Living for today - Planning for Tomorrow
As I was sitting back looking at my financial goals for 2010, I couldn’t help but focus on being ready for the unknown. Both my wife and I are very well employed and aren’t feeling as if there is an imminent danger of losing our incomes but with all the gloom and doom around, it’s easy to find ourselves focusing on “what if”. Rather than
It’s a new year so that means it’s time to set a few goals for our finances this year. We are still fortunate to both be employed so our budget has been comfortable so far. As I read the multitude of articles about people suffering through financial hardships, I feel bad for each and every one of them. Each article reminds me to do all
Sorry for the lack of posts over the last week or so. I just got back from a business trip in Southern California. I spent a week down there working 11 hour days locked up in a conference room. The days were long but rewarding. As it happened, the conference room we were using all week was the executive board room. I’m far from an
Over the last couple of years we’ve developed a friendship with an older man that owns a number of homes out near our lake house. He is retired and lives off of rental income from approximately 15-20 rental homes he owns. Fred still owns every house he’s ever purchased. The majority of these rentals are in Seattle and most are in lower income neighborhoods where
JD over at Get Rich Slowly points to a great resource over at Dave Ramsey’s website. It’s a short PDF file that reinforces that the best course of action during economic certainty is to NOT PANIC and manage your emotions. I’ve always enjoyed Warren Buffet’s phrase, “Be fearful when others are greedy and be greedy when others are fearfulâ€. I think it’s a great phrase
I’ve been reading a lot about all the possible gloom and doom that can be realized when the majority of citizens start saving more. While no one disagrees that saving is good, we’re starting to hear from more and more "experts" that saving is really best done during economic boom times. It turns out that saving during an economic downturn only makes things worse. Unfortunately,
There is an interesting article over at Fortune magazine called “A recession of biblical proportions“. It takes an interesting look at saving and spending trends during downturns and notes that this recession is different than others in that we are now saving during the downturn as opposed to using previously saved funds to get by. It notes that during the boom times that we have
A couple of years ago my house was known as the “cold” house. Every time my sister came to visit she made sure she brought along sweaters and coats. At that point in time my thermostat was set at 69 degrees during the day and 62 at night. With the temperature at 69 I could easily walk around the house with a T-shirt on and
Back in 2005 I asked the question, “What would happen if everyone saved 10% of their income?“. What a difference a couple years makes. My original theory was that our economy would falter significantly. Here’s what I said back then: My take on this is that, if everyone was consuming 10% less, our economy would head south. Our economy is based on growth, and if
Happy New Year! I’ve had the last two weeks off from work and have enjoyed spending time with my wife and daughter as well as just relaxing around the house. We had a very interesting weather pattern here leading up to the new year so I also shoveled more snow than I ever have in my life. Christmas was low key and I think we
