Happy to report that Mrs. Micah loves YNAB.
YNAB loves Mrs. Micah as well. If you’re a freelancer (who isn’t these days?) then you’ll need to subscribe to Mrs. Micah’s blog.
Finances + Freelancing = Nightmare
OR
Finances + Freelancing + Mrs. Micah’s Tips = Fantastic
Your call!
I absolutely love the new year. I get jazzed about goal-setting (budgeting is, after all, simply goal setting/achieving on an ongoing basis).
Here are some high-level things I want to focus on this year, with my accompanying game plan. In the past (revisit your goals often), I’ve written about goals in general. This year, however, I’m simply going to do it all right here, for everyone to see. It’ll give me a bit more accountability. Take from it what you will.
Family – the kids and my wife. I think those need to be broken up for sure. Make sure I focus on Julie with some things as well (put flower-sending on autopilot perhaps?). So we have kids and Julie. I think I can be fine lumping the three kids together.
Church – definitely some areas for improvement there. I’m going to go broader and call it spiritual. I want to make sure I’m increasing my knowledge of spiritual things — not just secular things.
Physical – Happy to report that I didn’t gain any weight this year, but I have some areas where I want to specifically focus. I’ll get to that later.
Hobbies – Would like to do some things specific to my new found love: Jiu Jitsu.
Financial – Just brainstorming here, but some big things on my mind lately are our year supply of food (or lack thereof), 72-hour emergency kits (again, or lack thereof), and six-month emergency fund (working toward it, but it’s too slow). Also, I’d like to not be paying so much interest on the mortgage (that was a 2008 goal, to get a house).
SMART goals are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely. All good things. Though timely should really maybe labeled as ‘timeframe’. The point is to have a deadline.
Kids – do a “Dad date” with each of the kids once a month. Focus here on whatever they want to do. Lydia’s could obviously be fairly simple. The time needs to be long enough to have an impact (an hour or two).
Julie – just ask her often, “What can I do right now to help out?” That should go a long ways (idea from a guy at church, not my own). Often perhaps isn’t specific enough, and how do I measure this? Have some secret paper in my wallet that I check off? Perhaps.
Spiritual – read from 5:00-5:30 am every weekday. Keep a journal of what I’m reading. Ah, and check off the goal above in my journal.
Physical – No soda this year. H2O, here I come! Also, I want to get my BFP to 9%. In years past I’ve also prescripted some workout for the year and about 90 days into the new year I’m already tired of the workout and want to do something else. So I’m shooting for a results-oriented goal here of a change in bodyfat, rather than a task-oriented goal. Let the task change as necessary/desired, I know the result I want to get.
Jiu Jitsu – Roll twice each week. Keep a journal. Enroll in classes by March of 2009 (at the moment, my friend is teaching me).
Year-Supply – this one’s become important to me as of late. Perhaps it was a stupiphany I had recently. My job is to provide for the family’s needs, and Julie’s job is to all the hard stuff. I encourage everyone to have an emergency fund of 3-6 months’ expenses, and that’s great and necessary, but what use will that money be for the family if disaster strikes?
Hey kids! An earthquake just struck, the water supply will be out for four days, we don’t have any water, but look — we have six months’ of money saved! Let’s drink that!
Have a year supply of food and two-week supply of water before the end of January 2009. We’ve been working on our year supply of food and I’m fairly confident we can finish it off this month if we don’t put anything into our emergency fund for January.
Oh, there’s an entire post on this to come, but if you’re wondering how I calculated it all, feel free to use this year supply spreadsheet (Google Doc). Just save your own copy of it before you dive in and start making changes (that everyone else can see).
72-Hour Kits – Have them done for five people by the end of February.
Emergency Fund – this thing’s creeping along. We’re consistently putting money into it, but not enough. All I know is that by the end of the year I want to have an entire, cushy, six months of income saved. Call me crazy, but I want even more cushion. I haven’t yet figured out how this can be accelerated.
Mortgage Interest – pay $100 more per month on the mortgage (this will be done through the autopay feature). Find the $100 through grocery savings, which will come through the grocery game.
The key is to make these goals bite-sized. Some of them are already in their simplest forms, others will need some work. My plan is to make a monthly action plan at the beginning of each month to ensure that I’m tracking well. The year-supply spreadsheet is a good example. I’ve entered what we already have, and now I know exactly what we still need. I can create a timeline for when we’ll be purchasing what, and have that finished by the end of January.
Just dial it down to the level of granularity necessary:
Finances > Emergency Fund > Required Amount > Monthly Amount > Steps necessary to free up that amount each month. Done.
Since the 2008 race for the White House began…when was that, I think back in ’83, we’ve heard a lot of talk. We’ve heard a lot of pundits, predictions, predicaments and plumbers.
Yesterday Julie and I dragged the kids down to the credit union, stood in line for an hour, and voted. Harrison, our 2 1/2 year old, had had enough by the time we were actually voting. He purposely yelled as loud as he could while Julie was holding him (and attempting to vote). I got lucky because I was holding Lydia (alright, here’s a picture already — stop twisting my arm!).
Anyway, the volunteers (and everyone else) handled it well. Harrison was simply expressing what everyone else was feeling. The wait was long.
But man was it worth it! Voting is special. Please, everyone, make sure you vote.
However, do not, under any circumstances, believe that someone else is going to make all of your wildest dreams come true. Only you will.
We’ve heard so much, from every single possible direction, about how the government’s going to do this, our elected official will do that, a committee will be called, a commission will be formed, a study will be published…your congressman will be there to give you job training, your senator will watch the kids while you go to work, and the President himself will pick up the tab at the grocery store… “No really Mr. Mecham, let me get that for you.”
“Why, thank you Mr. President.”
Nah.
As a matter of fact, Nah Thanks.
Make sure you vote for yourself. Ultimately, YOU will affect your life in ways far greater than any elected official ever could. YOU will decide what’s right and YOU will make the tough decisions (perhaps you’ll get a call at 3AM?).
At the end of the day, you know who’s REALLY in charge. You are! So go and vote, rain or shine, in a long or short line.
And then, every day wake up, and cast your ballot again (you’re a write-in candidate).
We’re seeing a plethora of new services popping up to manage your money. What has me hopeful is that there’s a lot more excitement about this area in general. What has me not so hopeful is that we’re seeing a lot of the same reactive paradigm that plagued the personal finance software arena since the very first Quicken (no foul on Quicken there, they were quite at the forefront for the time).
There is some value in looking backward. You can pull together reports to help you prepare your taxes (a non-value added exercise, obviously, but a must) and you can pull interesting tidbits out of your reams of data:
Hey honey! Did you know that 15% of our food purchases last year were soy-related?
However, the tremendous value in a financial application comes not from the powerful, fancy, interpolating graphs that tell you everything that’s happened. It comes from the day-to-day managing of the now, and planning for the future.
We spent $45 on iPhone accessories during October.
..is not nearly as valuable as this question:
How much will we spend on iPhone accessories during October?
Why? I have no idea. Honestly, the more I see the results people are getting with the YNAB Methodology, the more it becomes clear to me that it works, yet I do find myself struggling to articulate exactly why it works.
I suppose this is why I’ve known that Reporting is a weakness in YNAB Pro (though our current beta lets you export to a spreadsheet application in oh, about 2.2 seconds) and I’ve always let other features jump ahead of it in line.
Which features took (take) precedence?
I’ve tried to focus on cutting down the minimum time required to use the software. I’ve focused on the managing and planning side of the equation (Quick Budgeting, bank transaction downloading, and with an upcoming beta, automatic payee cleanup…WALMART ABC123 becomes Walmart…it’s in alpha, etc.).
I really want to get people connected on those two aspects. Get their money in front of them more, not less. Have them be involved in the mangement and plan. I don’t want it to be automatic, I want it to be habitual. I want people looking forward and answering the right questions, not wincing from something that’s already happened.
The big things:
For the past few weeks, we’ve been working on YNAB Pro version 2.5. Our beta testers have been diligently hammering on it, and now we think we’re less than two weeks away from a public release. I’m excited about this release for two reasons. The first reason is that we’ve added some cool new features:
The little things:
In addition to the features however, I’m probably more excited about the “little things” that we’ve changed. When you think of a program or a web page that you really like to use – one that just seems to “get it,” – chances are that program acts the way you expect it to. I don’t just mean that it has the features you expect. I mean that when you click on something, or hit a key, or hover over a certain part of the screen, it does exactly what you expect. In fact, it probably does so many things that you expect, you don’t even think about it. To prove my point it might be easier to think about the last web page or software you used that you didn’t like. Chances are it almost never did what you expected. It doesn’t take many mouse clicks in software like this before you’re ready to give up and you might not even be sure why! All you know is that you feel frustrated.
When we developed YNAB Pro originally, we tried to pay attention to a lot of “little” things because we know they add up! Every time we asked the question, “What should the software do there?”, we tried to answer by saying, “Well, what would I want and expect it to do?” I think we did a pretty good job with this, and consequently, I think YNAB Pro is pretty enjoyable to use. That belief is reinforced by our fans, but after spending every workday with the software for the past few weeks, I started noticing some little things that we didn’t do right or that we missed:
Now that I’m full time, I’ve got time to really dig in and investigate when I see YNAB Pro do something I don’t expect, even if it seems like a “little thing”. There are over 100 features, fixes, and changes in this next release, and a lot of them fall in the “little thing” category. My guess is that you won’t even consciously notice most of them. Hopefully you’ll just think, “Wow, I really like this new version,” even if you can’t say why. But let me give you a hint:
You can expect to get your hands on this release very soon, and we can’t wait to hear what your favorite “little” change is. Many of these changes were a direct result of people telling us about them on our forums, so if we left something out, and YNAB Pro isn’t doing what you want or expect, let us know!
WARNING: This is a rant. I would say skip ahead a few paragraphs if you don’t want a rant, but you’d still be getting a rant. The whole darn thing is one big rant.
If you’re stuck in a job you hate, do three things today that will help you like your job. If you like your job, you’ll make more money. Find everything interesting and you’ll be happier. Whose fault is it really that you hate what you do? You want me to say it’s your boss. But it’s not. It’s someone else.
If you’re job-less, what are you going to do? Be down about it? Mope? Blame someone? Blame everyone?
When you’re done with that, let me know how things have improved. Be proactive, get out there, and sell yourself!
Your expenses are higher than your income. Whose fault is that? The slick marketers, copywriters, and salesman that prey on the psychologically weak? So are you just saying that you’re psychologically weak? Fair enough. That means it’s still your fault.
You’re stuck in a job you love but the income doesn’t meet your needs, so you’ve been managing the gap with credit cards and things have gotten out of control. I’m glad you love your job. Find a way to make more money though! This is all up to you! If you’re not making more money, it’s your fault.
Are you saying, “I can’t help it” way too often? (Even once is too much).
Stop blaming everyone but yourself! It’s the recession. It’s the economy. It’s the president. It’s the price of gas. It’s my spouse. It’s my crazy kid. It’s my neighbor. It’s my boss. It’s the stock market.
Why don’t you start saying IT’S ME every once in a while? Everyone around you would be happier if you did. And then you could actually start doing things instead of just complaining about them all the time.
This is directed to everyone but you. You’re the best. You never make mistakes. You’re infallible.
You’re also so full of yourself that you believed the garbage I just wrote in the prior paragraph.
Porter has discovered it works to his advantage to be agreeable. When I asked him why he did X (like break the window downstairs because he was golfing downstairs), what was his response? “Oh, Dad. Sorry. I didn’t know.”
I mean, seriously, I know he knew. I don’t know if he knows I know he knew. But he probably does. That statement, as insincere as it likely is (he’s learned the phrase prior to learning the actual meaning is my guess) puts me at ease a bit when I’m on the warpath. What a nice thing to say. Shoulder the blame and express some ignorance. (But do it sincerely).
I just don’t understand why people can’t admit that something’s their fault. Fess up! You’re not all-knowing! So you didn’t know your job would have a boss that drives you crazy. What can you productively do about? So you chose an occupation that isn’t quite bringing in the income you’d like…what can you do about it? So the economy is slow (is it though? Didn’t we just hear about it growing two percent?). What are you going to do about it?
We have all of these talking heads surrounding us, telling us how bad things are, how so-and-so has done X and Y which means Z for you. Seriously? Do other people have that much influence over me that I can’t think for myself and take some action? Am I such a sheep that I just BAAhaahaa when appropriate and follow the others?
How does complaining possibly help you — ever? You tell me one time (leave a comment) where you sat there complaining and wringing your hands and that made things better.
Tell me one time where blaming someone else made a situation improve.
I can’t think of one.
So, WHY DO WE ALWAYS COMPLAIN–BLAMING OTHER PEOPLE FOR OUR CIRCUMSTANCES?
I love YNABers that I run into on the forums because they aren’t complaining. They’re realizing that a situation is at hand and disaster is imminent unless they take ACTION. They’re DOING something and they’ll be rewarded for it. Some of them probably could feel justified pointing the finger of blame elsewhere, but what are they doing instead? They’re taking action. They’re recognizing that they have, as Dr. Covey puts it, a “circle of influence” and they’re operating within that circle.
The center of the circle of influence is you. So start there when you want change. It’s amazing how taking a bit of action, setting some goals, and being ferocious about it can change you. And then you’ve changed your world. Finally.
Welcome to the 163rd Carnival of Personal Finance! This week’s theme is “Benjamin Franklin’s Quotable Quotes”.
You Need A Budget (YNAB) is thrilled to be hosting this week’s carnival. Since 2004, this site has been dedicated to getting the world on a budget, one person at a time — but I truly love all things personal finance, which means I absolutely loved this week’s best from the personal finance blogosphere.
Madison from MyDollarPlan quit her job because she, “lined up all [her] priorities in life and work fell off at the bottom.” I think the big key to her being able to prioritize work off her list was because she’s been working a plan for a long time now. You go Madison!
VH from Funny About Money wins for the Killer Quotable Quote in “Dealin’ with the Devil”: “I would suggest that far from being un-American, putting the brakes on your spending impulses and shucking off as much debt as you possibly can is the best thing you can do for your country.” Zing!
I read Russ’ submission and immediately subscribed to his RSS feed. A takeaway from his great piece on Risk and Return: “regarding risk and return, the question shouldn’t be which came first? The most important question is how can I manage my risks while still participating in the returns?”
And yes, we’re biased around here, so we’re kicking it off with the stuff about budgeting (Oh, by the way, I quit budgeting last week).
If you know how to spend less than you get, you have the philosopher’s stone.
7 Millionaires … In Training! thinks you need to think again if you’re of the opinion that 100k means you’re ‘rich’.
LivingAlmostLarge comments on 7 ways to stay poor.
To Be Debt Free asks the tough question: How Deep is the Hole You’re In?.
It is the working man who is the happy man. It is the idle man who is the miserable man.
FMF from Free Money Finance says his Blackberry makes him more productive on the job.
Andy from Saving to Invest points to 21 Signs that you are losing interest in your job .
Creditors have better memories than debtors.
American Consumer News exposes 5 Untruths About Your Credit Report.
Debt Freedom Fighter provides 3 Credit Card Tricks that Keep More Money In Your Pocket.
Ask Mr Credit Card answers the question: Does Paying My Credit Card Bill Before the Statement Raise My Score?.
If you would know the value of money, go and try to borrow some.
The Happy Rock is thinking about selling the car to accelerate debt reduction [Editor's note: go for it! what have you got lose? :)]
Dan Ray from Taking Charge noticed Title Loan Ads on a Chicago Tribune Title Loan Exposé piece.. Do you smell the irony?
Dana from Not Made Of Money lays out the strong logic in how to Break the Cycle of Car Payments.
Anthony Luafalealo from Amateur Economists thinks loan modifications just add salt to the wound.
Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.
Curt from PennyJobs.com presents a humor piece on How to Determine When We Are In A Recession From Your Neighbors.
Kyle from Amateur Asset Allocator sheds some light on Common Misconceptions About Government Statistics.
Bryce from Save and Conquer explains how a run on the bank can happen.
FiveCentNickel did a nice piece: The Federal Minimum Wage: Looking Back Over Time.
The Personal Financier writes: On the Psychological Effects of Ownership and Overpricing (Sellers tend to overprice their assets to include the pain of having to let go). Very interesting read!
Lisa Spinelli from Greener Pastures makes the case that Cash for Clunkers helps the economy and the environment.
Free From Broke outlines Recession Or Not – The Challenge The Fed And Our Economy Has.
Your net worth to the world is usually determined by what remains after your bad habits are subtracted from your good ones.
HelpMyCashGrow.com gives the GrigsbyCo Retro Post: What Truly Is Financial Freedom?
J2R from Journey2Retirement presents Be honest with your finances, even if they’re bad.
Broke Grad Student asks whether we’re ready for a cashless society.
Money Answer Guy gives 5 Mistakes to Avoid When Buying a Car From a Dealership.
Pete from Bible Money Matters presents Another stimulus check? Maybe, but why not just create your own? (talks about a possible second stimulus check, and then talks about why you might want to just create your own supplemental income.)
JS from Smart Money Daily states: I wish I had married for money, not love.
Bob Vineyard, CLU from InsureBlog presents With This Ring, I Thee Insure. We’ve all heard about marrying for looks or money, but insurance?! InsureBlog’s Bob Vineyard reports on couples who think they’re forced to do just that.
Jim from Blueprint for Financial Prosperity is telling you to Beware False Indicators of Bank Health.
Squawkfox wrote an interesting piece: Cars Are the New Smoking. Can the costs of SUVs be compared to smoking?
Our necessities never equal our wants.
Daily Money Hack provides some great information on COBRA with COBRA Health Insurance Hack: Pay Only If Needed.
DJ from The Family Wallet presents Turn Closet Cleaning into Cash.
Fitz Villafuerte from Ready To Be Rich presents Simple and Practical Ways To Save Money On Clothing [Editor's Note: Hide the money from your wife?]
Dave from Money Under 30 presents Five Frugal Travel Secrets.
Grey from Frugal Fu says A Consumer Awakes!
MoneyReasons shares some money saving tips you probably haven’t seen before with Saving money in the Library.
Sean Lewis from The Money Saving Blog presents 25 Ways to be Tech-Savvy but Frugal. (This is a great read if you’re into the tech stuff but, uh, have a budget).
An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.
Todd from Harvesting Dollars makes a great case for Spreading Out Your 401K Investments Throughout The Year.
Megan from Counting My Pennies asks: Who Should Get Your Retirement Money?.
Dividend Growth Investor shares his Dividend Growth Plan Strategy.
The Dividend Guy cautions against loading up on company stock just because of the match.
The use of money is all the advantage there is in having it.
AJC takes issue with paying your mortgage off as quickly as you can. (Dave Ramsey followers beware).
Saving Advice presents God and Money: Prayer Won’t Fix People’s Finances. If you’re up for a lively debate, you’ll want to head here.
The Financial Blogger manages to tie in the new Batman Movie with The Dark knight Money Management Approach. It’s a nice twist.
Budgets are Sexy gives My 4 Favorite Pieces of Financial Advice E-V-E-R.. There are some gems in here!
Tanesha Morgan from Personal Finance Analyst presents LifeLock Identity Theft Protection – Savior or Fraud?.
mbhunter from Mighty Bargain Hunter presents Can you handle the financial truth?, and says, “Sometimes is takes someone raking you over the coals to make a real change …”
Shadox from Money and Such presents iPhone and the Road to Financial Ruin, and says, “The long lines for iPhones are the road to financial ruin for many Americans. Not because the iPhone is not a great phone, but because folks just seem unable to control themselves.“
Ashley from Wide Open Wallet shares Green Living: Solar Power.
Glblguy from Gather Little by Little presents Personal Finance Kata. (I had to look it up too).
Kevin from No Debt Plan presents The No Debt Plan: Step Five: Revisit Your Goals and Budget, and says, “Once you’re out of debt, you need to reassess where you’re at before moving forward.”
Patrick from Cash Money Life says the first step to becoming a millionaire is to earn some money.
RC from Think Your Way To Wealth presents 7 Safe and Smart Money Moves for Unstable Economic Times. (This is a great read).
MoneyNing (David) from Personal Finance Blog by Money Ning presents An Intro to Passive Income, and says, “Passive income, we all love it but seldom know how to make it.
So Cal Savvy from So Cal Savvy presents Going to the chapel of thrifty love.
Jennifer Lynn from Broke-Ass Student explains Why A Smile Is Your Most Valuable Asset.
Dan Melson from Searchlight Crusade presents What Does It Mean To Fall Out Of Escrow?.
Blair Benjamin from Asset Almanac presents Housing Bill: New Help for First Time Home Buyers.
Money from Moneymonk warns that a large house could threaten your financial future.
Peter Harrington from Money Management And You! talks about Diversifying With Real Estate.
Silicon Valley Blogger from The Digerati Life presents Mint and Wesabe: Online Personal Finance Tools Are Gaining Ground.
A penny saved is a penny earned.
Del from Fiscal Liberty presents How To Change Yourself from a Spender to a Saver.
Dan from Everyday Finance talks about saving money by avoiding convenience.
Bob from Christian Financial Help shares the most important organic fruits and veggies.
Penelope Pince from Our Fourpence Worth presents How to Save Gas and Time with Google Maps. This is a great article about re-routing, mapping, etc. — Very cool!
Super Saver from My Wealth Builder presents Are My Bank Deposits Insured by the FDIC?.
Fred from Smart Savings 101 presents 10 Tips to Save Money on Gas.
In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.
Michael from Beyond Paycheck to Paycheck asks, “Can I lower my tax withholdings?”.
Kay from Don’t Mess With Taxes presents Sales tax holidays on tap, and says, “Attention shoppers! More than two dozen jurisdictions are waiving sales taxes on purchases this coming weekend.”
There were tons of great submissions this week. Thanks so much for participating and thanks especially for letting YNAB host!
In thinking about becoming the boss of your money, the subject of charitable giving just doesn’t go away. I was reminded of an article I read in BYU’s Marriott School Magazine last year that made me look at giving in an entirely different way.
This post is the first in a series regarding charitable giving. Each of these posts will be based on the article The Privilege of Giving by Arthur C. Brooks, the Louis A. Bantle Professor of Business and Government Policy at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.
From the article:
This was the misconception that I had because I was stuck being an economist. I had a mechanistic view of life, but life is not mechanistic. Life is more perfect than that. Giving doesn’t make us poor; giving makes us richer.
How is it possible that when we give money (or time) away we become richer? We explore that in more detail in a post devoted specifically to that topic, but it may have to do with how our own psychology is changed, and also how the psychology of the recipient is changed, when we give. The return on investment of charitable donations is truly astounding.
The author makes the great point that when we’re truly our natural self — our happiest most “in tune” self — we’re giving and doing so generously.
…when we are really acting as if we were made in God’s image, we’re not selfish. We have evidence that this is our most natural selves because this is when our brains are in tune.
The author is writing from a Christian perspective, but the lesson remains were you to adapt it to many different religious philosophies. When you are at your best, in sync with life, you’re a generous person.
We’ll explore reasons why in later posts, but it turns out that giving is truly a necessity if you want to lead a healthier (literally), happier, more productive life. As a people we need to give! Dr. Brooks makes the obvious point that the working poor give a higher percentage of their income than any other class. They obviously don’t subscribe to the idea that giving is a luxury!
You’ll hear at times that the government failed in this or that aspect of governing when private charities are forced to step up and fill the apparent gaps. What would the likely outcome be if the government were able to take away our “need” to give charitably?
if we crowd out charitable giving by paying for everything through the state, we’re going to pay the price. My data will tell you that we’re going to be unhappier, unhealthier, and poorer as a country unless we take responsibility.
Remember that last bit — we’ll be unhappier, unhealthier, and poorer if we don’t give. We’re going to explore those various aspects of charitable giving in more detail later, but those are at the crux of charitable giving. It seems that it truly is one of the greatest investments you can make.
Just sending a quick link over to the carnival at MightyBargainHunter. He did a great job hosting and there are a bunch of great articles. A few of my favorites:
Habit: Spend five to ten minutes every night brainstorming ideas, creating a To Do list, and prioritizing the list.
That was my desired habit. Yours may be completely different. I would, of course, like to see one of your habits be the regular recording of your expenses, and a monthly budget meeting.
21, 30, 45 days? Nah. I managed to nail this habit down in one evening with six steps.
My first step was to visualize my daily routine. You’ll find that you do have a routine, even if you don’t think you’re a routine person. I visualized where I showered, dressed, ate, drove, worked, etc. I then strategically placed written reminders in those areas: “To Do!”
This isn’t a new strategy, though I did perhaps take it to the extreme when I spray-painted “To Do” on the overpass I drive under every day (I’m kidding — but couldn’t I hang a sign there or something? All of my fellow commuters are well aware of the fact that Jane loves Steve. It’s working.).
No, the extreme part of the strategy is hitting your routine in multiple places. Several months ago I made a sign that I hung on the wall directly above my main computer monitor: “Are you adding value right now?” This was supposed to remind me to stay on task and do things of value. I never see the sign anymore. It’s there, but I don’t see it. I need to either 1) move it, or 2) change the color of paper. Putting a sign on your bathroom mirror is fine, but also stick one on the fridge, on your car’s sun visor, on the inside of your office door at work, on the back of your office chair, right behind your toothbrush, in a sleeve protector in your shower, and under your pillow.
I’m doing this right now. I’m letting everyone reading this know that I now have the habit of planning my daily tasks. I feel accountable. This really does work. Why do we see so many blogs appearing for getting out of debt, losing weight, and improving oneself? The blog authors are making themselves accountable to their readership — and it works.
You may not have a blog, but you have other methods for getting the word out. Call some friends, send out an email. Make it known! The pressure will be healthy for you.
You probably have some type of appointment book. Write an appointment in there to ___________ [desired habit here]. I wrote mine on the next 30 days at the end of every day. I have a standing appointment with myself and I intend to keep it.
Grab your Outlook software and build in reminders as frequently as necessary. Better yet, use Jott to send you reminders on your cellphone (you likely always have your phone nearby, where you may not be sitting at your computer all day).
(Jott can be used to help you organize “random” ideas you have throughout the day. You just call and tell it you’re jotting to yourself, then start speaking. It will transcribe the message and email you.)
You could conceivably have Jott text you every evening at 9:30 PM:
Dude, you need to do thirty pushups before going to bed.
Voilá. Your pectorals are more defined.
However, more effective would be to market the new habit to yourself a little more effectively. Just talk about benefits:
Dude, with rock-hard pectorals, you’ll have the confidence needed to (finally) talk to ________.
I spent some time honestly telling myself that this is just an experiment: Jesse, this whole task organization thing is just a test. If it doesn’t fit the real you, well, then you can just stop after August 10th. Don’t worry. You only have to keep doing this if you really like it.
In writing down exactly what your desired habit is going to be (both in your visual reminders, other reminders, appointment book, public email, blog, and perhaps in your journal), be sure to outline the parameters for success. Make them doable. This sixth step was key in my cementing my new habit into place.
When first beginning a budget, people are gung-ho about the whole deal. They want to set their spending limits and watch as everything goes just perfectly and they stay under budget in every category (we’re yet to experience that, going on 5+ years of using YNAB). You’re in for some big disappointment if you set your parameters for success too high.
Notice, I carved out five to ten minutes each day. I didn’t shoot for 30 minutes of meditation/visualization. I need something doable, and five or ten minutes each day is doable.
Do less.
My friend Ramit from IWillTeachYouToBeRich said it best,
“Do you know people who get so into their idea du jour that they go completely overboard and burn out? For me, I would rather do less, but make it sustainable.”
If you’re just starting out on your budgeting, pick a single budget category and try and stay under. Don’t worry about any of the others. Just focus on one that you’d like to beat. Prove to yourself that you can do that consistently over a month or two and then pick another one or two categories and focus.
I’m on day one of my new habit. It’s going great. You may say that they say it takes (21, 45, 30) days to form a new habit–that a habit can’t be formed in one evening–but I’m confident you’re wrong! These six steps make it a given.
Oh, I suppose Step 2a is to be so publicly brazen about your new habit that it really is a given.
