Money Reasons

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Archive for July, 2010

The Great Recession, Explained South Park Style

July 30th, 2010

I can’t believe it! I was writing a blog post, when South Park came on. Now I use to watch South Park when it first came out, but after they started getting really gross with some episodes, I quit watching.

Now, since I use the TV as white noise, while trying to think of a topic for tonight’s blog, something unusual happened… I started watching a South Park Episode (which is called ”Margaritaville”). After watching the complete episode, I was surprised to realize that I agreed with it!

Click on this link to see the episode!

Sometimes South Park really does have some intelligence in the cartoon! I was very impress with how they described the causes of “The Great Recession”, and how politicians take credit for everything good (Obama in this case).

Click the link above, the episode isn’t really that vulgar, and the message is clear and accurate.

I’m always amazed at what you can learn for unexpected sources… But then again, intelligent people write those TV shows and movies, so it’s only natural that their real thoughts on matters would occasionally be reflected in their art. This seems to happen a lot with South Park, usually at the end of the show, Kyle or Stan does a little speech that revels the author’s viewpoints on particular matters.

I just find it hard to believe that people can sometimes hear a more intelligent explanation from South Park than the popular media or government!

Ironic huh!

Have you ever gleemed information from unlikely sources? I know in the dilbert cartoons, the garbage collector is really supposed to be the smartest guy in the comic strip.

Stan or Kyle for our next President?

-MR

10 comments »

Posted in Entertainment

Tags: South Park south park mararitaville

Taking An Inner-Week Vacation Trip To Put-In-Bay

July 29th, 2010

As some of you know, I like to try to plan trips and events when the crowd count is low. This way, we get to enjoy whatever we are doing that much more because we don’t have to wait to get service and it’s just plain less stressful.

Today is such a day! We are heading to Put-In-Bay Island this morning.

Why you might ask?

Well, my kids (mainly my son) really has an interest in rocks and geology in the area (pretty impressive for a 10 year old huh…). On the island, we are going to check out the grooves left by the glaciers and the Crystal Cave (the world’s largest geode). We will also rent a golf cart to get around just to make it fun.

Even the ride over on the ferry should be fun, at least for kids…

The island is known as a party island, so we decided to avoid the college age kids by going in the middle of the week. The only thing to worry about when you go to such a small attraction is that there is the possibility not everything will be open.

Luckily, that’s where google comes in! I was able to google Put-In-Bay, and determine what is open and what isn’t! You have to love the Internet!

So, I hope everybody has a great day tomorrow… I’m pretty sure we will

-MR

Update: We didn’t encounter any closed attractions, and the kids loved driving in the golf cart! Overall, a good time.

Yesterday, I posted an article at Cash Flow Sherpa called ”Saving money by frugally fixing things“. Check it out if you want to read about my process to save about $200 by fixing my clothes dryer…

6 comments »

Posted in Vacation

Tags: innerweek trip innerweek vacation put-in-bay

The Hare And The Tortoise Revisited

July 28th, 2010

We all know the classic tale of how the Tortoise, through a steady (albeit slow) pace wins the race (and life) by sticking to the course and not deviating.

Well today I saw something that reminded me that many times, if not most of the time, the Hare really wins. As I was driving home, I was close to passing a car coming the other way when a little bird flew very quickly in front of the car in the other lane. It barely escaped! Did it slow down? No, it realized that I was right on it too, so it was flapping like crazy to avoid my car, again barely escaping. A slower bird would be getting a free car ride in my grill.

What does my bird story have to do with the “Hare and the Tortoise“, well sometime, being slow and thoughtful isn’t enough. Sometimes great speed is the key that makes the difference. When I was in Tae Kwon Do, I would spar against better trained individuals, but I was able to out spar them because I was faster.

In the workplace, the Hare especially has an advantage. He comes up with the ideas first, this environment is where the fast talking smooth operators stands out.

In the sports world, the Tortoise is sitting on the bench, while the fastest Hare is the star that all the females notice and want to be with.

The theory is that the Hare lost in the original story because he overestimated his opponent and relax, basically goofing off. But I think most Hares would go after the jugular and try to win as quickly as possible. I think the original story was baseless and flawed. IMHO, the Hare is equivalent to a Type A personality and generally these are the types that get ahead and win in the long run.

In finances, you get ahead when you created the largest savings delta as possible. If you can’t make that “saving delta” happen, then you never really get to accumulate wealth! The two components of the savings delta is “income earned” and frugality. If you don’t make enough money, your saving delta will be very small or non-existent. The Hares are the big income winners, and many of them are clever enough to be frugal too. So based off of my analysis, I would think that most of the wealthy are Hares instead of Tortoises.

Readers, Tell me what you think! Do you know many Tortoises that are wealthy?

-MR

17 comments »

Posted in Beliefs

Tags: hare vs tortoise Hare Wealth Type A personalities

Decks Are Well Worth The Cost

July 27th, 2010

When we had our house built, we didn’t want to spring for the additional cost for a deck (the builder also said it would be wise to wait at least 5 years so the ground would settle), so initially we were deck-less…

I’m glad we waited, because if we did build a deck when our house was built, it would have been made of wood. And that would mean maintaining it ever year. While some people don’t mind staining or painting a deck every year or so, I would hate it.

We probably wouldn’t have a deck today, except my wife wanted one. We had the money saved up, so we went ahead and bought one about 4 years ago. It has been a great success! Every year, I enjoy it more and more! I didn’t have a deck growing up, so it was a entirely new experience for me.

As I mentioned above, I didn’t want to maintain it so I bought one of those composite wood ones! Buying one of those systems, means that I don’t ever have to stain the wood (yay)!

Reasons why a deck is worth the cost:

Kids play games on the deck (toddlers basketball, soccer, etc).
We eat out on the deck all the time when I make hamburgers from the grill.
I like to go out late night and sit in the dark.
We all like to sit in the sun on perfect sunny days.
When the kids are going crazy inside, it’s an area to escape too.
When the kids are being to crazy inside, sometimes we’ll send them out onto the deck.
Great for hosting small get-togethers or small parties
It’s also a nice location to write a blog entry when the kids are being loud or have friends over

Have you ever resisted buying something because you underestimated the value in it, only to later be surprised and glad that you bought it?

-MR

13 comments »

Posted in Entertainment

Tags: composite decks decks decks rule

Outsourcing The Partial Raising Of My Kids

July 26th, 2010

No, I’m not giving my kids away!!!

But the more I think about it, the more I realize that people from different age groups might be able to provide things that I’m not capable of. Don’t get me wrong, I’m going to wipe my hands of the job entirely, just augment it a bit…

From the age 20s age group:

My sister and her husband have taken my kids for a few weekends and spend time with my kids during the holidays. During these time periods, I try to let my sister and brother-in-law play with my kids interact with my kids as much as possible while I disappear onto a different floor to read.

From Older Age Groups:

With the parents, usually the kids visit them for the day or stay overnight. My parents (both mine and my wife’s) are able to teach my kids skills that I just don’thave or know. My father-in-law is a great craftsman, so my son will learn woodworking from him. My dad is an engineer, so hopefully my son will be able to improve this natural ability with math and science.

My mother-in-law has many skills: cooking, painting, sewing, gardening, etc! My daughter will learn tons from her too!

I mention this because in a few weeks we’ll be going on vacation! This year are we going to Hilton Head, with my parent and sister’s family. For me it will be a time of relaxation and time to catchup on reading. During this time period I will do stuff with the kids, but I like taking a second seat with respect to the attention that they receive from others. When everybody else is tired and my kids still want to do stuff, that’s when I take over. I did this last year, and I’ll do it again this year.

What do you think of my approach? Do you think that I’m broading my kids experiences or does this just confuse them?