Baby Step Two, DONE!

Success has been achieved!  A mountain has been scaled and a once inconceivable objective is now marked done and DONE! Debt is largely accepted as normal and we’re so easily swept into that mentality.  Often we’re so numbed to debt as normal that thoughts of getting out of it don’t surface until it’s too late.  Getting out of debt then becomes an impossible task.  It is overwhelming. ...

Dollars Spent

The other day I was about to grab lunch at work.  Lunch at work for me is a boring affair.  On Sunday evenings I run a sandwich making assembly line which churns out 5 identical turkey sandwiches for my daily noon time feedings. On this particular day I thought about the pattern I was weaving and I realized that it has been several weeks since I’ve spent money on lunch.  My guess was that it...

Letters To My Credit Card – Settlement Letter

  Last week I presented an article sharing a recent experience with a reader/emailer.  In this story I referenced a pair of letters I crafted for the benefit of this person, “Ella”. Well, as fate would have it, my ability to add a downloadable file to an article seems to not be working at this time.  This might be user error, but I’m looking into it. In the meantime, I didn’t...

Letters To My Credit Card – Delayed Settlement Letter

  Last week I presented an article sharing a recent experience with a reader/emailer.  In this story I referenced a pair of letters I crafted for the benefit of this person, “Ella”. Well, as fate would have it, my ability to add a downloadable file to an article seems to not be working at this time.  This might be user error, but I’m looking into it. In the meantime, I didn’t...

Letters To My Credit Card

Some of my favorite writing is in response to reader emails.  Sometimes that means a response to a comment on the website but even more fun are the letters from readers asking for my advice.  Granted, I’ve only had this happen a couple times and half of those were cases of mistaken identity, but the idea of offering advice to someone in need is compelling and engaging and rewarding. Recently a...

You Are What Your Record Says You Are

The title is a quote from Super Bowl winning coach Bill Parcells. The idea is that a team is as good or as bad as its record indicate.  Fans, commentators, and even players like to interpret – or rationalize – circumstances and game events so as to suggest that a team is better, or sometimes worse, than its record might suggest.  A lucky bounce here or a bad call there and those close losses...

Consumptive Footprint

I remember a day in the late 90’s.  More precisely, I remember a particular episode of self talk back in the summer of 1998.  At the time I was living in St. Louis and was only a couple short years out of grad school.  I don’t know exactly what prompted this specific contemplation but it was about money.  It was often about money in those days.  I was learning about money but in a...