I had a great and exciting conversation with a client the other day. Part of what I do as a Financial Organizer is to find out where people are today, and then help put plans/goals together to get them where they want to be(part of the $150 yearly membership). One of the tools I use is called the Pay-Off Calculation Worksheet, it is an awesome automated little tool that I created to help show how many months until payoff for each debt someone holds, and prioritizes them by APR, etc. If you want to do this yourself, just take the APR times balance, divide by 12, take away your payment, then deduct from balance, that is what you will pay down in a year.

Well I was working on one with a client and we were playing with the numbers adding to money she could use to pay down debt each month, the snowball effect was amazing and we had a very productive/realistic plan going forward as to how she could get where she wanted to be….faster. Since she is having it auto-debited from her paycheck, she doesn’t see the “extra” money and she can’t spend what she doesn’t get. Now her plans/goals are on auto-pilot and she doesn’t even have to sit down and crunch numbers each month, she knows what she has to work with AFTER her debt-free plan is paid for each paycheck and she lives off what’s left.

Commit to a plan and put it on auto-pilot…and before you know it, you will be where you want to be, painlessly as possible.

Reading an article from Suze Orman, (link below), she had some good points, but the overall best thing I got from the article is stop worrying about things that you have no control over, sort of the concept from the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, take care of the things in your circle of influence and don’t fret about things that you have no control over. For instance in your personal situation, you cannot control home values, if you are living in a home you like and plan on staying there…ignore the news stories, the website alerts, etc that are saying that the home values are taking a dive. Better to stay on your plan and not worry what “evaluators” are saying about your house. Same with your 401K or stock portfolio, you need to set up a plan that you are comfortable with and not look at what the ticker across the bottom of your screen is doing, and have that determine your day. If you are fretting you need to get more conservative so it isn’t running your life.

So take that time and fretting and put it to good use, set aside 1/2 hour per week(if you are a client, set up a phone call with me, we will come up with something for your situation!) to do something to improve your financial situation. Set up an auto-payment, or set up accounts on line so billing paying is just clicks away. Jot down your 2010 financial goals. Set up your D2D Money calendar to make sure all the bills are covered for 2010, with your spending plans in place. Set-up that rainy day fund through your paycheck. Research to see if you are over paying for car/life/health insurance, phone/internet/TV. Sit down and plan your financial week, bills, car fill ups, gifts need, groceries, date night. These are all the things that you do have control over and once addressed you will not lose sleep over your financial concerns. Last night I got a new client set up on the D2D Money calendar, he was shocked that everything was laid out in front of him and all he had to do is follow the Calendar and he never had to worry about not being able to pay a bill or running out of money. He said it was amazing and hard to believe that one tool could give him such peace of mind. If you want to test out the D2D calendar, email me and I will get you the remainder of the 2009 Calendar, FREE, to test drive. It will take less than 1/2 an hour to set up and it populates the whole calendar year.

http://www.oprah.com/article/oathome/200806_oah_money/3

Reminder that I am giving a FREE Money Challenges Seminar tonight at the Winter Haven YMCA, from 6pm-7:30pm, or until all the questions are answered. Join me in learning how to identify your areas of concern regarding your money and how to overcome and succeed with your money. Also you can test drive my D2D Money Calendar and see my other Money tools in action.

If you can’t make it tonight but would like to test drive the D2D Money Calendar for the remainder of 2009, Free, please email me at darcey.martin@d2dsolutions.com and I will send it. And if you are already using the D2D Money Calendar and would like to get the Calendar for 2010 it is $29.95. If you have a current membership ($150 per year for my services-full money analysis, goal/plan setting, coaching, tools, etc), it is included, and you should be receiving it in December, if you want it earlier send me an email.

I was reading an article about Woman and Happiness….just to let you know we aren’t as happy, collectively, as we were 40 years ago (Link to article below) Anyway the article went into a whole bunch of reasons but I thought the most interesting part of the article was the following quote. Apparently, we Moms are just plain stressed out, or that is what we are projecting to everyone around us.

“And the kids appear to be aware of this. A recent study of a thousand 3rd- through 12th-graders asked: “If you were granted one wish that would change the way that your mother’s work affects your life, what would that wish be?” In a parallel study, their mothers were asked to guess what their children would wish for. Here’s what they found: “Most mothers (56 percent) guessed that their children would wish for more time with them. In fact, only 10 percent of children made that wish. Their most frequent wish: ‘I want my mom to be less stressed and tired’ (34 percent).”

This was quite the ah-ha moment for me, most mom’s who work outside the home deal with the guilt of not spending more time with their kids….but that is not what the kids see, it is Mom being stressed and tired……..so conclusion, whether you are a working Mom or a stay at home Mom, we need to take care of ourselves so we are not projecting “stressed and tired” to all those around us. How to do that? Less scheduled activities, less TV, less computer time and probably less housework and more sleep. We all want to be super-Moms but all our kids want is what is best for US!! Now that is an AH-HA that we need to acknowledge. I know it is going to make me more aware of what I am projecting out to my kids.

http://www.oprah.com/article/money/career/pkgstrongestlife/20091019-orig-marcus-buckingham-certain/3

Okay, so I was a little skeptical myself on this one. We have health insurance coverage through Aetna and they have been talking up these health coaches as well as 24 hr nurse on call, you just call Member Services and the nurse is an option. I actually used the option last week and it worked really well, I was impressed with the professionalism and the knowledge and the confirmation of information that I was given. It also saved me a $30 co-pay, always a good thing with me. I will give you my example and I encourage you to try it if you have a question and have Aetna or if you have another insurance provider that offers you this service. My little girl, yes the same one who had H1N1, I hope this is not starting a trend with her. Well she slammed her finger in the door over the weekend, it instantly turned purple but we were able to stop the crying with a “special powers” ring, so we figured no big deal. A few days went by, a neighbor told us not to poke a hole in the nail or it could open everything up for infection, that we should just leave it. Well come Wednesday, it was ugly, she had a bulge in the area below her nail and it was all bruised. It didn’t feel hot to the touch but it looked pretty bad, I was tossing around the idea of taking her in because it looked that bad. I had a flyer from the mail advertising this nurse on duty thing with Aetna, so I figured it couldn’t hurt. I got right through, explained my situation, she asked some great questions, I answered them, she gave me some great info including confirming that poking a hole is a no-no, and gave me signs to look for, if those things happen, she said get in to see your Dr., this assured me that I was not under-reacting or being a bad Mom for not running to the Dr. Well none of those bad things happened, her nail is still black but the nurse also said this would go away, the bump in the area under her nail is gone and she hasn’t even mentioned it in days.

So lessons learned, try out those free resources it may give you a pleasant surprise and save you a few bucks. I will definitely be calling them prior to running to the Dr. in the future.

I recently had to google “How to get crayon out of carpet?” (Don’t ask ) A suggestion was WD-40 and a brush, low and behold, it worked. Ironically this AM I got sent an email about all the different uses of WD-40. The main ingredient is Fish Oil it is safe on so many things, I was shocked but am a believer after the carpet episode.

Here are some other uses:

1. Protects silver from tarnishing.
2. Removes road tar and grime from cars.
3.. Cleans and lubricates guitar strings.
4. Gives floors that ‘just-waxed’ sheen without making them slippery.
5. Keeps flies off cows.

6. Restores and cleans chalkboards.
7. Removes lipstick stains.
8. Loosens stubborn zippers.
9. Untangles jewelry chains.
10. Removes stains from stainless steel sinks.

11. Removes dirt and grime from the barbecue grill.
12. Keeps ceramic/terra cotta garden pots from oxidizing.
13. Removes tomato stains from clothing.
14. Keeps glass shower doors free of water spots.
15. Camouflages scratches in ceramic and marble floors.

16. Keeps scissors working smoothly.
17. Lubricates noisy door hinges on vehicles and doors in homes.
18. It removes black scuff marks from t he kitchen floor! Use WD-40 for those nasty tar and scuff marks on flooring. It
doesn’t seem to harm the finish and you won’t have to scrub nearly
as hard to get them off. Just remember to open some windows if you
have a lot of marks.
19. Bug guts will eat away the finish on your car if not
removed quickly! Use WD-40!
20. Gives a children’s playground gym slide a shine for a
super fast slide.

21. Lubricates gear shift and mower deck lever for ease of
handling on riding mowers.
22. Rids kids rocking chairs and swings of squeaky noises.
23. Lubricates tracks in sticking home windows and makes
them easier to open.
24. Spraying an umbrella stem makes it easier to open and close.
25. Restores and cleans padded leather dashboards in vehicles,
as well as vinyl bumpers.

26. Restores and cleans roof racks on vehicles.
27. Lubricates and stops squeaks in electric fans.
28. Lubricates wheel sprockets on tricycles, wagons, and
bicycles for easy handling.
29. Lubricates fan belts on washers and dryers and keeps
them running smoothly.
30. Keeps rust from forming on saws and saw blades, and other tools.
31.. Removes splattered grease on stove.
32. Keeps bathroom mirror from fogging.
33. Lubricates prosthetic limbs.
34. Keeps pigeons off the balcony (they hate the smell).
35. Removes all traces of duct tape.

36. Folks even spray it on their arms, hands, and knees to
relieve arthritis pain.
37. Florida ’s favorite use is: ‘cleans and removes love bugs
from grills and bumpers.’
38. The favorite use in the state of New York , WD-40 protects
the Statue of Liberty from the elements.
39. WD-40 attracts fish. Spray a little on live bait or lures
and you will be catching the big one in no time. Also, it’s a
lot cheaper than the chemical attractants that are made for just
that purpose. Keep in mind though, using some chemical laced baits
or lures for fishing are not allowed in some states.
40. Use it for fire ant bites. It takes the sting away
immediately and stops the itch.

41. WD-40 is great for removing crayon from walls. Spray on
the mark and wipe with a clean rag.
42. Also, if you’ve discovered that your teenage daughter
has washed and dried a tube of lipstick with a load of laundry,
saturate the lipstick spots with WD-40 and rewash.. Presto!
The lipstick is gone!
43. If you sprayed WD-40 on the distributor cap, it would
displace the moisture and allow the car to start.

P. S. The basic ingredient is FISH OIL.

Well that isn’t very fair, and on top of them getting a prime plan, not social security, they don’t even pay into it. Wow, sign me up for that program. I recently got an email with this information. A quote from email, “You see, Social Security benefits were not suitable for persons of their rare elevation in society. They felt they should have a special plan for themselves. So, many years ago they voted in their own benefit plan. In more recent years, no congress person has felt the need to change it. After all, it is a great plan. For all practical purposes their plan works like this: When they retire, they continue to draw the same pay until they die. Except it may increase from time to time for cost of living adjustments. …… ” Sounds like it is a pension plan of sorts, they should have the great opportunity(sarcasm) to pay into 401K’s and SS like the rest of us, those programs are good enough to “secure” our futures, they should be good enough for our public servants. Instead we have to pay into our individual programs AND pay for their plan as well through taxes, doesn’t seem quite fair to me.

The question is, how are the “people” going to get Congress and the Senate to vote for something that would hurt their back pocket?

Well it was in our house and we survived and looking on the bright side, we don’t have to debate whether we will get the vaccination, we already had it. How did we know we got it? It started with a Fever Seizure. Scary stuff, my little girl of 4 had one; we called 911 because we didn’t know what it was or what to do. Found out they are common in small children, doesn’t mean they are any less scary, temp was 103.6, we couldn’t get it down, paramedics told us to get to the ER, tried the lukewarm shower, washcloths, more Ibuprofen, by the time we got to the ER it was still 103.4, they gave her Tylenol on top of the Ibuprofen. After sitting there for almost 2 hrs, her temp got down to 100 and she seemed fine, ran tests to find cause. No other symptoms except the fever for about 24 hrs, then started to get a “stuffy nose”, sore neck and small cough mid morning, but I have heard much worse in Tyler’s classroom! ER dr. said it was a text book case of a fever seizure, and there are no lasting affects, just a way the body handles such a spike in fever in small bodies. Results of tests…N1H1, we didn’t even have to wait for the full hour, it was that definitive. Also a touch of pneumonia, no meds for the flu, antibiotics for the pneumonia. Get this; they said Tyler could go to school if there was no fever. We were to keep her home 7 days from the onset of symptoms. Well Tyler started 2 days later, luckily we choose to keep him out of school, or probably his class would have gotten it. My husband worked from home, he never did get it but I got what seemed to be a milder case of it.

Advice we can give, keep a dosing, potty and Temp chart when you get the N1H1, make sure you are staying hydrated(should be going to the bathroom every 1 to 1.5 hrs). And keep that fever down, using both Tylenol and Ibuprofen at the same time, if one kind isn’t enough to keep the fever down. That was the biggest ah-ha, and things went much smoother after that. We used over the counter cold and flu meds for the other symptoms. Otherwise the Dr. or urgent care/ER can’t do anything for you; we only ended up in the ER because we freaked out about the fever seizure. Oh and FYI on the Thermaflu, the ER Dr. was not recommending it, what they are finding is that it may only reduce symptoms perhaps a day, nothing significant and they are finding some serious side effects in children, once we heard that we opted out of Thermaflu.

I hope this helps people, if I would have known about the Tylenol/Ibuprofen combo usuage, we would have probably avoided the Fever Seizure and the trip to the ER. Good luck and stay healthy this flu season.

I was reading an article in the Money magazine about this vary subject and they explained it very simply. There are 3 factors that have staved off inflation. The first being that banks aren’t lending, loan growth prior to crisis was 9.6%, now it is -1.8%, wow isn’t that a decline, the banks are doing as individuals are doing, deleveraging as much as they can. The second being that business is not hiring; job growth before crisis was 1%, after -4.2%, another big decline, and people who are lucky to still have their jobs, may be seeing pay cuts or no increases so salaries are stagnant or declining as well. The last is the consumer spending, before the crisis 1.4%, now -0.7%. That one I was surprised, I thought that would decline more, but they said that this was HUGE since 2/3’s of the economy is comprised of consumer spending.

So because of these 3 factors they are counter-balancing the drop in interest rates that keep the scales (if you can say that) balanced. Now if these 3 factors or areas begin to improve again, this is when we may see the inflation everyone is talking about, so stay informed, keep your head up and watch those 3 areas for improvement, then make adjustments accordingly to stay ahead of the curve.

So some people think this is the mean thing to do, that kids should enjoy themselves, be playing, watching TV, etc. I for one am a proponent of a “chore list”. My son is in first grade and he can’t go outside to play until his “list” is done, which was usually me jotting things down during the day that I had saw and when he gets home he needs to clean up, they basically revolve around things that he messes up. So I was talking to another Mom and she said that she uses a “chore list” with pictures and using smiley faces or check marks in her house. She had the basics, make bed, clean room, clean up toys; I added brush teeth, dishwasher, laundry–clean put away–dirty sort in laundry room. I figured, hey the more smiley faces the better right. She also had a neat idea, she has on the bottom, “Can I help you dad?”, “Can I help you mom?”, “Can I help you brother/sister (add the names)?”

I got the list all prepared and showed it to my son, he was totally excited and my daughter (4), wanted one as well. I said sure…. Well low and behold things have been going great, they don’t have to ask “what else?”, they can just go to the list, they love the smiley’s, I love the work being done without harping and life is good. Now my favorite part was them coming up to me and asking if they could help me, I picked something, they loved it and it is getting them into the habit of asking and helping others.

If you want to use my list as a template, shoot me an email and I will send it to you. Every household is different, so just change to your needs, and don’t assume kids can’t handle the job, the job may not be done perfectly, but they will get there with practice. Also kids aren’t too old to start either. Having trouble with those tweens? If the list isn’t done, they don’t get their….cell, texting, FB, My Space, video games, whatever they are into.

Remember you are not being mean, you are raising responsible young people, there is nothing wrong with that.