Budget Musings

Archive for February, 2009

Earlier this week I had the opportunity to be interviewed by Brad Garland of Banktastic.com.
Check out the interview here (10 minutes) –> http://banktastic.com/posts/61-finovatestartup-interview-series-calendarbudget-com
Discussion points include what CalendarBudget is, how/why it got started, and some of our plans for the next few months.

Banktastic.com is one of the media partners for Finovate Startup 2009.

In the interest of making our intentions transparent, CalendarBudget has decided to publish its development plan.
“There’s been a lot of interest in whats coming in CalendarBudget, and we have nothing to hide.”, says Eric Poulin, CalendarBudget Co-Founder.
“We want people to know whats coming and approximately when.”
This plan is a living document, so it may change from time to time as priorities change, but here’s your snapshot of our exit from beta plan.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AoOIIEiYI6zsdFRuUmNkYUZMeUJveUJOY0xCYW4wN1E&hl=en

What is usually a 1 hour event involving an exhausting muscle-scrub around my bathtub, turned into 20 minutes after my wife suggested I try using the Mr Clean Magic sponge. Wow, what a difference. I was able to finish up in 1/3 the time and without a lot of effort. Now I can use that extra time to work on solving world hunger or state into the abyss longer

As society progresses other things change affecting our quality of life. The question is, are we better off than what our parents were at our age?

From personal observation:

• greater job security/loyalty during our parents time
• credit spending wasn’t so high – stress of increasing debt level
• crime rate?
• want instantly what our parents worked hard/waited to earn
• higher rate of secondary education?
• greater global economy – small change anywhere in the world affects the whole world

Check out this video which take a look at spending now compared to then.

It is more challenging to track your spending when you make either most or all of your purchases on a credit card. I find my purchases don’t show up on my credit card statement until at least 3 days later. By then I’ve forgotten what the breakdown of my purchases are. I like to break my purchases down into different categories. For example, if I make a purchase at the superstore I may break it down into categories of food (for groceries), clothes (for my new shoes), house (for the new drapes), and entertainment or miscellaneous (for the DVD). I track these break downs before I forget so I can live within my budget and avoid overspending every month and creating a large debt on my credit card which has a high interest rate.

I use CalendarBudget to track my credit card spending. I usually put a purchase in CalendarBudget before I make it (planning for it) to know when I can pay for it before it collects interest or schedule the purchase for a later date when I can make the purchase without collecting interest. For those occasions when I can’t pay it all off and I do carry a balance over, I track the interest gained by making a seperate entry in my CalendarBudget Credit Card account (accounts are just another tab in CalendarBudget) for the amount of interest shown on my credit card bill. This way I can still see the trends of my spending and can also use a category for interest in my credit card account and track and see reports indicating how much I am paying on interst as time goes on. I’d rather keep the money in my pocket so it’s been in my favor to track my credit card spending and schedule it to be paid off before interest would start accumulating on my credit purchases. Also, CalendarBudget’s remind me feature sends me an email so I don’t forget to pay off the credit card before that nasty interest gets me.

What helps you to keep on top of your credit card payments and avoid interest?

Last week, I had the opportunity to fight a 9th degree black belt. Of course, when I say fight, I really mean grapple (wrestling on the ground) and he was training me, thus being very VERY nice. Even so, I left having learned a lot and with a sore neck.

Similarly, I participate in a Mastermind Group – a group of like-minded entrepreneurs who meet monthly to share their successes and challenges and get advice from each other. I actually put this Mastermind Group together and purposefully invited several individuals who are WAY out of my league when it comes to business accumen.

Both of these situations result in me leaving a little humbled and sore, but with a wealth of knowledge and training that simply could not be gained in any other way. In order to reach your potential, you must reach beyond your capability and stretch yourself. An excellent way to do this is to be around and train with others far more expert than yourself. In my Jiu Jitsu class, I learn by sparring with others in a belt class above my own (which is everyone at the moment ). In business, I try to get myself around people who are much more successful than I currently am (who are willing to work with me). I bring what I have to offer too, so its not all me taking from the relationship, but its heavily weighted in my favor.

I think of this in the following way: If I want to reach level 10 and I am at level 5, I should work with someone who is around level 12+. This will show me how easy/simple/possible it is to get to level 10. A level 12 person is finessing level 10 material. They make it look easy and obvious. That inspires me to acheive that level also. I don’t want just the mechanics from a level 10 person – I want to do level 10 with ease and style. So – surrounding myself with people better than me make me a better person.

What does this have to do with money?

Its all about education and the application thereof. I spent time learning about how to manage money, and observing people and asking questions of those who did it very well. I learned that managing money is NOT tedious and boring, IS necessary, and SHOULD be done regularly. The results of these action speak for themselves. Anyone who is independently wealthy knows how to manage their money well, or hires someone to do that. I also study the tools they use and seek input from them on CalendarBudget.

Now I get input from a wide range of people on the CalendarBudget Forum.

How do you get yourself to a higher level?

We are excited to announce that CalendarBudget will be participating in Finovate Startup, a conference showcasing the best and brightest of financial software startups.

With participants announced just yesterday, we are excited to be included in the line up. See the announcement at NetBanker.

We are very much hoping to get a chance to demo CalendarBudget to the captive audience. Stay tuned for more news on this front.

The definition of poverty has been refined over the past number of years and the new definition is gaining support:

Old Definition: Lack of basic necessities
New Definition: Inability to provide oneself with basic necessities.

Its the old adage – “you can keep giving a man fish time and time again, or you can teach him to fish once”. This new focus on capability allows a more comprehensive focus on addressing poverty and working towards eliminating it in the world. With this new definition, the values of self-esteem and freedom are part-in-parcel with sustenance, making discussions on poverty more complete.

Capability is the key. This is why the educated are less likely to end up in poverty. With education comes capability, at least to provide for yourself.? We need to teach our children to be capable of earning their own basic necessities.? Perhaps its time to take stock on how you are doing with your parenting relating to financial matters.? Have you:

• taught your children how to save?
• taught your children about investing money?
• shown by example that you live within your means, curbing your spending and wants to match your extra spending money?
• taught and shown that debt is to be avoided where possible?

Teaching these and other principles will go a long way in ensuring our next generation does not experience poverty.