Little Chicks and Random Thoughts

 Living in the country has certain spoils, like being able to purchase chicks and raise them for eggs. Over the past few weeks, we and the in-laws have been talking about raising chickens for eggs. Over the last year, egg prices have gone up, and we eat about a dozen eggs a week. The in-laws eat maybe 8 eggs a week...it is hard to count when I'm not home for breakfast.

Also, an advantage of "home grown" eggs is that you control the setting of the chicks. Want them to roam the earth in search of bugs? Set 'em free! Want to put them in the coop so they don't get eaten? Save the chicks!

The amount of money we will save from this is not huge. If 24 organic eggs from Costco cost $7, and we have to pay for grain/time spent watching them, we probably only save $20-30ish a month on eggs. But who doesn't want fresh eggs?

As I grow older, I'm continually impressed by the good life not coming from possessions but experiences and trying new things with companions. I get more satisfaction out of our family joking about the chick named "nugget," than making a few bucks from fixing troublesome technology.

Part of exiting the rat race is replacing it with something. How should I spend time instead of keeping up with the Jones's? I listen to podcasts to and from work to help keep me sane from traffic. What I listen to is budgeting, technology, economy and general side earning business concepts. It helps me refresh before I get home and enjoy the wife and kid's company, rather than being in a grumpy mood due to kamikaze drivers (I'm looking at you Subaru Impreza driver!)

This is definitely the "talk about whatever I feel like" blog post, but the point is that you should use your strengths to your benefit, but not at the expense of ridding your life of what is really important. When I sit on my deathbed, I'm going to think about the family, volunteer work, God, and has my life been spent well. Investment advisors will often tell you to start investing at a very early age so the interest will yield a high retirement savings. What if I treated my life like that? I'll do what is important at the young stages of my life and won't have to catch up as much when I'm a crotchety old man. This is one of the reasons I'm always looking to get slightly ahead financially. Not so I can be a rich guy, but so I can be a content old guy not anxious about income/family relations (assuming I get old. A bus could take me out!).

Quick Guide to Save Money

Cutting costs makes my wife uncomfortable. However, I believe it is key to living simply. Every situation is different.

Pre-req's
1. Make a budget.
2. Compare to your income

Comparison Items:

1. Housing is usually the most expensive budget item. Simply, is your living in an extremely expensive place? Do you own or rent (renting is much more appropriate if you living lease by lease and want the option to move)? Do you have more house and property than needed? How much could you save by downsizing? This is often the hardest thing to adjust. Currently, I live in a multi-family setting for a very manageable amount of rent.
Savings:
$600/month lower rent
$50/month utilities (split)
-$60/month extra gas

2. Cars are another large budget item. Do you pay monthly payments on a car? What if I told you that most people don't need a newer vehicle? My wife's car is 18 years old, with 231k miles on it, running strong. I paid $3000 for it and have done minimum repairs on the about 40k miles put on it. No monthly payments, low insurance cost and cheap parts. The value of the car isn't going to fall with a small new scratch. This is the easiest thing to quickly save on. Do be careful when buying a used car though as many people who do no maintenance try to overprice their car. Use kbb.com. Stick with an inexpensive, reliable car. My wife had a Saturn when we met and spent about $100/month on it for some random repair. Sometimes reliable vehicles are not in good condition. Have someone you trust help you choose a vehicle. The people who are braver than me ditch 1-2 cars and go bikes. That is the ultimate way to save, but you need to have transportation worked out.
Savings:
$500/month no vehicle payments
$100/month lower insurance from older vehicle
$50/month high mileage vehicles (mine gets 35 average per gallon. Not bad for a $2.5k car)

3. Health insurance is a sore spot due to new regulations. This I don't know as much about since you have to comply with new rules and coverage not always accepted. Remember that the purpose of insurance is risk management. A Dr. visit isn't a risk. Large overpriced medical bills are a risk. Somehow, I ended up with a job including benefits. This is harder to calculate how much we save, but comparing it to when we were on another plan it is about $100/mo
Savings:
$100/month lower monthly (lower deductible)

4. Internet and cell services can also make quick savings. My wife used to be with Verizon because we lived in a remote location. Now she is with Republic Wireless (reseller of Sprint, roams on Verizon). For unlimited texts and calling we pay $10 a month. We had to buy the phone for about $200 but have no contract. Meaning, we can have the phone last as long as we want and not be forced to pay for it via subsidized phone price in monthly cost. In 2 years, she will have spent $440 on phone service on Republic Wireless, compared to $1060 on Verizon. In 3 years if the phone lasts, she will have spent $560, compared to $1540 on Verizon. She also now can use her phone on WiFi for internet, with a much better phone. Internet service is more tricky due to different providers. Research what is local to find savings (without bundling! Stay away from that!)
Savings:
$26.67/month

5. Cable. Trade your cable in for Netflix (or Hulu). Go from overpriced to $8/month and have no commercials.
Savings:
$12-92/month

6. Cut your local landline. You can just use cell phones, or set up a new telephone number via Google voice and use that. Last I checked, that could be used to have off-time to prevent sales calls at inconvenient hours.
Savings:
$20+-/month

7. Taxes. The tax code supports tax avoidance (legally finding ways to avoid paying taxes). Tax evasion is illegally lying or not paying what the tax code determines you should pay. Collecting your donations, mortgage interest, student interest, Hope/American Opportunity Credit and dozens more can help you have a refund. If you don't care about knowing taxes, perhaps ask your accountant what will give you the best return on your time.

8. Find new ways to save. Make it like a contest or something you do to enjoy yourself. Do you really both need 2 Macbooks? What if you had 1 Macbook and 1 tablet/Chromebook? That could save $800 on a one time purchase.

9. Get buy-in from yourself and family, otherwise extra purchases will replace savings. Perhaps you are saving for a down, or trying to get debt free. The important thing is to get the entire team on board. If you are married to a spender, provide limited amounts of credit. Sure, this person may max out the credit card, but if they have a credit limit of $200 or less per month, that is manageable.

10. My wife cooks naan bread from bulk ingredients instead of buying bread. We also grow some vegetables. A quick estimate says we save a few bucks per month, but it is much more healthy so that is a quality of life increase for less money.

If you add up all of the saving minimums, it comes to about 16.7k a year. That is quite a bit of savings for minimum sacrifices. Be sure to somewhat regularly compare to your budget and make sure you are spending within it. Lean more to asking if you need it, rather than you want it. Dear reader, what have I missed? What are some things you do to save extra money and what do you save it for?

Intro to Satisfaction and Random Thoughts

Everyday when I drive to work, I chuckle. The rat race continues day after day. The part I noticed today is that it prevents people from not only being happy, but from pursuing their dreams. When people are buried in debt with many commitments, it is hard to take risks. If you ask most people if they are pleased with what career they are in, they will grunt and say yes after mulling over the regular paycheck.

I'm not saying that people are wasted in the workforce, but that people don't take risks due to commitments and may not fully realize their potential. The difference is that someone can have more than one talent and ability that is not always marketable to employment. So, maybe I want to post every other day about denying indulgences and finding satisfaction in life itself, but have difficulty squeezing the time to do it.

So, rather than let myself feel bad about circumstances and depressed, maybe a unusual solution exists. I was thinking, I spend hours driving during the week, what if I went podcast style and talked while driving? I don't think there's a law against that and there are parts of the road where relatively fewer drivers are trying to bump me off. Also, it may help determine who is at fault if my last words are "why!! Why would you cut me off"-BOOM!

My dream in life is to find something to do that can help people. Legally, I have to limit how much advice I give people, and how specific it is to save money. Also, there are many blogs telling you how to save money, make money and invest money.

I guess my point is that this is 2015. People can post blogs, make podcasts, make websites, use a variety of online tools for many purposes, write books, self publish, apply for online work, find work online for unique talents and so much more. We aren't stuck with a limited unintegrated internet consisting of slow speeds. We have so much potential but limit themselves due to priorities and not having a good enough idea. Our economy is very interesting, you can hire a couple guys to make a single purpose app, give or sell it to thousands of people, and then be bought up by a large company wanting to integrate your app with their existing services.

Are you waiting for someone to give you permission to use this new economy? If you have an idea, pursue it. If you don't have an idea, listen and read sources that will give you inspiration.