tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8980244025476925610Thu, 12 Sep 2024 02:08:56 +0000financialgoalsRussian proverbsbackstorydoomsday saturdaygardenDo you wish you could chuck your day job and do what you've always dreamed? Me too. But I'm a big fan of having a roof over my head. I'm exploring ways to cut my costs, improve my life, and eventually break free of the 9-to-5. Join me.http://livewellonnothing.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (Susannah)Blogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8980244025476925610.post-5547770158093250882Mon, 10 Mar 2008 03:43:00 +00002008-03-09T21:00:14.618-07:00Four Pillars has posted this week's Carnival of Personal Finance #143. My participating entry is the first in the Doomsday Saturday posts, the quick-n-dirty guide to emergency preparedness in $20/20 min a week. Start now!In a moment of deadly seriousness completely out of keeping with the tone of this blog, my town nearly burned down eight years ago in a massive and quick-moving wildfire that http://livewellonnothing.blogspot.com/2008/03/oh-canada-link-y-carnival-goodness.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Susannah)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8980244025476925610.post-7830778639401731396Sat, 08 Mar 2008 12:21:00 +00002008-03-09T21:01:58.946-07:00doomsday saturdayDo you have a $20 in your wallet? Gas in your car? A 72-hour emergency backpack? A six-month emergency savings account? Working smoke detectors? Current passports? Current fake passports? Livestock? Assault weaponry? Ok, then, me neither. Emergency preparedness is a pain in the butt, particularly for the segment of the populace who would really rather be checking the latest celebrity http://livewellonnothing.blogspot.com/2008/03/doomsday-saturday-or-emergency.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Susannah)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8980244025476925610.post-1985542119504196056Sat, 08 Mar 2008 02:41:00 +00002008-03-08T08:36:28.587-08:00It's been a long week. I got back from a month-long business trip on Sunday. I've been playing catch-up for much of the week, in between long naps. (I'm an insomniac, and one of the really crap things about long business trips is that I stop sleeping.) And my favorite newspaper ever, The Washington Post, printed a piece of dreck by the less-than-charming Charlotte Allen.I know this is http://livewellonnothing.blogspot.com/2008/03/investing-in-your-career-i-dont-want.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Susannah)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8980244025476925610.post-4439969694098098303Fri, 07 Mar 2008 02:53:00 +00002008-03-08T06:09:46.277-08:00Russian proverbsFirst, some background. In my home growing up, all the best parental advice was in the form of Russian proverbs. Don't ask me why. I don't think I have a drop of Russian blood in my veins. Still, I'm predisposed to dispense advice in pithy Slavic sayings. This is the first of what will be a recurring feature.Wouldn’t it be great to choose the best possible online bank?Don’t you wish you knew http://livewellonnothing.blogspot.com/2008/03/russian-proverb-day-better-is-enemy-of.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Susannah)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8980244025476925610.post-6895867274008139954Thu, 06 Mar 2008 01:08:00 +00002008-03-05T18:42:57.165-08:00financialgardenTrent, from The Simple Dollar, has posted a nice entry about starting a kitchen garden. But I am one-upping him: I have a real kitchen garden.Now I'll admit that the potting soil in the sink takes some getting used to, and the drawer of seeds and verbena starts is where you would expect to find silverware. Fortunately, this is only temporary. Tomorrow, my kitchen garden will dwindle back to http://livewellonnothing.blogspot.com/2008/03/real-kitchen-garden.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Susannah)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8980244025476925610.post-541015157616397632Wed, 05 Mar 2008 04:02:00 +00002008-03-04T20:22:09.331-08:00I have a seventeen year old brother and a thirteen year old brother, both of whom live in the same town as I do. The seventeen-year-old is headed to college next year. He's a Type 1 diabetic. This means he can't spend the next four years living on Ramen noodles and Lucky Charms. At the same time, he can't afford to be dining out every night.What's a sister to do?I have the family over to http://livewellonnothing.blogspot.com/2008/03/cheap-date.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Susannah)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8980244025476925610.post-3067071289625790249Tue, 04 Mar 2008 04:21:00 +00002008-03-05T18:54:58.472-08:00financialSquawkfox has an interesting article about good debt. Her take? There is no such thing. It's a myth marketed to us by financial professionals. The most interesting part of the post, in my mind, was the discussion of mortgage debt. Squawkfox joins Millionaire Mommy Next Door in the devil's advocate position of saying that renting frees money for investing, which will earn returns greater thanhttp://livewellonnothing.blogspot.com/2008/03/making-big-decisions.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Susannah)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8980244025476925610.post-1787436024059963813Sat, 01 Mar 2008 06:10:00 +00002008-03-01T07:47:05.155-08:00financialIdentifying your needs v. your wants is hard. But identifying your wants is easy . . . isn't it?No. What drives the industry of consumer debt is not just a lot of people buying what they don't need. It's fueled by our inability to recognize when we're jonesing after things we don't even want.For those of you who weren't English majors, my blog title is actually stolen from Vanity Fair (the http://livewellonnothing.blogspot.com/2008/02/ill-tell-you-what-i-want-what-i-really.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Susannah)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8980244025476925610.post-7206207933744689691Sat, 01 Mar 2008 03:57:00 +00002008-03-01T08:06:13.629-08:00financialgoalsOne of the hallmarks of good goal-setting is a system of accountability. I hate that.As a single woman, I do what I want with my money. This is one of the big upsides to being single, IMHO, but it also means I can run fiscally amok. I could, for instance, buy over $500 in out-of-print Signet Regency novels in PDF form. (Not that I would do that, or anything. Oh, damn.) I suspect that a http://livewellonnothing.blogspot.com/2008/02/accountability.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Susannah)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8980244025476925610.post-8675204312603931062Fri, 29 Feb 2008 07:39:00 +00002008-02-29T00:03:36.004-08:00goalsWhy "Smart Goals"? They sound better than Stupid Goals.SMART is also an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely. I'm not a major fan of the cute acronym, but it is a good way to double-check goals for practicality.For example:I want to publish a novel. Unfortunately, I don't run any presses, so this goal is not attainable without modification. Setting up a goal that http://livewellonnothing.blogspot.com/2008/02/smart-goals.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Susannah)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8980244025476925610.post-6235124648852280Fri, 29 Feb 2008 00:42:00 +00002008-02-29T05:16:17.755-08:00backstoryI always wanted to publish a novel. I know, that makes two of us. But I was so close. I have an agent. I have a finished manuscript. I've gotten encouraging letters from editors. And then.Then I stopped working on it.This may seem nuts, but it came out of a concatination of messy life events. I won't bore you with the details. I'll just mention they include a corpse, a PI license, and a http://livewellonnothing.blogspot.com/2008/02/living-vida-loca.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Susannah)0