Pokémon Go for a Good Cause

Pokémon Go has taken the world by storm and even if you didn't know about Pokemon before, you can be sure you will soon be running into someone playing Pokemon Go or a business looking to benefit from the number of players wandering about. One of the more interesting things to come out from Pokemon Go are the actual benefits that come from the game. With literally thousands of people playing the game, some people have found ways to use the excitement and energy as a force for good.

 

(Picture courtesy of Muncie Animal Shelter)

Muncie Animal Shelter in Indiana for example has encouraged people to take shelter animals out for walks as their human partners hunt down virtual pets. Not only was this good exercise for the human and animal, in a few instances it even led to the adoption of an animal that would never have found a home. The program has generated great media coverage for the shelter.

 

 The other cool thing to come out of people running around looking for Pokemon is that people can also simultaneously run around donating to charity. One of my favorite charity apps is Charity Miles. Charity Miles teams up with sponsors to donate money to a non-profit organization of your choice just for walking or running around. So far I have contributed miles and money to the American Diabetes Association and The Nature Conservancy. To date, thousands of dollars have been donated to good causes, but imagine what it can be if all the Pokemon Go players joined in on the action. I like this app because it is simple to use, it gives to a good cause, and it requires no sign up.

Who would have known that Pokemon would have such great benefits. It is amazing what is possible when people are energized and excited, even if it is to hunt down virtual reality creatures.

Make $120 A Year the Easy Way

"There may be no such thing as a free meal, but we can still eat cheap"

Aug 8, 2016
Financial Safety

For my first actual post about generating money, I will reveal something to you that I have done for the last few months. I wanted to make sure this technique works before recommending it to others and so far it has been successful. This technique generates up to $120 a year,
which is not huge, but it is great in terms of ROTI (see previous post on ROTI).

I am a fan of the benefits you can get from credit cards.One of my favorites is the from Bank of America, the Better Balance Rewards Card. The Better Balance Rewards Card gives you a $25 credit for every quarter if you pay off your balance at the end of each month. This card is great for everyone who does not currently carry a balance. It gives you an additional $5 if you have a Bank of America Checking account for the funds to be deposited into, netting you a grand total of $10 a month or $30 a quarter or $120 a year. You get the reward even if you spend less than $30 a quarter using the card, so this is what I do to maximize the returns while minimizing the work.

1. Open up a Bank of America checking account
2. Open up a Bank of America Better Balance Rewards Card
3. Sign up to have your rewards deposited into you checking account
4. Make a small purchase each month using the credit card or get an automatic monthly subscription such a Netflix.
5. Pay off the card in full by the end of each period
6. Receive your bonus at the end of each quarter

Netflix costs $8.99 a month but you get $10 a month in benefits which nets $1.01 a month. At this point you can forget about the accounts as the account literally pays for itself. Do not use the card for any other purchase since $30 back is most you can get. Before I had Netflix I would buy 1 soda or 1 bag of chips with the card each month, which would net me about $9 a month. Having a subscription nets a lower return but requires less monitoring, and therefore is better in terms of your Return on Time Invested.

Man Cannot Survive on Delayed Satisfaction Alone

"Flush you water-heater every 6-12 months"

Aug 6, 2016
Family

Took an easy day and enjoyed a Tmobile Tuesday deal with a heavily discounted ticket from Fandango to watch Suicide Squad alongside my lovely wife. Overall the movie was a nice distraction from work and always having finances on my mind. It did make me realize that even though we can be mindful of our futures, we should also take time away to enjoy right here right now. Also, I realized that entertainment can be obtained without breaking the bank and there are deals to be had for those willing to look.

On a side note, my water heater broke. Took out a good chunk of time trying to figure out how to fix it which is why my last post was late. However, it did help me think about the idea of ROTI. I spent approximately 3 hours reading online and watching Youtube videos on repairing and relighting the heater but no luck. I know a repair would be several hundred dollars and a replacement could be nearly $1000 but I do need hot water. Got a suggestion to have PG&E come out and look at it for free before hiring a repairman. It definitely helps to talk to the experts and many of them will offer suggestions on what to do even before they come out to your house. One thing I did learn is that you should flush your water heater every 6-12 months for maintenance. Hopefully that little tidbit pays off in the future.

Return on Time Invested

"Time is money... No, it's NOT"
Aug 5, 2016
Financial Safety

We live in a society that highly values money but rarely do we talk openly about it. And because we do not talk about money, there are many misconceptions about money. As the old adage goes "Time is Money". At first glance this statement may appear to be true but really it is deceiving.

Money is infinite, time is not. The amount of money you can have is infinite. You can earn it, steal it, borrow it, lend it, or gift it. The amount of time you have is limited and everyone is given exactly one lifetime. Money has no actual value, it's value is only equal to what people attribute it to be. $1 can be equal to a singular apple or a pound of tea, a cup of sugar, and a quart of milk (as was the case in the 1900's).  Time has an absolute value and it is the same for everyone. No matter what you do, there will always be 60seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, and 24 hours in a day. It does not matter whether you are rich or poor, famous or unknown, 1 minute for me is the same as 1 minute for you. You cannot speed up time nor slow it down. You are not able to buy more time, nor can you borrow or lend your time out. Time is yours to use however you choose. Which is why one of the biggest punishments we have is called doing Time, because now we are losing something we can never get back.

Money is important, it allows us to acquire other resources that we need. Money allows us to buy food for the table, gas for the car, and luxuries that we could never produce ourselves. Money is the common denominator for resources which is the ultimate goal in survival.  The money itself may not be important, but the resources and the ability to obtain resources using money certainly are, especially if those resources are food, clothing, healthcare, and shelter.

People often get too fixated on the absolute value of money even though we know it's value can change at any moment. We may wish to have a million dollars, but if apples costs a million dollars a piece, all of a sudden we would much rather have 2 apples than be a millionaire. Confronted with the idea that money is not real and time is finite would cause some people to use up their money to enjoy time now. They may justify it by saying that they are enjoying the moment in their finite life but often they overlook or underestimate what they need in the future. They are happy or even proud to go through life with very little money and resources available. They say they do not wish to have money dominate their life. To this I agree with their sentiment but not their approach. One of the biggest shortcomings to that state of mind is that the person may not be ready to handle an unforeseen circumstance. You may not need much in terms of income on your average day to day, but if you get hit by a bus, having those extra funds may make the difference between in terms of quality of life thereafter. The best way to not need money is not by neglecting money but rather to have more money than you could ever need. The best way to have more money than you could ever need is to generate the maximum amount of money you can within a given period of time, which we will refer to as Return on Time Invested.

Return on Time Invested looks not only at the amount of money you can earn but also on how long it would take to earn that money. It is why people get an MBA because they believe that even though there is a cost of time and money up front, in the long term their ROTI is going to be higher. 

We can compare a few examples. A person coming out of high school earning $10 an hour, working 8 hours a day, has a ROTI of $80/day or $3.33/hour. We must remember there are 24 hours in a day and if you work 8 of them each day then your ROTI is lower than your hourly pay. We can contrast that to a college graduate who earns $30 an hour by working an 8 hour day but had to be in school for 4 extra years not earning an income.The college graduate would have 4 years of $0/hr. During the first 4 years, the high school student has a higher ROTI than the college student since the college student has no income. However in year 5,the college student would  have a ROTI of $10/hr ($30/hr x 8hrs/day x 1day/24hrs) but a cumulative ROTI lower than the high school student. By year 6 both would have the same cumulative ROTI and after that the college student would have a higher ROTI. The college student had taken a short term lost, for a long term increase in ROTI. The reason we always look at a 24 hour day is because some sources of income can operate 24 hours a day, such as a website. If a website is about to generate $5 an hour, even though it is lower than the $10 an hour someone may get from working at a job, at the end of the day, the website will have generated a higher ROTI ($5/hr vs $3.33/hr).

By looking at the ROTI, you can assess not only monetary value of something but also the time value. You can decide how to best invest your time which is very limited, to maximize your rate of income and hence resources. If you maximize your ROTI, then even if you are behind in the short term, you will be ahead later down the road.

Credit Where Credit is Due

August 3, 2016
Financial Safety

While reading through a number of financial advise columns and journals, I often read a recurring theme, the idea of shredding your credit cards. People often discuss about incurring debt far in excess of what they earn, such that interest payments alone was taking up a sizeable chunk of each paycheck. And as the interest payments add up and spending is not reined in, then people get stuck in perpetual debt, never earning enough to dig there way out. However I got to thinking, are credit cards all bad? Are they really a bane on society, that we would all be much better off without? The conclusion I have drawn is an absolute 'NO'.

I will preface all this by saying that if you do not have a budget (I have examples of budgeting techniques in a previous post), then you should not have a credit card. If you are going to carry a balance then you should not have a credit card. The high interest rates on most credit cards will contribute to keeping you in debt for longer than you have to and if it is not something you can afford at this very moment, then you really should consider not buying it. But if you have a disciplined budget and pay off your cards at the end of each month to avoid accruing interest, then there are a few benefits to having a credit card. 

Cash Back
Often times the biggest factor that separates a credit card from cash or even a debit card is the Cash Back Reward. The Cash Back Reward returns a percentage of each purchase back as cash. The reward can typically range anywhere between 1-5% and on occasion may squeak up higher. I would recommend getting yourself a simple to use cash back cards such as the Citi Double Cash Back card which gives you 1% when you make a purchase and another 1% when you make a payment (2% total). 2% may not sound impressive but try considering it next to a savings account. Even the best savings accounts right now are offering near 0% return on money, the best one I can find offers only around 1%. The Citi cards allows you to double that return each time you swipe your card. Again don't swipe that card unless you have the money available at this very moment. If you are able to time your purchases such as during a 5% cash back bonus period for the Discover It card, then you can redeem even more from your purchases. 5% is 5 times higher than most savings accounts, more than sales tax is some states, and is pretty close to what some people get from picking stocks. Plus this is actual returns, and you are not taxed on this reward. Let's assume you had $100 available and you want to buy a $100 item. If you paid with cash, you will be left with $0. If you paid with the Citi card you will get 2% back meaning you are left with $2. And if you wait for the Discover bonus period, then you can have $5. Repeat this with every purchase and every meal and your cash back can really add up. If you are afraid that having cash back will only spur you to spend more then consider moving your cash back rewards to a savings account. At that point you would not have to worry about returns on investment and you can think of that savings as money you would have lost if you had paid cash. (although I possess these cards used in the example, I received no compensation for writing this article). 

Safety
Credit card purchases are much safer than cash. If you had to go to the store and someone robs you of your credit card, then no worries the card is replaceable. If someones robs you of your cash, then even if the police catches that person, it is unlikely you will ever see that money again because it would have been spent or stashed away. There is always the chance that someone may steal your credit cards and spend frivolously but you are not responsible for those transactions and you will get your money back. 

Portability
Credit cards are by far much more portable than cash which is especially important if you are making a big purchase. Have you ever tried to buy a new laptop using $20 bills? It does not fit neatly into your wallet. Also what about getting change when something cost $5.01 or $7.25. You are left with a pocketful of metal which jingles around alerting passerby's that you have money on you. You might only be able to convince them that noise is coming from your keys a couple times. Plastic is just so nice and sleek in these situations. 

If you cannot keep a disciplined budget or pay off your full bill then you should not use a credit card. But if you are able to, then  the cash back reward, safety, and portability may convince you to use plastic.

Confidence in the Palm of Your Hands

(Presented at Toastmasters International)
Aug 2, 2016
Social Groups

What are the traits of a great speaker? Passion? Yes. Humor? Yes. And…? Cajones! That right, a great speaker needs confidence. Often time confidence takes a long time to develop, with constant training and repetition. But what if there was a way to gain a quick burst of confidence, and without the use of drugs or a DUI. What if I can show you how to help bridge the gap between when you first speak to when you become a master. The key to accessing this confidence is through self-hypnosis. In this speech I will explain why hypnosis work and how you can use it as a tool to build confidence.

Scientists have known that hypnosis works for decades now, however they prefer to use the term placebo effect. The placebo effect is the idea that you can give someone something that has no effect but still generate a very real result simply because the subject believes it works. And this holds true for all experiments, in any study and in every clinical trial. It is the reason why a patient given a a placebo in a depression study will suddenly start feeling much better. The placebo effect is so important that a study is considered useless if it does not control for the placebo effect because there would be no way to assess what caused by the treatment and what was caused simply by the patient believing. Self-hypnosis is the simply utilizing that placebo effect to your own advantage. It is allowing you to make something real simply by believing that it is real.

To make hypnosis work for you, you only need to follow these 4 easy steps.  Step 1: Think about that time you felt wonderful, felt on top of the world. Did you get a high score on your favorite video game or was it when you held your child for the first time. If you cannot think of a situation like that in your life, then draw inspiration from someone else life. It could be when Stephen Curry made the buzzer winning shot to clinch the game or when NASA landed a satellite on an asteroid that was careening a thousand miles an hour through space. How cool was that?! Step 2: Summon up and shroud yourself in that positive energy and excitement of that moment and focus on how it feels. Try to remember every part of that moment, as if you are reliving those exact same moments. Step 3: Ground that feeling in an object or movement so that you can conjure up that feeling whenever you choose. You can see other people doing this instinctively such as when a student reaches for their lucky rabbit’s foot right before finals or when martial artists bow right before they begin their fight. They are summoning the memories and energy that had before, bringing it to their current situation. For toastmasters, I suggest that we ground our trigger in something more fundamental, a hand shake… Step 4: Release your trigger, activate your trigger and gain an instant burst of confidence. Toastmasters, if you ground your trigger then you will get that burst of confidence and energy right before you come up here to speak, right as you shake the hand of the person introducing you and you will be filled with that same energy and confidence as during the best day of your life.

There is no substitution for training and repetition when it comes to public speaking, but confidence should not be the limiting factor for a great speech. So if you get nervous about coming up here, and you feel your hands tremble and knot form in your throat, then just follow the 4 easy steps: think about a wonderful moment, summon the good energy of that moment, ground your energy in a hand shake, and then trigger it as you step up. Voila, instant confidence at the palm of your hands. You may find it hard to believe, but trust me, it works.  

Budget Budget Budget

"Do not save what is left after spending, but spend what is left after saving" - Warren Buffet
Aug 1, 2016
Financial Security

No financial plan can be complete without a budget of some sort. There are definitely different ways to go about it but the goal is always to keep track of what you earn vs what you spend.

I have found several budgeting strategies: Zero Sum, Buckets, and Save-Spend.

 Zero Sum strategy means that you want to keep your spending below your expenses and at the end of the month always having a balance greater than $0. Having a positive balance means that your income has exceeded your income. Anything that remains at the end of the month can go into a savings account or be invested or be rolled over to the the next month. Of all the strategies, this is the most basic and therefore easiest to manage. However, it does have it's limitations. The biggest limitation to the Zero Sum strategy is that it does not prioritize saving and investing. Often times if we do not save first before spending, we end up not saving anything at all. In my younger days I used to use the Zero Sum budgeting strategy. At the time, I had no debt and no big goals for my financial future so this strategy worked decently. I was also only working part time so I did not feel as if I was even able to save what little money I had earned for the future. I would not learn until much later in life that if I had saved and invested earlier, I would be much more well off financially than I am today.

A second form of budgeting is the Buckets method. In the Buckets method, you would put your money into separate buckets for each type of spending. So $500 for rent, $300 for eating out, $100 for shopping, etc. If a given bucket runs out of money, then too bad, you will have to do without until you refill it the following month. Anything left at the end of the month is used to pay down debt, save, or invest. The Bucket method is very helpful in accessing what exactly you are spending money on. It requires discipline to maintain that level of spending on each category and often it may be tempting to dip into other buckets when one bucket runs low. The down side to the Buckets method is the lack of flexibility. If one month your cell phone bill runs high, then you may not have enough in your bucket to pay off the bill. At that point, you may have to reconsider how much you place into each bucket and may have to borrow from your other buckets which also throws off your budget.  Also, some systems can become overly complicated when you get too many buckets. You may end up with buckets for car payments, house payments, insurance, gas, internet, tv, phone bill, eating out, playing games, movies, etc and become difficult to maintain in the long run. Many people have had success with the Buckets method and it is a strategy that Dave Ramsey's the debt guru advocates. If you are able to sustain it, the Buckets method is a great way to pay down debt and invest in the future.

The final technique to budget is the Save-Spend method which mean you save or invest a certain percentage then you are free to spend the balance however you please. The typical breakdown would be 20% savings, 30% miscellaneous expenses, and 50% fixed expenses. Fixed expenses are expenses that do not fluctuate much month to month and often include housing, student loan payments, and utilities. 20% savings means money that will either be put into a savings account, 401k, Roth IRA, or some other form of investment. That leaves 30% remaining to spend however you wish, meaning travel, eating out, dining out, etc.By investing first and preparing for your fixed expenses, you are able prioritizing your future. You may have to pass up on that new TV, but you will have funds available for retirement. This method also helps you figure out how much you can buy to live on, such that if your fixed expenses exceeds 50% of your budget, then you must find a way to reduce your expenses or increase your income.

Of the 3 methods, the one that works the best for me is the Save-Spend method. The Zero-Sum method is good but part of financial planning is planning for the future. I know that if I spend first, I will likely not have enough money to save and invest for later. The Buckets method may be helpful, but because it is complicated, I do not believe I would be able to commit to it for many months to come. The Save-Spend method offers me the flexibility that I need, so that if I ever want to see if I can afford a new toy, I can just look at how much I have left after I have put away what I needed.