This is a must read

I ran across an article on Conservative Oasis' blog titled "Top Stories of 2008". I love the humorous overview of the year. For example:

US auto giants GM, Chrysler, and Ford come a calling to Uncle Sam, with hands out. Problem is, you can’t ask for billions from “America” if you are flying Lear Jets to the meeting. OK… this one got blown WAY out of proportion. America then got sidetracked onto Executive salaries and perks, ignoring the fact that the real glutton of this situation is the UAW. Even if you fired all three CEO’s and never flew another damn plane with them in it, their combined salaries for a year wouldn’t run one of those companies for a month.

America needs to wake up, and stop letting unions hijack themselves right out of work. Jobs race overseas for a lot of reasons, but one of them is because labor here is overinflated.

In the sequel, they three tripped to DC in economy hybrids and such. 10 hour drives. In cars that are being discontinued due to poor sales. Brilliant. Seriously, these are the best and brightest?

I object to them making that kind of money based on them just appearing stupid.

I found myself laughing out loud alone in a coffee shop. Please go read and make me feel validated! :)

Blogged with the Flock Browser

I Like This Game

This week marked my first direct deposit into my savings account. Between that disbursement and depositing some of my Christmas money, I am now only $307 from my emergency fund goal!

I'll have another segmenthttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif deposited at the end of the month. I also think I can sit down and scrounge up enough extra funds from the budget to make the goal by the end of January! Hopefully in February I'll have completed one baby-step and starting the second!!

I am hoping to bring in a little additional income through selling photography. I've got a few items for sale on my Etsy shop, but have several more that I just haven't gotten around to putting up. Check out the link above and keep lookin- more stuff will be added soon!

Here's to an exciting, closer to debt-free, new year!

Change in Lifestyle

While at home over the Thanksgiving break I started reading my dad's copy of Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey. I couldn't put down the book, and thought it was insightful and funny.

As a result of reading that book, I've started the Total Money Makeover. Dave (we're on a first name basis) outlines a series of baby steps, and I'm on number one! This means that I need to save $1000 in an emergency fund before I begin Baby Step 2- The Debt Snowball.

I also created a pretty decent budget and outline of where my money should go every month. I've tried to be strategic about using direct deposit to help with this. For example, I have two checking accounts and two savings accounts. One of my accounts is at a bank in KY and one is here. I've set it up so that certain things go to the KY account that is used far less often. My auto insurance, travel and gift funds all are directly deposited in that account monthly. My auto insurance is automatically paid monthly from that account. This way, I'm not keeping a wad of cash all year until I need it to travel, and when I do need it I can easily transfer it to the other bank, or just use that debit card. Plus it's far less tempting to dip into those funds, since I kinda forget that account is there. I've also set up a recurring deposit to my savings account from my paycheck. My money is managing itself!

I'm going to blog about my process through this makeover. If you are interested, you can track my progress through the interactive chart on the right!

Waddy Wonderland.

Glorious Shelby County. "Shove that up your pipe and smoke it Louisville."

24

"24" by Switchfoot resonates with me today. I want to share the lyrics with you.

Twenty four oceans
Twenty four skies
Twenty four failures
Twenty four tries
Twenty four finds me
In twenty-fourth place
Twenty four drop outs
At the end of the day
Life is not what I thought it was
Twenty four hours ago

Still I'm singing Spirit take me up in arms with You
And I'm not who I thought I was twenty four hours ago
Still I'm singing Spirit take me up in arms with You

Twenty four reasons to admit that I'm wrong
With all my excuses still twenty four strong

See I'm not copping out not copping out not copping out
When You're raising the dead in me
Oh, oh I am the second man
Oh, oh I am the second man now
Oh, oh I am the second man now

And You're raising these twenty four voices
With twenty four hearts
With all of my symphonies
In twenty four parts
But I wan to be one today
Centered and true

I'm singing Spirit take me up in arms with You
You're raising the dead in me
Oh, oh I am the second man
Oh, oh I am the second man now
Oh, oh I am the second man now
And You're raising the dead in me

I want to see miracles, see the world change
Wrestled the angel, for more than a name
For more than a feeling
For more than a cause
I'm singing Spirit take me up in arms with You
And You're raising the dead in me
Twenty four voices
With twenty four hearts
With all of my symphonies
In twenty four parts.
I'm not copping out. Not copping out. Not copping out.