Posts from the ‘Finances’ Category
Success or Happiness
In this day in age, in America we begin life forced into a mold. Our parents, truly do the best they can to give their children a “better life” than they had to insure success. Our public schools lead us to believe that in order to be successful you must concentrate on being good at working for someone else. Society would lead you to believe that you are not successful unless you have material objects others can only dream of. When you become a parent, you begin the cycle anew.
Parents, who follow the traditions of what they grew up with, employ a vision that sometimes makes up for a lack of what they were able to achieve. Some parents want their kids to go to college because they never got a chance to. Some parents want their children to become great at sports, win beauty pageants or become famous actors. While it is great for parents to expose their children to as many things as possible, forcing them to fulfill things that they want may not be the key to their happiness.
Children are not really concerned about planning for the future, and simply want to live for the moment. Pressuring your kids for tomorrow may give them direction, but could very well instill them with a perpetual feeling of anxiety. Kids just want to have fun, and not worry about being forced into being the next child star athlete or the smartest person in school. It is no wonder that child abuse rates usual peak around the time when report cards are coming out from school. Teachers in school target children who seem to march to the beat of a different drummer due to the way their mind processes information. These children, lead by well meaning parents who want the best for them are forced into doctors offices and doped up on cocaine derivative drugs to cure a fake diseases like “attention deficit disorder”.
As adults, we may still constantly driven by how we were raised. Especially in times of uncertainty, we may tend to fall back on the original path laid out by what our parents designated as right or wrong for us. Basically, it’s like falling back on our life training as a guide on how to live our lives. As an alternative, the bible provides a guide to live a life devoted to god. Which pretty much dictates that you live like a monk. In reality, as long as you have what you need and keep your focus on Christ, what more should you need?
Public schools, which most people in America have attended are government run institutions with liberal agendas. They lead you into believing that in order to be a success that you have to finish school then finish some more school so you can prepare yourself to work for someone else. They do not emphasize on how to be a leader nor even properly budget for personal finances. Our future generations are being setup to be drones to work for others, because they believe that’s what makes you a success.
Society forces you to believe that the bigger the house or the nicer the car you drive, that makes you a success. This belief of conspicuous consumption or “Keeping up with the Joneses” has lead people to an empty shell of stress and to become slaves to a system. After the newness of that big house wears off, its a pain in the butt to stay on top of that pool, cleaning multiple bathrooms, vacuuming and dusting a bunch of extra square footage that you may only use once a year.
Children, just want to spend time with their parents and feel loved. Not everyone wants to work for someone else and needs the support of others when they want to venture out into running their own business. When material possessions begin to own you, that perceived success quickly turns into heart ache. No one can dictate your happiness, and you should not dictate what makes someone else happy. Happiness lies in what your heart, you should not be afraid to explore that and follow your dreams without fear of being judged.
About the photo:
This picture was taken close to a vacant building which sits adjacent to interstate 4 in Altamonte Springs, Florida. This building is owned by a religious broadcasting station that is funding the project with straight cash.
Tales of Frugality: Car Starter Repair
After finishing up my delicious roast beef sandwich with my daughter, we get up, go to the car to head back home. I slide and turn the key in the ignition and instead of hearing the flow of exhaust from a running engine it stops cold with a single click. Attempting to turn the key again, I am met with another click.
Someone else recognized my plight and politely attempted to assist me by jumping the car. However, I was already doubtful that this would even work since I had just replaced the battery last month. The guy who was helping me out hooked up the jumper cables to my battery terminals and asked me to crank the engine again. Still, I was met with just a click. By now I had accepted my fate that after 9 years of faithful service, the starter was dead and that my car was going home on the back of a flat bed tow truck.
There we were, my daughter and I rode shotgun in the front of Rodney’s truck being chased by my car which could be seen out of the back window of the truck. We arrived at my house, and my car was gently rolled off the back of the flat bed into my garage where she waited for me to get her back on the road.
In the morning, I woke up early and headed down to the discount auto parts store to pick up a new starter for the car. I came home, jacked up the car and replaced the old starter with the new. I slid the key into the ignition, to my delight I hear the car purring away like a kitten. My car started instantaneously with absolutely no delay! I returned the old part to auto parts store for my core charge and off to work I went. I pretty much had all this done before people get their first cup of coffee finished.
By doing this maintenance myself, I had saved at least in the neighborhood of $140+ in labor and the extra time of dealing with someone else to perform this labor while probing for a ride to get back to the shop once it was done to pick my car up. On top of that, shops like to put an extra charge on the part so a starter that cost me $130 probably would have ended up full retail at $250.
Once you buy a car, learn it well enough to be able to inspect the important items, change the oil and do minor repairs. The more stuff that you can fix on a car, the more you will save. Just about every car on the internet has a forum or enthusiast website dedicated to it that is stocked full of freely available information on how to work on your car. Rather it be changing out a headlight to doing an engine rebuild, someone has done it and put it on the internet. If you are lucky enough, you might even be able to find yourself a service manual freely available on these websites which enhance the definition of the scope of work you want to perform. I have had my car for almost 9 years now and have never had to take it in to get repaired. I have learned how to pretty much do anything I need to do on my car including engine rebuilds off of the wealth of resources on the internet. If you are not comfortable with using the internet, go take a course at your local community college.
The cars with less bells and whistles on it even add to the simplicity of the car repairs since it will have less points of failure. Some of the worst cars you can buy are luxury cars which tend to use bleeding edge technology and bunch of electronics. The more of a base model car that you can get, the better! The point of a car is to get you from point A to point B. For those who think that the car is the point, then they should be willing to invest the time to learn how to work on something they are so passionate about.
If you depend on a car, it is undoubtedly one of the most cost consuming item in your budget. Paying off a car is the greatest way to save money and the next would be maintaining the vehicle yourself. Although, I will add that no matter what even if you are paying the mechanic, it is still cheaper to maintain a car than it is to keep buying new ones. It is worth the investment of your time and patience to learn how to do so.
About the photo:
I took this picture of my Mitsubishi Eclipse overlooking the mountains from my trip up to North Carolina that I took towards the beginning of 2010. I went up there specifically to drive US 129 out of Deal’s Gap on a a segment called “The Dragon”. The Dragon has 318 turns in 11 miles and was a great thrill to drive!
Nikon D90, Nikkor 18-200 vr2
Tempting A Path Less Traveled
Waking from a dream by the screaming buzzing of the alarm, I look over and see that my dog is sleeping right through it and the day has already begun with out me. The house is empty and I am ready to do something productive for the day. I get out of bed push the sleep mucus out of my eyes then stand up to stretch. I look down at the clock, and realize that this day has played itself out before. It is time for me to leave my life to go devote my time to an institution that continually reminds me that I am just there to work for a paycheck. Does this sound like a similar rut that you wake to every morning?
It is like I am living the life of Bill Murry in the movie “Groundhog Day”, but like a machine, I am doing what I’m programmed to do. In this day in age, we continue to keep doing this until we are worn out and can no longer keep pushing forward.
When I first took the job, I was excited that I was going to have a very secure place to work to insure the integrity of my family through retirement if I wanted. This excitement comes from the fact that I have a difficult time holding a job for one reason or another for extended periods of time. I do not believe that it is in my DNA to work for other people or be assimilated into the belief that I should depend on just one group to control my fate throughout life. A few years into working this job, I felt that I was due for a promotion, so I opened Tearstone Performance reselling automotive parts to fill in the gap where I was not getting a promotion. I was aggressively going after an increase of pay without having to beg or plead the institution I was working for.
I have learned that with money comes problems and that there may be something to living a simpler life. Most people grow up with dreams of having a nice car someday or having a big house or even being rich. The bigger house you have, the more money it is going to cost to heat that space, repair things when they go wrong and taxes you are going to have to pay on that property. The more expensive car you buy, the higher your insurance, repair costs and in most cases fuel will be also. On top of this, usually it is done by getting even deeper in debt slaving yourself away at lining the pockets of banks with extra money from the interest accrued which could have gone to buy twice to three times as much of what originally paid for to begin with.
The original reason why I was struggling to become more successful and build a better paycheck is to accommodate for all this extra stuff I have been accumulating. I was in debt so bad at one time, I was praying everyday that nothing would ever happen to me while I was working this job. I opened up Tearstone Performance for the soul purpose to help bail us out of the debt we were continually accumulating. I was a slave to work to pay for all my stuff.
Fast forward to today, after working intently from my very good friend Kim Staudenraus, a David Ramsey financial counselor, that debt is dumb. She coached me through pulling myself up by my bootstraps and charging head first into paying off this debt to get my head over water. Today, I have no credit cards and no car payments. I only owe money on my house which using the same principles as before.
So now, being debt free I am evaluating the need to work for someone else at all. The American dream is to focus your life at learning a marketable trade to eventually seek employment for someone else to make them rich so you can buy a bunch of meaningless junk that emotionally degrades your quality of life. I cannot help to feel that if I walked away from this career how many people would scratch their head to say “wow he walked away from a killer job, working at a killer company”. When I am lying on my death bed, I doubt I am going to say “only if I would have worked more”.
Sitting here at this company watching other employees fight tooth and nail to gain the admiration of the management in hopes they will move up in the company. These same people make this company their life by working late and taking time from their family and kids. They are caught in this rat race to pull out the stops to make more money to support a life that they continually grasping for constantly sacrificing time with their growing children they cannot get back. I am punished with reprimand because other people make these sacrifices and I do not. As I get older and begin to understand the big picture, that it is time to truly sacrifice things such as a big house or a new fancy sports car in exchange for focusing on being home and watching my children grow up. It is time to start working on getting out of this rat race and into a place where I can be in the driver’s seat of my own destiny.
I am sure there are many people that may feel guilty about the course their life has taken or may just be unaware of what they are giving up. Perhaps the greed of amassing a bigger income to have nicer things forces both parents to work while the kids fend for themselves at home. Even those who do not have kids, sacrifice their relationships to focus on their own careers instead of each other. This country in general has it’s priorities screwed up and admittedly I am no exception for falling in the trap.
The path less traveled would constitute securing a means of self employment which would give the flexibility of time without having someone manage my time for me. It would be nice to be able to go to my daughter’s open house at school or to a doctors appointment without having to be chastised by management about creating a pattern or taking too much time out of work on taking care of personal matters.
After the long day is done, it is time to go home. Within that time, the family is preparing for tomorrow to do it all over again.
Live simple, live happy.
About the photo:
This was a segment of track that lays down next to Orange Avenue in downtown Orlando.
Nikon D90, Nikkor 18 200 mm vr2
Bank Owned
Anyone who is going through turmoil as a result of an unstable economy or even a financial situation should feel like what this picture exemplifies. Most Americans rely on banks to provide things that we would normally not be able to afford on our own. Through that, they rely on a great source of income. Those who have lost that source of income, are now faced with the heavy burden of handling the finances for investments that at one time were a “sure bet”. The bank, alone is a master standing tall over you, thirsting for your pittance in return for your freedom to continue on until the next time it is demanded from you.
Some people, never wake up from being slaves to this financial institution. Most people are so blinded by consumerism and keeping up with their neighbors, they gladly give up their financial freedom to give off the illusion of status.
The bible states Proverbs 22:7, “The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.” There is no doubt that debt can take over the choices you have in life. The more you have the more it limits those choices.
About the photo
I managed to make my way to downtown Orlando to work on night photography. I love going downtown because it is busy with life, lights and architecture. With this shot, we managed to scale an open parking garage at the base of the BB&T building. Unfortunately, due to the high wall surrounding this particular parking garage, we became limited with our options. Framing up shots with the wall in the way without having a low building perspective was not easy. However, I figured I would take advantage of that perspective and shoot this building from the bottom up. Other than some slight contrast updates this picture is right out of the camera.
I took this picture with my Nikon D90 mounted on a tripod with a remote release.
Nikon D90, Nikkor 18-200mm VR2
