Managing your Finances

The basics of managing your personal finances are not incredibly tricky.  It simply requires a small amount of knowledge, some self discipline, and some organization.  The main points of basic financing include budgeting, accounting for money coming in and going out, and staying within the budget you’ve set.

Obviously the number one tip is to stay out of debt when at all possible.  Sometimes things come up and you need to take out a loan or put something on a credit card, but add these into your budgeting and get them paid off as soon as possible.  Some things that people forget to budget for are all of their utilities, their toiletries, cleaning products, clothing, entertainment, and eating out.  Money for eating out should be kept in a separate category than your grocery budget.

When you first start budgeting you’ll probably want to pay for everything with cash.  This is really important for most people, because most people (whether they want to believe it or not) have very little self discipline when it comes to spending.  And especially when you are trying to break old habits, you need to sever yourself from them, and in this case that means hide the debit card and pay with cash.

Be sure to keep track of everything you spend.  You may want to keep a ledger, like available with your checkbooks.  You may want to try something different, like drawing boxes on a piece of paper and writing each spending category, from your budget, inside the boxes.  Then you simply write down the total form the receipt as you spend in each category.  This allows you to physically see when you have spent all that money.  If you separate your cash into a different envelope for each category you can also easily see when you’ve spend all of the money within that category.

Once you’ve mastered staying within a budget (and hopefully saving was included in that budget) you can start being fancier with your money and investing it.  Some people like to play their cards in the stock market.  If you play the best virtual stock market game you can pick up some trading tips through a simulation of how the stock market works.  This is a good involved way of learning what is going on and how it works, even if you have investors that trade your stock for you.

If you’re interested in saving money and learning how to manage your finances then start with these very simple ideas, create a savings account, and learn how to trade in the stock market.

Mitt’s Positions are like an Etch A Sketch

Mitt Romney has come under attack yet again for a comment made by his strategist saying once he gets past the primaries they can hit a reset button in the fall and start over. Many have accused Romney of changing his views depending on what the political climate is this year and even during his last Presidential run and that statement didn’t help. Mitt Romney said that everyone makes gaffes but it seems like his campaign has had more than his fare share.

His rivals brought Etch-A-Sketch’s to their speeches to poke fun of the remark and also dig into the claim that Romney will do and say whatever it takes to get elected even if he has no intention of following through with it.

Only time will tell what will actually happen and it seems like we are no where near finding a Republican candidate.

Bathroom and Kitchen Re-Modeling

I’ve been looking at doing some re-modeling recently and the most widely used material in the bathroom and kitchen is tile. This does not come as a surprise since tile provides a touch of style in the tiled room. Functionally, the right choice of tile makes cleaning effortless and prevents slips.

There are numerous bathroom tile design ideas available which homeowners can chose from depending on their color preference, bathroom size, desired functionality, and budget. Among the famous tile choices are ceramic tiles, porcelain tiles, and other exotic tiles such as glass, stone, marble or cement.

Ceramic tile is a thin tile made of clay and fired over extremely high heat to produce a dense property. A ceramic tile may bear a glazed or unglazed surface and its density makes it ideal for flooring.  This tile’s durability is assessed through its PEI or scratch resistance properties, and MoH hardness scale. A ceramic tile with PEI 1 is suitable for walls while grade PEI 2 ceramic tiles are appropriate for kitchens and bathrooms. On the other hand, ceramic tiles rated MoH 7 is hard enough for residential floors since ceramic tiles with lower MoH grade tends to crumble. It is also easy to clean, possess scratch and stain resistant properties, retains its color over a long period of time, and has low moisture absorption characteristics that prevent slips.

Favorite Times of the Year

Everyone has a favorite time of the year.  Yours could be a specific day or a general time period.  It could go back to memories that you have from your childhood or be based on of the weather.  It could be completely related to the season premieres and finales of your favorite shows or sporting events or be based on political events.  Whatever your reasoning is you probably have a favorite time of the year.  Here are some favorites that are quite common:

CHRISTMAS – People love the nostalgia and ambience that Christmas brings.  There is a joy and a sadness that mingles into perfection.  Twinkling lights, hot chocolate, snow, carols, presents, giving, getting; these are all things that people are drawn too.

SPRING – One of the times of year that many people cling to is Spring.  For a short period of time there is perfect weather, flowers blossoming everywhere, a freshness and newness in the air that brings about a desire within oneself to do better than they have and to be better than they are.

4^th of JULY – There is a joy and nostalgic feeling that permeates Independence Day.  For 24 hours you feel a loyalty and valiance for your country that is often forgotten throughout the year.  You remember how the country came to be and what it stood for and the freedom that people so bravely fought for.  You stand with your hand over your heart and cry as you watch the fireworks bursting in the air, understanding for maybe the most you will at all that year what a wonderful blessing it is to be free and to be surrounded by family and friends laughing and enjoying each others company.

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL – Starting out the school year just gets to some people.  The smell and touch of freshly sharpened pencils, crisp paper, crisp clean clothes, shoes, and backpacks, the anxiety of making new friends of looking at your class schedule and meeting your teachers for the first time.  To some people nothing compares to this excitement.

HALLOWEEN – People who love Halloween LOVE Halloween.  They go all out finding the perfect women’s and men’s Halloween costumes.  If they have children they might go crazy with theirs as well.  Themes and parties, décor and candy – these things can NOT be forgotten.  A Halloween without the Monster Mash is not a Halloween at all.  People need to be scared, laughs need to be had, and enjoyment needs to be experienced.  Some couples love Halloween so much that they get married on the day with a Halloween theme to boot.

There are so many different times of the year that mean so many things to different people.  One person might love a particular day that means nothing to the rest of the world, because a significant event took place for them on that day.  One person might think that a particular day is above the rest because the moon and the stars aligned perfectly one year.  Whatever your reason, find your favorite time of the year and embrace it.  Sharpen those pencils, smell the roses, dress up like ghoul – whatever it takes to fill your soul with happiness each and every year.

Humpty Gail Had a Great Fall!

First of all, Gail is fine.  That’s the important thing.  She’s battered and bruised, she took 10 stitches to the back of her head and has a goose egg back there, too.  But she seems to have adapted a typical Schmalfeldt thick skull over our 23 years together. I’ll post a picture for those of [...]

Stem Cell Funding Ban Lifted

Yet another rare moment of common sense. The Obama administration can continue using federal tax dollars to fund human embryonic stem cell research, an appeals court ruled on Friday, overturning a judge’s decision and handing a victory to the White House. A federal judge ruled last year that the U.S. National Institutes of Health guidelines [...]

Bin Laden’s Death Opens New Opportunities – For Conspiracy Nutbags!

Before we go celebrating TOO much over the long-overdue death of Osama bin Laden, let’s be real for a moment.  You know as well as you know your own middle name (you DO know your own middle name, don’t you?) that the right wing nutbag machine is already at work crafting conspiracy theories about how [...]

Blood on the Sidewalk

As I was writing the Technorati piece that will soon show up on this blog, I heard my wife from outside.  She had just taken Raven out to the yard. “Bill!  Could you bring a towel?  Quick?” So, as quick as quick is for me, I got a towel and took it to the front [...]