To reduce desirablity for material possessions in favor of experiential fulfillment, in order to ‘afford’ a higher quality of life for myself and those around me for now and throughout a lifetime.
Society lyrics
Eddie Vedder (Into the Wild Soundtrack)
Oh it’s a mystery to me.
We have a greed, with which we have agreed…
and you think you have to want more than you need…
until you have it all, you won’t be free.
Society, you’re a crazy breed.
I hope you’re not lonely, without me.
When you want more than you have, you think you need…
and when you think more then you want, your thoughts begin to bleed.
I think I need to find a bigger place…
cause when you have more than you think, you need more space.
Society, you’re a crazy breed.
I hope you’re not lonely, without me.
Society, crazy indeed…
I hope you’re not lonely, without me.
There’s those thinkin’ more or less, less is more,
but if less is more, how you keepin’ score?
It means for every point you make, your level drops.
Kinda like you’re startin’ from the top…
and you can’t do that.
Society, you’re a crazy breed.
I hope you’re not lonely, without me.
Society, crazy indeed…
I hope you’re not lonely, without me
Society, have mercy on me.
I hope you’re not angry, if I disagree.
Society, crazy indeed.
I hope you’re not lonely…
without me.
Jim L. Opinion
I hope everyone had an enjoyable Holiday Season, and I’d like to wish everyone a Happy New Year. Today, I would like to post an article written by a guest, Sandy Thomson. The topic is debt consolidation. I have touched on this subject in the past, however, Sandy’s article goes into the various vehicles used to accomplish this. Please be sure to check out the link to debtconsolidationcare.com. I have perused over the site and can say that it looks to be a legitimate site if you are looking for answers to achieving a managable debt situation. Enjoy the post!
Consolidate debt: 5 Ways to do it with ease
When the debt problem becomes overwhelming you may need to find a way to consolidate debt to reduce the burden. Debt consolidation is a preferred way of reducing debts for many since it causes no harm to your credit score unlike the other debt elimination methods.
There are debt consolidation companies which can help you in consolidating debts against fees. However, you may also succeed in consolidating yourself by systematic repayment. The following methods may help you in consolidating debt effectively.
- Home equity loan/ home equity line of credit: If you have equity in your house, you can get a loan against it which then can be used to pay off the unsecured debts. The benefit with home equity loans is that, it is normally inexpensive and easier to get, it has longer tenure, hence the repayment installments would be small, and you may also qualify for a tax deduction on it.
However, since the home equity loan would be tied to the property, it increases your chances of losing the home if you default.
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Balance transfer: Often we don’t look at it as an option to consolidate debt but transferring the high interest debts to low interest rate cards can give relief from your debt problems.
- Life insurance: Certain life insurance policies allow the policyholder to make partial withdrawals from the accumulated fund during the term of the policy. This withdrawal, however, doesn’t interrupt the coverage and also you are not required to pay interest on the amount withdrawn.
- Loan against your retirement fund: Your 401k fund can also come in handy when you need money to consolidate your debts. However, you might not get tax relief on the interest paid.
- Unsecured consolidation loans: Unlike the secured ones, unsecured consolidation loans don’t require collateral. However, you might need good scores to qualify for it. Hence, it is not always an option for people with poor score.
It is wise to take preventive measures before the debt problem arises so that you don’t have to seek ways to consolidate debt. At times renegotiating loan terms with the lenders may also help you in reducing your debt burden.
Jim L. Credit, Reducing Expenses, Website Review Debt Consolidation, guest post, paying off debts, Website Review
As you may know, Michelle and I just got back from our vacation. We decided to visit the Savannah area in East Georgia. What a beautiful city! It will no doubt leave a lingering image imprinted in my mind. We also visited Hilton Head Island and Tybee Island. While we were away, I received a text message from a buddy asking if I would be joining them in our weekly basketball game. I responded that I was currently on vacation in Savannah. He texted back…”Normal people take vacation in the summer”. Haha! I guess I am not normal!!
Of all the trips we have taken, we would both agree that the most memorable ones would definitely be in the “offseason” vacation travel period. How great is it to have an entire beach to yourself?? It may not have been swimmable, but it truly is a remarkable experience. Imagine being only one of a handful of people on an island (I am referring to Tybee Island at this point), and sitting to local hole-in-the-wall restaurant with no one in and sharing a giant platter of various seafood that was more practice that a source of food for us (won’t forget that one for a while 
).
Let’s get down to monetary costs. Hotels, knowing they won’t be busy in these touristy areas, are willing to accept a lot lower price on a site like Priceline.com. For example, Michelle and I stayed 3 nights in Savannah in 3.5 star hotels for a total hotel cost of less than $225. Another night in Atlanta cost about $70 for a 4-star hotel. For us, less people = more fun as well. I can’t stand crowds and traffic and lines. Less people means that we have time to enjoy our days more because we can do more. Therefore, we don’t have to stay as many nights at the same time.
Try this for your next vacation. Pick a touristy area and find out when their offseason is, and try a vacation when it is not at the pinnacle of travel season. You may just find out that it is just right for you as well!
Jim L. Practical Tips how to save money, Practical Tips, saving money, travel
For those of you following the story earlier this year, I failed to resolve the fact that we DID finally get our house. I think we were just so both sick of the subject that the last thing we wanted to do is talk about it or write about it. Even now, when we see HouseHunters or a similar HGTV-type show, we are simply repulsed due to what we went through during our househunting process.
Anyways, I am delighted to tell everyone that we absolutely love our house. It could not be more perfect for us. We got a great deal due to the recession. We received the $8,000 tax credit and paid off Michelle’s car. and have a little left over (which we are using towards our vacation to Savannah, GA next week!).
As you may know, there are multiple strategies to end up with a solid retirement. A lot of people do it by means of successful personal investing, others use retirement vehicles such as 401(k) and Roth IRAs, while others save tons of money every month. I believe the strongest way to get there is your ability to save and invest steadily, AND to effectively manage windfalls that come your way. By definition a windfall is a lump sum of money that comes your way that is out of the ordinary for what is usually expected for monthly income. I believe Michelle and I handle this very effectively, and this may be what sets us apart. Our total bills amount to nearly 62% of our income for 2009 (I keep a very detailed spreadsheet of our monthly financial information). Now that seems like a lot, but a lot of that is extra that we pay each month to pay down our college debt. Our goal is total debt-free living.
At the end of the year, I will share with you increases in Net Worth and decreases in debt and the strategies we used to effectively improve each category.
Jim L. Opinion
As I’ve said before, The Switch to Riches is more than increasing the total difference between money in and money out. The primary focus is the net quality you gain in your life. This can come from a variety of activities that start with just being observant of the situations and ideas around you and providing yourself with the tools and information necessary to harvest a meaningful life.
One such issue that I have encountered is the food that my wife and I eat. Throughout college, the main focus was on price of food. What’s the cost per meal? How much of this can I get? Now it is more about balancing costs with quantity. The problem with this method, for us at least, as that we become TOO focused on the costs, and end of settling. A recent watching of Food, Inc, brought this to our attention. Why is it that we sacrifice our health so we can get our food cheaper? Think about what would happen if you spent an extra $20 a week on your food bill. What would it do to your budget? $80 a month…Lookg over your bank account history, and find a few items last month that, because you bought these and NOT spent the money on higher quality and healthier foods, these, in essence, are deemed more important than health.
We vote for each food item that we purchase. What we buy determines how the producers are going to produce their products. If we feel that Cage-free chickens @ $3/dozen are worth the extra costs, then producers will start acting responsibly. It starts with each one of us.
The food industry is just an example of an issue I feel strongly about, and something that I believe is worth my effort in improving in my own life. Find something that you truly believe in and find a way to adjust your life to make it work. Find a way to make your life Meaningful, and you’ll begin to see the Switch to Riches!
Jim L. Opinion Food, food expense, Gardening, groceries
photo credit: Amir K.It’s funny how it is that when someone has their hearts set on a particular goal, they are consumed by that goal and all other details in life become easier to ignore. I began this website as a kind of release valve for my every day anxieties…where I can let my inner creative and writing personality come out and allow others the opportunity to relate to my circumstances. I have failed in doing this over the last 2 to 3 months due to our house hunt setback. I imagine it would have been interesting for me to chronicle the events of every day, but there just never seemd to be enough time nor enough drive to push forward with this exercise. Likewise, it seems my personal convictions have faltered at the same time. An inner turmoil has been brewing ever since I quit updating the website. It would be easy for me to say that I have been in autopilot mode, just doing what I needed to do, trying to get through this challenging summer unscathed.
Another reason I quite writing is due to the stress I put on myself to update the site every day. I currently have a full-time salaried job, a part-time side business as a landscape designer, in which I am also in charge of all financial and web-related endeavors, as well. And on top of all this, I would love to enjoy a full-time relationship with my wife, and do the types of things that we enjoy doing. The house hunt just sent it over the edge and, I guess, updating the site regularly was the first to take the backseat. Using other websites of the same genre as precedents, it’s easy to see they are more devoted to updating their website constantly, and this is what I was beginning to do. I told myself at the beginning that I would focus on Quality…not quantity, to promote my website. This is because I never wanted it to feel like a job. I believe I have many personal observations of the world around me. When those observations strike, I want to get them out. Back in March and April, that was not the case. Sure readership was soaring, but I think it ended up looking like all the other websites out there (i.e. 10 Ways to Save Money on This…etc.), with a research-centric focus, rather than a personal observation-centric focus.
There is some good news in all this however! First, we are looking to close on a house in the next week or so (finally!). Second, summer will be coming to a close before too long, which will allow me time to focus more on writing and coming up with fresh material for the site. This has become a true-to-life testament of how time IS more important than money. Enjoy it when you have it. You can’t get it for free and you can’t pay for it!
Thanks for checking back in, and be sure the site bookmarked!
Jim L. Opinion
