Distractions

Two days ago I did something really dangerous and stupid.  I took the wrong medication.  A few months back I injured my shoulder. Remember the post I where I mentioned the weather was beautiful and I didn't want to stay inside?  Well, I was out digging in the dirt with a rototiller.  My shoulder had been sore prior because of the crazy workout routines I had been doing.  So off I went to the doctor to get some relief. It took a while because my mother got sick.  Remember that post as well?  Anyway, the doctor gave me Tramadol.  Tramadol and I don't get along.  I was nauseous and itchy.  In other words miserable.  So the 2nd doctor (socialized medicine means I don't always see the same doctor....life is good though) prescribed Motrin.  Of course he did, you are thinking.  Motrin fixes all, doesn't it?

Now let's fast forward to Sunday night.  We are cleaning up from dinner and I reach to take my medicine.  I try to follow the directions for the meds...don't take on an empty stomach.  A short while later I am feel very light-headed and not quite right.  My oldest child thinks I am just tired.  No, that isn't it.  I am shaking now and breaking out in a sweat.  I am wracking my brain for what in the world I could have taken.  I head to the kitchen and it dawns on me that I didn't reach in my purse for my meds.  I grabbed the bottle on the counter.

Did I mention my dog takes Tramadol for his hip dysplaxia?  Yep, I took the dog's medicine.  Thankfully, the dog's medicine is the same as the human version.  I googled the heck out of my issue.  Needless to say, I am fine, but how scary is that? 

It was a teaching lesson for the Littles.  I pulled out the dog's medicine bottle and showed it to the kids. I asked them what it was and one of them said it was my medicine.  Nope, not my medicine. The bottles look the same and so do the white pills inside.  When I told them what had happened they were very quiet and solemn.  I explained how miserable I felt.  I told them the importance of paying attention to medicine bottles and not to ever, ever, ever take medicine without discussing with an adult.  Yes, we have had these conversations before, but we have never had a real-life "teaching moment."

So it got me to thinking about distractions in our lives that take us off our financial paths.  How many of us get distracted by the new and shiny?  Or by what our neighbor has parked in the driveway?  Or by the vacation our friends just took?  We wonder how they can afford these things. We figure if they can afford these things we should be able to also. Afterall, we DESERVE ___________ (you fill in the blank).  

Does this happen to you?  Clearly we know I get distracted, how 'bout you?  

Was it worth the savings?

And awwwaaaayyyyy we go!

I have some of the most amazing friends.  They tell me all sorts of things in confidence and I don't betray that confidence.  If it is something particularly helpful to others financially, though, I beg them to let me share their story.  Most of them say yes as long as I don't share their names. I won't. I never do.  Pinky swear.

So what would you do with this scenario:  You are traveling to visit family who is about 1500 miles away.  Yeah, you could drive, but you have a couple of kids and 1 of those kids is a toddler.  Flying seems like a better option.  The thought of spending countless hours behind the wheel of a car doesn't appeal at the moment.  Let's not forget the overnight hotel accomodations and the gas. Oh yeah, traffic too.

You want the best deal because flying 3 people is pricey.  Well, you find a way to say $400 overall by driving to an airport 3 hours away and arriving at your destination after midnight.  Sounds like a great money saving deal, right?

On paper it sounds good, but the reality wasn't nearly as wonderful, unfortunately.  The flight left around dinnertime.  At some point the toddler had decided it was time for bed and he wanted it NOW!  A full blown meltdown ensued.  (You know the ones I am talking about...screaming, crying, out of control?  Oh sorry, I forgot your kid never did/does that.)  They arrived at their destination tired and harried.  They still had to grab luggage and drive to their family's home.  It was 2 am by the time they "arrived" officially.  

When I asked her if she would do that again, her answer was a resounding NO.  It wasn't worth the savings for the hassle.

Most of us would probably agree with her.  Not only NO but H-E-double-hockey-sticks NO!  But the funny thing is that memories are short and $400 is a lot of money for most folks.  How many of us have compromised convenience for a buck?  I know I have.  I try hard to weigh all the scenarios and the pros and cons, but $400 is $400...that's a lotta lattes lol

So what would YOU do?

Trading

Most of you know that I trade my own portfolio.  I don't use a financial advisor or planner at this point in our lives.  I just want to clarify "what" I do since some of you are curious.

5 plus years ago, when we lived in El Paso, TX, I attended a sales building event.  One of my favorite speakers was there...Mr. Zig Ziglar. 

There were a few other speakers at the event, but in addition to Mr. Ziglar I was intrigued by Phil Town who was representing Investools.  Investools teaches mere mortals how to invest on their own.  No it is not free.  No it is not easy.  It is truly one of the hardest things I have learned to do.  I have spent thousands of dollars in education and thousands of hours honing my skill.  That said, I do NOT regret a minute of it...today anyway lol  Seriously, I really enjoy what I do.


So what exactly do you do then? 

Well, I analyze charts daily and decide whether I am going to enter a trade on a particular stock.  Sounds simple enough, doesn't it?  Yeah, not so fast.  It is actually much more complicated than that. 

What I do NOT do is day trade.  Day traders are in and out of a particular trade during trading hours.  I do not do that.  I am a long term investor overall, but I will trend trade.  Long term means I am buying stocks of companies that I want to stay in for the long haul.  I found this definition on Wikipedia that sums it up "Traders who employ a trend following strategy do not aim to forecast or predict specific price levels; they simply jump on the trend and ride it." 

Now I am not ignorant of the swing of the market so I use the skills I have learned to remove myself from a long term trade if it is no longer moving in the direction I would like it to go.


Do you make money at this?

I have been known to be fairly successful at this.  And let me preface this first with my definition of successful and most traders definition of successful...preservation of capital is paramount.  You will not be right on every single trade, just not going to happen.  There are way too many variables out of our control to predict 100% success. 

I have sat down with my long term financial goals and given myself a benchmark to hit every year. to get to my "number."   

Stay tuned for more....

Direction

My biggest writing obstacle has been because I have blog-envy.  I haven't been able to figure out all the intricate details of how to make my blog look professional or whatever I think I wanted it to look like so I just quit writing.  It was easier to quit writing than try to find the energy and motivation to fix the issue.

Just the other day I picked up this book at the library.  Now I am re-motivated.  The book reminded me WHY I wanted to blog in the first place.  Blog about your PASSION.  Well, those of you know me know I am a passionate person, but the things most dear to my heart are my faith in God, my family, and money.  More specifically, helping women realize their full potential in this realm.

I  have decided to take myself out of the mainstream working world to homeschool my littles, but I am still passionate about money and financial counseling so this is a way I can utilize the talent God has entrusted in me, plus hopefully help someone along the way.

Just bear with me as I transistion the blog and learn some basic coding.  I look forward to sharing some wonderful stories that I have been saving and to sharing some of my other passion, trading and investing.

Toodles for now!

Slacker

Yep, that's me.  I have been slacking on the blog for a few reasons.  One of them is the weather.  It has been too nice out, simply put, to want to sit behind a computer screen.  I like to dig in the dirt and now is the time to do it.  I figure the Alabama weather is going to get hot soon enough and I will have time to rejoin the blogosphere.

The second reason is my frustration with trying to figure out how my "blog" works.  I now have tabs but I am not sure how to get the correct articles into the correct tabs.  No one is my little world has been able to help me either soooooo.....I went outside and started digging.  Sorry 'bout that.

I'll be back soon.  I promise.

Lenten Challenge Complete

Yep, Lent is officially over as is my Challenge.  I think we did really, really well with cutting out all "non-essential spending."  It was tough though I must admit.  I am not a huge shopping spree kind of gal, but I do like to troll the Target dollar bins or hit up Books-A-Million.

What we discovered was how much "stuff" we actually buying each month because we could.  I know for a fact that there are a few of you who do the same thing.  Don't worry, I won't call you out publicly hahahaha  We all have our vices.

One of my girlfriends asked what we were going to "do" with the extra money now.  I hadn't really thought about that part so this was a good idea.  We donate a lot to Food for the Poor so I thought that would be a great place to give a bit extra.

We have also decided to stick with our Challenge year round.  Do we really need more stuff??

Did you follow along?  How did you do?

Helping my mom

I have been out of town for the past week helping my mother.  It has been challenging to my family back home, but I can't think of anything I would do differently.  This is her 4th surgery in 2 years.  She just lost her husband last summer so she needed some additional help.

The Sandwich Generation refers to Baby Boomers with parents over 70 years old and dependent children.  Well, right now I am feeling like I qualify given my circumstances.  My mother is 65 next month and I have 3 children under 10 at home.  I am actually part of the Baby Bust Generation....the generation between 1965 to 1976. This is the generation that didn't see as many babies being born.  This period of time coinciding with the introduction of the birth control pill.

• There are 76 million baby boomers. On January 1, 2006, the oldest of this group turned 60. By 2014, they will range in age from 50 to 68 years old and either be retired or in the planning stages of retirement.  according to Kathy Quan, R.N, B.S.N., P.H.N. at NetPlaces

What I have discovered, after doing some research on this subject, is how commonplace my situation actually is.  Here's another interesting statistic from NetPlaces:

• Forty-four percent of Americans between the ages of 45 and 56 have aging parents as well as children under the age of 21. In actuality, women are sandwiched more often than men.  

I highlighted and italicized that last sentence because it is extremely important to all of my girlfriends.  I am fortunate in my situation to not have paid employment at the moment.  However, I homeschool the littles so I am not without significant responsibilities.  Thankfully, I have an amazing husband, older daughter, and lots of great friends to fill my void during this time.  The majority of caregivers to ailing parents and in-laws are the women in the family.  

That does not alleviate the guilt though.  Guilt that I have left my husband to handle the household duties, school duties, etc.  Guilt that I have about leaning on my friends so much. Guilt that I am leaving my mother too soon.  Like I said earlier, I wouldn't do it any other way, but that doesn't relieve the conflicting feelings that I am experiencing.

I don't even live in the same state as my mother.  I have to pray that my sisters will step up and care for her after I leave.  Now add "stress" to the "guilt."  It seems my mother doesn't qualify for a visiting nurse since she doesn't meet some requirement that her insurance company needs her to have.  I have already re-booked my ticket and now hesitate since I am afraid she will be alone most of the time.  I miss my littles terribly.  My husband's job is our income so I need to get home so he can do his job properly.  Oh what to do, what to do???