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Santa Came to Town, Now the Bills are Visiting

Saturday, January 19th, 2013

Wish Christmas had been white instead of green?

Guest post by APB Thanks girl

Every year I start planning for the holidays in advance because I want “this Christmas” to be the best one ever.  I start buying gifts months ahead of time to try to get the best prices and to give myself time to give gifts that the receiver will love and think “Wow! I’ve always wanted that!”  Maybe all of you are more lucky (ok, ok, more efficient) than I am, but every year, life happens and all of a sudden it is two weeks before Christmas.

So, instead of that great gift that is awesome because of how perfect it is, not how much it costs, I end up buying something that they’ll like because it’s expensive and anyone with any sense would never buy it for themselves.  Is it still going to be a good Christmas?  Of course – but I’ll be paying for it until August.  While once again vowing to change things and do Christmas right later this year, I have decided to do what I can to recoup some of my Christmas greenery – green money that is.

Make a List, Check it Twice

Actually returning things that need to be returned is a downfall of mine.  I will put the bag and the receipt in my trunk, with fabulous intentions of course, then drive around with it for six months by which point it is on clearance and worth about 20% of what I paid for it.  These post-Christmas returns may either be gifts that never were given out for some reason or things you received that you’re not crazy about.

This Year Will Be Different:

Returns

  • Collect all of the returns, separate them by the store they need to go to and make a list so you can pre-plan your outing and ensure that you don’t miss a store.
  • Make a second list of necessities , household items that you need and will have to buy no matter what, based on the store where you will have credit from your return.  Instead of exchanging for things you don’t need and wouldn’t have spent your own money on, give your wallet a break by getting things you and your family need.
  • If you are making returns to a store that only sells things you want versus things you need, make a list of the birthdays coming up for friends and family that you always have to buy a gift for.  Simply exchange what you don’t want for gifts to give to others.

Gift Cards

Maybe you are someone that is impossible to buy for, maybe someone else in your family procrastinated like you did and had no time to think about what to get you – hence the gift card.  Retailers keep up with the sale of gift cards and according to several reports, since 2005, upwards of $40 billion worth of gift cards have never been redeemed, yet the sale of them is at an industry high.  Wow-o!  Let’s get something out of these gift cards people and USE them for something.

  • Just like with your returns that you will promptly do, figure out who you need to buy for throughout the year and use your gift cards to buy great gifts for others – guilt free!  If you are a gift card giver yourself, use your gift card to buy more cards with smaller amounts on them.
  • You have restaurant gift cards – somewhere you love?  Somewhere you hate?  If you can’t part with it and you want to treat yourself to a nice meal out, save it for a special occasion where you would probably dine out anyway and pre-plan what you’ll order based on the amount you have so that you don’t end up in the whole.   If it is for a place you will never eat at, re-gift the card.  Who’s going to know you didn’t pick it out yourself??
  • If you are at a loss with what to do with your gift card, even with the stellar recommendations made above, there is a huge market online for selling these things at a price less than 100% of their value.  If you are a penny pincher and can’t stand to let it go for less than it’s absolute value, think of it this way:  if you end up never using it, what do you get out of it?  Not even a penny on the dollar.  If you use it for an item that you don’t need and never would have bought yourself, what do you get out of it?  Especially when next week that item goes on sale for 75% off…  Might as well have a little cash in your pocket.

Hopefully some of you guys will take this challenge with me!  It’s possible that I am the only procrastinator in the world that didn’t have a perfectly pre-planned and well budgeted holiday season – but I doubt it.  If nothing else, I will at least feel like I am taking a step in the right direction instead of allowing one day out of the year to cost me months of stress and financial recuperation.

Good luck everyone!

Do you let Christmas slip up on you, too?  Do you always returns items promptly?

My goal is 1000 Facebook likes before the end of the year. Please hit the “Like” button and help me reach my goal. .

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Posted in Gift giving, goal setting, personal finance, Planned spending aka budget, self help | 3 Comments »

Turn Off the Television and Get Ready to Save

Wednesday, January 16th, 2013

What’s Your Favorite TV Show?

Guest Post by:  APB

It seems like with each up and coming generation, Americans have fewer hobbies but more and more favorite television series, shows, and movies. So much of our time, money, and conversation is dedicated to the “lives” of the “people” we watch on television. Here’s a thought – set a goal for yourself and your family to significantly reduce the time spent in front of the TV because remember, time is money and building your wealth takes time. What does turning off the TV have to do with fattening your wallet? I’m going to tell you.

 

Advertisements

• Watching television shows also means watching commercials for all of the cool new things that you really need to spend your hard earned money on. Some of these things we would never even be aware of if we hadn’t seen the commercial air. You may think that you are immune to ads for products and maybe you really are, but what if you see a commercial letting you know that your favorite store is having their “best sale of the year”? Gotcha! Just remember that if you don’t know about it then you can’t waste your money on it.

Electricity

• Televisions increase your power bill every time they are on – significantly so if everyone in your household has one and they spend more time powered on than off. Not to mention the PS3, Xbox, cable receiver, dvr system and so on that are also drawing power…
• You may have also never considered how hot these machines get, and again, depending on how many you have, your air conditioning may be turning on more often due to the heat output.

Costly Cable

• If you can be included in the minority of Americans because you rarely, if ever, watch television – cancel your cable! Don’t just let your cable bill turn into one of those things that you keep paying every month because it’s easier to pay it than to call the 800 number and make it through the prompts necessary to cancel your subscription. Scary to think about not having cable at all, just in case something catches your interest? Don’t forget that almost all networks post everything they air on their websites for you to be able to watch, and guess what – most don’t have the commercials.
• Can’t really live without cable? At the very least, take a minute to check out your monthly bill. Look into any extra fees you may have (DVR, premium channels, etc.) and take the time to make some changes. If you got some fabulous deal when you signed up, chances are that it was a limited time promotional package, so it may be time to adjust everything. If you need to change companies, just do it! Telling your provider that you want to cancel everything is excellent motivation for them to work with you and give you what you want – if they won’t make your deal what you want, no worries, someone else would love to have your business.

Physical Health

• Most of us have some weight we need to lose and almost all of us aren’t as fit and healthy as we possibly could be. Have you ever noticed how easy it is to put a huge dent in your bag of potato chips while you are distracted by the television? Snacks and TV just go together too well, no one can deny that, so the more time you spend watching the more you are going to eat. Why is your TV snacking affecting your saving?
o Snacks cost money, duh!
o Poor diet and low activity level = poor health = increase in medical bills!

Step Up

Take the challenge and cut back on your television time and keep up with how much you are saving. You may be pleasantly surprised at how much it will affect your bank account as well as your life in general.

Try a few new things to do with your time, maybe you’ll even pick up a new hobby that is very low cost, more active, and allows you to spend more quality time with your friends and family.

Have you thought about not watching television?  Have you tired leaving it off for a week or so?  Come on, join the challenge, we’ll all be better for it!

My goal is 1000 Facebook likes before the end of the year. Please hit the “Like” button and help me reach my goal. .

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Posted in Personal Finance 101, Quality of Life, self help | 3 Comments »

Family Holiday Gatherings: Can You do it Again?

Thursday, December 13th, 2012

Preparation is Key

by Cil

After a recent visit with fellow bloggers and friends, I wrote about how much fun we had playing board games with Average Joe from the Free Financial Adviser.  Our group laughed until we were dangerous and made some memories we’ll not soon forget.  Now, I find myself giving a second look to anything remotely board game related. Yes, I have spent some time looking around for some board games to play when my family visits, but haven’t yet  made a choice.  As Average Joe will tell you, games are like gifts:  to be properly appreciated, they must be carefully chosen.

Choosing Family Members

No, no, we are still unable to choose our kin, but we can treat a family visit as if it’s a board game worthy of all the strategy, manipulation and planning of monopoly.  Authors Bernstein and Johnson in an article in the WSJ suggest that this strategizing before hand can turn an otherwise sometimes explosive event into one that’s at least bearable.

Merry Christmas

There are a lot of us out there who, regardless of our age and maturity, let our relatives push our buttons.  We want to spend the holidays with family even though we dread the actual event and always feel disappointed afterward.  Could we tolerate our families better?

If you’re planning to join your extended family for the holidays, here are some tips for playing the ‘Tolerate the Family’ board game:

  • Set a time limit for the event and make sure everyone is aware of this.
  • To avoid explosive dinner exchanges, use place cards and discourage seat-switching.
  • Plan a structured activity like family trivia where you ask relatives to mine their memories for the details of your common history.
  • Stay in a motel.  You have a place to escape when you can stand no more and before you do or say something you’ll regret.
  • Be realistic.  Those joyous carols and Lifetime movies about spending Christmas with idealized families may not be describing the people you join for the holidays.
  • On the sly, brain storm with a relative and develop a family bingo game of likely dysfunctional family scenarios and see who can get ‘bingo’ first.  Along the way, you’ll recognize triggers for bad behavior and ways to avoid them.

Our families are important to us which is why we try to spend time with them.  A key point in the article mentioned above is that we should count our blessings because we’ll miss our family members when they’re gone, even the annoying ones.  They are our family and finding a way to tolerate them is the smartest way to not add guilt to your feelings for them.

How is it for you?  Do you dread family holiday gatherings?  Have you developed coping strategies?

My goal is 1000 Facebook likes before the end of the year. Please hit the “Like” button and help me reach my goal.

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Posted in self help | 5 Comments »

Nurses and Coaching and Life

Sunday, October 28th, 2012

Coaches and Nurses?

By Cil

From the first hello, it feels as if you’ve known some people for years.  Naomi D. Jones of Consults Unlimited, Inc., and I were like that.  She has a terrific website I visited after she posted an intriguing message on Linkedin.  After a few emails, we finally got together by phone so I could quiz her about her coaching career.  From the very first words, we were like old friends even though we’ve not actually met in person.  I suspect she’s like that with most people, a trait that would make her an excellent coach.

Free Leadership Coaching Webinar

With her years of leadership experience, this nurse coach has put together a webinar, The Leaders Journey, From Mindset to Impact,  that focuses on the leaders in our midst.  Nurse leaders who are open to change.  This free webinar is scheduled for December 11, 2012 at 7PM ET.

Why Seek out a Professional or Life Coach?

Naomi says that “Coaches help people try to figure out how to be their best.  They help people deal with stressful situations better than they could on their own.”  Coaches develop relationships that help people move forward both professionally and personally.

Who benefits the most from enlisting a coach?

From Naomi and from some internet research at Nurse Together, I found that this is really a question of who is ready to be coached?   It is much easier to complain about a situation than to actually make a change.  So, who is ready to seek out a mentor, coach, or someone to help make that next step? Someone who is:

  • Ready for change.  You recognize change is better than where you are and forward is where you want to go.
  • Willing to change.  Again, it’s easy to not like where you are, but being willing to take painful steps to change is very hard.
  • Open to examination of why forward movement isn’t happening.  Yikes, this can be really hard if it’s personal stuff.
  • Honestly looking at what is going on personally and professionally.  Again, that may mean recognizing personal traits we don’t want to deal with.
  • Motivated.  So you accept it’s time to change, you understand there is a problem, but do you truly have the motivation to take steps that lead to change?

How to find that just right person to help you move ahead?

A good coach:

  • Doesn’t have to know more than you to be helpful to you, it involves a connection.
  • Isn’t a friend, that’s why BFF’s aren’t always a good choice.
  • Doesn’t take credit for your progress, they are guides not sheep herders.
  • Doesn’t work in the past.  It’s forward movement all the way.

What to expect:

  • Your coach is your champion, they believe in you.
  • They should be good listeners
  • Be prepared for a kick in the pants when you need it.
  • Idea sharing.

Naomi began her career as a home health aid, progressed to LPN, then RN and has her Master’s in Health Administration.  She put it all together and became a Certified Life Coach to use her years of experience to help others.  With her many years in leadership positions, she feels a particular affinity for that area of coaching.

Nurses find themselves in positions for which they were never trained in nursing school. Many nurses go straight into finding Los Angeles nursing jobs or other big city nursing jobs, but don’t mentally prepare for the challenges ahead. There, almost the entire curriculum centers on deepening ones knowledge of the science of health care.  From the foundation courses of anatomy and physiology to obstetrics and gerontology, the focus is patient care.  Nurses routinely leave the bedside care that is the focus of  their school texts and enter leadership roles.  What then?

Coaches can help.

Are you a nurse

  • Enduring a stressful job situation?
  • Wanting to move your career forward into a leadership position?
  • In a leadership position but you’ve lost the joy of leading?

Naomi D. Jones can help.  She can be found through her website, Consults Unlimited Inc., Linkedin, or her blog, Life Coach RN.  She keeps her nursing and management skills active working for a major home care company.

This mother of 4 who loves to travel, read and be a nurse leader is excited about her upcoming webinar:  The Leader’s Journey, From Mindset to Impact, December 11, 2012.  Naomi’s deep well of compassion and the leadership skills she has developed will give depth and meaning to this seminar.

She has a very positive, well done website you might want to check out.

She’s fun and it shows at her site.

There are so many nurses out there who are looking for change.  You’re all over Linkedin and Twitter.  Are you one of them?  Are you looking for change?

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Posted in nurse entreprenuers, Nursing Profession, self help | 1 Comment »

Fear: Five Ways To Overcome It

Thursday, October 18th, 2012

Fear can be a great motivator.

Cil Burke BSN

My fingers hesitate over the dial of my iPhone.  Sweat is dripping down my furrowed brow.  I am breathless with anxiety.

Here I am, with a one of a kind, patent protected breakthrough product. A life rejuvenating product that truly everyone in the world, especially those interested in wellness, those with frustrating  chronic health problems, and athletes wanting to safely improve their performance and stamina need to know about  (and I’m being conservative here).

In my 30 years providing health care, it is truly a game changer. I’m convinced it is doing people a disservice if they don’t know about it.

So why is it so hard to punch in 10 numbers and make the call? A call that could improve someone’s life?

What is so paralyzing about the fear of “why should they listen to me?”

Fear is the quicksand that keeps us mired in insecurity and inaction.    I recently read an insightful article  that has helped me address this insecurity and thought it may help you in whatever fear is keeping you from success.

Maybe it’s negotiating for a raise, maybe it’s having that sex talk with your 13 year old, maybe it’s telling your spouse about the new toy you put on your credit card last week…. Whatever “that thing” is that makes you break out in a sweat,  you know what it is!

Energy sapping irrational fears.

The article  in Entrepreneur magazine gave tips on how to break through fear and overcome  self doubts created by that fear.  The author related that during a presentation to Google at their New York offices (I’m thinking “how scary that would be?”), a participant asked how he had become so confident and self assured.  The author was struck by the fact that no one knew what he was feeling inside and caused him to examine how to exude confidence in spite of insecurities and fears.

Here’s what author Grant Cordone suggested:

  • You’re normal.  Everyone experiences fears and insecurities, especially when doing something new, even if you’re excited about it.  Embrace your fear.

My Take: There  are so many things I would not have done or experienced if I had let my fears win.  This list is so long and has so many ordinary things on it, it’s embarrassing.

  • Keep your calendar full.

My Take: Without realizing it, this is what I do to convince myself to do some of the things I am most fearful of doing.  I begin with a list and force myself to complete the list before the day is out.  It requires getting started and staying with a task, though my insides are jelly, until it is done.  Whew!

  • Do what you are scared to do and watch your confidence grow.  This isn’t about physical risks, but about not letting fears paralyze you.  Take that most dreaded of steps and have the ego boost of actually doing it.

My Take:  For me, win or lose, I get a mental fist bump, a high,  from over coming mind-numbing inaction.  I love that feeling and want more of it.

  • Success is achieved outside your comfort zone.  You have the easy stuff down; it’s that fire breathing fear dragon that needs slaying.

My Take: I’m the only one who can do it. It’s all on me. Make a list and scratch ‘em off, one at the time.  So do it.

  • Become an action machine.  Whatever it is, out do everyone else with your  sheer domination of activity.

My Take: This ties all the other suggestions together.  Fear leads to inactivity and I always want to sit on the sidelines-but I don’t do it.  Get out there, get in the game and be a powerhouse.  That’s what successful people do.  I want to be one of them-I am one of them.

As I push forward with our newest venture, I will be rereading this list and overcoming fears because I want to be successful.

There are too many  people out there in pain or who need what I have.  I just have to find them.  One 10 digit number at the time.

Reader Question:

How about you?  Do you have some unfounded fears that are holding you back?  Do you want to join me in slaying those fears?  Think whips might do the trick?

Photo Credit:  whatleydude

My goal is 1000 Facebook likes before the end of the year. Please hit the “Like” button and help me reach my goal.

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Posted in goal setting, Quality of Life, self help | 8 Comments »

Saving Money Daily: Is It A State Of Mind?

Thursday, October 4th, 2012

Saving Money Can Be A Developed Habit

(A reworked blast from the past)

Helping you save money, as a way of life, is the goal here at The Millionaire Nurse Blog.  This does not mean constantly thinking about ways to take advantage of others.  This does not mean negotiating with the lemonade salesman (the cute 8 year old down the street).

Saving money daily means being aware of your long and short-term financial goals, and when confronted with spending choices, you take a minute and be sure the choice fits your plans.

Ways I Save

Just to give you a few examples in my life:

  •  I had to go to the hospital to see a patient ready for discharge.  No emergency, just a routine visit.   I got on my bicycle, rode the three miles

    Inexpensive fun or saving on gas, take your pick!to the hospital-saving money on gas as well as getting my exercise for the day.

  • I needed (wanted) different music for my aerobic exercise.  I received a Sansa Mp3 player for Christmas last year-nothing fancy.  It had been awhile since I loaded anything different on it.    I looked on the net for free downloads of exercise music and found the site: Podrunner.  This site has free downloads, that contain a brief commercial message that allows you to choose between different speeds of aerobic exercise.  The downloads are free.  They also have a pay version, and newsletter that you can sign up for. This music is perfect for me to use while exercising on the 20-year-old Nordic Track-another way I save money….
  • Cil and I recently were at a conference.  We ate a meal at one of the resort hotel’s Italian restaurant.  A little pricey, but highly recommended.  Cil and I split a salad and entre.  It was delicious, the wait staff didn’t roll their eyes (even if they do, who cares), our waistline appreciated the calorie’s saved, and my bankroll was thicker than it could’ve been.
  • Instead of going to theme parks during the down time of our meeting, we road our  bikes, and walked admiring the flora and fauna, and read by the pool.  Relaxing and saving money compared to many who felt the need to visit the parks just because they were so close.
  • On this same conference, we used our 5% cash back on gas card to save a significant amount on our travel costs.
  • We saved money by having a room-mate one night of the conference, sharing in the costs.

These are just a few examples of how we save money daily.  We keep our financial goals in mind as we make daily spending decisions.  With so many temptations it’s easy to get distracted and forget your goals.

Saving Daily: It’s just a state of mind.

Are you making choices that fit into your spending plans?  If you find you never seem to be saving any money, then look hard in the mirror.  Decide if you want to stay in the city called ‘I’m Always Broke’ or move yourself to  the city of ‘Financial Freedom’.  It truly is your choice-many times-every day.

Reader Questions:

What are your favorite saving stories?

Let me and others know how you save money on a daily basis.  The daily small things can turn into the yearly big things.

My goal is 1000 Facebook likes before the end of the year. Please hit the “Like” button and help me reach my goal.

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Also please send a link to our site to your fellow nurses and nursing students, so they can join our journey.

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Posted in goal setting, Quality of Life, self help | 8 Comments »

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