A past Apple ad campaign read, “Think Different.” I love that ad because I think it’s important to think differently, especially in today’s culture. It is so easy in human nature to suffer from groupthink. We just go with the flow and we ebb down the river of life. We don’t question enough.
It’s odd, that in many ways, people hate to be the same and strive so hard to be unique, but end up just following the crowd in so many other areas of life. Sure, those forty facial piercings may look unique, but in the real things in life, the important things, is there uniqueness there? Is there different thinking?
We all hate bad drivers in front of us (but then we drive 40 in a 55 zone with others behind us!) Yeah, Bush lied and people died. Really? Or is that just what the media keeps repeating? Christianity is just a way to keep the masses in line, right? Reparations are owed to black people. I can have sex outside of marriage without consequence. I need to look like the girls in magazines to be beautiful. If I just go to church once in a while, I’ll be fine. We want to standout in the world, but sometimes we fall into the same traps and do the same silly things everyone else does.
So, what in this life is worth different thinking on my part? What is worth questioning? How do we know we aren’t desperately trying to be unique, but really just spinning our wheels along with everyone else? How do we rise above to see things from a higher perspective?
An example of going against the grain and thinking differently is Dr. James Manning. I came across his videos through a link from the DrudgeReport. I not familiar with all Manning’s sermons, but I am proud when I see people think differently, take a stand, and say what needs to be said. Manning is talking about how people need to find Christ and find answers in Him, not in racism or affirmative action. He stands against men like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, who preach racial divisiveness to promote their agendas. Real black men don’t blame their problems on white oppression, they turn to Christ.
I know there are areas in my life where I need to be thinking differently. How about you?
For more, visit TobyLaura.com!
Monday, March 31, 2008
Think Different
Old Ruts, New Ruts
Well, I did the dirty and upgraded my laptop’s Operating System (OS) from Tiger to Leopard. For the most part, things are running smoothly, as they should for a Mac.
However, like changing to anything new, it will take awhile for me to enjoy using the computer like I did with the old system of Tiger. I know lots of Windows slaves, I mean users, have stayed with XP instead of upgrading to Vista. At some point, Vista, or a new OS will have to be upgraded to, and when that happens, we all get this feeling of unfamiliarity and want things back the old way, the better way, the way we know best. We as people get into these ruts where we have everything set up just the way we want them: especially on computers, and when that is disrupted, that warm security blanket gets ripped right off of us!
Several of my friends have had to try new e-mail programs or operating systems, and they hate it because they have to relearn what they know. That is where I am. I know Leopard’s functionality will best the old system by far, but it will take a little getting used to. I want my old baseball glove back -- it fit so well!
As God’s child, I don’t often like waves made in my pond. I don’t necessarily like change or new experiences. I like my comfortable settings, my personal surroundings, and routines I am intimately familiar with. But like changing to a new OS on a computer, God finds us in our rut and kicks us out. I think He actually likes the fact that we find ruts -- so He can disrupt them, and thus teach us something. Hopefully, when this happens, we learn from it. Change isn’t fun, just ask me or my wife about the pending job change ahead for me. But, it’s in those times of change that God can speak -- he has us by the ear.
Change, just for the sake of change, may not be good; it may actually be bad (remember: we don’t kick a sleeping dog). But, when we trust in Him that the change is for the better, we can also trust in Him to see us through it.
I wonder what changes I need to make from the ruts I’ve formed? Am I in some bad ruts at work? Am I in some ruts in my marriage? Am I in some ruts at my church? Am I in some ruts that I don’t even see? Uhhh. I am humbly prayerful that God will show me the bad ruts I’m happily trolling down. Does He always tell us when we’re “off course, on our course?” NO! Look at all the people around you that are in ruts and don’t even see it. Be praying that God will show you Grace, and point out the ruts you are in, and then be happy to change!
Ultimately, I’m glad I changed to Leopard. The transition will be tough, but in the end, it has a lot of great features, like:
Email: When someone sends you an e-mail with a date in it, the computer recognizes this date, and when I click on it, it can add that date to my calendar. Also, it recognizes when someone writes “next Thursday” as a date and puts that in as Aug 5th, or whatever. Amazing!
Chat: I can not only video chat with others, I can share my screen with another mac user (my wife, for example, on her iMac). If she is having trouble with her computer in Ohio, and I’m in Hong Kong, I can video chat with her and put her desktop on my screen and “take over” to fix the issue. Awesome!
Time Machine: I can backup my files to another hard drive automatically and behind the scenes. Then, if I look for a file that is gone or thrown away, I can simply retrieve it in Time Machine. It’s better than in sounds, Windows Users! It’s seamless and easy.
Tons of parental controls to protect future kids in our family, like deciding what they see and when they can access both their computer and the internet. If we aren’t home, their computer won’t get online, if we wish.
There is lots more, so watch the video on how it all works and fits together here.
For more, visit TobyLaura.com!
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
The Good-O-Meter
For more, visit TobyLaura.com!
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Quality German Engineering
It’s been over a year now, and I finally got around to fixing the headlights on my ’99 Volkswagen Passat. Several years ago, someone smashed into me and their insurance fixed my car. Unbeknownst to me and the adjuster, was that the alignment screws that kept the headlights pointing out onto the roadway were damaged. Several years later, they both finally gave way and my headlights pointed at the ground, just in front of the bumper. This caused the headlights to vibrate and new ones would burn out in about a week.
Replacement screws could not be ordered and I would have to pay $300 dollars a piece for a new right and left headlight assembly. Bummer. I didn’t want to spend the money, and frankly, I didn’t have that kind of money for lights in the night. For longer than I care to think about, I’ve gotten by with using just the fog light option, that uses the highbeams in a dimmed mode. Honestly, the light of the moon was almost as bright as what I could see at night. I had to stick to highways and roads with lighting, while country roads were almost un-drivable. I finally broke down and ordered replacement headlights from an online dealer, and good news: they were hundreds cheaper than buying the parts from a dealer or body shop!
I highly recommend Auto Parts Warehouse. Free UPS shipping on orders over $50 dollars, and great prices. As an example, the Passat’s radio antenna had broken off years ago, too. I had been without a radio for long enough, and so I also ordered a new antenna. I decided I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night had I just stolen one from another VW! Auto Parts Warehouse wanted $43. The local VW dealer wanted $165 bucks for the same dinky antenna! If you need auto parts, check them out.
Anyway, I was very impressed with the German engineering of my car’s headlights. It’s just the small things, but when you work on a car, the small things make a big difference. The Passat has lots of nice “small things” that only the Germans would think of. It’s an old, paid off car, but I do love the small touches that make it German.
I went out today to check out what would need to be done to take out the old headlight assemblies, and put the new ones in. The first thing I noticed was how dingy and yellow my old headlights were, compared to the clear, bright new ones. Here, the old one is on the left and the new one is on the right. These new ones were going to be brighter, if for any reason, just because the plastic was clear! I popped the hood and found two mounting screws, hidden under protective caps. I removed them, and unplugged the single clip of wires that connected to the back of the assembly. I jiggled and nothing gave way. I then looked at the new unit and saw that there was one more mounting screw in the bottom corner: no way would I be able to get to that on the old unit. Then, (thank you Germany and Jesus) I just happened to jiggle the turn signal light, mounted next to the headlight. It popped out and revealed the last mounting screw to remove. No obstacles and no headache of reaching around in cramped quarters to remove some obscure screw. I replaced both headlight units in less than twenty minutes.
That is a testament to how the car was built and designed. I must say, I’m a little proud of that car. I heard today that my brother in law’s Honda Civic caused him major headaches, just to change the headlight bulb -- not even the assembly. He couldn’t get to the back of the unit to take the bulb out. He finally took it to the dealer, and they had to remove the wheel well, just to take the back panel off to change the stinking light bulb! Unbelievable, and honestly, unacceptable. That made my twenty minute job feel pretty good.
We love our new Hyundai Sonata, but I love the Passat too.
For more, visit TobyLaura.com!
Ohio BMV
Right now, Laura and I are waiting as patiently as possible in the painfully slow lines of the Ohio BMV. Fortunately, I found a free WiFi network to get online while we wait!
As infuriating as it is, waiting in the lines at the BMV is a good reminder of how slow, and sometimes, inept, our government is. As we wait in line, we get to hear all the questions the BMV staff have to ask the people getting a new license or renewing something: “Are you permanent resident? Is your license under suspension or revocation? How long have you lived at your address?” And on and on and on. There is so much paperwork, so much red tape, so much bureaucracy, it is amazing that anything gets done in that place. I honestly don’t know how people can work there, in such tedious monotony.
In this BMV, there is sign, after posted sign, about how we, the paying customers, must do this and mustn’t do that. “No cell phones!” “Take a number.” “Sign in Here.” “Sit over there.” Strangely absent from all the signs is the one that should read: “We only accept cash or check.” From reading other blog posts, you’ll know that I’m a credit card guy. I find it typical that there is a sign for everything unimportant, but for something that actually matters, like the fact that cash is all they take, that isn’t up anywhere. I’d love to go in and have a bunch of services done and then want to pay with a credit card. When they say we don’t accept it, I’d politely say that they need to undo everything they just did. I know I’m evil . . .
The conclusion I came to after yet another BMV experience, and I’ve had many, as I’m sure you have too, is that I don’t trust the government to run things. In a red tape loving, bureaucracy creating, provider of the slowest service in the world, how can anyone want the federal government running our national healthcare? Just look at the lines in the BMV to understand what the government could do to the paperwork and lines in the hospital and doctor’s offices. Or just look at how long the Canadians wait to see a specialist. Competition breeds quality service and because the government’s BMV competes with no one, they couldn’t care less how fast they work. Another example is the TSA running security at the airports. They don’t compete and are slower than molasses. They are rude, slow, and incompetent.
I’ll pay someone to stand in line for me the next time I need something done at the BMV. Any takers?
For more, visit TobyLaura.com!
Getting into Google Apps
Google Apps is the definition of personalization for your domain providing efficiency, collaboration, and distinctiveness. As always with Google, it is a free service that can be added on to a domain, or if you own your own business or non profit, where you have larger needs, they have a pay-for-service, that offers even more.
If you haven’t read my posts about IMAP and Personal DNS, you may want to read up on them if you haven’t heard of those terms. Click here to sign up to add Google Apps to your own website.
I continue to be amazed at what Google is willing to freely provide, and they even do it in the background, where visitors to your website will never know Google is working behind your web pages. Talk about humility! I could take a lesson from Google on their willingness to take a back seat while consistently providing a great service without any credit. An example: because I’ve enabled Google Apps for TobyLaura.com, Laura and I have personalized e-mail addresses at: tobylaura.com. Google is providing the great e-mail, but their name is never seen in our addresses.
With Google Apps enabled, you get, for free:
100 Google e-mail addresses @yourdomain.com. Each has 6 gig of inbox space. That’s 600 gig of inbox at your disposal!
You can build a free website with 100 megabytes of space. That’s not too much, but hey, it’s free. For comparison, TobyLaura.com is a little more than 500 megabytes. TobyCline.com is made with Google Apps free web page as an example.
A calendar that you can keep private, share with specific individuals, or share publicly on your web page.
A Sites tool, where you and coworkers can work on documents or projects collaboratively.
A Documents page, where you can create Office documents, like Word files, Excel files, spreadsheets, and the like. You can save these to the internet where others can read and see them, or edit them, or they can be downloaded to your computer. Don’t want to spend $400 dollars on Microsoft Office? Employ Google Apps!
Google Chat -- through Gmail and through it’s own program. Chat with anyone in the world, for free.
And finally, a start page, where you get a personalized place to start your web surfing experience (make it your home page). It has a place to see if you have e-mail, news articles you’ve selected to see, weather anywhere in the world, and much more that would just bore you talking about it here.
When you own your own domain, you can set up these applications’ address as: docs.yourdomain.com or calendar.yourdomain.com as an example. That way, when I want to check our e-mail, I just type in mail.tobylaura.com and it brings me to our personalized e-mail. It’s so simple and easy.
I also have my old gmail.com address that most everyone I know has for me. I set up all incoming mail to that address to be automatically forwarded to my new address at tobylaura.com This future proofs my e-mail accounts. If I ever want a different address, I can always use Google e-mail to forward to my future, new address.
Even if you don’t plan on using all the features, they are great to have for potential future use. If you own your own domain, sign up for free: it’s a no brainer, and a winner.
If you are new to the web (like me), it may take a little reading in the help pages that Google provides, if you stumble into trouble, or you can e-mail me. Google’s help pages are very good, though. Another reason to sign up for your personal web address through GoDaddy.com is because they are huge and popular. Because of this, Google often provides instructions on how to set up your domain information with specific GoDaddy instructions.
Get Gmail because it is the best e-mail out there.
Get your own domain name before someone takes it.
Enable Google Apps to your domain and you’ll be off and running! If it shows up, click the add below to help support this blog.
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For more, visit TobyLaura.com!
Get your personalized domain name
Do you own a domain name? Do you know what one is? You ought to think about registering a personalized domain name today, even if you don’t want to build a web page around it right now. Why? Because unique names are being taken all the time. Get yours before the one you want is gone.
A domain name system, or DNS, is a unique address on the web. Internet website addresses are really numbers, like 62.27.168.170. But no one can remember those, so there is a unique name that goes with it: TobyLaura.com, or GreenExamPrep.com, or JerrySuzie.com. (The numbers hide behind the name).
To get a personalized web address, it must be registered with ICANN. They are the “boss” of DNS naming. To register a personalized domain name, you visit one of many registration websites, like GoDaddy or NetworkSolutions, and they take care of the rest. I have used GoDaddy for mine, and think they have the best set up and control functions, once you get serious about a web page. Personal domain names are $10 dollars a year -- a paltry amount for what you get with those ten bucks. So even if you only want personalized e-mail, like Laura and I have, or you want to get your internet domain name registered so that in five years, you can put up a photo album page or blog, it won’t cost much at all. Skip two Starbuck’s and you’ve paid for your web page for a year.
When I bought my Mac computer, it came with a free program called iWeb that I use to put this website together with ease and the click of a few buttons. You don’t need iWeb or some fancy program to have a website. Enter my favorite internet friend: Google. JerrySuzie.com is my parents’ blog and even though they have a personalized web address, the actual pages are hosted by Google Blogger -- of course, for free. They only pay ten bucks a year for the personal DNS.
Once you have your domain name registered, there is one other step involved in having a web page: You need a host. A host is simply the computer that stores your web pages so that when someone types in the address: TobyLaura.com, it sends their computer the information on our website to their computer. A domain name with no host means there is nothing behind that name. In the same way, a lot of hosted pages with no name means there is no way to get to those pages. Apple “hosts” our web site through .Mac for a small fee (click the pic to learn more). Google hosts my parent’s website for free, but they are limited in what they can do (you get what you pay for here).
I registered both TobyLaura.com and TobyCline.com. I don’t use TobyCline.com much as it is somewhat of a guinea pig for working with different website functions. Right now, you can click on TobyCline.com and see what Google will do for free as a host. I spent a few minutes throwing that page together so that some friends of mine could download some files about my interview at Cathay Pacific. Google gives you 100 megabytes of online storage to upload files, pictures, text, music, or anything, really. Or, I could point TobyCline.com to a Google blog like my parents have done. Once you own a domain name, the possibilities are endless. I own e-mail at the tobycline.com domain as well -- it is a Gmail e-mail account that Google provides -- of course, for free. I can do that because I own that domain.
Anyone can have a free Google page (like what I made at TobyCline.com) or free Google blog, and there are plenty of other free places to set up web pages, like Yahoo! to name one other. But, it sure looks snazzy when you add personalized e-mail and web addresses. If you want to start up a business or a side venture, personal domains are a must to set yourself apart and allow the public to take you seriously.
You never know what the future brings, and in this internet age, where the world is getting larger, but coming closer together, the web’s role in our daily lives will only get more and more important. So stop by GoDaddy.com today and in five minutes, you can have StaceyJonesRocks.com, SECbeatsOSU.com or my personal favorite: HottieBrands.com!
For more, visit TobyLaura.com!
Friday, March 21, 2008
It's time to IMAP
I don’t need any more convincing that Google rocks! Do you? Everyone, and I mean, everyone should have a Gmail account. It’s more than a free e-mail service, it’s an internet experience. Google is so large and makes so much money, they have the resources to make great web products/experiences and do it all for free. The winner is us, the consumer.
Are you still piddling around with Hotmail? How about Yahoo! or even a local ISP (internet service provider) with a local e-mail account like @comcast.net? The days of the internet revolution are in full swing and the only way to truly enjoy the surfing process to its full extent is to jump up to the best game in town: Google. 
Yes, Google is on top and let this cartoon depicting the potential Microsoft buyout of Yahoo! say the rest. See AOL in the left corner . . . ?
Google is best known for their search engine. Next, they are mostly known for their free e-mail service. But they do a lot more than that. More about the other features in another blog. For now, it’s e-mail.
Gmail (sign up for a free account here) is, in my opinion, the best e-mail client out there. The spam protection is better than anything else on the web that is free. I’m not sure about all the technical details, but in the two plus years I’ve used Gmail, I can count on one hand the number of spam messages that have made it into my inbox. Google learns with every click of the “this is spam” button. But, better yet, when I empty my spam folder, Google updates the spammer’s address and domain with every single Gmail user, not just me, so Gmail users block spam as a team.
Because the spam blocking is so good, you can feel free to download your e-mail into mail programs like Apple Mail or Microsoft Outlook on your computer. I remember when I had a Yahoo! address, I never wanted to download my inbox into Microsoft Outlook because I would get all this spam, and I couldn’t block it once it appeared in Outlook. I would login to Yahoo! Mail and block the ten or twenty spam messages in my inbox and then download my messages. That was a pain, because why check e-mail on a web page and then look at it again on your computer in Outlook or Apple Mail? Many smaller companies use Gmail for their own e-mail system because the spam blocking is so strong. They have their own e-mail accounts, like admin@woodworking.com, with the Gmail address hidden behind it, allowing Google to do the spam blocking in the background.
Mine works the same way. Laura and I use our names in front of
Gmail will also give you a huge inbox: 6 gigabytes for each account, and growing! That’s enough to store e-mail for years and years. Google takes the approach that you shouldn’t have to throw any e-mail away. That way, years later, you can search through your messages with the power of a Google search, and find small details you were searching for. I caught a retailer in a lie by simply going back and searching what they had told me. I forwarded their e-mail to them and they admitted their mistake!
Now the best part: IMAP. You can read more about it here. IMAP stands for Internet Message Access Protocol. IMAP is a setting your set in your mail account. It’s like POP, but better. POP stands for Post Office Protocol and is the familiar system that allows an internet e-mail account like Yahoo! to send the e-mail to your computer in Microsoft Outlook. Anytime you can check your e-mail on your own computer in an e-mail program like Apple Mail or Outlook, you are using POP. POP is nice, but it is old school. Sometimes, retro is cool. In this case, you want to move up to IMAP. IMAP is a “live” connection between your mail program and your e-mail account on the internet. You enable this function in your settings. Then, if you delete an e-mail in Outlook, it deletes it off of the account online in Gmail. If you send a message from your Apple Mail, it shows up as a sent message in your Gmail account. If you check your e-mail from multiple locations, like a PDA or phone, or multiple computers (laptop and desktop) they are all kept up-to-date, instantly. With POP, you’d have to delete a new message on each computer you use, but with IMAP, all is synced and streamlined. In the end, it is efficiency and convenience in Gmail e-mail, for free.
Google offers so many services, all free, and they all work to make your internet, a better internet. I have my own personal e-mail account, for free, because of Google. You can too! Own a business? Want a professional or unique look? Do you want the tools you use on the internet to sync, communicate, and collaborate together seamlessly? Want your blog, web page, e-mail, online calendar, and more all work together? Get Google!
For more, visit TobyLaura.com!
Monday, March 17, 2008
The Perfect Gift!
My sister Katie, and her husband Scott, got a new dog this past weekend. It is a very small Chihuahua and doesn’t have a name yet.
For now, his name is “The Perfect Gift” but not for reasons that you may think. He may have been the perfect gift to Katie, but he is nicknamed that for now because of his birthday. How, you say? He was born on Christmas day. Every Christmas, Katie works very hard to get everyone the “Perfect Gift” and when we open one of her gifts, we all have to stop and watch it be opened, because, you guessed it, it’s the Perfect Gift! So for now, this cute little guy is The Perfect Gift, because of his unique birthday.
I look forward to seeing him in person . . .
For more, visit TobyLaura.com!
Sunday, March 16, 2008
How much are you saving?
Freedom is the end-goal of saving. The more you save, the freer you are. When you have no more debt, and a stockpile of savings and investments, you are free. Free from the bondage of banks, free from the crushing weight of creditors, free from the worries of paycheck to paycheck penny-pinching, and most importantly, free do things with your money you never would have thought possible.
With a healthy savings, you will insulate yourself, to a degree, from the disasters that life brings. Sleepless nights due to worrying if a broken leg or a loss of job will financially ruin you are a thing of the past with six months to a year of net income in your high-yield online savings account. If, after taxes, you make $3,000 dollars a month, a good goal is to have (6x3) $18,000 dollars in a savings account. If you are a rock star, have $36,000 dollars in your online savings account. Each person in America should have a free, easy to set up, high interest, online savings account, and click here to know why.
Here’s the rub. Here’s the problem. We Americans don’t care about saving! We don’t lay awake at night worrying what will happen if our next paycheck doesn’t come. We don’t care about having a safety net because we live in the present. Living in the present is certainly fun because with a paycheck and a credit card, every one of our toys we buy is free and carries no financial consequence. Don’t live in the present! Instead, remember the past and think of the future. Forget the present, it’s worthless, and means nothing without the context of the past and future. Past financial disasters can teach us lessons today. And like the cliche says: we will repeat those same mistakes, lest we listen to the advice given from days long ago. Furthermore, if we focus our eyes on the future, then our smart financial decisions in the present will make so much sense. The idea of saving will be so salient and the pain of putting money away will fall into place, if we have an eye on the future.
So why does this matter? According to a statistic stated by Dave Ramsey, the Japanese save the most of any culture in the world, at 18.1% of their income. By nature, the Asian culture saves; that is just who they are. By contrast, the culture that saves the least, is you guessed it, Americans. What is our savings rate? Negative 2%! We spend more than we earn by 2%! With that kind of savings plan, we are not free. We are enslaved. We are beholden to our creditors, our toys, our banks, and can do nothing with our money, but pay it back to those who own us. In 2007, Americans spent 8.5 trillion dollars. Great for the economy, right? Well, the scary thing is that 6.8 trillion of it was spent on credit! Will that credit be paid back? Not nearly all of it and as it isn’t paid back, our economy will slide further into recession as both lenders and borrowers fall into trouble. Let me ask you a question: Are you free or does someone or some creditor own you?
If someone owns you, do you want to turn that ship around? Do you want to be free? I can guarantee that becoming free will only happen with a lifestyle change that involves a new mindset. “Make every thought captive so that it conforms to” your financial goals. Remember the past and look to the future, everyday, at every purchase!
Laura and I are not on an ivory pedestal. Three different banks own us and we are not free. We want to be and I hope you want to be too. Because I fly for an airline, it is always assumed that I make oodles of money. The truth is that I made more at Burger King than I did my first year of flying. If I wanted money, I would have gone into another profession, as an: engineer, doctor, architect, physical therapist, dentist, or go into business for myself. I won’t see 100K a year for YEARS! I say this only because I don’t want people thinking that I’m some richie rich with all the answers and pointing the finger at all the indentured servants below me. The truth is that Laura and I are indentured like all the rest! We just want to make smart decisions and hope that everyone in the U.S. will too.
Start today by opening up an online savings account here or here. It will link to your checking account so that you can set it up to automatically withdraw some money from your checking account and place it into the high interest savings account. I don’t care if it’s $10 dollars a month, do it! At least with a high interest savings account, your money in savings will keep up with, or stay ahead of inflation. Otherwise, with inflation, you are actually losing money on anything kept in a checking account.
Another smart way to stay ahead of inflation, and actually make money is a wise investment in gold. Unlike a stock or mutual fund, gold is always worth something. With the dollar falling in value like a safe thrown from a fourth story window, the value of gold is rising. Why? Many reasons, for which most can be Googled. A few are: Foreign investors are pulling out of the dollar, the Federal Reserve continues to drop interest rates, the economy is slowing, and fear is in the market. When there is fear in the market, a safe place to run is gold, which is where many investors are turning: hence the spike in the value of gold and the further weakening of the dollar. You can buy some gold bars/coins and store them in a safe place in your house or add gold investments to your portfolio. You will be a rock star in my eyes for doing either or both. Start here for more on buying gold.
Start now! Here is another quick example from Dave Ramsey why it is smart to start now instead of waiting:
Two brothers, the same age, turn 18. Brother one starts to invests $2,000 a year, which is only $166 dollars a month, into an investment each year until he turns 26. For you math majors, that’s 8 years and $16,000 dollars. Brother two starts where his bother left off. He invests starting at age 27, puts $2,000 dollars a year into an investment, which again, is only $166 a month. The only difference is that he continues until he is sixty five years old! The first brother only put money in for 8 years, until he was 26. The second brother put money in for 38 years, from 27 until 65. This is the lesson for starting now and appreciating compound interest: Brother One, who only invested for a short time, but started earlier, at age 65, will be ahead of brother two, who invested for 38 years and a lot more money, by $750,000 dollars! This assumes a 10% return for both brothers but the point is the same: start now!
Do you really need that next purchase? Do you really need to go out to eat that much? Do you really want to keep a balance on your credit card? A day of reckoning is coming. Will you be ready? Pad the savings account, contribute to your company 401(k) plan, and max out a Roth IRA, for both you and your spouse (and if you can afford it, open a Roth for each of your kids -- they’ll love you for it when they turn 59 and a half!).
When we are free from our financial troubles, we can be better stewards of our money. Ultimately, we learn that our money isn’t ours anyway, its God’s. He has blessed us with the finances we have and gives us all we own. When we gain freedom, we are free to then give our money to others. Starting with giving a tithe (a tenth) to God, we thank Him for his rich blessing on us. After that, we are free to do other generous things like help the poor, give great Christmas and birthday gifts to others, and do random acts of kindness. That is what true freedom is all about!
Where to go from here?
Click here to read some simple ways to get started saving and setting goals, according to Dave Ramsey.
Click here to read about some great ways to save money on everyday things in everyday ways. It is written by Ken Rockwell.
Open an online savings account yesterday.
Don’t be afraid of credit cards, just make sure you pay them off each month. I know that lots of advisors, like Ramsey, say to cut them up, but that only masks the problem of credit cards. We shouldn’t solve our credit problems by hiding from them, but learning how to live with them and using them to our advantage, with reward cards.
Be smart, don’t live in the present, remember the past and keep a watchful eye on the future!
For more, visit TobyLaura.com!
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Global Warming?
The snow began on Friday, March 7th, and ended late, Saturday night. Click on the above picture to see more of what happened at our house.
My Friday started early, around 4:15 a.m. because I was flying out to Washington’s Dulles airport to be home by 3:30 p.m. that same day. Because I was scheduled to be home that night, I had no change of clothes or toiletries. Why would I need them? I hadn’t even heard of an impending snow storm, and when I heard about possible snow arriving that afternoon on the radio as I drove in to the airport that morning, I didn’t believe it would snow that much. After all, it never snows as much as the forecasters guess. If the weatherman says we’ll get three to six, I take the lower number (3) and divide it by two to see what we’ll actually get. In the three to six case, we’d probably only get and inch or an inch and a half . . . it gets me pretty close.
My crew and I were almost finished with our flying day and were in Dulles (IAD) and getting ready to pushback for our flight to Columbus (CMH). Sounds easy, right? The snow in Ohio had just begun. Everyone was boarded up, the paperwork was finished, and all we needed to do was push back from the gate to start our taxi out for takeoff. We got a frantic call over our operations radio for us to hold our push and call our dispatcher. “Uh-oh,” is all could think of to say. Sure enough, our flight was probably going to be cancelled because the visibility in Columbus was too low to land and the snow was building up on the runways faster than crews could keep it clear. We cancelled a few minutes later and had to kick all the passengers off.
This was 2 p.m. We headed to the hotel and waited for the weather to clear up. Then the 5:05 p.m. flight cancelled, then the 10:00 p.m. flight cancelled, then the 7:45 a.m. flight the next morning cancelled, as did the 12:15 p.m., 5:05 p.m., and the 7:30 p.m. flight. Finally, we were able to take the 10:00 p.m. flight back to Columbus. We had a few passengers that we had abandoned the day before! I landed about 11:30 p.m., and of course, the snow had let up (so I had a boring, no fun, unchallenging approach and landing, oh well.) A Continental Airlines Boeing 737 had run off the end of the runway in the snow and ice the night before, but yours truly didn’t have such an experience.
Laura ended up hanging around all day Saturday in the house, taking a few pictures. I got home about 2:30 a.m. Sunday morning because the roads were still terrible. Church was cancelled and I was able to sleep in and catch up on sleep from the night before.
I think that storms like this are fun because they are something out of the norm. We get into our regular routines and life becomes so boring because the same things take place each day. Blizzards bring about new experiences and visual memories that last a lifetime -- not the standard drive to work. I love staying inside and drinking some hot coffee or hot chocolate and watching the snow fall and then pile up into large drifts around the landscape. I hear so many people complain about the weather and don’t want it to snow, or get upset when it does. People, it’s winter! I do feel that Al Gore owes me an apology: I just shoveled 18 inches of global warming out of my driveway! But it was fun, none the less, and I, as a Texan, always enjoy a good snow.
Click here to see more pictures of the snow around the house.
For more, visit TobyLaura.com!
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