Debt is Slavery: and 9 Other Things I Wish My Dad Had Taught Me About Money, by Michael Mihalik. This book is short, to the point, and packed with lots of great advice. I’ve read it three times and I would put this in my top five personal finance books, possibly at number one. I think for someone just getting started with figuring out their debt and finances this is probably the first book to read. It’s short enough to get through very quickly and find some immediate advice and inspiration to get your finances under control.

The book offers this definition of slavery: “The state of being bound in servitude as an instrument of labor” [pg. 23]. Do you ever wake up in the morning and not want to go to work that day? Do you go anyway? Do you go because you really love your job that much or do you go because you owe money to someone (probably many people) and even though you may have a choice of how you’ll earn your money, ultimately you have no choice but to go to work and get that money. Lately, I’ve been dreading Monday mornings as early as Saturday night. I feel trapped and bound to this service by my debts.

“Too many people hate their jobs but are afraid to leave, because they wouldn’t be able to pay their mortgage, credit card bills, car loans, or boat loans. Debt can turn a free, happy person into a bitter human being. Debt can turn you into a slave.” [pg 25].

It’s possible for debt to be good, but debt is still slavery. A mortgage can usually be thought of as good debt, but you still must make sure you can afford the mortgage you are signing up for.

“The word ‘mortgage’ is derived from the Latin word ‘mort,’ which means ‘death’, and the Germanic word ‘gage’, which means ‘pledge’. So ‘mortgage’ means ‘death pledge’. What does that tell you?” [pg 30]

When we spend money, we are really trading our time for the things we buy. We make this even worse when we go into debt to buy things. We are now committing our time in the future to work to earn money to pay for the things we bought in the past. This becomes even more painful if you don’t like your job.

‘Stuff’ ads busywork and stress to our lives. So much stuff we buy we don’t even need. Eliminating unwanted stuff from our lives is an important part of getting control of our finances and getting out of debt.

Experiences are more valuable than stuff. Don’t find happiness only in buying things. You won’t look back on your life when you’re older and fondly remember the stuff you accumulated.

It will be easier to stop buying stuff if we avoid advertising and understand that we are constantly being marketed to and a lot of money is being spent to convince us to buy things.

Make a goal of saving 50% of your income. If you do this, you would have the ability to take a month off from work for every month you work (assuming you’re earning an income from a job and not passive sources). Don’t spend more money when you get a raise. If you keep your expenses the same as before, you can increase your savings exponentially, even as your income may not be increasing at such a high rate.

Money doesn’t buy happiness, it buys freedom. This is my greatest motivator for making more money and getting out of debt right now. I want to be free again.

This book is packed with solid advice, expertly fit into a short, easy to read format. If you’re just getting started with fixing a financial mess in your life, I would buy this book immediately. If you need a little extra motivation and a better understanding of the mistakes of the ‘normal’ American way when it comes to money and work, read this book. I had planned to give away my copy after reading it, but I decided this is one I want to keep on my bookshelf so I have it available to read again when I see bad habits creeping back into my life.

By Eden, Sat 15 Aug 2009, Comments Categories: Books, Reviews

To follow-up yesterday’s post, here is another excellent book that I came across while cleaning out my book collection yesterday. The Top 10 Distinctions Between Millionaires and the Middle Class by Keith Cameron Smith.

This is another short, excellent book that covers the basics that need to be understood to become wealthy. Don’t read too much into the title though, the focus isn’t about becoming a ‘rich millionaire’ rather solid advice that anyone can follow to become wealthy an successful.

Much like The Richest Man in Babylon, this book is packed with great information and keeps the advice short and sweet. It’s only 112 pages long (small pages at that), so you should probably set aside a couple of hours to read it all at once. However, the key with this book isn’t to just take in the information and move along. I highly recommend looking at each of the 10 sections and taking the time to review and work on the areas that need improvement in your life.

Read this book if you want some great motivation and an outline for financial success.

By Eden, Tue 16 Jun 2009, Comments Categories: Books, Reviews

I spent some time cleaning out my book collection today and came across a few favorites that are worth mentioning again. One of which is the The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason.

This is one of my favorite personal finance books and it’s a definite must-read if you are working on improving your finances. Not only is the information excellent, but it’s a short book too (my version is only 144 small pages).

The beauty of this book is that it’s not selling a gimmick or an easy way out. It simply gives you good fundamentals and a simple plan that anyone can understand and implement in their lives.

If you already know to pay yourself first and avoid debt, then you probably don’t need this book. Everyone else should read it as soon as possible. I found it to be one of the best books I read as I was getting started with figuring out my financial mess. This book and Your Money or Your Life are the two that come to mind first when someone asks me where to get started with personal finance.

By Eden, Sun 14 Jun 2009, Comments Categories: Books, Reviews

My blogging pace has drastically slowed over the past month or so- it’s not that I don’t enjoy writing for the blog, I have just been trying to use my time more efficiently to earn money, get out of debt, and lose weight. I have spent more time doing freelance work, working on building a small side business, and I have read several books (list of the books below).

• The Richest Man in Babylon – Loved this book, it’s a definite must read
• The Top 10 Distinctions Between Millionaires and the Middle Class – Loved this one too, another must read
• The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich – Lots of good stuff mixed in with some worthless portions that should be skipped. Overall, I would still call this a must read as it has given me lots of great ideas and inspiration, but be prepared to skip some of it.
• The Millionaire Next Door – Excellent premise and some good basic information, though rather long winded and dull at times (would be perfect minus about 1/3 of the words).
• Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money–That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not! – Not quite done with this one yet, but I love what I have read so far.

Look for more complete reviews on those books some day (obviously given my recent pace it probably won’t happen too soon).

I have been attempting to ‘unplug’ a bit from the media and Internet lately- skipping the news almost entirely, un-subscribing to email that piled up in my inbox for no good reason and being very selective about the blogs I read. I have found a lot of ‘extra’ time this way and my mind feels sharper than it has for a while.

One thing I have realized recently is that it can become easy to think you are doing something to solve your financial or weight problems (or whatever the current goal is) because you spend time writing about them (such as this blog) or spend time reading about them (see the 100 plus blogs in my RSS Reader). It’s not that those activities aren’t beneficial, but more time needs to be spent actually DOING something to solve these problems- hence my shift in attention to finding ways to earn extra money and spending more time exercising. I think it is especially easy for bloggers and avid blog readers to get caught in this trap (I know it was for me).

My advice is to take some time to think about what you are doing right now and ask yourself if it is moving you closer to the goals you want to reach or is it just making you feel like you are doing something when in reality you aren’t moving any closer- it’s an empowering question!

By Eden, Mon 3 Mar 2008, Comments Categories: Life, Reviews

I have used the Omron HBF-500 Body Composition Monitor with Scale to track my weight, body fat, visceral fat, skeletal muscle, resting metabolism, and BMI for just under two months now. I really like this scale and I’m happy I bought it. If you aren’t tracking your body fat at all right now, I would definitely encourage you to buy this scale or a similar product that allows you to measure your own body fat. There are less expensive options if you already own a scale and just want to track your body fat, such as the Omron HBF-306C Fat Loss Monitor (recommended to me by Lazy Man from Lazy Man & Health), but I have not used that one myself.

*Note – You need to be between 18 – 80 years old and between 3′4″ to 6′ 6-3/4″ tall for this scale to work for you.

The Omron HBF-500 Body Composition Monitor with Scale (referred to from now on as ‘the scale’) is about the same size as an average bathroom scale (maybe a little more bulky) and a bit heavier. With the many buttons and large digital display it looks quite a bit more fancy and technologically advanced than the average bathroom scale, but don’t let that worry you- it is very easy to use.

You’ll want to configure the scale before using it for the first time. The first step is to set the current date and time. The scale stores up to 90 days of results so you will want an accurate date and time if you choose to review the stored data points later.

The next step is to enter your personal information so the scale can give you accurate statistics. You can store data for up to 4 people and if you don’t want to store data or if you have used up all 4 spots, anyone can use the scale at any time by selecting a ‘guest’ profile. You need to enter your age, gender, and height. This information will be used to grade your statistics. You can also delete profiles and create new ones at any time.

Once you have stored a profile, using the scale is fairly simple, though you do need to pay careful attention to the order of operations to get correct measurements. Before stepping on the scale you power it on with a large button located on the back side of the unit. The display will flash and change to 0.00 when it is ready. After the display shows 0.00 and before you step on the scale, lift the display unit out of the scale (small T-shaped device with the digital display- see the photo) and hold the grip electrodes firmly. Select your profile number and you can now step on the scale. Simply place your feet on the foot electrodes (your heel should be on the rear electrode) and wait a few seconds for the display unit to show your weight. After your weight reading, the display will flash ‘START’ and you now need to raise your arms up to a 90 degree angle while holding the display unit. This may sound a little complicated, but it is quite easy to follow along after doing it a couple of times. You do need to follow along carefully though as the results can vary quite a bit if you don’t. After the scale has registered your other results (body fat, visceral fat, skeletal muscle, resting metabolism, and BMI) you can take some time to review the numbers.

The scale rates your results in each category, based on your age and gender, with 4 classifications (-, 0, +, ++). 0 (0 equals normal) is where you want to be in each category. It’s nice to have this instant feedback across categories every time you use the scale. It will also store your results for up to 90 days.

If you simply want to check your weight at any time, just turn the unit on, wait for 0.00 to display and step on the scale without lifting the display unit. You do not need to select a profile and the scale will not store this information.

The memory function is a nice feature, but I also write down my results every time I use the scale and enter that information into an Excel spreadsheet and of course I track my results weekly here on this blog. That may be a bit too much analysis for the average person, so it’s good to know you can go back in time a bit with the memory of the scale and see how you have done.

I have used the scale weekly for about two months now. The batteries have not died yet, so I can’t comment on battery life.

The instruction book that comes with the scale is very informative on its own. It takes the time to describe what each category is, why it matters, and what range you should be in to be healthy. For example, I had never heard of visceral fat before (fat surrounding internal organs). That is not a good thing because it turns out that too much visceral fat can lead to high cholesterol, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes. Unfortunately, I fall into the ‘high’ range of visceral fat, which is a little scary, but I’m glad I know about it now and I can use that for motivation to keep working at losing weight and getting healthy.

Summary
It is debatable just how accurate this form of body fat measurement is, but I’m not concerned as much with pure statistical accuracy as I am with having a baseline number to work with so I can measure my progress. Lets face it, I was never going to go see a personal trainer or other professional to get my body fat measured. I don’t belong to a gym and I don’t want to spend money on a gym membership. This scale provides an easy to use body fat measurement at home that you can do any time, in the comfort of your home (important when you don’t feel too proud of your body in its current shape). Prices seem to range as high as about $80 for this scale, though I paid about $65 at Amazon.com. You may not want to spend the money on this scale, but I would encourage you to get something that allows you to measure your own body fat. Omron also makes a handheld fat loss monitor for about $27, which would make sense if you already own a scale and want to save a little money. Also, if you don’t already own an accurate scale I would recommend the Omron HBF-500 Body Composition Monitor with Scale so you can establish accurate baseline numbers and track your progress over the long term.

I will continue to use this scale to track my weekly progress and I will update this post if anything happens that changes my opinion of the scale. Based on my experience so far, I can highly recommend it.

By Eden, Mon 21 Jan 2008, Comments Categories: Fat, Reviews