3 reasons why tomorrow will be better

Fully 25% of my personal mission statement is to give people hope. I’ve been meaning to write to you about this. Now, here are 3 great reasons why your tomorrow will be better than your today.

1. God is in a good mood. Internationally recognized church leader Bill Johnson knows him quite well, and expresses this impression. If he has quite a bit to do with your life and future, then it’s great news that he’s feeling great. Tomorrow’s gonna be awesome.
2. Chris Guillebeau. Chris dropped out of high school and ended up at community college. He finished most of it before they found out he never graduated from high school. He wasn’t a great employee, and his last job was lifting boxes at FedEx. He discovered earning an income through eBay. His turning point was September 11, 2001. After being inspired by a medical missionary, he moved to West Africa. Chris wrote a best selling book called The Art of Non-Conformity, and his success is growing. His suggestion to break free: “Start with a dream and vision then reverse engineer it.”  Get the rest of Chris’ story here at CoachRadio. My point? You can start happening to your circumstances instead of letting them always happen to you. Will you change?
3. “The Joy of Stats”. Check out this short clip below. If the last 200 years is any indication, I’d say that tomorrow is looking pretty good. We’ll always have our little ups and downs, but the evidence says that everything really will be alright.

Now it’s your turn: I challenge you to come up with 1 more reason why tomorrow will be better. Let me know about it here by commenting!

My second podcast ever! Pancakes and money.

Better late than never, right? I knew you’d be just hanging out for Episode 2, so I thought I’d draw out the suspense as long as possible.

Episode 2 includes some new bells and whistles:

• Question & answer
• Commentary on pancakes
• A loving message to my student loan company (in case they listen to my podcast)
• An invitation

You’ll just have to listen for yourself, but I daresay it’s my finest podcast EVER.

I welcome your feedback right here on the blog, so comment below!

7 easy ways to cripple your finances

Looking for some really great ways to maim, hamper, or thwart yourself financially? Here are some of the quickest ways to the bottom:

1. Habitually ignore your bank accounts
2. Get a student loan and go to college
3. Regularly spend more than you earn
4. Finance your car
5. Borrow more than 90% of your house’s value
6. Get a personal loan to take a vacation
7. Buy lotto tickets religiously

Personally, I’ve found numbers 1, 2 and 4 to be particularly effective, but I’m sure you could find your own combination that would work really well.

Sarcasm aside, these are all choices I’ve seen people crap on their finances with. A few of them really used to slow me down, but I’m getting faster now by making better choices. Sometimes it involves knowing what’s what, but usually it’s about just acting like a grown-up.

Which ones have you tried so far? How did it go?

Welcome to my first ever podcast!

Oh my gosh it works!  I  got the itch to pull the trigger on my first ‘podcast’, so I just went ahead and did it.  Go ahead, click above and listen for yourself.

This episode is 1 of 6 I’m committed to doing over the next six weeks. Among other things, I’m going to chronicle my radical assault on my student loan debt. In this first episode, I discuss:

• Who I am
• Why  I recently threw my life into high gear
• Week three of my crazy mission
• What’s next

More than anything, I would love to get some feedback from you! Yes, the recording is raw, but it gets the job done. Please let me know what you think, by commenting below! By the way– welcome to my life!

Ps. If the file doesn’t load straight away, give it a minute or two to buffer.

My new favorite word

My shiny, new, modern vocabulary word is ‘scope’. I didn’t really hear it used until I moved to Australia, and more recently for some reason. I’m not talking about a rifle scope or Scope mouthwash. It’s more like:
1. Range of activity or application
2. Room to ______, opportunity
It seems kind of like freedom. How can I change my life and my actions to give me and my family increasing scope? Scope to do what we really want to do and be who we were made to be.
Right now I’m busting my backside at two jobs for more scope in our finances. Having payments is limiting my scope at the moment.
Someday I’d like to own my work, and set things up so that we have scope to live where we like and work as much or as little as we like. Scope to write our own story however we like.
What would more scope look like for you?

The eyebrow-raise

So, I keep getting the eyebrow raise at work. I’m on week two of my extra job at the hospital, and have met about 4 million new people. I tell them that I’m working extra and just came from my other job, and that’s about when their eyebrows go up. They’re mostly guys, and I get the sense they’re thinking “hm, this guy is serious”. Or maybe it’s my imagination and they’re actually thinking “hm, this guy is a nutcake”.

Either case, it feels good to be doing something a little bit extraordinary. I’m putting in more hours than I’ve put in before and am feeling valiant. It’s 11PM, it’s 8 degrees C (=45 degrees F) outside and I just arrived home on my little blue scooter half-frozen. My dog’s Lexi’s even asleep. But I’m feeling kind of like the productive, intense version of me that I should have been 3 years ago. Of course, I haven’t seen my wife in about 2.5 days, but…we’ll make up for it later when we’re debt free and time rich.

Well, I’m off to bed. I’ve only got my day job tomorrow, and then I have the weekend to recharge my batteries. Zzzz….

Should I start a podcast?

So, I’m thinking about starting a podcast. Can I ask you something?

1. Do you know what a podcast is?
2. Would you listen?
3. What would you like to hear about?

A podcast is  recorded audio that you can download for free and listen to on your computer or iPod. There are thousands to choose from: you can learn Japanese, hear latest news in dog sled racing, or whatever. Usually when I’m flying to/from the city on my little blue scooter, I’ve got a podcast in my ear. I probably listen to music on my iPod Nano about 15% of the time. I love my podcasts! Here are my regulars:

• The Dave Ramsey Show
• Coach Radio with Justin Lukasavige
• 48 Days Podcast with Dan Miller
• Bethel Church’s Sermon of the Week

It struck me that I since I love listening to them, maybe I’d have a blast creating one? So that’s why I need your feedback. Would you mind leaving a comment on the blog and giving your thoughts?

Thanks!

1 week down, 50-something to go?

This past week, I shattered my cozy little 9-5 schedule.

Instead of sinking lazily into my lavish leather lounge to watch TV in the evenings, I punched a timecard  at job number two from 6-11PM. I literally didn’t see my wife from Wednesday morning until Friday evening. However, I do finally feel as if I’m the guy Roosevelt mentioned:

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly…  his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.

I was very, very ready to sleep in on Saturday morning, and was a little miffed that we had an early start to run some family errands. So when my head hit the pillow on Saturday night, I expected not to wake up until about 9am. Nope, 7:30AM rolled around and guess what? I couldn’t sleep any longer! Don’t you hate that? Your mind wants to sleep in but your body doesn’t.

It begins again tomorrow morning! Bring it on.

I’ve put this off for far too long

Remember that part in the first Lord of the Rings movie where Bilbo Baggins gets ready to leave the Shire? If so, you’re a geek. That’s okay, so am I…read on, it’ll get geekier.

Bilbo had been settled into his cozy little hillside villa for ages, but began to get restless because he knew adventure awaited him on the road leading away from home. He said things like “I feel thin, like butter scraped over too much bread”, and told his nephew “I’ve put this off for far too long”. He was made for adventure and challenge, and knew he wasn’t having any at home by the fireplace. [I recall these quotes without having to look them up... am I a geek?]

I sort of feel the same way. As I wrote last week, I’m throwing it into high gear and have got a 2nd job, starting tomorrow. I definitely have put this off for far too long. I wonder, if I’d manned up to my student loan debt in 2008, how much farther along we’d be? Well, at least I’ve learned a thing or two from all this.

1. Avoid debt like the plague.
2. Man up and just do what’s needed, now.

Anyway, I report for orientation for job number two at 8AM tomorrow morning, and the adventure begins. This quote I did look up:  It’s a dangerous business, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no telling where you might be swept off to.

Let’s get ready to rumble…

I can’t believe I finally did it. The gloves are off, and it’s going to be a bare-knuckled fight until one of us is down for the count. I bit the bullet and took a second job in order to knock out my last remaining debt, my student loan.

It’s something I’ve sort of subconsciously been avoiding for a couple of years. What shook me into action was a sit-down chat with my lovely wife, and a revelation about the emotional toll of that debt. I didn’t realize that a) I haven’t been man enough to step up and do whatever it takes, and b) it would come down to good old-fashioned hard work. I thought I could come up with some creative income stream, aim it at my loan, and watch it vanish. That’s not outside the realm of possibility, but there comes a time when you just have to throw down and fight for things. It’s just dumb that it’s taken me this long.

In about a week, I’ll be shifting it into high gear, taking my awesome full-time role with a financial planning organization, and adding a part-time job at a local hospital transporting patients and equipment. It’s going to be a lot of work, but I suppose extraordinary results require some extraordinary effort. The fact that it isn’t a permanent arrangement gives some consolation. When I’ve thrown the knockout punch and the student loan is gone, then I can reassess.

When I think about what I’ve just signed myself up for, and the challenge of it all, I first feel a bit worried. Then, I feel it’s a test of my strength which I’ve resolved to win, and I’m proud to be facing it up. It feels like a manly thing to do, and I’m willing to fight for our financial health, freedom, and future. After all, I’m the idiot that signed up for the student loans, now I’m the one that has to take it outside and battle until it’s finished.

Is there anyone else out there who has been putting this off, like me? I would love to hear from you.