Here are three ways to help you do this:

Practice Creative Procrastination

The truth is that everyone procrastinates on something. However, the difference between high performers and low performers is what they choose to procrastinate on.

High performers create both priorities and posteriorities. Priorities are things you do more of, and sooner. Posteriorities are things you do less of and later, if even at all.

Most people unconsciously procrastinate on big, valuable tasks that can have significant long-term consequences. To get more done, deliberately procrastinate on tasks of low value so that you have more time for activities that can make a big difference.

The best thing you can do is cut down on watching tv, and instead spend that time with your family, reading, exercising, or something else that will improve your quality of life.

Apply The 80/20 Rule

This principle, founded by Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, states that 20% of your activities account for 80% of your results. For instance, 20% of your customers account for 80% of your sales, 20% of your products account for 80% of your profits, and so on. So if you have a list of ten things to do, two of them will be worth five times more than the other eight things combined.

Sadly though, most people procrastinate on the 20% of activities that are most valuable. Instead, they busy themselves with the least important 80% that contributes very little to results.

If you choose to start your day working on low-value tasks, you’ll develop the habit of always starting on low-value tasks. So always keep in mind whether the task you’re working on is in the top 20% or in the bottom 80% of your activities. Refuse to work on the bottom 80% while there are still tasks in the top 20% to be done.

The hardest part of any important task is getting started. Once you begin, you’ll be motivated to continue. And after you complete the significant task, you’ll get a tremendous feeling of pride and satisfaction.

Plan Your Day In Advance

Your ability to set goals, make plans, and take action on them is a large determinant of the course of your life. The better your plan, the easier it’ll be to get started and overcome procrastination.

To create a plan, work from a list. If a new task comes up, put it on the list before you take action on it. Make your list at the end of each workday, or at night, for the new workday ahead. Move everything that hasn’t been completed onto the list for the coming day, and then add everything that needs to be done the next day.

In making your list the day before, your mind will subconsciously work on the list while you sleep. You may even wake up with great ideas for getting your work done better and faster than you initially thought.

As you work through your list, you’ll feel more effective and powerful. Checking off items on your list as you complete them will give you a visual picture of accomplishment. Then you’ll find it easier to keep going, which will naturally motivate you to do even more.

How do you overcome procrastination and get more done?

This post was included in the Carnival of Money Stories, hosted by the Intelligent Speculator.

One of the six categories of social security benefits is Medicare. Within Medicare, there are actually four parts. In this post, we’ll look at the first part – Medicare Part A.

Medicare Part A Benefits

Here’s a list of services that are covered under Part A:

• Inpatient care in hospitals (such as critical access hospitals, inpatient rehabilitation facilities, and long-term care hospitals)
• Inpatient care in a skilled nursing facility (excludes custodial or long term care)
• Hospice care services
• Home health care services
• Inpatient care in a Religious Nonmedical Health Care Institution

Medicare Part A Cost

How much does it cost? If you or your spouse paid Medicare taxes for at least 10 years while working, then you don’t have to pay a monthly premium for Part A coverage. Part A is also known as “premium-free Part A.”

However, if you’re not eligible for premium-free Part A, you may be able to buy Part A if you meet one of two conditions:

• You’re 65 or older, you’re entitled to (or enrolling in) Part B, and you meet the citizenship or residency requirements.
• You’re under 65, disabled, and your premium-free Part A coverage ended because you returned to work.

If you don’t get Part A premium-free, you’ll have to pay up to $461 a month in 2010. And if you only have between 30 to 39 quarters of Medicare-covered employment, you’ll have to pay $254 a month.

It’s important to note that if you do buy Part A, in most cases you’ll also need to have Part B and pay monthly premiums for both.

Medicare Part A Eligibility

You’ll be eligible for Medicare when you turn age 65, even if you’re not yet eligible for full Social Security retirement benefits. If you’re age 65 or older, you can get Part A without paying premiums if

• You already get retirement benefits from Social Security or the Railroad Retirement Board
• You’re eligible to get Social Security or Railroad benefits but haven’t filed for them yet.
• You or your spouse had Medicare-covered government employment.

If you’re under age 65, you can get Part A without having to pay premiums if either of the following applies to you:

• You’ve received Social Security or Railroad Retirement Board disability benefits for 24 months.
• You have permanent kidney failure requiring a dialysis or transplant.

When To Apply For Medicare

If you’re already getting Social Security retirement or disability benefits or railroad retirement checks, you’ll be contacted a few months before you become eligible for Medicare and given the information you need.

If you’re not getting retirement benefits yet, you should contact your local Social Security office three months before your 65th birthday to sign up for Medicare. You can sign up for Medicare even if you don’t plan to retire at age 65.

Medicare Benefit Period

The number of days that Medicare covers your care in a hospital or skilled nursing facility is measured in benefit periods. A benefit period starts on the first day you receive services in a hospital or skilled nursing facility, and ends after you haven’t received care for 60 consecutive days. If you go into a hospital or skilled nursing facility after one benefit period has ended, a new benefit period begins. This is important to know because you must pay the inpatient hospital deductible for each benefit period.

Medicare Part A Deductible And Coinsurance Amounts For 2010

Deductible – $1,100.00 per benefit period

Coinsurance

• $275 a day for the 61st – 90th day each benefit period
• $550 a day for the 91st – 150th day for each lifetime reserve day
• 100% of the costs for each day beyond 150 days

All days over day 90 in a benefit period are considered lifetime reserve days. There are only a total of 60 lifetime reserve days, which don’t renew with each new benefit period.

Skilled Nursing Facility Coinsurance – Up to $137.50 a day for the 21st – 100th day each benefit period.

But did you know that when you receive your social security benefits in retirement, they may be taxed again?

How To Determine If Your Social Security Benefits Are Taxable

The taxable amount of your social security benefits, if any, depends on a combination of your benefits and your other income. Usually, as this total increases, a bigger percentage of your benefits is subject to tax.

More specifically, if your total other income, which is described below, plus half of your net benefits (box 5 of Form SSA-1099) is greater than the base amount attributed to your filing status, some of your benefits will be taxable. We’ll discuss the base amount later.

Total Other Income

Your total other income includes taxable pensions, wages, interest, dividends, and tax-exempt interest income. In addition to this, some exclusions – such as interest from qualified U.S. savings bonds, exempt adoption benefits from your employer, foreign-earned income, foreign housing, and income earned in American Samoa or Puerto Rico by bona fide residents – must also be included in your other income.

Other Income And Half Of Your Social Security Benefits

To calculate this number to compare to your base amount, go through these following steps:

1. Calculate the total amount from box 5 of all your Forms SSA-1099.
2. Calculate half of the amount from line 1.
3. Calculate the total amount of your taxable pensions, wages, interest, dividends, and other taxable income.
4. Calculate the total amount of any tax-exempt interest income (such as interest on municipal bonds) plus any exclusions from income (listed earlier).
5. Add lines 2, 3, and 4.

Compare the amount on line 5 to the base amount for your filing status. If the amount on line 5 is less than or equal to the base amount, none of your benefits are taxable. If the amount on line 5 is more than your base amount, some of your benefits may be taxable.

Base Amount

Your specific base amount is:

• $25,000 if you are single, head of household, or qualifying widow(er),
• $25,000 if you are married filing separately, and lived apart from your spouse for all the tax year,
• $32,000 if you are married filing jointly, or
• $0 if you are married filing separately, and lived with your spouse at any time during the tax year.

Other Important Points

In most cases, up to 50% of your benefits will be taxable. However, up to 85% of your benefits can be taxable if either of the following situations applies to you.

• The total of half of your benefits and all your other income is more than $34,000 ($44,000 if married filing jointly).
• You are married filing separately and lived with your spouse at any time during the tax year.

If some of your benefits are taxable, use the social security benefits worksheet – found in the instructions for IRS Form 1040 (page 28) or 1040A (page 29) – to calculate the actual amount of your taxable benefits. And for more detailed information, check out IRS Publication 915.

Have you had to pay taxes on your social security benefits?

This post was included in the Carnival of Financial Planning at My Trader’s Journal.

What gives a person the right to lead?

An advanced degree? Nope. Fancy title? No.

In short, you can’t be given the right to lead – you’ve got to earn it. You can’t make other people follow you. You’ve got to make yourself the kind of person others want to follow.

There are seven sections in this book, and each describes a leadership quality – a quality you must develop in order to earn the right to lead. They are action, vision, sacrifice, risk, determination, service, and integrity.

This is a great concise book that could be read in a single afternoon, or you could read a few pages a day to receive reminders and encouragement.

Here’s my favorite part of the book.

The late John Wooden is known as a man of character who was dedicated to excellence on the basketball court. Most people know that his dedication helped him coach UCLA to an unprecedented 10 NCAA championships.

But what people may not know is that John was just as dedicated off the court in his personal life as he was on the court.

On the 21st of each month, John would write a love letter to Nellie, his wife of 53 years. Then after he’d share his heart with her, he’d put the letter inside an envelope, and place it with all the other letters he’s written. In his lifetime, he wrote over 180 of those love letters.

The touching part about all of this is that all the letters remain unopened. Why? Because it’s been over 15 years since his dear wife passed away. Yet not a single month had passed that John hadn’t written to her.

Now that is an act of loyalty and commitment! Who wouldn’t want to follow a person like that?

If you’d like to read more inspiring stories from leaders like this, get your copy of The Right To Lead today.

Though you may not be able to just place a home in a virtual shopping cart and checkout, you can perform a detailed search for homes, keep aware of market conditions, and do a lot of research through the internet.

Here are two unique websites that help you do this.

Trulia

Trulia is a free site full of useful information. All you need to do is enter information about the neighborhood you want to live in, your price range, and other preferred features. The nice feature about this site is the way it lets you sort the search results. Here are some of the more interesting criteria.

Number Of Photos – If you’re thinking about making an appointment to visit a house you’re interested in, you can get an idea of what it looks like beforehand. More pictures could give you a better idea of whether or not the house would be worthwhile to tour.

Price Reduced Date – If a seller has reduced the home’s price recently, it could be a sign that he’s in more of a hurry to sell. If this is the case, you might be able to negotiate an agreement more quickly.

Price Reduced $ – This sorts home listings that have dropped in price by dollar value – those that had the biggest reduction in price are shown first, followed by those that have dropped by smaller amounts.

Price Reduced % – You can also sort by how much the price of a home has dropped as a percentage of the original price – the highest percentage reduction is shown first, followed by lower percentages.

Once you click on a listing that you like, you’ll arrive at a page where you can find more detailed information about the home.

For instance, there are sections that show basic home facts, photos, real estate trends in the area, nearby grocery stores and restaurants, nearby school information, and a comparison of mortgage rates from various lenders.

Zillow

If you’re looking for an estimate of home values in a specific neighborhood, Zillow is a great resource. But in addition to home values, it’s also a site where you can search for homes, specifying by price range and the number of bed and baths you’re looking for.

Once you get the results, you can refine your search further by different categories, including houses for sale, houses for rent, and different home types.

But the two most useful features of this site are the Zestimate and the Walk Score. Here’s a description of what they are.

Zestimate – This is their estimate of what the home is worth, both as a specific figure and a range of values. The smaller the range, the more reliable the estimate.

This estimate can be used as a starting point in your price negotiations, or just to stay aware of local market trends.

Walk Score – With the green movement, many people are looking to rely less on cars. This score represents how walkable a home is to nearby amenities such as coffee shops, parks, libraries, and more. The score ranges between 0 and 100, with a description of each score as follows.

• Car-Dependent, Driving Only (0-24)
• Car-Dependent (25-49)
• Somewhat Walkable (50-69)
• Very Walkable (70-89)
• Walkers’ Paradise (90-100)

So the greater the score, the less your daily errands will require a car.

Have you used the internet to shop for homes? Are there any other unique home buying sites that you know of?

This post was included in the Real Estate Investing Carnival during the week of August 9, 2010. Check out the The Income Blog for a variety of great articles!

Improve Your FICO Score

Your FICO score reflects your behavior as a borrower over time. As such, it could take months or even years to see a noticeable improvement.

So if you have bad credit history that’s dragging down your score, or if you want to raise a “good” score to an “excellent” score, take action to improve your score well before you apply for a mortgage loan. Here are a few steps you can take.

Pay Your Bills On Time. Your reputation for paying back the money you’ve borrowed accounts for the largest portion (35%) of your FICO score. If you forget when bills are due, consider setting up automatic payments to make sure bills get paid by their due date.

Reduce Your Credit Card Balances. The amount of money you owe makes up the second largest portion (30%) of your FICO score. Having cards that are close to being maxed out will drag down your score.

Don’t Close Existing Credit Cards. The longer you manage debt successfully, the better a loan prospect you are. Part of your FICO score is a reflection of how long you’ve had your oldest account and the average age of all your accounts.

Don’t Apply For A Lot Of New Credit. As previously mentioned, lenders look at how long you’ve maintained your accounts, and like to see responsible payment over time. So if you open a lot of new accounts at once, you’ll look desperate for quick cash. Lenders see this as a red flag, so this can lower your FICO score.

Stay At Your Job

Mortgage lenders like income stability. If you’re a job hopper, or if you leave your job soon before you apply for a loan, you might look like a higher risk than if you’ve been employed consistently over the past several years.

Reduce Your Overall Debt

Lenders use the 28/36 rule to identify low-risk borrowers. This rule states that your principal, interest, taxes, and insurance (PITI) shouldn’t exceed 28% of your gross monthly income. Also, your total monthly debt (PITI, credit cards, auto loans, etc.) shouldn’t exceed 36% of your gross monthly income. If your debt exceeds these percentages, lenders will hold back the amount that they’re willing to lend you.

Boost Your Down Payment

The bigger the investment you make out of your own pocket, the more committed you’ll be to ownership, and the less likely you are to default on your mortgage. So if you can invest more than 20% upfront towards the purchase of your home, it’ll be easier to get a loan.

And as an added benefit, you’ll receive a lower interest rate on your loan, and you won’t be required to pay private mortgage insurance.

What other advice do you have to get approved for a mortgage loan?

This post was included in the Real Estate Investing Carnival during the week of August 2, 2010. Check out the The Income Blog for a variety of great articles!

On one hand, home ownership is a big commitment that can be very expensive. On the other hand, ownership is also an investment that can be less expensive than renting over the long term. So how do you decide?

Here are the advantages of each.

Advantages Of Renting

Greater Flexibility

Depending on your lease, you’re not tied to your residence for more than a year or two.

But when you buy a home, you’ll first need to sell it or find a tenant before you can move.

Low Maintenance

When you rent, maintenance issues such as fixing a broken pipe or clogged drain is the landlord’s responsibility. He’ll not only get somebody to fix it, but he’ll also pay the bill.

When you buy a home, keeping everything in good repair comes out of your own wallet.

Move In Faster

Renters can move in soon after their application is approved.

Buyers need to find the right home, negotiate the offer, get financing, and transfer ownership of the property. All of this takes considerably more time.

Move In Cheaper

Renting usually doesn’t involve more than two months’ rent and a security deposit to move in.

On the other hand, buying a home not only involves a big down payment (at least 20% in most cases), but you also pay thousands of dollars in fees and costs associated with getting a mortgage. These include application, origination, and title insurance fees just to name a few.

Advantages Of Buying

Your Own Place

For most, the main reason we want to buy is so that we’ll have a place to call our very own. With home ownership, you’re no longer paying off the landlord’s mortgage. Having your name on the deed is a great feeling for most of us.

Build Equity

As you pay off your mortgage and as home values rise, you build equity in your home. You can think of equity as a savings account, cashing out if you sell your home and using the money as a down payment for another house. Or you can borrow from your equity through a home equity loan or a home equity line of credit.

Tax Breaks

Mortgage interest, property taxes, and closing costs are deductible from your federal income taxes. This is another big reason why home ownership is appealing for many.

Beat Inflation

We’ve talked about the easiest way to beat inflation before. But here’s another, more indirect way.

As the cost of living rises, rent increases along with it. But if you apply for a fixed-rate mortgage, your payments stay the same for as long as you live in the home. So the longer you live there, the greater this benefit becomes.

What other factors are there to consider? Do you currently rent or buy the home you live in?

First photo by faul; Second photo by Casey Serin

This post was included in the Carnival Of Personal Finance during the week of August 2, 2010. Check out the Ultimate Money Blog for a variety of great articles!

Materials You’ll Need

What I like about the solar oven is that you can build it pretty quickly, with materials that are commonly available around the house. Here are the basics, along with a few illustrations, found from the Solar Now website.

• pizza box
• black construction paper
• aluminum foil
• clear plastic
• tape, scissor, and a ruler
• straw

How To Build A Solar-Powered Oven

1. Measure and draw a one-inch border around all four sides of the pizza box. Cut along three sides, leaving the side along the back of the box uncut.
2. Create a flap by folding along the uncut line to form a crease. Cut a piece of aluminum foil to fit the inside of the flap, and tape the foil onto the flap.
3. Measure a piece of plastic to cover the opening you created when forming the flap. The plastic should be larger than the opening, so you can tape it underneath the box top. Make sure the plastic is tightly sealed, so that air won’t escape from the oven interior.
4. Cut another piece of foil to line the inside bottom of the pizza box, and tape it into place. Then cover the foil with black construction paper, and tape it into place again.
5. Close the pizza box, and prop open the flap of the box with a straw. Put the box in sunlight, and adjust the aluminum flap until it reflects the most sunlight through the plastic window and into the oven.

Important Points To Note

Many solar ovens will reach temperatures between 200 and 275 degrees. While this is sufficient to cook many types of foods, it’ll take awhile longer too cook than with traditional ovens. But a nice benefit of this is that solar ovens don’t easily burn food. So you can leave your food in the oven while you go to work, and come home to food that’s warm and ready to eat!

And in the event that electricity isn’t available, you can use the solar oven to purify water and cook food. This can even make a cool science experiment. It reminds me of something MacGyver would’ve created back in the day!

To see how you can build many other types of solar ovens, check out the Solar Cooking Archive.

Do you think the concept of a solar oven is cool? Would you build one yourself?

Photo by Abri_Beluga

So I chose this particular book because the author, John Maxwell, is known as the leadership guru. As such, I’m interested to hear what he has to say about connecting with others. Here’s what I’ve learned.

Why Should We Connect?

Simply put, people can’t succeed in life without communicating effectively. And good communication is all about connecting. To connect, we must identify and relate to people in a way that increases our influence with them.

How Do We Connect Better?

Here are five actions we can take.

Find Common Ground

All great relationships are built on common values. This common ground must be discovered, and that takes time. So be available to others. Move into their world and search for something in their background that relates to yours.

Keep It Simple

I used to think that using big words would make me sound smarter and more sophisticated. But if people need a dictionary to understand you, then you’re not connecting!

Educators take the simple and make it complicated, while communicators take the complicated and make it simple.

Create An Enjoyable Experience For Everyone

To hold people’s interest, you should seek to be the kind of communicator you would like to hear. Some of the qualities found in good communicators are warmness, honesty, creativity, and a sense of humor.

Inspire People

Believe the best about people. People usually respond to the expectations set by others.

But don’t just help them feel good. Understanding will change your mind. Action will change your life. Call people to action and give them a game plan.

Live What You Communicate

Over time, the way you live outweighs the words you use. Know who you are, and who you’re not. We all have strengths and weaknesses. Perfection is a mask.

And deliver on your promises. Making commitments creates hope. Keeping commitments creates trust.

How Can You Tell When You’ve Connected With Others?

Here are some signs:

• People give extra effort,
• People express unsolicited appreciation,
• People demonstrate unguarded openness, and
• Positive energy is created when they’re together.

My Thoughts

Reading this, I realize that it’s my responsibility to make sure I’m connecting with others. I’m far from an expert, so I need to be the kind of person others would like to spend time with.

The good thing about Everybody Communicates, Few Connect is that there are questions at the end of each chapter to help you reflect on your current ability to connect. And of course, there are also tips to help you get better at it.

Have you read this book? How would you describe your ability to connect?

Now we’ll look at the other perspective – analyzing stocks as an enterprising investor. What makes an enterprising investor different?

According to Graham, the enterprising investor is willing “to devote time and care to the selection of securities that are both sound and more attractive than the average.” In other words, this person is willing to put in the extra effort necessary to obtain a better than average return on investment. So if this describes you, what criteria do you use to analyze stocks for your portfolio?

Here are the six criteria that Graham suggests you follow:

Low Price/Earnings Ratio

The first criteria he suggests is a lower price/earnings ratio. As opposed to the defensive investor, who is advised to filter out stocks with a P/E ratio greater than 15, the enterprising investor is even more restricted. Only stocks with a P/E ratio of 9 or less are suitable.

Good Financial Condition

While the defensive investor looks for companies whose current assets are at least twice their current liabilities, the enterprising investor can be more flexible. Companies only need to have current assets that are one and a half times greater than their current liabilities to be sufficient for the enterprising investor.

Furthermore, the amount of debt is permitted to be within 110% of net current assets.

Earnings Stability

Again, Graham was more lenient in this area compared to the defensive investor. For the enterprising investor, he only required positive earnings over the previous five years.

Growth In Earnings

Graham didn’t require a specific percentage increase in earnings, as he did for the defensive investor. Rather, he only required that the company’s earnings from the previous year be more than its earnings figure five years ago.

Some Current Dividend

Graham was the most accommodating with this set of criteria. He didn’t insist on consistent dividend payments over a certain time period, but only expected some amount of current dividends.

Moderate Price

This was the only other criteria in which Graham placed more restrictions for the enterprising investor. To be a worthy company, the stock’s price needed to be less than 120% of the company’s tangible book value.

Closing Thoughts

Using this different set of criteria, enterprising investors would expand their list of suitable stocks for further analysis. However, Graham reminds us that to be successful, the enterprising investor must have enough knowledge of stock values to treat his operations as a business.

Do you consider yourself an enterprising investor? What other criteria do you use to analyze stocks?

This post was included in the Carnival Of Money Stories  during the week of July 19, 2010. Check out The Financial Blogger’s blog for a variety of great articles!