Monthly Archives: April 2014

Apr 25 2014
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Cool Tools, Financial Success

Just Say “NO!” – To Paper

In a prior post I wrote about the importance of managing our email inbox and how firms we do business with are increasingly using email for correspondence they wish to send us. I think this is fantastic!

However, we all still get junk mail including fairly large catalogs which are never opened and go immediately into the recycle bin. I recently received a thick phone book. WHY, WHY, WHY?!?! If I need a phone number I’ll get it online from wherever I happen to be. Kill the phone book!

As stated in the prior post, we are burning through the forests of our planet for this WASTE!

All I want to say is “STOP SENDING ME PAPER!”

But, what is a person to do? Here is a great step!

There is a (free) service called “Catalog Choice” which allows you to opt-out of receiving catalogs and other junk mail (even phonebooks!). As they so simply put it on their website – “Here is how it works”:

  1. You receive unwanted mail.
  2. Report it to us.
  3. We’ll take it from there.

To sign-up, simply go to: www.catalogchoice.org.

Once you sign-up you can request that specific companies cease sending you catalogs and junk mail. After you have completed your request you will, over time, observe the amount of catalogs and junk mail arriving in your snail-mail box decreasing.

A simple step, indeed, towards going green!

In addition, as we cut down on junk mail we also reduce the temptations to buy the stuff being pitched to us. When we actually do need to buy something we can often find a coupon or sale online. I’d suggest we’ll spend far less by seeking out products and services we need (when we need them) than by impulsively acquiring “stuff” as a result of a catalog, flyer or coupon that arrived in our snail mail.

So many reasons to just say “NO” to Paper!

Apr 23 2014
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Financial Success

Debt Consolidation? Only For The Disciplined…

When considering the strategy of debt consolidation one must be very disciplined before “pulling the trigger.”

Presumably, the goal of taking this action is to consolidate several loans and/or credit card accounts into a single, lower interest rate account. Sounds good, right? Yes, if the person is disciplined and focuses on following through by eradicating that debt.

Too often, however, the undisciplined person consolidates their debt (all good, so far) but then pulls out that credit card (I have plenty of “available credit”) after seeing a shiny new object (watch, pair of shoes, electronic device or tool) that they “think” they must have. And, they continue accumulating debt. The result: they are worse off than they were before (further in debt).

For those undisciplined in this matter, prior to consolidating debt you are encouraged to:

  • Think twice, even thrice
  • Take steps to limit the ability to increase debt. This could include cutting up all but one of the credit cards. And, the remaining credit card can only be used wisely and paid off each and every month with the exception of an absolute emergency (i.e., the car broke down and I must get to work).

If you are prepared to pull the trigger on debt consolidation, there is an option that many do not (yet) know about: peer-to-peer lending. In a nutshell, peer-to-peer lending is a relatively new concept which is designed to bypass banks, streamline the process for (reasonably good) borrowers to obtain loans, at rates “more reasonable” than banks. And, investors are able to fund these notes (loans) to receive reasonable rates of return (much better than what you might receive by leaving cash in the bank, in a CD, etc.). The peer-to-peer lending company that I am experienced with (as an investor) is Lending Club. You can learn more about them (from a potential borrower’s perspective) by clicking on the image below.

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I will likely write a future post on Lending Club, for the investor. For now, if you’d like to learn more about them (from a potential investor’s perspective) click on this link.

In closing, debt consolidation “can be” a good strategy in an overall debt eradication plan. You can simplify (by only having a single monthly payment) and reduce the cost of debt. All good, towards reducing the timeframe to your debt freedom. Just use care not to create an escape hatch that provides an easy opening to increase debt which will only elongate the time needed to achieve debt freedom. Stay the course on your debt eradication plan. You will not believe the absolutely amazing feeling you will have with ZERO DEBT! It is only at this point that we are no longer a slave…

 

Apr 21 2014
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Cool Tools

Hard Drive Failure – Who Cares?!?

Recently, my Dad emailed my 2 brothers and I about his adventures after a hard drive failure.

I responded: “What? You don’t have everything backed up – in the cloud?” His response: “Go pound sand!” Love you too Dad 🙂

My response: “I feel a blog post coming on.”

In the past a hard drive failure, other major malfunctions or the complete loss of a computer were serious problems (or risks) for all!

Not so, anymore. In fact, if my computer completely evaporated I would simply turn to my left, or right, jump on another computer and be plugging away on whatever I was doing in seconds!

How can this be? I use the cloud! In my case Google Drive.

I’m using this AWESOME service in (at least) the following 5 ways:

  1. As a mirror copy of all the “working files” on my computer. As I create and edit files they are auto-magically saved “in the cloud.” And, by logging in to my account (from any connected computer or smartphone) I have access to these files.
  2. For my archives – Since my MacBook Pro has “only” 160 GB of storage I move any old stuff over to Google Drive and remove it from my computer. Again, it remains easily retrievable at any time.
  3. When I need to collaborate with others on a document I’ll create it in Google Doc’s MS Office equivalent (and FREE) app:
    • Google Document = MS Word
    • Google Presentation = MS Powerpoint
    • Google Spreadsheet = MS Excel
  4. Whenever we travel outside the country I’ll place our critical travel documents (copies of passports, itinerary and other “stuff”) in a folder and share it with the other members of my family (who are, and are not, traveling). That way, if anything were to happen to us or our docs, anyone of us could retrieve them. Feel kinda like a spy when I do this 🙂
  5. My email. Other than when I am fully engaged with a client, and need access to their MS Exchange system (to handle their internal email, book meetings., etc.) ALL my email is within Gmail. As such, my email is reference-able from anywhere / anytime and NOT dependent on, or downloaded to, any specific device.

Notes:

  • I realize that Gmail is a separate app from Google Drive. Since I’m on this “kick” about being in the cloud and device independent I thought I’d throw that into the mix.
  • I say I use Google Drive in “at least” 5 ways, because there are probably other things I’m using this for that I’ve failed to report on and have taken for granted 🙂

How much does all this cost? A whopping $1.99 per month for 131 GB of storage.

A (valid) concern that I had to grapple with was security. That is, how do I prevent unauthorized access to my account? In addition to the standard username and password layer of security, Google offers 2-step verification. That is, when you try to log in on a new device it will ask you for a top secret / randomly generated code (for your account). This code is provided as follows (more spy stuff):

  • Google offers an app for your smartphone: Google Authenticator. When you fire it up it generates a random number – for me / my account. I then type that number in (after my username and password) from the new device and “voila” I’m in.
  • But, what happens if I lose my iPhone. Google thought of that too and provides 2 options by allowing you to:
    • List Backup Phones that can be used to generate the verification code.
    • Generate “Backup Codes” in advance that you print and keep in a safe place (or on your person during travel) that can be used to gain access to your account (in addition to your username and password).

For me, the above was enough to allay my concerns with security.

Given this service (and others like it) there is no need to fear a hard drive failure (or the complete evaporation of a computer 🙂 ).

p.s. – My Dad just reported he is now backing things up in the cloud, using Dropbox. My brother tells us that Dropbox has the same file backup-related features and syncs to the cloud whenever a file is saved. Another great feature about Dropbox is that it keeps previous versions of your file. So, if (more likely, when) we screw something up and need to go back to a saved version from a few days ago, it’ll be there. Nice!

p.p.s. – Just remember to keep the app (Google Drive or Dropbox) running in the background. After “bragging” to my Dad about this I realized I had shut it down several weeks ago (for some reason). After lighting it back up it took 10-15 minutes to re-sync everything. We are again protected from disaster. Phew!

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