Posts Tagged ‘budget’

Blood From a Turnip:The Millionaire Nurse Way!

Wednesday, December 30th, 2009

How do you get blood from a turnip?  Is that just a southern saying?  You folks out there in other parts of the country let me know.

That’s what old folks say around here when something is difficult (nigh on to impossible) is another similar saying, but, I digress.

What happens, when your money runs out before your month does?

“Dr Dean, I have looked and looked and I don’t know anywhere else I can cut my spending, this planned spending stuff just doesn’t work for me!”

“Well let’s see what we have here.”  (Rustling of papers, clearing of throat….)

  • Smart phone bill for you and your spouse $200/month.  BROKE PERSON’S RESPONSE: (I have to stay in touch!)
  • Satellite (HDTV package) TV (you can substitute cable) with 4 premium movie channels, TIVO,  and NFL everything (premier league for you soccer moms). $90/month. RESPONSE: (Why watch tv, if you don’t have hdtv.
  • Lunch-$260/month for two. RESPONSE: (I don’t have time to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for two.)
  • 52 inch hi-def 1080 dpi- payment $150/month. RESPONSE:  (NFL package without HDTV-that would be a waste of money!)
  • i-tunes download for two $50/month.  RESPONSE: (but that is only 25 songs apiece)
  • 2 car payments bought new  $1,000/month. RESPONSE:  (but we got a great deal, cash for clunkers and everything!)

There are truly poor people in this country, trying hard to just get food on the table.  I have no patience, however, for people who feel as if their life would stop if they couldn’t text their crew, with white buds in their ears, bobbing and weaving to a beat only they hear.

Then at the end of the month they wonder why the check for the power bill bounced and their electricity was cut off-”Don’t those idiots at city hall have a heart-we have a baby here!”

MAN UP-(or woman up)

If you are having trouble paying your bills, “Man Up” as they say.  You can do without the pedicure, the texting on the phone, the lunch’s with your friends, the satellite tv.  You could drive a “clunker” for a while until you pay-off your debts!

Just like an alcoholic, admit you have a spending problem, and vow to 12 step your way to recovery.

Your family life and marriage, I guarantee, would benefit from:

  • less tv and more talk,
  • less texting and more reading.
  • Less i-tunes and more sex (yes-make your own music!)
  • Less fast food, and more left-overs.

No More Excuses With Your Money

So quit making excuses, and make a plan instead.  Get your scalpel out and cut down or out  your unnecessary expenses so that you are not living on the financial edge (precipice- for you English snobs).

And if you need help, suggestions, brow-beating, that is what we are here for.

And remember, if you need “Emergency Money Resuscitation” click this link.  It will get you a free e-book along with a mini-course, delivered right to your email, on personal finance.

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Posted in Planned spending aka budget | No Comments »

Top Ten List: The Things Millionaire Nurses Need to do Before January 1!

Wednesday, December 16th, 2009

January 1 is fast approaching.  The charge nurse is busy fighting over who works Christmas eve/day and New Years eve/day.   Nursing students are finishing exams.  I have seen exciting post’s on Facebook about graduating!!!! Yeaaaa-but now the clock starts ticking on student loans, doesn’t it???

Sorry,  like that new admission you always get, 10 minutes before change of shift, sometimes bad things happen to good people, but we gonna be real here.

So in honor of Dave Letterman, (or should it be dishonor) here are the top ten things you need to do before the first of January:

  1. Set a time for your goals and planning-then do it.  Click the links here for earlier posts on goals.
  2. Check your free credit report at Annual Credit Report here.  Study it for inaccuracies.
  3. Do a financial statement of net worth.
  4. Review/do a budget, if you don’t have one.
  5. Find out the amount of interest on loans you paid this year, if you don’t know how, see this post.
  6. Buy term life insurance or make arrangements to do so, if you already have life insurance,- make sure the beneficiaries are correct.
  7. Make sure your will, and health care power of attorney are up to date.  Check out this post for a kit to help.
  8. Get your end of year tax documents together-get that folder now,ready for the statements, W-2′s etc you or your accountant will need.
  9. Meet/call your accountant to make sure you don’t need to change withholding, 401-k amount, and whether any of the new tax changes will affect you next year.  If you don’t have an accountant, you can run the numbers on your taxes/talk with your personnel department regarding the withholding.
  10. Review all of your bills/services to see if you can drop your monthly payments-such as car insurance, cable, internet, cell-phone.  Make a list and schedule calls, do comparison shopping to drop your bills.  Negotiate-see this post by Ramit Sethi on negotiating.  Use this technique to negotiate your cable bill, phone bill and when your are shopping, especially at stores that you are dealing with the owner.  And certainly, when you go for your year end salary and performance review, these are great things to know.

For a great accountability exercise, print this out and check things off, similar to the post made at 2 Dog Casa, with my previous post on Twelve Ways Not to be a Millionaire Nurse.

So take some time, when you finish your shopping, gift giving, partying, and eating, to look after your important financial affairs before the end of the year. If you cannot get them all done, look at your calendar, and write deadlines for each one today, that means today, before the day is over….

PS:

Housekeeping:

For my free E-book, “Emergency Money Resuscitation” click here or on the right middle, yes I said free.

For email notification of new posts-see bottom right.

For your feed reading pleasure-see the top right.

Please comment if you have questions or suggestions-thanks.

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Posted in Quality of Life, goal setting, personal finance | 2 Comments »

Christmas Shopping: What Would a Millionaire Nurse Do?

Monday, December 7th, 2009

A Millionaire Nurse is kind, gentle, frugal, loving, generous, a leader, and well-read. (Sounds kind of  like the Boy Scout oath)  So what are millionaire nurses doing for their Christmas shopping.

  • They are shopping by a list with spending limit on each person-agreed upon by both adults in your family (although many of us act like kids this time of year).
  • They make sure they pay for their purchases with cash, or debit card-no credit cards allowed unless they can easily be paid off -no cheating allowed!
  • They give money or time to charitable organizations  in honor of their recipients, and not a tie, or another sweater – thrown in the closet or re-gifted next year.
  • They understand the reason for the season, and avoid the hype/materialism and consumerism and focus on being a better friend, mother, father, son or daughter.
  • They make a list of all their friends and relatives and send them a note, or a phone call just to let them know they are thinking about them.

Brent Arands in the Wall Street Journal has an article detailing the savings that could be had by cutting back on our holiday spending.  The amount of money that you could save over your life time by cutting back on your purchases by just 20% should open your eyes.  Saving over 10,000 bucks over the next 35 years if you are an average spender of $600 each Christmas.

So make the difficult first step towards becoming a millionaire nurse.  That step is to vow to begin to change your spending habits and grab ahold of your finances.

Please share with us your giving plans this Christmas, and if you are spending more or less than usual.  And check out this Christmas related spending question on Cash Commons-a great financial question and answer site.

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Posted in Planned spending aka budget, Uncategorized, credit cards, personal finance | 1 Comment »

Buying a New Car: Is it Evil?

Sunday, November 22nd, 2009

Danielle, aka The Frugal Lawyer, blogged this week, a mea culpa of sorts, about purchasing a new car.  She had hinted at her indiscretion earlier in the week, but finally confessed.  I have come to enjoy her writing while participating at Cash Commons, a new question and answer site about money problems.

Far be it from me to pick a fight with an attorney, as an Ob-Gyn I am genetically afraid of lawyers….

But, so far, the comments on her post have been all congratulatory in nature, and as she is a self-confessed recovering spend-thrift, I think I would lose points in the personal finance blogosphere, yes maybe even a little bit hypocritical, to let her get completely away with buying a new car.

So for all The Millionaire Nurse wannabe’s here is my list of reasons why buying used is better, when buying transportation:

  1. Depreciation-when driving the new car off the lot, the value of your new purchase drops by 20-45%, making this a depreciating asset-it usually doesn’t pay to borrow money for something that drops that quickly in value.
  2. Hidden Costs- Besides the monthly payment, and interest there are other costs involved in buying new vs used.  These include higher insurance costs-see this article in the Wall Street Journal about insurance costs.  Taxes-the taxes on buying your tags in most states is directly related to the cost of the vehicle, and new cars just cost more, therefore a higher yearly tag tax.
  3. The savings she suggests from buying a more fuel-efficient vehicle are real, but most studies show at today’s gas prices, it will take 5-7 years to make up the difference in price that the new car costs.
  4. Having a large amount of your net worth tied up in a vehicle, is usually not a wise move, financially, although that is probably not an issue here, but is for many people whose car is the second largest asset after their home.

So, before anyone points out my personal hypocrisy, in the spirit of true confession, I will admit that I own, (or the banks own) several investment lots on the Gulf coast, that I purchased at the height of the real-estate boom, that have now dropped significantly in value, and though I am paying them off as quickly as possible, I do admit that I made a big mistake in not purchasing them with cash or not at all.

The Frugal Lawyer also makes me a little jealous when she describes the personal pleasure she gets from driving her “new green machine” (my words not hers).  When I climb in my 10-year-old paid for truck that gets 16 miles to the gallon, I am thinking about what I am going to do that day-not how I am saving the planet.  But maybe that is because I am over 50, and  male, so I just don’t get that emotional attachment she has with her new vehicle, with my truck.  So far the truck doesn’t seem to mind my emotional detachment, but maybe I am just not listening…

So, do I want Danielle to feel guilty every day she gets in her new car?  No, just like I am trying to quit beating myself up for trying to be a real-estate baron.  We just need to continue to learn more about our relationship with our money, and try hard to be a good example in the future to those we are trying to help on their path to financial freedom.  Which is, I think, both of our goals in blogging about personal finance.

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Posted in Wealth building, personal finance | 4 Comments »

Generic or Brand Name: Saving Money and Does it Matter?

Sunday, October 25th, 2009

Generic drugs are the chemical equivalent of brand name drugs and have to meet bio-equivalancy standards-that means that have to reach the same blood levels in testing-for you non-medical readers.  Does that mean they are equal-well yes and no.  Equal when discussing generic drugs means that are within an expected range of equivalancy on testing-doesn’t have to be  exactly equal.

So why am I raising this old argument today, in my blog about personal finance.  My wife just mentioned to me a discussion at work among her nursing co-workers.  They were talking about cold/flu meds they were purchasing for themselves and their families. Yes H1N1 is here too.

My wife, who makes me look like Donald Trump when it comes to pinching pennies, was shocked at how most of her colleagues spent extra money on brand name over the counter medications.

They were buying brand name Tylenol, instead of acetaminophen, brand name Robitussin instead of the generic or store brand variation-frequently at a 50 % increase in cost.

So is buying name brand when it comes to your OTC medications worth the extra money? NOOOOOOO.

Maybe if you are on Digoxin(heart medication)  and your cardiologist warns you to get the brand name, maybe I can agree.  But with aspirin or cold meds, save your money.  You feel lousy enough if you are having to buy something for your cold - don’t go blowing your budget.

Now sometimes for non-medical people, it may be hard to tell what is what when reading labels.  The secret is reading the active ingredient list and the amount of medication (usually in mg’s).  As long as the active ingredient and the amount of the two products is equal, then compare the price.  Just like buying cereal.

So don’t let your stopped up head affect your brain and your bank account.  When you have to buy over the counter meds, go with the generic, and spend your savings on a movie or book to help you feel better.

Let me know what you think about the generic versus brand name argument.

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Posted in Planned spending aka budget, Uncategorized, personal finance | No Comments »