🤠 How To Complete a 66 Day Challenge

Day 66: Reaching the Finish Line

by Edward Smith

09 Sept 2020

Mission Complete!

In this article I wanted to finish what I started back on 06 July 2020.  By this point it's been sixty six full days from when my challenge first began.   You may be wondering, what is a sixty six day challenge, and does it even work?  

A sixty six day challenge is a line you draw in the sand.  It's you, declaring war on your stupid past self.   It's you deciding to get mad at things.  It's you deciding to figure things out.   

In this article I'm going to tell you what my sixty six day challenge was, and what I learned.  We all have a story to tell.  This is mine.

Reflecting On the Last 66 Days

When I started this whole thing back in July, I had a number of concerns trapped in my head, but I was short on answers.  Back in July I was worried about money, and I had just gotten done reading this awesome book called "Retired Inspired" by Chris Hogan. 

In Chris Hogan's book, Hogan mentions that it takes about 66 days of scrutiny and intentional living to undo and change a bad habit.   That's where I got the idea for this blog.  I figured I'm going to have to face my next 66 days whether I want to do it responsibly or not.   I might as well do it with intention and with a plan.   

So on day one I sat down and decided to figure things out.

My Overspending Problem Defined

When I lived in California I had a nice paying full time job.  The pay was nice, but I worried about getting laid off every single day.   Being scared all of the time made me unhappy, so to make myself happy I began buying things.  It didn't work, but that's what I did.

I began buying large quantities of dvd movies, video games and beer.   I couldn't afford to do it, but I justified it and did it anyways.  I enjoyed receiving the packages, and I enjoyed seeing my collection of stuff.   

Those packages came with a steep price.   I ended up hurting my wife.   She didn't know what to do with me, and she had trouble trusting me after it happened.   It wasn't fair, so I owed her.

Paying Her Back

I knew what I had done.  It was time to rewrite history once and for all.

I love my wife and I'm man enough to know when I'm wrong and when I need to fix something.   

I decided that during the next sixty six days I would really take a hard look at myself in the mirror and put new controls into place that would keep me from repeating old mistakes.   So that's exactly what I did.  Instead of talking about it, I did something about it.

For sixty six days I looked at the whole thing with a critical eye.  I wrote about it, and I thought about it, which meant I often thought about it even when I wasn't trying to think about it.   It sound silly, but the process really helped me to organize and figure things out.   

It turned out, that for me, the money thing wasn't really that hard to fix, I just had to make some adjustments to my lifestyle and determine what mattered the most to me.   I'd done it before on a larger scale with my family and our budget, but I needed to do it again on a smaller more personal scale.  That's really all it took.   The problem wasn't hard to solve, it just took a while for me to actually see it.   Once I got it, it was pretty easy to fix.

 

Conclusion

If you ever find yourself struggling, it's okay.   Instead of worrying, take a sixty six day challenge.  

Identify your problem, and give it continuous love and attention.   You may be surprised by what you learn.   

When you address things for sixty six days straight, it puts pressure on your bad habits.   Your habits are resistant, but they can't hide from you forever.   Eventually you track them down.   They get cornered and they attempt to fight you off, but they're not very good at fighting because they lack conviction.  

Every day you bombard them, and as you do that, the habit begins to lose steam and begins to appear ridiculous.   After enough days the habit surrenders.  You win.   Common sense prevails.      

I encourage you to do a sixty six day challenge today.  It works.  You'll be thankful you did it.   

Sixty Six Day Challenger Signing Off

🤠 How a Family Constitution Declares War on Mediocrity

 

Day 65: You Are How You Live

by Edward Smith

08 Sept 2020

Figure Out Who You Are

In this article I wanted to do something a little different again.  On the second floor of my house hangs a piece of paper in a picture frame.   On 27 June 2019 I wrote this document after reading a book by Steven Covey called the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. 

In his book, Covey argues that every person should clearly outline their goals and define their principals.  This is important, because if you don't live according to your deep rooted purpose, you live an incorrect life, and your efforts are in vain.

Once you know who you are, and what you want to be, Covey tells you to write it all down, and hang it up in a place where you see it every single day.   It's like a map.  It reminds you where you're going.   

It's why I take things like challenges so seriously.  None of this stuff is ever just about me.  I'm part of a bigger world.   I have a family.  I live in a community.   

Here is the one that I wrote and that I follow to this day.

My Family Constitution    

Written on 27 June 2019

We The Family,

Agree to Guide Our Lives in Accordance with the following Mission Statement

Our Mission is to Live in Harmony with one Another, to Love, to be Honest, to Practice Integrity, Empathy, Personal Excellence and to Impact the World

To Fulfill this Mission:

I Live in a House of Love and Safety:     This house is a place of learning and of acceptance.   I’m allowed to make mistakes.   I’m allowed to say sorry.   I’m allowed to push back and to grow.   The family will not judge me.   The family will be there for me no matter what and will help me through difficult spots.  I can ask questions.    People will make time for me.    I can express ideas and the household will listen to me and will remain open.   I will not act out in emotion.   I will take a moment and collect myself.   I will not hurt others or myself.  I will not bully.  I see each of my family members as having worth.   My family is a team.   My team values me as an individual and my individuality is worthy of celebration and respect.

I Listen:   Each person in this house has personal dignity.   Each person in this house has a voice and is valued.   Each person will be listened to.   This is a house of open communication.   Attempts to understand and learn from each other will be made.   We will never purposely  ignore or talk over another family member.  We will take turns.   Each person will speak and be heard.   We all matter and our words carry meaning and our words are valuable.   

I am Fair but Firm:   I have jobs to do and people trust me to get those jobs done.   I will be corrected if I do not do my job.   I will ask for help and my family will help me.  I will be fair and my family members will be fair with me.    We will discuss conflicts or concerns openly.   We will respect each other’s privacy.   We will listen to and will value all opinions.    We will not accuse.   We will not attack.   We will not devalue.    We will approach conflict in a calm and collected manner.   

We will Have Fun:   We are all kids at heart.   We work hard so that we can play hard.   

Life is  fun and life is about experiencing joy and laughter.   We will always make time for fun.   Fun is important.   We will laugh out loud.   We will enjoy each other’s company.   We will be silly.   We will be goofy.   We will tell jokes and will tickle one another.   We will have a sense of humor, and will laugh at our mistakes.

Conclusion

In this article I shared my family's constitution with you. I hope it inspires you. I think you have your own set of goals, and that your life is unique and special. Value it. It's important. You were put here for a reason. You need to take it seriously. Figure out who you are. Figure out why you're here. Think about it, and put some effort into it.

Once you know, you'll grow. Life takes guts. Be brave. Stick to your guns, and stay the course. The world needs you. You have something valuable to offer. A family constitution is your chance to put the thing into writing and to define it. It's like a cornerstone. You can build great things once you have it in place. Write one today. Hang it up. Review it. Live it and use it to stay on track. The world will be better for it. This is your chance!

🤠 How To Use Education to Become Even Better

Day 64: Learn to Earn

by Edward Smith

07 Sept 2020

You're Only as Cool as Your School

In this article I want to talk about education, and how education has helped me to become better.   If you read one of my earlier articles entitled  🤠    How to Buy Books Online and Have the Books Pay For Themselves, you would have learned how I make some extra cash on the side doing a thing called Mturk.   That's not really the point of this article.   

The point of this article, is that I thought I knew everything there was to know about MTurk and making side money, but boy was I wrong.

How Education Can Lead to Exponential Gains

What a weird world we live in.   Back on 31 July 2020, I was writing about how I was able to make $1.50 a day doing online surveys on the side.  That's only a month ago.  Thanks to some education, the whole thing changed overnight.   Education is awesome.

Back in July, I was excited that I could open up my door and it was like a buck fifty was sitting on the ground waiting for me every day.   I'm still happy about that, but boy was I shorting myself.  If you put in the work, you can really make good money doing non-traditional things.  You just have to believe in the process and set your goals high.  Once you do that, it starts to happen.

August Was a Game Changer

In the middle of August, I began looking into MTurk again and stumbled upon a reddit feed that actually helps MTurk workers network with one another.  

In this feed I ran across a handbook that this girl created to help people raise money during the Corona virus outbreak.   It was free to use and free to share.   

As you may or may not have heard, many people have lost their jobs during the pandemic.  So people are looking for work, or for ways to raise extra cash to help out.   That is where this reddit post came in.  In the post this lady listed out a bunch of tools and ideas for raising your MTurk earnings.   In her article she claimed she could make $150 to $200 a week doing MTurk.

I had heard statements like this before, but I wasn't really buying into it because I had never done it on my own.   I decided to try out some of her techniques, and low and behold, they work!   

I haven't reached the amounts she does yet, but doing what she suggested has really improved my earnings, so I'm overjoyed.   Here is what I learned.

Working Smarter

In her handbook the author pointed me to this cool little script mod called MTurk suite.   Here is the link.

If you download this script, it embeds itself into your internet browser and it suddenly makes your standard MTurk user interface super smart.   

Thanks to this download I can now view a fancy report that tells me how many jobs I worked and what the future is likely to look like.  It shows me what is outstanding, how much I expect to get, and what I might get for the entire month. It presents this in a very easy to read document, so no extraneous digging is required.   

It also does history reports and lets me download the info and manipulate it within a spreadsheet.

That's not all though.  MTurk Suite also lets you find jobs way faster.  It actually auto looks for everything every 3000 milliseconds.   That doesn't sound like a big deal, but when you are used to manually navigating a website that takes a few seconds to update, you find out there is an entire world of job listings out there that you never saw, because while your website sluggishly updated, the competition grabbed them all up using the script that you weren't using.

MTurk Suite has revolutioned how I interacted with MTurk.   I began to take MTurk very seriously again, and began working the required hours to boost up my income.   I wanted to see if I could hit a goal of fifteen bucks a day.   

Turns out if you aim high, you earn high.   Last week I did this for five days and I averaged over $15.00 a day.   There are peak times and down times, so you have to learn when to walk away, but there are also times where you can make a lot of progress in a short period of time.   It's all about managing your time effectively.

On average I think I worked about 5 to 6 hours a day, but I could have easily walked away during two of those hours each day because there were noticeable drops in work during certain times.   I just didn't know that so I had to stay active during every hour watching for when the work would show up.

Then I learned and adapted.   

Now that I know there are low times, I can schedule around those low times and only show up when the work is around.    As I said, education is awesome.   You know what else is awesome?   Fifteen bucks a day.   Let me tell you about that.

What I Can Do with Fifteen Dollars a Day

Fifteen bucks a day is ten times more than what I was doing previously.   This is a total game changer for me.  

If I do twenty days of work at $15.00 a day I'll  have earned $300 extra dollars for the month.   That's money I can invest in the stock market.   Do that for a year and I'll have an extra $3,600 working towards improving my future me.  It also doesn't affect my household in any noticeable way.  I can do this while I'm doing online classes with the kids for school.

I also can use it to offset our budget and help pay for things that we need.   It's completely flexible.  It's like we got a side gig, and I never left the house.   My entire budget outlook has been flipped upside down.   

Conclusion

Spending time online to learn something new was dramatically beneficial for me.  

I learned about MTurk suite and my ability to earn extra cash for the house blew up overnight.

It's made me look at myself again in a different way.   I've had to review who I am and what I'm capable of.  Instead of settling for $1.50, I can put in the work and earn a substantial amount of money every week above and beyond what I thought I could do working from home.  

$75 bucks a week might not change your life, but in my world, I can do a great many things with that small amount.    That's also assuming that I can't learn something else and boost it up even higher.   This might just be a step to something bigger. 

It's all about perspective and intention.  If you think you have done all there is to do.   Stop what your'e doing, review the problem and try again.  You might be short selling yourself.   Don't settle.

 

🤠 How To Celebrate With Your Kids and Learn Something Important

Day 63: Happy Birthday Mommy!

by Edward Smith

06 Sept 2020

Celebrate With Your Kids

If you read my last article entitled 🤠  How To Make Birthday's Happy Without Expensive Toys, you would have read about how we spent my wife's 40th birthday celebration.   We did things with intention, and my wife had a great day because we made it meaningful.   

My kids though, made it even better for her.   That's what happens when you include your kids.   If you have kids.  Include them.  This is how my kids stepped up and made my wife's birthday better.  I couldn't have done it without them.

Quality Moments Are Made Better With Kids

On the day of my wife's special celebration, my oldest kid woke me up and whispered he wanted to surprise his mom and make the day really special.   So we let my wife sleep in, we crept downstairs and we pulled out a paper crown kit that we had purchased for one of my kid's birthdays last year.   

There were still some extra crowns in the package, so my eldest asked if he could decorate one.   He spent the morning coloring the crown and had it waiting for my wife when she came downstairs.   For the entire day she got to sit around the house as a queen in a crown that her son had built.   

Giving the Gift of a Family Tradition

My youngest son reminded me to hang up the Happy Birthday sign that we've hung up on every birthday since we've moved into this house.   It's turned into a family heirloom of sorts.  I imagine it might be hung in one of my son's house's later on.  

It's become a family tradition around here.   The sign only cost a couple of dollars when we first bought it, but it's worth a lot more then that now.   We usually hang it up on the day of the event, and it might get displayed for an entire week.   

In our house birthdays can last as long as Hanukkah.  Whenever we look up and see the birthday sign we smile, because it reminds us of the good moment we all shared as a family.  It's something fun, and it reminds you to keep having fun.

Pizza Time!

For lunch I was sent out to the grocery store to pick up birthday supplies, and to this really great pizza parlor near our house.   My wife got the single serve chocolate indulgence cake that she wanted, and the boys and I split up a round of chocolate and vanilla cupcakes that we wanted.   

For pizza, my wife likes a pineapple and Canadian bacon style pizza, and we go for the meat lovers pizza with sausage, hamburger, and ham.   

I really like this plan, because the local restaurants have had it pretty tough around here.  It was our chance to help one of them out, and to enjoy a good meal at home.   

The whole thing was pretty glorious.    When you don't do something all of the time, it becomes more special and important when you do it.  You stop taking it for granted.   

Birthday Containers Contain Joy!

There is this joke that parents tell.   It's about how their kid received this super expensive one of a kind toy for their birthday.  The kid then spent the majority of the month playing with the box that the toy came in while ignoring the toy itself.    

After dinner, my wife's special pots and pans arrived.  It was pretty cool.   The whole family got involved.  My wife was giddy with joy because she finally got to own the set of pots she always wanted.

That made them matter more to both of us.   They were no longer just pots.   They were "the" pots.

We had spent the last ten years using the pots we got when we were first married.   They work.  We're not complaining, but over those ten years we had said no to a lot of things, and this time we wanted to say yes to something that we really wanted.   So we decided to use this moment as the moment.

My kids were giddy because the pot set came in a huge box with bubble wrap and they got to play in the box and pop the bubbles and make lots of noise.  

They even built a cat house out of the box so that my cat would have somewhere to live.   Apparently my house cat has had it pretty rough up to this point.   Luckily she now owns a house.   

Conclusion

That's how you win at birthdays.   Birthdays don't have to be complicated.   Meaning doesn't have to be expensive.  

In my wife's case, we did buy some pots, and the pots cost money.   I'm not ignoring that.   The thing with these pots though, is they weren't impulsive.  This idea didn't just show up today.  This was something my wife had wanted for ten years.   We spent ten years not buying them.   

Since we paid the price ahead of time, we were able to do it.  

That being said, the pots weren't necessary.   My kids could have made a card for my wife and she would have been equally as happy.   

Her favorite memories from the day were how her kids acted like goof balls and enjoyed spending time with her.  She was very touched by the paper crown.   She became excited when she saw the birthday sign.   

She got to be a kid again and was made to feel special by those that care about her.     The stuff we bought online was just a nice bonus.  Like the icing on the cake.   We like the icing.   It tastes great.  

Birthdays can be fun.  They should be fun, but don't worry about spending money to make them fun.  

Keep them simple.   Keep the person in the spotlight.   Give them attention, and remind them that they are important.   That's what the day is celebrating.  That's how you make birthdays, great days.  Make birthdays great days today.

   

🤠 How To Make Birthday's Happy Without Expensive Toys

Day 62: The Best Present is Being Present

by Edward Smith

05 Sept 2020

Birthday's Can Be Fun Again

In this article I want to talk about birthday celebrations, and how these things can get completely out of hand if you don't stay true to what a birthday is supposed to be about. 

It's weird.  We celebrate birthday's every year, but for some reason we don't seem to learn from the experience.   

Think about it.   What do you remember?   Do you remember the expensive things your parents did for you, or were you more interested in hanging out with your friends and family?   Birthdays can be exciting.   They're great for bringing people together and having fun.   

That being said, they don't have to be extravagant.  Let's return to the days when kids were kids and kids enjoyed birthdays because birthdays reminded them that they were special.    

My Wife's Birthday

My wife's birthday was last Thursday.   We decided to do something special this year.   She hit the big 4-0.  That doesn't happen every day.

So here is what we did.   Since everyone is in lock down, and trips have been cancelled, we decided to take the money that we had saved ahead of time for the trip and spend it on something she actually has wanted for over a decade.  

Something meaningful, something personal and something she'll really enjoy using every day, whether she is using it or watching others around her use it.

A set of nice new pots for cooking.    I know.   Pots?   Really?

Let's think about it for a second though.  You have to eat every day right?   You have to cook if you're not spending your money at restaurants.   

Pots are both useful at the worst times, and really fun at the best of times.  Pots also teach a valuable lesson.   Eating at home can be fun, and it can bring people together.  

Pots become the glue that holds a healthy family together during meal time.   If you don't own a good set of pots and pans.  You should look into fixing that as soon as you can.   They're extremely valuable.   They even come with a set of great memories.   Bust them out and see what happens.

Choosing Between Pots and Plane Tickets

It turns out plane trips cost more then pot sets.  So if you decide to abstain from the skies, the sky is the limit when you want to go shopping for a good quality set of pots.     

We decided to combine her birthday with our upcoming wedding anniversary.   We figured the lock down would still be going on through October, so why not get something that we can enjoy both now and then.  

Happy Birthaversary?

Want to Know How We Made the Day Better?    

Read My Next Article

🤠 How To Contain Yourself and Your Legacy

Day 61: Help You Help Them

by Edward Smith

04 Sept 2020

Defining Your Legacy

In this article I want to talk about a little thing called a legacy box.  You aren't going to live forever. There is nothing you can do about it, but that doesn't mean things are out of control.   

Wills and a legacy box tell people what to do, and where things need to go.   If you plan to pass away at some point, do so with a legacy box.  It's the greatest gift you can leave your family.   

Having A Box Vs. Not Having One

When I was growing up, I witnessed a grandma that passed away that didn't have one.  Her funeral was messy.  Nobody knew what to do, where to go, or what was going on.    This led to infighting and frustration.  Instead of her passing being about her and her memory, her passing became a chore for those left behind.   That is what they remember.        

I also had a grandfather that passed away, and his funeral was clean and easy, because he had taken the time ahead of time to lay everything out in detailed fashion.   When he passed, things were pretty easy.   

His instructions were clear.   His daughter just had to follow the steps.   Thanks to him, the obstacles were removed.   People were able to find things and take care of things.   He did this with a will and a legacy box.   People got to spend their free time grieving and remembering a good man.

   

   Create a Legacy Box

Think of a legacy box as a shoe box full of important information with a set of easy to understand instructions.  It's kind of like a box of cake mix.    The instructions tell you what to do, and the contents allow you to do it.    You may be missing something, but the instructions bring attention to it and tell you what you need.   No figuring things out.   Follow the instructions, get results.

Legacy boxes are kind of like your third level of defense.   

Your first level of defense is done within your financial accounts themselves.  You need to go into all of them and update your beneficiary list.   That is super important.  If you don't do that, you're going to create a bunch of problems.   

This is how it works.   When you pass, you send each account a copy of your death certificate.  If your account has a beneficiary listed, that person gains control over the account.   If that person is not listed, then they can't do anything.   

You can't edit the names after you're gone, and the people left behind can't change anything either.  Whatever you have listed is how it goes, so make sure the names listed are correct ahead of time.   It's the only way to ensure your wishes are carried out.     

Your will is your second line of defense.  In your will you might state how your estate gets split up and where you want all of your big or important things to go.  It also tells your lawyers who is in charge of doing what.    This ensures you don't have random people mucking up the process, like uncles and aunts that show up unexpectedly to get a piece of the pie.   

Your Legacy box is your third line of defense.  You can think of it like the supplement to your will.   

What a Legacy Box Does

Think of it like this.   If I pass away, and I leave my house to my kid in my will, the kid gets the house.  Awesome.    Except maybe not so awesome.   If you have ever owned a property, you know  running a property is complicated.   There are house payments and utility bills.    These things must be paid on time, and you know who you pay for each thing.  People outside of your house don't, and that includes your offspring

If you fail to pay an important bill on time, the lights and water will go off.   Creditors will get mad and people will threaten to foreclose on the house.   If you don't lay out a plan, your kid could get stuck with a huge headache, and if it's not taken care of in time, your kid could lose it all.  No plan, is usually a bad plan.  Have a plan.  Lay it out for those left behind.

The Legacy Box Keeps Things Working

The legacy box provides people with everything they would need to run your house like you ran your house.   In the box, you provide your account numbers, your log in information, and the schedules for when everything is due and to whom.  

If you have services that need to be cut off, you tell them who to call, and how to cancel things.   The idea here is the person getting the box, opens the box and surprise, they don't have to figure anything out.   No loose ends.  No hidden problems.   Everything has a direction and everything gets handled and paid for on time. 

That gives your next in line some breathing room, a clear path, and it shows them the kind of person you were and are.   Instead of making things difficult, you set the game on easy mode.

Conclusion   

If you are like me, you don't like talking about death.   That doesn't mean you avoid it though.

If you're like me, and you have family, you need to step up and be responsible.   Take some time out of your busy schedule and start putting together a written and easy to find plan.    It's super important.   Your family will be super happy because you did it, and you'll make your passing way easier to deal with once your gone. 

You don't get to decide when your time is up.   

That being said, you do get to decide what information you leave behind and how to manage everything.    Update your accounts so that the right people get your things when you are gone.  Create a will, to let people know where everything is going, and then create a legacy box so that your wishes can be carried out in an organized fashion.   That's how you leave a legacy.  Create a legacy box.   Best gift ever.

 

🤠 How to Not Underestimate the Value of Your Life Hours

Day 60: Sometimes You Get Paid in Better Ways

by Edward Smith

03 Sept 2020

Spending Your Time Wisely

If you read my last article entitled 🤠  How to Choose Correctly When Life Sucker Punches You, you would have read about how I had to make a choice after a job loss between working for money or working for my kids.   In this article, find out what I did, and why.

Daycare is Expensive and You're Not Around

When I was working, the kids went to daycare, or they spent the afternoon at the YMCA.

We paid an average of about $572 per kid per month to ensure our two kids were safe, and being watched.   It wasn't really about education.  It was about keeping them out of harm's way and being safe from strangers.   

That's about $13,000 a year that we were on the hook for regardless of if the service was good or mediocre.   Often the service was mediocre.   We were mainly paying out money to ensure an adult was present.   It was basically large scale babysitting.

After I Lost My Job, Daycare Looked Too Expensive

After I lost my job, we noticed something.    To make daycare work, we would have to come up with $13,000 whether I was employed or not.   That's a big hurdle to overcome when you haven't been hired by anyone yet.   

To put things in perspective, a minimum wage job where I was living averaged about $12.00 per hour.   

So working 40 hours per week every week meant I might earn around $25,000 per year, and I'd keep approximately 85 percent of that or  $21,216.  Not bad, if I manage to land a full time job at full pay, but that situation is not guaranteed and it comes with a number of other risks and problems.   

By working full time, I wouldn't be available to pick up my kids from school if anything went wrong.  I wouldn't be available to take the kids to doctor's appointments.  

I wouldn't be available to attend any of their events, and because my wife was also working full time, this meant that my kid's had two unreliable parents that were never available to be around when they were needed.   I remember trying to organize parent teacher nights.  It was almost impossible.

Some jobs are understanding about child care, but many get tired of having to deal with parents with kids if child care conflicts with work long term.   You're not getting paid to watch your kids, you're getting paid to show up on time and work.

Many jobs expect you to find someone to take care of your kids behind the scenes, and that isn't always easy or possible.   It usually means you need to hire someone to do it, and that can be on top of daycare, which has set hours.   

On top of that, many minimum wage jobs usually require overtime and the ability to work different shifts throughout the week.  Your hours are not guaranteed, and your hours can fluctuate depending on how business is going.   Great when you're starting out, but scary if you are an established household and the money is needed.

How We Resolved It

Our situation was lucky, but the lessons I learned along the way can be applied to other people and their situation.  

Since we were already living below our means, my wife and I were able to review our budget and change some things up.  We decided to drop daycare, and use me as daycare instead.   That bought us $13,000 per year doing that.   That also meant the kids had a reliable parent watching over them every day.

We also looked at our options and determined that we could move cross country to a different work site within my wife's company.   By doing this, my wife's salary was able to do more even though it's number had not changed.   The cost of living in the new place was cheaper so we got more bang for our buck.   That helped offset the loss of my job.  

The point here, is we decided to get flexible with our approach and change some things up to overcome an obstacle.   If you give things a chance, you might have more options then you first realize. Try looking at things again.  You might surprise yourself.

Being a Stay At Home Parent Comes With Perks

Being a stay at home parent has been different, but it's been very rewarding.   I have time to keep our house clean, and to model a clean home for my kids.  I'm like one of those 50's wives but with a beard and a dingy t-shirt.

I also have been available to take my kids on outdoor excursions.   We used our first summer to explore all of the local parks and trails around our area.   That's something my wife has never had the time to really do, even though we've lived here for over two years.

I've gone grocery shopping with them and showed them how to to behave around strangers.   I've attended my son's music and talent shows.   He saw me there.  He remembers it.  

Every day I make my kids breakfast, lunch and dinner.   We play games.   We go on walks and talk about different things.  I learn a lot from them, and they learn a lot from me.  

At the time of this writing, the world is facing the pandemic.  Schools are closed and people are being made to teach from home.   My role has become even more important.  It's a good thing I'm available.  

It could have gone really crazy for our household if I was working full time.  Not to mention expensive.  Sometimes things happen for a reason.   Embrace things when they change.   You might be answering something important without even realizing it.

Conclusion

Life hours are valuable.    They don't always come with a typical dollar amount like working hours do.  You can't say you work for $12.00 an hour, when you are a stay at home parent, but that doesn't mean you didn't earn a wage that day.  My kids have their father.   They can see him.  How much is that worth?   To them I bet it's a lot.

My kids are getting to know me.   I'm getting to learn about them.   No job that I've ever worked at has ever had a perk like that.   Life hours are extremely valuable.   Use them wisely.   If you get a chance to use them.   Enjoy them.    

They're precious.

🤠 How to Choose Correctly When Life Sucker Punches You

Day 59: When You Stay At Home Folks Stay Away

by Edward Smith

02 Sept 2020

Being Different Makes You Weird

Being a stay at home parent has been a real eye opener for me.   It's been really weird.   

There is a major negative stigma attached to the whole thing, and in this article I want to talk about that, and use this time to hopefully dispel some of that negativity.   

You might find this article of interest if you've just taken the plunge or know someone that is doing it right now.   Stay at home parents are hard working people.   They deserve respect.   Get to know them.   You might end up being one one day.

The Negative Stigma of Stay at Home Parenting

Ever since I lost my job, and transitioned into the role of a stay at home dad, I've noticed some things.  Having transitioned from the working world to the homemaker world, people treat you very differently.   It's not their fault.   You're just an alien life form.   You're not speaking their language.

I've found there are two major types of people.   People that work at jobs for paychecks, and everybody else.   

If you are a stay at home dad, be prepared for the following scenario.   

People will often begin a conversation by introducing themselves to you.   After the introduction pleasantries are complete, people quickly follow the intro with the big question.   What do you do for a living?    This is the question that defines your worth.

I think the expectation here is they're looking for you to tell them about the awesome high paying job, that you have.    

They want this to happen, because it then means they can then use the moment to talk about their job, banter on about job stuff and potentially network with you.  

It's like when you go to one of those office parties, and everyone is just standing around hobnobbing and talking shop.   When you're able to do that, you're valuable to them at a basic level.   

If you can't, then it makes the situation awkward.  It's like when a boss asks how a project is going, and you answer you haven't even started yet, even though they had expectations that the job should almost be done.   You can feel the tension.

When you announce that you're a stay at home parent, you essentially shut down the conversation.  You become one of the help.   People stop seeing you.  They downgrade you from adult to person with kids.   Not someone you talk to, but maybe someone you hire later for babysitting.   

You'll generally get the pity look.   You might get an awkward "oh, raising kids must be tough, how is that working out for you?" comment.   Then the conversation quickly ends and people tend to avoid you after that point.   You become that unemployed lazy person with the kids.   There must be something wrong with you.

Remind Yourself Why  

If this happens to you, don't worry about it.   It's not about them.  Remind yourself why you are doing it.   Hopefully it's because you're trying to do right by your kids.

For me, the story goes something like this.   Two years ago I got let go from my awesome high paying job.  It was unexpected.   I didn't plan for it to happen, but it happened.   

When it happened, I had to make a choice.   

When I was working, I always regretted not spending time with my kids, and it irritated me that strangers were watching my kids more then I was.   Daycare was also very expensive, and I didn't feel the expense was worth the price.   

So, when I lost my job, I saw it as an opportunity to reevaluate the situation.   I got to ask myself what I wanted child care to look like, and what I wanted my role to be in it going forward. 

I also had to look at how I would be spending my hours during this time, and how I wanted to value my hours.  Before this point, an employer translated my hours into a living wage.  

Now my hours would need to be reviewed.   Did I want to trade my hours for money or did it make better sense to save my hours and invest them into something else instead.   What provided the greatest value? 

It turned out my hours always have a value.   That's why my employers were paying me for them.  Now it was up to me to decide who got to have them.

Want to Know Where I Decided to Invest My Hours?   

Check Out My Next Article

🤠 How to Legally Put Your Kids to Work for Pay

 Day 58:  Unemployment Is Bad For Kids

by Edward Smith

01 Sept 2020

Work Makes My Kids Better

My kids have it better then I ever did.    Ever since my kids have been able to walk, my kids have worked for money.   The things they do are not hard things.  My kids are very young, so I'm not trying to break them or mistreat them.   

What I am trying to do though is teach them ownership, pride and responsibility.   My kids learn as they earn.   Here is why I put them to work for pay, and how I do it.

Growing Up As a Spoiled Brat

When I was growing up, I received an allowance, for just being me.   I didn't have chores.  I didn't get told no.   My mom was a stay at home mom, and she took care of everything for me.  It was like having a maid.  

If I was hungry, my mom would cook me up a cheeseburger.     If I wanted to go out to eat, she drove me to a fast food restaurant.   

Laundry would be done and put away for me without me lifting a finger.   I could sit in my room, watch television, and watch my mom scurry around putting things away as I sat around doing nothing.  

To make it worse, I got paid an allowance for sitting around.   I'm not proud of it.   It's just how it was.

Talk about a bad model.   It doesn't teach your kids.   It sets them up for hardship later on.

Unemployed Kids Have it Harder

When I got older, I didn't really know how to do anything for myself.   Even basic things, like making a bed, cooking, or cleaning were not really easy for me, because I wasn't used to doing any of that stuff.    

Instead of a blessing, my years of laziness turned out to be really harmful.   I had no idea what to do, or where to start.  I hadn't been trained in a safe environment.   I hadn't struggled.  I hadn't grown up.   

Don't do that to your kids.   Teach your kids by employing them in a meaningful way.           

Putting Your Kids to Work Teaches Independence

Putting your kids to work teaches them that the things being done around the house need to happen and why.   People don't just tell you to do things because they're mean, the thing has to be done for a reason.    If you don't do laundry, you don't have clean clothes to wear.  

That being said, you do have to manage this thing as a parent.   It's not just up to your employee to ensure the business runs correctly.   Sometimes managers have to step in and help out.   When something is not getting done like it is supposed to, you need to be a parent and back your kids up.  

At the end of the day, if the thing doesn't get done, it will effect the house, and you'll get stuck doing it anyways, so be a parent.   

Give your kids some freedom, but step in when appropriate.  You can teach them and make them better.  Once they prove themselves, release them and let them do it on their own.  Review their work, and give them feedback.  Just like a real job.

Putting Your Kids To Work Teaches Ownership

Another reason to employ your kids, is if you pay your kids with a commission for each job they do, the chores become meaningful and have value.   The kid's ability to buy things is intertwined with the work that they do.   No work.  No pay.  

This means that if they want to buy a bike, daddy and mommy don't step in and buy them a bike.  

If you work, you end up with a sweet bike that you bought using your own hard money.   That bike is yours by right.   You earned it.

Since money is now scarce, the kids have to learn to choose between different things and to own their decisions.   This teaches them to be careful with their money, and to make better choices.  Just like an adult.

  

Job Description and Pay Day

In my house, my kids work five major jobs per day.   The jobs are simple to accomplish, and they can do all of them.   I align the jobs with my parental expectations.

My kids water their garden, they feed our cat, they vacuum our kitchen and dining area, they read books for twenty minutes, and they fold and put away their laundry.   

Every time they do one of these five things, they get a check mark on their little white board, and at the end of the week they get paid $8.75 if they did everything.   If they refuse, they don't get paid for that thing on that day.    

I should mention I don't keep actual cash around the house.  We use play bills.  The kids exchange the play bills at the time of the purchase and then we go to the store and buy the thing using real money that the parents supply.   

Here is the link for the website I used to do that.

https://www.dadsworksheets.com/worksheets/money-printable-play-money.html

 

The kids then take the $8.75 that they get and split the amount between spending saving and giving.    Five bucks goes into savings, two bucks goes into spending, and one dollar goes into giving.   As for the other three quarters, those get split evenly between the three categories again:   spending, saving and giving.  

The point here is I want my kids to earn what they get, and I want them to feel like they're making progress, so choose an amount you can afford, but that allows them to get some where in a meaningful time frame.   

You don't want to pay them so low, that they never get anywhere.  They'll become bored, and you'll have lost their attention.   That being said, don't break your bank.   Pay them a fair wage for fair work.  If they do more, pay them more, but only pay what you can afford to pay.  

Conclusion

If you have kids, give your kids jobs to do around the house and pay them a commission.  

I speak from experience.   I never had chores when I was growing up.   It didn't make me better.  It made me feel pretty useless and inept.

Kids really really want to do things with you, and they want to help out around the house.   When you assign jobs to them, they get really excited, and they learn a lot from it.     

My kids know how to fold laundry and put it away.   They've also learned responsibility, and they know that they have to earn what they get.   Instead of fighting me on any of this, they've embraced the entire thing.  It makes sense to them.   It's also fun for them.

It makes me proud to see them take ownership.    Employ and pay your kids.   You'll be thankful you did, and they'll thank you later.

   

         

🤠 How Shaving Your Own Hair As a Guy Saves You Thousands

Day 57:  Be a Cut Above the Rest

by Edward Smith

31 Aug 2020

Become Your Own Barber

In this article I'm going to describe how you can save some money by cutting your own hair at home.  Saving money is something everyone can do.   It can be really easy when you put your mind to it, and it doesn't always have to be restricting.   

Sometimes it just requires approaching a common problem from a different direction.   There are tons of ways to do it, but this is one of my favorites.   

My Love Affair

Back in 2006, I purchased an Oster Classic 76 Universal motor clipper 76076010.   This is one of those large metal beasts that you see at old school barber shops.  It's the same kind of buzz razor that the barbers used at the military barber shop when I was going through basic training.   

What I love about my razor, is it's quick, it's clean, I can get a great haircut no matter where I am so long as the place has working electricity and a plug somewhere.  I can travel with it if I want. It works really well, and it's simple to use.  

The idea here is you're not cutting and clipping and stylizing (even though you could).   You're just shaving the sucker off in clean lawn mower straight swathe lines of glory.   When you want it longer, you let it grow back, and repeat the process.   

This method is great for summer months when you're trying to keep your head cool.   No mess no bother, just smooth sailing.

The razor is simple and eloquent in design.  The body is heavy and appears to be made of solid steel.   It reminds me of an old school car from the 1950's, when America made great things.   

When you buy the razor it goes for about $150.00 (it's gone up in price since I got mine), it lasts you for years, it comes with two detachable heads for different grades of cutting, and it comes with a blade guard to prevent cutting yourself.   

This razor does not use batteries.  It just plugs straight into the wall.  

Owning an Oster Razor Is an Investment

I've had my Oster Classic 76 Universal motor clipper 76076010 for ten years and the thing has never failed me once.  The thing runs like a well oiled engine.   

Even better, when I bought it, it only cost me $115.00.  As I mentioned above, the thing has risen to around $150.00 but who cares?   It's still totally worth the price.  

It's made to last forever.   I've saved a lot of money since I bought mine.  If you look at it from a ten year perspective, it's like I spent fifteen bucks a year.  It's nothing.

According to a 2019 article (click link) posted in Men's Health, the average haircut for a man is around $28.00.   

When you consider that the average man gets a haircut about once a month to two months that means this razor saves me an average of $168 to $336 a year (not counting the razor's original price).   Over ten years that amounts to around $1,680 to $3,360 in savings.   Since the razor still works, my savings continue.   

Buzzing Your Head Eliminates Insecurity

Even when the barber shops close down, and people can't leave their house, I continue forward cutting my hair like normal.   

I also don't have to worry about male pattern baldness.    When I perform a buzz cut on myself, my hair is already gone.   It might look silly to other people, but it feels great to me, and the hair always grows back.   

Other people get insecure about this kind of thing because they fall in love with their hair.  Not me.  They try to hide their lack of hair with wigs or hats.   I just cut the sucker off, and laugh myself all the way to bank.

Conclusion

Saving money is all about common sense.  You shouldn't buy cars you can't afford.   You shouldn't buy a car if you can get by on a bike.   Cars are expensive.   Why pay for something you don't really need?     

Haircuts are like transportation.   You need a haircut, because your hair will grow, but the way you solve that problem is totally up to you.  You can go expensive and waste your money, you can go cheap, or you can go somewhere in between.  It just needs to make sense for you.   It shouldn't matter what others think.  

Getting a haircut is expensive, and when the world turns upside down it's not always even possible to get one.   That doesn't have to be a problem though.  You have options.   

You can cut your own hair from your own home!     I've been shaving my own head  since 2001.   It's easy to do, and I've saved  a ton of money doing it.  I don't even dislike it.  I enjoy it.   Why pay for something you can do yourself?   Get a razor and shave off one of your expenses today!   Cut your head while you get ahead.






.

🤠 How To Keep Yourself From Getting Used By Your Car

 Day 56:   New Cars Don't Impress Your Future

by Edward Smith

30 Aug 2020

You're Going To Drive Yourself Insane

When I was growing up, I used to have car envy.   

Every year my aunt and uncle would show up to our house from out of town.   They always showed up to our house in a fancy rental car.    The cars smelled nice, they looked good, and they performed well.   

I was super impressed.   

One day I would be like them.   To me my aunt and uncle had made it.   They were what refined adults looked like.   That's what I would be one day.   A made man driving a well made car.

Then I grew up.   

You Are Not Defined By Your Car

As I got older, I learned some useful things about cars.   Cars are always expensive, even if the car itself doesn't cost a lot at the beginning.   If you don't have a garage, they sit out in the elements.  They get damaged by flying debris.  People hit them.   They break down.   You have to insure them.   You have to replace them.   They are not always required, and you never have to buy them new.

My First Car Was a New Car

My first car was a Geo Metro.  My parents bought it new, and it lasted for over a decade.   It worked great.   I used it to travel to and from college.   I picked up my future wife in it on our first date.   I moved across country with it to live with her.  The car served me well.   

Unfortunately, after ten years of reliable service, the thing became unreliable and costly to fix.  Being new had not prevented it.   It eventually became old.   

All new cars become used given time.   You can't prevent it.   It makes you wonder.  Are new cars worth it?  What are you paying for?

New Cars Can Be a Bad Financial Decision

At this point I had been reading books by Dave Ramsey.  In his book the Total Money Makeover, Ramsey talks about only buying used cars.   Ramsey's reasoning behind this approach is new cars are a bad financial investment, because they lose the majority of their value as soon as you drive a new car off the lot for the first time.   That got my attention.   

Ramsey also argued that new cars don't have all of their bugs worked out yet.   If you buy a new car, you often find the dealer will send you recall letters afterwards.   These recalls can be very serious and the car can be dangerous to drive if you don't have things fixed.  They might not even look broken, but you don't want to take a chance.  It could cost you your life.  To think you paid for that. 

With a used car, the bugs have already been worked out.   People have often already run your car through the grinder and figured everything out.   It was physically driven around and proved itself in battle.   It has a history and a story that you can review.  You don't get that with a new vehicle.  

My Second Car Was a Used Car

I decided to make my second car a used car.  I wanted to see if I could save some money and get a good value.   I'm glad I did.   It was a great decision.

I decided to go through a car rental agency.   You could find cars in small mom and pop car lots at a cheaper price, but in my head, money wasn't everything.   I wanted the peace of mind that went along with seeing a review and knowing how the customers felt about the place.   

With the rental agency, I could tell that the car wasn't stolen, I didn't have to negotiate price, and I could tell if the car had any backstory.  With the smaller places it wasn't always that obvious.   

The first benefit of buying slightly used, was I was able to get a car that was only two years old, but it cost almost half the price of what a new car cost.   That meant I could pay cash for the entire car, and I never had a car payment.   

That has saved me thousands upon thousands of dollars.   It also kept risk out of my life.   The car still ran great, it smelled new, and it only had a few thousand miles on it. Everything was in perfect condition and most people couldn't even tell that the car wasn't brand new.   

The second benefit of buying slightly used was insurance.  Since the car wasn't new, I didn't have to pay as much for insurance like people buying new cars have to do.   As a car ages, your insurance premium drops.  It doesn't cost the insurance company as much to replace it.  

If you can, I recommend keeping a good working car long term.   I tend to keep mine for around ten years.   Some schools of thought suggest you only keep a car for a couple of years, and then trade up to a bigger and brighter thing using the value of the current car to pay for part of the other car.   

I'm not a big car buff, so it doesn't really matter if I have the biggest and best.   In fact big and fancy can actually play against my peace of mind and feelings of safety.   For me I want reliable and good, and older cars don't tend to attract thieves the way new cars do.   That means I don't attract unwanted attention, and that makes me happier.

If you do decide to trade up to bigger and better, go ahead, just realize your insurance premium grows as your car grows.  Don't become car poor, trying to live too big.  It's not a necessity.   Your life will be good without it.

Conclusion

When I moved to my new location, I was blessed by having a used car.   In my current state, the government taxes you for owning a car.   The reasoning behind it, is your car requires an infrastructure, and the infrastructure is expensive to keep running.   Taxes are used to cover it.

The interesting thing about this tax though, is people pay more taxes if their car is new.  If your car is used, the city gives you a break.   

Ever since I switched from a new car to a reliable used car, I've been saving money.  I've saved on the cover price.  I've saved on insurance.  I've saved on taxes, and I've saved on time.    My used car drives as well if not better then my new car.    I cannot tell the difference when I'm behind the wheel.  

The car sounds and runs the same.  

If you want to start out life on a good note, start out your car life going with a used automobile.   The price for new is not worth it.   Get yourself a dollar air freshener and get the new car for cheap.  Don't pay for it.