I hope everyone has had a great holiday season so far. I know my Christmas was amazing, and the break is still going strong.
Thankfully, I was able to spend some time with my grandparents and aunt. They actually all came into town for R.J.'s birth, but missed out on J.T.'s birth, so it was my aunt's first time meeting him, and he charmed her as he does everyone.
It's also been nice to have two weeks to spend time with the boys and my wife. Teaching may have it's downsides, but the amount of time I get to spend with my family just can't be beat.
The boys were over-blessed with toys from all the grandparents. Seriously, my Jeep looked like Santa's sleigh and every bump we went over made every single noise making toy go off in a cacophony of catchy tunes and animal noises.
The new year is quickly approaching and I'm am doing something I've never done before: New Years Resolutions. Or goals, really. In any case, I've been spending the past couple of weeks, looking at what I would like to accomplish in 2015. I won't share the whole list here, though I may a brief overview, in a New Year's post; but I will say the whole process is invigorating.
I scoffed at the idea of New Year's Resolutions. I could never wrap my head around writing down these lofty statements, that wouldn't last a week. The running joke was: "My New Years Resolution is to have no resolutions." But I think my point of view on this changed when I began to consider goal orienting my life.
My family has often accused me of having a jellyfish mentality. And I do in a sense. Now, this can be a gift, setback don't upset me as much as they do other people, and it can also be a curse, I have little drive, no clear "goal".
So I decided I would work on that inherent weakness, I would set goals, manageable goals, and do my best in 2015 to accomplish them.
I thought this would be an incredibly boring task, and one that would "constrain" my creativity. I was proved pleasantly wrong.
I found it to be invigorating, and it actually sparked my creativity. Writing down the goal "Get Published" began to get the brain storm going on how I could make that happen: Short story? Article for an education publication? Self-publish?
What I've found is that goal setting gives my creativity a path. It focuses it so that I can best utilize that energy. It's comparable to what happens to light when it is focused in a laser beam. Without the focus it is just ambient lighting, put the right lens on it, however, and it can really start a fire.
Now, I just need to do whatever it takes to accomplish those goals.
Monday, December 29, 2014
Thursday, December 11, 2014
Value of a Dollar
Sorry that it has been a while since I last blogged. Life has been a little crazy around here lately now that the holiday season is in full swing, and the end of the first semester at school is winding down. I was also crazy busy with NaNoWriMo last month, and as such, wasn't really able to sit down and write a blog post.
I did manage to win. It came down to the wire due to my procrastination during Thanksgiving break (SO MUCH PIE), but I finished at around 10:30pm on Sunday, November 30th. That being said, I have not finished the actual book, and so I am now trying to stay disciplined enough to actually finish the durn thing, despite the fact I can see plot holes big enough to swallow the Spruce Goose.
But this blog post is not about writing today. Instead, I am going to write about a much more mundane, though necessary topic: money. Specifically, personal finance. YAY!
To start this off allow me to give a bit of a disclaimer. My father has his doctorate in marketing and finance. He is a businessman through and through. And he did his best to teach me about money and finances. He really did.
I, however, am a notorious creature of comfort. If there is an easier, softer way, I am going to take it. Every time. And so the notion of saving, and living below your means are all concepts I understand and agree with on paper, but when it comes to implementing them, I just couldn't hang.
During my college years, and early twenties, I managed to do some serious damage to my credit and to get my self in a bit of debt. Now, I am not in as much debt as some of my friends, but I really shouldn't be in any debt, since I had no student loans.
I've been forced to take a hard look at some of the issues I've cause with my financial irresponsibility these past couple of weeks. My wife and I began to look at some homes to buy, seeing as our rent is quite a bit more than what the mortgage and taxes and fees would be for a modestly priced home. However, because of my financial irresponsibility buying a house right now is just not feasable because of my credit score.
So, I've begun a budget and a way to pay back all of the debt I owe and to raise my credit score enough that we can move into a home and to begin saving for the future.
I know understand all the lessons my father tried to teach me in regards to money, and I wish I could go back in time and slap my younger self upside the head and tell him to listen to his father and not be so damn irresponsible, but I can't.
So I have just have to learn the lessons I was taught by life and move forward from here. I will be posting updates in my financial journey here, just as a way to keep myself accountable and to keep a record of what I've done, but perhaps someone who is a similar financial situation as I am will come along and it will help them in their financial journey as well.
I did manage to win. It came down to the wire due to my procrastination during Thanksgiving break (SO MUCH PIE), but I finished at around 10:30pm on Sunday, November 30th. That being said, I have not finished the actual book, and so I am now trying to stay disciplined enough to actually finish the durn thing, despite the fact I can see plot holes big enough to swallow the Spruce Goose.
But this blog post is not about writing today. Instead, I am going to write about a much more mundane, though necessary topic: money. Specifically, personal finance. YAY!
To start this off allow me to give a bit of a disclaimer. My father has his doctorate in marketing and finance. He is a businessman through and through. And he did his best to teach me about money and finances. He really did.
I, however, am a notorious creature of comfort. If there is an easier, softer way, I am going to take it. Every time. And so the notion of saving, and living below your means are all concepts I understand and agree with on paper, but when it comes to implementing them, I just couldn't hang.
During my college years, and early twenties, I managed to do some serious damage to my credit and to get my self in a bit of debt. Now, I am not in as much debt as some of my friends, but I really shouldn't be in any debt, since I had no student loans.
I've been forced to take a hard look at some of the issues I've cause with my financial irresponsibility these past couple of weeks. My wife and I began to look at some homes to buy, seeing as our rent is quite a bit more than what the mortgage and taxes and fees would be for a modestly priced home. However, because of my financial irresponsibility buying a house right now is just not feasable because of my credit score.
So, I've begun a budget and a way to pay back all of the debt I owe and to raise my credit score enough that we can move into a home and to begin saving for the future.
I know understand all the lessons my father tried to teach me in regards to money, and I wish I could go back in time and slap my younger self upside the head and tell him to listen to his father and not be so damn irresponsible, but I can't.
So I have just have to learn the lessons I was taught by life and move forward from here. I will be posting updates in my financial journey here, just as a way to keep myself accountable and to keep a record of what I've done, but perhaps someone who is a similar financial situation as I am will come along and it will help them in their financial journey as well.
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