Money Reasons

Smart Reasons to Save, Use and Invest Money

Archive for September, 2010

Misers vs Frugalists, Money Fight Matchup #3

September 25th, 2010

Just a week and already a new challenger has stood up to challenge the Misers! The Frugalists, taking the road of righteousness, called out the Misers, and started talking smack about the Misers being a bunch of old Scrooges and that their time was from a yesteryear. Finishing off the Frugalists tirade what a last jab stating to the Misers that “The 1800s called and they want their knickers and straw hats back“.

So let’s get DOWN TO BUSINESS:

Who is the Greenest of Them All?

The frugalist move first, they jab with recycling, gardening and buying things on sale. Their move was calculated and controlled. However the Misers countered with extreme cheapness, recycling, hoarding and self-denial!

The end results is that the Misers, in a very narrow battle win this first battle! Advantage Misers!

Who has the Healthier Lifestyle?

The Frugalist came into this one thinking hands down they would knockout the Misers, but this was not so! The Misers typically live a long time or so it seems, while the frugalist’s life at the end isn’t well recorded!

After a brutal matchup, the Frugalist does win this portion of their fight too, but it was closer than anyone thought! In the end, it was the social health and quality of foods, and how the Frugalist’s life was lived that gave them the win. Advantage Frugalist

Which group has the potential to make more money?

The rich Misers came out swinging with the Net Worth statments! This was a blow that almost knocked the Frugalist out. But the Frugalist countered with a better use of money and the way that they valued the money. They claimed that a coffin full of dollars is worthless money to the Misers and that even though Frugalists had less, it was worth more to them!

Advantage Frugalists!

So the winner of this Money matchup goes to “The Frugalist”!

This is another example where at first, the two fighter seemed like copies of each other. But after the fight it was obvious that the Misers were more in the cheap camp, buying the cheapest of products, even if the goods were inferior, whereas the Frugalists tend to be more value oriented with respect to their shopping habits! The Frugalist buy products that have the most value for the money paid.

Good matchup, congratulations “Frugalists“!

Misers, please exit at the rear of the building!

-MR

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Posted in Humor

Tags: frugalist miser money matchup

Reasons To Spend Money – I Don't Want A Coffin Full Of Dollars

September 24th, 2010

The Reasons to Spend Money are numerous, but one big reason is because when I die, I don’t want a coffin full of dollars!

Now, I’m not saying to take a casual stroll to the bank and pull out all of your money, saying “Vegas, here I come“, either though! Oh, by the way, the saying “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” really means that the money you take and gamble with in Vegas, stays in Vegas

Without further ado…

The Reasons To Spend Money :

To live a balanced life, effectively avoiding the dreaded “coffin full of dollars” that are now worth nothing to you! Once you’re dead, that money is just pretty artwork on a piece of paper that you will never see or touch again.
So you don’t miss out on life! Saving money like a miser is actually very expensive with respect to time. The time you waste hording and saving is precious time that could be spent in other ways, like with family and friends.
To visit other places and cultures! If I had the money, I’d try to take a few trips overseas just to experience the sights and different cultures over there.
Spoiling your kids (a little). Why not, if you have the money, $100 is like a fortune to a 7 year-old!!! Don’t go overboard, but perhaps buy something nice for special occasions and holidays!
On high personal value items. High value items are things that you receive much joy or happiness through. For example, you might value redline hot wheel cars that you had as a child. Nostalgic memories have very high value, so why not buy that $50 to $100 dollar car off of eBay? After all every time you look or touch it, it will remind you off a different time that is long gone except in your memories!
Safety! Use the money that you have squirreled away to move to a safer area for your kids to grow up in! And you too for that matter!!! Or perhaps a safer car to drive the kids around in.
Special local experiences! Go to an occasional professional football game, even if it is expensive! Nothing is cooler than hanging with friends eating hotdogs and drinking expensive domestic beers while watching the game from the stands. Go to the orchestra too!
To treat your girlfriend or wife to a surprise romantic dinner! I’ve only done this once, but it was great!

Well, this list isn’t complete, but it’s late! If you have any suggestions, please do tell!

-MR

16 comments »

Posted in lifestyle

Tags: miser spending Spending reasons

Family Time – Lemons To Lemonade

September 23rd, 2010

Family Time is worth more than money!

So in this Lemons to Lemonade series, I’m going to cover how to maximize your Family Time with the kids. In particular, I’m going to describe how we turned the sports our kids are in, from Lemons to Lemonade!

First, let me say that Family Time with your kids is worth more than money! It’s something that most of us don’t realize until much later in life, so experience and enjoy it as much as you can. It’s something you can’t buy more of later with money!!!

A friend told my wife that she doesn’t let her kids play sports because she cherishes their family time too much.

This got my wife to think about family time and if sports like soccer was gobbling up too much valuable family time…

She came to the conclusion that it wasn’t and here are the reasons why:

Watching and rooting for you kids in sports is great for the entire family. And it give our kids a confidence boost knowing that the family (including grandparents, aunts and uncles) came out to support them.
We have 2 kids, so while one is out, we interact with the other one. Sometimes, when my son is on the bench for a rotation, we’ll practices soccer stuff with my daughter, and of course vice versa. Often we have a good time because it gets silly . This time is enjoyed by all of us!
The driving time is practically forced time for the kids to interact with us socially. Both my wife and I really enjoy the chats in the car when driving the kids to their games!
We interact with other parents, and they’ll cheer our kids on (and we cheer their kids on too). As a kid, I would think it’s extra exciting hearing non-family members cheer for you!
Many times, we’ll go out to eat after the games, especially on longer, away games. This is a treat for us all, in addition to the extra family time we experience.

So the lemons to lemonade process that we accomplished with the kid’s soccer games is to take an activity that could be considered a chore (Mom’s taxi service, etc), and converted it into an excellent opportunity for quality family time!

Often I find that it only takes a little to change a negative to a positive.

Do you have any lemon to lemonade stories that you would like to share?

-MR

Did you like this kind of story, if so, check out my first in the “Lemon to Lemonade” series: Lemons to Lemonade Series #1 – Long Commute Drives

Also, related to this Lemon to Lemonade series is my guest post on Cash Flow Sherpas called: Saving Money and Time With Audiobooks!

11 comments »

Posted in Lemons to Lemonade

Tags: family time kid time Lemons to Lemonade soccer soccer time

Life Of The People

September 22nd, 2010

The Life of the People where I live is focused on academics and sports! The great educational system is one of the reasons we decided to built our house in our small city. The sport teams in my city that almost always go undefeated. We are a middle class to upper middle class community.

So today, I thought it would be interesting to discuss the makeup of the people where I live and introduce you to some free tools, so you check out your community too.

First, to learn about the life of the people where you live, we need a more objective tool than just what I think, so I’m going to use Prizm from Claritas. It’s a fun tool to see what the major groups are that represent your community based on your zip code.

So after I click the “Prizm from Claritas” link, next I entered my zip code at the prompt, and then enter the security code… I get the following:

Country Casuals
Country Squires
Middleburg Managers
Sunset City Blues
Upward Bound

If you click on each designation at their site, it display some basic information about each group. So, for the example, the “Upward Bound” group has a median HH (Household income) of about $86,692. This particular group represent the traditional soccer moms and dads in cities like mine. Below is more information that describes this particular segment of the Upward Bound classification:

Upward Bound

2009 Statistics:

US Households: 1,998,401 (1.73%)

Median HH Income: $86,692

Upscale, Middle Age w/ Kids
More than any other segment, Upward Bound appears to be the home of those legendary Soccer Moms and Dads. In these small satellite cities, upscale families boast dual incomes, college degrees, and new split-levels and colonials. Residents of Upward Bound tend to be kid-obsessed, with heavy purchases of computers, action figures, dolls, board games, bicycles, and camping equipment.

Lifestyle Traits

Order from target.com

Buy toys by Internet

Read PC Gamer

Watch Nickelodeon

Honda Odyssey

Demographics Traits:
Urbanicity:	Second City
Income:	Upscale
Income Producing Assets:	Above Avg.
Age Ranges:	35-54
Presence of Kids:	HH w/ Kids
Homeownership:	Mostly Owners
Employment Levels:	Management
Education Levels:	College Grad
Ethnic Diversity:	White, Asian, Hispanic, Mix

This group represents my wife and I fairly well. The biggest exception is that she doesn’t work (at least not full time).

While the PRIZM databases is mainly a marketing tool, I always found the information fascinating, and a good marker to compare both my income and our lifestyle against. Of course, I just checkout the snapshot (which is free). The snapshot provides enough to get a decent picture of the area though.

We’re pretty luck that even though we are in the “Upward Bound” group based on most of the descriptions of the lifestyle, we have friends in higher groups with more (like the power boat, and jet skis, etc), so we get the best of the upper tiers too.

Want even more information about your city? Try http://www.city-data.com/! This site has more details about the city statistics! Include what your firemen and police officers earn (at least my city does).

Hopefully your city ranks well too! Try it out, I’m betting you’ll think it’s pretty cool too!

Tell me what you think or if you have additional links that you use for great demographics about your city!

-MR

19 comments »

Posted in lifestyle

Tags: city informaiton demographics lifestyle

Raising Savvy Business Kids

September 21st, 2010

Flash to the Past

When I was growing up, my dad wanted me to get a college degree so that I wouldn’t follow in his footsteps by creating my own small business like he did (and my grandfather too). Sadly, I was not destined to be a savvy Business kid…

Both my dad and grandfather had fairly successful businesses (my dad still have his business, my grandfather has past away). They were trying to save me from the hours they put in to grow their businesses. I remember my dad, looking at blueprints during basketball games down in a recreation room many a night!

Flash Forward

I’m doing the opposite with my kids! I’m actually trying to raise my kids as Savvy Business Kids!

I decided to change direction from my dad because the company employee paradigm from his era no long applies today! Company loyalty (while still may exist at a very small subset of companies), is going the same way of company pensions, they are becoming nonexistent…, extinct…, dust in the wind…

So what have I done to help my kids become business savvy?

I started introducing basic math early, especially getting them to recognize which coins had more value!
I bought a game called ”Cash Flow For Kids” and to give them an incentive to play, I embellished the game for doing the following. If they won, I paid them whatever they would spin on a spin dial. the had the opportunity to win a 25 cents, 50 cents, 1 dollar, 2 dollars or 5 dollar. So far, I’ve been luck and they haven’t won the highest amount yet ($5.oo).
I started an eBay business with my son so he could learn that it’s possible to make money at an early age. Ironically, this ended up working really well for me too! We were able to buy a product from a supplier and sell the item on eBay at a pretty decent markup. It was a good experience for the both of us (the taxes did sucked though).
We put prices on their toys and sold them in garage sales.
They would occasionally put up a lemonade stand.
My son has a deal with my dad to mow my parent’s lawn. This actually works out great because he gets paid for mowing, but plays for a bit on the riding lawnmower at the same time (it’s a win-win).
My son has expressed an interest in selling some of his Pokémon cards on eBay. We will start this adventure next!
ICarly has inspired son to think about blogging, but we haven’t done anything yet because he’s got too much going on as is.
My daughter has created drawings for sale (most of which my wife and I bought), and also had her own lemonade stands.

I’m hoping that the small business experiments that I’ve been working on with them will help in the future! I think the lessons in investing and some small business exposure will help them see opportunities that others might miss in the future!

Do you think I’m trying too hard? Do you have any suggestions?

I’m an employee, so any suggestions would be appreciated from any small business folks out there!

-MR

29 comments »

Posted in Entrepreneurship, Kids

Tags: business kids ebay business savvy business kids web entrepreneur