The Practical Nerd http://www.thepracticalnerd.com Helping the "Cooler People" of the world improve and enjoy their lives. Fri, 12 Mar 2010 05:19:40 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 en hourly 1 Helping the "Cooler People" of the world improve and enjoy their lives. The Practical Nerd no Helping the "Cooler People" of the world improve and enjoy their lives. The Practical Nerd http://www.thepracticalnerd.com/wp-content/plugins/powerpress/rss_default.jpg http://www.thepracticalnerd.com The Practical Budget: Key #3 – “The Four Walls” http://www.thepracticalnerd.com/2010/03/12/the-practical-budget-key-3-the-four-walls/ http://www.thepracticalnerd.com/2010/03/12/the-practical-budget-key-3-the-four-walls/#comments Fri, 12 Mar 2010 05:19:40 +0000 The Practical Nerd http://www.thepracticalnerd.com/2010/03/12/the-practical-budget-key-3-the-four-walls/ Photo courtesy of Anna Gay [Flickr]

I’m sitting in my cold apartment, eating yet another lunch of Ramen Noodles. I’m 5 pounds lighter than I probably should be, and my jeans have a big hole in the knee. I climb into my car with one burnt-out headlight and pray the gas will hold out until tomorrow. After seeing how much food I can squeeze out of ten dollars, I return home to hop on the computer and I breathe a sigh of relief.

“Oh good,” I think to myself. “My credit card payment cleared on time.”

Anybody else see what’s wrong with this picture?

This isn’t really that much of an exaggeration, either. Last fall and in the beginning of last winter, this was my life. And you know, it’s actually a portrait of a lot of lives. Today, I’m a couple pounds heavier (it takes a while for me to gain weight – sorry, ladies), my gas tank is full, and my cupboards are far from bare. That’s because the first thing my fiancé and I figured out in our budget was The Four Walls.

Dave Ramsey teaches The Four Walls as the basic needs for living – no matter what, these things need to be covered:

  1. Food
  2. Shelter
  3. Clothing
  4. Transportation

Now, you notice he doesn’t say:

  1. Going out for steaks
  2. A 12-bedroom house with an indoor pool
  3. A new wardrobe every other month
  4. A $30,000 BMW

Sure, those things are nice, but they’re not basics. For food, you need ingredients for a healthy diet. That means you need to start cooking. Go to Amazon and type in “cooking for beginners” and you’ll get a ton of books that will teach you how to apply heat to food and watch a timer. That’s really all there is to cooking. Heck, my chicken recipe for this week consists of spreading mayo on chicken breast, rolling it in bread crumbs, and putting it in the oven for a little while. And it is some of the tastiest chicken I’ve ever made! Don’t overwhelm yourself at the thought of having to cook. Remember, this is for your health and well-being.

For shelter, find a modest space that you can live in for a while. It may mean having to downgrade a little bit – a smaller space, maybe a place that doesn’t have an on-site gym or pool. Included in there is money to keep the lights and the heat going. This is for the comfort and well-being of you and your family. This could even mean selling your house and renting for a while. It might suck, but it might be necessary if you are struggling to make ends meet. Let’s be realistic about what you can afford. Don’t choose a living space based on emotion.

For clothing, make sure you’re not naked and you’re dressed appropriately for the climate and occasion. Simple stuff.

And for transportation, let’s keep gas in the tank every week and have a modest car that will get you to and from work. Something that runs.

I do listen to Dave Ramsey’s radio show on my Sansa Clip every day, and he gets a lot of calls from hysterical people drowning in debt. To calm them down, he says, “Okay, let’s budget this out – start with the basics” and he walks them through the Four Walls. At the end of it, the person has stopped crying and he says something like, “See? Life seems a little less scary when you know you’re going to eat and keep the lights on, doesn’t it?”

It’s That “Peace of Mind” Thing Again

We learned in grade school what the basics to living were. Yet, somehow, in our Spend-Spend-Spend culture, we’ve gotten away from it and forgotten. All of a sudden, we’re buying crap we don’t need and sacrificing dinners to pay for them. It’s stupid, and I’m just as guilty of it as you are.

When you sit down to put together your budget, take care of those things first. Even if that means you can’t pay a credit card bill right now, you need these things. What good is a decent credit score when you’re eating ham sandwiches in the dark because they turned off your electricity? Life takes on a whole different perspective when the basics are covered. Those are the moments when you think, “You know what? We’re going to be okay.”

And what about that bill that you can’t pay? Well, you may just have to tell them you can’t pay right now. Then you go out and you start working harder to bring in more money. But you have to take care of yourself first. Let the collectors stomp their feet and whine. You need to eat.

I have budgeted $30 a week for groceries for myself. It’s a very liberating feeling to go into the grocery store and have an obligation to myself to spend that $30 every week on food to keep my cupboards full. Having that psychological peace keeps your head on straight when you have to deal with the rest of the garbage of your financial situation. That’s a big key in getting out of it!

So remember: before you pay for anything, put dinner on the table, keep you and your family protected and warm, stay covered up, and get yourself to work and back. Build on that, and you’ve got yourself a solid plan. No amount of debt in the world is worth sacrificing those things from your life.

Related Articles:

Get great, practical advice sent straight to your inbox every week! For more information on The Practical Nerd Rules for Life, click here. Plus, learn how you can get a copy of my FREE ebook!

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]]> http://www.thepracticalnerd.com/2010/03/12/the-practical-budget-key-3-the-four-walls/feed/ 0 The Practical Budget: Key #2 – Play Money http://www.thepracticalnerd.com/2010/03/11/the-practical-budget-key-2-play-money/ http://www.thepracticalnerd.com/2010/03/11/the-practical-budget-key-2-play-money/#comments Thu, 11 Mar 2010 05:33:52 +0000 The Practical Nerd http://www.thepracticalnerd.com/2010/03/11/the-practical-budget-key-2-play-money/ Photo courtesy of Anna Gay [Flickr]

I’m sitting in my cold apartment, eating yet another lunch of Ramen Noodles. I’m 5 pounds lighter than I probably should be, and my jeans have a big hole in the knee. I climb into my car with one burnt-out headlight and pray the gas will hold out until tomorrow. After seeing how much food I can squeeze out of ten dollars, I return home to hop on the computer and I breathe a sigh of relief.

“Oh good,” I think to myself. “My credit card payment cleared on time.”

Anybody else see what’s wrong with this picture?

This isn’t really that much of an exaggeration, either. Last fall and in the beginning of last winter, this was my life. And you know, it’s actually a portrait of a lot of lives. Today, I’m a couple pounds heavier (it takes a while for me to gain weight – sorry, ladies), my gas tank is full, and my cupboards are far from bare. That’s because the first thing my fiancé and I figured out in our budget was The Four Walls.

Dave Ramsey teaches The Four Walls as the basic needs for living – no matter what, these things need to be covered:

  1. Food
  2. Shelter
  3. Clothing
  4. Transportation

Now, you notice he doesn’t say:

  1. Going out for steaks
  2. A 12-bedroom house with an indoor pool
  3. A new wardrobe every other month
  4. A $30,000 BMW

Sure, those things are nice, but they’re not basics. For food, you need ingredients for a healthy diet. That means you need to start cooking. Go to Amazon and type in “cooking for beginners” and you’ll get a ton of books that will teach you how to apply heat to food and watch a timer. That’s really all there is to cooking. Heck, my chicken recipe for this week consists of spreading mayo on chicken breast, rolling it in bread crumbs, and putting it in the oven for a little while. And it is some of the tastiest chicken I’ve ever made! Don’t overwhelm yourself at the thought of having to cook. Remember, this is for your health and well-being.

For shelter, find a modest space that you can live in for a while. It may mean having to downgrade a little bit – a smaller space, maybe a place that doesn’t have an on-site gym or pool. Included in there is money to keep the lights and the heat going. This is for the comfort and well-being of you and your family. This could even mean selling your house and renting for a while. It might suck, but it might be necessary if you are struggling to make ends meet. Let’s be realistic about what you can afford. Don’t choose a living space based on emotion.

For clothing, make sure you’re not naked and you’re dressed appropriately for the climate and occasion. Simple stuff.

And for transportation, let’s keep gas in the tank every week and have a modest car that will get you to and from work. Something that runs.

I do listen to Dave Ramsey’s radio show on my Sansa Clip every day, and he gets a lot of calls from hysterical people drowning in debt. To calm them down, he says, “Okay, let’s budget this out – start with the basics” and he walks them through the Four Walls. At the end of it, the person has stopped crying and he says something like, “See? Life seems a little less scary when you know you’re going to eat and keep the lights on, doesn’t it?”

It’s That “Peace of Mind” Thing Again

We learned in grade school what the basics to living were. Yet, somehow, in our Spend-Spend-Spend culture, we’ve gotten away from it and forgotten. All of a sudden, we’re buying crap we don’t need and sacrificing dinners to pay for them. It’s stupid, and I’m just as guilty of it as you are.

When you sit down to put together your budget, take care of those things first. Even if that means you can’t pay a credit card bill right now, you need these things. What good is a decent credit score when you’re eating ham sandwiches in the dark because they turned off your electricity? Life takes on a whole different perspective when the basics are covered. Those are the moments when you think, “You know what? We’re going to be okay.”

And what about that bill that you can’t pay? Well, you may just have to tell them you can’t pay right now. Then you go out and you start working harder to bring in more money. But you have to take care of yourself first. Let the collectors stomp their feet and whine. You need to eat.

I have budgeted $30 a week for groceries for myself. It’s a very liberating feeling to go into the grocery store and have an obligation to myself to spend that $30 every week on food to keep my cupboards full. Having that psychological peace keeps your head on straight when you have to deal with the rest of the garbage of your financial situation. That’s a big key in getting out of it!

So remember: before you pay for anything, put dinner on the table, keep you and your family protected and warm, stay covered up, and get yourself to work and back. Build on that, and you’ve got yourself a solid plan. No amount of debt in the world is worth sacrificing those things from your life.

Related Articles:

Get great, practical advice sent straight to your inbox every week! For more information on The Practical Nerd Rules for Life, click here. Plus, learn how you can get a copy of my FREE ebook!

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]]> http://www.thepracticalnerd.com/2010/03/12/the-practical-budget-key-3-the-four-walls/feed/ 0 The Practical Budget: Key #1 – The Fast Emergency Fund http://www.thepracticalnerd.com/2010/03/10/the-practical-budget-key-1-the-fast-emergency-fund/ http://www.thepracticalnerd.com/2010/03/10/the-practical-budget-key-1-the-fast-emergency-fund/#comments Wed, 10 Mar 2010 06:40:51 +0000 The Practical Nerd http://www.thepracticalnerd.com/2010/03/10/the-practical-budget-key-1-the-fast-emergency-fund/ Photo courtesy of Anna Gay [Flickr]

I’m sitting in my cold apartment, eating yet another lunch of Ramen Noodles. I’m 5 pounds lighter than I probably should be, and my jeans have a big hole in the knee. I climb into my car with one burnt-out headlight and pray the gas will hold out until tomorrow. After seeing how much food I can squeeze out of ten dollars, I return home to hop on the computer and I breathe a sigh of relief.

“Oh good,” I think to myself. “My credit card payment cleared on time.”

Anybody else see what’s wrong with this picture?

This isn’t really that much of an exaggeration, either. Last fall and in the beginning of last winter, this was my life. And you know, it’s actually a portrait of a lot of lives. Today, I’m a couple pounds heavier (it takes a while for me to gain weight – sorry, ladies), my gas tank is full, and my cupboards are far from bare. That’s because the first thing my fiancé and I figured out in our budget was The Four Walls.

Dave Ramsey teaches The Four Walls as the basic needs for living – no matter what, these things need to be covered:

  1. Food
  2. Shelter
  3. Clothing
  4. Transportation

Now, you notice he doesn’t say:

  1. Going out for steaks
  2. A 12-bedroom house with an indoor pool
  3. A new wardrobe every other month
  4. A $30,000 BMW

Sure, those things are nice, but they’re not basics. For food, you need ingredients for a healthy diet. That means you need to start cooking. Go to Amazon and type in “cooking for beginners” and you’ll get a ton of books that will teach you how to apply heat to food and watch a timer. That’s really all there is to cooking. Heck, my chicken recipe for this week consists of spreading mayo on chicken breast, rolling it in bread crumbs, and putting it in the oven for a little while. And it is some of the tastiest chicken I’ve ever made! Don’t overwhelm yourself at the thought of having to cook. Remember, this is for your health and well-being.

For shelter, find a modest space that you can live in for a while. It may mean having to downgrade a little bit – a smaller space, maybe a place that doesn’t have an on-site gym or pool. Included in there is money to keep the lights and the heat going. This is for the comfort and well-being of you and your family. This could even mean selling your house and renting for a while. It might suck, but it might be necessary if you are struggling to make ends meet. Let’s be realistic about what you can afford. Don’t choose a living space based on emotion.

For clothing, make sure you’re not naked and you’re dressed appropriately for the climate and occasion. Simple stuff.

And for transportation, let’s keep gas in the tank every week and have a modest car that will get you to and from work. Something that runs.

I do listen to Dave Ramsey’s radio show on my Sansa Clip every day, and he gets a lot of calls from hysterical people drowning in debt. To calm them down, he says, “Okay, let’s budget this out – start with the basics” and he walks them through the Four Walls. At the end of it, the person has stopped crying and he says something like, “See? Life seems a little less scary when you know you’re going to eat and keep the lights on, doesn’t it?”

It’s That “Peace of Mind” Thing Again

We learned in grade school what the basics to living were. Yet, somehow, in our Spend-Spend-Spend culture, we’ve gotten away from it and forgotten. All of a sudden, we’re buying crap we don’t need and sacrificing dinners to pay for them. It’s stupid, and I’m just as guilty of it as you are.

When you sit down to put together your budget, take care of those things first. Even if that means you can’t pay a credit card bill right now, you need these things. What good is a decent credit score when you’re eating ham sandwiches in the dark because they turned off your electricity? Life takes on a whole different perspective when the basics are covered. Those are the moments when you think, “You know what? We’re going to be okay.”

And what about that bill that you can’t pay? Well, you may just have to tell them you can’t pay right now. Then you go out and you start working harder to bring in more money. But you have to take care of yourself first. Let the collectors stomp their feet and whine. You need to eat.

I have budgeted $30 a week for groceries for myself. It’s a very liberating feeling to go into the grocery store and have an obligation to myself to spend that $30 every week on food to keep my cupboards full. Having that psychological peace keeps your head on straight when you have to deal with the rest of the garbage of your financial situation. That’s a big key in getting out of it!

So remember: before you pay for anything, put dinner on the table, keep you and your family protected and warm, stay covered up, and get yourself to work and back. Build on that, and you’ve got yourself a solid plan. No amount of debt in the world is worth sacrificing those things from your life.

Related Articles:

Get great, practical advice sent straight to your inbox every week! For more information on The Practical Nerd Rules for Life, click here. Plus, learn how you can get a copy of my FREE ebook!

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]]> http://www.thepracticalnerd.com/2010/03/12/the-practical-budget-key-3-the-four-walls/feed/ 0 The Practical Budget: Introduction (or WHY WE NEED THIS STUFF) http://www.thepracticalnerd.com/2010/03/09/the-practical-budget-introduction-or-why-we-need-this-stuff/ http://www.thepracticalnerd.com/2010/03/09/the-practical-budget-introduction-or-why-we-need-this-stuff/#comments Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:17:28 +0000 The Practical Nerd http://www.thepracticalnerd.com/2010/03/09/the-practical-budget-introduction-or-why-we-need-this-stuff/ Photo courtesy of Anna Gay [Flickr]

I’m sitting in my cold apartment, eating yet another lunch of Ramen Noodles. I’m 5 pounds lighter than I probably should be, and my jeans have a big hole in the knee. I climb into my car with one burnt-out headlight and pray the gas will hold out until tomorrow. After seeing how much food I can squeeze out of ten dollars, I return home to hop on the computer and I breathe a sigh of relief.

“Oh good,” I think to myself. “My credit card payment cleared on time.”

Anybody else see what’s wrong with this picture?

This isn’t really that much of an exaggeration, either. Last fall and in the beginning of last winter, this was my life. And you know, it’s actually a portrait of a lot of lives. Today, I’m a couple pounds heavier (it takes a while for me to gain weight – sorry, ladies), my gas tank is full, and my cupboards are far from bare. That’s because the first thing my fiancé and I figured out in our budget was The Four Walls.

Dave Ramsey teaches The Four Walls as the basic needs for living – no matter what, these things need to be covered:

  1. Food
  2. Shelter
  3. Clothing
  4. Transportation

Now, you notice he doesn’t say:

  1. Going out for steaks
  2. A 12-bedroom house with an indoor pool
  3. A new wardrobe every other month
  4. A $30,000 BMW

Sure, those things are nice, but they’re not basics. For food, you need ingredients for a healthy diet. That means you need to start cooking. Go to Amazon and type in “cooking for beginners” and you’ll get a ton of books that will teach you how to apply heat to food and watch a timer. That’s really all there is to cooking. Heck, my chicken recipe for this week consists of spreading mayo on chicken breast, rolling it in bread crumbs, and putting it in the oven for a little while. And it is some of the tastiest chicken I’ve ever made! Don’t overwhelm yourself at the thought of having to cook. Remember, this is for your health and well-being.

For shelter, find a modest space that you can live in for a while. It may mean having to downgrade a little bit – a smaller space, maybe a place that doesn’t have an on-site gym or pool. Included in there is money to keep the lights and the heat going. This is for the comfort and well-being of you and your family. This could even mean selling your house and renting for a while. It might suck, but it might be necessary if you are struggling to make ends meet. Let’s be realistic about what you can afford. Don’t choose a living space based on emotion.

For clothing, make sure you’re not naked and you’re dressed appropriately for the climate and occasion. Simple stuff.

And for transportation, let’s keep gas in the tank every week and have a modest car that will get you to and from work. Something that runs.

I do listen to Dave Ramsey’s radio show on my Sansa Clip every day, and he gets a lot of calls from hysterical people drowning in debt. To calm them down, he says, “Okay, let’s budget this out – start with the basics” and he walks them through the Four Walls. At the end of it, the person has stopped crying and he says something like, “See? Life seems a little less scary when you know you’re going to eat and keep the lights on, doesn’t it?”

It’s That “Peace of Mind” Thing Again

We learned in grade school what the basics to living were. Yet, somehow, in our Spend-Spend-Spend culture, we’ve gotten away from it and forgotten. All of a sudden, we’re buying crap we don’t need and sacrificing dinners to pay for them. It’s stupid, and I’m just as guilty of it as you are.

When you sit down to put together your budget, take care of those things first. Even if that means you can’t pay a credit card bill right now, you need these things. What good is a decent credit score when you’re eating ham sandwiches in the dark because they turned off your electricity? Life takes on a whole different perspective when the basics are covered. Those are the moments when you think, “You know what? We’re going to be okay.”

And what about that bill that you can’t pay? Well, you may just have to tell them you can’t pay right now. Then you go out and you start working harder to bring in more money. But you have to take care of yourself first. Let the collectors stomp their feet and whine. You need to eat.

I have budgeted $30 a week for groceries for myself. It’s a very liberating feeling to go into the grocery store and have an obligation to myself to spend that $30 every week on food to keep my cupboards full. Having that psychological peace keeps your head on straight when you have to deal with the rest of the garbage of your financial situation. That’s a big key in getting out of it!

So remember: before you pay for anything, put dinner on the table, keep you and your family protected and warm, stay covered up, and get yourself to work and back. Build on that, and you’ve got yourself a solid plan. No amount of debt in the world is worth sacrificing those things from your life.

Related Articles:

Get great, practical advice sent straight to your inbox every week! For more information on The Practical Nerd Rules for Life, click here. Plus, learn how you can get a copy of my FREE ebook!

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]]> http://www.thepracticalnerd.com/2010/03/12/the-practical-budget-key-3-the-four-walls/feed/ 0 Evernote and Readability = Easy, Clean Web Clips [Screencast] http://www.thepracticalnerd.com/2010/03/04/evernote-and-readability-easy-clean-web-clips-screencast/ http://www.thepracticalnerd.com/2010/03/04/evernote-and-readability-easy-clean-web-clips-screencast/#comments Thu, 04 Mar 2010 20:21:15 +0000 The Practical Nerd http://www.thepracticalnerd.com/2010/03/04/evernote-and-readability-easy-clean-web-clips-screencast/ Photo courtesy of Anna Gay [Flickr]

I’m sitting in my cold apartment, eating yet another lunch of Ramen Noodles. I’m 5 pounds lighter than I probably should be, and my jeans have a big hole in the knee. I climb into my car with one burnt-out headlight and pray the gas will hold out until tomorrow. After seeing how much food I can squeeze out of ten dollars, I return home to hop on the computer and I breathe a sigh of relief.

“Oh good,” I think to myself. “My credit card payment cleared on time.”

Anybody else see what’s wrong with this picture?

This isn’t really that much of an exaggeration, either. Last fall and in the beginning of last winter, this was my life. And you know, it’s actually a portrait of a lot of lives. Today, I’m a couple pounds heavier (it takes a while for me to gain weight – sorry, ladies), my gas tank is full, and my cupboards are far from bare. That’s because the first thing my fiancé and I figured out in our budget was The Four Walls.

Dave Ramsey teaches The Four Walls as the basic needs for living – no matter what, these things need to be covered:

  1. Food
  2. Shelter
  3. Clothing
  4. Transportation

Now, you notice he doesn’t say:

  1. Going out for steaks
  2. A 12-bedroom house with an indoor pool
  3. A new wardrobe every other month
  4. A $30,000 BMW

Sure, those things are nice, but they’re not basics. For food, you need ingredients for a healthy diet. That means you need to start cooking. Go to Amazon and type in “cooking for beginners” and you’ll get a ton of books that will teach you how to apply heat to food and watch a timer. That’s really all there is to cooking. Heck, my chicken recipe for this week consists of spreading mayo on chicken breast, rolling it in bread crumbs, and putting it in the oven for a little while. And it is some of the tastiest chicken I’ve ever made! Don’t overwhelm yourself at the thought of having to cook. Remember, this is for your health and well-being.

For shelter, find a modest space that you can live in for a while. It may mean having to downgrade a little bit – a smaller space, maybe a place that doesn’t have an on-site gym or pool. Included in there is money to keep the lights and the heat going. This is for the comfort and well-being of you and your family. This could even mean selling your house and renting for a while. It might suck, but it might be necessary if you are struggling to make ends meet. Let’s be realistic about what you can afford. Don’t choose a living space based on emotion.

For clothing, make sure you’re not naked and you’re dressed appropriately for the climate and occasion. Simple stuff.

And for transportation, let’s keep gas in the tank every week and have a modest car that will get you to and from work. Something that runs.

I do listen to Dave Ramsey’s radio show on my Sansa Clip every day, and he gets a lot of calls from hysterical people drowning in debt. To calm them down, he says, “Okay, let’s budget this out – start with the basics” and he walks them through the Four Walls. At the end of it, the person has stopped crying and he says something like, “See? Life seems a little less scary when you know you’re going to eat and keep the lights on, doesn’t it?”

It’s That “Peace of Mind” Thing Again

We learned in grade school what the basics to living were. Yet, somehow, in our Spend-Spend-Spend culture, we’ve gotten away from it and forgotten. All of a sudden, we’re buying crap we don’t need and sacrificing dinners to pay for them. It’s stupid, and I’m just as guilty of it as you are.

When you sit down to put together your budget, take care of those things first. Even if that means you can’t pay a credit card bill right now, you need these things. What good is a decent credit score when you’re eating ham sandwiches in the dark because they turned off your electricity? Life takes on a whole different perspective when the basics are covered. Those are the moments when you think, “You know what? We’re going to be okay.”

And what about that bill that you can’t pay? Well, you may just have to tell them you can’t pay right now. Then you go out and you start working harder to bring in more money. But you have to take care of yourself first. Let the collectors stomp their feet and whine. You need to eat.

I have budgeted $30 a week for groceries for myself. It’s a very liberating feeling to go into the grocery store and have an obligation to myself to spend that $30 every week on food to keep my cupboards full. Having that psychological peace keeps your head on straight when you have to deal with the rest of the garbage of your financial situation. That’s a big key in getting out of it!

So remember: before you pay for anything, put dinner on the table, keep you and your family protected and warm, stay covered up, and get yourself to work and back. Build on that, and you’ve got yourself a solid plan. No amount of debt in the world is worth sacrificing those things from your life.

Related Articles:

Get great, practical advice sent straight to your inbox every week! For more information on The Practical Nerd Rules for Life, click here. Plus, learn how you can get a copy of my FREE ebook!

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]]> http://www.thepracticalnerd.com/2010/03/12/the-practical-budget-key-3-the-four-walls/feed/ 0 The Practical Nerd Podcast: Episode 8 – “I Can’t Live Without My _____” http://www.thepracticalnerd.com/2010/03/02/the-practical-nerd-podcast-episode-8-i-cant-live-without-my-_____/ http://www.thepracticalnerd.com/2010/03/02/the-practical-nerd-podcast-episode-8-i-cant-live-without-my-_____/#comments Wed, 03 Mar 2010 03:52:29 +0000 The Practical Nerd http://www.thepracticalnerd.com/?p=784 Photo courtesy of Anna Gay [Flickr]

I’m sitting in my cold apartment, eating yet another lunch of Ramen Noodles. I’m 5 pounds lighter than I probably should be, and my jeans have a big hole in the knee. I climb into my car with one burnt-out headlight and pray the gas will hold out until tomorrow. After seeing how much food I can squeeze out of ten dollars, I return home to hop on the computer and I breathe a sigh of relief.

“Oh good,” I think to myself. “My credit card payment cleared on time.”

Anybody else see what’s wrong with this picture?

This isn’t really that much of an exaggeration, either. Last fall and in the beginning of last winter, this was my life. And you know, it’s actually a portrait of a lot of lives. Today, I’m a couple pounds heavier (it takes a while for me to gain weight – sorry, ladies), my gas tank is full, and my cupboards are far from bare. That’s because the first thing my fiancé and I figured out in our budget was The Four Walls.

Dave Ramsey teaches The Four Walls as the basic needs for living – no matter what, these things need to be covered:

  1. Food
  2. Shelter
  3. Clothing
  4. Transportation

Now, you notice he doesn’t say:

  1. Going out for steaks
  2. A 12-bedroom house with an indoor pool
  3. A new wardrobe every other month
  4. A $30,000 BMW

Sure, those things are nice, but they’re not basics. For food, you need ingredients for a healthy diet. That means you need to start cooking. Go to Amazon and type in “cooking for beginners” and you’ll get a ton of books that will teach you how to apply heat to food and watch a timer. That’s really all there is to cooking. Heck, my chicken recipe for this week consists of spreading mayo on chicken breast, rolling it in bread crumbs, and putting it in the oven for a little while. And it is some of the tastiest chicken I’ve ever made! Don’t overwhelm yourself at the thought of having to cook. Remember, this is for your health and well-being.

For shelter, find a modest space that you can live in for a while. It may mean having to downgrade a little bit – a smaller space, maybe a place that doesn’t have an on-site gym or pool. Included in there is money to keep the lights and the heat going. This is for the comfort and well-being of you and your family. This could even mean selling your house and renting for a while. It might suck, but it might be necessary if you are struggling to make ends meet. Let’s be realistic about what you can afford. Don’t choose a living space based on emotion.

For clothing, make sure you’re not naked and you’re dressed appropriately for the climate and occasion. Simple stuff.

And for transportation, let’s keep gas in the tank every week and have a modest car that will get you to and from work. Something that runs.

I do listen to Dave Ramsey’s radio show on my Sansa Clip every day, and he gets a lot of calls from hysterical people drowning in debt. To calm them down, he says, “Okay, let’s budget this out – start with the basics” and he walks them through the Four Walls. At the end of it, the person has stopped crying and he says something like, “See? Life seems a little less scary when you know you’re going to eat and keep the lights on, doesn’t it?”

It’s That “Peace of Mind” Thing Again

We learned in grade school what the basics to living were. Yet, somehow, in our Spend-Spend-Spend culture, we’ve gotten away from it and forgotten. All of a sudden, we’re buying crap we don’t need and sacrificing dinners to pay for them. It’s stupid, and I’m just as guilty of it as you are.

When you sit down to put together your budget, take care of those things first. Even if that means you can’t pay a credit card bill right now, you need these things. What good is a decent credit score when you’re eating ham sandwiches in the dark because they turned off your electricity? Life takes on a whole different perspective when the basics are covered. Those are the moments when you think, “You know what? We’re going to be okay.”

And what about that bill that you can’t pay? Well, you may just have to tell them you can’t pay right now. Then you go out and you start working harder to bring in more money. But you have to take care of yourself first. Let the collectors stomp their feet and whine. You need to eat.

I have budgeted $30 a week for groceries for myself. It’s a very liberating feeling to go into the grocery store and have an obligation to myself to spend that $30 every week on food to keep my cupboards full. Having that psychological peace keeps your head on straight when you have to deal with the rest of the garbage of your financial situation. That’s a big key in getting out of it!

So remember: before you pay for anything, put dinner on the table, keep you and your family protected and warm, stay covered up, and get yourself to work and back. Build on that, and you’ve got yourself a solid plan. No amount of debt in the world is worth sacrificing those things from your life.

Related Articles:

Get great, practical advice sent straight to your inbox every week! For more information on The Practical Nerd Rules for Life, click here. Plus, learn how you can get a copy of my FREE ebook!

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]]> http://www.thepracticalnerd.com/2010/03/12/the-practical-budget-key-3-the-four-walls/feed/ 0 Why I Switched From Firefox To Chrome, and How To Do It Painlessly http://www.thepracticalnerd.com/2010/02/26/why-i-switched-from-firefox-to-chrome-and-how-to-do-it-painlessly/ http://www.thepracticalnerd.com/2010/02/26/why-i-switched-from-firefox-to-chrome-and-how-to-do-it-painlessly/#comments Fri, 26 Feb 2010 06:48:12 +0000 The Practical Nerd http://www.thepracticalnerd.com/2010/02/26/why-i-switched-from-firefox-to-chrome-and-how-to-do-it-painlessly/ Photo courtesy of Anna Gay [Flickr]

I’m sitting in my cold apartment, eating yet another lunch of Ramen Noodles. I’m 5 pounds lighter than I probably should be, and my jeans have a big hole in the knee. I climb into my car with one burnt-out headlight and pray the gas will hold out until tomorrow. After seeing how much food I can squeeze out of ten dollars, I return home to hop on the computer and I breathe a sigh of relief.

“Oh good,” I think to myself. “My credit card payment cleared on time.”

Anybody else see what’s wrong with this picture?

This isn’t really that much of an exaggeration, either. Last fall and in the beginning of last winter, this was my life. And you know, it’s actually a portrait of a lot of lives. Today, I’m a couple pounds heavier (it takes a while for me to gain weight – sorry, ladies), my gas tank is full, and my cupboards are far from bare. That’s because the first thing my fiancé and I figured out in our budget was The Four Walls.

Dave Ramsey teaches The Four Walls as the basic needs for living – no matter what, these things need to be covered:

  1. Food
  2. Shelter
  3. Clothing
  4. Transportation

Now, you notice he doesn’t say:

  1. Going out for steaks
  2. A 12-bedroom house with an indoor pool
  3. A new wardrobe every other month
  4. A $30,000 BMW

Sure, those things are nice, but they’re not basics. For food, you need ingredients for a healthy diet. That means you need to start cooking. Go to Amazon and type in “cooking for beginners” and you’ll get a ton of books that will teach you how to apply heat to food and watch a timer. That’s really all there is to cooking. Heck, my chicken recipe for this week consists of spreading mayo on chicken breast, rolling it in bread crumbs, and putting it in the oven for a little while. And it is some of the tastiest chicken I’ve ever made! Don’t overwhelm yourself at the thought of having to cook. Remember, this is for your health and well-being.

For shelter, find a modest space that you can live in for a while. It may mean having to downgrade a little bit – a smaller space, maybe a place that doesn’t have an on-site gym or pool. Included in there is money to keep the lights and the heat going. This is for the comfort and well-being of you and your family. This could even mean selling your house and renting for a while. It might suck, but it might be necessary if you are struggling to make ends meet. Let’s be realistic about what you can afford. Don’t choose a living space based on emotion.

For clothing, make sure you’re not naked and you’re dressed appropriately for the climate and occasion. Simple stuff.

And for transportation, let’s keep gas in the tank every week and have a modest car that will get you to and from work. Something that runs.

I do listen to Dave Ramsey’s radio show on my Sansa Clip every day, and he gets a lot of calls from hysterical people drowning in debt. To calm them down, he says, “Okay, let’s budget this out – start with the basics” and he walks them through the Four Walls. At the end of it, the person has stopped crying and he says something like, “See? Life seems a little less scary when you know you’re going to eat and keep the lights on, doesn’t it?”

It’s That “Peace of Mind” Thing Again

We learned in grade school what the basics to living were. Yet, somehow, in our Spend-Spend-Spend culture, we’ve gotten away from it and forgotten. All of a sudden, we’re buying crap we don’t need and sacrificing dinners to pay for them. It’s stupid, and I’m just as guilty of it as you are.

When you sit down to put together your budget, take care of those things first. Even if that means you can’t pay a credit card bill right now, you need these things. What good is a decent credit score when you’re eating ham sandwiches in the dark because they turned off your electricity? Life takes on a whole different perspective when the basics are covered. Those are the moments when you think, “You know what? We’re going to be okay.”

And what about that bill that you can’t pay? Well, you may just have to tell them you can’t pay right now. Then you go out and you start working harder to bring in more money. But you have to take care of yourself first. Let the collectors stomp their feet and whine. You need to eat.

I have budgeted $30 a week for groceries for myself. It’s a very liberating feeling to go into the grocery store and have an obligation to myself to spend that $30 every week on food to keep my cupboards full. Having that psychological peace keeps your head on straight when you have to deal with the rest of the garbage of your financial situation. That’s a big key in getting out of it!

So remember: before you pay for anything, put dinner on the table, keep you and your family protected and warm, stay covered up, and get yourself to work and back. Build on that, and you’ve got yourself a solid plan. No amount of debt in the world is worth sacrificing those things from your life.

Related Articles:

Get great, practical advice sent straight to your inbox every week! For more information on The Practical Nerd Rules for Life, click here. Plus, learn how you can get a copy of my FREE ebook!

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]]> http://www.thepracticalnerd.com/2010/03/12/the-practical-budget-key-3-the-four-walls/feed/ 0 Big Pile o’ Links: Cooler People Use Evernote, Life Boosters, Cash Money, and Plenty of Lifehacker http://www.thepracticalnerd.com/2010/02/25/big-pile-o-links-cooler-people-use-evernote-life-boosters-cash-money-and-plenty-of-lifehacker/ http://www.thepracticalnerd.com/2010/02/25/big-pile-o-links-cooler-people-use-evernote-life-boosters-cash-money-and-plenty-of-lifehacker/#comments Thu, 25 Feb 2010 22:03:58 +0000 The Practical Nerd http://www.thepracticalnerd.com/2010/02/25/big-pile-o-links-cooler-people-use-evernote-life-boosters-cash-money-and-plenty-of-lifehacker/ Photo courtesy of Anna Gay [Flickr]

I’m sitting in my cold apartment, eating yet another lunch of Ramen Noodles. I’m 5 pounds lighter than I probably should be, and my jeans have a big hole in the knee. I climb into my car with one burnt-out headlight and pray the gas will hold out until tomorrow. After seeing how much food I can squeeze out of ten dollars, I return home to hop on the computer and I breathe a sigh of relief.

“Oh good,” I think to myself. “My credit card payment cleared on time.”

Anybody else see what’s wrong with this picture?

This isn’t really that much of an exaggeration, either. Last fall and in the beginning of last winter, this was my life. And you know, it’s actually a portrait of a lot of lives. Today, I’m a couple pounds heavier (it takes a while for me to gain weight – sorry, ladies), my gas tank is full, and my cupboards are far from bare. That’s because the first thing my fiancé and I figured out in our budget was The Four Walls.

Dave Ramsey teaches The Four Walls as the basic needs for living – no matter what, these things need to be covered:

  1. Food
  2. Shelter
  3. Clothing
  4. Transportation

Now, you notice he doesn’t say:

  1. Going out for steaks
  2. A 12-bedroom house with an indoor pool
  3. A new wardrobe every other month
  4. A $30,000 BMW

Sure, those things are nice, but they’re not basics. For food, you need ingredients for a healthy diet. That means you need to start cooking. Go to Amazon and type in “cooking for beginners” and you’ll get a ton of books that will teach you how to apply heat to food and watch a timer. That’s really all there is to cooking. Heck, my chicken recipe for this week consists of spreading mayo on chicken breast, rolling it in bread crumbs, and putting it in the oven for a little while. And it is some of the tastiest chicken I’ve ever made! Don’t overwhelm yourself at the thought of having to cook. Remember, this is for your health and well-being.

For shelter, find a modest space that you can live in for a while. It may mean having to downgrade a little bit – a smaller space, maybe a place that doesn’t have an on-site gym or pool. Included in there is money to keep the lights and the heat going. This is for the comfort and well-being of you and your family. This could even mean selling your house and renting for a while. It might suck, but it might be necessary if you are struggling to make ends meet. Let’s be realistic about what you can afford. Don’t choose a living space based on emotion.

For clothing, make sure you’re not naked and you’re dressed appropriately for the climate and occasion. Simple stuff.

And for transportation, let’s keep gas in the tank every week and have a modest car that will get you to and from work. Something that runs.

I do listen to Dave Ramsey’s radio show on my Sansa Clip every day, and he gets a lot of calls from hysterical people drowning in debt. To calm them down, he says, “Okay, let’s budget this out – start with the basics” and he walks them through the Four Walls. At the end of it, the person has stopped crying and he says something like, “See? Life seems a little less scary when you know you’re going to eat and keep the lights on, doesn’t it?”

It’s That “Peace of Mind” Thing Again

We learned in grade school what the basics to living were. Yet, somehow, in our Spend-Spend-Spend culture, we’ve gotten away from it and forgotten. All of a sudden, we’re buying crap we don’t need and sacrificing dinners to pay for them. It’s stupid, and I’m just as guilty of it as you are.

When you sit down to put together your budget, take care of those things first. Even if that means you can’t pay a credit card bill right now, you need these things. What good is a decent credit score when you’re eating ham sandwiches in the dark because they turned off your electricity? Life takes on a whole different perspective when the basics are covered. Those are the moments when you think, “You know what? We’re going to be okay.”

And what about that bill that you can’t pay? Well, you may just have to tell them you can’t pay right now. Then you go out and you start working harder to bring in more money. But you have to take care of yourself first. Let the collectors stomp their feet and whine. You need to eat.

I have budgeted $30 a week for groceries for myself. It’s a very liberating feeling to go into the grocery store and have an obligation to myself to spend that $30 every week on food to keep my cupboards full. Having that psychological peace keeps your head on straight when you have to deal with the rest of the garbage of your financial situation. That’s a big key in getting out of it!

So remember: before you pay for anything, put dinner on the table, keep you and your family protected and warm, stay covered up, and get yourself to work and back. Build on that, and you’ve got yourself a solid plan. No amount of debt in the world is worth sacrificing those things from your life.

Related Articles:

Get great, practical advice sent straight to your inbox every week! For more information on The Practical Nerd Rules for Life, click here. Plus, learn how you can get a copy of my FREE ebook!

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

]]> http://www.thepracticalnerd.com/2010/03/12/the-practical-budget-key-3-the-four-walls/feed/ 0 The Practical Nerd Podcast: Episode 7 – Simplicity, Part 2; The “Delete Song” Button http://www.thepracticalnerd.com/2010/02/22/the-practical-nerd-podcast-episode-7-simplicity-part-2-the-delete-song-button/ http://www.thepracticalnerd.com/2010/02/22/the-practical-nerd-podcast-episode-7-simplicity-part-2-the-delete-song-button/#comments Mon, 22 Feb 2010 06:00:50 +0000 The Practical Nerd http://www.thepracticalnerd.com/?p=772 Photo courtesy of Anna Gay [Flickr]

I’m sitting in my cold apartment, eating yet another lunch of Ramen Noodles. I’m 5 pounds lighter than I probably should be, and my jeans have a big hole in the knee. I climb into my car with one burnt-out headlight and pray the gas will hold out until tomorrow. After seeing how much food I can squeeze out of ten dollars, I return home to hop on the computer and I breathe a sigh of relief.

“Oh good,” I think to myself. “My credit card payment cleared on time.”

Anybody else see what’s wrong with this picture?

This isn’t really that much of an exaggeration, either. Last fall and in the beginning of last winter, this was my life. And you know, it’s actually a portrait of a lot of lives. Today, I’m a couple pounds heavier (it takes a while for me to gain weight – sorry, ladies), my gas tank is full, and my cupboards are far from bare. That’s because the first thing my fiancé and I figured out in our budget was The Four Walls.

Dave Ramsey teaches The Four Walls as the basic needs for living – no matter what, these things need to be covered:

  1. Food
  2. Shelter
  3. Clothing
  4. Transportation

Now, you notice he doesn’t say:

  1. Going out for steaks
  2. A 12-bedroom house with an indoor pool
  3. A new wardrobe every other month
  4. A $30,000 BMW

Sure, those things are nice, but they’re not basics. For food, you need ingredients for a healthy diet. That means you need to start cooking. Go to Amazon and type in “cooking for beginners” and you’ll get a ton of books that will teach you how to apply heat to food and watch a timer. That’s really all there is to cooking. Heck, my chicken recipe for this week consists of spreading mayo on chicken breast, rolling it in bread crumbs, and putting it in the oven for a little while. And it is some of the tastiest chicken I’ve ever made! Don’t overwhelm yourself at the thought of having to cook. Remember, this is for your health and well-being.

For shelter, find a modest space that you can live in for a while. It may mean having to downgrade a little bit – a smaller space, maybe a place that doesn’t have an on-site gym or pool. Included in there is money to keep the lights and the heat going. This is for the comfort and well-being of you and your family. This could even mean selling your house and renting for a while. It might suck, but it might be necessary if you are struggling to make ends meet. Let’s be realistic about what you can afford. Don’t choose a living space based on emotion.

For clothing, make sure you’re not naked and you’re dressed appropriately for the climate and occasion. Simple stuff.

And for transportation, let’s keep gas in the tank every week and have a modest car that will get you to and from work. Something that runs.

I do listen to Dave Ramsey’s radio show on my Sansa Clip every day, and he gets a lot of calls from hysterical people drowning in debt. To calm them down, he says, “Okay, let’s budget this out – start with the basics” and he walks them through the Four Walls. At the end of it, the person has stopped crying and he says something like, “See? Life seems a little less scary when you know you’re going to eat and keep the lights on, doesn’t it?”

It’s That “Peace of Mind” Thing Again

We learned in grade school what the basics to living were. Yet, somehow, in our Spend-Spend-Spend culture, we’ve gotten away from it and forgotten. All of a sudden, we’re buying crap we don’t need and sacrificing dinners to pay for them. It’s stupid, and I’m just as guilty of it as you are.

When you sit down to put together your budget, take care of those things first. Even if that means you can’t pay a credit card bill right now, you need these things. What good is a decent credit score when you’re eating ham sandwiches in the dark because they turned off your electricity? Life takes on a whole different perspective when the basics are covered. Those are the moments when you think, “You know what? We’re going to be okay.”

And what about that bill that you can’t pay? Well, you may just have to tell them you can’t pay right now. Then you go out and you start working harder to bring in more money. But you have to take care of yourself first. Let the collectors stomp their feet and whine. You need to eat.

I have budgeted $30 a week for groceries for myself. It’s a very liberating feeling to go into the grocery store and have an obligation to myself to spend that $30 every week on food to keep my cupboards full. Having that psychological peace keeps your head on straight when you have to deal with the rest of the garbage of your financial situation. That’s a big key in getting out of it!

So remember: before you pay for anything, put dinner on the table, keep you and your family protected and warm, stay covered up, and get yourself to work and back. Build on that, and you’ve got yourself a solid plan. No amount of debt in the world is worth sacrificing those things from your life.

Related Articles:

Get great, practical advice sent straight to your inbox every week! For more information on The Practical Nerd Rules for Life, click here. Plus, learn how you can get a copy of my FREE ebook!

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

]]> http://www.thepracticalnerd.com/2010/03/12/the-practical-budget-key-3-the-four-walls/feed/ 0 The Practical Nerd Podcast: Episode 6 – Selling My Zune & The Power Of Simplicity http://www.thepracticalnerd.com/2010/02/17/the-practical-nerd-podcast-episode-6-selling-my-zune-the-power-of-simplicity/ http://www.thepracticalnerd.com/2010/02/17/the-practical-nerd-podcast-episode-6-selling-my-zune-the-power-of-simplicity/#comments Wed, 17 Feb 2010 06:56:55 +0000 The Practical Nerd http://www.thepracticalnerd.com/?p=769 Photo courtesy of Anna Gay [Flickr]

I’m sitting in my cold apartment, eating yet another lunch of Ramen Noodles. I’m 5 pounds lighter than I probably should be, and my jeans have a big hole in the knee. I climb into my car with one burnt-out headlight and pray the gas will hold out until tomorrow. After seeing how much food I can squeeze out of ten dollars, I return home to hop on the computer and I breathe a sigh of relief.

“Oh good,” I think to myself. “My credit card payment cleared on time.”

Anybody else see what’s wrong with this picture?

This isn’t really that much of an exaggeration, either. Last fall and in the beginning of last winter, this was my life. And you know, it’s actually a portrait of a lot of lives. Today, I’m a couple pounds heavier (it takes a while for me to gain weight – sorry, ladies), my gas tank is full, and my cupboards are far from bare. That’s because the first thing my fiancé and I figured out in our budget was The Four Walls.

Dave Ramsey teaches The Four Walls as the basic needs for living – no matter what, these things need to be covered:

  1. Food
  2. Shelter
  3. Clothing
  4. Transportation

Now, you notice he doesn’t say:

  1. Going out for steaks
  2. A 12-bedroom house with an indoor pool
  3. A new wardrobe every other month
  4. A $30,000 BMW

Sure, those things are nice, but they’re not basics. For food, you need ingredients for a healthy diet. That means you need to start cooking. Go to Amazon and type in “cooking for beginners” and you’ll get a ton of books that will teach you how to apply heat to food and watch a timer. That’s really all there is to cooking. Heck, my chicken recipe for this week consists of spreading mayo on chicken breast, rolling it in bread crumbs, and putting it in the oven for a little while. And it is some of the tastiest chicken I’ve ever made! Don’t overwhelm yourself at the thought of having to cook. Remember, this is for your health and well-being.

For shelter, find a modest space that you can live in for a while. It may mean having to downgrade a little bit – a smaller space, maybe a place that doesn’t have an on-site gym or pool. Included in there is money to keep the lights and the heat going. This is for the comfort and well-being of you and your family. This could even mean selling your house and renting for a while. It might suck, but it might be necessary if you are struggling to make ends meet. Let’s be realistic about what you can afford. Don’t choose a living space based on emotion.

For clothing, make sure you’re not naked and you’re dressed appropriately for the climate and occasion. Simple stuff.

And for transportation, let’s keep gas in the tank every week and have a modest car that will get you to and from work. Something that runs.

I do listen to Dave Ramsey’s radio show on my Sansa Clip every day, and he gets a lot of calls from hysterical people drowning in debt. To calm them down, he says, “Okay, let’s budget this out – start with the basics” and he walks them through the Four Walls. At the end of it, the person has stopped crying and he says something like, “See? Life seems a little less scary when you know you’re going to eat and keep the lights on, doesn’t it?”

It’s That “Peace of Mind” Thing Again

We learned in grade school what the basics to living were. Yet, somehow, in our Spend-Spend-Spend culture, we’ve gotten away from it and forgotten. All of a sudden, we’re buying crap we don’t need and sacrificing dinners to pay for them. It’s stupid, and I’m just as guilty of it as you are.

When you sit down to put together your budget, take care of those things first. Even if that means you can’t pay a credit card bill right now, you need these things. What good is a decent credit score when you’re eating ham sandwiches in the dark because they turned off your electricity? Life takes on a whole different perspective when the basics are covered. Those are the moments when you think, “You know what? We’re going to be okay.”

And what about that bill that you can’t pay? Well, you may just have to tell them you can’t pay right now. Then you go out and you start working harder to bring in more money. But you have to take care of yourself first. Let the collectors stomp their feet and whine. You need to eat.

I have budgeted $30 a week for groceries for myself. It’s a very liberating feeling to go into the grocery store and have an obligation to myself to spend that $30 every week on food to keep my cupboards full. Having that psychological peace keeps your head on straight when you have to deal with the rest of the garbage of your financial situation. That’s a big key in getting out of it!

So remember: before you pay for anything, put dinner on the table, keep you and your family protected and warm, stay covered up, and get yourself to work and back. Build on that, and you’ve got yourself a solid plan. No amount of debt in the world is worth sacrificing those things from your life.

Related Articles:

Get great, practical advice sent straight to your inbox every week! For more information on The Practical Nerd Rules for Life, click here. Plus, learn how you can get a copy of my FREE ebook!

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

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