This Is Why You're Broke! **Updated 10/29/13 I’m continually updating a list of items that people constantly ask me whether or not they should purchase. While getting out of debt, a lot of time in the financial community, we like to pretend like throughout the duration of someone’s debt free journey, that they will purchase absolutely nothing. With that being said, participants in the Debt Movement and BKF university who are trying to get out of debt and build wealth should understand there is a sweet spot for those who find themselves in the market to purchase specific products. A few good BKF approved purchase points for individual items you may be trying to obtain are as follows: **Houses** You should be out of all non student loan debt, have an emergency fund of 6 months expenses, and don’t buy unless your total monthly real estate expenses are below 33% of your gross monthly income. **When purchasing a car if yours has become too expensive to fix** Chevron gas preferred. **For Car Insurance** >Bikes: Allybank.com
Ten Ways to Democratize Our Broken Economy | Take Action This article originally appeared at Truthout. The richest 400 Americans now own more wealth than the bottom 180 million taken together. The political system is in deadlock. In fact, there is a great deal one person working with others can do. Margaret Mead famously observed: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” As the history of the civil rights movement, women’s movement and gay-liberation movement ought to remind us, it’s precisely actions of this sort at the local level that have triggered the seismic shifts of progressive change in American history. 1. Put your money in a credit union – then participate in its governance. Credit unions are commonplace financial institutions that typically facilitate loans for everyday purchases like homes and cars. Credit unions’ direction of capital to community-benefiting endeavors has a long lineage. 2. 3. And PB has now arrived in the United States. 4.
The Ego and the Universe: Alan Watts on Becoming Who You Really Are by Maria Popova The cause of and cure for the illusion of separateness that keeps us from embracing the richness of life. During the 1950s and 1960s, British philosopher and writer Alan Watts began popularizing Eastern philosophy in the West, offering a wholly different perspective on inner wholeness in the age of anxiety and what it really means to live a life of purpose. We owe much of today’s mainstream adoption of practices like yoga and meditation to Watts’s influence. Alan Watts, early 1970s (Image courtesy of Everett Collection) Though strictly nonreligious, the book explores many of the core inquiries which religions have historically tried to address — the problems of life and love, death and sorrow, the universe and our place in it, what it means to have an “I” at the center of our experience, and what the meaning of existence might be. Watts considers the singular anxiety of the age, perhaps even more resonant today, half a century and a manic increase of pace later:
John Cleese on the 5 Factors to Make Your Life More Creative by Maria Popova “Creativity is not a talent. It is a way of operating.” Much has been said about how creativity works, its secrets, its origins, and what we can do to optimize ourselves for it. Space (“You can’t become playful, and therefore creative, if you’re under your usual pressures.”)Time (“It’s not enough to create space; you have to create your space for a specific period of time.”)Time (“Giving your mind as long as possible to come up with something original,” and learning to tolerate the discomfort of pondering time and indecision.)Confidence (“Nothing will stop you being creative so effectively as the fear of making a mistake.”)Humor (“The main evolutionary significance of humor is that it gets us from the closed mode to the open mode quicker than anything else.”) A few more quotable nuggets of insight excerpted below the video. Creativity is not a talent. We need to be in the open mode when pondering a problem — but! Thanks, Simon Donating = Loving Share on Tumblr
10 Ways To Know You’re Dating A Real Man | James Michael Sama I’ve made posts in the past about qualities of a gentleman, as well as the differences between a ‘bad boy’ and a jerk. But, how does this all translate into how somebody acts while in a relationship? A man may be able to put across a great image, but it could simply be a cover for hidden shortcomings, or he could just be totally faking it to ‘get the girl.’ Here are some ways to know if you’ve struck gold: A true gentleman values more than just your looks. Is every compliment from him about a different body part? A true gentleman will never be intimidated by your motivation. A man who has goals for himself, will want to be with a woman who has goals for her own life, too. A true gentleman will have more interests than just you. I don’t mean this in a negative way. A true gentleman will give you answers. No matter how awkward or uncomfortable a situation is, a real man will approach it, and you, with respect. A true gentleman is direct. A true gentleman will trust you.
How We Spend Our Days Is How We Spend Our Lives: Annie Dillard on Presence Over Productivity by Maria Popova “The life of sensation is the life of greed; it requires more and more. The life of the spirit requires less and less.” The meaning of life has been pondered by such literary icons as Leo Tolstoy (1904), Henry Miller (1918), Anaïs Nin (1946), Viktor Frankl (1946), Italo Calvino (1975), and David Foster Wallace (2005). From The Writing Life (public library) by Annie Dillard — a wonderful addition to the collected wisdom of beloved writers — comes this beautiful and poignant meditation on the life well lived, reminding us of the tradeoffs between presence and productivity that we’re constantly choosing to make, or not: How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. She goes on to illustrate this existential tension between presence and productivity with a fine addition to history’s great daily routines and daily rituals: The most appealing daily schedule I know is that of a turn-of-the-century Danish aristocrat. There is no shortage of good days. Share on Tumblr
There is Someone I Think You Should Meet I want to introduce you to someone. His name is Douglas Harding. He was a kindly, well-spoken Englishman, born in 1909 and died in 2007, but for reasons you’ll soon understand, that doesn’t really matter. I have wanted to write about Douglas Harding for a long time, but I hadn’t yet because I think his ideas are so important to my life and to humankind that I wanted to make sure I had the time to do them justice. Most readers of Raptitude have a pointed interest in learning simple ways to improve their quality of life. I left some cryptic hints about this teaching in the comment discussion that followed my April 12 post, Die on Purpose. In this post I just want to introduce you to Douglas, and I’ll really get into the teaching in subsequent posts. The video below is an excerpt from a talk given by Douglas in 1991 in Melbourne, Australia. Many of you might not know what to make of it at first. I’m not talking about something that’s hard to ‘get.’ If you cannot see the video, watch it here.
What Passion Will Buy You There is an interesting discussion brewing in the blogosphere at the moment. My friend and fellow blogger Lisis Blackston of Quest for Balance wrote a controversial article last week about the feasibility of dropping your day job to pursue your passion. We’ve all witnessed a growing culture of people who are quitting their lukewarm office careers to do what they’ve always wanted to do. There are countless success stories floating about (particularly in the online world) and it almost seems like following your passion — given an unwavering will — all but guarantees financial success. Lisis challenges this notion in her post. Her article is here, and it is absolutely worth a read. Several bloggers have responded with their take (a full list is at the end of Lisis’ article) and the topic is dear to me, so I’ll weigh in too. It does seem passion generates income for some, but not for others. Passion has never paid bills, not for anyone. I spend maybe $150 a year on Gillette Mach 3 razors.