Jones's Guide To Losing Money

1. Buy as much house as you can afford, wait, buy more!
2. Lease both of your cars. Pay over $200 for insurance...preferably $400.
3. Credit cards are magic. If you have any money issues, use the credit card.
4. Refinance your house to a longer term.
5. Pay $100+/month for each cell phone you have. Buy the latest and greatest.
6. Buy every kid a new iPhone and iPad. No need to consider the child's age.
7. Netflix? That's for cheap people. You need cable. Lots of channels.
8. Eat out every day, drink coffee but from Starbucks, or wait, Starbucks is for semi-fancy people. What you need is #Hipster Coffee Joint coffee.
9. Hire a full time nanny because both parents work full time. Don't calculate taxes, mileage, lunches and nanny fees, otherwise you may realize the second job earns $6/hr.
10. Don't read finance blogs. They will just tell you to invest money. You need money now so you can spend it.

This lady is worried about money but won't budget or clean up her mess.
Just kidding, it's a stock photo.

See this money? You need to waste it! Give it to a salesman!

Money is a big cause of conflict in couples. What if, instead of pursuing every luxury in life, we focused on what is really important? How un-American! You should instead buy a car. Not a Honda...you need...nay, you deserve, a BMW. Or maybe a Lexus. Take your pick, just tell the dealer how much you can afford.

You see, when you outsource processing, you stop planning and work in vain. It is like being a pinball, Life confuses you, you bounce around and don't understand why no matter how hard you work, you never get ahead. You see your kids less and less, the spouse gets more and more pissed, and you become a ghost of yourself. Why? Priorities. You were too busy to make your work and life count. Shame on you. You must pay penance by drawing up a budget, and go over goals with your spouse.

No excuses. Use your brain.

Bicycling Has Changed Me

A nice bicycle image.

Earlier I mentioned that I went from commuting 35 miles (70 round trip) a day, to bicycling 2.5 miles (5 round trip) a day. The change has been amazing. I am less tense, more fit and less cranky. Exercising every weekday has been very good to me. Just as a heads up, I'm not some macho guy who can immediately do anything. I had to work my way up to commuting by bike 5 days a week and bum rides when I'm sick enough to work. It took about a month or so to work up biking 5 days a week.

Not me! I wear no spandex!

About my everyday commute:

• I breathe fresh air for 30-40 minutes a day. My bike is a cruiser so my average speed is probably 10-15mph, unlike the speed demons on road bikes.
• I ride on suburban quietish streets with plenty of stop signs
• I'm about to graduate to riding in real rain. I've rode in mist and drizzle
• Garbage cans are positioned by Satan. Seriously. Some people make it so I have to cut into the road cause they had to put the can between the road line and where the sidewalk should be. Don't be that guy.
• I'm learning how to bike more safely. Right now I slow down at stop signs and make sure no one is around before proceeding (really, this is more of a yield). I have been bad lately and need to more consistently downshift so if someone is there but unexpectedly crossing my path, I can stop in time.
• Where I work, they let me take my bike inside. Otherwise I would rely on my U lock.
• People either admire me or think I'm bonkers but pretend to admire me. 

  

  Bicyclists need to be careful too!

Reviving the Old Blog

It has been almost a year since I've done a post. Much has changed.

In the past 11 months:

• I went from 35 miles to 2.5 miles from work. Now I drive 0 minutes a week for work.
• My ol' faithful car failed smog. We decided to retire it in state retirement. They gave us $1k for him.
• We save $42/month on car insurance due to only having 1 car, and $175/month on gas. We also save about $80/yr on registration.
• I now bike to work. It is glorious. More on this later.
• Wife and I are now debt free! We sold the fifth wheel that we were living in, paid back a personal loan, a hospital bill, and my student debts. It was about $50k in all! 
• The mower given to us wouldn't work (Googling it suggested it was not an easy fix). Dear wife and I bought a reel mower (more details on how this is going coming up).
• We invested in a chest freezer (more on this too)
• I am about to go from saving the company mandatory 8%, to about 35% through retirement contributions and house savings.
• Contributing the above amount to retirement savings will reduce my tax bill about $1600.
• Wife and I are becoming more Tightwad Gazette and Mr Money Mustache oriented.
• Wife is now a crocheting machine!

I am looking to use this blog to record the new things wife and I try, and our journey for becoming satisfied through a simple self sufficient life.

Multi-Family Living

People tend to approach multi-family living with curiosity and intimidation. This is the start of our third week of multi-family living. If I had to stress only one thing, I’d say it should be grace.

When people have their own space, they begin to develop norms that other people may not be used to. This can vary from leaving the sponge wet on the sink, to how hot the thermostat should be set. As an American, the American dream is taught early. Even though my family did not fully subscribe to the expensive car, home and pet, I was surrounded by it when growing up. The neighbor was proud of their new SUV, regurgitating much of what the salesman had told them. The grocery store boasted how you deserved organic food. Those other people lived below the dream…maybe they didn’t know what it was?

There’s nothing wrong with having your own space. What I am communicating is that sometimes the American dream belief is so strong, that anything different is rejected due to being different.

Here are some things I’ve noticed:

1. Living together doesn’t mean you are always together. Interestingly, work schedules are not always the same and people are not home every day of the week. On average, we have two weeknights to ourselves, and 1 weekend day.
2. Living together does mean that you are consistently aware of the existence of other people in the home. This means that you need to be extra gracious in keeping areas clean, and not mess with other people’s stuff. So an example of this is that this morning the cat almost hopped on the wife and my bed. We don’t own cats…we go off and on with being allergic. When attempting to shoe him away, the cat wouldn’t let me push him out. So I picked him up, put him out of the room and closed the door. This all happened while the baby was asleep. The old me would have put him out of the house and complained about him all day.
3. Married people still have sex in this situation. Not sure more needs to be said.
4. A person being in your area becomes normal. This is completely foreign to the American dream. However, you get used to it.
5. Life is less dull. More things go on in the house. I can still rest during down time. It is nice though that quick babysitting is more available for a few minutes.

There are more observations to come. Living in a multi-family home is not for everyone or the faint of heart.

Change, Lovely Change

Hello,

This change is sudden

The last week has been a doozie. When I started this blog I assumed we’d be in the fifth-wheel for years. Instead, right after Christmas Day, the kitchen floor had unbearable soft spots. So, we moved everything out of it and sent it to the dealer for warranty. Graciously, my in-laws offered to have us move in, possibly for years should we decide to sell the fifth-wheel. This is a big change for us though, especially our daughter since we have lost a degree of independence. 

When you move out for the first time, you enjoy freedom. You eat when you want, you sleep when you want, you can do all sorts of things as long as you don’t annoy your landlord and neighbors too much. We also have the added bonus of teaching the in-laws to hold off on treating us as kids.

Free, like a bird

Regardless of all of this, things are great. We didn’t have to move into an apartment. Emma still knows her in-laws very well. The fifth-wheel may finally have the weakness of the floor fixed. I am choosing joy in all of this despite the potential for negativity. My wife is very helpful in focusing on the good. Things will work out in the end.