You are not irreplaceable

via Early Retirement Extreme:

According to google I am now the second highest ranked authority on extreme early retirement. I suppose this comes about because I have a “google ranking” of 4 which again comes about because I have yet to bother with monetizing this site as it would require advertising it in the local paper for 4 weeks to get a DBA from the county and therefore I have not lost any google juice selling links.

Now according to Spiderman with great powers comes great responsibility. This, in one form or another, is something that it is being hammered into our minds, at least in jobs that are defined as part of a career. “If the muse sings to you, you are obligated … “, so they say.

So this got me thinking whether I am now implicitly obligated to talk about reaching early retirement because this site is now #2 #1 (last time I checked I was on page 3 with a rank of 0). Common sense would seem to suggest so, but I wonder whether this “sense” is misplaced. As I see it, power does not come with obligation, but rather with opportunity. Turning opportunity into obligation seems merely to be a political means of getting a free ride (all politics is essentially a power transfer that is not productivity based).

I have been battling the same problem in terms of my (professional) work which is in the same situation. Being one of the [world's] leaders on subsubfield-X (I’m not telling you what it is for reasons of anonymity) (You can find out with due diligence) what would happen if I stopped working? As I have come to realize, the answer is “probably not a whole lot”. In a few years, other people would fill in the void. Besides, what I am doing is not crucial to anyone.

Note: In retrospect this prediction turned out to be true.

I am fairly confident in this. Several years ago, I got involved in world resources (commodities from a scientific perspective) and built a website that also made it to the top. After a few years of that I got the impression that we were mainly preaching to the choir (guess I was wrong). At the time there were only a handful of sites, but today there are hundreds, so jumping ship did not incur any problems.

So in conclusion I would say that you, in fact, are replaceable. Don’t worry. Somebody will step up. Staying only because you feel obligated might even be detrimental to your performance/legacy.

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Personal Finance, career, culture, motivation, power, responsibility, staying, work

Marathon running and personal finance

via Early Retirement Extreme:

Recently Lazy man illustrated the keys to financial success by comparing it to the Patriot’s success on the football field. I don’t know much about playing football, but if it is anything like hockey, it is less easy than it looks and requires tremendous skill. Not only do these athletes need to have a high level of fitness and be fairly powerful (strong), they also need athletic skills such as agility and dexterity as well as technical skills and game awareness. It can take years to acquire sufficient competence to even play the game. Therefore I personally prefer the marathon analogy.

Running a marathon is comparatively simple in that it only requires a high level of fitness, some legwork, and following some simple rules about hydration and nutrition. For those who are already competitively fit, a marathon is not a big deal and there a certainly more grueling challenges for those who want to test their limits (ask me sometime). However, or sedentary people it is a big deal just like getting out of debt and building up a large stash of money is a big deal. So what does marathon running and personal finance have in common.

In both cases, it is not the completion of the event that matters. Rather, it is the preparation needed to get to the event. Like a disciplined savings program, preparing for a marathon requires a tremendous amount of self-discipline. Would-be marathoners need to stick to their training plan for several months and learn to deal with sustained discomfort for extended periods of time while building up a sufficient level of cardiovascular fitness.

The preparation requires an ongoing effort. Training for a week and a half and then taking a week off and then starting again or putting the training off will not obtain the expected results in time for the event. Whether we like it or not, delaying the training or the savings plan does not extend the time until the competition or the day of retirement and one risks showing up unprepared.

Sometimes a small effort is not enough. Nobody can complete a marathon by never pushing oneself beyond jogging. At some point the actual transition to running has to be done. Similarly, saving 5% for retirement is better than nothing, but it is not enough to actually retire in time. The larger the effort, the better the results.

It’s a primarily mental game. The learning curve of running is relatively shallow just like saving money does not require any special talents. All it requires is to follow a few simple rules and then go out and do it. Daily. Week after week. In short, what is needed is legwork to build up the tolerance of the legs and joints to be pounded on for hours at a time despite the mild discomfort. Similarly financial security is built by going without present comforts and saving money over an extended period of time. There is no fast way to get there. Going too fast risks injury just like get rich quick schemes rarely work and often have high risks of setting progress back by several month.

Marathon running can change your life. I must say that running half a marathon did not change my life and I doubt doubling the distance would have made much of a difference, but that was because I did not need to prepare for more than a couple of weeks. However, preparing to a competitive level in clubbell sports, which took 18 months, did change me. It made me physically confident in the sense that I am ready to accept any physical challenge that life may throw at me. Similarly getting in financial shape will thoroughly change a person’s self-confidence and attitude towards money.

It is perhaps not surprising that personal finance and personal fitness have many things in common and why some personal finance bloggers also have an interest in fitness. Finance and fitness are both about self-discipline, self-control and hard work. People with those life skills will tend to do well in any endeavor and running a marathon (or saving a lot of money) can help uncover or build them.

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Personal Finance, competition, fitness, jogging, marathon, motivation, personal finance, retirement, running

How to Motivate Yourself to Better Finances in the New Year

via MoneyNing:

It’s one thing to set financial goals for the coming year, and quite another to maintain the motivation you need to see them through.

If you know you’ll need a little extra motivation to improve your finances, here are some strategies to help you maintain your positive attitude.

Pick Something that Matters

Figure out a way to make your goals matter to you. Chances are that saying “I want to save more” isn’t going to be very motivating — because you haven’t connected your goal to something that matters to you. Instead, figure out what is important to you, and what you hope to accomplish with the money.

If you want to save more so you have financial security and peace of mind in an emergency, think of that to help you stay motivated. If you plan to invest more so you can travel in retirement, you have something to reach toward. Think about how your financial goals can enhance your life, and then focus on a plan to make your goals a reality.

Measure Your Progress

We all like to feel as though we’re moving forward and accomplishing things. So, in order to stay motivated, set goals you can measure. Whether it’s working up to the point (by the end of the year) that you can set aside another $200 a month for your retirement, or whether you want an emergency fund with $10,000, or even if you just want to save up $2,000 to buy a nice, new computer, having a measurable goal can keep you going.

Track your progress, celebrate your victories, and you’ll feel more motivated to keep moving forward.

Hold Yourself Accountable

Write down your financial goals, and then take yourself to task each week, reviewing what you’ve done to reach them. This self-check is one way to hold yourself accountable.

Sometimes, though, what you really need to stay motivated is public accountability. Ask a good friend or relative to question you regularly about how you’re progressing. Or, join an online community where you can post your goals and be held accountable for your progress. You can dig up even more motivation by finding a friend to join you in your goals, then comparing your progress with each other like it’s a contest.

It’s one thing to quit on yourself in private; it’s another thing altogether to quit in public — especially in front of people you respect.

The important thing is to make progress. You can always start over again if you need to. Identify the most important things in your life, and then make goals that will help you achieve them.

How do you stay motivated with your financial goals?

This article originally appeared on MoneyNing.com. Let us know what you think (or read what others thought) here.

Related posts:

1. 5 Ways to Motivate Yourself to Get Your Finances in Order


2. Motivate Yourself to Save More Money


3. How to Set Financial Goals for the New Year

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Personal Finance, advice, frugality, motivation

Making changes

via Early Retirement Extreme:

Changes that depend more on a lack of a particular attitude(*) than a lack of skills or opportunities, will generally progress through the following stages.

(*) Health goals, diet goals, debt and savings goals generally fall within this category.

1. Precontemplation. The person does not see a need for change although others often do see a problem. If pushed, the person will make a token attempt at changing, but this is done more so to please the pusher or get the pusher off their back because deep down they do not see a problem. At this stage the person will be defensive about their position.


2. Contemplation. The person sees the need for change, but they still do not realize the importance of the problem. In particular the person is not sure that the effort to change is worth it. Lots of plans will be made, but they will remain plans.


3. Preparation. The person has accepted a plan and committed to the first step. The focus has moved from the internal planning stage to the external doing stage. Here the person has decided that the problem is important enough to do something.


4. Implementation. The person is following the plan. This stage is where actual change occurs. This is also the stage where relapses are most common as the costs are realized early whereas the benefits (of health, wealth, …) are only realized later. This stage requires either strong self-discipline or a strong support group.


5. Once the change has been made, generally a mental change will have been made as well. The person is now a different person. The person is a healthy person that eats healthy, not an unhealthy person that eats whatever. The person is a wealthy/frugal person, not an indebted/spendthrift person. Or the person is a physically active person, not a couch potato.

I generally recommend making immediate aggressive changes to shorten the period between effort and results (read about the crowbar method here). Taking baby steps is easier but requires much more patience over time to get any results. Imagine emptying a swimming pool working 10 minutes every other day with a coffee mug (or a teaspoon). Sure it is easy, but it is not very motivating either. It would take months before any change is observed and visible week to week changes are hard to come by. Imagine instead bringing a bucket the first time. While possible not being able to lift a bucket full of water heaving and hawing will eventually get water out of the pool. Fast. Changes will be seen within a week. With the crowbar method, effort is substituted for patience.

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Personal Finance, babysteps, change, crowbar, losing weight, motivation

Setting an “Impossible” Goal

My goal over the next eighteen days is to write a first draft of a novel.Eighteen days to get about 150,000 words of a rough draft down on paper. That’s on top of writing articles for The Simple Dollar and all of my other life responsibilities.I’ve had this idea in my head for a long while and I decided that the best way to do something about it is to just get down to business. I also know enough about myself to know that I work best under pressure.Over and over again in my life, I’ve found that if I set an incredibly difficult goal for myself over a month or two, I almost always find some way to rise to that challenge.I turned …

via The Simple Dollar:

My goal over the next eighteen days is to write a first draft of a novel.

Eighteen days to get about 150,000 words of a rough draft down on paper. That’s on top of writing articles for The Simple Dollar and all of my other life responsibilities.

I’ve had this idea in my head for a long while and I decided that the best way to do something about it is to just get down to business. I also know enough about myself to know that I work best under pressure.

Over and over again in my life, I’ve found that if I set an incredibly difficult goal for myself over a month or two, I almost always find some way to rise to that challenge.

I turned our financial disaster into something that was at least tolerable in about a month.

I turned The Simple Dollar from a vague idea into a fully-designed site that was pushing out multiple posts a day within about three weeks.

I designed, from the bottom up, a rather complex scientific data interface in about a month and a half (in my previous career), something that I was told would take a team of people at least a year to do.

Setting an “impossible” short-term or mid-term goal drives me and pushes me to achieve something more than I would have ever believed that I could.

There’s only one question, though: why doesn’t this translate to long-term goals?

Whenever I try to bite off an “impossible” long term goal, I never seem to succeed. I think there are two reasons why.

First, burnout is an issue. If you bear down on something too hard for too long, you burn out. You completely lose your motivation to continue. With a shorter-term “impossible” goal, you achieve your goal before burnout occurs.

Second, the longer the term, the more likely it is that life will simply upend your goal. I can bear down on a short term goal for a few weeks and likely avoid any crises and also avoid any major family problems. If I turn a few weeks into six months, my odds of dodging a major crisis and also avoiding family problems becomes much, much more difficult.

A shorter “impossible” goal gives you some breathing room on either end, while a longer goal does not.

This brings us back to you.

What do you think you could accomplish in the next one to three months if you really, really devoted yourself to that cause? Could you sell off the half of your possessions that you don’t really use and move into a smaller place? Could you pay off your scariest debt? Could you write the first draft of a book? Could you put the foundations in place for that great business you’ve dreamed of?

Never let the thought that it’s “impossible” stop you from trying. Sure, sometimes you’ll fail and fall flat on your face, but you’ll learn a lot from that process.

What could you accomplish before the end of the year if you really gave it your all? It might just be more than you think.

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Personal Finance, down-on-paper, financial, insurance, life, motivation, people, simple, write-the-first, year

4 Steps to Harness Financial Self-Discipline

via MoneyNing:

What separates the financially successful from the financially doomed?

Two words: self-discipline.

Self-discipline is “the ability to control one’s feelings and overcome one’s weaknesses; the ability to pursue what one thinks is right despite temptations to abandon it.” And when it comes to personal finance, self-discipline is what you can thank for your success — or your failure.

If self-discipline is one of the areas in which you’re lacking, it’s time to regain control. Here are four steps to help you develop financial self-discipline.

1. Stop Making Excuses

How many times have you set a big audacious goal only to find every reason in the world not to follow through? We’ve all been there.

Making excuses is easy. Blaming circumstances is easy. Following through is not.

Before becoming interested in personal finance, I thought credit cards were fun. After all, how nice is it to walk into a store and buy a flat screen TV? My nineteen-year-old self definitely thought it was pretty cool.

It was only after I maxed out my credit cards that I realized I was the one paying for the TV, and then some. I would tell myself “I’ll pay extra next month.” Next month always came around, and I always had the same excuse. Two years and many excuses later, I finally paid off a measly $1,500 in credit card debt.

Fortunately, I chalk this up as an experience that has encouraged me to make wiser financial decisions. Make sacrifices now; get rewarded later.

It’s time to stop making excuses. You’re the one in the driver’s seat, so take control.

2. Make a Plan

No matter what your financial situation is, you need a goal and a plan. If you want to pay off debt, set yourself a debt-free target date and calculate how much money you need to be paying each month.

If you’re trying to save money, tie an amount and a date to it. Giving your goals deadlines make them feel more real. You need concrete numbers to work towards. Break your big goals into monthly, weekly, and if applicable, daily goals. This is your plan.

3. Follow the Plan

Once you have the plan, it’s time to execute.

If you’ve made your goals a bit of a challenge, you’re going to have to make some sacrifices in order to reach them. You’ll have to scale your budget down, work extra hours, or both. This will require self-discipline AND follow through.

Use your mini goals as motivation. No excuses. No giving up. Self-discipline breeds self-discipline. Stay strong for the first few weeks, and you’ll find that following the plan gets easier.

4. Pick Yourself Back Up

You are human. You will mess up. You will fall down. That’s okay: just remember to pick yourself back up.

We all come with our own set of flaws. If you really want to succeed financially, you’ll need to realize that success starts with you. You’re in control of your future. The power’s in your hands, so use it wisely.

If you’re willing to make temporary sacrifices to get to where you want to be, your efforts will pay you back tenfold. Practice self-discipline in your finances, and you’ll soon find it spreading throughout other areas of your life. Before you know it, you’ll be the person you always dreamed of being.

Do you have financial self-discipline?

This article originally appeared on MoneyNing.com. Let us know what you think (or read what others thought) here.

Related posts:

1. 7 Steps to Creating Lasting Financial Resolutions


2. What Are You Willing to Give Up to Reach Your Financial Goals?


3. Three Easy Steps to Determine Your Financial Priorities

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Personal Finance, better yourself, budgeting, motivation, personal finance