In Due Season | From 100K in debt to debt-free in 4 years, 3 months, and 2 days

Top 5 Facts About The New York Rangers

May 18, 2012 in Friday Top Fives, Frivolous with 2 Comments

I am a rabid New York Rangers fan. And it’s been 18 years since the last Stanley Cup Championship. And yes, the Rangers finally look like they are going to make a serious run at the Championship for the first time in nearly 2 decades. So, yes, I am excited enough to post about them here.

So, what does this have to do with finances? Well, it’s thin. I’ll admit that. But there is a slight correlation with finances here.

What can we learn from this New York Rangers team?

1. Teamwork matters. No way to succeed without it. Whether it’s trying win a Stanley Cup with a couple dozen other guys, or doing a budget with your spouse. Same thing, hopefully just less bruising.

2. Speaking of bruising, The Rangers have been literally diving into shots to prevent goal scoring chances by their opponents. In case you’ve never held a regulation hockey puck, it’s a solid rubber 5 1/2 ounce, 1 inch thick object that would cause a great deal of pain if you dropped it on your foot. Try taking one to the shin at 90 mph, then getting up and skating as fast as you can. The point? Sometimes you need to make sacrifices and be uncomfortable, doing things you’d rather not do to get where you want to be. Stanley Cup Champion status, or debt-free status.

3. Henrik Lundqvist sums it up best in this 1 minute video:

4. Is it just me, or does Lundqvist look like a younger version of The Dos Equis World’s Most Interesting Man?

The World's Most Interesting Rangers Goalie

5. And finally, am I the only one who thinks Dan Girardi has an uncanny resemblance to Bryan Allain (minus the shin bruising?)

Okay, so it’s not completely a Top 5 list of financial references, but it is the playoffs.

Either way, how are you sacrificing to win?

Financial Advice From A Car Salesman

May 16, 2012 in Frivolous with 2 Comments

Back in 1990, Dave Ramsey was not a household name.

He wasn’t on the radio.

He didn’t have any books published.

In fact, around that time, he was probably just beginning to climb out of debt himself. In the early 90′s, like many 20 year olds, I had my brains imbedded in the same part of my body I used to sit on.

But even at that inexperienced age, I had an inkling that, although I was in desperate need of a vehicle, a loan just didn’t seem like the right way to go about getting one. A $200/month payment, making $1000/month, and living on my own? I wasn’t great in math, but this seemed awfully steep.

Top 5 Inexpensive Mother’s Day Gift Ideas

May 11, 2012 in Family, Friday Top Fives with 11 Comments

Well, the folks at Hallmark strike again. Mother’s Day is upon us. Not that moms don’t deserve a day of recognition, but it hardly seems like it’s been a year since the last one. If you’re on a budget, or if you have a wife that doesn’t care about this sort of thing (hopefully both), here’s a last-minute list of ~~cheap~~ thrifty Mother’s Day gift ideas:

1. If you have kids, which should meet the solitary criteria for ‘Mother’ status, have the kids make a card themselves. And not on the computer, unless it’s a printout that they color themselves.

2. Kick her out of the house for a couple of hours. Seriously. She won’t mind. And don’t let her take any shopping lists. Let her make her own list, which should include at the top of the page “Things to do in an afternoon without kids”. Most likely, this will consist of shopping.

3. Make dinner. Do the shopping for dinner. Do the dishes after dinner. Macaroni & Cheese with hot dogs doesn’t count. It doesn’t have to be something she read in Martha Stewart Living, but it shouldn’t be something from High Times magazine, either.

4. A gift certificate for a pedicure. Don’t make the appointment for her–let her choose if she wants to peel out of the driveway seconds later, or save it for a rainy day. There will always be rainy days, and she’ll love having the “get out of jail free card” in her purse to use on short notice.

5. Buy ‘Warrior’ on DVD. Sounds like buying a bowling ball for your sweetie, doesn’t it? I know. But trust me. Men love this movie because it’s an action-packed drama about two brothers that fight in a mixed martial arts competition. But the women will love it for its emotional story line and the incredible performance given by Nick Nolte that earned him a last-minute Academy Award Best-Supporting Actor nomination.

But more importantly, this guy is in the movie without a shirt.

A lot.

And I’m not saying this as a man who thinks another man is attractive. I’m saying this as a man who would curl into the fetal position and soil myself if he were coming at me the way he approaches his opponents in the movie. Once your wife sees this fella in his shirtless fighting scenes, she’ll forget all about “The English Patient”.

What was the best inexpensive Mother’s Day gift you received? Or gave?

The Reason for the “Season”

May 10, 2012 in Family, Suggested Readings with 7 Comments

The whole point of this blog is to share our story and inspire others to start (and stick with) their own battle against debt. We owe our entire journey’s success to Dave Ramsey and his incredible team of passionate and genuine people.

In March we completed Baby Step 2 of The Total Money Makeover financial fitness plan. We celebrated our 51-month crusade by driving to Nashville to do our “debt-free” scream from the lobby of Financial Peace Plaza. We struggled as a family and succeeded as a family, and we wanted to celebrate as a family.

I am honored to report that our story has made the front page of Dave Ramsey’s website! You can read what they had to say by clicking here.

Our victory over the bondage of debt and our continued uphill climb to correct the financial stupidity we have practiced over the years is the very reason for In Due Season in the first place.

We’re thrilled to have inspired the very people who have inspired us!

If we can do this stuff, truly anyone can do it.

Whether in debt or already “debt-free”, are you following the Baby Steps?

Magic 8-Ball…The Original Siri

May 8, 2012 in Frivolous with 6 Comments

As one of the few remaining people on the planet to not have a smart phone, I find the technological changes in my lifetime staggering. Just this past weekend, I was telling a coworker that I had a first generation iPod several years ago. That made me feel old. That is, until I mentioned having a first generation CD Walkman in the late 80′s. Then I felt really old.

But in our quest to save money, my wife and I still carry “old” flip phones, at $100 per year, not $50-80 per month. No texting. No Facebook and Twitter updates. No GPS. And no Siri.

I was trying to explain Siri to my four-year old, telling him that you can speak into the phone, and that it will answer whatever questions you have. Thinking he’d be as blown away as I am by this feature, he said, “Daddy, doesn’t the magic 8-ball do that, too?” What an insightful little genius. (Call me biased, but he appears to be smarter than his folks. Hopefully, he’ll be smarter than his parents were with money, too.)

That comparison got me to thinking about how much technology (and its pricetag) has accelerated over the years. Let’s take a look back.

Top 5 People To Never Take Advice From

May 4, 2012 in Friday Top Fives with 4 Comments

Everyone has an opinion. Very often, the things other people suggest you do are things that they don’t do themselves. Or, they have done them, and failed. So why do they do it? Well, because deep down we all want to help each other. However, the free advice some offer is worth exactly what you pay for it.

This week’s Top 5 addresses some of the folks whose advice you should avoid at all costs.

1. Your coworker that’s on ‘final written warning’ for attendance issues, encouraging you to call in sick on a Monday for that much-needed three-day weekend.

2. Your single buddy explaining why his weekly poker game is a good way to de-stress and make money.

3. Your four-year old suggesting why you should be eating McDonald’s for dinner.

4. The used car salesman telling you why you should finance your car instead of paying with cash. (See post next week illustrating this example in more detail.)

5. Your single, ex-car salesman buddy, who just got fired, telling you to call in sick so you can hang all day to play the latest video games, play poker, and eat McDonald’s.

The most important thing to remember about advice is the source. Do they practice what they preach? And if so, has it yielded them positive results?

What is the worst advice you received from the best of intentions?

Take Your Credit Card Offers and Stuff It!

May 1, 2012 in Frivolous with 7 Comments

One of the greatest benefits of paying with cash and living within your means is that the credit card companies eventually catch on, and stop sending those annoying offers in the mail.

You see, when you pay for something IN FULL when you buy it, you don’t need to use credit. Not to mention, your credit score slowly disappears when you stop worshiping at the altar of FICO (another Dave Ramsey-ism). The credit card companies realize that you have broken up with them for good, and they give up. No more offers in the mail.

But once in a while, a database somewhere still finds your name or address somewhere and sends you a “0% credit card” offer.

You can do three things about it:

1. Destroy your FICO score. Paying off your existing debts and ensuring that you don’t take on new debt ever again renders you useless to any credit card company. So, for the most part, they stop sending you offers in the mail. After all, they pay for those offers they send you. It costs them money. (I’ll get to that in a minute.)

2. Send a “stop mail” request into your local post office so you don’t get any more credit card offers in the mail. Problem is, you won’t get ANY mail that way. Not the best option to eliminate credit card offers, but it is an option.

3. As I mentioned above, the credit card company sending you the offer pays the return postage, in hopes that you will eagerly send back the application to them requesting use of their card. But keep in mind, they must pay the return postage for ANYTHING that is in that envelope. So why not have some fun with them, and cost THEM a little money in the process?

So here’s what we do. We stuff the envelope with junk mail, including the shredded application they sent to us in the first place. We literally stuff the envelope with junk mail to the point where we need tape to hold it closed. Then, Chase Bank, for example, has to pay the postage for whatever comes back to them.

All perfectly legal. Just a subtle way to tell Chase, and other banks, that we aren’t interested. Once it starts to hit them in their wallet, they will eventually stop sending the offers in the mail.

What do you do to fight a world surrounded by credit?

Top 5 Life Lessons For Our Children

April 27, 2012 in Family, Friday Top Fives with 0 Comments

This week, Kathy and I have been thinking a great deal about what kind of men our 2 boys will become. We always try to lead by example, and capitalize on as many teachable moments in life as possible. So far, they seem to potentially be useful and productive members of society.

However, we want to impart as many lessons, values, and pointers as we can for the next two decades before they set out into the world. Here are some of the things we hope they will take heed of:

1. The Golden Rule: Always treat others the way you want to be treated.

2. Never expect others to treat you the way you treat them.

3. There are no shortcuts in life to anything worth having.

4. There is only one sure-fire money-making scheme in life…WORK.

5. Never judge a book by its cover. Except for Charles Manson…that guy is as crazy as he looks!

What are some of the lessons you pass onto your children?

If You Are A Writer…

April 26, 2012 in Friends, Suggested Readings with 7 Comments

Ever since entering the radiology profession in 1994, I had an interest in MRI. Shortly after graduating as an X-Ray technologist, I spent several months trying to become an MRI technologist.

All that physics. All those volunteer hours. Working with anyone who would teach me anything. It was a lot harder than I thought. So I did what many people do.

I gave up.

Payments vs. Pay In Full

April 24, 2012 in Focus with 6 Comments

Success comes as a direct result of attitude and actions.

Financial success means having your money work for you, not you working for your money.

Or, more accurately, working to make all of your monthly payments.

The first order of business is to have money left over each month to save and invest. That only comes as the result of changing the way you think about spending.

For example, if you have a car payment, think about what the car will be worth by the time you’re finished paying it off. Kind of makes you sick, doesn’t it? And that’s if you pay it off. Most times, however, people trade in their old car for a brand new one–along with a brand new loan.

Sort of hard to get rid of monthly payments when you keep borrowing money every few years.

Instead of asking “Can I afford the payments?” , ask yourself “Can I afford it?”. Instead of asking “How much down?”, ask “How much?”. Instead of “What’s the lowest price I can get out the door with this?”, try “What’s the lowest you’ll take for this in cash?”.

How can you change your attitude towards how you make major purchases?

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