Motivation Monday – Rewarding Ourselves For Accomplishments

by David@MoneyNing.com · 9 comments

This is developing into a Monday series where I will discuss motivation and inspiration to counter our Monday blues.  Hopefully, this will help everyone start off the week right.  Let me know what you think so I can continue to improve this blog.

When was the last time you bought something on impulse?  Next time you really want to get something, why don’t you try to set it up as a reward?  By doing this, you can motivate yourself to accomplish that task while giving yourself time to think about whether you really want it at all.

This past weekend, I really wanted a golf range finder just because my colleague bought one for my boss.  Instantly, I felt like I had to have one.  The device just felt like it was the next most important thing that I needed to get to improve my game.  I chatted with my friend in Canada and of course he has to tell me that he’s always had one and would highly recommend it.

Even though the device seemed like a must-have, it wasn’t a necessity since I’ve been fine without one for the past 27 years.  So, instead of trying to resist of getting it altogether, I am going to set up the reward system I talked about.  I told myself that if I can save $8000 in Q1 of 2008, then I will get one.

This way, it will help motivate me to save more.  Sure the range finder is quite expensive at $400.  However, if I can save $8000 instead of $7000 for instance, then I’m still ahead by $600 after 3 months.  I know $8000 sound like quite a bit of money to save in 3 months, especially since I’m not going to count the increases in my own investments.  However, I’m counting all 401k contributions on top of savings for this so I believe it is doable.

For this system to work, I’ve got to be serious about the goal.  So, I wrote it down on a piece of paper and even told my fiancee about it.  Giving myself 3 months will also give me some time to think about whether I even want the range finder that badly.  This will be much needed for my impulses to cool off so I can reevaluate based on logic and not emotions.

Next time you really really want to get something, maybe you can try it.

Motivation Monday – Do You Have to Work The Day Before Christmas?

by David@MoneyNing.com · 16 comments

How many of us have to work today and feel really bad? How many of us are complaining that someone we know don’t have to work while we are grinding away? Why do we even care what other people have or don’t have to do?
I’m working right now while my wife is sleeping in bed. If we think about it, our work day isn’t better or worst no matter what our friends are doing. Some of your friends may be playing golf now, while some evil friend might even call you during the day to rub it in. However, these are the times when our true character show.

Think of the positives. Whether we are home or at work, we would be reading MoneyNing anyway right? 🙂 In addition, we won’t be spending any money while we are working. On another note, would anyone be working that hard today anyway, given that it’s the day before Christmas? Let’s spend some time chatting with our colleagues and get to know them. The holidays are a great time to work on our relationship with our co-workers because it will for sure come in handy when arguments arise later.

Look. I’m not saying that we are better off working than having a day off. I’m just saying to stop comparing ourselves to someone else. In every situation, many people are better off than us but just as many people are worst off. Those who don’t have a job but need one probably wished they weren’t staying at home after the holidays.

Think of the positives and let’s have a great day. Merry Pre-Christmas.

Be Frugal and Use Public Transportation

by David@MoneyNing.com · 23 comments

I’m in Canada and my grandfather is doing better now even though he will still be in intensive care for another few weeks.  It is a sign of relief for the whole family and hopefully it’s nothing but good news from here on out.

Every day, we have a 35 km (approximately 22 miles) ride to the hospital.  We did some calculations and we are literally spending $20 on gas (our car in Canada still wastes tons of gas) and another $19 on parking every single day.  Since it is a full day event, we leave approximately 9am and leave around 5pm.  So the rush hour traffic was not helping make it any faster nor cheaper.

Today, we decided to take the subway from now on.  We figured that the expense would be as follows considering that we have to drive to the subway station:

  • $2 gas for driving to the subway station
  • $5 parking (to park our car there)
  • $16.50 (two way fare for 3 people)

This means that we will save $15.50 per day, not to mention that we don’t have to waste our energy to drive in traffic.  Too bad there’s no way to ride the bus to the subway station since we would save even more money.  In our case, it might even be faster than driving the whole way since Toronto traffic is EXTREMELY bad during rush hours.  It’s very surprising to me since I live close to Los Angeles and I’m used to traffic.

So to save money, energy and time, be frugal and use public transportation.

Christmas is Coming So Time for Wealthy Secret Santa

by David@MoneyNing.com · 19 comments

secret santa

The holiday season is coming and our company asked us to participate in the annual Secret Santa event. Secret Santa for those who aren’t familiar is a game where each person buys a gift for another person. Everyone picks a person to buy the gift for by drawing the name out of a hat and the recipient of the gift is never supposed to know who the gift came from. The idea of this is very good, but the last few years have seen the price limit of gifts skyrocket.

Every year, we say that the rules are to buy a gift that falls in the $10 – $15 range. This is good because it keeps the dollar amount low so everyone can concentrate on the fun spirit of the game instead of thinking that it will break his/her wallet.

Last few years though, things have changed. There were some people that literally buy gifts that must be worth at least $100 dollars. Some of you might think that this is fine if the person wants to spend the money but what ends up happening is that everyone else is pressured to buy a more expensive gift now. (It is interesting to note that the boss always get the most expensive gift.)

Instead of the game being fun, it has turned into a good size expense for people who participate. The game is supposed to be fun and creativity should be a big part of it. The excuse that one cannot buy anything for $10 – $15 is just incorrect. The point of Secret Santa is so everyone gets something around Christmas and seeing what everyone else gets, not to mention the fun we get with shopping for the gift. There’s nowhere that says gifts have to be at least $50.

It’s Christmas. Enjoy our Secret Santa game and don’t spoil it. I hope that everyone that works at my office stumbles onto this article before they buy their gifts this year..

What about you? Does your company host Secret Santa? How is your experience there?

What Should Individual Investors Do With All the Fear in the Stock Market Right Now

by David@MoneyNing.com · 12 comments

bull and bearLet’s face it. We as individual investors are very afraid right now. Did you notice all the articles from us personal finance bloggers about the market throughout the year and the lack of them right now? Part of it is because we all want to cover the thanksgiving spending etc etc, but it is also because many of us don’t even want to think about our investments. If March or August of 2007 was a fearful time for individual investors, now is many times worst.

So, what is our investment advice now? What should we do in these times when people are telling us that the decline just started because all the mutual fund investors (the general public) will start selling once they receive their quarter statement and realize that their investments returned nothing for the past year?

Instead of giving some general advice, let’s break it down to different types of investors so the advice is more specific. There are three types of investors: passive investors, stock pickers, and short term traders.

Passive Investors – I hope this includes most of us because it takes a considerable amount of time to invest in stocks. We buy low cost index funds and have a long time horizon. For us, we shouldn’t care about volatility and we should buy more shares right now. Even better, we should setup automatic investing so we keep investing whether the market goes up or down. If you are very unemotional about your investments and have a VERY LONG time horizon (5 – 10 years+), you may want to look at the financials but buy the ETF that looks at the whole sector instead of buying a specific stock because you are a passive investor.

Stock Pickers – Many of us fall under this category. We use a portion of our money to buy into certain stocks because we feel like we can outperform the market. Those of us that buy individual stocks should move into defensive stocks. Just think of all the companies that people would still buy from no matter what the economy does. P&G is a great example because they sell many day-to-day products like soaps. These types of companies aren’t exciting in bull markets but they deliver the necessary consistency that people can count on in a bad economic environment. Now is not the time to bottom pick financial stocks. Even though they may seem very cheap to you, it may just keep going down in the short to midterm. Just wait till these stocks seem to keep going up to jump back in but there is no reason to get in at this point.

Short Term Traders – Well, I’m just going to state the obvious for you guys since you probably shouldn’t be trading if you don’t know this already. I would either see which stocks/sectors you can short or just sit and do nothing. There is absolutely nothing wrong with doing nothing. Sit with your cash and just wait till there is a bull run again. Whether it is 3 months or 6, you can just ride is out.

Mixture – In the real world, almost all of us fall under a mixture of all 3. If we are smart, we will try to separate into 3 different portfolios and follow the strategies accordingly because it will be impossible to not get confused.

Now is a fearful but interesting time. What we do during these volatile times is much more important because we can really destroy our portfolio and wealth by acting inappropriately. Whatever you decide to do, not losing money should be number #1 on the list. To help that, the first thing we need to do is stop investing based on headlines.

Why Do People Give Out Free Loans to Companies by Buying their Gift Cards?

by David@MoneyNing.com · 33 comments

giftcardMy Uncle buys gift cards from coffee shops for his own use. He told me that it is very convenient because he goes to the coffee shop everyday and can just order his latte and charge it on the card. When the card runs out of money, he can just reload it with a credit card. All this did not really make sense to me at the time but I figured I should go home and think about it before I disagree with his theory.

After some thought about it at home, I still do not get it.

It seemed to me that paying with a credit card would give the same convenience that a gift card would. When I pay with my credit card at Starbucks, I do not even have to sign for my purchase. Other than the fact that I would get one transaction each time I buy a drink instead of one per gift card purchase, I really cannot see any advantages of using a gift card.

However, the disadvantages of buying the gift card means that I am prepaying for my purchase ahead of time. I am in effect giving out an interest free loan to Starbucks. What makes it even worst is that the loan documentation (the actual card) can be lost, making the loan non-collectible (Side note – Can I sue Starbucks for default on the loan?).

The other downside to buying a gift card (especially a Starbucks gift card) is that it indirectly makes you buy (drink) more. When we already prepaid for a gift card, we are much more likely to go into the store and purchase something because the money does not seem like it is coming out of our wallet.

There seems to be only downside and no upside. My question is – Do you buy gift cards for your own use too? Why do you do that??? Anything I am missing here? Any information would be great before I go bat some sense into my Uncle 🙂

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