3 Little Tips To Save

Tagged as: Idea, Money, Tip-For-Life Sep 18

Here are some small things that you can do that might just save your more than you’d think. They’re easy to do, so give ‘em a shot! It’s not a huge list of tips, but these are simply ones that I’ve thought of/started using recently.

1. Navy Shower
   Directions:
   1. Turn on water
   2. Rinse
   3. Turn off water
   4. Lather and scrub
   5. Turn on water
   6. Rinse off
   7. Turn off water
   8. Enjoy the moment of the day that you will be the cleanest

   Save yourself water like the sailors had to do on ships. You’ll realize it’s not bad at all. I mean do you really need to have water being wasted while you scrub? I doubt it.

2. Coasting in the car - When you’re driving around, think about the fact that only having two action options, accelerate and brake, could not be the most efficient. There is room for some other option: do nothing and let the laws of physics propel you. The momentum that you’ve previously gained can be utilized. All you need to do is be more aware of things going on around you. If there is a red light up ahead, take your foot off of both pedals and just let your car glide along. Positives while doing this are
   1. Less stress - Coasting, as in life, will let you relax
   2. Save money - Not pressing the gas pedal will obviously not use gas and that is an obvious monetary savings
   3. Have fun (and stay awake) - It’s like a game to accurately figure out when to let off the gas in order to coast such that you won’t have to brake at all. Great for when you’re falling asleep, huh?
   4. Eliminate congestion - I should write about this sometime, but coasting at a constant speed in congestion will not only get you to your destination in the same time, but it will actually start the elimination of said congestion! For those not totally self-centered, this can be seen as a huge positive.
3. Always turn off the light when you leave a room. No matter how long you’re gone, it has been verified (okay okay, by the great Mythbusters) that it’s more worthwhile to just turn off the light if you leave the room for ~20 seconds (I don’t remember the actual number).

Pretty simple and straightforward, huh? Let me know what you think about ‘em in the comments. Or even better, give me some other tips.

Edit: I totally forgot that when I was thinking of this post I actually meant to also say that these things will save you money but will also help save the environment! Take that into account, why don’t you?

Is The 40-30-20-10 Rule Too Ideal?

Tagged as: Idea, Money, Useful Sep 04

There are many sources out there for how to get money, how to invest money, how to save money, and so on and so forth. But in reality, money is a fairly simple concept that seems to get muddled and complicated because people have such a vested interest in it. And because analysts want to keep their job of explaining the complex to the uneducated.

Basically you earn money (or you find it, or you steal it, or whatever) so that is what is coming in, and then you spend it (or you give it away, or you lose it, you know) and that is what is going out. So what’s the best thing to do? Well spend less than you earn and you should do right fine. Makes sense huh?

A while ago I read about a basic rule for which one could ideally budget and limit one’s spending. It’s called the 40-30-20-10 rule for obvious reasons. The very quick among you would have already realized that those numbers add up to 100 and that would seem to represent 100% of your income. So what do the rest of the numbers represent?

• 40 - Savings
• 30 - Necessary spending such as rent, food, bills, etc
• 20 - Free expenditure allowing any possibility of spending on entertainment, gifts, and otherwise unnecessary for living types of things
• 10 - Tithe

When I first read that, it seemed pretty easy and straightforward to me! However, I am wondering if it’s too easy to look at on paper but perhaps a bit too difficult in reality. How many people do you know who only live on 30% of their income? It sounds extremely conservative doesn’t it? You’d require a much better income just to be living an average lifestyle. Of course, I think that’s kind of the point of this budgeting scheme. However, I honestly don’t think that too many people could adhere to this type of drastic budgeting change from their own methods because they have come to expect a level of “luxury” in their lives.

I think that this is a superb idea, and I will try to stick with it as much as I can. I’ve been working on The Budgeteeer (although that’s not what this post is really about), and I’ve been using this budgeting as my budgeting inputs. It’s been going alright thus far, and I actually have personally increased my savings category since my necessary expenditures are currently not as high. It’s nice, but I’m wondering if it’ll always be so.

Have many people heard of this plan? Would/could/will many practically use it?

Apple:Geeks :: Coach:Girls

Tagged as: Geek, Mac, Money, Shopping Jul 22

Well first off, it’s not totally all-inclusive and definitive to say that only geeks want Apple computers or that all girls want coach purses. But you know what, for now that will be the title.

Secondly I took this idea from those old SAT analogy questions. Sick as it may be, I rather enjoyed the SAT. It was challenging without being impossible. Plus every time I took it (I only took it once “for real”), it was different. Whether that meant different passages to read and answer from or different math questions, I enjoyed that it was a new challenge that I hadn’t exactly encountered yet.

Anyways, those were definitely unimportant asides. I really want to just say that I think that Apple is keeping their prices artificially high in order to appeal to a certain part of the market. They want to be the ultimate that everyone desires. They want to be what Coach purses are to girls. Okay okay you can choose any of the myriad of popular expensive brands of purses, but I just needed an example. And that seems to be a popular one nowadays.

Coach is a company that produces leather goods and sells them on a very high profit margin. Economists have hypothesized that they are selling “affordable luxury” that is both recognizable as a luxury product while also being reasonably within the budget of many people. That is to say that it’s thought to be “nice” and it’s also well-known to everyone.

Apple is the same thing to geeks (and artists and movie makers and perhaps even all computer users).

Despite your opinions, I’d say that you must admit that Apple has a well thought-out business model. They customize software (including the operating system) to work very well on their devices. I’m mainly speaking about their computer here rather than their other devices, but I suppose that it holds for those as well. So they are determined to do something and do it well. They will sell very few product lines, and they are not determined to be able to support everything under the sun like Microsoft is with their Windows product. Have you ever thought about how much easier that makes their job? They know exactly what they must do while Microsoft has to build a product that is so good that it can conquer “the unknown.” If Apple were unable to get something to work just right with their goal, they could just say “forget it” and be done with it.

And upon this business model, Apple has kept their prices high. They sell good products, but they charge a premium for them as well. And seeing as how they have increased their market share from 3.2% to 7.6% in 3 years (reference), something is working for them.

Personally, I’ve been keeping an eye on the Macbook Pro for the entire time that it’s been out (and probably even as soon as rumors started circulating that it was going to be produced). I was eager to see what Apple was going to do with that platform. I knew that there would be problems with such new technology (and I was proved correct with the plethora of reports from the first few generations but I digress). I do intend to still buy one. But just for curiosity’s sake I recently priced laptops from both Dell and Lenovo. I was able to get hardware that was as good (or better) and at cheaper prices. It was fairly dramatic to say the least.

What does that mean? It means that Apple laptops are also “affordable luxury.” It means that you don’t need one. You could get a very usable functioning laptop for thousands less. Or similarly you could use the same amount of money and get a laptop with more cutting edge components. But because Apple keeps their prices high, people will always hold them on a pedestal. They will be the ideal instead of just a choice. And that works out just fine for Apple. But just like I don’t understand the whole deal with buying fancy purses (saying “it’s quality” just doesn’t cut it all of the time), I’m not sure if I’m totally comfortable with Apple all of the time. I think that on a case by case basis I would advise people to honestly figure out what they need. And i think that many times that will lead to the conclusion that Apple is not the place for them. Yeah, if I were a girl I might just be that one with the homemade bag on her shoulder.

Let ‘Em All Make Money

Tagged as: Internet, Money, Review Jun 22

Trying out a ReviewMe to see how I feel about it. I like ReviewMe’s set up because even though they offer to pay you for reviews, they are in no way forcing your hand in what you say. So good or bad, that’s how they roll.

One thing that’s pretty big (okay huge in some places) nowadays is making money off of the Internet. Qoo Forum is an approach to the issue that (as far as I know) is pretty unique. They are trying to start a forum where people can talk about anything they want to. Where does the money making come in? They propose that if you attain a certain point (currently 50 posts) then they will allow you to have a chance to have ads from your Google AdSense Publisher account be placed on the forum itself.

As I described in Inconsiderate Internet Browsing, advertisements work just as they do for other media. Advertisers get to show whatever they want and in turn they pay for that right. Specifically for the Internet, this means that you can get paid for views or you can get paid for the number of clicks on your advertisements.

The look of the site is nice and clean that is easy on the eyes, even if it does seem a little cartoonish because everything on the site has their edges rounded.

As you can somewhat see, they are trying to reach out to as many categories as they possibly can. There are forums within the Qoo forum ranging from music to gadgets to making money to sports! I think that this might be a problem for them in the future. Granted it allows for growth in any which way. However, just like other things with no purpose, it might fall flat on its face just because it does not have a single intention. I know that I have gone to forums simply because they were forums that were much more centered around a main topic. That might have been software or cars, but I went to that forum because there were people there that knew more than I did.

I’m not sure that’s the kind of people that will be attracted to this site. It seems as if the people that will post here are simply people that are in it to get money for themselves. It’s hard to attract the stable reliable posters that are able to answer people’s questions with that kind of mindset. The reason is that those people who frequent forums to help others do so out of the goodness in their hearts. They like helping others. They are not people who are out to make a quick buck.

However, it does seem like they might have something if my thoughts on people is off. The advertisements in each thread are pretty well placed. They blend well with their styling, but they are slightly off-putting because there are just so many of them.

So if you can get an advertisement there, you do seem to have a reasonable chance of making some money. I’m sure that Qoo will also be having much of their own advertisements placed in the site as well (of course they’re revenue sharing, not revenue giving).

This is all of the “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” mentality. And that’s not too bad of an idea because it seems like it was easy to set up with existing tools. They’re utilizing vBulletin for their forum software, they had to think of an interesting domain, they need the hardware to host it all, and then they can utilize Google’s existing ad network!

Some things that I saw while looking around where that I wasn’t actually sure how likely you are to get your advertisements on the threads that you start once you hit that magic 50 post level. In the FAQ it says in one place “Currently, you are entitled to 50% chance of showing your ad code within the threads that are started by you” whereas in a similar section it says “Once you have reached that level, your ad code will be applied to all the threads started by you.” That’s confusing to say the least. Additionally I noticed some grammatical errors along the lines of some of the items that I mentioned in Learn Some English (Part 1). They should get someone to give it a good read through and through to give it a more professional feel to it.

All in all, I think that the Qoo Forum has an intriguing idea that might turn out to pan out for lots of people. However, seeing as how they are brand spanking new, I’m not sure how well they will actually do. They are working off of people’s greed, and seeing as how that is very apparent in many people, they just might do alright.

Give It Back!

Tagged as: Money, Rant, Seen-Around Jun 21

I went to go get gasoline yesterday on the way home from work. Of course I dreaded it. At least it’s on the way down right now. But when I got out of my automobile to start pumping the liquid into my vehicle and my money into the machine, I saw something that took me aback. There, above the very machine that was essentially taking my money was a television! It was complete with sound and a fairly sharp display!

Technology is amazing. They are able to put a television in a gas station!

But then I thought for another second and realized that they must have used some of my money in order to install all of these televisions! Sure it’s nice to watch the television for about 2 minutes, but I’d much rather have the money that they used back! Just goes to show you that those gas station owners sure aren’t on hard times.