Beating Broke

This New Year, Take the Time to Look Back at What You’ve Accomplished

December 23, 2013 By MelissaB 12 Comments

The year is wrapping up, and we’re all hustling to finish our holiday shopping and prepare for the perfect Christmas season. Then, just a few days later, we’ll be intent on improving ourselves and making ambitious goals for the next year.

I love taking the time to plan what I want to accomplish in the new year. I spend a few weeks planning and writing down each goal. I share my goals on my blog, and every month I update them with my progress, which helps keep me accountable. With this process, I’ve been able to reach at least 75% of my goals every year.

If you, too, are a goal setter, you may focus only on the future, but that can be a mistake.

Instead, before you start looking forward, take the time to look back at 2013 and all you have accomplished.

For instance, my husband and I are in the midst of paying down a mountain of debt (the balance was $57,966.01 spread across credit cards and student loans when we started paying it down at the end of 2011). Every month money is tight, and honestly, sometimes I wonder if we’ll every be in a comfortable position financially.

My husband keeps reassuring me that we are in a better position financially this year, but I always assume that is what he says because he’s a free spirit and I’m the financial worry wart. However, I took the time to look back, and I realized that he’s right. We are in a much better place than a year ago.

At the beginning of January, 2013, my student loan balance was $4,218.94. This month, I just paid it off. That’s only one example. In each area of our lives that I looked at financially speaking, we’re in a better place. While I don’t necessarily feel the financial difference, the numbers on the paper don’t lie; we’ve made progress this year.

When you’re in the midst of a financial struggle, whether it be paying down debt, trying to build your savings, or trying to increase your income, feeling like you’re not making any progress is normal. Getting ahead occurs so slowly that you often feel like your stagnating when you’re not. Inch by inch, you’re making progress, but when you’re deep in the forest, it’s hard to see anything besides your immediate location.

You need to consciously look at where you were 12 months ago so you can appreciate where you are now.

But most of us never take the time to do so. That’s too bad because by reflecting on the progress you’ve made, you can build your confidence and make accomplishing your goals in the future even more likely.

Plus, by looking back at what you’ve accomplished and the progress you’ve made, you can better set your goals for the next year.

A car has a rear view mirror because you have to see where you’ve been and what’s behind you to help you continue going forward. The same is true with your financial life.

Have you taken the time to look at the financial progress you make every year?

Personal Finance is a Life Skill

December 17, 2013 By Shane Ede 11 Comments

ChristianPF posted a very thought provoking article a while back. In it, he talks about how spending money wisely is a life skill. The choices that we make in spending our money are the root of how we live our lives and can bleed through into the businesses that we run or work for. Basically, the way that you spend money is a very important.

I think I would take it one further. Not only is the way that you spend your money a very important skill, but, as the title of this article states, the entirety of your personal finance management is a life skill.

Schools all around the world concern themselves with teaching children life skills. Skills like writing. Reading. Wood Working. Mathematics. Science. And even Cooking (0ne of my favorites). Perhaps personal finance isn’t as important as things like mathematics, writing and reading (the three Rs), but I would argue that it’s just as important (or more so) than the rest. I would argue that personal finance is a life skill.

Improper management of your personal finances can lead to some pretty dire circumstances in your life. You can find yourself falling into a trap of revolving debt and upside-down mortgages. Too easily, you can find yourself making the choice between ramen and gas to go to work. And yet, people continue to put personal finances aside as something that isn’t all that important.

Over the last decade, I’ve spent my time learning many of the tenets of personal finance management. Even with the knowledge I had gained, it was a very difficult trip to take. I started as close to the bottom as I cared to get. I’m still a long ways from the top, but I’m getting there. And most of that is owed to learning to manage personal finances properly.

Take the time today to learn something about taking care of your finances. Teach it to your children. Teach it to your friends. If we all learn a little bit more each day, week, and month, we can turn our situations around and help more people. The more people we help with this, the less likely that our economy will ever find itself in this situation again.

4 Frugal Ways to Keep Young Kids Busy During Christmas Vacation

December 14, 2013 By MelissaB 13 Comments

During a typical year, children get two weeks off school during Christmas break, often a week or so before Christmas and a week after. However, if Christmas falls on a weekend, and if your school scheduled vacation as my son’s did, you will see kids who don’t get out of school for Christmas vacation until December 23^rd. That leaves them with almost two weeks of vacation AFTER Christmas itself, a time that is pretty low on excitement. (It is so much easier to have a week off before the holiday because there are so many activities for the kids to enjoy.) You could very likely end up with bored children, especially because all of the activities of Christmas are over just a few days into vacation.

However, there are plenty of frugal ways to keep the kids, especially your preschool and elementary school kids, entertained during the Christmas vacation. Consider the following activities:

Have a family play. Take out the dress up box and let the kids come up with a play to perform for the family. If your children are old enough, you can largely stay out of the picture and let them decide on a story, props, stage directions (even if the stage is just your living room). Smaller children may need a bit more direction and assistance from parents. If the kids are stuck for story ideas, they may want to act out what happens in one of their favorite stories.
Check out your local library. Our local library has plenty of activities for kids during the holiday including a movie viewing night, family story hour, and a Lego building activity. In addition to activities, most kids will enjoy spending an hour or two at the library reading books and choosing books to check out to read at home.
Visit a public museum. Many museums put up special holiday displays such as holidays around the world and Christmas decorations throughout the years. Most kids love all of the lights and decorations that go with the holiday, so take the time to visit your local museum and enjoy the display. Afterwards, at night, take the time to drive around and view all of the colorful holiday lights and decorations on neighborhood houses. If you have a house in your area that goes all out with the decorations, make sure to visit that one.
Let kids stay up late. My kids need their sleep and have an early bed time. However, during the holidays, we relax the rules a bit and let them stay up later one or two nights a week. Perhaps they can stay up to watch a favorite show that they normally can’t view because it is past their bedtime or you could play games with them. Either way, they will be delighted to stay up later than they are usually allowed to.

There are simple things you can do to entertain your young children without spending a lot of money. Employ some of these tactics, and you will hopefully avoid the common vacation chant, “Mom, I am bored!”