More swing dancing

Ok, so I've been writing some nice deep stuff, and at some point I'll post it (I want to get it just right) but an update. I haven't danced in two weeks due to sickness and car issues, but right before I got sick I discovered something awesome. The Lindy Technique class at Lindy Groove. Its not advertised and its hidden on the calendar section of the website, but it does exist. Basically, its just breaking down the balance, timing, foot and body technique that allows you to dance at the next level. And boy did I need it! I was feeling stuck, at a plateau, and now I know exactly why! (For those technically inclined, I was disconnecting my hips from the rest of my torso, so my following hand wasn't connected to my feet, and I thus missed a lot of the faster and more subtle leads)

I need to get back to this class, and personally I think everyone should go to one or two, once you have the basic dance under your belt. :)

"Hope is not a plan"

I've heard this quote attributed to multitudes of people, from the Marines to Anderson Cooper. Its very powerful, and very misunderstood. Mostly, people use it to put down hope, to say that hope is worthless and won't get you anywhere. I don't think that's what it means, not really. I think it means that hope by itself won't get you anywhere. Hope is not a means to an end. It will not get you past finish line, or even closer to the finish line, but it will get to the starting line. One step won't win a marathon, but it starts every one. And hope is that one step.

The danger of hope is that it isn't a plan, but it feels good enough that people get tricked into thinking it is a plan. When we work hard for that raise, look forward to the (better) new year, or figure everything will work out once we sell our house, that's hope talking, and its a start, but that's all. Hope alone won't give us a raise, a better year, or make everything work out. Even worse, hope alone lets us feel like we are working towards something, making some progress, while not going anywhere. Not only does it keep us from reaching our goals, often it keeps us from making clear goals to begin with. Without a clear goal, you have no idea how to attain what you want, or even if you've attained it!Its the equivalent of getting in the car and starting to drive, but with no map, directions, or set destination.

Hoping for more money, more time, more customers, or more happiness won't get you anywhere, even if you feel you are working towards your hopes, and here's why:

What does "more" mean? If its money, is it making more money, having more money in the bank, having your money go farther, or something else? Without more specifics, its impossible to gauge your progress. And if you can't gauge your progress how can you know you are actually working towards your hopes? You could be running in circles, or even counter to what you actually want, because you have nothing to compare your "progress" to.

Swing dancing hysteria

More swing dancing tonight! I was out last night for a pretty fun night at Joe's with the Campus Five, and tonight Big Manny is playing Joe's so I'm going to be right back there again. I love all the dancing I'm doing and not just cause its fun. It feels like I'm getting in touch with a part of me that's been on the back burner for a while: the chipper, flirty, up for anything Katy. That, I love. (LOVE!) But what comes with it, cause nothing is ever simple, is the doubt and the need for acknowledgment (Somebody like me....) I wish it wasn't the case, and on days when I'm already feeling good, its barely an issue, but some days it really gets to me.

Last night at Joe's I was definitely having an off night, though none of the dances I had were bad, per se. The trouble is that now I'm all nervous about going tonight. ("Oh look, its the girl who can't keep her center.") Even more so, I'm nervous about who I'm going to talk to while I'm there. Before I've always gone with Jeremy and we've had a great time. But this time, I'm on my own. Other than like two people, all I know of the LA dance scene are faces, and a few names (if I can even remember them.) And now its gonna be like "Oh, its the girl who can't keep her center, and she keeps talking to me..." Great. I'm THAT girl. Sigh.

I think the worst out of all of it is that there's one dancer that I click with REALLY WELL. Like "Holy crap where the hell did you come from and is there any way I can get you to dance with me for EVERY SONG cause you are AWESOME" type thing. Our movements just sync up. And he's even said the same thing. After dancing anyway. If I see him off the floor, just walking around, he gives me weird 'who are you' looks. I have no idea what to do with that. Its like I'm 14 and being ignored by the cool kids again. (Did I say something? Is my hair messed up? Do I have something in my teeth? WHAT?!)

Hopefully I will get to the bottom of this mystery, and get over some of this neediness and wallflower syndrome. (BTW, why is there not ONE LEAD that actually asks girls to dance here? If I weren't comfortable asking myself, I swear I'd NEVER get a dance in LA. WTF?) So yeah, nervous nelly over here will be taking the plunge tonight. Wish me luck!

Valley Swing Dance Club

I had so much fun last night. I went West Coast Swing dancing with my friend Maia, a dance I haven't touched in almost four years. One word: Really-really-fun!

The Valley Swing Dance club is in Reseda on Wednesday nights, in the American Legion hall. They have a beginner's and intermediate lesson which must be pretty good, cause I danced with quite a few new people (2 or 3 lessons) and they were all really solid.

What I particularly loved about this place was how friendly it was. Everyone danced with everyone, there didn't seem to be any cliques, and there was a good mix of all levels. If any of my friends want to learn West Coast Swing, this is totally the place I would take them. I only sat out maybe three or four dances, and I saw that everyone else was the same. There weren't any wallflowers (except this one guy who said he didn't dance, he was just waiting for his girlfriend). The music was a great mix too, lots of medium tempo for new people, but a few fast songs to challenge you too. If only I could find a place like this for Lindy Hop and East Coast Swing, I'd be in seventh heaven.

A note for those who don't know what West Coast Swing is: West Coast Swing is a partner dance that evolved out of Lindy Hop. It is the official dance of California, and has its own community, separate from other types of swing. Though the footwork has a lot of swing in it, the feel of the dance is closer to ballroom to me: lots of spins and flash, and the posture is upright instead of low to the ground. Its danced to pop, disco and R&B music instead of swing, and is very flashy and fun. Here's a video of some really great West Coast Swing, though of course the social stuff is a lot simpler.

Why is gas so expensive?

Jeremy asked me this question yesterday, and though my first response was "summer driving season," about five minutes later I realized its actually because our dollar's value is plunging.

I haven't written about economic stuff in a while, mostly because I was sick of sounding like Debbie Downer. But this is kinda interesting, and since I don't know how many people out there are aware of it, I figured, why not.

Here's the basics of it: Our government has decided that its a great idea to put America even further into debt, in order to stem the financial losses that have happened so far. Basically, our economy is fueled by spending and debt, and when we the consumers stopped borrowing and spending, the Treasury decided to pick up the slack. (yes, its more complicated than that, but we're keeping it simple here)

I have mixed feelings about this, especially since some of that spending has gone to support social services I like. But its a bad idea. Just like an individual, no one can borrow and spend indefinitely. Eventually you hit your credit limit.

The same thing happens to governments, but its a different process. Instead of borrowing from one place, the US Treasury sells bonds and Treasury bills(IOUs) to multiple investors. Many countries also buy these bonds, and in fact more than half of these bonds and T-bills are owned by foreign countries, mostly China.

Now, as the global economic crisis continues, and our personal economy falters, its getting harder to find people who want to invest in America's IOUs. And of course the issue is not simply that people don't have the money, its that they wonder how sound of an investment it is. Now, no one thinks America is going to default on its debt. But they wonder about the value of the dollar.

Put it this way: your friend in Bilderia needs money, so you lend him $10. He says he will pay you in a year with $22 Bilderbucks, $20 Bilderbucks being the equivalent of $10USB plus $2 Bilderbucks in interest. A year goes by, and because Bilderia had some economic issues the value of the Bilderbuck has dropped. Now, the $22 Bilderbucks he pays you is only worth $9.50 US. Not only did you not make any interest, but you lost 50 cents.

That's what investors are worried about. Treasury bonds and bills work the same way. You get paid back in US dollars, and it is a specific number of US dollars. Exchange rate doesn't matter. So if the dollar sinks too low, these foreign investors lose money. The dollar's value sinks for many reasons, but us borrowing so much is a big one. Cause its not too hard to find someone to lend you $500, but its harder if you need $50,000. The same thing is happening. We are borrowing so much that there jsut aren't enough people who want to lend it.

So the Treasury raises the interest that is promises to pay, trying to lure more investors to lend to us. And guess what that does....it lowers the value of the dollar. Which then makes the investors skittish, and thus the cycle continues. The higher this rate goes, the worse the dollar will do, and the more imported goods like gas will cost. Which, unfortunately, means higher prices for you and me.

This is highly oversimplified, but hopefully you get the gist of it.

Is affordability the best way to think about things?

I was struck the other day by the difference in how I view purchases of stuff, and stuff in general, from how I used to view them. Until the last year, how I used to view stuff was always in terms of whether or not I could get it. Not how good is it, or is it worth it, but can I afford it?

For example, when I wanted to buy a new dress, I didn't ask myself if I needed it, or if I had a use for it. I didn't think about the ten other dresses I had in my closet, or whether this dress was well made or was a good value. Basically the only thought going through my head (other than "I want this") was 'can I afford it?'

Of course this brought up some issues, all of which come from the basic fact that just because I can afford it, doesn't mean its a good idea. I may not need it, it may be a bad deal, it may be a poor value, I may have other things my money would be better spent with. And, from a financial planning perspective, its an awful mindset. As long as I keep buying stuff cause I can, I'm not saving anything for later!

I can't point to what caused me to change, or the exact day I did, but, a little at a time, I switched from 'can I afford it' to 'why do I want it.' And the wierdest thing happened: I stopped buying stuff. When I starting thinking about why I wanted something, it became very clear that most of the reasons I had were superficial, fleeting, and generally stupid.

To use the same example, if I had stopped to think about why I wanted the dress in the first place, a whole other set of thoughts come up. If I want it because it makes me feel pretty, then is this dress the best way to feel pretty? Or is there something else that would fill the need better? Why do I need to feel pretty anyway? Maybe that is something to look at within myself. OR maybe I want to feel wealthy? To cheer me up? Because I'm bored? Because I've been shopping too long?

There are a whole host of reasons why I, or anyone, would be drawn to buy something, but most of them look pretty vacuous in the light of day. And after you see that, its really easy to walk away from purchases. The upside is that when I find really solid reason to buy something, I feel great about it days or even weeks after the purchase. AND I spend money on things that really make me content and happy long term, instead of just for the moment.

Bike to Work day

Last Friday was Bike to Work day, and though I usually bike to the bus stop, I decided to go farther in honor of the day. So I biked from my home in Lake Balboa to the station in North Hollywood. And Jeremy joined me.

It was GREAT! Took about 40 minutes biking at a relatively easy pace (its usually 20 on the bus) and felt really fabulous. By the time I got to work I was awake, alert and calm all at the same time.

What was even better was getting to do it with Jeremy. We talked, and smiled, and were just together. It felt wonderful. And most of the trip was on the bike path that is next to the Orange line, so it was wide enough and safe enough for us to bike side by side and talk. Yay!

In contrast, this morning I woke up late, have been groggy and unfocused most of the day, and can't get much done. I'm starting to think biking to the station in North Hollywood on a regular basis is a pretty good idea. At least while its still cool enough to consider.

Check this out!

I know I've mentioned it before, but here's a direct link to Robert Kiosaki's book in progress: The Conspiracy of the Rich.




The latest chapter, Ch. 7, begins the discussion of "ok, now what?" that we have all been feeling. The most important point he makes is the difference between capital gains and cashflow. Most people invest with capital gains in mind: profits you make when something goes up in value. Think stocks, real estate, commodities. But these types of investments are completely dependent on how the market moves. If the value of your investment drops, then that's it. You lost money. (Unless you were shorting a stock, but that's a different conversation)

Investing for cash flow is different. Cash flow is money that comes into your pocket no matter what the market does. For example, selling a house for a profit is capital gains. A one time payment that can only happen if the value of your house goes up. Owning a house and renting it brings cash flow. That rent check will come in whether the house's value goes up, down or sideways.

I LOVED getting this reminder, because, with all the focus on what's going on in the market, I'd almost forgotten that there is another, smarter way to invest. One that Jeremy and I will eventually get into, though when is a bit up in the air.

The difference between Positive Thinking and Positive Being

This seems to be coming up a lot lately in my life: people asking me what I thought of The Secret (odd timing since its been out for years), or talking about how to get things in life, or how I feel about what's going on in the economy, world, etc. Which all culminated in an amazing thought provoking conversation with my Dad, one of the most masterful people with this topic that I'm close to.

We talked about a lot of stuff, and I have a feeling that I'll be talking about each topic in turn, as it bubbles to the surface of my brain and I'm forced to process it and chew on the ideas like, um, mental cud. Ew.

Anyway, the question that seems to come up from the outside universe is how do I handle difficult times and still seem happy? (most of the time, anyway) Recently, I've tried to explain it using an expanded (and convoluted) theory of positive thinking. The trouble is that no one is ever able to understand me. I've internalized the process so much, I have real trouble explaining it. But, I've had a revelation about how I frame things in my mind, and how I live. I don't practice Positive Thinking. I practice Positive Being. What the difference and why does it matter?

Positive Thinking as people usually understand it is lacking: Note something you want changed and think about how you want it to be. This is probably the least effective and most frustrating form of positive thinking, yet, from what I hear from others, is the most common form. But look at it. All you do with this type of thinking is remind yourself why you want x changed to begin with. There is nothing powerful or life changing about this type of thinking. You want x, and you don't have it, and you are reminding yourself of not having it in a deceptively positive way.

Some people I know have a more powerful way of understanding Positive Thinking: Note something you want changed (x) and envision x in its changed form. This at least has you begin to act as if x is changed already, but only when you keep the new form of x in the forefront of your mind. Thus, it is also limited. You have to concentrate a lot, and it also sets you up for disappointment, because if x changes in any way but the one you envisioned there is a potential that you either won't notice it (cause that's not what you were looking for) or, you will notice but be unhappy with the result.

The way I live, and the form of Positive Thinking that I find to be the most powerful isn't thinking at all. Its being. Being a person to whom positive things happen. Its like being a red-head, or being a 29 year old, or being a woman. Nothing that happens to me, or that is said to me, can change any of those things. Sure, there are times when I feel older or younger, or maybe less of a woman, or less of a red-head, but those times are short lived, and, because they are inherently false, it never occurs to me that I will feel like that permanently.

The same concept applies to being positive. I am someone for whom life works. I am someone who has a great life. And because I am not just thinking these things, but being them, there isn't any space for anything negative in my life for long. In fact, because I am BEING positive, I rarely think positive at all. Why would I? Its like feeling the need to think red-head. I am one. Why would I think about that?

What's truly amazing, is when you are being something, you draw that to you. Because I am positive, I experience everything in a positive light. I see openings for more positivity that I might not if I wasn't keyed into it. I draw positive people to me, because everyone likes to be around people who are like them.

Positive Thinking can most definitely lead to Positive Being, but they are not the same thing. Each has their place, and if transforming your being is a difficult process for you, if it is new to you, then thinking is a good place to start. But if you find yourself frustrated with the results you get, or don't get, with positive thinking, look at who you are being. I would bet that's where the answer is.

Homemade Pizza

My latest and greatest weapon in the fight to find something cheap and good to eat: homemade pizza. A few months ago I found a tip online that changed homemade pizza for both me and my friends forever: bake the dough first.

Its not easy to get your oven to the temp that a pizza oven gets to, and because of that whenever anyone I knew made homemade pizza it was always soggy and soft in the middle. Not undercooked necessarily, but the dough would get soaked by the sauce and toppings before it crisped. The outside of the pizza was fine, but the inside was eaten last.

Then I read a frugal cooking blog that recommended baking the crust alone for 5 minutes or so and THEN put sauce, cheese and toppings on. All I can say is, its a raging success! Not only that, but it solved something else I had been thinking about: frozen pizzas.

I really wanted to have frozen pizzas in my freezer, but you have to have enough space in your freezer to lay the pizza flat on a cookie sheet, with nothing else on it until it hardens. Then you can wrap it up and stack it with everything else. I have a small freezer, so that just wasn't an option.

But with pre-baking the crusts, I can make dough or buy it at the store, roll it out, and bake it. Then stack the crusts in a ziploc bag and stick them right in the freezer. Its not a complete pizza, but its close. All the hard parts are done.

I keep a jar of sauce in the fridge and some shredded mozzarella in the fridge or freezer. Then I just heat the oven, take out a crust, put sauce on and cheese on (and any toppings around) and bake. So easy, and way WAY better than delivery or frozen pizzas are.

Its also super cheap. I make the dough in my bread maker (or buy it for a buck if I'm not prepared.) I make the sauce myself too, using canned tomato sauce as a base. I saute some garlic and onion, pour the tomato sauce in, add spices (I like oregano and fresh basil, and maybe some salt since the sauce is low sodium), and then pour it into a jar and put it in the fridge. Easy peasy. I figure each pizza costs $1 if I buy the dough and some toppings, or as low as $0.40 if its just cheese and I make the dough myself. Nice.

NOTE: staples like tomato sauce are CHEAP at warehouse stores. The only problem is, you have to have a plan for the sauce, because its a LOT

The Truth Will Set You Free

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Don posted a blog post about his struggle with what to do with himself right now. Specifically, whether he should pursue his love, film-making, or pursue a paycheck and dabble in film on weekends he had free. Its a difficult choice: saftey and security or happiness and self-fulfillment.

Its a choice we've all had to make at some point, for me at several points in my life. The most recent was applying for and taking an accounting job when I really wanted to do was to continue to teach voice, because accounting was a steady (and larger) paycheck.

You might think that I'm unhappy, defeated, etc about it, but I'm not. Something fairly interesting happened to me, and to my mindset, several months ago that changed my situation from where I had to be to where I wanted to be. I've struggled with explaining to people how this happened, or how it works, and I've written and deleted several blog posts that weren't quite right. Hopefully, this one will be better.

I spent time trying to live as a singer, and then as a voice teacher. Before that I tried a soul sucking but well paying job in genetics (my major). Neither really worked. Obviously the soul sucking job didn't work. I hated it, and I hated myself for accepting it. At first pursuing music was great, but because I didn't just have to enjoy it but live off of it, that faded quickly. When your livelihood is dependent on whether people like you and what you've created, its takes all the joy out of creating and replaces it with varying degrees of pressure, fear, and insecurity about why it works one time and not another. In the end, neither makes me happy.

I started working at Roadside as an accountant to survive, but found I actually enjoy it. The work is decently challenging and I like the people who are here. Even better, the work is fulfilling my actual dream: to do the things I love as much as I want without needing to make money from them. To have my entire day free to sing, write, dance, spend time with family, spend time with friends, work on a new skill, or travel the world.

How does this happen? Passive income. We've been chasing that for a while, but the book Your Money or Your Life gave me a fail safe path to it, even if Jeremy's real estate never comes through. After reading this book, it became completely and totally real to me. It will happen, there is no doubt in my mind. I've done the math, I've charted the course. Worst case senario is that it won't happen for 18 years. More likely is around 10 years, and if we do well in the next few years and there are significant increases in our income, it could as little as 5 years. 5 years. That's retirement at age 35, without major windfalls or making millions of dollars a year.

You should really read the book, but it involves paying off debt, lowering expenses, increasing income and saving all the extra income until it builds up to paying interest and dividends high enough to cover all your living expenses. There's a lot of math and explanation to our plan, but here's the first part: paying off our debt by the end of the year.

We pay over $1000 a month in debt payments: credit cards, personal loans, car loan, timeshare mortgage and taxes. We have put together a debt snowball to pay all this off, and when that's done, the $1000 in minimum payments plus the extra we pay all goes into savings every month. Currently we expect to have $3000 extra a month to put into savings. And that's without Jeremy making more as a grip or me getting any raises.

That adds up fast, and the end result is enough savings to kick off interest payments that cover our living expenses. Knowing that I'm creating that life for myself, every day I work, makes me feel so good, so fulfilled that I don't need to do the artistic stuff also. When I have a bad day and I don't like my job, all I have to do is look at this and I'm inspired again.

I would never have believed it if someone had told me this five years ago. I believe my response would have been something like "that hasn't worked since the 50s." But you can't get away from math. The math shows the truth, and that truth has set me free. I have a job that's secure AND emotionally fulfilling. Who knew it was that easy?

A Day of Cooking

This week, I decided to take the plunge: a Once-A-Month Cooking(OAMC) day. Jeremy has work for the next three weeks, and his days off are not on the weekend, which means I won't have the car. He's filming 12 hour days, many of them night shoots, so I won't see him much on those days. That means no help for dinner, even if I have to work late.

Last week he worked three days during the week, and the lack of his help had me forgetting to take my lunch with me to work (an extra $4 spend a day on lunch) and arriving home at 8pm only to then think about what to make for dinner (we had some enchilada leftovers, so that worked, but only just). Looking forward to three more weeks of that, and I knew I'd eat away a lot of the money he was making, because I had no time to prep meals.

So I Jeremy him look at the grocery flyers on Wednesday to find out what meats are on sale (Tip #1: use the wednesday flyers to plan your meals, and your weekend shopping trips. You can find them online as well as in your mailbox. The deals usually start Thursday or Friday, and go all week. Sometimes there are additional savings on a particular day, like Saturday, so read all the fine print.) Turns out ground beef, chicken breasts with ribs, whole chickens, and boneless beef bottom were all on sale, as well as mushrooms and bell peppers. Wednesday night I planned out seven dishes I could make in bulk based on that list:
Ginger Beef for the slow cooker (using the beef bottom) - 2 entrees
Cheesy Chilada Bake (using the ground beef) - 4 entrees
Arroz con Pollo (chicken breasts, ribs removed) - 2 entrees
Swimming Rama, a thai curry dish (chicken breasts) - 3 entrees
Berry-Roasted Chicken (whole chickens) - 2 entrees
Thai Red Curry with vegetables (mushrooms and the leftover ingredients from Swimming Rama) - 2 entrees
Tofu Stir Fry - 1 entree
Breakfast Burritos - a whole bunch

For clarification, an entree is feeds 4-6, depending on the meal. Most of the recipes came from my OAMC cookbook: Fix, Freeze, and Feast. You do prep and some cooking, then freeze the meal and do the last bit of cooking the day you want to eat it. Very nice. And all the recipes are for multiple entrees, using warehouse sized meat trays. Arroz con Pollo came from the Dream Dinners cookbook (which I will be checking out of the library soon. I love this company, had no idea they had a cookbook until I searched for my favorite meal from them: Arroz con Pollo.) Ginger Beef was in Fix, Freeze and Feast, but I used a variation of the recipe I found on crockpot.com, and the breakfast burritos were just made, no specific recipe. I'm posting the recipes on my other blog I write with my friends: Cooking Kama Sutras

The night before I did some prep: soaked the black beans, made rice, chopped onions and peppers, and really cleaned the kitchen. In the morning I started the beans right off (So easy! Just a little salt and bay leaf, and in an hour, $2 worth of dried black beans had grown to more than 8 cans worth, and tasted WAY better) and whisked up 2 dozen eggs. Cooked some onions and peppers with the eggs, and got started making burritos. Super easy, and in a flash they were in the fridge, and the utensils were in the bowl of soapy water I had laid out.

Then I cooked the ground beef for the Chilada Bakes, put those together in foil trays and into the freezer, and mixed the marinade for the Berry-Roasted Chicken, poured it over the chicken and threw those in the freezer too. I was rockin! Then lunch, and a break and 'do I really HAVE to got back to working? I've done so much already!!' But there were 15 lbs of chicken to be deboned, and 3 lbs of beef to be prepped.

So I started deboning. I've gotten pretty good at this since for the last month only breasts with ribs have been on sale, but this was awful. The chicken was Foster Farms. Foster Farms doesn't butcher their chickens at all well, or even consistently the same. Each breast I had to stare at to figure out the best way to attack it, and by the end I was doing ok, but if I have a choice, I won't choose Foster Farms again.

Once it was done, half the chicken got cut into pieces and went into the curry, and then other half was layered in the Arroz con Pollo and put in the freezer. While the curry simmered, I browned the beef for the Ginger Beef and then made the Veg. curry. While the two curries cooled (I didn't want to pour hot food into ziploc bags. They get too weak) I toasted the tofu, and then put the veggies and tofu bits in a bag for the Tofu Stir Fry (I didn't freeze this one...decided to have it for dinner last night.)

The last bit was the udon noodles for the Ginger Beef. These noodles are intense! (At least as far as noodles go) You have to boil them, then cool them with a cup of water, then boil them and cool them again, then boil them and let them sit for 5 minutes. No wonder they always come precooked (and triple the price.)

At the end of the day, I didn't have a whole lot more dishes than any other big cooking day, as I used the same ones over and over, simply rinsed or wiped clean (as long as they had no raw meat in them, of course.) And cooking on Sat meant I had all Sunday to clean up, which took maybe 30 minutes. Now I have a freezer full of food, a clean kitchen, and a whole new skill set!

I'm thinking about making some marinades next weekend so that if we want something else, we can just pick up meat and go.

It took a fair bit of planning everything out, and knowing what cook when, but when it came down to it, It was pretty simple. I printed out an inventory to put on our fridge that also has the directions for cooking the meals, so as we eat them, we can keep track of what's left, and the cooking directions are never far away.

For those who think they need it, I totally recommend Once a Month Cooking. In the future, I'll hopefully be doing some of it with my friends, a OAMC party. :D

LA Library

My new favorite thing? Downloadable audiobooks from the LA library! I can log in with my library card and download audiobooks to listen to on my commute to and from work for free! Most of the books are in WMA format, so that's a bit of an issue, but they are getting more of them in mp3 format now. A LOT of recent fiction and some great non-fiction stuff too.

I love it! I can download them to my phone, and listen through my earbud while I crochet or whatever. If your local library has a website, ask if they have e-books and e-audiobooks.

Tea Party Protests

Today thousands protested government bailouts with "Tea Bag" parties. Clearly these people are about 20 years behind the times. 'Tea bag'? Seriously? You seriously don't know what that means? ok....

Jokes aside, I probably would be supporting these yahoos, cause their point is pretty accurate. Here's my issue though: Its not a Democratic problem, and not an Obama problem, its a GOVERNMENT problem. Most of the bailouts were started under Bush. Bush got us into this huge deficit in the first place. Stop with the partisan bull and wake up.

I'm not against gov't spending to help us get out of this hole. Not at all. I'm just against throwing good money after bad. Every bit of research I've done has proved to me that there is no way our gov't has the funds to bailout all these large institutions. No way. And trying to bail them out only means we have less money for what is really needed. We are in a recession. Possibly entering a depression. We don't need bailouts, we need extra unemployment insurance, homeless shelters, food banks, and low/no cost health care. These programs were all cut to within an inch of their lives in the last decade. They now only cover those who are well below the poverty line (unemployment is the exception), leaving those at or slightly above the poverty line S.O.L.

Right now, and into the coming months, we will need more support and funding for these programs. So lets stop throwing money away on bailouts that won't save anyone, and spend money on programs that actually will save people. You want the market to grow? You want people to have confidence again? Then let the populace know their needs will be taken care of.

Swapluck!

I just read this fun blog about Swaplucks. Basically, its where you bring stuff you made and swap with other people who also bring stuff they made. Veggies from your garden, cookies you just baked, a hat you crocheted, soap, jam, freezer meals, potholders, pots, whatever!

What I really like is that the idea encourages everyone to try out new crafts, cause you know you have someplace you can bring it.

I don't know if there are enough people here who would be interested, but I'm definitely keeping the idea in the back of my head for when there are enough people! And who knows, maybe I can scrounge up enough friends to get this going.

One More cool link

This is a video interview of my Aunt Lynne. She wrote "The Soul of Money" which is an amazing book about transforming your relationship with money, how you think about it, into one of empowerment, opportunity and growth. Amazing, inspirational book. And a great, thought provoking interview:

Another cool link: Why Money Messes with Your Mind

The Art of Non-Conformity

The Art of Non-Conformity is a great thought provoking blog post about choosing a path different from the road most travelled, or, as he puts it, those who "have taken the blue pill."

For those of us struggling to find a new way to live and experience the world (since the "normal" path pretty much sucks now with the whole economic collapse thingy) check it out.

One more piece of the puzzle

I haven't had time to really blog in quite a while. Hopefully, I'll be able to blog soon about what's actually going on in our life, and how we're adjusting to the new economy, etc.

But in the meantime, I can't keep quiet. I just read chapter 4 of Robert Kiosaki's Conspiracy of the Rich, and between that, and what I've been reading in the media, I'm about to explode.

Hopefully, you've watched the video on how the credit crisis happened. If not, watch it.

Last week, the Fed announced its going to buy $1.2 trillion in US Treasury Bonds. That is, it is going to loan $1.2 trillion to the US treasury to help stimulate the economy. Sounds nice right. But where does that money come from? Sure, its called the Federal Reserve, but that is a misnomer. It is neither Federal, nor a Reserve. It doesn't hold money or assets. It only prints money. Got it? The Federal Reserve announced it is going to print $1.2 trillion dollars to lend to the US treasury.

Seriously? Are they TRYING to cause inflation?

At first I was scared, and then I thought about it: maybe that's a good thing, since a depression happens when there is massive deflation, not inflation, right? That's what happened in 1929. Trouble was, that didn't make me feel any better, just more confused. How could this possibly help?

That's when I read Chapter 4 of Conspiracy of the Rich. It talks about the two types of inflation. The American type, caused by deflation, and the German type, caused by inflation. In 1929, our depression was deflation related because our money was tied to the gold standard. Inflation was controlled at that point. Savers made out huge, cause every dollar they saved bought more.

At the same time, Germany experienced hyperinflation. Their money wasn't tied to any asset, so to get themselves out of deflation, they printed more money. And more. And more. Until it was completely useless. Savers lost big time, but debtors made out because their debts could be paid back for practically nothing.

Now, our money is off the gold standard, or any standard, and our central bank is printing more money to fight deflation. Looking at Germany, I can start to understand why I don't feel like any of this is helping. Why there's no great upswing in the economy. Sure, deflation isn't a problem any more, but inflation can hurt just as bad. And I'd say from my vantage point, it is hurting. Hopefully, Ben Bernake at the Federal Reserve will be able to tell just when to stop printing money and that will help stabilize the economy. But if he goes too far, we may be in for one nasty ride.

Personally, I think he's playing a dangerous game.

Oh, and for those who are wondering, the next two chapters of Robert's book are supposed to be released very soon, and they are about how to figure out what to do: what action is best for you at this time. Personally, I can't wait. This book has been a huge piece of the puzzle for me, pulling together all the separate bits of info into a whole picture.

Best explanation of the credit crisis. Ever.

AND its a cartoon!

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

Passive Barriers

Great article about why we don't do the things we keep saying we want to do (exercise more, balance our checkbook, clean our garage), AND how to get past those things that keep you stuck. This article calls them barriers, and though active barriers (like a locked door) are easy to see and deal with, passive barriers are harder to see, and thus, harder to deal with.

A great read, and food for thought: The Psychology of Passive Barriers: Why your friends don't save money, eat healthier, or clean their garage.

The Shack

My sister-in-law sent us a book that she said was very moving to her: The Shack

I'm really enjoying reading it. Its about a man who gets to have a very frank and revealing conversation with God. I'm not really into religious material, but this turned out to be very non-religious. In fact, anti-religious, in that God doesn't care for much of what organized religion creates and stands for (neither do I for that matter.)

Its also a beautiful story of healing and growth, as the character has some major trauma in his life that he is struggling with years later, when he meets God.

Its a great read, and I recommend it. I also recommend two other books I love that contain similar ideas: Conversations With God (my favorite is book 1), and http://www.amazon.com/Celestine-Prophecy-James-Redfield/dp/0446671002/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1236973579&sr=1-1

I'm hoping the receipt of this book also means I might be able to talk more openly with my sister-in-law about religion, and the things in our life that she has previously considered offensive and evil, often because they are secular. I'm somewhat confused she even enjoyed the book, as it has so many messages that go against things she's told me she believes. We'll see how the conversation develops.

More awesome banking info

It seems like more and more people are waking up and paying attention to reality. I just watched Jon Stewart interview Jim Cramer about the bad calls CNBC made with regards to the stock market, and I think Jim said something very telling:

Talking about Bear Sterns being leveraged 35 to 1:

JS: But honest or not, in what world is a 35 to 1 leverage position sane?
JC: The world that made you 30% year after year after year beginning from 1999 to 2007

Jon swept past it, but its absolutely true. We have been in an up market for over 25 years, with a huge boom for the last eight of them, and reality, intelligence and responsibility just went out the window. And no one really cared cause it all just seemed to keep working, and everyone made money.

And now here is an article about how Ben Bernake wants to keep acting that way:
Creative Accounting Won't Solve The Banking Industry's Problems

Actually, most of the gov't wants to pretend that's still the world we live in. That we still live in a world where things are growing so well that if we just wait, we'll make money again. Not going to happen. The past is the past. I highly recommend reading Conspiracy of the Rich, (what's been released so far anyway) or if you are into reading technical economic books, Human Nature and The Grunch of Giants. This is a fascinating thing going on, and its fascinating how people are reacting to it, but I hold to my original metaphor:

The US has become morbidly obese and now is on a forced diet, but Uncle Sam keeps trying to feed us pie and cakes to ease our pain. The pain is healing, and good. Let it happen. Pie and cakes will only make our diet last longer.

Great Resource

Robert Kiosaki (author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad, and a bunch of other stuff) is writing an online book called The Conspiracy of the Rich. He is releasing it to a group of registered individuals for free, as he writes it. I just read the third chapter.

There are a lot of really great things he brings up in the book, about how the economy works, how money works, now and in the past, and what's going on with our economic collapse. To be fair, a lot of the concepts he brings up are not new to me, so I understand this book better than others might.

That's actually why he's releasing the book this way first. After each major concept, he asks those who have registered to go to the discussion board and list their questions or anything that is confusing to them. This way he can explain and expand the book for final release and make sure that the major questions of his readers are answered.

I highly recommend checking it out if you are interested at all in what is going on with the banks, the bailout, the stock market, or just the economy in general. Even if you don't understand everything, its a great place to find out what you don't know, and use that as a starting place for further research.

http://conspiracyoftherich.com/

Doom

And Gloom. It seems like you hear a lot of that these days. But I think its all perspective. Sure, I write about what's happening in the financial sector cause I find it interesting, but on a day to day basis it doesn't affect me.

Some say the next Great Depression is coming, because they watch the stock market plunge. I say "I don't see any soup kitchens around."

Sure, its bad, and its gonna get worse in the financial sector. We may see nasty inflation and high unemployment. We may have retired grandparents move back in with their kids cause they lost their portfolio, and a high foreclosure rate, but we are so SO much better off than in the 1930s.

We have the FDIC, which kept everyone who's bank closed last year from going bust. We have unemployment, disability, WIC, food stamps and all sorts of other programs that help pay bills and buy food when we need help. Are chemical based agrobusiness (while bad for the environment and long term health) ensures that there's no possibility of a dust bowl the way there was in the 50s. I'm sure we could all add more to this list, but the basic message is, that sure, it hurts, but I don't think it'll hurt that much. We are much more prepared to help each other than we were then, and we already are helping each other. In the end, we'll probably get a stronger, better society out of this, so don't panic. It'll be ok.

Confidence: follow up

On my blog entry about Confidence, Sarah asked a great question in her comment. Sarah, if you don't mind, I'm going to paraphrase: Why is it a stupid idea to lend to banks like Bank of America and Citibank? If they go under, that's a lot of jobs lost.


Its true, Bank of America and Citibank are in trouble, much more so than they say, and could go under. And if they do, that's a ton more jobs that are lost, not just from the banks, but from companies that had their money in those banks.

I'm not nesecarily against the gov't paying these banks if it helps them to stay solvent. a) I'm not sure the gov't has enough money available to do this, and b) I'm not convinced its the best use of limited gov't funds.

First, lets assume that Bank of America and Citibank are actually salvagable. The US gov't spends several hundred billion dollars to save them. The reality is that, though they are now solvent again, they still have to lend significant amounts of money to stimulate the economy. This not only means that their balance sheets have to allow for this but that they must also take the time to process each loan. For the balance sheets to allow this, they must have enough capital on hand to cover the estimated loans that have defaulted and are going to default, plus extra to loan out. Then they must, over the course of time, loan out enough money to enough companies that it stimulates employers and consumers and the economy recovers.

Would it work? Eventually, yes. But it is a lot of money (no one knows exactly how much, because the banks won't value their bad loans at market value currently. If they did, it would be immediately apparent they are insolvent and they would be closed) and it is a significant amount of time. The gov't doesn't lend money quickly or all at once. Nor do I expect lenders to all apply at once for loans (though I could be dead wrong on that) And all that time that passes means more job loss and economic slump.

Honestly, its not a bad place to put our money, I just think its not the right place. I think its too risky to loan money to the banks to cover their loans, given that they could fail anyway, and that it'll take too long to work. So I feel the money is better spent on things that make us, as a country, feel more confident: social services, health care, and more jobs. I have heard people point out that those types of services are harder to cut after its all said and done, and people don't need them anymore. A valid point, but still, this is where I think the money will be better spent.

As for tax cuts, sure I appreciate them, but much more would be done for the economy if that money was used for a lot of new gov't jobs instead of a few more bucks in each of our pockets. Tax cuts help politically, not economically.

Maybe its because I'm coming from a frugal perspective: I'd rather see us pay for actual services and jobs than loan money to risky companies that we hope can pull us out of this thing. It is a really hard decision, and I can see where Obama's plan makes some sense: try a bit of everything, and see what works best. I guess I just feel like we tried the tax cuts and bank bailouts already, and they didn't do much good. So how does trying it again make sense?

Stupid FOX

I've been sick all week, so needless to say that inbetween all the sleeping, I've watched a lot of television. All on hulu, my new favorite website. Free TV and movies streaming legally from NBC/Universal. And one of the shows I watch is Joss Whedon's new show: Dollhouse.

Its got a decent premise and could be really intriguing, but has yet to completely grab me. Moments, sure. And the last two episodes finally started to have some decent intrigue with regards to Alpha (those who know, know. Everyone else, watch the show.) I'm particularly into the show not because its good (it is decent, and very pretty), but because the last show Joss had on FOX was amazing. You just couldn't tell. FOX reworked the pilot so it sucked, changed the order of the episodes so they made less sense, and basically screwed the show up so it was no surprise when it got cancelled first season. The show was Firefly and it was amazing. If you haven't seen it, see it. All the episodes are on hulu for free.

And now it looks like the same thing is happening with Dollhouse. I just read the script for the original pilot. Totally awesome. Intriguing, fast moving, quixotic. I would have been hooked on this show. Sure, it may have moved too fast for some veiwers, particularly those not used to scifi. Ok. Change it a little.

No, fox has a completely different pilot written, and all I can say is that it severly has changed where the characters are going and what's going on. They even cut the cool sciency bits that make scifi awesome.

Sigh. I will still watch Dollhouse, cause I believe all the cool parts I read about in the pilot will show themselves eventually. I just hope Dollhouse can stay around long enough to get to those parts, especially if FOX continues to make Joss write them out.

Confidence

Wow, the DOW below 7000. And I'm not very surprised. I think just about everyone understands that this market isn't going to recover any time soon. And though Obama's heart is in the right place, the money alone isn't going to do anything but prolong the problem.

Our main issue right now, as it was in 1929, is confidence. Its why the DOW is going to keep dropping, quite likely to somewhere around 5500, why unemployment is going to go up, and why the GDP is going to keep going down. To explain one aspect of why confidence is important: if you as a consumer aren't confident in a products ability to do what it says it will, you don't buy it, right? Well, the same thing applies to investors buying a companies stock, or lenders lending to a company. And currently, everyone is so scared, they won't even invest in stocks that ARE good. And lenders are so scared about making a bad call, they aren't lending to anyone either. Just as a consumer will avoid cream cheese if it made him sick once, the investors and lenders are avoiding putting any money at all into companies that need it.

Fewer lenders supporting businesses means those businesses can easily become sickly and have to cut their workforce, close stores and factories, etc. And if the businesses look sickly, any investors left who believed in them bail too. Its that simple. Investors flock to cash and bonds instead (creating a bubble in the bond market, but that's another story) and lenders just don't lend.

In the meantime all us little guys get hurt as our jobs are cut, our stores are closed, and prices are raised (I think we'll see more of this later on this year.)

Obama is headed in the right direction: putting more money into social services, health care, investing in science and green technology, basically trying to get our country to believe in itself once again. He also continues to give money to banks and lenders to hoard, and tax breaks that cost the gov't billions but don't help any single person enough to make a difference. Those moves, while they are bipartisan, aren't smart. They don't do anything to create confidence in the long term, which is exactly what we need.

With confidence, lenders will lend again, investors will invest, employers will hire, and in general, people will breathe easier. Unfortunately, confidence doesn't come quick, easy or cheap. A lot of time and work will be involved, and in the meantime, the DOW will continue to slide.

Its not all doom and gloom though. As I have said before, though this is painful, its forcing us into a smaller, more sustainable standard of living; one where its not about how many toys you have, but how well you live and how fulfilled you are. That's a good thing. Its also had the side effect of encouraging Americans to save for the future and to pay off their debts, also a good thing. So yes, the economy will shrink more before it gets better, and yes, it looks dreary and upsetting, but at the core of this is a whole new life for us as Americans. One where we know the value of the word "enough," where we have confidence in our country, and one where America has an inner strength that means much more than her outer economic might used to mean.

A family dinner with a great conversation

Monday night we had dinner with my family in remembrance of my Grandma Ellie, who passed on Feb 23 last year. It was a great evening, with a lot of wonderful conversation. We talked about her and what she stood for, and how she gave us this amazing gift: she taught us how to important it was to keep together as a family. This is becoming true even more now that economic reality makes it so hard to stay on your own.

What was really great for me though, was the conversation about how we got to this place as a country. I brought up the articles I had been seeing about how "upsetting" it was that Americans will be forced to lower their standard of living, and how completely odd it is to me that this is seen as a bad thing. Mom brought up a lot of interesting ideas that totally helped me to understand how me got here.

The one that really got me was this one: that parents want a better life for their children than they had. Sure, it sounds great on the surface, and it totally makes sense in context of human history but really, how long that can continue? And in terms of survival and material things, that's been the case. Every generation has more stuff, and less of a struggle for survival (as a group, anyway).

Since I'm not a parent, I'd never thought about it that way, but that little thought drives so much of cultural momentum. So of course, we talked about changing what "better" meant. Instead of more stuff, larger houses, cooler cars, what if better meant a more meaningful, fulfilled and sustainable life? Which (my Mom said) was exactly the direction they were trying to go in the 60s. But something happened. She was so confused about it, and had no idea what happened, or when it did, but everyone kind of forgot what they had believed in just a few years earlier.

I can relate a bit, since the same thing happened to my college age idealism for a while, but at our dinner table we agreed it was a conundrum. This huge movement for whatever reason just fizzled. It was our chance to change at our own pace. Now its too late, the change is more forced, and more painful.

Still, at the end of the dinner, we were all very clear, what's on the other side of this is in fact a better life. Just not the type of better we are used to.

SAG negotiations fall through

Stupid SAG. Don't they know how many people are out of work because of them right now? I do get it....they just wanted the contract to come to term at the same time as everyone else (so they can all negotiate a better deal together in 2011) and actually, I think its the right thing to go for. But I'm annoyed because I was really hopeful that they could work it out and get some sort of contract signed so Jeremy will be able to work again. Grrr.

The End is Coming!

Or so they want you to think. I keep reading all these doom and gloom type articles saying how the American "standard of living" is going to drop permanently. And?

Look, Americans have been living above their means for decades. The household savings ratio (what the average person made versus what they spent) was either below one or negative for most of my lifetime, and a good section of my parents as well. Negative means the same thing as when you see a negative balance in your checking account...you spent more than you had.

How bout the whole "America uses around 25% of the world's resources" statistic that I hear so often? I'm also hearing a lot of sound bites along the lines of "America is the world's consumer. If we stop consuming, China (or any other export country) has no one to sell to."

Seriously? We don't save, and have, as a country decided to actually deficit spend in our households. (The gov't deficit is a whole separate thread) We use and buy so much crap that we are the number one waster, polluter and consumer of natural resources, and whole sections of other country's economies are built around our need to buy buy buy! Heck, our own economy is based on it. Why else would everyone tell us to "Go Shopping" in order to strengthen the country?

Take a step back and it seems pretty clear that this is a trend that cannot and should not continue. We had a chance in the 80s and 90s to change our ways and be a bit more responsible. Now we are forced. Sure it hurts and its hard, but its also what had to happen. Its not the end of the world, its the beginning of a mature America.

Finances!

This week feels schizophrenic. Jeremy and I are both vacillating between happy and hopeful about the future and freaked out, overwhelmed and stressed about . Of course, the major topics to insert were centered around finances: job hunting, taxes, debt, bank fees, and missing disability checks.

But no fear. For the most part, the stress is short lived, and the reality is that we are sailing along pretty well. We did our taxes for 2008 on Sunday, which felt great. Our refund will go straight to paying off taxes owed from 2007, but hey, that's less debt for us to pay. Jeremy has a job this weekend, which doesn't pay anything, but will help in the networking department.

Last week he went to the Local Union Branch 80 - the union that handles grips and whatnot for film and TV production - and took the first steps to becoming a member. In order to be eligible, he has to work 30 days on a union job within a year. And the only time he can work on a union job is on days when a production needs so much extra help, they get a permit to allow for non-union workers. So Jeremy gets to call in between 4 and 6 am in the morning to check which productions have permits that day. Yikes! It'll be a while before he gets any permitted work through them, as the whole industry is suffering and there's currently not enough work for all the union members, but eventually, things will turn around.

In the meantime he's getting disability from his injury in November. We were getting pretty frustrated that his disability check was so late, and I was worried that it was delayed because of the whole CA state budget thing (they finally signed a budget today!!!), so I asked him to call, and what a relief! It wasn't delayed because of a lack of money, it was delayed because they were waiting on the lame ass worker's comp insurance company (who are not paying him) to send proof that they are not paying him. Lucky they sent it to Jeremy a couple weeks ago. Jer was able to fax that letter right over, and we should be seeing a check within a week. Not only that, but they are also sending forms over for him to get his doc to sign, so he can get payment for the month of December as well.

This totally relieves our stresses about paying for rent, car insurance, loan payments and food from one paycheck. We had gotten ourselves a bit stuck with this last one, and really could use that extra income.

Overall, things are good. And as long as I keep reminding myself how lucky we are, the stress doesn't stay for long. :)

And for some fun

Hello World!

Wow, its been almost two weeks. Sorry guys, I've been so swamped with accounting crap that any extra time on a computer just felt like torture. But its over now (the crap, not the accounting, thank god) and I am back. Woo!!

SO much to blog about. Lots of rants I could go on, and lots of interesting topics, but I'm going to focus on two that affect us here in the entertainment industry in the state of California: the SAG strike negotiations and the California legislature.

/begin rant

SAG is STILL in negotiations with the studios. They are meeting today, hopefully to finally agree on something. Cause this is not the time to strike. EVERYONE connected to the film and TV industry is hurting because of this stupid contract negotiation. The economy is tight, so no one wants to waste money starting a project only to find out SAG is striking and they have to stop production, and that means that not only the actors, lighting, sound, camera men, directors, and producers are out of works but the caterers, the cleaning people, the costumers, the day care people, the limos and cabs, the delivery guys, the security men, etc etc. Yes the contract is crappy, and yes if you had leverage you should strike, but SAG, you do not have leverage, you have thousands who are out of work and hurting, so suck it up and take three more years of crappy pay.

And for all those guys who are out of work, do you get unemployment? You thought you did, but its all going to be taken away (or possibly never given), because the Republicans in the legislature won't pass the budget. It has temporary tax increases in it, which they just can't stand. So 20,000 people are laid off, benefits are being slashed or delayed, and everyone in California is not going to receive tax refunds anywhere near to ontime. And just for kicks, I checked out what they said would be a better solution: they want to cut the "bloated" state dept. Ok, except that even if they fired everyone (which would close prisons, hospitals, national parks, and their own legislature) it still wouldn't fill the budget deficit. So, that's not going to work.

Two groups who are so focused on their own version of "right" that they aren't noticing the reality of what's around them, and California is hurt for it. If there was anything I could do, I would. None of the Republicans are in my district, so they won't accept letters from me, and I'm not a member of SAG. But if anyone reading this is a member of either, do your own research and then write letters, faxes, emails or even call to tell these people to get their heads out of their asses and actually help their constituents.

/end rant

Kiva.org

Many of you may remember me mentioning Kiva.org once or twice. I LOVE this organization. They distribute micro loans to entrepreneurs in third world countries. Its empowering, for both the giver and the receiver of the loans, which the main requirement for any charity I support: it has to empower the receipient.

Here's a video story of exactly how a Kiva loan works:

A Fistful Of Dollars: The Story of a Kiva.org Loan from Kieran Ball on Vimeo.

Sleep is the AWESOMEST OF THE AWESOME!

Those who have been close to me (read: husband) know how tough I've had it this week. And its only Wednesday. Here's how it went down:

Monday I worked with Nancy all day. This, in essence, is the crux of the problem. Nancy is our outside accountant. She writes our financial reports every quarter so that Paul and I don't have to. Without ranting, I will just say that this woman spends every moment of her life tense, panicked, stressed, or upset. Period. And she doesn't find it an odd or difficult way to live, specifically because she's forgotten (I assume) what its like to be relaxed and trust that things work. Oh, and she blames everyone else (read: me) for anything, even if its her fault.

Because of this I was so stressed I think I got a max of five hours of sleep, broken into two parts with a 2+ hour panic fest in the middle around 3am. And I STILL was stressed out all day Tuesday, though the panic stopped around noon. Tuesday was a total bust.

Today, I woke up at 6:30 or so, uber refreshed. Didn't move a muscle all night, so I was sore and numb in places. But mentally, I was great! All I can say is this: peace of mind is the best sleep enhancer EVER.

Oh, and I will never spend a full day working with Nancy again. Done.

Mint.com

For those of you who do not have a bookkeeping software, or are new to keeping track of your finances, I present: Mint.com

Mint.com automatically updates your transactions nightly, and automatically categorizes as well (though you can change the categories if it gets it wrong). Setting up a budget is pretty easy, and you can see your spending trends, and even ore importantly, your cash flow.

Cash flow is basically just the difference between the money you bring in, and the money that goes out. Positive cash flow means you spend less than you earn (yay!), but in this world of credit, it is easy to have a negative cash flow, especially if its only a little negative, and not notice. Its the main contributor to that feeling of never getting ahead. Even as you move forward with a raise or something, you've been picking away at that raise with a negative cash flow, till you wonder where all your money went!

Mint.com fits in PERFECTLY with Your Money or Your Life. Step 2 in YMOYL is to track every penny that comes into or out of your life, and Mint.com is a great way to do it. Caveat: It only works if your banks, credit cards, and loans are supported by the software. If you are at a major bank, no worries. Even one of our credit unions was supported. But the other one, no luck. And no way to enter it in manually either. So that's a bummer.

But if you bank at (lets say) Bank of America, have credit cards with BofA, Capital One, and Chase, have student loans with Sallie Mae, and a car loan with GMAC, you are golden. All those accounts will automatically update, and all you need to do s make sure everything categorizes correctly (Fresh & Easy, for example, shows up as uncategorized....I guess it is kinda new as a Grocery store tho), and have a budget entered in. Note: it categorizes well for the most part, though you will need to categorize checks and cash purchases yourself.

It give you email alerts when you close to your budgeted spending, or when a credit card bill is due (no help on those utility bills tho), gives you a month by month graph of your cash flow (a BIG motivator) and, as it tracks your spending habits, can recommend services (such as rewards cards and high yield savings acccounts) that would help you save money by being focused exactly on how you like to spend.

All in all, a great service for those who are learning how to track their finances, and helpful if you want to check your eating out budget right when say, a coworker invites you to lunch (everything is online). However, for those of us who have moved beyond simply categorizing our spending, or who want to keep track of all bill due dates(not just credit cards), or who have accounts that are not supported by Mint.com yet, keep your at home bookkeeping software.

In which Katy struggles with her workday

I am having the roughest workday. I want to yell at everyone. Everyone suddenly seems ridiculously stupid. I swear they lost at least 40 IQ points over the weekend each. And there is this massive pile of this-will-never-end-and-you-know-it work in front of me. Plus tax stuff, which is just like this-will-never-end-and-you-know-it work with the added benefit of being on a giant deadline that I get absolutely no help with.

And people wonder why I'm cranky.

Best finance book EVER

Jer and I spent two hours on Sunday walking through Costco and just learning where stuff was, and what type of stuff they had. Very informative. And while we were there, we stumbled upon the book section and saw Your Money or Your Life: 9 Steps to Transforming Your Relationship With Money and Achieving Financial Independence by Vick Robin, Joe Dominquez, and Monique Tilford. Now, I had heard of this book as one of the top finance books out there, and since we are all about finances this year, we picked it up. And let me just say, this is the finance book to read before you read anything else.

Its not about budgeting or living thrifty, investing, or making more money. Those are all great topics, but this one really starts at the beginning. And I'm not talking three year old "toys cost money, dear" type of beginning. It goes to the root of our financial issues: Why we earn and spend the way we do. The book takes you through 9 steps. The first two steps are all about grounding you in the present: totaling up all the money you earn, all your assets, and all your liablities; keeping track of all your expenses for a month; and calculating your actual hourly wage (including time spent commuting, decompressing, preparing for work, clothes bought for work, etc).

Once you are finally in the present and aware of exactly how much money you have (or don't have), how much you spend, and how much you earn, then the fun begins. And this is the part that's really exciting for me. You are asked to look at expenses not in money, but in hours of your life that is costs to earn that. And THEN you look at whether you got fulfillment from that item, whether it aligns with your life purpose, whether it would stay the same if you didn't have to work.

There's a lot of introspection that goes into that step, and the further steps that build on it, clearly. (Seriously, this is a lot of personal growth stuff) But it is so empowering. Instead of saying "I'm cutting my expenses by $200 this month" and going on a money diet, you get to say "Eating out just doesn't fulfill me. Maybe I'd like to spend that money on something that does." Or whatever you end up saying to yourself.

It makes money really easy to think about, make choices about, and even talk about, cause its no longer tied up in who you are. Its just a tool to get you to where you want to go.

Of course, once you know what you REALLY want to accomplish (life wise, and money wise) then it makes sense to research how to get there (investing, frugal living, second job, whatever) but how great to be doing it because you are called to it, instead of because you feel like you should. I swear, this is the best money book I've read, and really one I recommend reading before you read anything more specific.

If you're over at our house in the next couple weeks you'll see our charts on our fridge as we bring our money into alignment with our goals and purposes.

Oh yes, there is Evil in this world.....

I just finished reading this article, about how putting a rediculously low monthly payment on credit card bills actually causes most of us to make 43% lower payments than we would normally (excluding those who pay bills in full each month. You lucky dogs.) Do you know how much more money that is for the credit card agencies?!

It got me thinking, so I did some research, watched this frontline episode (from 2004, still relevent tho) and took a big ole step back. How is it that it never, ever occurred to me as odd that credit card companies can change the rate on money I've borrowed AFTER I've borrowed it? Home loans, car loans, and personal loans can't do that, but its ok that credit cards can? I have seriously "drunk the koolaid" as they say.

Good news though! In July 2010 (not nearly soon enough), new regulations come into effect. I'm going to post them here because I found WAY too many articles that inaccurately reported them. Most of the articles just reported what was "proposed" as if it was law, but sadly, many of those proposed regulations just didn't make the cut. Those that did:

~Credit card companies can no longer raise interest rates on money you've already borrowed, UNLESS you have a variable rate card, or you've paid your minimum payment more than 30 days late

~No rate hikes in the first year, unless that was part of the original card agreement.

~Zero percent interest now actually means zero percent interest. No more deferred interest offers.

~No late fee if the bill was mailed less than 21 days from the due date. (I personally have been hit with this one, and threw a fit, and got nowhere. Apparently I was "responsible for knowing my due date and payment amount, whether or not [I] got a bill." WTF Same card that changed my due date twice in the same year without notice, btw. I don't do business with them anymore.)

~Credit card companies must now split your payment amongst all balances, or allocate it all to the balance with the highest rate. No more paying off your 0% balance transfer first while your 25% cash advance builds up interest charges.

~No more double-cycle billing!!!! (Lemme explain: double-cycle billing is when you have a $500 balance, and during the billing cycle you pay $450 before interest is calculated, but they still charge you interest on the full $500 as if it hadn't already been paid)

~Subprime cards can not charge fees or deposits that are more than 50% of the card's limit, and they must give you a full year to pay those fees off.

More info here.

Of course this means that there will a bit more responsibility in the credit card industry, since they can't gouge people as much, and that means fewer offers to higher risk people. Sounds bad, but its so not. Nothing that causes greater responsibility is ever a bad thing. Inconvenient, yes. But always good for you. Like broccoli.

How could I forget?!

We got a CostCo card! It must be because I've been so swamped at work, and going crazy with taking care of dogs and husband combined (can't wait for his cast to come off---5 more days!)

So we made our first foray into CostCo on New Year Eve. I do NOT recommend it. The store was SO crowded that day, it was awful! And then there was the issue of getting Jeremy through the crowds with his crutches. Ick. But we didn't want to just give up right there.

We went back last week on a Saturday (I know) and though it was crowded too, it was MUCH better than the holiday. And we had a slightly better idea of how to attack the store: avoid the clusterf#$k at the produce section (who needs 8lbs of asparagus anyway?!), walk the backs of the aisles instead of the fronts (too many people oogling clothes, electronics, etc in the fronts,) and know your store layout (this one we're still working on - there are NO aisle labels!! I think I'll just spend an afternoon wandering some day or another - to get the basics down)

So far, what we've found is that Costco prices are pretty low, but only to about what would match other stores' sale prices. So rather than buy everything at Costco, we're going to buy staples and meat. So, flour, bread, beans, rice, and meats, particularly meats in large quantities, like 15lbs of sirloin (that we'd have to cut into steaks ourselves, but that is rediculously cheap!)

I'm looking forward to spending the next few months figuring out the best way to make use of our Costco membership for both healthy living, and a healthy balance sheet.

OAMC

Stands for Once A Month Cooking. There's a cookbook out there that gives you a menu list, recipe list and grocery list for once a month cooking, and then you basically spend one day a month cooking everything for your family and putting in your (very large) freezer.

That type of plan isn't really for me. I like cooking, and I like fresh foods. But I also like not having to cook ALL the time. So I started searching for good make ahead and freeze type meals, and guess what? They all seem to be labeled OAMC.

Search OAMC on Google and you will find a ton of website where people just post up their favorite recipes. And they are great recipes (mostly). There's also some pages titled things like "How to use 35lbs of hamburger," which may come in handy with our new CostCo card.

Since Jer and I aren't eating out much any more, and we are cutting our grocery bill, its seems like making a few of these OAMC recipes and having them ready in the freezer would be a great idea for us. I'll keep Cooking Kama Sutras updated with anything good that I find.

Picnic Day

Today we went to the park with our friends and had a picnic. It was great! A little windy (ok, a lot) but really nice, warm sun, and we got to take the dogs. My favorite part was how much it cost: Nothing! We made sandwiches, brought water, and had a blast!

I love watching our mindset switch over, to where we aren't thinking about what we can go buy, but more what can we do without buying. Cindy came up with the picnic idea (thanks Cindy!) and it was great to see everyone just hanging out and talking. Not playing the latest video game, not spending money on a movie, just talking and having a great time.

Woot!

Pushing through the haze

Its been a few days since I've been able to write, mainly because I'm so doggone tired. I've been spending most of my work week trying desperately to get our books to match our CPA's statements so our producers stop asking embarrasing questions, and after two weeks, we've finally gotten over the first hurdle. The general ledge (read: main account) is DONE! Now its onto each individual movie, making sure that those books are all good.

The trouble is, during these two weeks (and, probably, the next two weeks) I also have all my normal accounting duties to complete. As you can guess, I'm pretty swamped. I just now finished up entering all the payments and deposits (and credit cards, and bank statements) for November. December should be worse, because there's WAY more stuff that is behind. Sigh.

As one would expect, I have gotten frustrated, overwhelmed, sleep deprived, and, today, my entire brain feels like its swimming through some type of haze. I have no idea how I started functioning today (I should have just shut down or fell apart), but I do know how I kept going once I got started: I didn't let myself stop.

Of course I took breaks, and I took a walk, but whenever I found myself zoning out, or getting too overwhelmed, or just plain not wanting to keep going, I kept going. I recently read that its easier for people to work in 10-15 minute spurts, so that's what I did. At first I didn't even realize what I was doing, but it does really work. I worked on a task for 15 minutes or so, then got stumped or frustrated, so I put it down and moved to something else.

Seriously, I can not believe how much I got done today, especially given how crappy I'm feeling. I can barely put a decent sentence together (when talking. typing, thankfully, isn't so much of a problem), and yet, I've gotten most everything done that I wanted too! I can go home feeling satisfied because there is no GiantNumbersPile monster waiting for me on Monday. Just a Baby GiantNumbersPile Monster, who's Underdressed and Distracted....totally pwnable.

Lessons learned from D&D

Jeremy and I had a great conversation a couple days ago about what worked and didn't work when we played various D&D campaigns. Lots of interesting stuff came up, but one thing was most interesting to me and it happens to be a great relationship lesson too.

The campaigns where our group did the best, and where we have had the most fun, are ones where everyone's goal is the same. In the game, we start out with a basic character and some vague idea of what we want to do, and end up shaping our goals and the reasons for reaching those goals together.

When the characters have their motivations and goals sorted out beforehand, it messes with the team cohesion, the team doesn't work quite as efficiently together, and it isn't as fun (at least for us.) To be fair, role playing wise, it puts an interesting and different spin on things: forcing us to figure out how to work with this person, communicate with someone who doesn't want to, etc. But it is more work, and the results we get as a team aren't as awesome.

Cut to the relationship. Seems like common sense, but it did kinda hit me over the head: The same thing applies! I'm seeing it already in our finances. Last year we had all these things we wanted to accomplish with the finances, and though Jer and I were both headed in roughly the same direction (spend less, save more, pay down debt) we had significantly different reasons for doing so. I wanted to be more secure and to feel like I had a bit more control over money. He had big goals like investing in real estate. And sure, we both related to the other's point of view, but there were times when he didn't get why I was upset at a small charge from Taco Bell. And then I didn't get why he was so upset at the real estate market doing what its doing now (after all, it will be a good thing for us, eventually.)

Now I see it. We were reacting to our different motivations. So we weren't completely together on our goals. This year, its different. We both are solidly on the goal of paying off our debt by 2010. Everything else is secondary, and already I can feel the difference. Its easier to talk about, and it feels more fun and less like pulling teeth. I'll definitely keep this site updated with how we do. But the big lesson I'm taking away is that its not enough to be walking in the same direction. It makes a huge difference when you are also heading for the same goal, and have the same or similar motivation for getting there.

New Year's Resolution

I have been so remiss! I told everyone about our resolutions, but I forgot to post them!

Our big one is be debt free by the end of 2009. That includes finding ways to save more money, but mostly its about planning. Two weeks ago, we used this spreadsheet to put together our debt snowball. We entered every debt we had in it, and how much we would pay each month, and it showed us how long paying off our debts would take, and how much interest we would pay. Though our major debts are at very low or zero interest, paying everything off this year will still save us over $2000 in interest payments!

It was extremely empowering to see everything on paper. Instead of just intending to pay down our debts as much as we can, we can see exactly how much we need to pay every month to reach our goal. Its inspired Jeremy to get a solid job, and me to get going on my other resolution:

To learn to do something new for myself every month. This absolutely feeds into my MIY workshops, so I'm stoked. This month, I'm learning to do my own manicures (see below) as the first MIY workshop is for bath stuff, which I already know how to make.

Next month, isn't planned yet. But I do really want to get on trying out that earthbox, or a container garden with an olla. So maybe that'll be February.

My first at home manicure

Was not a great success. Its not that bad, but had I paid for this manicure, I would not be happy.

Couple of things I learned:
1. Clipping cuticles yourself is a bad idea. I'll just clean them and not worry about trimming at all. Its not worth the hassle

2. Give yourself time to learn to be a bit ambidextrous. It takes some work.

3. One of the best tools a manicurist has is her own nails, particularly when it comes to cleaning up a bit of misplaced nail polish. Unfortunately, your nails are covered in polish already! So find a tool that can be used in the same fashion. I'll update when I find such a tool.

Overall, I'm not unhappy, and I'm gonna keep going doing my own manicures. I just see how much practice I need!