What I Learned In 2011

1. That development is solely my responsibility. No one is going to invest in my success more than I will. Which means that personal development needs to be built into my monthly budget and the payoff is exponential.
2. Small consistent steps are better than big ones. It is a simple, and often a forgoten phrase that slow and steady wins the race.
3. That in order to succeed I need to get out of my own way. This is a hard principle to grasp but we let our own thoughts betray what we can ultimately accomplish.
4. Comfort is the cousin to complacency and stagnation.
5. Jobs are not honorable or dishonorable but the people who do them are.
6. I need to talk less and listen more.
7. God’s word is to be applied to my life in every way.
8. Failure is only bad if you quit something because of it. Failure is awesome as long as you learn from it and don’t let it defeat you.
9. What you feed your mind is as important, or more important as what you feed your body.
10. That I am grateful for the new people I have gotten to know by writing this blog.

A Funny Blog Post From Perkstreet

As you probably already know I love Perkstreet online bank.  They have no fee checking, give you up to 2% cash back on purchases, and really understand customer service.

Here is a funny blog post from them.

http://blog.perkstreet.com/dont-get-a-perkstreet-account-if/

A Weird Side Effect

When I started to clean up my financial life and give up using credit, and loans something strange happened.  The more people I told what Amy and I were doing, the more we discovered people were shocked, and some even wanted to argue with what we were doing.

Using credit to make purchases is fine for some people.  For Amy and I it was not a viable option because we had shown through past behavior that we could not handle it.  When we started sharing our goal with others it was almost like people took offense to what we were doing.  They started saying things like, "why on earth would you not use credit card or a loan", "we only use credit cards for emergencies", "we get miles from it so that is why we use credit cards", or my favorite, "we get a 0% interest rate".  All of these responses were in response to us changing our buying habits and sharing it with people.  These unsolicited responses were people protecting what they knew was wrong for them but ultimately did not know any other way to live.

It was like we were breaking away from the crowd and the crowd desperately wanted us to stay with them to prove they were right.  I had heard of stories of things like this happening where you make changes in your life, and people that love, and care about you, become uncomfortable with what you are doing, but we were actually living it!  This type of thing also happened when Amy and I were adopted by Christ.  All of a sudden we were telling people of what had happened in our lives, and we got luke warm to hostile responses from long time friends.  Please don't take this as a complaint because it is not.  We are blessed to have changed our lives financially, and even more blessed to be adopted by Christ.  My point is that sometimes the things that we change for the better will alienate those around us that are comfortable with the status quo.  You can't be afraid to break away from the crowd and do what is right for you.   Someone else's discomfort can't be your concern when making changes in your life.  Examples might be eating habits, smoking, drugs, alcohol, loans, watching TV, how you dress, and even a sinful society.

The other weird side effect was that the people that we might have lost as friends, or stopped being close with, were replaced with friends that shared our new goals which we became even closer to.

Weird!

Chop Wood And Carry Water

Back when resources did not come out of a faucet or electrical socket people pumped water from wells, and went out and chopped wood first thing in the morning.  The reason for this was because wood and water were the basics and had to be used to do most activities throughout the day.  

Water was used to quench the thirst of the people and also the livestock.  Water was also used to cook and prepare foods with.  People used water to create building materials like mud and other binding agents.  Without water in the morning things would have come to a halt throughout the workday.

Wood was also a main resource that was needed when the day started.  Wood was used for heat.  A cooking source, a building material for homes and also to provide heat to shape metal.

Fast forward to today and I still have to chop wood and carry water but they are a little different.  To get my day kicked off I have two things I do.  I workout when I first get out of bed and then I hit my bible for reading and prayer.  

Working out wakes me up my body and helps to relieve any stress I have physically.  It also keeps my body in shape so I don’t get run down or become sick frequently.  Working out clears my head and helps me to think of new ideas and absorb concepts I come across throughout the day.

Reading my bible and praying prepares me for the roller coaster of dealing with people and prepares my heart to work and live for God.  Without doing this I will not treat people in a godly way.  I will also have less patience and also become easily irritated.

What is the water you carry and the wood you have to chop to start your day?

Weapons Of A Debt Assassin

To celebrate the blogs thousandth visitor I decided to show some of the tools I use to assassinate debt.

Google Docs

This is probably one of the best web based applications ever invented.  You can do word type documents, spreadsheets, drawings, and presentations and it is all free.  This is where I keep my budget and you can access it as well.  Just be sure you open your own account and copy and paste it there.  The best part is you don't have to install anything and don't need any software.  All you need is your internet browser.

PerkStreet


PerkStreet is an online bank that pays you up to 2% cash back on all your debit purchases.  PerkStreet even offers you 5% on some purchases depending on the vendor.  PerkStreet offers  you everything a big bank would offer except they are online and they actually give you money.  I got fed up with large traditional banks and all the fees they charge for me to use my money.  It is a hassle to change banks, and that is what most big banks count on so you won't move, but you must vote with your feet in order to change things.  PerkStreet made that change easy for me but look around first and find a bank that is right for you.

Mint

Mint is an online financial tracking software.  I like mint for its simplicity in set up.  You simply type in your bank info, investment accounts, and the finanical software starts catagorizing everything for you.  It really gives a great look at all your spending in some great graphic formats.  The drawback to Mint is that the info is not up to date that it pulls from your account.  The information lags about a day.  I use Mint mainly as a look back into previous months to see how my spending and savings are trending.

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) Reader

I have spoken about the use of this tool before and it does take some time to setup but once you do it is a great time saver and helps to block out noise to achieve your goals.  The RSS Readers enable you to pick the information that is useful to accomplishing your goals instead of digging through multiple articles for it.  Think of it as having the food (good information) that is useful to you delivered fresh instead of having to rummage through the entire garbage can (main stream media) trying to find a useful morsel.  I use the Google Reader but there are hundreds of good readers out there on the market that will keep you focused on the things that are important to your goals.

The Bible

This is the most important tool for me in killing debt and also doing anything in my life.  Without the Bible this blog would not exist and I would not be writing to you at all.  I would still be struggling with my financial health, living for myself instead of for God and celebrating Christ dying on the cross for my sins.