Money Reasons

Smart Reasons to Save, Use and Invest Money

Archive for May, 2010

MoneyReasons Weekly Cache 2010, May 16

May 16th, 2010

Weekly Cache – 2010, May 16

Random Thoughts:

This is a complex and pivotal time for me. Lately, I feel like I’m in a lost world, floundering like a fish out of water. Hopefully, I’ll find some order soon.

My Favorite Top 4 PF Blogger Posts For The Week:

FreeMoneyFinance: An Example of How to Get Rich on an Average Salary – This was a great post, it just shows that it is possible to get rich on a salary. Read the other links associated with this post to complete the picture.

Rainey-Day Saver: Saving Money on My Commute – It’s amazing the things that we discover when we focus on our expenses. Is sounds like Nicole did a great job discovering ways to save more!

Little House In The Valley: Recycled Houses…Alternative Living – I liked the train depot and post office versions!!! Cool read and pics!

Beating Broke: Advice for College Graduates - Great advice for college graduates… especially the sun screen!!!

My Favorite Post from Money Reasons This Week:

The very personal post: Money Drain – Beware of Small Town Dentists, is about a bad experience that it took me a long time to figure out. You don’t hear about his much, but it happens… as it did me.

Closing Thoughts:

I hope next week thing will unwind in my favor. Else, it may be a very bad week…

Respectfully,

-MR

7 comments »

Posted in Weekly Review

Charging People For Accidents, Kicking A Person While They Are Down

May 15th, 2010

Some cities are proposing to charge people fees that get in accidents!

How stupid, so a person has an accident (let’s say slipping on ice while driving responsibly), and now the city comes back and charges them fees for the accident?

So let’s think this through, you are driving with the kids in the car, and the roads aren’t salted well, your car slides through an intersection and your car gets totaled, because of the accident you and your kids need to go to the hospital, so now you have a car repair and a hospital bill. And to add insult to injury, now you are going to have to pay money for the accident too?

In winter, if the roads are salted well, accidents could happen because of it! Does this mean that we should sue the city since the are going to charge us for accidents? Personally, Idon’t like to sue the city because indirectly it means that we are suing each one of the residents…

When I was carpooling a few years ago, my buddy was driving and he slowly eased up to the stop sign, but since the road was a sheet of ice, we slowly slide across the road and into the ditch on the other side. Luckily, no damage was done to this car. A police officer came and realize it wasn’t his fault and parked his car and put on the flashing lights to protect his car from being hit. The officer could have technically charged my buddy, but the officer realized that the road wasn’t salted. I wonder if the city could charge him for the accident if he would have gotten a ticket for the accident. My buddy isn’t stupid, I’m sure he would have sue the city for life endangerment or something similar if he got a ticket.

I think that city official are forgetting why we pay them taxes!

Do you thinks it’s a good idea to charge people for accidents? Doesn’t that seem unfair… after all if they were drinking or acting reckless, they’ll get punished for their activity anyway?

If you disagree with me, please present your case below…

-Mr

5 comments »

Posted in RipOff

Tags: Accident fee city ripoff

Financial Lessons From The Movie "Up In The Air"

May 13th, 2010

Tonight, I just finished watching the movie “Up In The Air“. Of course I borrowed it from the library! After watching “Men Who Stare At Goats“, I didn’t expect much and was pleasantly surprised to learn that I like it.

Now on to the financial take aways that I gleaned from it.

The protagonist, Ryan (George Clooney) is the ultimate high income, frugal character. He does his job, doesn’t have any expenses and save everything. All his meals are charged to the company that he works for. In fact, he said everything he charges is at the companies expense. He does this for fame in that once he gets above a certain amount of miles, he gets certain perks and his name will go on a plane in the air industry. He doesn’t own a home or car or really much of anything, he lives out of his suitcase. He doesn’t have any friends or relationships other than one night stands. He makes a ton of money and what the media would consider a huge success, an ideal rich lifestyle.

The problem is he’s over 50 and doesn’t have anything other than his money and his air miles… It’s really quite sad, seeing someone so rich with nothing to spend the money on. Oh sure, he is part of the mile high club and has a great time partying, but those are cheap memories that can be accomplished in less than a day. Having and growing a family takes a lifetime! While not the typical miser, he is still a sad sight.

The main financial lesson that I learned from the movie is to establish a life balance before it is too late. There are only certain things you can do for a certain amount of time. Plan it well, and do it!

-MR

13 comments »

Posted in Entertainment

Tags: financial balance

Money Drain – Beware of Small Town Dentists

May 12th, 2010

My family thought we found the perfect dentist!

His office was really a Victorian home that was converted into a dentist office. It was a clean office with new equipment that looked great! During the visits, he was nice and would always talk to his assistant and me talking about his trip to other countries or other fun vacations like Disney. The dentists hygienists all were friendly and attractive.

Sound like the perfect dentist? Well he wasn’t, and here’s why:

My city (it’s just a little bigger than a town) is small, much to small to afford the lifestyle of this dentist.
He was taking way to many vacations for a small city dentist.
Every checkup it seemed that I needed to scheduled to have some type of work done for the next visit.
He kept trying to convince me to get crowns for some of my teeth.
He tried to get my wife to do crowns too, and her were molars.
He wanted to do major work on our kids, while they had their baby teeth still in.

My wife took the kids to a different dentist, and he said they didn’t need the work, and especially now at such a young age. The new dentist also said that my wife didn’t really need a crown. I stayed with my this dentist… big mistake!

The turning point for me was when my dentist removed all of my old filling in a tooth, but not actually fixing the slow cavity on the side of the tooth. The way in which he fixed my tooth was brutual, I actually saw pieces flying out of my mouth! The integrity of the tooth is now very poor, I have problems eating peanuts and many food now…

Learn from my mistakes, and don’t be afraid to ask your dentist questions! Since my experience, I’ve talked to other people that have had similar experiences with the dentist that I previously went to. I have one buddy at work that went to him and my old dentist was pushing for him to get a crown for a molar too.

If you suspect a dentist is using you as a cash cow, ask him to show you why he wants to do what he claims! After all, it’s your teeth in addition to your money!

-MR

10 comments »

Posted in Health, RipOff

Tags: bad dentist crooked dentist fraud dentistry ripoff dentist

Lemons to Lemonade – Mowing To Excercise and Save Money

May 11th, 2010

I’ve been mowing lawns every since I was 7 or 8 years old. Of course I got paid for it when I was younger, so while I didn’t enjoy it at least I got paid for the job. It was a miserable experience for me since I have both grass and tree pollen allergies(we didn’t know that at the time though).

Flash Forward to Today:

I’ve had a series of immunization shots for my allergies, so my allergies has been taken care of, but now I don’t get any benefit from mowing the lawn… or do I?

Although I don’t get paid, I do derive benefit from mowing my lawn. First, I have a push mower, so I get a small workout of sorts just by mowing my lawn myself. While this is not enough in itself as an exercise program, it can be one piece in a weekly exercise routine. I also save money by not having someone else mow my lawn. Both of the previous points are obvious.

The not so obvious benefit is that I’m able to to have time to myself, no interrupts from kids, in fact, nobody bothering me with anything at all! It’s my own “Temple of Solitude“, albeit a noise one.

Have you learned to take an activity that you hated when you were younger and convert it into something beneficial today? The mind is a funny thing, and if we try hard enough we can effectively change the way we perceive our surroundings.

-MR

8 comments »

Posted in Lemons to Lemonade

Tags: Lemons to Lemonade Mowing Benefits

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