Author Archives: Craig Bailey

Apr 16 2014
4 Comments
Inspirational

Is There a Secret to Success, and Failure?

Is there REALLY a secret to success, and failure? Absolutely! In a nutshell, it is 6 simple words:

“We Become What We Think About“ ~ Earl Nightingale

The biggest challenge is in our mind. NOT in the world around us. We all (each and every one of us) have at one point or another setup false barriers to success (in our very own mind). We don’t think we’re good enough. We might fail. What will THEY think? We look around and see the accomplishments of others and want it RIGHT NOW. And, because we can’t have it right now we become disheartened and go about our daily grind.

It does not have to be this way!

Name the challenge (the obstacle that is seemingly preventing us from achieving our goals and dreams) and we can easily identify someone much worse off who knocked it out of the park.

We must realize that NOTHING happens overnight, by luck or some voodoo magic.

Once we define our goals and dreams, we must simply take daily action to continuously and never-endingly chip away at it – until! Until we achieve it. It may seem at times that progress is slow (or not happening). Just keep going. Many people quit on the precipice of success!

And, to keep us going we need a constant (daily) shot in the arm!

Earl Nightingale is a legend in the field of personal development. I recently found a 3-minute video that shares more about the secret to success (and failure), which happens to be an introduction to his timeless program “The Strangest Secret.” I have listened to the complete version of this program dozens and dozens of times and it has truly been (and continues to be) an inspiration in my life.

“Where you will be five years from now will depend on the books you read, what you listen to and the people you associate with.” – Dave Johnson

Programs such as this can make a big (HUGE) difference in terms of where we will be in 5 years.

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So, the question: Where will you be in 5 years? Closer to your goals and dreams? Or, looking back wishing…It is only a matter of action! The time will pass anyway…

Apr 13 2014
6 Comments
Financial Success

Time to Cut Another Cord (Cost)?

Still paying for a landline telephone (for the home), even though each family member has a cell?

We cut that cord many years ago, for 2 reasons:

  1. 99% of the time the landline phone rang it was a telemarketer. It was hardly ever for me, or at least someone that I wanted to talk to. If someone wants to talk to me, they call my cell! The same applied for the rest of my family.
  2. It was a perfect example of a negative draw on my net worth, with no value in return. I HATE that 🙂

Common objections and things we had to work through prior to killing the landline included:

  • “What if my babysitter needs to call me, or someone else in an emergency, while I’m away?” New criteria for selecting a babysitter: They must have a cell phone (although, our family is WAY beyond the need for a babysitter at this point).
  • “I don’t want to have to carry my cell phone around with me while at home.” Question: Do we carry our landline phone around with us at home? And, if we were to miss a call because we couldn’t get to the phone quickly enough, doesn’t it roll to voice-mail or an answering machine. The same can happen with a cell phone.
  • “What about my doctor, bank and other important people that need to reach me?” Give them our cell number!
  • “I don’t want to make my cell number too available as I’ll then get calls at times and places when I don’t want to be interrupted.” We can choose when to answer our cell, just like any other phone. For example: I don’t answer my cell when the number isn’t in my contact list. My kids will say “Dad, what if someone is calling you in an emergency?” My response: “If it is an emergency they should be dialing 911. Why would they be calling me? And, if someone REALLY needs to talk to me (when I don’t pick up, because their number isn’t in my contact list or I’m not available) they can leave a voice message and I will call them right back.“
  • “What about having a phone available for my young child, who doesn’t yet need or can’t afford their own cell phone?” Good question! An option to consider would be an Internet-based phone service that can accomplish everything a landline phone can, for less.
  • And, finally, the worst of all: “It is only $30 per month.“

Let’s run this through our monthly cost times 12 (months) times 10 (years) formula to determine the true cost of having this archaic thing, called a landline phone, still collecting dust in our homes. The answer: $3,600!

My wife and I recently returned from The Bahamas celebrating our 25th anniversary. The trip was less than it would have cost to maintain a landline phone over the past 10 years. I’m glad we cut the cord as you could say this (more than) funded our trip 🙂

Suggestion: Take a few moments to tally up the “small” / individual savings opportunities shared in this blog, to see what they amount to. 3 words come to mind: “A Small Fortune!” The tally will be shared in a future post once it is made more painfully obvious why it is so important to kill or reduce expenses that provide NO long term value and serve to delay the timeframe for achieving financial independence.

More to come 🙂

Apr 12 2014
1 Comment
Successful Kids

Questions and Taxes

Since our boys have a job (or jobs) they get to experience the “pleasure” of preparing their own tax return. So far, they qualify for the EZ form. However, because the EZ form isn’t all that easy, tax time results in me being bombarded with questions: “Where do I find the form, what does this mean, how do I calculate that?“, etc.

The approach I’m now taking is to have them sit down at the kitchen counter – together. And, I indicate: “You have a total of 10 questions you can ask me, between you. Use them wisely. First, try to figure it out amongst yourselves. If you agree that you need help ask, knocking one available question off the list.” It has now become a fun exercise with much laughter.

During this year’s session, one of my sons asked: “What if I put in the wrong number?” I responded: “This happened to your brother a couple of years ago. The IRS fixed it for him and gave him the correct refund.” To which he responded: “How did they know the right number?” My answer: “They take the information provided by you, the W2 from the company you work for and the 1099-INT from your bank and validate the numbers and calculations.” My son flips out and asks: “Then why am I doing this tax return if the IRS is doing it?!?!?!”

I explained: “It is not that simple, as there are variables the IRS does not know about that could impact your tax return. But, the question is a good one.” I therefore didn’t count this barrage of questions against their quota 🙂

The question made us think…Considering the fact that financial institutions and employers provide the IRS with the “basic” information necessary to prepare a tax return, there would seem to be a tremendous opportunity to streamline the tax filing process that could reduce our (the taxpayers’) costs and time. Let’s start real small (focusing on “EZ” filers). What if?

  • The IRS took the “basic” information they receive about us from employers and financial institutions (i.e., W2’s, W4’s and 1099’s) and apply it against our social security number. I imagine “something” like this is being done already! More importantly, this information could be made available to us online to support the following…
  • The “potential” EZ-filer log’s in to a myIRS.gov-type site to validate / confirm the information.
  • The necessary questions are asked to confirm the person qualifies for EZ filing.
  • If the taxpayer is an EZ-filer they simply populate the remaining information / variables on the EZ form and hit submit. They are done!

Doing so would significantly reduce the use of paper, stamps and (most importantly) numerous errors that I imagine the IRS deals with related to basic taxpayer information (especially from inexperienced filers). I realize an e-file option exists. But, it is 100% driven by the taxpayer collating this “basic” information. As such, it is impacted by the taxpayers’ ability to understand the forms and populate the information for filing purposes.

My intent isn’t to solve world hunger (I mean government bureaucracy and inefficiencies) with this post. The point: It is important to reinforce the benefits of asking good (TOUGH) questions. Doing so ensures we don’t become complacent with “this is just the way things have always been.” When possible, let’s find or create a better way!

In closing, let’s keep asking the question: “Why am I doing this?”

p.s. – Anyone out there have a connection with the IRS that could build on this idea 🙂

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