What I'm Reading: The Millionaire Next Door

My long awaited copy of The Millionaire Next Door arrived this weekend, thanks to Book Mooch! I've read reviews on this book by at least half a dozen bloggers, and figured that there must be something to the hype. However, I wasn't prepared to be completely sucked in by it.

I took the book with me last night, as we headed out to NWA Wrestling's 60th Anniversary match up. YAY for free tickets to good seats. Although we didn't have any blood spattered on us from our seats, we were close enough for YL15 to drool over the Junior Heavyweights. (My head... it does hurt...). But, back to my point!

I didn't read the entire time, just here and there between bouts. My AHA moment was after the show was over. As we were leaving Phillips Arena, I had the book tucked under my arm and was talking to the children. A man came up to me and said "Is that The Millionaire Next Door?". I was a little surprised, but grinned and admitted "It came in the mail today and I couldn't put it down!" The man smiled back and said "Good. Don't." and continued on down the street.

I don't know that I've ever had a conversation that short that impacted me so much. This book obviously has large and devoted following. So far, I can see why. Common sense abounds! I'll be sure and post a full review of The Millionaire Next Door as soon as I finish reading.

Has there been a book or a concept, maybe even a blog post that has had a profound impact on the way you think? Please share them here!

Research and Conversations

My co-workers are excited about the book I'm writing. They all want to talk about my process and my ideas. I think it's fabulous to receive such instant feedback, but some of the conversations it has prompted have blown my mind.

In the break room yesterday, I was speaking with a woman who is in her late 40s. We'll call her Kelli. Kelli lives alone, on one income. In previous conversations, Kelli has revealed that she has multiple maxed out credit cards that she only pays the minimums on because that is all she can afford. She is stressed and worried about her finances on a daily basis.

Kelli enjoys her McDonald's breakfast meal at her desk every morning. She can also be found at least once, and often more, per day at the Coke machine buying sodas. She wears stylish clothes and has a vast collection of gorgeous name brand dress shoes.

When Kelli and I were chatting about cost cutting and budgeting, she said "I know, I know.. the first thing everyone says is stop buying scratch offs!" Kelli is firmly entrenched in the "It's only $5 crowd."

I can rattle off 10 ways for Kelli to cut her costs without even having to think really hard about it. I can refer her to any number of my favorite blogs. She may have a heart attack if she read Lynnae's blog over at Being Frugal or Frugal Dad's words of wisdom.

I'm considering giving her a free copy of the book, when it's finished. I have a feeling she is going to provide me with a lot of valuable data for my research. It makes me a little sad to have these conversations. People like Kelli are why I am writing this book and starting my business in Household Finance Coaching.

We're Not Getting Stimulated

Or are we? There has been much discussion over the internet and in coffee shops and homes around the country about the Economic Stimulus Package. When are the checks arriving? What to do with them? Are they even a good idea? Gather Little By Little posted about it recently and his post has a lot of fabulous information... but it also created questions for me.

Wes and I owe about $40,000 in federal back taxes. We know we're not getting a payout from this plan. Or are we? Both of my exes owe over $10,000 in back child support. From what I understand, if you owe back support, the stimulus check will be offset. Does that mean that the money that isn't paid to the exes will be sent to me instead? Does that mean what if the IRS does offset the stimulus package for either ex, will they also apply that offset directly to my back taxes instead of sending it to me as child support? It'll be interesting to see how it plays out.

Is my snowflake too small?

I felt a little silly yesterday, sending a Billpay for $3.11 toward a $75,000 debt. I sent one for $3.89 not too long ago. I just wonder what the people who have to process these payments think of the insane woman paying an extra $3.11. Do they laugh? Do they make snide comments?

Not that I really care what they think. I put no stock in the elusive, yet omnipresent, THEY. But, it does make me wonder about the true cost to others. The bank has to transfer the money to the Billpay company. The Billpay company has to print the checks and put them in envelopes and add postage. The post office carries the check to the company. The company's mail room delivers it internally. The payments department has to log it and apply it to my debt. All of these steps just so my little snowflake can melt against the furnace that is my debt.

But, I sent it anyway!

How I Know I'm Making a Difference

Wes tells everyone about my blog! Correction, he nudges me when we're out with friends and says "Tell him what you write about." and "Dude, you're not going to believe our trip to the grocery store yesterday, tell him babe!" He is astounded when we load the entire back end of the mini-van with groceries from 3 stores and the total spent was $115. He reads my entries and sometimes looks puzzled, then asks "How do you know all this stuff?"

Our quality of life is the same, if not increasing, as it was before we started cutting out the frivolous spending. Some of the noticable changes have been:

• Drastically decreasing the amount of nights we eat dinner out has made the entire family, myself included, appreciate those special nights more.
• Making the grocery list and clipping my coupons has not only cut my grocery bills, but also my shopping time. I don't wander around the store anymore looking for what I need. I get the items on my list and I leave.
• My freezer and pantry are both filling up more every week with the stockpiling I'm able to do with The Grocery Game.
• We're starting to thin down the clutter in our home.
• The children are starting to learn more about conserving their resources and prioritization of spending.
• Wes thinks I'm brilliant and working miracles. I'll take it!

I've learned so much already from all my other blogger friends, researching finance articles and reading books. When I started this blog, Wes said "I don't know why you read all this stuff, they all say the exact same things. Stop spending and start saving. What's so hard about that?" The way I really know I'm making a difference in our lives is that his tune has changed so completely.

Big Scary World

The setup: Every night, our family sits together at the dinner table. There are very few exceptions to this rule. There are two chairs of major import at our dinner table: The Special Chair, and The Topic Chair. The children rotate their seats every night so that each of them get an opportunity to sit there. The child who sits in The Topic Chair is allowed to... you guessed it... choose the topic. The child who sits in The Special Chair gets to talk first. Over the last several years, we have had some incredible conversations and have also been enormously surprised by the things we've learned about our children during our family dinners.

Last night, the topic was "If you could create any law, what would it be?" Given the current political goings-on, we were happy to get up to our elbows in this topic. The laws we chose went like this:
10 year old: Everyone 10 and older could drive
12 year old: All households should have a cap on the amount of water they are allowed to use.
14 year old: Gays and Transgendered people would all have equal protections under every law. (WOW)
Wes: A flat consumption tax
Me: Every able bodied OR able minded person (as many physically handicapped people can still provide infinite value to someone's existance) would be required to volunteer a minimum of 2 hours per week of their time.

The conversation then rambled and we discussed the CCC (Citizens Conservation Corps) that was developed during the Great Depression. Wes and I had a lively debate about whether working in return for public assistance should be compensated at a living wage, or too low for a family to scrape by on. Now, being that I was a single mother with physical disabilities working a 3rd shift waitressing job for quite a while, I can intelligently speak on the subject of public assistance. The pros, the cons, and the realities of the situations facing people who need to ask for that assistance.

Where am I going with this? Well... my youngest daughter started to cry. We've sufficiently scared the 10 and 12 year old children so much, by discussing the Worst Case Scenario of people who live in poverty in this country, that they are terrified at the thought of growing up and leaving home.

We have a strict honesty policy with our children. Wes and I feel that, if they're old enough to ask questions and open a dialogue with us, we owe them straightforward (age appropriate)answers. We have been trying to teach them about budgeting. They all have their own savings accounts and get their monthly statements in the mail. I am working to teach them about budgeting, comparison shopping, saving for things that matter, and conservation. I don't think that they will grow up to make the same mistakes I have made with money. I plan to give them a head start and a good working knowledge of money dos and don'ts.

Now to convince my youngest child that it's ok to let go of my leg and play outside again.
Momma