What Do You Want To Do?

Being in debt is frustrating, depressing, and scary; in fact, I can’t think of one good thing about being in debt. Of course, our society will lead you to believe otherwise, because you need debt to establish good credit, which allows you to buy cars, get credit cards, and mortgages. But for the purpose of this article, I’m assuming you’ve already done all of that, and now your filled with regret and panic and you need to find a way to get out of debt as quickly as possible. Trust me, you are not alone when it comes to being in debt; the average American family has over $8,000 in credit card debt and nearly 50% of all families spend more than they make. The bankruptcy and foreclosure rates are increasing on a daily basis and it’s causing a national crisis that no one seems to have a solution to.

How to Get Out of Debt

Ok, here it is, the simple first step to help you get completely out of debt: Know exactly how much you owe, spend, and earn.

I have pulled myself completely out of debt 3 times now and the only reason it seems so simple is because I know exactly what I spend, owe, and earn. Once I begin to worry about debt I know it’s time to buckle down and make a plan to get out of debt.

Step 1: Make A List - Start by using a spreadsheet on the computer, or just take out a piece of paper and make a list of all your monthly expenses, bills, payments, and the total payoff for every debt. Add everything up and know exactly how much you spend each month. Don’t forget about things like groceries, gas, doctor visits, medicine, and other misc. expenses that you pay each and every month.

Step 2: Prioritize - Next to each debt, I list the interest rate of each credit card or loan. This helps me determine the best point of attack and I can see available balances on lower interest credit cards. In some cases, I will transfer balances from higher interest cards to lower interest cards. Obviously paying off the higher interest loans or cards should be your first priority, but you also need to look at items like electronics store cards, where you may have 0% interest for 12 months. Paying these items before the interest kicks in can save quite a bit of money, because the interest can be retroactive from day one!

Step 3: Liquidate - This step is the big one for me, it’s an easy way to kick start your project and take a sizable dent out of your debt right up front. I round up all the items I can live without and sell them on Ebay or Craigslist or have a garage sale. Last time I did this, I made over $3,000. Take an inventory and decide what your family can live without. For me, it was some extra furniture, my xbox 360, an old computer, and my TV. I decided that until I was out of debt, I shouldn’t be spending my extra time playing video games or watching TV. My $15,000 in debt turned into $12,000 in less than a week and with very little work.

Step 4: Eliminate - Now that you’ve sold your TV, it’s time to eliminate that Cable TV bill, along with any other monthly expenses you can live without. Cable TV is an easy expense to eliminate, because there is nothing worth watching anyway, but take a look at all your bills and decide which need to stay and which can go. No more shopping on the Internet or buying i-tunes, cancel NetFlix, and pause your health club memberships. Until you are out of debt, there is no room for unnecessary expenses. You will feel much better paying off an extra $100 a month on a credit card, rather than watching a Sopranos rerun on HBO.

Step 5: Calculate - Once you’ve eliminated all the excess belongings and expenses from your life, you need to re-calculate your numbers and determine how much extra you have each month. Calculate your monthly income and subtract all your monthly expenses. Hopefully you still have a positive number at the end, but if you are negative, try to go back and eliminate other expenses. If you are still negative, then you need to think about other sources of income. For most people, this is a real eye opener, because they never knew how bad their financial situation really was.

Step 6: Communicate - This can be one of the hardest parts of getting out of debt, but it’s also the most important. You need to communicate with your family and explain why you are making the changes and tell your spouse exactly how bad the situation has become. It’s important that the whole family is on board with this decision and that it’s done together as a family. They say financial troubles are a leading cause of divorce, but working together as a family and pulling yourselves out of debt can be a wonderful and meaningful experience that can help a family grow closer together and succeed where others will fail.

Once you’ve made the decision to get out of debt, it’s just a matter of paying as much as possible towards the debt on a regular basis and to live a more basic lifestyle until you are completely out of debt. Taking the steps above will help you realize the problem and get you pointed in the right direction, but it’s up to you to stick to these changes and dedicate yourself to getting out of debt.

If after taking these steps, you don’t see a “light at the end of the tunnel”, you might need to think about other options. For me, I have always been able to earn enough money to pull myself out of debt, but if you are completely upside down, with no hope of improving your income, then you may want to seek professional help to get out of debt or seek legal options such as bankruptcy, to get a fresh start.

Good luck, and make sure you let us know when you pay off your first credit card! If you have any tips, advice, or stories, please share them with us and our readers.

When I arrived at the office that morning they were on my desk, waiting for me:  Two envelopes, both sent from a hotel in Las Vegas.  They caught my eye instantly, as I had never stayed at this particular hotel, and more-so because I was now living and working in Sydney, Australia. 

Opening them, I discovered handwritten letters from two of my best friends.  They had written, the letters said, just for the fun of it, and and to tell me about their stay in Vegas.  As I finished the second letter, I realized that both contained exactly the same content, each twisted slightly to completely contradict the other.  It was a funny gag, but moreover, I was so happy to receive such an unexpected correspondence, and in such an underused medium.  The letters were not just communication, they were a souvenir; my friends had actually gone to the trouble of getting the stationery, putting pen to paper, affixing the international postage, and mailing it off.  It was the most personal connection I had with friends or family while living abroad — more personal even than a phone call.

What this started was even more important.  Since those first letters arrived on my desk, my friends and I have been trading handwritten correspondence back and forth as often as we can.  We still talk on the phone and email each other, but the correspondence exists on its own plane.  We have an unspoken rule that we will only reply to an issue raised in a letter with another letter.  We also have started sending handwritten correspondence to other friends and family members — none who have yet replied in kind — but all who have enjoyed the novelty and personal touch of receiving a handwritten note.  Besides, the act of letter writing is as much for you as it is for the recipient.  You’ll be amazed at how good it feels to finish a letter and send it off.  It becomes a ritual, from getting the paper to affixing the stamp to watching it disappear down the mail slot.

The title of this article is “Write A Letter”, but I like to knock out two or three in one sitting.  At around two pages each (separate pages, front side only please), three letters take me 20-30 minutes to complete.  It is well worth the time.  My frequency of letter writing varies, but lately it has been around twice a month.  In between letters, though, I will send postcards any time I come across them in a shop or at a gas station, even if they’re from my own neighborhood.  I’ll scribble a random sentence on the back, sign it, and drop it in the mail.  The connection is made, and from a receiver’s point of view, I think the more random the postcard and inscription, the better.

One way to remind yourself to write a letter is to send one any time you’re at a hotel.  It has now become second nature for me to take the complimentary hotel stationery and shoot off a letter or two when I’m in a hotel room.  I even carry a variety of stamps and my address list with me in my bag so I don’t have an excuse to not send one.  At the last hotel I stayed in, it required an unusual effort on my part to acquire stationery from the front desk (the only time it hasn’t been in my room), so when I finally did get some, I made the story of its procurement the subject of the letter itself.

So, that’s your mission for today: pull a few sheets of paper out of the printer, think of a few friends you haven’t talked to in awhile, and start writing!

Speaking of stationery, I’m now at the point where I would like to get some of my own, but don’t want to break the bank.  Does anyone know of a good resource for inexpensive, personalized stationery?

When I go into a bookstore I’m amazed by the row after row of magazines they have. Although every time I’m there I head straight to the same sections and same magazine, I’m a sports nut so I go for Outdoor, Triathlete, Biking, Kiteworld, Surfer type section. I always grab the same group of magazines find a comfy seat, kick up the feet and read away. Its not that I don’t notice the other magazines its just that they all seem to blur together until i reach “my” section.

Well Yesterday I went there and went straight to my routine grabbing my group of magazine and taking a seat. As I made my way a quarter through my pile there was an unknown magazine tossed into the group. It was tattoo magazine; it has a bunch of pictures of people displaying their tattoos, some girls on motorcycles and some interview of tattoo artists. Since it was already in my pile I decided to give it a flip through and actually it was pretty interesting. It was amazing how tattoo is its own art world and the reasoning behind why some people get their tattoos. There was even a really good interview of that girl that used to be on the show “Miami Ink” and why she spun off to doing her own show. After reading through the magazine it made me start thinking on why don’t I have a tattoo!

Sometimes when your passionate about one thing (endurance sports for me) you forget that there is a whole world of other interest and happenings out there. Sometimes its a shock, it is like finding out a whole new community exists and you had know idea about it. After yesterdays magazine incident it made me remember a time last year when one of my coworkers told me about the history of “kicks” (athletic shoes). He knew the name of the shoe, the artist who designed the shoe, and the release date of the shoes.  He claimed there were blogs and forums where people just discussed these shoes. At first I didn’t understand how shoes could be a hobby, but after doing some research I found out he was right, there were people out there obsessed with tennis shoes.

It is easy to forget that there is a whole big world out there, with many people, interest and activities. Try stepping outside your bubble, head to the opposite side of the magazine rack and see what lays there. Expanding your horizons it is fun, shocking and interesting to say the least.

Is there a time when you discovered something completely different from your usual interests, if so what was it?

Learning to blog can be fun, exciting, not to mention an addictive hobby and even career for some people.

Why blogging can be fun:

• Great way to see your work published
• Makes you feel like writing on a daily basis
• Make extra money by advertising on your blog
• Great way to meet and network with people

There are many ways to start a blog and different ways to host a blog. In this article I’m going to deal with the simplest most easy way to get you blogging in about ten minutes or less. The quickest way I have found is to use blogger. This site is owned by google so if you have a gmail account just sign in and get started, if not you do have to sign up for one, which is free so no worries. After you sign in you basically just have to think of a name for you blog and check to see if it is available. You can add pictures to your blog, change the color and the fonts as well. After that you ready to start blogging! Its that easy!

After you have been blogging for awhile you may want to start chatting with and meeting other bloggers, the best way to do this is by social networking. This is where things get fun and you can make a lot of blogger friends, add comments to others blogs and draw traffic to your site. Its much more fun writing a blog when you know others are reading it!

Happy Blogging!

I can’t tell you how many people I know that never change their hairstyles; I’m sad to say I’m a victim of this myself. Oh sure I may do a snippet here or there, add a couple layers but no matter what I do it always looks pretty much the same. Plenty of friends I know do the same thing they will go out get their “hair cut” and when they come back I couldn’t tell a difference. Sometimes I really get jealous of men, because they have a bonus for changing their look; facial hair.

We all probably know that one person who does change their hair constantly; dyes it, chops it, layers it, gels it, spikes it , shaves it and so on. Its almost like they are a movie star whenever you see them they look different, refreshed and lastly HOT! When I see bold styling, I have sworn so many times that I’m going to drop my plain jane act and go for it. Only after a couple hours make up excuses of why it won’t work for me, kinda like when you start a new diet.

Why people don’t change:

• It is easy to stay in a medium zone, meaning one that works just okay, not bad not great.
• Scared of the comments you have to deal with after changing; “wow what did you do!”
• Laziness; why fix something that not broke.

These are all valid reasons, but if you want to truly grow as a person change is necessary for that to happen. Why be bland when you can be bold and remember its just hair, it will grow or you can dye it back. Don’t be afraid to meet the new you, give it a chance before giving up and going back to your old ways.

Have any of you made a bold hair statement, let us know and add a pic of your before and after look.

Before you automatically give up on this one, first take a look at the “claimed” benefits:

Improved Sleep Habits
Increased Energy
Clearer Skin
Cures Many Diseases
More Strength and Stamina
Easier Digestion
More Vitamins
Easy Weight Loss

The benefits of eating raw foods are well documented and many believe it can actually reverse the body’s aging process! I personally love meat and nearly all cooked foods, so I was very hesitant at first; I just couldn’t resist all the claims of perfect health, energy, and longevity. I made the decision to give it a week and see if any of these claims were true.

Along with giving up cooked food, I had to give up caffeine too. I drank a lot (maybe 10 cups of coffee/tea/soda) of caffeine during the day and since nothing raw seems to have any caffeine, I had to give it up too.

Giving up caffeine caused severe headaches throughout the first few days, but even with the headaches, I could feel the benefits of eating raw. After the third day, all the headaches were gone and I felt great. I decided that I would continue eating raw for a second week, but I really wanted a cooked meal. The hardest part about eating raw is not having (what I consider) a good meal. I could eat as much as I wanted, so I never felt hungry, but I never felt the same fulfillment like I do when eating a hot meal.

After two week of eating +/- 95% raw, 100% vegan, I assessed my overall condition. Here are some of the differences I noticed:

Sleeping - I slept great every night while I was on the raw food diet. When I went to bed, I would fall asleep withing 10 minutes and wake up 7 hours later completely awake and refreshed.

Concentration - I work from home and normally have a hard time concentrating and getting work done. While eating raw, I was thinking more clearly and I had a noticeable improvement in concentration and focus.

Weight Loss - I lost nearly 20 lbs in two weeks, while eating any time I was hungry.

Aches and Pains - I don’t know if others have noticed this, but while eating raw, my joints and muscles seem to feel much better. Because of a motorcycle accident several years ago, many of my joints are in constant pain, but I barely notices the pain while on this diet.

More Energy - I never once felt tired or drained during the day and I felt like I had more energy, even though I was sleeping less and only eating fruits and vegetables.

Overall, I was amazed with the results, but I still missed eating “real” food, so after two weeks, I started eating cooked foods again, while incorporating as many raw foods as possible.

Eating raw was both fun and challenging, and it was a great experience that everyone should try at least once. I found new foods that I love and I feel like it’s improved my health and lifestyle. For me, It’s too early to say whether eating raw can do everything listed above, but I do know that it made a big difference in my life and maybe it will do the same for yours.

My favorite raw foods:

Morning smoothie - Put everything in a blender and blend until smooth.
1 Cup Frozen Pinapple
1 Cup Frozen Mango
1 Frozen Banana
1-2 Cup(s) Orange Juice (depending on how thick you like it)
1 Cup Ice Cubes

Lara Bars - Try Whole Food, Wild Oats, Jimbos, Trader Joes, or other natural food store.

Bananas, Apples, Raw Nuts, Grapes

Let us know how you feel after one day of eating raw and if it feels right for you, try it for a week. Tell us about your favorite recipes and if you are a raw food veteran, help us out with more tips and advice.

Whenever I visit a city for a significant period of time, I try to explore at least one of its cemeteries.  Quiet, peaceful, and often situated on a prime piece of real estate, sometimes with incredible views, cemeteries are like public parks without the annoying crowds.

Today I visited Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, California.  It’s large enough to spend an entire day in and never see everything, so I first got the lay of the land in my car before settling on a spot to park and have a closer look on foot.  This cemetery dates back to before the Gold Rush of 1849, so the graves are spread out and plenty of land is given to green space, and many of the headstones (or, rather, monuments) illuminate the history of the Bay Area.  As I walked I came across railroad magnates, banking tycoons, renowned architects and original 49ers.

I had a similar experience in New Zealand, where I visited two out-of-the-way cemeteries simply for the view, and ended up stumbling upon the modest headstones of a few of the country’s original settlers.  More surprising still, the graves were marked with surnames that I recognized, names which still adorned store fronts and real estate offices throughout the modern town.  It was as though I had uncovered the past of this place by myself, gaining an insight I would never have had from a museum, and by way of my own curiosity instead of being spoon-fed facts and figures.

As I explored Mountain View Cemetery today, I crossed paths with joggers, dog walkers, and art students sitting on the grass making pencil sketches of the statuary; but in the whole afternoon I saw no more than twenty people.  As I came to the top of the highest hill I could find, I turned around and was treated to the most spectacular view of San Francisco Bay I’ve seen yet.  

Some cemeteries also have special events that can be fun and unusual.  For instance, Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles, draws large crowds for their outdoor classic movie screenings during the summer months.  They encourage guests to bring a picnic, but the best part by far is their slogan: “Watch classic films beneath (and above) the stars!”  (For info visit www.cinespia.org)

What is the most interesting cemetery you’ve visited?

Ok, maybe I’m suggesting this because I’ve spent the last few days without my computer, but it’s been a real eye opener. Like many people today, I earn a living with my computer, so not having it on and in front of me seems very unproductive. I’ve been traveling (my girlfriend quit her job and we decided to drive up the CA coast and visit family along the way) and I chose to leave my laptop at home. As it turns out, I’ll be out of cell phone range for a few days too, so this will be the first time in many years that I will be completely “unconnected”.

If you’re looking for something to do today, do it without using a computer. Use an atlas to find your way, or ask someone for directions, rather than blindly following your GPS. Instead of searching the internet for something to do, try asking someone what they would recommend or go to a book store and read about the local activities. Rather than email, send a post card or a letter and get your news from a newspaper.

Enjoy your day without a computer and let us know if you survive. Leave a comment and tell us about the interesting activities and information you found without using a computer.

Hold on, Knee-Jerk McGee; I’m not talking about War and Peace.  But there are a lot of great books out there that will be no problem for you to start and finish today.  Here are some ideas to get you going:

The Dead by James Joyce (92 pages)

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James (96 pages)

Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway (96 pages)

Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky (104 pages)

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse (112 pages)

Animal Farm by George Orwell (116 pages)

Not only does this make for some great mental and spiritual cleansing and a quiet, peaceful day, but it’ll also give you a satisfying feeling of accomplishment by by the time you reach that last page.  So pick up a book and get reading!

What are some of your favorite short reads?

There are plenty of tasty wines out there for those of us not wanting to break the bank.  I’m talking $10 - $15 here, and  I mean wines that are enjoyed by novices and connoisseurs alike.  Finding them may not be as simple as walking into a store and randomly pulling a bottle off the shelf, but it’s still very easy, especially if you decide that you’re going to accomplish this today!  I can’t tell you what kind of wine you’re going to enjoy, but here are some tips for finding an inexpensive wine that’s sure to be well above average:

Find Your Local Wine Store

Regardless of where you live, you probably have a wine merchant near you, whether it’s a Mom & Pop boutique or a liquor store with a wine section tucked back into the corner.  If at all possible, try to skip the supermarket.  In a smaller shop, the merchant has likely hand-selected, or is at least familiar with, the entire stock.  

Case the Joint

When i go into wine store for the first time, I’m not only looking for a good bottle, I’m looking for a tour guide, someone who is happy to share their knowledge and experience with me.  There’s a lot to know about wine, but the only thing that is required knowledge for the wine drinker is, “does it taste good?”  That’s all you need to know in the end, so there is no reason to feel any pressure when shopping for wine.  If a wine shop owner every makes you feel dumb, immediately walk away and take your business elsewhere.

After a quick look around a new wine store, I’ll go right up to the merchant and ask, “what’s your favorite bottle in here for under $15?”  This not only lets him know your price range, but tells him that you do care about quality.  It also makes it personal.  Merchants are all too happy to talk about their favorite wines.  Be sure to ask what he likes about it and have him tell you a little about the wine itself.  It won’t change the taste, but it will put the wine in context, which I think enriches the experience of drinking it.

A good wine seller won’t try to up-sell you or suggest that there are no good bottles in your price range.  But if this happens, it’s a great way to weed out the bums.  Tell him where to stick his $30 bottle and take your business elsewhere.

Supermarkets

If you absolutely have no smaller wine shops near where you live, then you’ll have to settle for the supermarket.  It’s not that there aren’t any good cheap bottles here — it’s just that you’ll have to look a little harder than in a store where the stock is hand-picked and from smaller vintners.  One of my favorite inexpensive bottles of wine can be found in almost any supermarket: Bogle Petite Sirah.  This is a great example of a really nice cheap bottle of wine, and it’s only $9!

You can also swing by the magazine rack at the supermarket and flip through Wine Spectator.  Near the front they always have a two-page section called “The Savvy Shopper” that lists a handful of highly-rated inexpensive wines.  They even have pictures of the labels, so take it with you over to the wine aisle.  

Drink Up

After you’ve put a little effort into finding your good, cheap bottle of wine, it’s time to reap the benefits.  Go home, open ‘er up, and enjoy!  if you have a couple friends to share it with, all the better.  Every time I find a really nice $10 bottle of wine, I always ask myself why I spent so long drinking $15 or $20 bottles randomly selected from the supermarket shelves that were not nearly as delicious.  The simplest bit of research and perhaps an extra stop on the way home can make all the difference in getting a great bottle.  I hope this happens for you.

If you decide to do this today, I’d love to hear your stories and how you enjoyed your bottle.  Also, be sure to let us know what your favorite cheap wines are!