We’re now closing out February and many people still have great plans to lose weights and/or get their money under control. Of course, I have the same goals—keep my weight and money under control. These tasks are similar, yet quite different.

Weight– After years of learning how to manage my weight (after losing over 140 pounds in two years) it comes down to every time you open your mouth to eat, you need to make a choice for a better food. From the start, I changed one food item per week and stuck to my new item pretty much for 15+ years now. Still, weight management is a CONSTANT activity.

Money – it’s been 10 or 20 years that I’ve had much better money sense. This is both a medium and longer term action for me. I’ve never been one to make quick impulse $5 purchases over and over throughout the day. I assume this is because I live in a vehicle-based city rather than a pedestrian type city where there are m of quick stops to take your money. Remember, each time you need to pay for something it adds up just like calories in your mouth/body.

These two goals are HARD. There is absolutely no way around it. The constant challenges for food consumption. Then daily, monthly challenges for spending that add up year after year. To make small steps forward is truly remarkable based on the dedication required.

Small goals are so important to see your progress. The debt snowball, the debt avalanche, the scale dropping one pound per week as perfect tracking tools. Some weeks you’ll slip back (just like a bear market does) but that’s a chance to regroup and step forward with more vigor. If you aren’t tracking yourself, you aren’t feeling your gains.

Yesterday I realized that *BAM* you could help both these goals easily by going to 99 cents only, or your local dollar store.

I guarantee you that we save $50 every month by visiting 99 cents only every other week. I’m sure we save $25 each time we shop at 99 cents only. It seems possible for a family to save $100 per month with weekly visits.

Quick example (not on healthy eating): My local grocery store had Pringles on sale for $1.69, yet 99 cents only had them for guess how much? If you have kids (or are a childlike lover of processed curved chip-like snack) you could easily save $4/week on 4 cans.

99 cents only has overstocks of fruits, veggies, power bars, microwave popcorn, pretzels, whole wheat bread, eggs, sauces, pasta, cereal, as well as household items, holiday decorations, greeting cards, etc, etc. So many products are exactly the same in other grocery stores. Some household products do seem to be a little lesser quality, but Colgate toothpaste seems the same at CVS. Dollar Tree is my number two choice of “dollar stores.”

Not a surprise, when I walked out of 99 cents only yesterday with my bags and bags of low-cost goods and loaded up my car, I noticed I was parked between a Mercedes and a Lexus. Yes, there were older—umm junkier—cars around, which could just be money-smart people. However, I have to think, maybe some wealthier people know the secret of where to spend/save/enjoy their money in other ways. Thomas Stanley probably new millionaires who understood this logic. Clark Howard surely does.

All the fury of articles this year about the new incoming Fiduciary rule got me thinking. I thought about how and when a government and the mass media determined they must be our protectors.
It should be clear to that WE are responsible for protecting ourselves. First and foremost, we had better be sure we use the available information to make a determination on how to protect ourselves and our family.
Shouldn’t we try and work with Fiduciaries when possible? Maybe we should be cautious that that most people are out to protect themselves, but not necessarily to your detriment. Consider ALL the instances when you have to been cautious. Buying a car, buying a home, dental care, car repair, insurance, even charitable giving. Try and find the best for your needs without harming others.
So then, why should the government, a religious organization, the news, et cetera be the primary party to protect us? I surely think their opinion/information is possibly a valuable input to help guide us, but we should always verify—in order to make our decision—then see if we can find a checkpoint of some source.
The government has to try and manage a state, a country or influence the world. Seems like it’s much easier for us to be responsible for ourselves/our families.
I say proceed as you trust in yourself. Educate yourself. Then continue to educate yourself more. It’s no accident you are above average, or maybe well above average, or possibly an outlier.

Have you ever been asked this question? Do people wonder what you’re doing? Somebody must not understand you, right? Have you ever asked yourself this question? Maybe you are unsure, or need to be reminded, why you are doing something. It could be anything that you do.

I asked myself this question after thinking about my overloaded post.

I thought, if there is already too much personal finance content out there for one to consume, what am I doing blogging? Why? After a little thought, I realized, I’m just thinking like I normally do, but it’s coming out of my fingertips. Nothing more than that.

Maybe this blog is like my mental notes—from my plan. I’m thinking about my current lifestyle. Thinking about my current plan. Thinking how my present syncs up to my pre-FIRE plan. Thinking how others plan and see things. Thinking about how this activity elevates my skills and knowledge. All of this thinking just flows through my fingertips. (It also flows onto dozens of little sticky notes/notepads). I’m full of thoughts and ideas. Actually, my wife says I’m “full of it.” She’s right of course.

Why are you doing what you do? Are you wasting energy, duplicating existing items? Or, are you doing things that feel right, feel good? How are your actions making you, and others around you, better? Keep at it!

Oh no, don’t get my frugal side started…”that new patio umbrella is not a necessity. It doesn’t matter that the old one broke.” I know life comforts are important, and in many cases a plan to acquire these items makes sense. But, all too often we assume we “need” these items when they are nothing more than “wants.” I.E. a great cell phone plan, more channels in our TV package, the extra items that jump into our shopping cart (were you thinking—grocery store or online cart?).

I’ve read so many times about not buying latte’s every day because it will destroy your ability to save and become financially strong. I don’t believe that is the whole story. Yes, $5/day will add up fast, just as eating lunch out at $10/day adds up fast. Yes, this can affect your monthly/yearly spending amounts.

On the flip side, you might not even realize that buying a new car every 3 or 4 years because you’re tired of the old one—jump from sedan to truck to SUV to hybrid, etc—is a wealth killer. Many people have “reasons” for “needing” the truck or SUV for “the family.” I have a feeling that in the 40’s, 50’s, 60’s, 70’s people had families and were fine with 4 door cars. Much in the same way these families of four or five could live in the <1500 square foot home back then. There was no requirement for a 2500-3500 square foot home with a 3 car garage (maybe they just didn’t know back then how better bigger life can be?)

I’ve read that a new car every 3 years over a 30-year working lifetime can cause a 10-year delay in retirement. 10 YEARS of additional work is not worth the hours of “enjoyment” I’d get sitting in new cars. At least, not worth it to me.

Here’s the truth. Your personal wealth level determines how spending decisions affect your personal financial situation. If you make great money, and save money (pay yourself first) then you can do what you want with the remainder each pay period. If you have a plan, that is even better.

If you “want” things, it seems so much smarter to plan/prepare for these wants. To put money aside (save) and purchase the item when you have the money. This is planning. This is delayed gratification. This is a possible opportunity to change the want and not purchase, or find the item at a lower cost. Time and planning may save you money, and build your wealth.

With wealth, you can really have a lot. You can buy a lot of wants. These are often not “needs”” but instead enjoyment options, unnecessities.

UnNecessities are not for the Unprepared.

I have to go now. I need to pull up Feedly and the RSS feeds for DealNews  and TechBargains see how I can save money on something I may not have known I needed until I saw the deal…

I give myself the best Christmas present every year. I create a plan to have three (or so) Christmas Revelations for the upcoming year.

I don’t do New Year’s Resolutions. That’s too common place. Besides, I want a head start on great new improvements/changes. It’s a present to myself.

To me, these revelations are things not yet realized. Opportunities to gain or enhance something for me. They don’t just succeed or fail, but rather grow, a little or a lot.

The revelations can be toward a measurable goal, but I chose more of a direction/path to undertake.

Xmas 2015 was Weight, Meditate, Elevate.

• Weight-remove those 5-10 pounds that appeared recently – all done and then some.
• Meditate-still working to be more zen, more mindful. Umm, this I may be doing wrong because I can’t stop my mind. Instead, I’ve tried to calm my mind a little while savoring in my great life. – Moderate success on this. Maybe I just need a different smartphone app (meditate for overly active brainers).
• Elevate my knowledge. I’ve signed up for Udemy, code.org, WordPress, web courses-picked parts I liked to learn. I’ve attended FinCon. I’ve read more books/articles and informational TV shows (does Ancient Aliens count?). – I’m definitely smarter than last year. Though I’m not sure if it’s useful knowledge or not.

So what am I thinking for this Xmas? Maybe more protein in my diet, more knowledge, travel (or travel planning), more helping?

I still have time to pull together some good revelations, with a plan and a direction for each. Will they have measurable targets? Maybe they will. Does it matter if I reach that target? Nope. It’s the journey, not the destination. I just hope to point myself in the right (bettering) direction and let my schetchle work.

SO MUCH TO DO! I know you feel this way too. Or have felt this way in the past, recent past? Why is a FIREd person complaining? I’m not complaining. I just realize that there is so much going on it can be overwhelming. THIS IS GREAT.

Let’s step back a few weeks, maybe a couple months. I started my blog eight months ago because I knew FinCon16 was coming up and I wanted to attend because I love personal finance stuff. I didn’t want to attend and be some strange groupie type mixed in with people creating content so I thought, “I’m a techie, and a money guy, I should put my two interests together and learn how to set up a Fin blog…before FinCon.”

Being a project manager, I first created a plan with a long list of blog topics to make sure I had things I wanted to write about. I also made a list of blog/website needs and business ideas.

With the editorial calendar (such a “professional” term) underway and a web structure planned I jumped into my blog creation process. It’s gone well. I continued to draft up post ideas and delve deeper into my interests. It has been great thinking through my thoughts even more than I had in the past. A true value for me.

HANG ON…I’ll get to something valuable for you!

Strangely, a few weeks before FinCon I did even more searches on FI, RE, retirement, money planning, etc. I searched the web and for podcasts. As you know, there is a lot of information about there. Wait, a LOT of people sharing information, personal information and professional information. There is so much amazing great information/opinions out there.

Now I’m at FinCon, exposed to a huge world or money content creators. It wasn’t what I thought (a financial conference, talking about personal finance). It was much more about the content creation business. How to grow your business. It makes total sense to me now. There were also many FinTech companies built or re-shaped to help people with their money. It was very interesting, to say the least.

At this FIREd point in my life, I do not strive to form a (full-time?) business. I believe in, and support the plan so many people had at FinCon to make a living helping others. That is more than fair. Actually, even better since the value so many add to their customer’s lives is exponential wealth over time.

How have I changed since FinCon? I’ve found HUNDREDS more sources of personal finance information that is extremely interesting and valuable to me. Most of it was “out there” before FinCon, and even though I search/read a lot, I didn’t find it all.

OVERLOADED! Information overload. Even in FIRE, I am not able to consume so much of the valuable information out there. I have podcasts playing all the time. I read blogs and articles that help me fine tune my FIRE plan. [side note: your “retirement plan” doesn’t get really serious until you have left your employment/paycheck behind. That is when $h!t gets real!!!] I also absorb information to help family, friends, others.

So, with my blog, I guess I will just keep exploring my own ideas, both for myself and anyone who may stumble onto the post. I’m not self-promoting as it’s overwhelming to me.

Ideas for you:

• LEARN, LEARN, LEARN.
• Use the best parts of what’s out there.
• Build a strong (even simple) foundation.
• Next: start adding rooms of specific knowledge/actions to your foundation. The “rooms” of your financial home will grow into “wings” of your larger financial mansion. You may even grow into multiple units/buildings/regions of knowledge.

I’m working on my core/foundational information sources again. I’m planning out what rooms of categories I want/need to focus on next. Then we’ll see where the building plan takes me. Whoa, I just realized this is just exactly college—core requirements, major dept requirements, major specialty focus courses, grad school. I’m so glad mid-terms/finals are over and long gone.

Start your foundation now (just put money way NOW, pay yourself first! 15-20%). Everything after is icing.

Here’s the thing, “money doesn’t buy happiness.” That what poor people may tell you. Yes, many poor people are very happy with their life. However, I believe that being a well prepared middle-class person/household has HUGE advantages for you. In being well prepared, I am specifically talking about having a cushion—a buffer— in your savings accounts.

I keep hearing a six-month emergency fund is very important (…in an economic downturn). I’ve noticed as the economy improves (for many, not everyone) that “a three-month emergency fund” is the new target. Side note: I believe this smaller number is to make us feel better and more optimistic that we can get to three months. It’s much like the “exercise for 30 minutes most days of the week” became “exercise 30 min three times per week. A three day per week goal seems more attainable. Yet, don’t you really think that “moving” and being somewhat active every day is better for your body? Don’t settle for less. Aim for the minimum (“three”) but continue strive for what may be better, in this case, “six.”

OK, back to making your life easier. If you have little or no savings and you have things break around you, isn’t that stressful? You might say, “what are we going to do” or “how can we possibly deal with this?” I can tell you from experience—multiple times these past two weeks—that when these problems occur, I just said: “that sucks, well, let’s take care of what we can ourselves and pay to fix the rest of the required items.” This applied to my dead cell phone, a car failure, a pet issue, and a home repair.

Having the funds available to resolve the issue gives you the power over the resolution plan and therefore closure of the issue. If you borrow the money, the issue is resolved, but the bill may linger on and on, adding stress. Stress is the opposite of easy.

Here’s a FIRE perspective, I have a VERY flexible schetchle . This allowed me to try and do some of the fixes myself, and then take my time to find the right person to help me with the rest of the work. I also was able to negotiate a little lower rate by allowing them to work other high priority calls first.

How to do this: Pay Yourself First. Have your direct deposit send a portion to a savings account. If this savings account can be at a different bank, even better. That will make it harder to slip some of that savings into your check/debit card account. You can always transfer from Bank B to Bank A, but it may take1-4 days to arrive. This is a different kind of saving buffer, almost like a usage protection buffer.

If you don’t want to use two banks, set up a savings account at your main bank, and put that money aside immediately. Some people create multiple savings accounts with names like emergency, vacation, TV/smartphone, house improvement, etc. Be careful of bank fees. There are many new FinTech companies that will help you setup these saving locations.

Side Note #2: I just realized that what I’m saying is save up, then spend. This is basically the delayed gratification  idea that has immeasurable value in your life. It’s the exact opposite of the buy now, pay later, oops mentality.

Just do this, save $100, then get that up to $500, then up to 4 figures. Try NOT to spend it, but grow it. If you are paying credit card interest, get rid of that debt $100 at a time. Save the money for one month, then when you are saving month number two use essentially month 1’s money for the credit card debt.

Money is your power punch to make your life easier. It takes time to build your power, but it will happen. Instead of buying something you don’t need (Amazon boxes at your door…) save a chunk, buy a little, and balance.

Be different. The stress of peer pressure can change a young person. It can make someone do things they might never have planned, just to fit in with other people. The news story I was watching made me realize that I—and probably most of the FIRE community—do not fall into this trap (“it’s a TRAP”). We probably look at the Jones’ and think, too bad [insert: they must spend so much on…].

This does not mean we in the FIRE world do not have good stuff, maybe even “nice” stuff. I surely hope we make sure we enjoy our lives every day.  I hope our FI is the special secret that eases some, or much, of the stress you don’t have to face. Even better, I hope your FI allows you to resolve some of the stress that isn’t avoidable, but extremely manageable with your financial resources.

The news story made me think how I am different from so many peers:

Saver – even raises/bonuses were just an opportunity to grow my security. I NEVER once got a raise and used all of it to buy something. Maybe I took a chunk 10% or 25% of a bonus to buy something small as a token reward. But I never used the new money to increase my lifestyle, especially into some monthly payment plan.

Drive older cars– no bonuses/raises used for new monthly payment plans here. We learned to buy 3 year old cars and drive them 10 years. Yes, we have financed 3 cars in 20 years but both were special <2% interest rates for 2-3yrs. My thinking was to arbitrage my money AND show a different type of credit to help strengthen our credit scores. It seems like a strong credit score can help keep your car insurance low, mortgage rate low, and any future loan we may want to undertake.

Older small house– I’m not sure if our 20+ yr house ownership helped our FI more than avoiding tens of thousands lost to auto depreciation, and higher insurance rates, due to newer vehicles. I am 100% positive that if we had upgraded to a nicer house our hit would have been hundreds of thousands of future dollars to the bank. We love our house, our street, and deal with not having the newest of every feature (just like no Bluetooth in our cars). We did a little surface remodeling to get a new feel for the house, not for resale, but for our enjoyment. In the future, I will write about fixing up a Mustang right before selling it and not being able to enjoy the repairs yourself, oops.

Music – This has nothing to do with money but I don’t know anyone who listens to the same music as I do. I’m just different. It seems strange that growing up MILLIONS of people bought the hard rock music I listened to, yet today it’s super rare. I’m not saying I’m stuck listening to the same music from 20-30 years ago. I constantly find new bands creating the music I love, but their audience seems minuscule. Minuscule like so many reports claim of people’s savings totals. I guess one man’s treasure is another’s thrash.

Eat strangely – In my about post I mentioned I was a big guy who lost a lot of weight. Over fifteen years later I still eat almost the same as I did over my two-year weight loss timeline. That is pretty rare, but many people have this success. I feel I’m different from others because I have a nutrition framework. I try to have normal/popular foods, but mine are slightly different. Less cheese pizza, Mexican food-avoid the chips, cheese, sour cream, Asian food-limit the sauces or won tons, fried rice, etc. I’m not a salad freak or anything too crazy, but I’m very conscious of my calorie intake. Some days are lower, some higher, but I always have an idea where I’m at (I roughly track what I eat each day). I also eat a LOT, something every hour or two. I eat a lot of good food, fruits, some vegetables, whole grains, etc. Maybe because I exercise (get moving) most every day. I’m not like my peers. Though I wasn’t like my peers when I was a big guy in the 80’s or 90’s either.

Alcohol – To be honest, this difference may need to change. I have not had alcohol in 20+ years. No real reason other than driving safety. However, I’ve noticed how much wine costs at dinner, or beers would cost with the guys. Sure, I still get to hang out some with friends/teammates and do most of the activities without drinking, but the savings in my wallet has to be hundreds (or thousands?) of dollars per year, multiplied by decades. Just a strange perspective on money and spending decisions. Enjoy every day, Cheers!

Stay married – We hear about how many people do not stay married these days. Being a two person household can be great for finances. Dividing housing, TV, internet, electric, insurance, etc. by two people is equivalent to cutting costs in half. Unless of course, you buy a bigger home because there are now two people. For some magical reason, my wife still hangs with me and life if great. It is not me, but really because she is super great. Oh, this really requires two (or more) incomes to share the split costs. See the math working all by itself in my favor here?

Career – Finally something different from almost everyone I know: Working from home. Somehow over the last decade of my corporate career I became a full time (when not traveling) work-at-homer. This was not something that anyone did in my department. As our team grew to well over 200 people and large groups began traveling around the world for weeks/months at a time, we began to feel comfortable with communicating remotely.

I started working at home on Wed, then Tue/Thu, then Mon/Wed/Fri, and within a few months to full-time from home. I never asked for permission. I assume because I did a great job, kept my customers, peers and my leadership happy, there was no reason for my boss to change anything I was doing. I always said yes when asked, and often found issues early and resolved before my boss was affected.

I learned leaders love low maintenance employees who are productive, proactive, positive and communicative—especially when they have the knowledge/skills required for success in their role.

The point with my career is, I did something very different in my career than my peers. This made me keep working an extra 3 years because work was great. (I banked nearly all of my income these “extra” years as we lived at our “FIRE spend level” as practice. Yes, we did a couple home projects and trips with this “extra income” that was in out “future planning.”

Different? – I feel like my mentality is a little off kilter from most everyone else I know. That’s not really a bad thing because I fit in well when I hang out with others, but they know I have a strangeness. I truly believe my independent thinking—and actions—helped layout my future, which is now my present and beyond. Want proof you’re different, do you have a Schetchle, or what do you do? The answers to these questions will prove you’re different.

BE YOURSELF, THE BEST SELF YOU CAN BE. It’s one small step at a time, always pushing to combine those steps forward.