Thursday, June 10, 2010
Tip: keep a spending log
Keep a spending log, and an income log if your paycheck varies from week to week. Like dieters who record their food intake, the mere act of writing it down regularly can help get it under control by building awareness. Small purchases, especially, can go by unnoticed, but they add up fast and suddenly the wallet is a hundred dollars lighter, much of it spent on things we didn't need. Keeping track for several months also provides enough information to start thinking about making a budget. Too many people try to start with a budget before they know what they regularly spend, get frustrated when it doesn't come out, and quit, and that never helps. Just find a notebook of a comfortable size (not something I would recommend for the computer! even a handheld that you can take with), a comfortable pen, and write down everything you spend when you spend it.
A new category--Finance Lessons from Dad
The new category isn't just about things Dad said, but things I learned indirectly from those early lessons, and through experience, mostly modestly successful since then. the new category will mostly be little tips and descriptions of my own experience working at being financially "independent" (in my definition, having more than I owe) and maintaining good security ratings and all.
I don't offer advice on achieving real wealth. I haven't figured that one out beyond finding a better paying job than I have, nor how to make money from nothing. I've managed steady if not always great paying work and that's the only starting point I know. Steady income isn't always enough, though. Plenty of people who make more than I do, however, still find themselves floundering in financial confusion and problems, and others just don't seem to make as much progress as they want, so I thought a few practical if inexpert tips might be useful.
Tip #1 -- this one is from Dad -- Keep your credit card balance at 0 and if it isn't, get it there as fast as you can.
He's gotten past not wanting to use them at all, but he, and I, still pay them down every month with very very rare exception. If I can't afford to pay the card off when the bill comes in, then I can't afford it all, that's the concept, because paying interest--and even the better credit cards have a lot-- just means you are spending more money in the long run, and buying less of what you want and need. Once in a grat while I've paid a large bill off in two installments, but I didn't use a credit card again until it was paid off.
I don't offer advice on achieving real wealth. I haven't figured that one out beyond finding a better paying job than I have, nor how to make money from nothing. I've managed steady if not always great paying work and that's the only starting point I know. Steady income isn't always enough, though. Plenty of people who make more than I do, however, still find themselves floundering in financial confusion and problems, and others just don't seem to make as much progress as they want, so I thought a few practical if inexpert tips might be useful.
Tip #1 -- this one is from Dad -- Keep your credit card balance at 0 and if it isn't, get it there as fast as you can.
He's gotten past not wanting to use them at all, but he, and I, still pay them down every month with very very rare exception. If I can't afford to pay the card off when the bill comes in, then I can't afford it all, that's the concept, because paying interest--and even the better credit cards have a lot-- just means you are spending more money in the long run, and buying less of what you want and need. Once in a grat while I've paid a large bill off in two installments, but I didn't use a credit card again until it was paid off.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
repeats
I haven't been posting as many non-Cerel posts as I have intended. I haven't edited much on the last several scenes, so I didn't have that immediate topic ready to hand. I have several blog topics from notes on my recent trip but havne't typed them up yet, still, I have a few things to say.
I've sent out copies of the whole Cerel novel to a couple of people and started to get feedback. Most of it hasn't been a surprise: there are certain elements of the story that have a certain repetitive flavor. Even if the events need to occur, they should always be different enough not to be mistaken for another similar scene elsewhere or when in the story. Even the possibility of repetition means that some aspect of the story, the characters, the plot, the emotional tension has not progressed as much as it should have. Some repetition has value, but not whole scenes, only themes, phrases. Or if scenes, then a distinct difference that changes the whole flavor and gives a special meaning to the repetition. Mine wasn't that, or at least not enough that and I'll have to work on it.
I think I may have a similar problem with the story on my other blog. I have two visitors to the pirate ship and the course of the visits if not the characters goes very similarly. No point in that as it doesn't expand the reader's understanding of anything and doesn't sufficiently make progress on the story.
I've sent out copies of the whole Cerel novel to a couple of people and started to get feedback. Most of it hasn't been a surprise: there are certain elements of the story that have a certain repetitive flavor. Even if the events need to occur, they should always be different enough not to be mistaken for another similar scene elsewhere or when in the story. Even the possibility of repetition means that some aspect of the story, the characters, the plot, the emotional tension has not progressed as much as it should have. Some repetition has value, but not whole scenes, only themes, phrases. Or if scenes, then a distinct difference that changes the whole flavor and gives a special meaning to the repetition. Mine wasn't that, or at least not enough that and I'll have to work on it.
I think I may have a similar problem with the story on my other blog. I have two visitors to the pirate ship and the course of the visits if not the characters goes very similarly. No point in that as it doesn't expand the reader's understanding of anything and doesn't sufficiently make progress on the story.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
I'm back
I wasn't able to post while I was traveling but i did take lots of notes and have several topics I plan to blog about in the coming days or weeks. For now, I'll post the next scene for Candice and company.
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