Have you ever started a project and realized half way through (or worse, once its “completed”) that a better design would have either saved you time or done a better job?? This has happened to me countless times.? Now, I try to get a second opinion, preferably from an expert, but even from a non-expert person, to validate my plans *before* starting the implementation.? Often, my plans will change with someones opinion - and on occasion I’ll change the entire concept, or even not do the project, due to someone’s opinion.

A single opinion is never superior to that of several.? Now… often I’ll discard others opinions if I’ve already thought through their objections, but often they think in angles I haven’t, which can make the design of my [computer software, woodworking project, gift idea, paper airplane, etc...] idea better because I can adjust for the angles I didn’t consider. If you try to amend a design after implementation, it can be impossible or very difficult to change - often resulting in expensive and time-consuming workarounds, rather than a better design.? Sometimes additional ideas can be easily integrated even after implementation has started - but don’t count on it!? Also - its still a good idea to get more opinions even after starting - because maybe you CAN easily change things for the better, but its always best to get opinions from the start.

Is this pushing regifting to the extreme?

While cleaning out our food storage area tonight, I noticed a (rather large) stash of Hallowe’en candy that we separated from the rest. We always do this at Hallowe’en to ration the amount of candy our kids have at once. This year (like years past) we forgot about the stash since we rarely go to the food storage area. Now that Christmas is upon us, here’s my devious plan….

Use most or all of that candy as part of the kids gifts/stocking stuffers. It will save us between$30-$50 easily. Our kidsnever knew that we kept some of the candy apart from the rest anyway, so its perfect. They are young enough to not know better.

Its perfect I tell you, PERFECT!!! MUAA HA HA ha ha haaaaaaaa.!!!

[dashing off into the night with a black cape and bag full of candy]

CalendarBudget recently started a forum. One of the things we discuss there is what features/benefits you want CalendarBudget to take care of for you. You can make any suggestion regarding something you need.

We also have a list of planned features that you can vote on here –> VOTE. Items with the highest number of votes will get done first. Take a moment and vote now!

First of all - the rule of thumb is NEVER buy a new car unless you have money to burn. Vehicles devalue so quickly, the financing usually leaves you paying for something that is not even worth the remaining balance you owe. In fact, as soon as you drive the car off the dealers lot you can take a few $1000 off the price you just paid. 0% financing may make is look more tempting, but its still a bad deal.

Now, having said that, I just bought a new car But I did so with my eyes wide open. You may recall from a previous blog that my van died. We decided at the time to try living without owning a vehicle. We tried the experiment for 3 weeks. The money savings were great, but here’s what we found. We were spending up to 1 hour/day trying to arrange for borrowing a vehicle to get our family (7 of us) to the places we needed to be at. That time (and to a less degree, the stress of feeling like a burden to those we were constantly asking) was something we didn’t fully consider. The time I would have been working was spent thinking of who to ask, making calls, leaving messages, returning calls, worrying about not getting to meetings I had, etc…

So in the end we decided that although we could live without a vehicle, it was causing more pain (time loss, stress) that it was saving us (financially). In fact this was triggered by a friend who discovered my situation and suggest a vehicle and described some financing I hadn’t heard of before. It seems car companies are desperate to sell vehicles these days. So, in the end we bought a new car - a Kia Rondo 7-seater.

Here’s why I did it: More…

So our oldest daughter (who just turned 7) had a birthday on Nov 19th. We have a family policy - big birthdays every other year only. This year was the off-year, so we told her just 3 people. We still wanted them all to have lots of fun and rather than just have a small party, we piggy-backed an activity that was already scheduled at our church. The Primary organization was having a craft day on the same weekend as the party. So, naturally we just turned that INTO the party More…

I came across this web site today, which allows you to create a card for people suggesting some other inexpenive options to traditional Christmas gifts.

Check it out (from our friends at I Will Teach You To Be Rich) http://nochristmasgiftsthisyear.com/

Last week, our van died. It was a cruel, fast death. The head gasket blew, engine light was flashing and the van produced a noxious smell with fumes and smoke. Not pretty. Luckily a friend was able to help me get where I needed to go. Once the dust settled, we got the van towed to a repair shop for an estimate. They estimated $2050. My goodness! Having looked up the selling price of the van, I knew that this repair would cost more than the entire value of the van.

[For those who has experience the same problem, a class-action law suit against GM has been settled and the details and claim forms are available here.]

We had some options to weigh: More…

Here’s a portion of the email sent to existing users:

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We at CalendarBudget love you and your feedback.

We are happy to announce that we have entered into a Beta period (for a few months) during which time access will be completely free.

We are making this move to introduce a number of new features such as auto-consolidation from bank transaction exports, tutorials and other great things that will make managing your finances even easier. The beta period will give us sufficient time to ensure that these important features are working properly and to incorporate your feedback before charging you for them.

We hope to get through this beta period soon (around February/March) and deliver these high quality features you’ve been asking for.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or suggestions for CalendarBudget.

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Now’s your chance - sign up today and really give it a test drive for several months for free, and enjoy all the new features being constantly added.

What is a financial goal?

Typically these include things like:

• What is important to you financially?
• What age would you like to retire?
• What do you want to do when your retire and how much will it cost?
• How often would you like to vacation, and what will you do on vacations?

Then you can figure out, based on what your goals are and how much money will be needed to accomplish them, how much you’ll need to save or how much money you’ll need on hand.

There are many online calculators that can help with some of these calculations, but I recommend seeking out a financial adviser to help get a complete and clean results. My experience is, get a professional to help you set goals and understand their implications. It usually doesn’t cost any money for an evaluation, and the results of the analysis will require some action anyway - and a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) can help you implement the plan.

The first step in planning your finances is to figure our where you really are today.

One of the best ways to get started is to complete a Net Worth analysis for yourself. A Net Worth analysis is a snapshot of how much you are worth financially right now. To do this, you should list all of your assets and liabilities with their associated, realistic values.

Assets are anything that when turned into cash gives you some money. Common items are: your home, vehicle, bank accounts, retirement savings (401K/RRSP), investments.

Liabilities are things that take money away from you (anything you owe). Common items are: mortgage, loan, credit card debt, spousal/child support. More…