreshments area and having a few drinks with fellow bloggers.

Basic Observations:

At first I wondered if it the entire trip would be worth it, but right after getting there and meeting all of the bloggers I read

daily and seeing some of the largest pf blogs on the internet, I knew right then and there that the price of the ticket was worth it!

Thinking outside of the basic cost/benefit equation, there is value in knowing that I attended the first really large financial blogger conference meeting!  That in itself adds some additional privilege value.  Tomorrow, I will have to take some more pictures to remember the trip.

Another hidden value is that actually get to stand in front of some of the biggest bloggers in the industry and experience the various nuances of their personality and mannerism that come out.  There is something about seeing a person in real life that a camera picture just can’t portray.

Discoveries

J. D. Roth was giving the opening speech when he took out a little red notebook from his back pocket.  He then goes on to explain that he is constantly writing ideas down to use in his blog.  I was mostly impressed by the incredible small notebook.

I discovered that Ramit Sethi hates me and a lot of people who isn’t his market segment.  He also doesn’t want me to visit his blog, and I also learned that’s he a pretty guy and probably his some great information on his blog.

How difference the physical appearance of everybody looks!  Almost everybody looks better than I imagined!

Ryan from Cash Money Life, had a great presentation on how to optimize your blog engine that was awesome, and that I will use in the near future.

There are so many great blogger here, and all of the ones that I met have been very nice and intelligent.  I can honestly say that I’m both proud to be part of pf group, and humbled by the sheer talent at the conference.

Wish everybody could experience this piece of pf blogger nirvana!

MR

Will Google Enable Us To Finally Go Paperless?

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Even though I consider myself to be frugally “green”, I’m guilty of still receiving plenty of paper from mail statements that show my brokerage account activities and other important documents.  I also would buy paper at the store (notebooks and such) to doodle ideas on and keep track of things such as list and research on various topics.

While the doodling my ideas on paper is still something that I will continue to do, the other forms of paper use are starting to go on the decline because my increase use of Google Documents.

How I Started Using Google Documents

One day, I was taking my lunch at the library, when I tried to log into a site that required a login and password (I have at least 100 of these).  Sure enough, I couldn’t remember what either my account name or password was (grrr).  This is when I started creating a spreadsheet of low risk online sites that I would record certain data about the various site names and URLs that I’ve visited, along with the corresponding accounts and passwords.  By doing this, I instantly have this information at my virtual fingertips without having to carry around a notebooks of passwords (never a safe thing to do).

Sometimes, I would be in my “Sites, Accounts and Passwords” google spreadsheet and I will notice a site that I haven’t logged onto recently but that I knew was a good site.  So in that way, it also helps me remember things too!

Evolution of A Google Documents User

From my extremely useful passwords spreadsheet, I started using google documents for number crunching, to-do list, and other things that formerly existed in a paper form.

Perhaps the biggest impact is that I started putting my business information and systems into the spreadsheets.  There is nothing better than having access to your business information at all times.  You could be in the doctor’s office, waiting to pick up your kids, etc and at the same time be working on your business documents or planning something important.  This is a win-win.

Future of My Google Documents Use

The awesome thing about the google documents is that they use a JavaScript type language to script out task.  The scripts combined with a time/scheduler in google enables things to run automatically.  This is very powerful!  You could create simple applications in google documents that could make your life much simple.

All in all, this is a great way to go especially when you consider that Google Documents is free (vs Microsoft Office).  I’m sure in future, my paper usage will continue to decline…

Have you every tried Google Documents, and what is your take on their office suite?

Going green,

MR

What Skills Are Keeping You From Becoming Financially Independent?

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I have a strong sense of logic.  I like to crunch numbers and playing mind and logic games. I consider this a great skill, but logic/analytical skills in themselves won’t help me to become financially independent!

Having Great Ideas that Didn’t Take

I come up with what I consider great ideas, but I don’t communicate those ideas very well.  Often, I’ll bring an idea up to a manager or friend and they won’t get it, then later someone else will think of my idea but they are able to create some buzz around it, thus enabling the newly re-discovered idea to be applauded and implemented (and yes, I hate that this happens to me).

So based on a long history of these kind of experiences, I’ve come to the conclusion that my weakness is my communication and marketing skills.  Since I now know the enemy, I decided to use blogging as the weapon of choice for combating my weakness. In fact, trying to defeat this weakness is my third main reason that I blog, and blog often.  My 1st and 2nd reasons are to play with the technology and to help others recognize a path for a middle-income member (like myself) to become financially independent.

Why I Blog Almost Every Day

Since I’ve uncovered my weakness through analyzing my past, The simplest and most entertaining way to combat my communication weakness is by blogging.

After almost two years of blogging, I’ve notice that my communication and marketing skills have increased in the following ways:

  • I think of words faster during a conversation with others.  I use to stumble for the correct words when speaking to other, but now those words just slip off of my tongue like a bicycle slipping on ice.
  • Both my email and IM communications are easier and more clear for the recipients to read.
  • I have confidence in my words.  I’m a blogger and this is now what I do, so words and I are finally friends.
  • I’ve learned to think outside of the box.  New ideas come to me all the time at work.
  • I believe that in some ways I’ve become smarter, and think that writing has kept me sharper than if I didn’t write.

With My New Skill, Will I Become Financially Independent?

With my new skills, I find it easier to talk to strangers.  Talking to others creates and enables opportunities that would not exist for you if were just kept to yourself.  So just in this small side effect from blogging, my odds of financial independence has greatly increased.

Since I have increased my weaknesses, now I can focus on my strengths while maintaining my new skills.  I’m hoping that with my strengths and enhanced weaknesses, I’m a more marketable individual.

Getting Help if You Have Weaknesses

What if you are the opposite of me?  Let’s say you have great communication skills, but horrible math/logical/analytical skills?  What can you do?

First, starting with the basics, try learning your skill weakness again.  Sometimes when you are younger, too many other distractions exist to focus on something that requires a lot of focus (like math, logic, etc).  You may find that you now have the patience and attitude for learning in your area of weakness.

Second, if find that you still don’t like your area of weakness, bring in others!  Friends, family, paid contractors… whatever it takes!  Keep an open mind during your encounters with your weaknesses can go a long way to fix those problems!

Readers, do you have any weaknesses that you care to share?

Thanks for helping me on my path to become financial independent.

MR

 

 

Progress on Achieving Financial Independence – Swimming To Shore

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After I paid off my house a few years ago, I wrote about the experience (via the post:  Stop Drowning in Debt, Start Swimming To Shore) using a swimming analogy.  In the swimming analogy, I compared “being in debt” as being similar to being underwater and swimming straight up to get desperately needed air.

In the under water analogy, there were no complex choices, you had to swim straight up on the quickest and shortest path to get the prized air.  Instinct practically took over so there was no thinking, just a constant and quick paddling to get to the surface.  Much like debt, it makes the decision very easy because every movement up was a direct contribution to your end goal which was to breathe or reduce your debt.

Once surfacing (or getting out of debt):

  • at first you catch your breath,
  • rest a bit,
  • then start looking where to go from there!

In a later post called (Getting Wealthy By Swimming to Shore), I wrote that I plotted a basic course to follow and that I started implementing my loose plan.

I’ve discovered that following that plan is hard because of so many other options that are out there once you get out of debt.  I’m constantly wondering about the direction that I should be swimming and if current path is the best…  I miss the days when every payment on debt was instant feedback on how my financial position has improved.  The wealth producing opportunities are not anywhere near as predictable making debt payments.

The feedback can be false depending on how you act on your investments.  For instance, 3 years ago I would have never guessed that gold would be as high as it is today.  In a unsure economic climate and the increased consumption from developing markets on a scarce resource, it makes sense that gold would rise as it has but it’s hard to see this sometimes because of all the variables involve.  To bad I didn’t buy any back then!

Interestingly (and not really related to the point of my article), I recently saw on TV that we can make gold out of lead.  The process requires massive amounts of energy that make it too expensive, but it is possible.

Achieving financial independence and my swimming analogy:

So I’ve plotted a course to follow that I will try to achieve financial independence, but it’s a tough course and I’m constantly making small adjustments.  I think as long as I don’t swim in circles or suddenly decide to swim the opposite way, I’ll be okay.  I have learned that my journey won’t be a straight path as it was with getting out of debt.

There will be times when I go backwards because of the currents or I’ll have to swim around obstacles (like stinging jellyfish).  I think the important point is to keep swimming, because after you stop swimming for too long, eventually you sink.

So in conclusion, it looks like I’m in for a long, hard swim until I develop a pace to swim/invest by…

MR