Easy Simple Side Money

There’s a lot of speculation about when and how great the economic recovery will be; an equally strong argument exists that the recovery has not even begun and that the economy’s contraction has merely slowed down.  There’s typical a myriad of economic indicators to assess the state of the economy: payroll numbers, consumer confidence indicators, housing sales, the Baltic Dry Index, management projections from railway and shipping companies etc. etc.

But how about something more practical to track the state of the economy. How thick is your favorite magazine lately?

A cynic would argue that magazine articles merely break the uninterrupted chain of advertising. If you visit your library or used book store and picked up a Vogue or Fortune or Maxim Magazine printed during the good times, you will notice that it is comparatively thicker than the editions on the news-stands now. Quite simply, in good times people have more disposable income to spend so advertisers buy more ads to sell more stuff and the magazine becomes hundreds of pages long with most of the bulk being in ads.

Given that May and September editions of magazines are big months, and they are on the news-stands in April and August respectively, it will be interesting to see how thick the September edition of your favorite magazine is this year.

The sixth episode focuses on gaming, a surprisingly fun way to save money. Along the way, I highlight tons of my favorite games to play with others that maximize bang for the buck. Total time: 10:50.

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Episode Notes
Here are some additional notes that go alongside the comments in the podcast. Approximate times for the corresponding links and notes are listed.

0:00 - The theme song is a snippet of a Camper van Beethoven concert on October 25, 1986, shared via their very open taping policy. Listen to the concert in its entirety.
0:44 - We played Dominion multiple times, Ticket to Ride: Europe, and Torres (I think … I might be mixing it with the previous game night we had).
1:05 - Her family plays the card game 500, which is quite fun.
2:10 - Good card games with kids: slapjack, go fish, and war.
2:18 - Good card games with adults: bridge, gin, canasta, poker, spades, hearts, cribbage, pitch, euchre … a nearly infinite list.
2:44 - My family always plays four point pitch.
2:55 - Monopoly seems to never end - I played a game for more than twelve hours once. Even worse, many people seem to play it without the auction rule - when someone lands on a property and chooses not to buy it, it goes up for auction. Without that, the game really does never seem to end.
3:27 - Ticket to Ride is a great board game that revolves around connecting various cities to one another via train. You essentially play on a map of a continent, with major cities highlighted, and throughout the game you connect these cities. You only have a limited number of connections, though, and other players are trying to do the same thing (and thus sometimes block your connections). It’s incredibly fun.
3:39 - Puerto Rico is a board game in which you’re trying to build a successful Puerto Rican farm while competing against the other players for resources - workers, money, and space on ships to sell what your farm grows. It can be played in an hour and fits three or four people really well.
3:45 - Settlers of Catan is a board game where you’re simply trying to settle on an island by placing just a small handful of towns and roads. It’s really simple and incredibly fun - as I say on the podcast, we played our first copy until it looks…. grizzled is a good word for it.
4:20 - You want a great way to network with someone? Play a game with them. You’ll almost magically open up a bit during the game.
6:25 - I use Gamerz in Ames, Iowa for most of my video game trading.
6:55 - Yes, I know I “overlooked” the social aspect of XBox Live and many online RPGs, but unless you’re (a) willing to give a lot of time to it or (b) have a strong affinity for teenagers being “funny” by yelling racial epithets, I’d suggest skipping it.
8:35 - I turn walks outdoors into a scavenger hunt.
8:50 - Here are ten ways I save money golfing.
10:40 - A preview of next week’s topic.

One thing I’d like to do in a future episode is have an audio reader’s mailbag. If you have a microphone on your computer and can record an MP3 of a simple, short question you might have on personal finance, careers, pop culture, or anything else you’d like me to answer, record it as an MP3 and send it to me. Keep the total recording under 15 seconds, please. Also, if you use Skype, feel free to ask your question that way - my username is trenttsd.

Comments and suggestions welcome.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you might be aware that two well-known fifty year old men passed away this past week.

Michael Jackson got most of the media coverage - and for good reason. He recorded the best-selling pop music album of all time and virtually everyone can recognize the beat of many of his songs. He was simply an amazing performer - here’s my favorite example, actually:

However, I was more shocked and psychically bothered by the passing of Billy Mays. If you don’t know him, he was the ubiquitous television pitch man for a huge diversity of products - most notably OxyClean. His beard, friendly demeanor, pure skill at promoting products, and often nearly over-the-top enthusiasm made him memorable:

Both of these men were fifty years old when they passed away.

Both of these men died of sudden cardiac arrest, a common outcome of heart disease.

Those facts together shook me quite a bit. Fifty years old? I’m thirty - twenty years away from that magic number. Both of my kids would merely be college age when I’m fifty. I have many things that I want to do in life, and the thought that my life could easily end - or my quality of life could rapidly fall - at such an early age made me think quite a bit about the future - and other things I can do now to protect it.

I’ve invested quite a bit of time and energy in my own life - and I’m sure you have in your own - building the foundation for a great later life. My retirement accounts are solid. I have a book in print that pays me royalties and another one on the way. I want to be able to enjoy the benefits of these things in my golden years as I play with my grandchildren. I want to protect my investment.

So I’ve decided to do something about it. For my family, for my health, for my finances, and for my long term future, I’m going to make a number of changes that directly reduce the chances of heart disease - and also help with preventing other diseases, such as type 2 diabetes.

I should note that I’ve already been doing these things in 2009. I made a resolution to improve my health and I’ve lost about forty pounds this year through a mix of more exercise and better eating and I hope to keep up the progress.

I simply started by asking my doctor what I could do to reduce my chances of heart disease as I grow older. He suggested eight things, all of them pretty simple.

First, don’t smoke. Nicotine raises your blood pressure (not good) and the tar reduces your lung capacity and makes exercise more difficult (not good). It also increases your risk of many other diseases, like emphysema.

Second. exercise. If you don’t exercise at all, start really slow. Make a commitment to just walk for thirty minutes each evening around your neighborhood. The goal is to raise your heart rate to a reasonably elevated level for a sustained period, and continuous movement (like walking) is an easy way to get there. If you want to go beyond that, that’s great, but take it slow - don’t dive in and try to run a 5K right off the bat. Just go for a walk.

Third, eat more green things. Eat broccoli, spinach, brussels sprouts, and leafy vegetables. You can start by having a side salad with dinner. I’ve found that spinach is a great ingredient in many, many dishes, for example - just add a bunch of spinach to lasagna, for example.

Fourth, eat fewer meats. Going vegetarian isn’t necessarily the best option, but reducing your meat intake is a good idea. For example, try eating no meats until your last meal of the day - for breakfast and lunch, eat vegetables and fruits and whole grains.

Fifth, eat some nuts. Seriously. Nuts contain fiber and also contain vitamin E, one vitamin that tends to be deficient in modern diets. One great way to do three, four, and five all at once is to make your own granola bars - something I’ll talk about in the future.

Sixth, cut down on your sodium intake. In other words, don’t dump table salt on your foods. Sodium directly raises blood pressure and we already get enough sodium in our normal foods without extra salting.

Seventh, try meditation or relaxation techniques. Stress elevates your blood pressure and causes all kinds of health issues. Take some time to calm down and psychologically deal with the stresses in your life. Here are some great beginning meditation and stress management techniques.

Finally, cut down on your caffeine. Caffeine also raises blood pressure. Many people say they can’t “live” without the caffeine, but coupling caffeine reduction with other diet improvements and a bit of exercise will make the transition easier.

Most of these changes are not very hard to do in your life. As with any behavior change, take it slow. Don’t go whole hog at first. Just start walking in the evening (I do it while listening to podcasts) and maybe substitute a food or two that you eat for something better for you, particularly at dinner. Put the salt shaker in the cupboard and put out granola bars and fruits for snacks instead of cookies.

It’s simple to protect your life’s investment with a few little changes. Today’s the day to get started.

Quicken Online was developed with the goal of helping people live within their means.  In my conversation with Barron, he discussed how many people only have a little bit of money left over each month and can’t afford to pay late fees or bounced check fees and need to watch their money carefully.

Since Quicken Online is available from anywhere via a mobile device it’s setup to help consumers make quick buying decisions when they’re at the store.  You can set it up so you can check your bank balance on the go so you know before you buy something what your balance is and whether you can afford it.

Quicken Online Mobile

If you use your phone to record checks written in Quicken Online you can take a quick look at how much is in your account and what checks are still outstanding before you spend money that you don’t have.  Mobile access is available on all phones at m.quicken.com, using the WAP protocol to give you access to Quicken Online.  In addition to checking your balance the software also has an ATM list, to help you find your bank’s ATM and avoid fees when you need money.

Intuit has also created an iPhone app that makes the ATM feature more intelligent.  The iPhone app for Quicken Online will find ATM’s near your current location and highlight those that belong to your bank.  You can also check your credit card balances from Quicken Online mobile so you have a dashboard of all the money you have in the bank and all the money you’ve spent.

Next post we’ll talk about the trends page that helps analyze your spending patterns and suggests ways to cut spending and save money.