Good Advice

At a time when banking institutions are folding like lawn chairs, and confidence in those institutions is low, I was pleasantly surprised to receive a really great email from ING encouraging wise money management. They even recommended getting rid of credit cards. Hmmm........ maybe they read my book! I'm including the text below.


Dear Sam,
Customer Number: XXXXXXXXXX


As we enter the final few months of 2008, I want to thank you for your continued confidence in ING DIRECT. Over 700,000 new Savers have joined us so far this year strengthening the bank and their own financial footing through our savings, home mortgage and ShareBuilder investment accounts. Despite a challenging economic climate, our Customer base is 7 million strong and growing.

The consequences of the mortgage meltdown on financial institutions and individuals continue to erode many Americans' dreams. We will continue to stress the right way to achieve home ownership – buying only as much house as you can afford and paying off your mortgage as fast as possible. In return for good credit and prioritizing home investment, ING DIRECT mortgage Customers are rewarded with exceptional rates and a transparent, direct administration process. Rather than selling your mortgage to another bank or investor the minute you get it, we keep your mortgage and service it here. Doing so gives us flexibility to find innovative solutions to help Customers keep their homes during unexpected financial downturns.

While we don’t have an Orange crystal ball, we do expect the economy to remain fragile through 2009. The best course of action for our Customers is to be disciplined: avoid splurging; identify and cut out unnecessary expenses and save for what's essential; and hedge against those tough times. We can all benefit by developing good spending habits: confront - and cut up - credit cards; use your home as a savings vehicle - not as an ATM; and establish and contribute regularly to an IRA or 401(k).

In this difficult financial environment, we work tirelessly to safeguard your deposits, mortgages and investments. Importantly, your deposits are FDIC-insured according to its limits and your investments are SIPC-protected. Our security processes are the best in the business and are in place to protect your savings from those with bad intentions. While we are constantly vigilant, we need your help. Keep passwords to yourself. Never give personal information through an email. And always install both the latest antivirus and anti-malware software on your home computer.


Thank you for your continued trust in
ING DIRECT. We will not waver in our promise to provide you with great value, service, security and convenience.

Arkadi Kuhlmann
CEO of Savings

Nice Changes to the IOU NO MORE Product Line

The simplest Money Management Plan on Earth just got better.
The IOU NO MORE Complete Forms Library has been been upgraded and updated. It is no longer merely superb. Now it is Amazing.
First, we added .ods spreadsheet versions of the spending plans for users who want the flexibility of customizable forms, but use Open Office rather than Microsoft Office. Then we added two new forms (in all formats, no less); a. the Ultimate Cash Flow Plan for those really detail oriented budgeters who want to keep their Spending Plan and Actuals in the same place, and b. the Ultimate Transaction Register for people who would like to list the budget category for a transaction at the same time they record it.

Back to Cash

Brittan and I started an experiment in money management a couple of weeks ago that is already paying off nicely. We've gone back to paying cash!

We got off the credit card merry go round some time ago (in fact, I would guess the last time we we had a credit card balance was probably sometime in 2005. Oh, we've used an American Express for booking plane tickets and the like, but we use that like a cash card for budgeted purchases higher than our daily limit on our debit card. But its only for budgeted purchases and is paid off within 24-48 hours of the charge hitting the account.

We use our debit card a great deal. We use it for groceries, for eating out, for paying bills online, for purchasing clothes, buying gasoline and a whole lot more. But we noticed while working our budget a couple of weeks ago, that we've had some "spending creep" find it's way into our bank account. We've been over spending our budget on eating out and groceries and the like, leaving a shortfall in a couple of areas like, clothes and mad money. So we decided to go "old school" and revert to the "envelope system" like we used in the beginning stages of our debt management plan. This time, we only use a few envelopes: groceries, eating out, 'mad money' and clothes. Next week I'm going to add pet supplies. Everything else is done electronically. Our bills are paid online (and most of them are automatically debited), and we have a couple of money market accounts attached to our checking account so we can move money in and out for things like Christmas, vacations, emergency fund, etc. The only checks we write are to the Church for our tithe.

Anyway, in only two weeks, by paying cash rather than using debit cards, we've actually gone UNDER budget in the categories in which we've been over spending. It's just like back in the old "get out of debt" days, when you have to part with actual greenbacks, many things are just not as tempting.

Saturday was a classic example. We were hungry and had some shopping to do, so we discussed where we could go out and eat at a reasonable cost and stay on our Weight Watcher program. After discussing several items, I said, you know what, let's just eat before we go and save the cash. B thought it was a great idea and that's exactly what we did. Cool!

It's fun. It's nostalgic and best of all, it has left cash in my wallet. We even made logos for our shirts that celebrate the theme. They say, "Go Green.........Pay with Cash!"

What can I say, we're corny and we like to brag about it!

A Couple Small Website Changes and a Revelation

This morning I made a couple of small changes to the website. One was long overdue and the other was born of a small epiphany I had this morning. Trust me on this, even small epiphanies are exhausting for simpletons like me.

First, I finally added IOU NO MORE (the Book) to our shopping cart. For a year now, it's been available via all major online bookstores, ebay and a variety of brick and mortar bookstores around the country. But we didn't offer it. The logic was simple (it has to be with me), we wanted to promote traditional channels for buying the book. It was free marketing. And it's been great. But now it's time to add a new method for getting the material, the IOU NO MORE shopping cart. We still have a link to the Amazon.com page for IOU NO MORE in order to give shoppers multiple methods of purchasing.

Actually, the best bang for the buck is the IOU NO MORE Starter Kit, and that one is ONLY available on our shopping cart. That kit is loaded for bear!

Now for the epiphany. I have been scouring the internet and other sources researching the various budget and money management plans out there. There are a bunch of them. And I mean a bunch. Some are quite elaborate. Some are really cool. Some are flashy. Some are complicated. Some are duds.

After all the comparisons, it became abundantly clear, that the simplest, easiest to use forms and plans were mine! IOU NO MORE truly has the "Simplest Money Management Plan on planet earth." And I'm ok with that!

More Bad News

Gotta link to this. Just read that Foreclosures have again reached an all time high. There is a lot of pain out there. Good can come of this. It will take work, but the future can be bright even for those going through the darkest of times. Read about the crisis HERE.

Financial Regrets, Financial Hope

I don't think about money all the time. I certainly don't love money. Heck, I don't even like it. I know it doesn't like me. Every dime I've ever had has worked it's darnedest to get out of my hand and into someone else's as quickly as possible.

I have made more mistakes with money than I can begin to number. Pretty much, I've made them all. From the time I was a small boy, I have been foolish with money. I was 43 years old before I began to learn how to control it. And it took the better part of the next seven years to clean up the mistakes. I regret those years. I regret those financial travesties. I regret hurting people I care about with my financial foolishness.

But the biggest regret of all is the time. I can't believe that a man of reasonable intelligence and education, took so very long to learn basic money management. And there are consequences. One huge one is that because of my late start, I had no money set aside for retirement. I mean zero. Oh, I guess there was a little in Social Security somewhere, but by the time I retire I doubt there will be anything there. As a result, I am playing catch up. In order to try and have a little something down the road, I have to put more aside than the average person who starts early. Even then, I won't have anywhere near what I could have if I had started in my 20s putting away even paltry sums.

Start early, if you can. Set aside 10% of your wages in pre tax savings. If you start late, like I did, you will need to make it more like 15%. Plus, once you're over 50, the current tax laws allow "make up" payments. Just do it.

Having said all that, our financial future is not bleak. We have great hope. We are on a good path. We don't do debt, so we have a chance to do some serious catch up. Brittan and I have to catch ourselves every so often so that we don't slip back into old habits. We are determined to finish strong. And we will. Anyone can. It's all about changing behavior. Simple. Not easy, but simple.

Why?

Why are we so committed to debt? I don't have the answer, I'm just asking the question. Tonight I have a ton of them, questions that is. Why do we feel we have to have everything NOW? At what point did the human race lose the concept of 'delayed gratification'? I read recently, and I think it was Dave Ramsey quoting Larry Burkett, that in 1929 only 2% of home owners had a mortgage. By 1962 only 2% DIDN'T have a mortgage.

It feels like our entire culture has become so "entitlement" minded that we want to get everything we want. We want to get it now. And if we can't afford it, too bad. If we get to the point we can no longer pay for the stuff we borrowed money to obtain, we look for ways to default on the debt or we expect the Government to bail us out. It's crazy.

But even in the midst of this madness, there are pockets of people all over the country (and the world) who are finally beginning to understand. They are the ones who give me hope. They are the ones who keep the Revolution alive.

Guess I should never blog when I have the blues.