By 2 Cents on February 18th, 2011 | Category: Planning |  Confidence is preparation. Everything else is beyond your control.
~Richard Kline
Update: This article was included in the Carnival of Wealth #26 – Stock Investing Edition posted at Value Stock Guide as well as the Carnival of Money Stories #94 hosted at Invest It Wisely. Thanks!
Forgive me for the title of today’s article. I usually skip reading articles like this because they inevitably disappoint. The #1 Way to Make a Million Dollars before You’re 30. The Only Thing You Ever Need to Know about Investing. Really? Just one thing?
To be fair, I’m sure some of those articles actually offer some interesting insights. For the record, I’m not trying to elicit clicks by using a hyperbolic headline. Let me explain how I came to my idea of the first rule of personal finance and investing.
Family [...]
Read on and enjoy … The First Rule of Personal Finance and Investing
By 2 Cents on October 11th, 2010 | Category: Life Balance |  Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die; so, let us all be thankful.
~Buddha
Today is Thanksgiving Day in Canada, so Happy Thanksgiving to all! Although we may not go as whole-hog on this holiday as our American friends, we do take the day off to contemplate our bounty. With the economic events of the past couple of years, some of us are probably feeling little less bountiful. My family’s financial position isn’t quite as secure as it was 3 years ago, but I don’t necessarily feel less thankful today as a result.
In the spirit of the holiday, I decided to challenge myself to think of 10 things that I’m most [...]
Read on and enjoy … Take the Thanksgiving Challenge
By 2 Cents on May 7th, 2010 | Category: Family | The moment a child is born, the mother is also born. The woman existed, but the mother, never. A mother is something absolutely new.
~ Rajneesh
I love the quote above. But I can see how some might interpret it as an endorsement of the idea that women are meant to be mothers and aren’t good for much else. It’s another call for women to give up their own identities and give in to the reality that we are here to serve others. Um … no. That’s not what it means to me.
I’m a well-educated female who gave up career aspirations to stay home with kids. I don’t contend that this is the right choice for everyone, and I refuse to get into the stay at home vs. work outside the home debate, especially near Mother’s Day. The reality (unfortunately) is that not every Mom is a good [...]
Read on and enjoy … Mother’s Day Confessions: Lessons from My Children
By 2 Cents on March 19th, 2010 | Category: Family | If your own life is an example of what you don’t want your child to grow up and become, you are a bad parent.
~ Larry Winget
I often draw parallels between financial health, and health in many other areas of life. I’ve compared the noise from the media to empty calories. I’ve compared debt to an alcohol hangover. I’ve written about how good financial habits are like eating your veggies.
I think food is a lot like money. The problems we have with money, like the problems we have with food, are largely math problems. You cannot consistently consume more calories than you burn and expect to be healthy. You will become overweight and you will eventually experience some of the health problems that go along with that: fatigue, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, etc..
Likewise, you cannot consistently spend more money than [...]
Read on and enjoy … Friday Food for Thought: 10 Signs You Are a Bad Parent
By 2 Cents on January 8th, 2010 | Category: Life Balance | In theory one is aware that the earth revolves, but in practice one does not perceive it. The ground upon which one treads seems not to move, and one can live undisturbed. So it is with Time in one’s life.
~ Marcel Proust, The Past Recaptured, 1927
Yesterday I posted Part I of Our Money Story. I would have preferred to keep the story to one post, and maybe I could have if I were 25 years old. But alas, I am 4 weeks away from my 40th birthday. When I left off, Mr. Cents and I were nearing the end of our first decade together. Next, the ground on which we tread began to move.
Mr. Cents was still working in a retail store, although he did not like it as much as he had liked his job as a buyer for the same company. An [...]
Read on and enjoy … Our Money Story: Part II
By 2 Cents on January 7th, 2010 | Category: Life Balance | History never looks like history when you are living through it.
~ John W. Gardner
When I began writing this blog just a bit over a month ago, it was my intention to keep my personal life out of it. But the more I write and read, the harder it is to separate my money story from my life story. Many of my thoughts on personal finance and balance in life are a direct result of my life experiences, so I thought it might be useful to sketch out a summary so that readers will know where I’m coming from and perhaps learn from my mistakes.
I assumed that no one would be remotely interested in my comparatively boring life. I don’t do any of the really neat, adventurous stuff that I read about elsewhere like traveling the world or running a really interesting business, etc.. I’m just a mom [...]
Read on and enjoy … Our Money Story: Part I
By 2 Cents on December 24th, 2009 | Category: Family | Happy, happy Christmas that can win us back to the delusions of our childish days; that can recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth; that can transport the sailor and the traveller, thousands of miles away, back to his own fire-side and his quiet home!
~ Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers ~1836
Christmas is about home. Even if we’re not in our actual home on Christmas Day, we are likely visiting the home of someone we care about. That can be homey too.
I am an unrepentant homebody and I therefore love that Christmas gives me a chance to wallow in some serious home time. For me, home means safety, security, the smell of delicious food cooking, the sound of children playing, music, and above all, comfort.
Home is my happy place. Home for Christmas is my happiest place. Wherever you are this Christmas Eve, I wish [...]
Read on and enjoy … Home for Christmas
By 2 Cents on December 23rd, 2009 | Category: Family | To be upset over what you don’t have is to waste what you do have.
~ Ken S. Keyes Jr.
Oh, the wonderful, picture-perfect scenes that Christmas time brings: families hugging, enjoying special food and special times together. Everything is perfect. The children don’t squabble, couples are in sync, and any past disagreements are forgotten. This would be wonderful, but it is unfortunately not usually reality.
Inevitably, someone will do or say something hurtful or inappropriate, whether purposely or not. The children will not always get along. Old wounds may be reopened. That is the reality of getting a group of human beings with a history together.
Does that mean we shouldn’t get together? Does it mean we shouldn’t aim or hope for that picture-perfect holiday? Maybe your cousin will say something insensitive to you, or your uncle will corner you with a twenty minute discussion of something in [...]
Read on and enjoy … Celebrate What Is
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