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The Possessions Exercise

2010-02-15T21:01:00.002-06:00

I found this idea on Jake Seliger's blog The Story's Story and it seemed pretty insightful....

List the ten most expensive things (products, services, or experiences) that you have ever paid for (including houses, cars, university degrees, marriage ceremonies, divorce settlements, and taxes). Then, list the ten items that you have ever bought that gave you the most happiness. Count how many items appear on both lists.

I made the two lists below; it took me several hours to think of the ten things that bring me the most happiness. The point of the exercise, of course, is to realize that Stuff (with a capital "S") should be there to give us energy, not to take it away. Thankfully, most of the items I've spent money on thus far in my life are also on my list of things that have made me happy! Now, the idea is to get rid of the stuff that doesn't, and not spend money on anything that won't.

Ten Most Expensive Items

$14,500: Used 2001 Cheverolet Silverado 1500HD
$7,200: Diamond Engagement Ring
$2,700: Cello (including Bow and Case)
$2,000: Dell Precision M60 Workstation
$1,199: MacBook 5,1
$999: Living Room Set
$749: College Ring
$700: Tempur Pedic Classic Bed
$540: Springfield XD Subcompact 9mm
$459: 32" Samsung HDTV

Ten Highest Happiness Items

Engagement Ring:
I'll just use this as a placeholder for my marriage. I love you, hon.
Used 2001 Cheverolet Silverado 1500HD:
Freedom of movement. That's the happiness of a vehicle. It's not a big deal maybe if you're in a city with decent mass transit, but I'm not.
MacBook 5,1:
Almost the same freedom of movement... just virtual. I went almost a week without a computer when the Dell died. Definitely one of my most loved purchases.
Cello (including Bow and Case):
Music is an incredible gift from God, and the ability to use it to praise Him is even more incredible (Psalm 144:9).
Kitchen Table and Chairs:
What's the best place to sit around and talk with friends and family? Kitchen table. What about board games and playing cards? Kitchen table. Oh yeah, and it makes having company over for dinner work so much better.
32" Samsung HDTV + Living Room Set:
I've never been one for TV, but I enjoy company. Having a place that's conducive to relaxation and laughter together is really nice.
Tempur Pedic Classic Bed:
Speaking of relaxation... I'm pretty sure that gravity is higher in the region immediately surrounding that mattress, and it's definitely comfortable. I was sleeping on a pile of blankets on the floor before I bought the mattress, and a couple of friends who bought one thought it was too hard so they sent it back, but my wife and I love it.
Benchmade Jackknife:
Carry this thing everywhere... every man should have a knife in his pocket. It's too useful not to.
Roomba 560:
No vacuuming, ever. Well, at least less than it used to be. And the apartment is so much cleaner! Freedom of movement (time), anyone?
Levi's 559 Jeans:
Yeah, I'm reaching here. It's hard to think of things that have made me happy in the long run. But I own two pairs of these jeans, and they're basically the only pants I wear. So they must be decent, right?

What makes you happy? Is it what you've paid for?

2010 Resolutions?

2010-01-03T15:06:00.012-06:00

I've struggled with this post (and it's a couple of days late) because I really don't know what to do for resolutions this year... 2009 was the first year I ever made resolutions, and putting them online turned out to be pretty good motivation, so I wanted to do it again. But I have no idea what to resolve for 2010. I could go the comedy way, but I want to actually accomplish something. So I've searched teh Interwebs and taken whatever I can find.

Squidoo comes up first on a Google search for 2010 resolutions, so I checked their article. 2010Resolutions.org has the same ten resolutions in a different order, so I figure they're pretty good ones. However, I'm a non-smoker with no weight to lose and a healthy, organized, and enjoyable lifestyle, so the only one of their resolutions is worthwhile for me.

Resolution: Get out of debt. My wife and I completed Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University last year, and we've been steadily chipping away at our two $30,000 car loans since we started the program in February. By the end of 2010, we'll be debt free.

CNN.com has 10 travel resolutions. Again, most aren't all that useful to me, as I have a passport and I've spent the last couple of weeks doing almost nothing but relaxing. But there are two items that I'll put on my list.

Resolution: Get a new digital camera (and use it often). CNN's actual resolution is "Take better pictures," but to do that I need to at least have a camera. I'm not talking DSLR here; I just want a camera that will survive my lifestyle. An Olympus Stylus Tough 8000 looks fantastic to me.
Resolution: Travel. Take my wife to Italy. She's wanted to go ever since her high school Latin class trip was canceled due to September 11th. Sounds like a great idea to me! Maybe I'll visit Spain again as well. This resolution may be in direct opposition to getting out of debt (since we'll be pouring money into two pits), but I think we can do it.

On TechRepublic, I found one geek's resolutions. One that sounded good to me was to write more. The author made that resolution because he gets paid for the things he writes. While I don't, there's a lot to be gained for me from simply putting fingers to keyboard.

Resolution: Write an actual, thought-required blog post at least twice a week. Make at least one every week related to my Bible study or quiet time.

PasteMagazine had an article titled "Fifteen Musical New Year's Resolutions for 2010," but they were just the average resolutions (see Squidoo above), but based on pop songs. But a good resolution that I thought of when I saw "Musical Resolutions," was to actually spend some time enjoying my own musical ability.

Resolution: Play cello, outside of group rehearsal, practice, and performance, just for my own enjoyment, for at least an hour a week. Maybe even remember what it's like to hear J.S. Bach's Six Suites for Cello Solo come from my own instrument.

Lastly, I found this post on the Gospel Coalition Blog. It's based on the book The Unwavering Resolve of Jonathan Edwards, which is based on the seventy "Resolutions" written by Jonathan Edwards. I may review some of the seventy resolutions in a future post (or series), but for now, I'll sum them up: as John Brookes wrote in Manliness (1875), "Openness to the Light and Love of Jesus, and resoluteness to follow them promptly, constitute Christian Manliness."

Resolution: To spend at least an hour each day (maybe not all at once) either reading the Bible, studying the Bible, or praying. In short, I want to take my quiet time to the next level. I want to start putting into practice all the things I learned last year about prayer. I want to learn and follow His ways.

Final 2009 Resolutions Update

2009-12-31T15:05:00.003-06:00

1) Read through my Bible this year before I get married May 23 this year; the entire thing, cover to cover, reading at least a chapter every single day.
I did it.

2) Use my credit card whenever possible but never carry a balance.
This worked great. I highly recommend it.

3) Contribute the maximum amount to my Roth IRA account.
$5,000 in. Good to go.

4) Build a three-month emergency fund.
Done.

5) Get my two mile run time under 15 minutes.
14:33 on the treadmill last week, since it was too cold to go outside. That doesn't really count, but in the end I took more than two minutes off my two-mile time this year. That's pretty good.

6) Finish the Navigators' "Design for Discipleship" series of Bible studies.
Yeah, this should get done sometime in March, maybe, depending on how fast I finish book six and get into book seven.

7) Blog at least once a week, plus a monthly update on my resolutions.
I posted nineteen times in December. Admittedly, most of the posts were short "found" blurbs that were originally posted on Tumblr and got migrated over when I closed my Tumblog (seriously, what is a Tumblog?), but it was nineteen posts.

November Resolutions Update

2009-12-01T13:55:00.003-06:00

1) Read through my Bible this year before I get married May 23 this year; the entire thing, cover to cover, reading at least a chapter every single day.
I have exactly ten pages of the Bible left to read in December. I'm in Revelation 5, when a bunch of seals start getting opened. Talk about some crazy stuff.

2) Use my credit card whenever possible but never carry a balance.
Once again the budget saved us. Aside from having four people over for Thanksgiving (plus ourselves!) we upgraded our media center and paid almost $400 dollars to fix the truck again after the front part of the starter fell off and broke into a bunch of tiny pieces inside the flywheel housing. But it all got paid without touching our emergency savings. Hooray budgets!

3) Contribute the maximum amount to my Roth IRA account.
Done for the year, $5,000. A penny saved is a penny earned?

4) Build a three-month emergency fund.
Done.

5) Get my two mile run time under 15 minutes.
So, at the end of last month, I wrote that I was in the 15:30 to 16:00 range on my two mile. Not so, as I found out. Apparently the two mile course I'd measured out with the odometer in my wife's Subaru was not, in fact, two miles. I ran my two-mile on an actual two-mile track on November third, and I ran a 16:49. Way off. But I threw myself into it, and yesterday morning, on the same track, I ran a 15:23. I'll be under 15:00 by New Years, definitely.

6) Finish the Navigators' "Design for Discipleship" series of Bible studies.
I'm a little bit into book six (somewhere in chapter two of five), and I'm sorry to say that this goal isn't going to happen. Book six takes a lot of thought, time, and effort, and I know book seven is going to be even more challenging, so there's no way I can devote enough time to them to finish by January first and get anything out of the best two books in the series. I certainly could have made it to my goal, but I just didn't put enough time into it early on.

7) Blog at least once a week, plus a monthly update on my resolutions.
So I posted four times this month. That's technically once a week, I suppose, but it's pretty lousy. And my resolutions update is late. Shows how much thought has gone into the blog. Life just eats away at your time, you know? Hopefully I'll have more time to put into it this month since we're having a quiet time here for the holidays.

October Resolutions Update

2009-10-31T11:03:00.002-05:00

1) Read through my Bible this year before I get married May 23 this year; the entire thing, cover to cover, reading at least a chapter every single day.
In all of October, I've read just 14 pages (to page 916) but that's included Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, Philemon, and Hebrews 1-4. Partly it's also a symptom of the fact that these books are so packed with knowledge and insight into our lives in Christ, but two verses came together this morning to make it clear: I need to consider Jesus (Hebrews 3:1) and pay much closer attention (Hebrews 2:1). Still very much on track to make my goal, but I want all my reading to be worthwhile - for it to bear fruit that remains (John 15:4-5).

2) Use my credit card whenever possible but never carry a balance.
Thank goodness for budgeting and saving. One window in my truck broke, and my wife's Subaru came up on some serious preventive maintenance, so we ended up spending $1000 out of the maintenance account this month. Pretty significant spending, but because we had a budget, it didn't even touch this month's income!

3) Contribute the maximum amount to my Roth IRA account.
Too easy with automated transfers.

4) Build a three-month emergency fund.
Done.

5) Get my two mile run time under 15 minutes.
Ran a lot more often this month, but had to cut back a bit because of my knee again. Still in the 15:30-16:00 range, but feeling okay about it.

6) Finish the Navigators' "Design for Discipleship" series of Bible studies.
See resolution one. I haven't worked on the books in two months now; book six languishes on my shelf. That needs to change.

7) Blog at least once a week, plus a monthly update on my resolutions.
Fifteen posts this month, up from last month's ten, but not as much good content as I'd like. Still, this blog is a pretty low priority, so I'm pleased that it's worked out as well as it has.

September Resolutions Update

2009-09-30T18:01:00.002-05:00

1) Read through my Bible this year before I get married May 23 this year; the entire thing, cover to cover, reading at least a chapter every single day.
I've just finished Colossians, page 902. 47 pages to go this year.

2) Use my credit card whenever possible but never carry a balance.
The wife and I barely bought anything this month aside from groceries, so this was too easy.

3) Contribute the maximum amount to my Roth IRA account.
Yep.

4) Build a three-month emergency fund.
Done.

5) Get my two mile run time under 15 minutes.
Down around 15:30 on my last run. Not too bad for me, but I've got a ways to go. Here's to running!

6) Finish the Navigators' "Design for Discipleship" series of Bible studies.
Haven't started book six yet, but should get to it this week. Book five review is up, and book two.

7) Blog at least once a week, plus a monthly update on my resolutions.
This continues to get harder and harder but I did post ten times this month, twice as often as my resolution. Still trying to keep it up to every other day. Part of that is that I haven't posted much from my quiet time lately; I need to do more of that.

August Resolutions Update

2009-08-31T16:03:00.005-05:00

1) Read through my Bible this year before I get married May 23 this year; the entire thing, cover to cover, reading at least a chapter every single day.
I'm now on page 863, Romans 8. I've read every chapter in Romans two or three times - I'd forgotten how long it's been since I've read the New Testament. There is so much more to God and the Gospel that I've been missing! Romans 3:10, for example. 86 pages remaining, but a lot of meaty stuff (Hebrews 5:14). What are you reading? How do you divide up the Bible for reading? Why? What are you getting out of it?

2) Use my credit card whenever possible but never carry a balance.
If you have no idea where your money is going, or if you're struggling with debt, or if you just want to get a leg up financially, I'll refer you over to Dave Ramsey. Seriously. It makes a HUMONGOUS difference in every part of your life. My wife and I are completely free from money worries... this is one step that helps us out a lot. Our credit card bill pays itself every month and we just watch what we spend... perfect.

3) Contribute the maximum amount to my Roth IRA account. Bingo! Hooray for online banking with recurrent automatic transfers!

4) Build a three-month emergency fund.
Done.

5) Get my two mile run time under 15 minutes.
Ooooh, ouch. I'm in the gym more now, but my two mile time is still over 16 minutes. Cardio needed.

6) Finish the Navigators' "Design for Discipleship" series of Bible studies.
Seriously people, Book 5 is incredible. Look for a review in the next week or so.

7) Blog at least once a week, plus a monthly update on my resolutions.
Thirteen posts, three of which were found blurbs, plus this update for August. Well beyond my New Years' expectations, but short of my peak months in May (19) and June (24). Posting every other day seems to be a pretty good goal for my schedule, so I'm endeavoring to be content with my scant 24 hours a day. Anyone know where I can apply to get a few more? Luke 14:28 does not cover one of my strong suits.

July Resolutions Update

2009-07-31T21:15:00.002-05:00

1) Read through my Bible this year before I get married May 23 this year; the entire thing, cover to cover, reading at least a chapter every single day.
Another 50 pages down, still slow, but I'm pretty bogged down in everything right now. Consistency is the name of the game for me now.

2) Use my credit card whenever possible but never carry a balance.
Still going strong with no balance on the card.

3) Contribute the maximum amount to my Roth IRA account.
$500 in this month, and the markets are (sort of) up!

4) Build a three-month emergency fund.
Done.

5) Get my two-mile run time under 15 minutes.
Ummmmm... yeah, this was a goal? I've almost completely fallen off the exercise map. Definitely only ran about five times this month. Gotta get with the program.

6) Finish the Navigators' "Design for Discipleship" series of Bible studies.
Still in Book 5... it's pretty deep, and I'm pretty low on free time!

7) Blog at least once a week, plus a monthly update on my resolutions.
Now, while I'm still well over the baseline on this goal with thirteen posts this month, I'm still feeling like I've let it down a little - I went six days without writing anything (July 20 - July 26).

June Resolutions Update

2009-06-30T20:41:00.009-05:00

1) Read through my Bible this year before I get married May 23 this year; the entire thing, cover to cover, reading at least a chapter every single day.
I've moved from page 729 to page 777 and finished Matthew and Mark this month; I wish I could say that it's because I'm spending so much time meditating on each passage but it's actually just because I'm spending so little time reading. At fifty pages a month and a little under two hundred pages to go, I'll certainly finish the whole thing this year, but I'd like to be able to focus more on what I'm reading. Now that I'm into the schedule for my work training, that should get easier, but life is pretty hectic. I've got to do a better job of setting aside time to read the Word.

2) Use my credit card whenever possible but never carry a balance.
Still good to go. Two hundred dollars in cash rewards racked up so far this year.

3) Contribute the maximum amount to my Roth IRA account.
Another five hundred in the bank this month. I was all in the Fidelity Balanced fund, but I've recently started going into the USAA Precious Metals and Minerals fund and the Buffalo Small Cap fund. Please don't take this as financial/investment advice or endorsement of those funds - I make no claims about how any fund will work out for anyone!

4) Build a three-month emergency fund.
Done.

5) Get my two-mile run time under 15 minutes.
Well, I ran a few times this month, and swam a few times, but as my quiet time has suffered, so has my physical fitness. I have started doing a set of push-ups as I roll out of bed in the morning, but that isn't really geared towards fitness; it's more for waking me up on those days I have to be at work at 0430. I really need to push myself to run more often, run harder, and run longer distances this month.

6) Finish the Navigators' "Design for Discipleship" series of Bible studies.
I'm still in book 5; it'll be finished in July. I do need to get on the ball with it, though, since I'm still in chapter two!

7) Blog at least once a week, plus a monthly update on my resolutions.
This is one thing that hasn't suffered from my increased load at work, because I had a pretty large backlog of posts built up that saved me from having to do much writing this month. I posted every single day from May 16 to June 19, and I've posted every other day since then. And this post is on time! Unfortunately, the other shoe is about to drop and while I have post topics lined up for the next two months on an every-other-day basis, very few of them are fleshed out and complete. So I've got some writing to do. July's theme for me? Discipline.

Cool House

2009-06-02T09:41:00.004-05:00

This month's issue of Metropolitan Home (which I subscribed to for free) has a very interesting article about a very cool house.

It's 25 feet square - 575 square feet.

My current apartment feels cozy, and it's 1019 square feet - almost twice the size of the house in the article. But I can't help wondering how cool it would be to get rid of all the clutter that having so much space generates. Maybe I wouldn't go quite as extreme as 575 square feet - and the article is just about a vacation cabin - but a house ten meters on a side would give you just over 1075 square feet, enough to live in comfortably without too many distractions. Less space to fill means less stuff to buy; less stuff to buy means less stuff to maintain and organize. I realize that at some level, x amount of stuff is necessary to sustain life (or maybe not), but I still think it's a great experiment!

May Resolutions Update

2009-05-31T13:00:00.006-05:00

1) Read through my Bible this year before I get married May 23 this year; the entire thing, cover to cover, reading at least a chapter every single day.
This didn't happen. In April, I wrote that I had only read 71 pages in an entire month; this month, I've gone from page 485 to page 729 - 244 pages. A major improvement, but not enough. I finished the Old Testament on May 21, and it's pretty taxing to read the entire New Testament in two days when you're trying to get married. So I'm back to the original goal, reading the entire Bible, at least one chapter per day, before the end of the year. I'm pretty sure I can finish the remaining 220 pages of my Bible this year. While I'm not happy that I missed this goal, I know I can't change things now so the best thing to do is keep pressing on.

2) Use my credit card whenever possible but never carry a balance.
Still on the money (pun intended), no balance on the card, despite a few unforeseen wedding expenses. Having money saved in "Goal" and "Maintenance" accounts has really been helpful!

3) Contribute the maximum amount to my Roth IRA account.
$500 went in this month! That's $2000 for the year, right on schedule!

4) Build a three-month emergency fund.
Done.

5) Get my two-mile run time under 15 minutes. I'm down around the sixteen minute mark and dropping fast. I really have to focus on this goal now, because my time has gotten so much less available due to some intensive job training I'm participating in for the next six months.

6) Finish the Navigators' "Design for Discipleship" series of Bible studies.
I'm in book five, posted a review of book four this month. If I can keep up half the pace I've set so far, I'll be done with the seven-book series in October.

7) Blog at least once a week, plus a monthly update on my resolutions.
May went much better than April. I have nineteen posts this month, of which fewer than half are short "found" blurbs. I've added an "About" page to the blog, and I've got a few ideas that should help keep me on track with posting for the next few months at least, despite my much busier schedule.

Don't Buy Luxury Goods

2009-05-17T13:46:00.004-05:00

Seth Godin has a great post today about the difference between luxury goods and premium goods. His insight into luxury goods - "Luxury goods are organized waste," is spot on. Luxury goods are when you pay more for a designer's logo. I don't buy luxury goods. Premium goods, he writes, are "Pay more, get more." I own a $200 Benchmade knife. While it probably didn't need to cost that much, it is very high quality. I wanted a premium knife when I bought it. There were plenty of $500+ luxury knives on the Benchmade website, but none of them would have performed any better than mine.

April Resolutions Update

2009-04-30T15:54:00.002-05:00

1) Read through my Bible this year before I get married May 23; the entire thing, cover to cover, reading at least a chapter every single day.
At the end of March, I was on page 414 of 949, starting Psalms. Today I finished Psalms, and I'm on page 485. Nothing near the 300 pages I had planned to read this month, so I'm way behind. No excuse. I have to make time for God in my life, and that means I have to make time to read, study, and meditate on His Word.

2) Use my credit card whenever possible but never carry a balance.
Good to go.

3) Contribute the maximum amount to my Roth IRA account.
$500 in for this month, makes $2,000 so far this year.

4) Build a three-month emergency fund.
Done.

5) Get my two-mile run time under 15 minutes.
I'm in the sixteens at the moment, so I've got a lot of work to do, but at least I can run two miles. This resolution, more than any except my first, requires daily commitment on my part and it just hasn't been there thus far. I can claim all sorts of busyness and things that came up, but the simple fact is that I haven't been keeping up my end of the bargain.

6) Finish the Navigators' "Design for Discipleship" series of Bible studies.
I finished book four, The Character Of A Christian, this month. Look for a review like I did for DFD3 in the next week or so.

7) Blog at least once a week, plus a monthly update on my resolutions.
Yep, fell on my face here again... I blogged twice in the first week and once in the second week of April, but then I missed sixteen straight days. Five posts total for the month (down from twelve in March), so a good weekly average, but three of them were "found" blurbs where I added nothing to the conversation beyond, "hey, look at that," which doesn't really count.

March Resolutions Update

2009-03-31T10:27:00.004-05:00

1) Read through my Bible this year before I get married May 23; the entire thing, cover to cover, reading at least a chapter every single day.
I'm on Psalm 1 today, and I haven't done today's reading yet; page 414 of 949. I'm slightly behind the curve for finishing before May 23, but it's definitely still an achievable goal. Gotta hit the Book!

2) Use my credit card whenever possible but never carry a balance.
Going well so far!

3) Contribute the maximum amount to my Roth IRA account.
$500 more in this month!

4) Build a three-month emergency fund.
Done.

5) Get my two-mile run time under 15 minutes.
This month saw me return to running medium distance (1-3 miles) on a fairly regular basis (twice a week), as well as a fair amount of time spent playing pick-up games of basketball. My knee is not 100 percent, but there's no pain any more, and it feels GREAT to be able to run again!

6) Finish the Navigators' "Design for Discipleship" series of Bible studies.
I've finished chapter 3 of book 4; chapter 5 is this week. I will post a review of book 4 when I finish it in a few weeks like I did for book 3 this month.

7) Blog at least once a week, plus a monthly update on my resolutions.
I posted on March 3, 9, 14, 15, 20, 23, 25, 26, 27, 28, and now 31... 12 posts in all, more than once every three days. And my monthly update is actually on time (thankfully, my internet service was restored early)!

February Resolutions Update

2009-03-03T11:09:00.007-06:00

I'm three days behind again; maybe I'll claim I thought it was February 31st?

1) Read through my Bible this year; the entire thing, cover to cover, reading at least a chapter every single day.
I'm on page 310 (I Chronicles 1:1) of 949, or 32.6% finished, not including what I'll read this afternoon. That puts my average at just over 5 pages per day, finishing on July 5. I'm upping the ante. I want to finish the entire Bible before May 23, my wedding day. I'll need to average just under 8 pages per day to get there, but it's doable. Way doable. And the reading I've done so far has given me a lot of insight, like I Kings 14:8. It says that David kept God's commandments and followed Him with all his heart... so they're two different things; not that you can follow Him and not keep His commandments, but it's possible to keep His commandments halfheartedly. I want to be like David and do both!

2) Use my credit card whenever possible but never carry a balance.
Haven't had any problems with that - I've made vast improvements in my money management using a Google spreadsheet and a (sort-of) zero-based budget. Spending is down, saving is up, and I'm paying down my debt at an accelerated rate.

3) Contribute the maximum amount to my Roth IRA account.
Done. $500 in for the month of February. $4,500 left this year at $500 per month means I don't even have to contribute in December!

4) Build a three-month emergency fund.
Done. I cheated. My fiancé, who'd done slightly better with her money than I have recently, had a well-established emergency fund, and we spent a lot of time and effort getting our finances - including things like auto and renter's insurance - combined into a single set of joint accounts. We did retain our personal checking accounts to use for our allowance... it's hard to buy surprise gifts when your significant other sees the credit card statements!

5) Get my two-mile run time under 15 minutes.
Last month I had made very little progress towards this goal, since I was fighting what I thought was illio-tibial band syndrome. Turns out that while my IT band was irritated at first, it had healed but the muscular atrophy I suffered during the healing process caused my left kneecap to become unstable. Some new physical therapy stretches and a good deal of walking to strengthen the muscles, and I'm jogging and playing basketball for the first time in months. Definitely an improvement.

6) Finish the Navigators' "Design for Discipleship" series of Bible studies.
This week I'm taking a break from the chapter-per-week schedule I've been on to review Book 3 before I charge into Book 4. I've been meaning to go back and review all three of the books I've done so far, but just haven't done it, and a wise man suggested to me that I should do it this week. So I am.

7) Blog at least once a week, plus a monthly update on my resolutions.
Good to go this month, except that the only post I made during week one of February was my January resolutions update... so I guess that doesn't count. But six posts in 28 days isn't bad; not including these updates, my average for the year is one post every five days. Hopefully in March I'll remember to post the monthly update before the month is actually over!

The Wedding Industry Is A Lie

2009-02-10T23:19:00.005-06:00

I know, I'm getting married. But we all get carried away sometimes by marketing hype... what office worker can resist an Embody Chair? I think the next big step for me in living a frugal lifestyle and building wealth is to ditch the marketing. It's amazing to me that I somehow still fall for marketing, since I browse ad-free, I don't watch television, and most of the ads on Hulu (where I watch Bones with my fiancé) aren't even for purchased products - they're for stuff like Feed The Pig, which, ironically enough, is a website devoted to saving! So how do I get caught up in marketing hype? Somehow it happens.

The title of the post is from one of Seth Godin's blogs, called All Marketers Are Liars. The post in question hit home with me because I'm in the process of planning a wedding and I'm oh-so-thankful to have a fantastic woman who wants nothing to do with the wedding industry or many of the so-called traditions that it has sold to women in America. She follows I Peter 3:3-4, and she is beautiful in every way. Now I've just got to learn from her example and really start to wonder if I need an Omega watch, a massive house, or a convertible.

Ok, maybe just the convertible.

January Resolutions Update

2009-02-03T16:23:00.004-06:00

Well, it's already February 3, so I'm a few days behind, but here's my monthly update on how things are going with my 2009 New Year's Resolutions, point-by-point.

1) Read through my Bible this year; the entire thing, cover to cover, reading at least a chapter every single day.
Well, I missed a few days here and there, but none in the last two weeks. I finished Numbers and started Deuteronomy this morning, and I've been struck by some of the things I never noticed before, like the fact that the Ark of the Covenant had a cover over it whenever Israel moved, so all those movies where you see the ark itself being carried are missing something. Anther verse I found particularly interesting was Deuteronomy 4:9; it points right towards one of my favorite sermons, that forgetfulness is like faith cancer. As soon as the nation of Israel began to forget the things God had done for them, they strayed from the path... In Deuteronomy 4:9, Moses implores them not to forget, but to tell their children and their grandchildren about the goodness of God!!!

2) Never use my credit card. Use my credit card whenever possible but never carry a balance.
I updated this resolution after reading a post about the cash-back percentages on some credit cards and receiving a $300 dollar deposit into my account from my bank through their rewards program. I've only ever paid less than the total balance on my credit card once, but it's not something I intend to do ever again.

3) Contribute the maximum amount to my Roth IRA account.
Haven't done anything on this one yet... budget calls for $500 contribution in February, so....

4) Build a three-month emergency fund.
I have $1,000 at the moment, and had intended to put in more during January, but I ended up reading a book that my dad (an accountant and CEO) gave me for Christmas by Dave Ramsey that strongly advocated getting out of debt as quickly as possible. It convinced me, and so my $30,000 student loan is getting eaten at $1,100 per month (despite the fact that it was at 1% interest). However, this goal is still on track - more about that later.

5) Get my two-mile run time under 15 minutes.
Unfortunately, this goal took a huge hit on January 7, when my doctor told me to quit running for a month and let my knee heal. More to follow in later months.

6) Finish the Navigators' "Design for Discipleship" series of Bible studies.
Finished book two, working on chapter two in book three. One chapter per week. I'm also working on The Story of Christianity (graciously loaned to me by Kristen over at Recipes!) to fill a void in my knowledge about the actual, chronological history of the body of Christ, and Real Worship, which has been eye-opening for my personal worship.

7) Blog at least once a week, plus a monthly update on my resolutions.
I posted at least once every week (Sunday-Saturday), even if there was a 10-day drought in the middle of the month. Should've gotten this post in last Saturday to make it in before January ended, but I'm not overly upset about it. One thing that I'd like to pick up from Dave (FenderNut'sPlace) is that he posts a lot from his quiet times... I think that this blog should focus that direction as well, so look for more in the future.

Credit Cards

2009-01-12T19:40:00.007-06:00

This weekend I found, by way of Get Rich Slowly, a post from Coleman Unlimited that intrigued me about the usefulness of credit cards. The post's basic point, lost on me when I made my New Years' resolutions, is that some credit cards do, in fact, pay you money!

Upon checking my account online, I found that my credit card has earned between 0.35 and one percent cash back on all my purchases. My debit card, for comparison, earns half a percent.

In light of this realization, I've changed the "terms and conditions" of my resolutions... I intend to use my credit card as often as I spend money (which I still intend to limit as much as possible), in order to gain the benefit of its cash rewards policy. However, it is still my resolution never to carry a balance on the card. What point is there in receiving one percent rewards and then paying a fourteen or fifteen percent penalty?

Resolutions

2008-12-31T18:04:00.007-06:00

I've never made New Year's resolutions before, but I think this is a great year to start. Proverbs 12:15 says, "The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man is he who listens to counsel." I know that there are a lot of things in my life that aren't even right in my own eyes when I look back on them, and if even a fool thinks his way is right, what does that make me?

Three specific, and related, areas of my life that need serious development right now are my time in the Word, my physical fitness, and my financial readiness. From these areas, I've made six resolutions.

1) Read through my Bible this year; the entire thing, cover to cover, reading at least a chapter every single day. I find that the more I read the Bible, and the more often I read the Bible, the more resolute I am to follow God's ways rather than my own. Reading the entire thing in a year seems to be a fairly common baseline for committed Christians; there are plenty of resources out there on how to do it.

Resolutions 2, 3, and 4 are all based on financial stewardship of the blessings God gives me. Aside from tithing, I believe that God wants us to act wisely with our money. Not to hoard wealth, but to live simply and within our means, while staying prepared for the future and helping others whenever possible. "A fool and his money are soon parted;" too often I have been the fool.

2) Never use my credit card. Once upon a time, I wanted a credit card to build credit, but I now have other loans (student and auto loans) that will accomplish that purpose, and in the last few months, I have lived outside my means by buying on credit. No more. Not that my situation is dire; my credit debt has been paid down already. But there is no reason to allow myself the leeway to get into that situation again.

3) Contribute the maximum amount to my Roth IRA account. I've done this since 2006; despite the recent economic downturn, I know that stocks should, in the long run, return about ten percent, and I want to continue to build wealth that way.

4) Build a three-month emergency fund. While I'm fairly certain my employment is secure for the foreseeable future, there are still lots of little calamities that could happen, and I want to be sure that I can handle them. I picked six months because that seemed like a reasonable number, and I intend to build the fund to whatever my monthly income is times six. However, there are other things in my budget too, and saving 60 percent or more (to meet resolution 3 as well as build a six-month emergency fund) of my income is basically impossible, so I chose three months as a more reasonable goal. I'll save more next year until I reach six months' income, rated at whatever my income is at that point.

To complete resolutions 3 and 4, I automatically transfer $500 to a savings account marked "Emergency Fund" each time I get paid (twice a month). At some point during the year, when I have three months' salary saved plus $5000, I'll move that $5000 into my Roth IRA. Check into the automatic transfers options for whatever bank you use online. I find that if the transfer happens the same day I get paid, there's always enough in my account to cover it and I can't easily access the money, which checks me from spending it.

5) Get my two-mile run time under 15 minutes. There was a time a few years ago when I could run two miles in 14 minutes. Yesterday it took me almost 16. One or two minutes should be nothing to drop off a run, right? Well, I hate running; not so much the act as the dread it represents, of knowing quantitatively how badly out of shape I am. But my body belongs to the Lord, and I should treat it as such and keep it in the best working order I know how.

6) Finish the Navigators' "Design for Discipleship" series of Bible studies. I'm currently in book two and ashamed to say I've made little progress in the last two months. Going back to resolution 1, I know I need to focus more on saturating myself in God's Word. Doing a Bible study with a committed group is a great way to augment my personal reading. I'm going to do one chapter a week.

My last resolution doesn't necessarily deal with my three focus areas, but it forces me to think about them on a regular basis, keeping them in the front of my mind.

7) Blog at least once a week, plus a monthly update on my resolutions. This blog is meant to center around what it means to really be a man and around my work to become one and be one (yes, those are different things, and no, they don't necessarily have any particular order). It's mostly for my own thoughts, since I have to focus a lot more when I'm putting stuff out in a public forum... I have to really consider my words before I declare something to be what it is. By posting an update on these resolutions, I'll keep myself accountable to whoever might pass by on teh interwebs.

Inspired

2008-11-10T11:45:00.002-06:00

Yes, I have a degree in computer science. Yes, I own my own domain(s). No, I don't host my own website.

It's fantastic.

Lifehacker, one of my favorite websites, ran an article on hosting a domain with free tools. I'm all about free stuff. So here it is.