A couple months ago we were driving to a Strawberry Festival when I pulled up behind this Papa Johns pizza delivery guy. Several dudes I know delivered pizzas for years–it’s a decent job and can easily accompany other full time employment or schooling. But, one thing is certain: it is going to be really hard to make decent money delivering pizzas when those pizzas are being protected by 2.5 tons of Detroit steel (plus the weight of the pizzas) and maybe getting 11 mpg in the city.
Something tells me that this Yukon is precisely the cause of this gentleman’s need to be delivering pizzas in the first place.
Month: July 2015 (Page 1 of 3)
With at least fifteen minutes of uninterrupted focus each morning, you can create a plan to climb out of debt, you can practice an effective sales presentation, you can do a short workout or prepare a healthy breakfast and pack a healthy lunch, or you can write 500 words for your book – and in just 120 days would have a full 60,000 word book completed. These minutes add up. They are vital to your success. They are available to all of us, and it must become your rule you use to ruthlessly protect them each morning. You can make this happen by laying down the law and setting the rules for your life. Everything becomes automatic. Success gets closer, faster.
via The Evolution of the Best Morning Routine – Early To Rise.
Interested in free online courses? Want to learn more about interest, taxes, stocks, housing and debt?
Khan Academy has several free courses.
Feel free to read through the titles and sign up for one.
Type 1: Grew up lower to middle class, Big Spender now
Ralph: Ralph’s father owned a struggling, small business. One day, the IRS nabbed Ralph’s father and took almost everything away. Ralph’s philosophy is that he needs to spend it all now in case a similar thing happens to him. Despite making well over $100,000 per year, Ralph has claimed bankruptcy.
James grew up near poverty, but now makes huge money as an IT consultant. If he had saved and invested, he’d easily be worth many multiple millions at the age of 45. I’ve never seen anyone who can spend like James though. His philosophy is, “I do what I want and figure out how to pay for it later.” James has timeshares and luxury cars, but I doubt he has much saved.
6. Long commutes can lead to poor sleep, higher cholesterol, and an increased risk of depression.
Commuting more than 10 miles by car can lead to higher blood sugar increased cholesterol, according to a study from the University School of Medicine in Saint Louis and the Cooper Institute in Dallas. It can also increase your risk of depression, anxiety, and general misery.
But public transit is no picnic, either. One UK study found that people who commute 30 minutes by bus have the lowest levels of life satisfaction, and even cyclists weren’t immune to the ill-effects of long-distance travel.
7. Motivational meetings can depress people.
In order to get workers excited about the company’s mission, employers may host team-building exercises or motivational meetings.
But research has shown that forcing people to feel positive for something they’re unsure about can actually “highlight how unhappy they are” and, ultimately, will make them even more depressed.
8. Recirculated, toxic air clogs your lungs.
The EPA calls it “Sick Building Syndrome.” The air inside a building can be up to 100 times dirtier than outside, and you’re exposed to a variety of unhealthy gases and chemicals.
There are pollutants in the air conditioning, toxic particles, dangerous bacteria and mold all flying around, especially in buildings that aren’t well taken care of.
via 24 Ways Your Office Job is Literally Killing You – Early To Rise.
We all know it’s healthier to “eat clean”—but convenient packaged foods, and weird ingredients seem to lurk everywhere. Just ask Megan Kimble. The Tucson-based food writer spent an entire year avoiding all processed foods, a daunting challenge she chronicles in her new book, Unprocessed ($16, amazon.com).
As a busy grad student living on an annual salary of $16,780, Kimble discovered creative and affordable ways to trade packaged staples for a real-food diet. It wasn’t easy, she told Health: “But I found that once I got going and formed new habits and figured out favorite meals, it became automatic.” That said, she doesn’t recommend going cold turkey. “Start small,” she said. “Try unprocessing one kind of food, see how it feels, and take it from there.”
Below, Kimble shares her eight best tips for eating cleaner.
via How This Woman Gave Up Processed Food for a Year—On a $16,780 Salary – Early To Rise.
Trick 3: Set boundaries for the Energy Suckers—or weed them out of your life.
This may seem hard at first. Take baby steps toward change. Choose to do this out of Respect for your health and happiness!Look at the list of Energy Suckers.
Choose 1 or 2 that you are most ready and willing to cut down or cut out.
Make a plan to reduce your exposure starting now. Don’t wait!
When I moved into my new apartment I decided to not hook up my cable. I essentially stopped watching TV—something I did every night since college—and it’s been so liberating!This is your life. You are responsible for your health and well being.
It may be hard to make changes, but if you take little steps toward your goals you will be unstoppable.
Healing, joy, peace, and prosperity are within your reach!
I multithread and task-switch frequently
I’ve obviously had a lot of parallel stuff on the go at once; multiple blog posts, speaking events, community interactions, HIBP then naturally all those Pluralsight courses and a full time job. I regularly switch between all of them which means I might be bang in the middle of doing something in HIBP then have a great idea for a blog post so I’ll go and churn out a para or two there then jump back. I get an itch that I want to scratch but am happy then flicking back over to the other context maybe 15 minutes later.I’ll also tackle multiple things at once. That might mean being on a conference call and also responding to emails (I’m happy listening and writing at the same time) or doing the social media bit while waiting for an HIBP deployment to run. Rapid context switching and multitasking have been extremely useful in many scenarios. I’m fully conscious that this way of working isn’t for everyone, but I find it very effective for me.
via Troy Hunt: How I optimised my life to make my job redundant.
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Americans aren’t saving for retirement
It seems like every day a new survey is released that concludes Americans aren’t saving nearly enough for retirement. Google “percentage of Americans who haven’t saved for retirement” if you want to engage in some schadenfreude. My search suggested that fully a third of folks have saved a big, fat nothing! Scary.
There are many reasons for this. In my dad’s case, he never had a job that even provided retirement programs he could contribute to until he was in his 50s (let alone a job that offered a match from his employer). In fact, if I recall correctly, he never even had a job that offered health insurance until late in his career.
Since he was raising two children and caring for a disabled wife during many of his working years, retirement was always one of those things he thought he’d have to deal with later.
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via How Social Security can help you play catch-up on retirement savings.
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Fear not, to stave off these lurid and deplorable supermarket wallet-killers, Mr. FW and I assembled the below list of things we never, ever buy at the grocery store. Now, this is obviously based on our own experiences (like everything else in Frugalwoods-land!), so your mileage might vary depending on where you live and what you consume on a regular rotation.
Another grocery store week for us (yes, those are chips! don’t judge)
And now for a quick rundown of the Frugalwoods grocery situation for any new readers: our total grocery bill for two adults runs $300-$350/month. Since we don’t eat out or get take out, this amount includes every scrap of food and drop of drink we consume all month long, plus coffee and alcohol.…
via Six Things We Never Buy At The Grocery Store – Frugalwoods.