Money & Finances | Grant Baldwin's Blog

Category Archives: Money & Finances

The Power of Craigslist

Posted by Grant on July 15, 2008 – 1:37 pm

If you’ve never used Craigslist before, you’re missing out. Craigslist is the classified section of the Internet.

And the best part…it’s free to buy and sell.

I’ve bought and sold several items on Craigslist and am always amazed at just how quick things sell. For example, I listed an old laptop this morning. By early afternoon, I had a call from a guy who wanted it. We met 45 minutes later, and I walked away with the full price in cash. Amazing.

So if you’re looking for a deal on something…anything…be sure to check it out.

And if you’re really bored or just looking for something amusing to do, check out the “Missed Connections” section of the site. It is sad, hilarious, and creepy all at the same time. Look it up and you’ll see what I mean…

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An Open Apology Letter To The Economy

Posted by Grant on May 20, 2008 – 5:02 am

Filed under Money & Finances, Thinking Out Loud...

Well, we received our economic stimulus check/direct deposit last week. But unfortunately we won’t be using it for what the economy/government had hoped for. So I wanted to share with you my apology letter to the economy:

Dear Economy (and your buddy, the Government),

How you been lately? Not real good according to all the news. You were doing so well for a while there so I guess your luck was bound to change wasn’t it? Oh well…

I wanted to thank you for sending me some money. That was really generous of you, especially considering you don’t really have much money to be passing around right now. And I guess it was my money in the first place, so there’s no harm in returning it.

But I guess you wanted to give it back to me so that I would spend it on something frivolous (on a side note, how do you like my use of the word frivolous?). Something like an exotic vacation, an upgrade in car or house, or some other unnecessary luxury item that I can live without. Again, that was really nice of you but I guess I’m a little confused why you would ask for my money in the form of taxes and then give it back to me as this “stimulus” deal and then you want me to give it back to you again, but just in a different form. Sounds a little redundant doesn’t it?

Tell you what…to prevent all these unnecessary exchanges in the future, how about I just keep all my money in the first place?! I’m just kidding, I knew you wouldn’t go for that! I’ve learned that you like my money thus you give me my own money back to give back to you. Confusing isn’t it?

The real reason I wanted to write to you was to apologize. I wanted to say I’m sorry in advance for not doing what you want me to do with my money. You see I’m going to keep it. When you think about it, I’m actually doing both of us a favor. Because in the future, if you’re ever having another down day, month, year, lengthy period of time, then I’ll have plenty of money to help you out. But if I just spend what you give me, then I’ll be back to square one and eventually so will you.

So while I know it may be hard for you to understand, I hope you don’t take it personally. It’s not you, it’s me. I still want to be friends though.

Thanks for being understanding.

Sincerely,

Grant

How To Become Financially Recession Proof…

Posted by Grant on May 6, 2008 – 7:22 pm

Filed under Money & Finances

I posted yesterday some thoughts about how the “recession” may be affecting you. Today I wanted to provide some additional thoughts on what we have done that in my opinion, makes us recession proof. Because even in the midst of all this talk about a recession, my wife and I are doing quite well financially. Now don’t get me wrong…we’re not using hundred dollar bills as napkins or painting the house in pure gold ala Donald Trump. But financially, we’re not struggling.

Now if you or your family are having a tough time, I don’t say that as a knock against you in anyway. I know times are very difficult for some people but for many people, it has been their own poor decision-making with money that has put them in a bind. At the same time, there are plenty of people that are having difficulties by no fault of their own. So despite all of this talk about a possible “recession,” here are some things we have done that have made us, in my mind, recession proof:

We’re Not Dependent a J-O-B for Income: Job security is a myth. At any moment, you could be downsized, laid off, disabled, fired, outsourced, or any other number of scenarios that would leave you unemployed. I’m self-employed so I’m dependent on no one other than myself. It goes back to that old saying, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.”
We’ve Planned For the Worst Before It Arrives: You need to have a financial umbrella because it is not a question of if it is going to rain, it is just a matter of when or how hard it will rain. So if you know it’s going to rain, why wouldn’t you plan accordingly? My wife and I have an emergency fund equal to a couple of months worth of expenses for us. It is set up in a separate savings account and is there only for emergencies. Vacation to the Bahamas isn’t an emergency. A sale at the mall isn’t an emergency. And Christmas isn’t an emergency. In case you haven’t noticed, it’s always in December. They don’t move it.
We’re Not Dependent on the Government to Take Care of Us: We’re not dependent on the government or really anyone else to take care of us. While we’re getting a tax refund this year plus the economic stimulus check like the rest of you, that money isn’t going to make or break our world. I’m not dependent on the government or a presidential candidate to save my life. I’m not going to change my daughter’s diapers for the rest of her life. Why? Because at some point she has to learn to grow up and take care of herself.
We’re Proactive With Our Money: With a possible recession, everyone is all of the sudden paying much closer attention to their money. In reality, you should be doing that year round. In “The Millionaire Next Door” by Thomas Stanley, he found in a study of millionaires that one of their top traits was that they pay attention to their money and are proactive in what happens with it. Personally, my wife and I do a budget every month and can tell you where every dollar is going. You have to pay attention to what is happening.

Personally, I would just rather not live life in fear of what the economy is doing or wondering if I’m going to have a paycheck next week. You can become financially recession proof but you have to make the decision to do so.

How Is The “Recession” Affecting You?

Posted by Grant on May 5, 2008 – 1:08 pm

Filed under Money & Finances, Thinking Out Loud...

I’ll be honest for a second (that sounds like then I’ll go back to lying!)…I’m a little confused by all this recession hype in the media lately.

First of all, I’m not sure that we are actually in a recession. By definition, a recession is two consecutive quarters (6 straight months) of a shrinking economy, not just an economy that has slowed down. Think of it this way. Remember when you were growing up and you hit that growth cycle where you grew 8 inches in one year? But then the next year kind of tapered off and you only grew 2 inches. Does that mean that you were shrinking the second year or simply that you hadn’t grown as much as the year before?

The economy is the same way. It has been growing so much that when we are at a time like now where it is not growing as much as it was, then people become convinced that we are shrinking.

I guess the second side of my confusion over the recession hype is that if we are in a recession, I wouldn’t even know it. It’s not because we are rich or have stock piles of bottled water and canned beans in case of a crisis. But rather we pay close attention to our money so that when crisis hits, we barely even notice it. When you live on a budget and you have an emergency fund for rainy times such as now, then a crisis in the economy doesn’t really affect you.

Tomorrow, I’m going to show you what my wife and I have done that has made us virtually recession proof…