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2012 Practical Financial Tips
Published February 22, 2012 | 2012 arrived with a bang!! I for one am glad that it is here as 2011 for myself as for many was an OK year but still far from the financial glory days of years past. Granted there were some wonderful things that happened I still had a heavy heart last year because so many of us were struggling.
Luckily from a very young age my Dad taught me a few things about finances and I believe that if it were not for those lessons I too would have been caught up in the credit / financial crisis that so many people are in.
Here are a few things that I learned very early and many things that he taught me as I got older.
Pay Cash… My Dad never had a credit card in his pocket if he could not pay for something right then and there he did not buy it. Of course that did not apply for big ticket items like cars or the house. I really stick to that today, while I don’t carry around a wad of cash with me I make sure there is enough in the bank to to cover the purchase.
Pay yourself first. Dad was a big fan of this one. He told me to try to take the first 10% and sock it away in a savings account. It is not always easy I must say but I do try to put something away for a rainy day every month. Sure makes the unexpected expenses that always come up much easier to deal with.
Try to kick the daily habits and make them a treat. Dad is a big big coffee guy so what he did is well simple make it yourself (hehe) believe it or not as simple as that sounds the $$ you can save over the course of the year will buy you one helluva treat!! This holds true with whatever your personal poison is!!
Pay off The Credit Cards right away… In the few instances I do use my credit card that is not attached to my bank account I make sure that I can cover the expense right when the statement comes in. I never never never carry a balance as I do not want what was a simple purchase to end of costing a lot more than it should.
Ask for discounts or specials… Every January I call some of the utility companies to see if over the past year they changed or revised some of their plans. Sometimes Yes sometimes No but it never hurts to ask. Even a few bucks a month can add up and it never hurts to ask and believe me these days they are used to it and DO NOT want to lose you as a customer.
Some have suggested shopping your home or auto… I am happy to do that then go back to my agent with what I have found but this is one area at least to me where the relationship matters. If there is a claim I want my agent to go to bat for me.
Contribute more to your 401K…If you are one of the lucky ones that still has a 401K try to boost the contribution as far as you are comfortable doing. There is nothing better than putting away those Pre-tax $$!! Of course get some advice from a certified financial person…
Take Care of YOU!!!! My Dad was a big fan of this one! He always told me to find a balance between being responsible and being extreme. He always felt is was so important to take care of YOU! Pay your bills and take care of your financial obligations but you cannot take it with you so enjoy (with in reason).
What other advice can you share!! We would love to hear your Financial Fit tips for 2012 
Posted in Check This Out, The Root of All Evil | 
Budget, Economy, Financial fitness, money, Spending | 
Leave a commentOccupy Movement From a Mothers Perspective
Published December 19, 2011 | I have very mixed emotions about the whole occupy movement. A lot I totally agree with and some I do not – But whatever your political affiliation or feeling on the movement this article and perspective was and is like no other one that I had heard. My friend sent this too me and it really stuck with me and I wanted to pass it along and get your opinion not only on the article but on the whole movement???
WOW~~~~~~ Hitting The Nail On The Head
Article written by Marybeth Hicks.
Call it an occupational hazard, but I can’t look at the Occupy Wall Street protesters without thinking, “Who parented these people?”
As a culture columnist, I’ve commented on the social and political ramifications of the “movement” – now known as “OWS” – whose fairyland agenda can be summarized by one of their placards: “Everything for everybody.”
Thanks to their pipe-dream platform, it’s clear there are people with serious designs on “transformational” change in America who are using the protesters like bedsprings in a brothel.
Yet it’s not my role as a commentator that prompts my parenting question, but rather the fact that I’m the mother of four teens and young adults. There are some crucial life lessons that the protesters’ moms clearly have not passed along.
Here, then, are five things the OWS protesters’ mothers should have taught their children but obviously didn’t, so I will:
* Life isn’t fair.The concept of justice – that everyone should be treated fairly – is a worthy and worthwhile moral imperative on which our nation was founded. But justice and economic equality are not the same. Or, as Mick Jagger said, “You can’t always get what you want.”
No matter how you try to “level the playing field,” some people have better luck, skills, talents or connections that land them in better places. Some seem to have all the advantages in life but squander them, others play the modest hand they’re dealt and make up the difference in hard work and perseverance, and some find jobs on Wall Street and eventually buy houses in the Hamptons. Is it fair? Stupid question.
* Nothing is “free.” Protesting with signs that seek “free” college degrees and “free” health care make you look like idiots, because colleges and hospitals don’t operate on rainbows and sunshine. There is no magic money machine to tap for your meandering educational careers and “slow paths” to adulthood, and the 53 percent of taxpaying Americans owe you neither a degree nor an annual physical.
While I’m pointing out this obvious fact, here are a few other things that are not free: overtime for police officers and municipal workers, trash hauling, repairs to fixtures and property, condoms, Band-Aids and the food that inexplicably appears on the tables in your makeshift protest kitchens. Real people with real dollars are underwriting your civic temper tantrum.
* Your word is your bond. When you demonstrate to eliminate student loan debt, you are advocating precisely the lack of integrity you decry in others. Loans are made based on solemn promises to repay them. No one forces you to borrow money; you are free to choose educational pursuits that don’t require loans, or to seek technical or vocational training that allows you to support yourself and your ongoing educational goals. Also, for the record, being a college student is not a state of victimization. It’s a privilege that billions of young people around the globe would die for - literally.
* A protest is not a party. On Saturday in New York, while making a mad dash from my cab to the door of my hotel to avoid you, I saw what isn’t evident in the newsreel footage of your demonstrations: Most of you are doing this only for attention and fun. Serious people in a sober pursuit of social and political change don’t dance jigs down Sixth Avenue like attendees of a Renaissance festival. You look foolish, you smell gross, you are clearly high and you don’t seem to realize that all around you are people who deem you irrelevant.
* There are reasons you haven’t found jobs. The truth? Your tattooed necks, gauged ears, facial piercings and dirty dreadlocks are off-putting. Nonconformity for the sake of nonconformity isn’t a virtue. Occupy reality: Only 4 percent of college graduates are out of work. If you are among that 4 percent, find a mirror and face the problem. It’s not them. It’s you.
Hellooooo Recovery… Where are you???
Published November 17, 2011 | Another one bites the dust……… It seems every time I turn on my computer my AOL or MNS home page is screaming another retailer is filing BK or closing there doors. Today’s economic climate has really got me spooked and re-evaluating many things. I am a business person who has a very crazy brain and I am an entrepreneur in spirit and it breaks my heart to see so many “peoples” closing their doors. My Crazy brain has been affected by the magnitude of the shift of wealth particularly over the past year. I have seen so many of my friends who were once jamming along with successful businesses that have now come to a screeching halt. In my local SCV community there are business’s that have been staples here for many years are now vacant and or with going out of business signs plastered over their once colorful and alive windows. I know that these economic ups and downs are normal and are just part of the “circle of life” but for me this is like nothing I have ever seen or experienced before.
I recall my Father struggling in the mid 80’s and certainly the dot com explosion was a biggie but this seems different to me. Peoples spirits are low and excitement about the immediate future is flat. It seems like more and more people are just trying to survive and are “hopeless instead of hopeful”. To me this is not America: this looming “cloud” of despair that so many are living under is not what we are. We Americans have substance, we are tenacious, we are driven and motivated and it breaks my heart to see so many who are defeated. Where are the days where we would pick ourselves up by our bootstraps and move forward?? I have enough business experience to fundamentally and logically know that the Gas Prices will ease – Housing will settle and that American Spirit will return….
My DAMN question is When???
Posted in The Damn Question, The Root of All Evil | American Spirit, BK, Economy, Recovery, Struggles | 1 CommentFinacially Fit in 2010… A few tips
Published January 4, 2010 | 2010 arrived with a bang!! I for one am glad that it is here as 2009 for myself as for many was not one of my most favorite years. Granted there were some wonderful things that happened I still had a heavy heart last year because so many of us were struggling.
Luckily from a very young age my Dad taught me a few things about finances and I believe that if it were not for those lessons I too would have been caught up in the credit / financial crisis that so many people are in.
Here are a few things that I learned very early and many things that he taught me as I got older.
Pay Cash… My Dad never had a credit card in his pocket if he could not pay for something right then and there he did not buy it. Of course that did not apply for big ticket items like cars or the house. I really stick to that today, while I don’t carry around a wad of cash with me I make sure there is enough in the bank to to cover the purchase.
Pay yourself first. Dad was a big fan of this one. He told me to try to take the first 10% and sock it away in a savings account. It is not always easy I must say but I do try to put something away for a rainy day every month. Sure makes the unexpected expenses that always come up much easier to deal with.
Try to kick the daily habits and make them a treat. Dad is a big big coffee guy so what he did is well simple make it yourself (hehe) believe it or not as simple as that sounds the $$ you can save over the course of the year will buy you one helluva treat!! This holds true with whatever your personal poison is!!
Pay off The Credit Cards right away… In the few instances I do use my credit card that is not attached to my bank account I make sure that I can cover the expense right when the statement comes in. I never never never carry a balance as I do not want what was a simple purchase to end of costing a lot more than it should.
Ask for discounts or specials… Every January I call some of the utility companies to see if over the past year they changed or revised some of their plans. Sometimes Yes sometimes No but it never hurts to ask. Even a few bucks a month can add up and it never hurts to ask and believe me these days they are used to it and DO NOT want to lose you as a customer.
Some have suggested shopping your home or auto… I am happy to do that then go back to my agent with what I have found but this is one area at least to me where the relationship matters. If there is a claim I want my agent to go to bat for me.
Contribute more to your 401K…If you are one of the lucky ones that still has a 401K try to boost the contribution as far as you are comfortable doing. There is nothing better than putting away those Pre-tax $$!! Of course get some advice from a certified financial person…
Take Care of YOU!!!! My Dad was a big fan of this one! He always told me to find a balance between being responsible and being extreme. He always felt is was so important to take care of YOU! Pay your bills and take care of your financial obligations but you cannot take it with you so enjoy (with in reason).
What other advice can you share!! We would love to hear your Financial Fit tips for 2010
Advice for Small Business owners – You got any???
Published December 15, 2009 | I was on Facebook the other day and was very intrigued by a question that was posted by a wonderful coach named Carrie Kish and while there were loads of comments I wanted to hear what you all thought.
I have been a business owner (in fact I have owned a couple of business’s) and have made plenty of mistakes. Fortunately, I have learned and grown with every crappy situation but DAMN I would have loved some insight when I first got started. I am sure many of the mistakes I made could have and would have been avoided or at least would not have stung so much!
What do you think are the most expensive mistakes small business owners make?
Soon it won’t be called GOING POSTAL anymore . . .
Published October 20, 2009 | Because it will be called GOING BANKING.
When did all the crazy people leave the postal service and get jobs at the banks? And if I have to hear one more time ‘We’re a bank, we’re not in the real estate business’ I might just have to, uh, write another post explaining how it felt when my head exploded.
Hey Banker Dudes, you ARE in the real estate business and have been for several years now. So stop whining, stop procrastinating, stop being unreasonable to work with on all aspects of a real estate transaction AND PULL YOUR HEADS OUT OF YOUR . . . (ass) VAULT (big fat ass).
Can you tell we’ve been trying to buy a house? Yeah. It’s not pretty out there.
We are great buyers. We have excellent credit scores. We have 3o% to put down. We have a terrific rate locked in with our credit union. And we can’t find anyone to take our money. Because 90% of the real estate out there is owned by a bank or soon to be owned by a bank and the banks are COMPLETELY UNREASONABLE.
Take the last house we put an offer on. It was a short sale and we were the second offer in. After waiting three months (MONTHS) to even hear back from the bank, we were given a price that they would accept. By this time we were the only purchasing party still interested, so even though the bank was asking us to pay all their closing costs, we agreed. Evidently we agreed too fast. They raised the price by $30,000. What? Wait. WHAT? Ok. Deep breath. Oh, and they STILL wanted us to pay their costs. Another deep breath. This would stretch us to the limit, but it’s for Hubunit’s parents and they deserve a nice house. So we agreed.
Then the bank said they would consider our offer only if we immediately released $10,000 to them. Before we had a signed contract, an inspection or a title search. When THEIR realtor pointed out to them that this request was kind of redonkulous, their reply was simply ‘We don’t have to be reasonable.’
We refused, they forclosed and the house went back on the market. Yes, it sold for more than we offered, but the bank ended up netting much less because of all the foreclosure costs they incurred.
How many sales across the nation is this happening with? How skewed are all the foreclosure statistics due to this kind of blatant mismanagement by the banks?? How long will we, the paying public, allow this kind of egregious behaviour? Not only allow it, but support it with our tax dollars?
Now the new trend is for listing agents to require all offers being submitted on their listing to be pre-approved thru a specified lender. This means that even though we are already pre-approved thru our own credit union and have no intention of using another lender, we still have to fill out a gazillion page application, submit extensive documentation and let them run our credit again. Of course, every time someone runs our credit, that number goes down. Hours of my time just to submit an offer that probably won’t be accepted.
FUUUUUUCCCCKKKKK. I refuse to do it.
All that being said, at least I get to spend more time with the most amazing realtor in the whole world, truly, the awesome Peggy Veliz. Yes, I big puffy heart her. If you live in Southern California and need a realtor, she’s your chick.
OK, I’m exhausted now and must go eat. I wonder how Shredded Wheat would taste with Tequila instead of milK?
I will NOT drink your DAMN milkshake…
Published May 5, 2009 | And whatever else ya got over there…
Have you heard the phrase “I drink your milkshake” before? I hadn’t – seriously and hopefully I am not jumping on a bandwagon that has obviously “jumped the shark” – Yes, I wanted to see how many ridiculous quotes I can say in one sentence.
There…I did it.
Anyhow…this past week, I rented and watched There Will Be Blood.
Am I the ONLY human being that has not seen this flick? I mean, seriously? I’ve been a fan of Daniel Day Lewis since My Beautiful Laundrette, a 1985 love story with him in it…awww, sweet gay love. Anyhow, whatever, I love the guy…think he is brilliant…Was most riveted by his performance of one of the Guilford Four from In The Name of the Father. But again, the list goes on.
So I guess I kinda knew that this movie would be long…serious…it is based off of Upton Sinclair’s book, Oil! from the mid ’20′s.
But Good Lord…from the first 10 minutes, I sat horrified by DDL’s character, Daniel Plainview…
Now, I was raised by a father who was a TOTAL entrepreneur, he NEVER acted like this guy. And I’m sure if he did, my mom wouldn’t have stuck around. My father was in IPO’s, as well as the Oil biz and travelled 300 days out of the year, doing whatever it was he did…and a lot of the times, he would bring us treats from wherever he was doing busines…
The reason I get sidetracked here, is because, this all just evoked a memory of me being 9 years old – repeat – NINE.YEARS.OLD and my dear ol’ oil boomin’ Dad, coming home from Oklahoma or Texas with a two small gifts for me…One a pendant, two , a small vessel (like a paper weight) that had crude oil in the middle
The kicker here is that the pendant wasn’t some cute butterfly or horsey…The pendant was a DRILL BIT…that looked like this:
I’m not kidding you…but it’s the thought that counts. (God, what I wouldn’t do for that pendant now…since I too work in the Oil Patch…:)
Anyhow, back to the movie…So Daniel Plainview…without giving away the plot, is a schisty, conniving oilman, creating a dynasty and rolling over everything in his path to get to the top.
Main motivator here – GREED.
The movie has sat in my gut for the last 3-4 days…because it brings up so many things pertaining to greed. Loads of questions.
I mean, I know I talk a big game – but I’m happy with just a peaceful existence…I don’t want to steamroll over people just to be King of the Hill…but fact of the matter is…whether it is 1929 or 2009, people are freaking greedy.
And if you saw this movie, and are even remotely human, then I hope that you felt as sick to your stomach as I did about the plot…or was it just sadness for such a sad man?
THE DAMN QUESTION: How has greed affected you? Was it personal? Was it in business?
Share your point of view please…
p.s. if you have been living under a rock as well, rent this…you will see what I mean about the milkshake. Brilliant analogy. BRILLIANT
Getting a jumpstart on retirement
Published March 9, 2009 | I’ve got the dangerous talent of knowing a little bit about a lot of things. Which makes me think that I might be good at say, Jeopardy.
But then, while being sick this past week, I actually watched the show and realized, nope. They’re never gonna come looking for me. The tip off? I couldn’t figure out how much to bet on final Jeopardy in order to come out one dollar ahead of the next person. That shit is confusing. Almost as confusing as the subject Dora the Explora, where they wanted you to come up with occupations that rhymed with Dora. That shit was confusing too. I know Dora personally and hola? She was as confused as I was.
But then I let inertia carry me to the next show, which was Wheel. Of. Fortune.
And they cheated. Oh, I shit you not. A lady spun the wheel and Pat called out an amount before it had completely stopped and she, slick as string thru a goose, called out a letter and then the pointer ticked over to Bankrupt right as she was calling ‘H’ or something and the camera showed it. But Pat just acted like nothing had happened and let her pile up money and actually win that puzzle. Or not, cause it’s hard to pay attention when you’re screaming CHEATER, CHEATER at the TV, and then explaining why to a breathless Hubunit who ran down the stairs cause he expected to see me lying in a pool of my own blood and thought I was actually screaming, EMERGENCY, CALL 911. Yes, Hubunit may bring his work home with him.
However, back at the WTF Ranch, I was fascinated. I kept thinking, the woman who was next to throw that wheel had to have been screaming CHEATER too, so when they come back from commercial break, surely Mr. Sajak must mention it and set it right. But he didn’t. Which was even more fascinating to me. Do they cheat like that all the time and because I’m not seventy and don’t watch it every day, I just don’t know?
Do you know? Fill me in, cause if they really do cheat all the time and just throw the cash at people who amuse them, then seriously, HEY GAME SHOW CONTESTANT SCOUTS – I’M RIGHT HERE.
Moonlighting in the Shitter
Published March 8, 2009 | 
Life has a funny way of “working things out” sometimes. Zac has a bunch of stuff coming up that is going to cost us … well a bunch of cash. It’s all KILLER stuff, but we need to be able to pay for it.
It’s no secret that everyone is strapped for cash and we’re no different. Sales of My Little Pretty are definitely down in the stores right now (as it is just about everywhere). So, getting it from MLP isn’t going to happen.
I got this brilliant idea that maybe getting a moonlighting job would be good – 20 hours a week would be perfect. I flash back to Maddie from Moonlighting … sexy right? I can do it. I mean … “I” am certainly employable and I’ve NEVER had a problem getting a job … EVER. In fact every interview I’ve ever gone on has resulted in a job. So I dust off my resume because it’d been well over 13 years since I looked for ANY work let alone something part time. I throw my resume out there last Sunday and then walk away satisfied that something would just show up.
Now … I know what you’re thinking … Kristy … put the crack pipe down, have you seen what the unemployment rate in Los Angeles is … right? Well low and behold, Monday I got a call about the resume when I was working out. I tell her, sure, I can come over for an interview … in an hour … sure I can. I run home and try to figure out what the heck to wear to an interview … remember … 13 years ago was the last time I interviewed with anyone. I decide all black … it’s LA so what the heck.
I show up for the interview and it’s in one of my favorite places EVER … a dental office. I send Ron a note … you’re kidding me right … I mean I knew they managed dental offices but it’s IN a dental office? I hear the drill going in the background and I’m thinking No F’in WAY!
I meet with the girl I spoke with on the phone and when she tells me how low the pay is I cringe for a minute and think … well maybe if it’s just contract work. They want me to start the following day and I accept the job on the condition that I can be paid as a contractor. I walk out thinking … yeah I still kick ass. HaHa.
THEN … the next day I report for work. First of all … there is not really any space for me except at this teeny tiny little desk that’s in the hallway next to the bathroom. This is apparently the same desk that the dentist uses. Second of all … the computer that they had me sitting at is old … like LOST old. I’m serious, except for the “execute” button … THAT IS THE KEYBOARD I WAS USING. I shit you not. Ok … I can deal with it. She gives me a list of things to do and the whole time I’m doing the data entry project, I’m thinking … they aren’t paying me enough. Then a couple patients come to use the restroom and walk by me. The door is right by the monitor so everyone feels they have to say hello and make eye contact with me on the way to the loo … WTF? Does the dentist really sit here … I can’t imagine him wanting to work there … I certainly didn’t find it a great set up. The last weird thing was when the dentist actually showed up and then I was shoo’d out because well … I was at his desk. Seriously, it was all, “ok … so you’re done for the day. Oh and would you do our banking deposit on the way out?”
So I’m quitting my part-time job after four hours and 15 minutes. I think that’s got to be a new record!
Now I’m launching a BUNCH of new things. More on exactly what they are in a couple days.
So the moral of this story is this … ANYONE can get a job right now … it just might be a shitty one … or maybe one that’s right next to the shitter.
So … what’s the shortest job you’ve ever had? Or better yet, what’s the worst job?
So, Rosemary had a Baby and named it Facebook
Published February 20, 2009 | Listen, Facebook is the devil and I’m about to rip the dress off that pig so you can decide if you like what’s hiding under that admittedly sexy skirt.
Suddenly everyone I know is on Facebook and wants me to be there too. They’re draggin’ me in actually. And I’ve been kicking and screaming along the journey, because I just had a weird feeling about that place. Cause, it’s a dark planet, filled with bats and spiders and aliens. And code that I don’t understand. And people can see you there. The real you. Which just gives me the willies.
So today, while recovering from a cold passed on to me by monkey germs, I was catching up on some of my newpaper reading. And saw this editorial in the Wednesday edition of the LA Times. Actually, it screamed ‘Hey, Lindaloohoo, I gotcher back, girl’:
“. . . As of Feb. 4, Facebook has claimed rights to all your data in perpetuity. The decision, which outraged many of the social network’s 175 million members, is a reminder of how vulnerable Internet users are to the whims of the companies they trust on line. . . . It (Facebook) initally assured users that when they removed items or quit the network, any rights it claimed to the uploaded material would end. But earlier this month, the company oh-so-quietly excised that assurance from its terms of service and reinforced its neverending right to use anything anyone posts – notes, photos, videos, personal details – ‘on or in connection with’ the site. It also granted itself broad rights to use members’ names and likenesses on the site or in its advertisements. . . .”
When you see the words, in perpetuity, never-ending, broad rights and my favorite, personal details, all in one paragraph, a paragraph that’s not authored by you to complete your Will or Living Trust, then, in my opinion, we need to be very afraid. Oh, and we should probably start using the words they know where we are and flee, a lot.
Come on people. Have none of you actually read the Book of Revelations?
Make no mistake, the end of the world is coming and it will be sponsored by companies like Facebook. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a panic room to build and some hoarding to do.
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