Oh My Goodness I Hate Tipping, It Ruins My Budget and Anxiety

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Let me preface that I used to be a waiter so I understand the value of tipping, but as a customer, tipping is the worst! It's psychological warfare at the end of every meal that results in either anxiety that you haven't paid enough or havoc on your wallet for paying too much. #opinion #personalfinance Let me preface that I used to be a waiter so I understand the value of tipping, but as a customer, tipping is the worst! It’s psychological warfare at the end of every meal that results in either anxiety that you haven’t paid enough or havoc on your wallet for paying too much.

Then exactly how much too much and too little for a tip? Common restaurant adequate says a tip should be 15%-20% pretax, but then why does every restaurant leave the anxiety for the customer to decide how much to tip?

Let’s face it, an extra 20% of a $60 check is still a lot on your budget. That’s $12 the menu doesn’t mention.

This History of Tipping is Murky

From what I found in the Business Insider and Washington Post (and it’s a murky origin story) tipping originated around 17th century England where the word T.I.P. meant “To Insure Promptitude”. The upper class provided extra “allowance” to servers (lower class) to be given faster service.

This practice made its way to America after the Civil War when wealthy Americans started traveling back and forth to Europe. So we can blame them, and I do.

Tipping Today Just Allows Restaurants to Pay it’s Servers Poorly

Because servers receive tips, the federal tipped minimum wage for tipped workers is as little as $2.13 an hour because they receive tips to supplement the difference (source).

That’s kind of ridiculous, right! Restaurants are allowed to only pay their servers $2.13 an hour and expect servers to get the rest of their income from tips. So when you pay your bill, you’re essentially paying for the food/environment with your bill and your tip pays the waiter’s salary.

If you’re a waiter, the customer is actually your boss since they’re the ones that pay you. So every day, every hour, you have a different boss. Yikes.

How Much Do You Pay Your Server Then?

According to Google, yes I googled “How Much Should I Tip”. You should be paying your server 15%-20% of your pre-tax bill.

This Is Where The Anxiety Starts

Which one is it? Do I tip 15% or 20%?

What If The Server Was Bad?

If my bill is $100, does the server get an extra $20 just because they took my order and walked food back from the kitchen?

What if they were awful? We’ve all had bad servers who ignored us. They took a long time or brought us the wrong items with a rude attitude. Is that when you tip them 15% instead of 20%?

What about if the food was awesome but the service was terrible? ugh

Should I feel both angry at my server for bad service but feel guilty since they’re paid so poorly? How should I feel?

I recall a study conducted found that bad servers still received 15%-20% regardless of how good the service was because people felt it was the socially acceptable thing to do. No one wants to be a bad tipper, but should I tip poorly to save a bit of money and prove a point to the server? Would a bad tip even make a difference?

What if the server was awesome?

You plan to spend a certain amount of money eating out and even account for a 20% tip. Do you exceed your budget further if your server was fantastic? Should your server’s awesomeness impact your planned budget? Should they be worthy of more than a 20% tip of that you’re still paying off student loans?

Damn it Janet, you were so great that now my tip for you exceeds my monthly food budget.

Are you a bad person if you don’t acknowledge their above and beyond service or will they quit trying harder if people don’t tip more for the great service?

What About Tipping During Group Meals?

Now imagine eating out with a group of friends, each pays their own bills and it always ends with everyone deciding the tip for themselves. All while each of you judges each other’s tips. If you only tipped 15%, does that make you a jerk if everyone else tipped 20% – 25%?

On the other hand, are you a jerk for tipping more than everyone? Are you considered flaunting your money because you can spend more money than everyone else or does it make you more generous or charitable?

This Is Why I Hate Tipping!

Why does a nice meal out with friends have to end with awkward silences while everyone calculates percentages in their heads while they secretly judge the performance of the server? Ending in silent comparison of who tipped more, who was more generous, and who felt more charitable than the rest of the group.

I Now Tip 20% Regardless of Service

Tipping makes me so anxious that I’m just starting to tip 20% regardless of service (paying with my credit card). The server can refill my drink at the perfect time or pour hot soup on my head. Creating a baseline 20% tip in every situation saves me from unnecessary anxiety at the cost of a few extra dollars from my budget. Sorry budget.

Except Subway “Sandwich Artists”, I still don’t understand why they now have a tip jar. They literally walk along with me placing ingredients I select onto bread. Is tipping at fast food restaurants now becoming a thing?

If you also tip 20% regularly, here is a chart to help you decide what 20% would be when you’re looking over a menu because they don’t list the extra tipping cost on the menu.

20% Tip Per Cost of your meal 

Check 20% Tip
$20 $4
$40 $8
$50 $10
$60 $12
$70 $14
$80 $16
$90 $18
$100 $20

If this seems like a lot of money to tip, you can always stay in and eat a Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich. Save eating out when you know you can spend extra money on a 20% tip.

What do you tip your servers? There is obviously no right answer otherwise they wouldn’t leave the tip field on every check blank. I REALLY want to know. Do you judge your waiter every service or, like me, give them a flat fee regardless?

10 Personal Finance Moves I Wish I Knew Before Turning 30

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Here are 10 personal finance moves I wish I knew before turning 30. #personalfinance #moneytips Sadly it was not until my early 30’s when I started to mature with my personal finance moves. I guess I can say, “Better late than never.” but I still get a knot in my stomach every time I think about the time I wasted.

Today I want to talk about 10 personal finance moves I think every twenty-something should do right now. I am going to talk about what I wish I knew during and immediately after college. This article will be extremely personal, sharing examples of the mistakes I made along with a couple of right moves.

If you feel like you are following my twenty-year-old self, it is time to make some personal finance changes in your life.

My goal with this article is that anyone, young or old, learns something new to improve their own personal finances. It is your turn not to do what I did in the past!

1. Plan for your future major expenses

Boy did I fail hard on this! I was too caught up with living in the moment. I think a lot of us can be like this when we are in our twenties and it is something we should keep an eye out for.

Where did this hurt me? Purchasing a home. I should have been more aggressive in saving up for that down payment when my wife and I moved out to Colorado. Instead, I focused on materialistic items and experiences (which are important but it wasn’t the time) during our first couple of years out here.

Why did this hurt me? Prices shot up like a rocket in Denver. We could have bought our dream home five or six years ago. In the long run, this didn’t kill us but it did set behind. We ended up buying a good starter home. Which we recently we sold, making $90,000 off of it and were able to buy our dream home with that money. If we planned better we wouldn’t have had to pay the premium we did on our dream house.

If I could do it all over again, I would create a roadmap for myself with those major expenses we had coming up. For yourself, those purchases could be anything you know is coming for you such as a home, car, master’s degree, trips overseas, and so on.

With the roadmap, you should lay out how many years out you want to make the purchase and how much you need for each purchase. These measures will allow you to make a priority list as well as how much you need to put away each month for these. We just recently did this so we can buy a new car with cash in a couple of years.

2. Have an emergency fund

The emergency fund is there for when life throws you a curveball. This curveball could include something horrible happening with your health, major car expenses, something going breaking your house, or even losing your job.

Many experts believe that you should calculate three to six months’ worth of essential expenses in your emergency fund in case you lose your job.

These expenses include (according to Vanguard):

  • Housing (Rent or mortgage)
  • Food
  • Healthcare (Medication, insurance, and so on)
  • Utilities
  • Transportation
  • Personal Expenses
  • Debt payments

But Suze Orman (another financial expert) argues against the three to six-month number. She thinks you should save past the normal recommended number. In her interview with CNBC, she states, “You need to know that you are going to be secure.” This is why she recommends having eight to twelve months’ worth of expenses saved up.

I agree with Suze. Just out of college during the Great Recession, I struggled to find work. It took me nearly eight months to find a job that would somewhat support myself. Luckily, I was able to lean on my parents during this time. I couldn’t imagine going through that without an emergency fund or without anyone to help me.

Sadly, I did not learn from this experience. I continued in my twenties without an emergency fund. If a major expense came up such as a skiing accident or car crash, I would have been screwed.

My wife and I currently have twelve months of unemployment and two major house expenses saved up for emergencies.

You also might enjoy reading about Andrew’s thoughts on emergency funds, My Emergency Find, Why I Keep $2,000 for Emergencies.

3. Budget

Your personal finance cannot be successful without a strong budget. Budgeting has become so easy with amazing apps such as Mint or Personal Capital. There really is no excuse for you not to be keeping a budget.

Setting up a proper budget will require way more time than what we have but we can take a 30,000-foot overview of it today. Basically, the goal is not to spend more money compared to what you make each month. You will want to layout your net income along with your monthly expenses and savings goals. Those savings goals along with any concrete monthly expenses that you cannot skip out on such as mortgage or utilities are the highest priority. From there you need to adjust those other expenses so your total does not go above your net income.

The difficult part, at least for me, is to stick to that budget (we will talk about this next). I am a foodie that lives in a foodie city, it is easy to lose focus and go over budget on the ‘Eating Out’ budget line.

I need to follow Andrew’s Peanut Butter & Jelly Theory when I am feeling the need to eat out.

4. Live within your means

It is so easy to spend on frivolous things nowadays. Man, there are some awesome materialistic things to purchase out there! You should see my shoe collection from when I worked in retail after deciding to leave landscape architecture. What a waste of money those purchases were!

This is where the budget comes in handy. You know how much you will make, save, and spend each month. Live within this budget, stay focused on this budget, and you will live within your means.

If you are feeling the urge to spend on frivolous things ask yourself this question. “Do I want or need this item?” Most of the time the answer will come back that you want the item, not need it.

5. Start your retirement fund now!

In the first couple of years outside of college, I was the victim of immature thinking, “I’m young! Retirement is so far out! I do not need to save for that yet!”

Please do not be that person! Start saving now if you have not already! This will set you up for personal finance success in the long-term.

Fidelity says that by the time you turn 30 you should have saved up what half of your annual salary is (Investopedia). So if you are making $50,000 a year, you should have $25,000 saved up for retirement.

My wife and I did get back on track once we moved to Colorado after I got my first ‘big boy’ job and my wife got her teaching position.

Image Credit: http://time.com/money/4258451/retirement-savings-survey/

6. Start paying off those student loans

I put off paying my student loans as long as I could. Big mistake. After almost seven years, I still had that original debt plus interest. I keep seeing friends on Facebook posting about how they just paid off the last bit of their student loans. Boy, do I envy them.

Get those student loans paid off as soon as possible to free up all of that interest money you are sinking into them. That interest money you save could go towards your retirement, your financial freedom.

 

 

7. Build up that credit score

This is an area that I excelled at. I was able to start building up credit back in college with student loans as well as an emergency credit card. Then when my wife and I moved out to Colorado, I was able to continue to build on top of this foundation. Over the last 12 years since starting my credit building I have only missed a handful of payments and now carry no credit card debt or car debt. All of this has led me to have an exceptional score!

There are some people who argue that a credit score is pointless if you shoot to be debt-free. This is a statement I can agree with if you either plan to never own a home or you have enough cash to buy a home outright. For most of us though, our credit score will be very important for us to buy that home. My wife and I both have excellent credit scores. Because of this, we were able to lock in a 3.25% interest rate for our latest home. This will save us thousands in the long run.

Image Credit: https://www.creditsesame.com/blog/credit/credit-score-range-for-experian-transunion-equifax/

8. Patience

Have patience for the big goals. In today’s world, we are conditioned for instant satisfaction. I am very guilty of this. I used to think too short term such as, “I have to earn that money now!” Keep focused on your long-term goals which will make you happier.

Currently, my wife and I are planning to travel to France for our 10-year anniversary. I have been tempted to make purchases for our new house that would disrupt this plan. These short-term purchases would provide quick happiness but it will not be the same as the memories France will provide. I still get happiness from the Pacific Rim trip I took nearly twelve years ago.

Do not fall into this trap. Play the long game.

9. Invest

Speaking of the long game, I have started investing again with the Robinhood App. This investing is on top of our retirement fund. This is intended to earn extra money through dividend investing.

The goal is to start earning a significant amount of income off of dividends.

My personal goal is to eventually make $1,000 or more a month just off of dividends. As you can imagine, this goal will take a while to achieve because it will take a lot of dividend stock ownership to make a large impact but eventually things should start snowballing very well.

I wish I had started this back in my twenties. Just the Apple stock that I should’ve would’ve could’ve bought in college would be worth over $200,000 today.

10. Keep learning about personal finance every day

You should never stop trying to learn about personal finance. There is always something new to learn. This is why you should try to read a couple of books each year about personal finance or just finance in general.

Either way, life is boring when you are not learning new things every day. Might as well make those new things something that will get you to financial freedom sooner. You could even start a blog about the new things you learn and earn extra money explaining them to other people.

For me personally, I bought myself an Amazon Kindle. I read every night now because of that bad boy. You can even connect it with your local library (if they provide the service) to check out free ebooks. Learning something new is never wasted time.

Time to Make Your Personal Finance Moves!

All of my friends call me the old man, mainly because I am the oldest of us all. Well, it is your turn to learn from this old man and the financial mistakes he has made.

If you feel like you are making any of these mistakes, as I did, it is time for you to make a change with your personal finances. Do not waste away the time as I did, you do not get that time back. Time will just keep moving forward, leaving you behind.

If you are looking to earn some extra money and need some ideas on how to do that, then check out our Creative Ways to Make Money page. Here Andrew and I provide 70, yes 70, ways you can make money outside of your 9 to 5 job. We even test these out for you so you can easily figure out what side hustle is best for you.

5 Strategies for a Perfectly Balanced Life

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I was asked once what are my strategies to balancing life with a full-time job, a kid, a wife, a house, and a blog. Well here are my strategies to making sure I get everything done during the week. #balancedlife #bloggingtips #lifeadvice

Last week we had our article about how I started a company and why it failed horribly get featured on Rockstar Finance. That was really fun for our traffic that day. During the day a gentleman asked a very good question and I feel like my response needed more. So here I am writing an article to elaborate on my initial response to his question.

Basically what Adam was asking is if I have developed any good strategies to keep my life balanced after what I learned from my failed business adventure.

The simple answer is, “Yes I have!” Let’s dig deeper though.

Priorities

Of course, there is a lot of stuff I want to work on or do but that is not possible. Time is limited. That is just the reality of life.

What I have done is created a list of Priorities that are the most important things to me. I then only focus on those items throughout the week. These are items that will get me to where I want to be in life.

So how is my time split up? What are my priorities that I want to fit in on a daily or weekly basis? Let’s list them out.

  1. Time with my wife (daily)
  2. Time with my son (daily)
  3. Time with close friends (weekly)
  4. Work full time (daily)
  5. Time in the mountains (weekly)
  6. Exercise (daily)
  7. Reading (daily)
  8. Wallet Squirrel (daily)
  9. Sleep (daily)
  10. Practicing software development (weekly)

As you can see, there is A LOT going on here!

Curious as to how I balance it all? You should probably read on to find out.

Practice

I want to start off by telling you that it took me a while to figure out what methods worked best for my particular situation. It will also take you time to fine-tune your schedule to fit in with your priorities every day. There is no one solution that will fit everyone’s schedules. Sadly, that is just the truth.

My goal today is to help lessen those growing pains.

To get started you need to just start doing something. Jump right in with a schedule. You will need to be open to being flexible. Once started, you will quickly learn that your schedule is rough. It needs to be smoothed out with time and experience. Kinda like how a rough ball of clay can be turned into a beautiful piece of pottery.

Unlike a piece of pottery though, your schedule will never be solidified. I am finding that my evening schedule is having to change as my son is starting to go to bed later. This means I will most likely have to start working a little later into the night. GREAT…

Plan Ahead

Overall, I have a series of overarching goals that I want to accomplish for 2018. Every Sunday evening I like to put together a weekly to-list of smaller goals that are going to get me closer to those goals. Doing this helps me figure out what I need to accomplish for the week and then I can start planning what I am going to do on each day of the week.

I like to use the Tick Tick to-do list application. It allows me to create a to-do list every week then put those tasks on a calendar. I can literally plan out my whole week down to the minute. I don’t recommend you doing this though. Leave in some breathing room between events/tasks because not everything goes to plan.

Prepare

I have actually written a whole article just on this subject so I will just summarize. If you would like to learn more check out my 5 Ways You Can Prepare Tonight for a Productive Tomorrow article.

The thought around this concept is to take 15-30 minutes every night to prepare for tomorrow. This includes everything from the Plan Ahead section you just read. Also, you should do the following.

  • Prepare your breakfast, lunch, and outfit for tomorrow.
    • Sounds silly but this saves A LOT of time when you are waking up at 4:30 in the morning to work out.
  • Look at what you did today.
    • Take a look back at what you got done, what you did not get done, and what you can learn from today to make tomorrow better.
  • Get a good night rest.
    • This means exercise, turn off the phone, and have a proper diet.

Get Creative

Sadly, I could not think of another title for these concepts that started with a ‘P’. To be honest, that was a total accident.

Anyways, you need to get creative with your time to make more time. For me, I was struggling to find time to work out 5 days a week. I tried to do it after work but I was being pulled in different directions once I got home. Then I tried to do it after my son went to bed but then I would be wide awake till late in the night resulting in me being super tired in the morning. Finally, I found a solution. Now I get up every morning at 4:30 to work out for 45 minutes.

I know, I am crazy. But, hey! It works for me!

You need to find what works for you by not being afraid to experiment and failing.

If you have a long commute, is there a way you could take mass transit instead to get work done? Can you bike to work to get in some exercise? Looking for more time to work on your new blog, get up in the morning an hour earlier.

Conclusion

Well, I hope this answers your question better Adam and for the rest of you. I hope you are now ready to get your highest priorities done every day.

What I Learned From Starting a Business That Horribly Failed

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Wanting to start your own business? Read this article first! I go through what I learned when I started my first business that failed horribly. #entrepreneur #selfimprovement #lifeadvice

Several years ago I decided to start my own landscape design company.

At the time I was working as a designer for a landscape materials company on the East side of Denver but the work environment was brutal. So, after 18 months of working in a hostile environment and dealing with a daily commute that sometimes took over two hours, I decided to move on. I wanted to go work for myself, leading to the start of Olson Landscape Design.

Boy, that did not go well.

Let’s explore as to what caused my business to horribly fail.

Most of it was caused by me being extremely naive in what it takes to run your own business. Today, I want to share with you what naive Adam learned from this experience so you do not have to find out the hard way.

Time

There is no downtime when you are self-employed, especially if you are just getting started off.

Think of it this way. Remember the times when you were little and it just snowed outside. What was one of the first things you wanted to do once you got to go outside and play? That is right! BUILD A SNOWMAN!!!

This might have just been me but I remember how hard it was to get that first snowball started. It would just glide on top of the snow as you pushed it, trying to get it to accumulate more snow. The smaller the little snowball was, the harder it was to gain momentum to get the snowball to start getting bigger and bigger.

Well, getting a company off the ground is the same way. It takes a lot of time and effort to get the ball rolling. There are no set times as to when you are working. The job needs to get done whenever you can get it done.

I did not realize this. I had other projects that I wanted to be working on as well and blending these different projects together did not work well.

Something else I did not know yet is that I had lost my passion for the profession. I was soon to find this out.

Passion

I had been trying to get my foot into the landscape design business for many years by the time I attempted to start Olson Landscape Design. It was a tough time because the Great Recession had hit the industry really hard. For several years after I graduated college in Landscape Architecture, I had applied for around 200 jobs. All of those applications led only to a 10-month long internship and then a full-time position at the hostile landscape materials company in Denver.

Simply put, I had gone through a lot of crap.

By the time I got around to starting my own business, I did not realize that I had lost my passion for landscape design. The will to continue to work when I did not want to was completely gone.

Passion is what you need to keep the drive. It is tough working at the hours of the day that is inconvenient when you have zero passion. I recommend taking a look in the mirror to really ask yourself if you truly do have a passion or not. Be honest with yourself.

Self-Confidence

I have always struggled with self-confidence issues. It is really tough to let go and accept that you are in fact awesome with amazing ideas. I also worry WAY too much what others think which plays into my self-confidence issues.

For me, as a young designer, I did not believe in my skills. I worried too much what the contractors thought about my designs. These issues compounded themselves that kept me from reaching out to potential clients as often. Obviously, this resulted in a lot of lost business.

In the end, this was the major issue that did not allow Olson Landscape Design to take off.

I had another designer friend who started his own business at the same time as me with similar experience. He had that confidence in himself which allowed his business to take off. The last time I talked to him he had his own construction crew. It was awesome to hear!

Official Stuff

I had no issue with designing a logo, setting up the website/blog, getting started with new designs. What really got me was all of that administrative stuff (setting up an S Corp, taxes, payroll, cold calling, and so on).

I knew that I would have to take care of all of this stuff before I got started. The issue is I did not know how far underwater my head was. To get this stuff done took a lot more commitment and I did not understand this. Remember, I told you I was super naive before getting started.

Anyways, now I know that there is all of this boring stuff I need to keep track of and how to do it best. It does not bother me anymore that my eyes have been opened.

Wrapping Things Up

Olson Landscape Design lasted for about 10 months until I decided to go back to school for my masters in Software Development and Program.

I am a better person because of this experience. It helps me on a weekly basis while working on my latest entrepreneur project, Wallet Squirrel. I am not as naive as I once was because my eyes have been opened.

 

 

16 Daily Habits That Will Improve Your Life

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Looking for ways to improve your life? Here are 16 daily habits that will improve your life. Get on track with project me by improving your habits. #selfimprovement #projectme #dailyhabits

Today I want to help give you ideas to improve your life. Because of this, here are 16 daily habits that will improve your life.

Let’s get to making life better!

1. Get Good Rest

You probably already know this but I am going to tell you again anyway. GET SLEEP!

It is clinically proven that your brain does not function as well when you do not get a good healthy amount of sleep. Sleep plays a critical role in…

  • Immune function
  • Metabolism
  • Memory
  • Learning

These are just some of the roles that sleep helps. There is other vital functions sleep helps out with. (Harvard).

To me, it seems pretty obvious sleep is important. So make sure you get enough of it!

2. Excercise

Need help getting better sleep? Exercise helps with that.

Not only does it help with your sleep patterns but exercise is one of those things that really help your physical health.

Exercising is one of those daily habits that will improve your life. I know it is tough but it is crucial!

Not more than three months ago I started having horrible lower back pain that was affecting my life. Why? I had gotten that far out of shape. About a month ago I started getting up at 4:30 AM to exercise before work. Boom! Now the back pain is gone!

3. Wake Up Early

I know, this goes against #1 but it works well with #2! So let’s just go with it.

You really should get your day going early. This allows you to take control of your day rather having your day control you.

I have noticed that my productivity at work has gone up since I start getting up early to work out.

Are you one of those people that wants to wake up early but just cannot. I understand. Check out this article where I talk about how to do just that.

4. Eat Healthily

Back to the whole health thing that we mentioned in the exercise section. Health is key! If you want to go enjoy what you love doing, you need it.

To be upfront with you, I love a greasy hamburger with a side of fries and a beer for dinner. Sadly, we cannot do that every night and to be honey we should not be eating like that every week. Why not? Well because pizza has to fit in there somewhere.

In all seriousness though. Moderation is the key when you are trying to eat well. This is a more realistic goal and helps keep you from binging if you do relapse.

My wife and I eat about five really good meals each week. The other two we let things go. I have cut out MOST of the sweets and only have a beer as a special treat here and there.

Since starting this diet, that really is not a diet, I have lost almost 15lbs. Pretty crazy right?

5. Slow Down

This will look different for everyone. For me, I like to ponder the world in the shower.

Others might like to do yoga or meditate or go for a walk.

Why is this important? This quiet time really allows you to sort things out. Do you have something from work stressing you? Are you stumped about a life problem?

Taking some time to yourself is just what you need to work through these moments. Or maybe you just need some time to clear your mind.

6. Plan Your Day

To get the most out of the day you really should plan it. I use a to-do list app called Tick Tick that helps me plan out my day’s activities to the minute.

By having this plan in place I become more focused. My ADD does not kick in when I have everything planned out with what I need to work on.

7. Focus on High Leverage Activities

I always get overwhelmed when my to-do list gets too long. It is always tough to figure out where to start.

Awesome news! I can help you if you have the same issue as I do. Start with the tasks that are going to give the most bang for your time. Focus on those tasks with the biggest reward.

8. Learn New Skills

There is so much for us to learn in our lifetime. The time to start learning all of it is now!

Never stop learning!

Choose skills that are going to get you farther in life. These skills might get you farther in your career, financially, relationships, or whatever else you might think of. Just make sure the new skill is something important and will help you with your life goals.

9. Read

A great way to learn those new skills is by reading. Try to make a goal to read a new book every month.

One month I like to read a fun book then next one I read something that will teach me a new skill. This month I am reading an amazing book about habits by Charles Duhigg called ‘The Power of Habit’.

Go ahead and read away. Then apply it to everyday life!

10. Surround Yourself With Doers

One reason I love Andrew being my best friend is that he is a doer. His actions push me to do more. It also helps that we are so darn competitive to one-up each other.

Just so you know…I am winning… 🙂

By surrounding yourself with doers, you are allowing them to push you forward. We, as humans, naturally tend to match their performance.

Also, who wants to hang out with people that are always dragging you away from your life goals?

You do not want to always be dreaming because of the people you surround yourself with. You want to be celebrating the accomplishments with the friends that make you a better you.

11. Reflect & Evaluate

It is always good to stop, look into the mirror, and give yourself a good evaluation.

Are you heading in the direction you want to be? If not, this is the time to figure out how to get back on course.

Remember, be honest with yourself.

12. Laugh & Smile

Laughing and smiling brings joy to your life. What does joy bring? Joy brings energy!

People will want to be around that energy you bring into their life.

13. Be Positive

Negativity is no fun. No one wants to be around the person that is always negative.

Lately, I have noticed more and more negative thoughts from people. Most of the time this negativity will get you nowhere.

Just let it go and get back to living your life.

14. Enjoy the Outdoors

Who does not love getting some sunshine? Get outside, walk around, and breath in the fresh air!

Yes, this is another health daily habit.

No, this is not hard to accomplish. Every day on my lunch I go for a 30-minute walk outside. It is amazing how much more energized I feel afterward!

If I can do it, so can you.

15. Love

What is better than having an awesome life? Having an awesome life with someone you love.

I am very fortunate to have met the love of my life 10 years ago. I cannot imagine life without her.

Do not let that type of love escape your grasp.

16. Have Fun

To simply put it…

Love your life. Play. Don’t be too serious. Goof off.

Don’t let others ruin your fun.

Find others to be around that enjoy life as much as you can.

What Did I Miss?

I am sure I missed out on a lot! Comment below to tell us about any other daily habits that will improve our lives.

Does this sound amazing? Again, if you really want to learn how to change your habits, I highly recommend reading ‘The Power of Habit’. This book looks at habits from a scientific perspective as to what is really going on in the brain and how you can change it.

I Started Investing 3 Years Ago, Best Decision I Ever Made

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In the beginning of 2015 I paid off my credit card debt for the first time and started to learn about investing.

It was terrifying, but so totally worth it!

How I Perceived Investing As A Kid

Up until 3 years ago (I was 28), I knew NOTHING about investing. To me, investing was some insane, chaotic spree that made rich people rich and the middle class poor. I didn’t know how it worked, but I knew tons of people who lost money during the recession.

If you’ve ever watched any movie that talks about Wall Street or Investing, it’ll have your brain swimming in confusion trying to understand it. Were they just trying to make it look hard and impressive? (Yes).

I was terrified of investing, I just shut down anytime someone talked about investing and assumed they were a financial genius if they owned stock. Someone who had enough money to pay their bills, live their life and put something extra away investing for retirement was a financial god to me.

I Started to Learn About Money On My Own

Like I said before, at the beginning of 2015 (3 years ago) I paid off my credit card debt after paying countless $70 monthly payments. So once I paid it off, I wanted to use that $70 for something else, something reasonable.

I will admit my company did have a financial planner come into our office and talk about our 401(k) plan. While the company plan was pretty awful, the financial planner did a great job at terrifying me to death.

I will always remember their words “Running out of money in retirement is worse than death”

Well f*&k, that was more terrifying than Halloween. So I started to learn more about money and how it worked.

I started reading finance books like “Total Money Make Over” by Dave Ramsey. I consumed it in a day.

I started listening to finance podcasts. Not the hardcore stock analysis ones, but the more Investing for Dummies type of podcasts like “Listen, Money, Matters”. I LOVED that podcasts and in my mind, being surrounded by those announcers talking about money and finance as a regular thing, I began thinking of money in a different way.

After reading books and listening podcasts. I started to view money not as static thing to sit in my bank account, but more as income streams.

Understanding how much money I had in my bank account mattered less than how much I had coming in each month. That’s why investing became a fascination because it’s one of the most common income streams for people.

I Tried Investing $100 To See What Happens

On the podcast “Listen, Money, Matters” they raved about the investing app “Betterment” (Adam uses Betterment and did a review). They brought the Betterment team on the podcast and explained it and how it’s meant for people who know nothing about investing but want to start. That was me!

I remember how nervous I was signing up. I had to put in my info and social security number. I was convinced that I would immediately lose all my money straight away and because they knew my social security number, the IRS would start to hunt me down.

This was a legit fear I had.

Since I had so much anxiety, I only invested $100 to see what happened. I invested in a “moderate risk” portfolio which they automatically invested for me. All I did was put in $100 and waited to see what happens.

They say not to check it daily, but I did. Oh my goodness, for the first week I checked it hourly. I wanted to see EXACTLY how the stock market worked. After a week I limited myself to daily. So for 5 months, I checked my Betterment account every day, scruitinizing everything that happened.

However, I found that my money fluctuated. One day it went down to $99 then up to $102 and slowly kept rising. This helped me understand how the market moved (at least during those 5 months), how it worked and it slowly became less mysterious.

In fact, I started to notice little things like every once in a while, I would receive extra lumps of change in my account. Just a few pennies, but they were dividends. I received money just from owning certain stocks. I couldn’t tell which stocks with Betterment because it doesn’t show that amount of micro detail, but it was a great feeling.

Then I started to invest more and look at other stockbrokers (companies which you need to invest) like the Robinhood App (I still use Robinhood, here’s my full review on how it works). With Robinhood I could start to pick my individual stocks and it was amazing! I chose stocks that were on the safe side such as Apple, Realty Income and Johnson & Johnson that were well known and established. I knew if these companies tanked, there was something seriously wrong with our economy, so I felt comfortable.

I Wasn’t Addicted, But I Was Obsessed

After I learned how the stock market worked, I felt comfortable but wanted to see more gains than the couple of cents I had been earning. So I could have gone in two different directions. I could have started to invest in risky stocks for bigger gains (don’t recommend) or find new ways to earn money so I could buy more stocks. I did the latter.

Now I write articles online for money, use interest checking accounts, sell stock photos, sell things on Craigslist, use a cashback credit card and more to earn extra money each month and invest it!

Today, It Absolutely Was Worth It.

I’m not advocating for a certain investing approach, but I do want you to see money as income streams rather than a lump sum. It absolutely changed my life.

Before I was happy with $2,500 in my bank account. It was more than any of my friends had. I now keep $4,000 in both my checking and savings account as an Emergency Fund and invest the extra money each month in my investment portfolio.

Knowing I have the extra money and extra streams of income each month gives me SO MUCH more confidence to know I’ll be OK if an emergency comes up or I want to go on a vacation. That piece of mind is one of the greatest feelings ever.

How to Learn From 2017 to Perfect Your 2018 Goals

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How to Learn From 2017 to Perfect Your 2018 Goals

Happy New Years to everyone!

We hope you had an amazing 2017 and that you are ready to tackle 2018!

As I mentioned last week, let’s talk about what goals we failed in 2017 to make 2018 more successful.

I am no goal expert but I thought I would share my method to succeeding at goals. Either you will learn something new or you can give me some more advice in the comment section below.

Setting Goals

If you do not already, you should be setting goals for yourself. These goals should be your big year-long goals. Then there should many smaller goals to accomplish those.

This time of year I focus on the year-long goals. Those other little detail goals are future Adam’s problem.

To help me organize them I use a mind map. Mind maps help me organize the goals better. You can use whatever method you want to though.

My favorite app to use is the Mindly app. It has a very clean and easy to use interface.

Here I figure out two or three year-long goals that are nestled under my life goals. This ensures that I take a step closer to those massive goals each year.

Example of Mindly

Looking Back

To be honest with you, I do not accomplish each and every goal every year.

I can say that I have become more and more successful each year. When I first started this goal-setting method two years ago, I only accomplished around 25% of my by year-long goals. This year I am at an 80% success rate!

How did I keep improving?

Well, at the end of each year I take a look back to figure out how successful I was. When I did this for the first time it made me really depressed as I felt like I wasted a whole year. This motivated me to focus better for the upcoming year.

The next thing I do is take an honest look at why I failed last year’s goals. For me, it is mostly because I did not focus enough throughout the year. I lost track of my goals during the year and forgot about them.

Looking Forward

You should now figure out a way to fix and implement that fix for the upcoming year.

For me, this coming year I look to fix my focus issue so I do not forget my goals.

To implement this fix, I will look at my year-long goals every week to see what I can do next week to get me closer to those goals. This technique will be the same thing I do with the year-long goals but on a smaller and shorter timeframe.

If you wanted, you could do this on a day-to-day basis as well. I might switch to this later in the year but will start with a week-to-week time frame while setting daily to-do’s.

I am hoping this technique helps keep me focused throughout the year to check-off all of my year-long goals!

What do you plan to implement this year?

Time to Tackle Those 2018 Goals!

Now it is time to go make 2018 the most successful year of your life!

I dare you to write your goals in the comments below and come back to this post in 365 days to see how successful you were.

To keep things fair, here are some of my 2018 goals.

  • Personal – Read one book per month.
  • Blogging – Get Wallet Squirrel’s viewership up to 50,000 per month.
  • Finances – Cut my student loan debt in half.

Again, Happy New Year! Andrew and I are truly thankful for all of you for making 2017 a special year! We are so excited to see what 2018 has to bring to Wallet Squirrel.

 

Cheers!

Adam

 

Serious Question: What Makes You Happy At Work?

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Serious Question: What Makes You Happy At Work?

I get the simple reason why we work, we want to make money to do the things we want to do. We trade time and energy for money. Then spend money on things to make us we need/want. This I totally get.

However, most of us are trading time and energy for money and still unhappy.

In fact, over 52.3% of Americans are unhappy at work.

This is crazy! In most cases if something makes you unhappy. You quit doing it! Yet most of us go to work every day at places we don’t want to be.

Are we idiots?

Are You Unhappy With Your Job?

I was recently asked if I was unhappy with my job? I was a little surprised a co-worker asked me this. Their reasoning was that I USED to be extremely happy and excited about everything, now I was more monotone or lacked the excitement I used to have.

Honestly, I was a little pissed. No one wants to be told that they lack anything. Yet in reality, I was madder at myself that I let it show that I was unhappy. I’m part Irish, I’m used to bottling up my feelings and not tell anyone that anything is wrong.

It made me ask myself if I was unhappy with my job? It was pretty scary.

What Does Unhappiness at Work Look Like?

If you ask yourself “Are You Unhappy At Work?” it’s not an easy answer. So I started to create a list of signs that would force me to see the truth.

  1. Do I hate waking up in the mornings and coming in for work?
  2. Do I feel I have no future at the company I’m at?
  3. Does the day fly by or drag on?
  4. Do I get excited about new projects or is it dread?
  5. Am I doing the same thing over and over or is it new and exciting?
  6. How do I describe my job to new people?
  7. Does Jenny in Accounting ask if you’re unhappy at work? WTF

Dang, I totally answered yes for quite a few of these. So do I quit my job now or start looking for a new one? I freaked out just writing this list.

Does it even matter though if I hate my job? Whether I hate it or love it, I still NEED it. I have bills to pay and the money I make can buy things that make me happy. Should something I do 40 hours a week need to make me happy?

Well, yes….. Your job should totally make you happy. It absolutely should. However, before you quit you should answer the same question I’m now asking.

What Would Make You Happy At Your Current Job?

The other day I pulled a senior co-worker aside and asked them “What do you think I should do in 2018 to improve the company, goals, vision, etc?” I was expecting some generic answer like things to help the bottom line. However, he surprised me entirely.

One of the best questions I’ve ever been asked was “What do you want to do that makes you happy?”.

Holy Cow! It’s a simple question, but one I’ve never been asked before. I couldn’t actually answer right there and there though. I told them I had to think about it and I’m still thinking about it.

What would make you happy at your current job?

Most people say better pay, but that’s a reward, not necessarily something that affects your everyday duties. What would you change in your day-to-day duties that would make you happier?

That’s currently what I’m thinking about. What would you say?

5 Ways You Can Prepare Tonight for a Productive Tomorrow

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Struggling getting up in the morning? Here is how to concur that speed bump. Learn how to prepare tonight to have a productive tomorrow!

5 Ways You Can Prepare Tonight for a Productive Tomorrow

We have all at some point in our lives thought to ourselves, “I am going to wake up early tomorrow to work out!”

Then tomorrow comes. Your alarm clock goes off at 4:30 AM. Then 4:35. Then 4:40. This snooze action happens all the way until 5 AM comes. At this point, time is beginning to slip away quicker and quicker where you are losing the time to workout. You might as well just go back to sleep for 30 minutes before starting to get ready for work.

Your mind is racing, fighting between what you need to do, work out, and what you want to do, sleep. Eventually, you make the decision just to sleep more because you fought with yourself until it was too late to workout.

It feels so good to roll back over into bed to grab a few more minutes of rest but later regret sinks in. As you hop into the shower, you start getting angry with yourself. You yell at yourself throughout the morning finally coming to the conclusion that you will try again tomorrow.

Then tomorrow comes only as a repeat. It is like you are stuck in the movie Groundhogs Day and Bill Murray is not there to lend a shoulder to cry on. What a nightmare!

Well do not worry, you are not alone! We all go through this struggle. And let’s face it, it really is a struggle to get that motivation to get out of bed at 5 AM!

Luckily, I have actually figured out a way to get over this mountain. The secret is all in the preparation you do tonight that will help you be more productive tomorrow whether it is working out, finishing a big project, or just wanting to get more tasks checked off the to-do list.

via GIPHY

1. Prepare Breakfast, Lunch, and your Outfit for Tomorrow

To start your tomorrow off right, you need to get some physical items checked off first.

I always think about what am I going to eat for breakfast. If it needs some preparation I get that done tonight so I can just pop it in the microwave and go. This does not take that long. The breakfast prep usually only takes about 15min out of my evening.

My wife and I always make enough food for dinner to take leftovers for lunch the next day. This really makes our lunch prep super easy. As I am plating our dinner I also throw some of it in some tupperware. Within a couple minutes, I can throw some yogurt, fruit, veggies, along with the leftovers into my lunch bag.

Boom! In 20 minutes or less, I have all of my food ready for tomorrow!

Now it’s time to spend another 2 minutes pulling out what I will wear tomorrow. For me, this does not take that long as I am not the most stylish person, unlike Andrew. You can see the difference on our About Page.

There are other things you can get ready as well. I like to line up my workout clothes and shoes in the morning along with any supplements. Other people might consider getting the coffee maker or their work bag ready.

via GIPHY

2. Look at What You Did Today

It is always good to look at the past to see how you did. Answer the following questions…

What did I get done today? Is there anything I did not get done? What can I learn from today to make tomorrow better?

These questions should help you learn from your mistakes as well as help motivate you for tomorrow.

The key here is, to be honest with yourself. Do not just quickly answer each one of these questions, actually look at your day and your performance. If you take a deeper look at what you actually did, you have a higher chance of finding ways to improve yourself for tomorrow.

3. Map Out What You Need to do Tomorrow

After looking into the past, it is time to see what you have ahead of you. What do you need to accomplish tomorrow?

Mapping out your day is extremely beneficial because it creates a solid plan as to what you need to do and when you are going to do it.

I tend to lose productivity in my day because I do not know what to tackle first. This creates a scattered brain moment for me, paralyzing all of my production until I can lay out what needs to be done.

I like to use the Tick Tick application to help map out my day. Using the calendar mode allows me to see what my day will be and easily adjust to unforeseen speed bumps that will happen.

Overall, I find that mapping out my day allows me to stay more focused on the tasks that need to get done for the day. Staying more focused throughout the day allows me to check off so many more to-dos on my list.

via GIPHY

4. Get a Good Night of Rest

Sleep tonight is key for a productive day tomorrow. There is so much you can do to help you sleep better at night

Work out: Working out helps wake you up for when you want to be awake but it also tires you out for a good night of sleep. Try to get at least 60 minutes of physical activity every day.

I spend 30 minutes before going to work on the stationary bike. Over my lunch break, I go for a 30-minute walk. Then finally I try to do 30 minutes of yoga after work.

Turn off the phone: Looking at a screen an hour before going to sleep can stimulate your brain again. Obviously, you do not want to do this right before going to sleep.

Instead of reading on your phone try to read a book or pick up an Amazon Kindle Paperwhite. This will help your mind calm down for a good night of rest.

Eat and drink right: Avoid eating or drinking any sugary drinks close to bedtime. Also, avoid caffeine or alcohol within four or five hours of going to bed.

When you wake up, drink a glass of water. This will get you rehydrated from the night and get your body going the right way.

via GIPHY

5. Do Everything Within 5 Seconds

Watch this speech from Mel Robbins below until about the 16:00 mark. Go ahead. I will wait for you.

This will be the best 6 minutes you spend watching any video today. Maybe even the week. For me, it was the entire year.

If you are going to take anything from today’s post, it should be this advice, DO NOT HESITATE!

When you are laying in bed, trying to talk yourself out of getting out of bed, start counting down from five. Make it a goal to get out before you reach zero. If you cannot, it is less and less unlikely you will actually pursue your goal.

These moments happens ALL day long. There are times throughout the day when you know what needs to be done but you hesitate. If you do not move into action within five seconds your brain starts to talk you out of what you need to do.

Do not let this happen. Do not let your dreams stay in your head.

If you would like to learn more, Mel wrote a book about her Five Second Rule. I recommend you check it out!

Now Go Seize the Day!

Now it is your turn! What are your goals? Let’s go tackle them!

Do. Not. Hesitate.

Happy Thanksgiving! Here Are Some Facts To Be Thankful For

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Happy Thanksgiving (American readers)! However, if you’re an international reader, Thanksgiving in America is just a day where people are reminded to be thankful for everything we have and celebrate with eating lots of turkey and pie. Usually surrounded by friends and family.

However in this Thanksgiving post, I wanted to be reminded of how far I’ve come, and our readers, in understanding finance. Because it wasn’t long ago (only in 2015 I paid off $6,000 of credit card debt) that I knew NOTHING about finance and started learning. So I found some interesting finance facts to remind myself of how far I’ve come.

10 Fun Finance Facts

  1. Student Loans are in the trillions of dollars and two of five student loan accounts become delinquent within the first five years of making an attempt to pay student loan payments (source). I have auto-deduct on my student loans, it helps A LOT!
  2. Nearly 30% of Americans don’t have at least 3 months of money to get them by if something happens (source). Personally, my Emergency Fund has 3 months of cash I can tap before I start pulling from my investment accounts to get me by.
  3. In the days of the pilgrims (see thanksgiving themed fact) a US Dollar was called a “buck” because the pelt of a male deer was worth a dollar (source). I didn’t know this before!
  4. Did you know Walt Disney every year for the holidays gave his housekeeper stocks of Disney? By the time his housekeeper, Thelma Howard died, she amassed a $9.5 million dollar fortune (source). Be nice to housekeepers and thankful for everyone doing these thankless jobs!
  5. Don’t take investment advice from celebrities. I’m thankful I never have. The Rapper 50 Cent in 2011 started tweeting about H&H Imports (stock ticker HNHI), an investment he owns and told people to invest. Although his tweets are now taken down, he made $8.7 million from his comments on the penny stock (source). Can’t imagine his followers did as well.
  6. If you’re having a bad day, just remember Ronald Wayne. Ronald was a third co-founder of Apple along with Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Ronald sold his 10% stake in Apple in 1976 for $800. That 10% stake is now worth more than $35 billion (source). I’m thankful not to have that guilt on my conscious. Remember buy/hold!
  7. I hate coins, but I’m thankful they add up! In 2015, the TSA (the people at airport security lines) collected $765,759.15 in loose change. This is the money people just left behind in those long lines and x-ray machine bins. They get to keep it all too (source)!
  8. Buy and hold stocks are a thing. As of January 2013, there were 16 people left in the world who were born in the 1800’s. If they invested (and held) in the stock market, US stocks had increased 28,000% during their lifetimes (source). I’m thankful to start buying and holding so young. I could totally live to be a hundred.
  9. 46.1% of Americans will die with less than $10,000 in assets (source). This factoid haunts my dreams. I’m thankful I  have more than this currently.
  10. In 2011, US charitable giving was $298 billion. That’s more than the GDP of all the countries in the world, except 33 of them (source). That’s pretty awesome and something to be thankful for!

Have a great day everyone!