Sign up on right to get free WEALTH TIP’s Newsletter, and FREE bonus eBook; 20 Minute Guide to Investing!

And don’t forget to pick up my RSS feed or email subscription and follow me on twitter so you get the word immediately. 

A method to grow your blog readership is to visit other blogs and comment on their articles. The theory behind that strategy, as I learned from the Problogger 31 Days to a Better Blog is that the more recognizable you are on line the more likely others will want to visit your site and read what you have to say. Krantcents has taken this strategy to the highest level and consequently is growing his readership quite substantially.

As I was visiting some of my favorite sites, Yes I am Cheap, My Multiple Incomes,  Budgets are Sexy, and Len Penzo dot com, I found a theme. Now, this theme is not new to me, but it got me thinking. There are a group of bloggers who choose to share their net worth, debt, and spending figures.

HERE’S MY SECRET; As a natural voyeur, I find this information fascinating. I am both amazed and curious about those who share this most sensitive data, and I can’t stop reading it! On top of that, I can’t help but compare my metrics to theirs. Sometimes I come out on top and other times, not so much.

My realization was that there are advantages and disadvantages of both sharing your personal financial information on line and reading about others who disclose this sensitive information.

Advantages

For the ones who put their information out there, I’ve heard it is motivating and serves to hold them accountable. That’s what Flexo of Consumerism Commentary shared with me during my Personal Finance Luminaries interview with him. For the bloggers sharing their earnings on line, it is a source of pride that readers enjoy their articles and advertisers support them.

For the readers of these financial disclosures, we get to peek inside others’ bank and debit accounts. This fulfills the prurient curiosity in us.

Disadvantages

With such transparency on line, there is always a possibility that some evil hacker will get access to someone’s identity or financial data and use it for themselves. If you use your own identity and share this personal information, it may be a bit uncomfortable when your boss, friends, and family have all of your financial statistics.

As a reader, you might feel badly if your net worth or blog earnings don’t measure up to those of another. After all, we all tend to compare ourselves a bit with others. This comparison might also cause you to neglect some responsibilities and devote more time and effort to blogging than is appropriate for your situation.

The Takeaway

In blogging as in life, watch out for the tendancy to compare yourself with others. You create uneccessary stress by worrying about the decisions and actions of those around you. Be mindful of your own goals and objectives and don’t be swayed either positively or negatively by what you read about others’ endeavors. After all, the only one keeping score is you!

What’s your secret take on this topic? Are you a financial voyeur? Or, what leads you to share your personal data?

image credit; photoshoparam Dan

“The time has come to show appreciation for your favorite personal finance bloggers, products and services. From September 1 through September 21, personal finance bloggers may vote for their favorites among all the categories while the general public, including blog readers and fans, are welcome to vote for the blogs that inspire. The Plutus Awards are configured like this to bring attention to the products and services that meet expert approval as well as to the blogs that provide the best experiences for their readers, fans, and colleagues.” by Flexo of Consumerism Commentary

The Backstory

Early on, I saw the beautiful trophy on Len Penzo’s blog and was intrigued. Clearly he deserved this awesome Plutus Award, as a hilarious, informative, and talented personal finance blogger. I also appreciated his willingness to help me out when I first started blogging. In my heart of hearts, I hoped some day I would be publicly recognized for my blogging and writing efforts.

What started as a means to impart my years of investing and personal finance education and experience to the masses, has turned into so much more. Along the way, I found I loved writing about my passion; money and finance. I sincerely enjoyed introducing money concepts and my take on saving and investing to others. What surprised me the most about this endeavor was the international relationships I’ve developed with readers and fellow bloggers.

This post would be incomplete without  a shout out to Sam of Financial Samurai for creating the awesome Yakezie personal finance and lifestyle blogging network. The network members have been tremendous champions of my site.

I wrote the ebook, 20 Minute Guide to Investing, to use my MBA, portfolio management experience, and many years investing to demonstrate how simple investing can be. Further, I elected to offer the book for free as a gesture to introduce the scary topic of investing to my readers.

I never expected the book to be nominated for a Plutus Award!

Please download the book on the right of my site (if you haven’t already). I promise you will not be bombarded with future mail from me. If you feel it is an informative read, vote for me in the “Best New Ebook” Category at the Plutus Awards site.

Additionally, check out the other nominees, there are some wonderful personal finance resources in all of the categories.

I’d also like to invite any of you with personal finance, investing, saving, or budgeting related comments or questions to write in.

Thank you for reading Barbara Friedberg Personal Finance.

Best regards,

Barb

Please check out my guest articles at Yes I am Cheap, When is Good Negotiating Just Plain Cheap? and Yakezie,.com, Buying & Selling Real Estate Not According to Plan

& LINK ROUND-UP

I NEED HELP

One driving force for Barbara Friedberg Personal Finance is to offer personal finance and life management help to those without models or mentors. As told in My Story, I am fortunate to have the perfect combination of strong financial management models and an undergraduate degree in economics and a masters degree in business. I WANT TO SHARE MY KNOWLEDGE AND INFORMATION WITH OTHERS.

I am happy with my blogging progress so far and for the month of February, I did okay:

• 2,973 Visitors
• 70 Countries represented
• Most popular articles in February:
• An Investing Story with a Big Lesson
• Is it Time to Sell?
• Wealth in Life; 25 Cheap Ideas for Fun
• How to Cope with Buyers Remorse
• Why You Must Start Saving Now

Overall, I’ve grown the site quite quickly:

• International Alexa rank (measure of visitors to the site) - 98,631
• USA Alexa rank - 20,344
• Google page rank – 2
• MOZ rank – 5

It looks like I’m going quite well, then what’s the problem?

I NEED YOUR HELP TO REACH MORE PEOPLE WHO NEED TO IMPROVE THEIR PERSONAL FINANCES

I take complex subjects and break them down into easy to understand topics. I’m also writing simple, easy to read books on personal finance. I already have a FREE eBook, 20 Minute Guide to Personal Finance which can be downloaded from the top right of the site. My next book, 20 Minute Guide to Personal Finace for New College Grads, is coming out soon!

I want to reach a greater audience!

Pass the web address of Barbara Friedberg Personal Finance on to ANYONE WHO MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN LEARNING PERSONAL FINANCE BASICS!

What’s in it for you?

Obviously, you would be doing a good deed.

1. More than that, anyone who signs up for my RSS feed will be entered to WIN A $25 AMAZON GIFT CARD & THERE WILL BE 2 WINNERS.
2. That means, you can sign up and win. Your referral can sign up and win!
3. Refer someone else to Barbara Friedberg Personal Finance & get an additional entry for each person you refer.
4. How will I know? Tell me in the COMMENTS SECTION, the initials of everyone you referred & if you SIGNED UP FOR MY RSS FEED.

ENTRIES CLOSE MARCH 30, 2011

Thank you for helping me help others!

BARB RECOMMENDS:

Here are some of the outstanding personal finance articles I’ve been reading recently. Check them out and boost your wealth and information.

YAKEZIE BLOG SWAP EVENT (Round 3); Narrow Bridge. This is a really cool event where a group of bloggers all write on one topic. This month’s topic-A TIME I SPLURGED & I’M GLAD I DID. The individual perspectives show that everyone splurges once in a while!

100 Things I learned from Blogging; Faith and Finance. If you are interested in blogging, you must read this article.

First blogoversary HUGE Giveaway; Budgeting in the Fun Stuff. You must enter, great odds (AND I’M A SPONSOR!)

Investing in Oil; Why the Middle East is a Breeding Ground for Black Swan Events; Beating the Index. Some thought provoking ideas about oil and global economics.  

How Important is Financial Balance to You? Invest it Wisely. Who does what in your relationship? Do you think about fairness? Kevin offers some great insights here.   

Sensuous Value is the Worst Kind; Consumerism Commentaryguest post by the Weakonomics. Acting from your gut (like a monkey) or following sound financial principles, which is better?

Graduated from College; Financial Tips for the New Graduage; The Digerati Life. Great tips for those starting out and others!

A Sobering Reality, Where Did All My Money Go? Frugal Confessions.

Today I Solved Student Debt Forever, Money Mamba. Great tips for the young and inexperienced! This site has some great content.

Yakezie Member Post; First Generation American. Read this heartwarming story about in immigrants transition into financial prosperity.

There is More to Risk Than Meets the Eye, GenX finance has an excellent and instructive article,  detailing the many faces of RISK.

Seth Godin has lots of free stuff, here. If you haven’t met Seth yet, here’s your chance.

Financial Advice is Everywhere, 50 Plus Finance. There’s so much advice out there, but how to get people to follow it? He’s on the same campaign that I am!

DON’T FORGET TO REFER YOUR ACQUAINTANCES AND FRIENDS, SIGN UP FOR MY RSS FEED AND ENTER TO WIN ONE OF TWO $25 AMAZON GIFT CARDS.  Why not follow me on twitter so you get the word immediately?   

image credit; Keoki Seu

MAIN TOPIC: My Guilty Pleasure

True confession; I love the Nate Berkus Show. Once in awhile I sneak away from my desk to catch a peak. Last week he had a segment with one of the Real Housewives of NY competing against a woman from the audience. Let me put it in context, the real housewife from NY was loaded. And her competitor was just an attractive, nicely dressed, non-celebrity.

Bargain or High Priced Jewelry?

The competition was this; Nate put together 3 “mini rooms” comprised of a rug, chair, lamp and a few other accessories. The task was to pick out the HIGH, LOW, and MEDIUM priced version of the rug, chair, and lamp.

Everyone expected this fancy New Yorker to beat the regular woman hands down.

Guess what, the regular woman WON and correctly tagged the highest, lowest, and mid-priced items.

PRACTICAL APPLICATION: Can You Tell the Bargains from the High Priced Items?

As a veteran bargain shopper, I was a bit surprised by the outcome. I figured, if this bon vivante can’t tell the difference between a $39.95 lamp and a $995.00 lamp why in the world would one want to buy the pricier edition? The competition furthered my belief that you don’t have to spend a ton of money to dress and live well.

VALENTINE’S DAY

I can be a bit of a crumudgeon when it comes to all of these “Hallmark” holidays. Are all of these holidays just a way for industry to get us to spend more money?

But of course, having been married for a long time to an incredibly generous El Carino; we like  to exchange gifts.

So, last week end we hit Kohl’s for our Valentine’s day shopping. And here’s what we bought:

El Carino for me:

• Beautiful diamond and amethyst pendant
• Packaged set of little perfume bottles

Me for El Carino:

• Black Jeans
• Purple dress shirt

Total price for all; $61!

 (I have a hunch my necklace is not made of real diamonds ) Oh, and we also got $10.00 “Kohl’s cash” back, which we can swap to get something for 10 bucks FREE.

This is a perfect Valentine’s Day Gift Exchange.

Where to Get Fabulous Bargains

The shopping landscape is so competitive, that with some clever hunting there is no reason to sink a wad of cash for the holiday. Check out my favorite stores for bargain shopping; Kohl’s, Target, K Mart, Marshall’s, TJ Maxx, NY & Co., and I guarantee (money back) that you will come up with some excellent gifts at great prices.

I bet your sweety won’t even know if they are HIGH, MEDIUM, or LOW priced!

Want More Valentine’s Day Ideas?

• 5 Frugal Valentine Ideas at Bargaineering
• Debt Free Valentine’s Day at The Centsible Life
• 7 Romantic Frugal Date Ideas at Couple Money
• 3 Frugal Ideas for a Romantic Valentine’s Day at Invest it Wisely

What are your Valentine’s Day Shopping Strategies?

image credit: Clarion Fine Jewelry

•   If you like this type of article, be sure and download a copy of my FREE eBook, 20 Minute Guide to Investing, by filling out the form on the right. 
•  After this post, visit American Public Media Marketplace to read my featured guest article entitled, What to do With Money Over a Lifetime

MAIN TOPIC: A Secret Revealed

While performing the quarterly portfolio updates for our family’s holdings, I compared the balances in El Carino and my Roth and Traditional IRA’s. We started contributing to our Traditional IRA’s in the 1980′s and switched to Roth’s when they were established by the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997. Since we each contribute the maximum amount, I have a competition between our accounts. In fact, this little competition has been a secret until NOW! 

I manage both accounts and purchase and sell all of the holdings in each account. I have no system to determine which asset or type of asset goes into each account. I view the family portfolio management as a whole. I decide upon an appropriate allocation of stock, bond, real estate, and cash holdings and then divide our assets across all of our accounts into the holdings which correspond with the predetermined asset allocation (for the most part, I place high dividend investments in tax advantaged accounts to save on taxes).

Every quarter or so, I update the values and transactions in the accounts. And once or twice a year I rebalance.

THE COMPETITION

I compare the value of El Carino’s Roth with that of my Roth IRA. Next, I compare the value of his traditional IRA with that of mine. In reality, this is a game which has no value outside of my own amusement, since it is the overall portfolio management and allocation which is important.

The first couple of years investing in the Roth IRA’s I was investing in a lot of individual stocks. Whenever you go that route, you will experience tremendous volatility. And all of the losses were IN MY ROTH ACCOUNT. Although our overall net worth continued to progress due to the diversified investments; the value of my individual Roth IRA had a sad trajectory downward for at least the first 5 years.

How did it happen?

Several of the individual stocks that I chose for my Roth IRA TANKED. So at the end of 5 years, El Carino’s Roth IRA grew quite nicely, and mine grew in the wrong direction and ended up about 30-40% lower in value than his.

Don’t forget, our overall portfolio of holdings was growing quite nicely even though my individual ROTH performed poorly over the first few years.

In spring 2009, at the valley of the meltdown, I invested most of the assets in my Roth IRA in the undervalued real estate sector through a REIT index fund. Those holdings increased almost 100%.

After 12 years of my Roth IRA under-performing El Carino’s IRA, we are now EVEN.

PRACTICAL APPLICATION; Pick a Sensible Investment Strategy

In investing, large gains and large losses go with the territory. Rarely do you know which investments will outperform and which ones will underperform.

So, don’t judge your investing performance too frequently, either the good or the bad performers. 

Follow these rules and prosper:

• Choose an asset allocation suitable for your age and investment tolerance.
• Stick with the allocation for the long term. That means more than 5 years.
• Continue to add to your investments regularly.
• Don’t judge your performance too frequently. Remember, the overall trend of stock and bond investments is up, although in the short term, volatility is the rule!
• If you want to retire early, just bulk up the amount you are investing. The principles are the same. 

ACTION STEPS:

 Get a notebook and label it: “(your name) Personal Finance” and keep it by the computer. Use it to keep all of your personal finance goals, thoughts, activities, and plans.

1. If you have any interest in investing, you must read my 20 Minute Guide to Investing. Basic investing concepts are presented in a fun format.
2. Write down the “lessons learned” from your investment mistakes. Try not to repeat the same mistake again and again.

If you like what you’re reading, pick up my RSS feed and follow me on twitter so you get the word immediately. 

image credit: billcalladine

We humans are social characters. (Even us bloggers, stuck behind our computers all night!). Comparing how we’re doing with others happens, whether we like it or not. In fact, even if you say you’re not competitive or interested in competition, you’re fibbing! Take Yakezie.com, best personal finance network, our mission is selflessly promote other bloggers. We even have a monthly scholarship to give back! Think we’re not competitive? Not quite, we get belts for how often we comment on the site, and a thermometer to mark our contributions to the scholarship fund (feel free to contribute).

How do you draw the line between competing with others and being satisfied with where you are in life?

In one of Jean Chatzky’s recent books, she recommended looking at those who have less than you do instead of comparing yourself with those who have more. Her rationale was that if you are constantly comparing yourself with those better off than you, YOU WILL BE MISERABLE.

HOW DOES THIS AFFECT BLOGGERS?

Google is all about competition. If your site is #1 on a google search, your’re going to make lots of money! Google even ranks websites by popularity and awards it a page rank. But the competitive ranking market is opening up and Website Grader promotes another rank called MOZ RANK. Those sites left out by Google (too new, don’t quite mesh with googles analytics, and other mysterious reasons) can still show their importance and make some cash with a MOZ RANKING.

THE TAKEAWAY

 Getting a job, a spouse, into college, advertisers dollars….. it’s all a competition. If you are a “competitive person” or not, life is competitive. Be your best self and appreciate your uniqueness. And, don’t shy from competition. As my mother-in-law always says, “We want winners!”

 If you are a blogger, and interested in making some cash, promote the MOZ rank as a metric. It’s updated much more frequently than google page rank and offers current and reliable website popularity data.

READ WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING ABOUT MOZ RANK:

• Everyday Tips and Thoughts
• KNS Financial-Faithful with a Few
• Budgeting in the Fun Stuff 
• Invest it Wisely
• Buy Like Buffet
• Saving Money Today
• Raven

BARB RECOMMENDS:

Take a look at what I’ve been reading this week. They’re all informative and entertaining. Why not see for yourself?

• First Gen American-Babci’s Rules of Personal Finance-These simple rules ensure that you will be financially secure and content.
• Invest it Wisely-The Skinny on Creativity Book Review-and while your there enter his CONTEST to win SKINNY series books!
• Elle Couple Money wrote an article, Keeping up with the Jone’s-More Like Winning at Yakezie.com. This post includes a link to a cool metric which gives the income level in your zip code!
• Buy Like Buffett-5 Steps to Feel Richer in 2011. Sensible wealth building suggestions from Mark.
• Car Negotiation Coach-FREE EBOOK and Car Buying Spreadsheet. Amazing free resource from a master negotiator.
• Consumerism Commentary-A Comparison between Debt Avalanche and Debt Snowball as popularized by Dave Ramsey. It’s always interesting to see different alternatives to the same situation.

Barbara Friedberg Personal Finance across the blogosphere:

My work was showcased recently at these sites. Why not stop by and check out the excellent articles?

• 50 Plus Finance Week-end Round up
• Retire by 40-Funny Icons and Blog Ranking Update
• Ditch the Boss-Financial Independence Compilation
• Well Heeled Blog-Round up and Yakezie Friends
• Len Penzo-Black Coffee
• First Gen Americans-Sacred Santa Edition

What are your views on competition?

Stop over and check out my guest post at Consumerism Commentary entitled Invest in Stocks or Mutual Funds?

MAIN TOPIC: Is it Strange That a Personal Finance Blogger Has No Budget?

After all of my relentless haranging about the importance of saving, budgeting, and managing your money, that I have no budget now may seem strange. In fact, I never would have revealed this here because it’s so counter to EVERYTHING I BELIEVE IN! So what gives? Kevin, over at Invest It Wisely threw down the gauntlet and challenged some Yakezie personal finance bloggers to think critically and play devil’s advocate with our core beliefs. Not one to shy away from a challenge, I decided to reveal why I have no budget in 2010.

This is a bit difficult to justify since I like love budgets. And I particularly like the many variations one can use, like the gazelle budget! The order and discipline a budget or spending plan allows is an invaluable aid in personal finance. In fact, maintaining a budget is a PERSONAL FINANCE CORE BELIEF of mine!

PRACTICAL APPLICATION: How Going Against My Belief in Budgets Makes Sense

Another tenet of mine is to live in accord with your values. That means spend your most precious resource, time, in the way that affords you the most pleasure and reward possible. Let me explain what I mean. In How Trading in a Car Every Two Years Makes Good Financial Sense, I relate the story of a man who values driving a new car above many other material things. He would rather drive a new car than go on vacation. So, even though economically it seems wasteful to trade in his car so frequently, the amount of enjoyment he gets from the car FAR OUTWEIGHS the money he would save by keeping his car longer. Furthermore, he is not living beyond his means in order to drive a new car. (He owns his condo free and clear!)

Personally, El Carino and I do not value driving new cars. We would rather travel and spend money on other things than transportation. That is why our cars are 7 and 12 years old and we travel a lot. 

BACK TO BUDGETS!

This year Quicken personal finance software required an upgrade. I had no choice in the matter and had to upgrade to version 2010! I have used Quicken since last century and had over a decade of financial transactions in my personal portfolio. You can imagine, being an investment professional and passionate about finance, my records are very important and well organized. Additionally, in the software, I maintained our annual budget.

Our original Quicken file with all of our historical records was too big to transfer. After many hours with customer service as well as sending my whole file to their “workshop”, my data did not transfer correctly.

I decided to forgo my prior files and start fresh with the 2010 data. After inputting all of the transactions for 2010, I WAS DONE! It took way too much time and energy. I MADE THE DECISION THAT THE ADDITIONAL TIME REQUIRED TO MAKE A BUDGET FOR THIS YEAR WAS NOT WORTH IT TO ME.

I made a conscious decision to go against my long held behavior of maintaining a budget. I valued the time spent on other activities over the additional time required to set up a 2010 budget. Let it be known that I tend toward thrifty behavior, pay off our credit cards every month, have no debt other than our mortgage, and save close to 15-20% of our income each year. After so many years of maintaining a budget, I have a fairly good idea of what we can spend each month. So far it is working out okay. Although, NEXT YEAR I AM GOING TO BEGIN OUR BUDGET ANEW. But for now, the core belief that “one must budget every year”, is not suitable.

Have you ever challenged long held beliefs? How did it work out? 

Categories: competition, life, saving, Yakezie

“Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger

 Alright, so this past month of pure spending cuts may not be the worst hardship imaginable, but it was a struggle. And I must give a shout out to Schwarzenegger for knowing about winning, as this guy does not have a college degree, and has a resume that includes a stint as governor of California, actor, and world champion body builder.

 MAIN TOPIC; Lessons Learned

 For those of you just joining, I was challenged to participate in a spending reduction challenge last month by Jacq at Single Mom Rich Mom. We were joined by Christine at Money Funk and Laura at Move to Portugal. The competition was: who could beat their own monthly averages in variable spending categories. The winner would be determined by reducing spending by the greatest percentage; WINNERS for individual categories and overall.

I thought it would be fun, and I was flattered to be asked. Not once did I think I would win, and I really didn’t know how the competition would affect me since I had NEVER DONE ANYTHING LIKE THIS BEFORE.

 I’ll start with the life and personal finance lessons learned from participating in the competition. Think about whether they would apply to you.

1. CONTROL: I love control. I like to control myself and those around me. The competition reinforced that there are some things one can control and others you cannot. For example, I could not control my husband’s spending. But I could certainly almost control my own. The fact that my bi monthly hair appointment came in June was out of my control. Jacq at Single Mom Rich Mom couldn’t control when her annual car tax came due.

 The takeaway: Control what you can, accept that you cannot control everything.

2. DO NOT GRADE YOURSELF: Throughout the month I wondered how I was doing. I was even tempted to check my progress. But, I refrained from checking, practiced smart shopping habits  and cut back where I could. I figured that even though I wanted to win; win or lose, I would benefit from the competition.

 The takeaway: My job was to compete, the results would come later. Obsessing about how I was doing wouldn’t make any difference. I don’t need to grade myself.

 3. COMPETITION IS MOTIVATING: If I did not have the June challenge, I wouldn’t have tried to cut my spending for the month. Our family spent almost $500 less than we normally spend. The competition was motivating, but it was also difficult and constraining. There were things I wanted to buy which I didn’t. I cut waaay back on groceries.

 Jacob at Early Retirement Extreme asked if I was going to continue. The short answer is, I might try another competition month, but I will not continue changing my spending to match the June challenge month. Our family has a budget which allows for saving, spending on what we value, and charity. We have emergency savings and investments. And it’s working for us.

 The takeaway: Competing with a partner or two towards a goal is a wonderful way to make a difficult task more fun and up one’s motivation. This was my first time, and I would definitely try it again!

THE RESULTS

If you hung in for the entire post, thank you. Here are the final results.

OVERALL WINNER: BarbaraFriedbergPersonalFinance

with a JUNE decline of 36.56% in the variable spending categories

 I was happy to win and also surprised. I never thought I would be the overall winner. It’s sweet to win, and it’s also fun to compete! 

ACTION STEP

Get a notebook and label it: “(your name) Personal Finance” and keep it by the computer. Use it to keep all of your personal finance goals, thoughts, activities, and plans.

Ask a partner to join you in a competition; make achieving a goal more motivating and fun. Try it with spending, losing weight, or any other challenge.

Let me know what you think about competing towards a goal. Have you tried it before? How did it work out?

Image credit: McDuck 17

YAKEZIE SHORT CARNIVAL 

Check out these personal finance articles by talented Yakezie writers:

7 Wealth Building Strategies  at Invest it Wisely

How Would $1,000 Change Your Life?  at Financiallly Poor       

 “Enough” by John Bogle – Review & Introduction  at Engineer Your Finances

 

Categories: competition, life, saving, spending

“Americans love to fight. All real Americans love the sting of battle.” George S. Patton

I’m proof that Patton is right, because I LOVE A GOOD CHALLENGE.  But hey, wait a minute, he forgot about Canadians-my arch nemesis and competitor: Jacq at RichMomSingleMom is from Canada. OK, Patton MUST have been referring to North Americans.

MAIN TOPIC: What’s Going on with the Catfight?

OK, here’s the deal. I agreed to a spending reduction challenge with Jacq @ Rich Mom Single Mom, Christine @ Money Funk, and Laura @ Move to Portugal, back in the beginning of June. Jacob @ Early Retirement Extreme,  the king of spending reduction is our commentator/ moderator.

 At the time I thought it was a great idea. Now I’m wondering, WHAT WAS I THINKING?

Here is a summary of the challenge:

1. Competition categories:  Auto, clothes, eating out, entertainment/recreation, groceries, & household/personal care.
2. Methods: Get a personal baseline by averaging out spending in those categories.
3. Track spending in those categories for the month of June
4. Compare personal spending to baseline

Goal: Reduce spending in each category. Report to other competitors the percentage decrease.

Winner: Greatest percentage decrease vs. own benchmark.  Overall winner and category winners

Last week I wrote complained about my plight. My husband was not as committed to the challenge as I was. After hours minutes of thought about the wonderful advice from many of the spectators to this dramatic event, I accepted Sam @ Financial Samurai’s suggestion to motivate El Carino (my husband) for the competition with a PRIZE!! OK, that’s going pretty well. Now he is mindful of his spending and referencing the challenge too!

Next, my daughter returned from college last week. Although I considered recommending a family fast for the entire week to cut down on groceries and eating out, I knew I could not do that to myself!!! Fortunately, so far she isn’t eating too much!!! Of course both of them are wondering why there isn’t much food in the house!!!

 So what to do……. I really want to WIN!

PRACTICAL APPLICATION:  Here are the Secrets to Coping with Spending Cuts

At one time or another we all need to cut back our spending a bit. Sometimes it is for a time limited period; job loss, unexpected expenses, or some other unforeseen occurrence. Other times, the spending cutbacks need to be more permanent. Regardless of whether you need to cut back a little or a lot, for a short time, or a longer one, HERE ARE SOME WAYS TO COPE.

What not to do:

1. No cold turkey. Just like in dieting, if you cut back too much, you become too deprived and set yourself up for a spending BINGE.
2. Don’t bully your family-they will rebel (Take it from someone who has tried and failed). Enlist their participation and make it beneficial for them as well.
3. Do not spend your leisure time SHOPPING. That’s just stupid, like a dieter visiting a bakery. Reduce the temptation to spend.

What to do in Order to REDUCE SPENDING:

1. Reward yourself and your family with non monetary rewards; time, free activities, & experiences. Who knows, it may even improve your familial relationships.
2. Enjoy the challenge of the game. I happen to be competitive, so being in a COMPETITION makes cutting back on spending FUN! After all, I might WIN. You can adapt this to your own family, or set some goals and compete with yourself.
3. Ask yourself this question, “IS MORE BETTER?” Robin and Dominguez, authors’ of Your Money or Your Life stated, “If you live for having it all, what you have is never enough.”
4. Figure out for yourself when “enough is enough.”
5. Balance, moderation, and small changes lead to big results. Take your spending reduction “one day at a time” (Alcoholics Anonymous). You can do anything for one day.
6. Start today, don’t procrastinate.

What cost cutting strategies work for you? How do you keep motivated to spend smart?

ACTION STEPS:

Get a notebook and label it: “(your name) Personal Finance” and keep it by the computer. Use it to keep all of your personal finance goals, thoughts, activities, and plans.  

1. Write down everything you spend for 1 week.
2. At the end of the week, spend a few minutes looking at those expenses.
3. Ask yourself these questions;  Would I buy it again? Did I get enough pleasure from my spending?
4. Summarize, where can you cut spending without excess pain?

Photo credit: Ourania2005

 

YAKEZIE SHORT CARNIVAL

The Cost of Your Car @ Sustainable Life Blog

Health Care for Kids when you can’t Afford it @ Eliminate  the Muda

How to Overcome the Pitfalls of Zero Based Budgeting @ Wealth Pilgrim 

Learn more personal finance from these excellent bloggers.    

Categories: personal finance, competition, Yakezie

Last week, Jacq at RichMomSingleMom  threw down her gauntlet and challenged me to a contest:

WHO CAN SPEND THE LEAST IN THE MONTH OF JUNE

Now, I am really competitive (just ask my husband) and always up for a friendly bit of competition. So I picked up the gauntlet! In the meantime, two other personal finance bloggers wanted in on the competition: Christine @ Moneyfunk  and   Laura @ MovetoPortugal. So now we have 4 uber- competitive women participating in the “Catfight of the Personal Finance Blogger Chicks.” THIS IS GOING TO BE HUGE!!

Now, BarbaraFriedbergPersonalFinance strives to: Educate, Inspire, Motivate for Wealth in Money and Life. Additionally, you get basic personal and financial wealth building principles here.

This contest will serve as some “EXTREME PERSONAL FINANCE” training on your path to becoming rich and happy. And along with the competition, I promise you some unique money saving solutions and fun competition; kind of like “The Biggest Loser”, only not with lbs. but with savings.

So follow along here this month… every so often you will get a progress report on how the competition is going, and at the end of the month, a winner will be announced.

Please root me on!   AND

Stay tuned for some awesome PERSONAL FINANCE entertainment.

photo courtesy of Castle Rock Aikido

YAKEZIE SHORT CARNIVAL: Health Savings Accounts are Awesome-7 Reasons @ FreeFromBroke; To Buy or Not to Buy; The Cost per Use Method @ Personal Finance by the Book; Is Becoming a Millionaire the Rule Rather Than the Exception? @Financial Samurai