How to Save the Earth with Very Little Effort – Earth Day 2010
Happy Earth Day 2010.
Just a thought: for the whole week, take note as you are about to put something in the garbage. Is it plastic? Is it paper? You’d be amazed at how much stuff gets thrown away from your own household made from these materials.
What if, just what if, next to your kitchen waste basket you placed another waste basket. The second waste basket would be for recyclables. You will be amazed, perhaps shocked at how much more you recycle, and just think, you used to throw it away.
There are about 300 million Americans and lets say that on the same day every American had some yogurt, baby food, or something in a plastic/paper container and threw the container away. Would you like 300 million plastic containers in your backyard, in your city, or in your state even? People would protest, make a big fuss, etc. Now times that by 365 days per year and 80 years for your life span. That’s a lot of plastic not taking into account population growth, and it’s just one product we’re talking about!
So, take a bag if you don’t have an extra waste basket around, and give recycling collection in your home a try!
Read MoreHow Prepared are You? Creating an Emergency Fund for when Disaster Strikes.
We’ve been reading the book The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness
Ramsey takes a revolutionary approach to financial fitness…get out of debt.
Wow! Who-da-thunk?
Simple, straightforward…get out of debt. It’s unfortunate that we have a society that places value on buying things without having the means to do so. Let’s hope that we don’t take part.
Payments on Pizzas
Hypothetically, would you go to Pizza Hut and before ordering ask if they have a payment plan to finance your order?
Crazy, no?
Yet that’s exactly what happens when someone carries a balance on their credit card month after month. They’re making payments on pizzas (and a lot of other things like toothpicks)!
Sunk but Looking Good
Credit card payments may signify payments on pizzas but what about auto loans, are they better?
Nope, they’re worse.
Of course with loan for an automobile you may obtain a lower interest than a credit card but when you look at the dollar amounts involved, it’s insane!
People pay thousands and thousands extra above the original purchase price due to interest for a vehicle that will lose value faster than equity is gained.
Save for a car, then buy it, period.
Home Ownership
If you’re a home owner, have you ever wondered what life would be like without a house payment? Have you imagined the types of things you could do with that money?
Someone commented once, well if you make extra payments on a home and then lose your home, you lose the extra money you put into it. The answer to that is…put yourself in a position where losing your home would be very hard to do.
How do you not lose a home?
Have a large emergency fund saved up that will get you through difficult times (something we could all work on).
Risks of Borrowing
Some may think that for cash flow reasons, it’s a better choice to put things on credit…ah, hasn’t the recessions taught us anything? Anything at all? How many foreclosed homes and cars are out there?
Does buying “things” on credit really sound fiscally responsible?
How many people would have been better off to purchase a car they could afford and take the money they would have had as payments and put it into an emergency fund?
Once their emergency fund was, ahem, funded, they could take that money and invest it.
“I just don’t have enough to make ends meet.” If that’s the case, read Dave’s book, and you might find yourself inspired to make things happen so you do have enough to make ends meet.
Creating an Emergency Fund, the First Step
Create an emergency fund – a fund separate from all your other accounts reserved for emergencies.
We’ve enjoyed reading Dave’s book, which strongly encourages as the very first step to freedom the creation of an emergency fund and offers plans on building a fund.
The stories in the book are inspiring about people that sacrificed so that they could live debt free and create security.
Budgeting is an important part of getting control and creating an emergency fund. Mint.com (owned by Intuit) is easy to use and ties into your accounts so you can categorize expenditures and create budgets.
There are many savings accounts you can use to create an emergency fund.
Keeping an emergency fund account separate from your bank that has your checking account might be a good way to preserve the fund for real emergencies.
ING Direct (“Orange Savings” online) has a deal right now that if you are referred by a friend and open a savings account with $250, you get $25 and the referring friend gets $10, so if you’re interested in a referral link, let us know. (The ING offers and amounts change from time to time).
Whatever you choose to do, make sure you (and your spouse if married) are the one(s) choosing where the money goes rather than the money choosing where you go. And you can take that to the bank.
Read MoreDisneyland 2010
We had a great time going to Disneyland this year. We participated in the Disney Give a Day Get a Disney Day volunteer program. Angie and I gave a day of service, and Disney gave us two free tickets to the park, so we went down with the kids and enjoyed two days at Disneyland. Grandma and Grandpa came for one of the days too!
The Peter Pan ride was really the longest line for a ride that we had to wait in
Disney gave us Honorary VoluntEAR badges to wear and park cast members thanked us all day long
With Grandma and Grandpa
The girls liked every ride.
Any Rabbits at home?
W. Rabbit's Home (Megan wanted to check out the name plate I guess)
The girls loved seeing Tinkerbell
Autumn went right up and hugged the Fairy Godmother.
The Girls had watched Mary Poppins over and over leading up to the trip, so it was especially great to see Mary Poppins and Bert
With Bert and Mary Poppins
What's Disneyland without seeing Mickey?
Goofy and I are a lot a like
Our longest line by far was waiting for the princesses
Notice how they're all holding their hands the same way
With Snow White
With Jasmine
Mini's House
Autumn liked going right up to the characters
Megan eating lunch in Toon Town
Toon Town
The girls were excited to see Max because they had seen him in the Disney's Twice Upon a Christmas Special
The girls were excited to find Max
Give a Day Get a Disney Day
On News Year Day, we signed up for the Give a Day Get a Disney Day program, and it’s been fun.
Below is a video explaining a little bit about it.
Basically, for a day of service (with a qualifying organization), Disney will give you one free ticket into Disneyland or Disneyworld. I think there’s around 1.2 million spots, so the sooner you sign up and do your service, the better. Once your service is complete, you get a voucher that you can redeem at the park.
For more info or to sign up, visit www.GiveADayGetADisneyDay.com
Read More2009 Year in Review
We had a great year this year. As Thomas S. Monson said, “The future is as bright as your faith” and as all of us have faced challenging times, it’s helpful to note that miracles occur all around us.
And in challenging times, it’s good to remember John Wooden’s observation that, “Things turn out the best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.”
Picture Highlights:
 China & Hong Kong |
 Secret Garden |
 Original Book of Mormon |
 Autumn's Soccer Team |
 Yellowstone Horseback |
 Berlin Wall |
 Megan at Christmas |
 Angie |
 Hike up the Canyon |
Travels:
- We made trips to St. George
- Thomas went to China and Hong Kong
- Angie and Thomas went horseback riding through the back country of Yellowstone
Fun Things we did:
- We expanded our Raspberry Garden
- Autumn did great in her dance recital (video)
- Megan learned the alphabet, letter sounds, and quite a few songs by memory
- We marked the 20th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall
- The business kept us very busy
- Toured the new Church Archives
- We kept track of our steps using pedometers for a month
- Sanded and painted the deck (finally!)
- Thomas got a G1 Android Google Phone
- Visited the Zoo
- Thomas had jury duty
- Autumn & Megan did really well riding bikes and scooters
- Enjoyed a wonderful Cheese Fest 2009
- Kids tried tubing on the lake behind Grandpa Ron’s boat
- Had fun camping in the mountains and saw a moose in the campground
- Sailed boats for Columbus Day
- Attended the Draper Temple Open House
- Partially melted a shovel when we hit a power line that wasn’t buried according to code
Movies we Enjoyed:
- Bolt
- Star Wars The Clone Wars: (animated)
- City of Ember
- Bedtime Stories
- Word Factory
- Letter Factory
- Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
- The Greatest Game Ever Played
- Rudy
- Up
A Sampling of Books Angie Read:
- Book of Mormon
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
- Multiple Blessings
- Roll of Thunder Hear my Cry
- It’s All Good
- The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
- 123 Magic
- How to Win Friends and Influence People
- Remembering Isaac: The Wise and Joyful Potter of Niederbipp
- Tales of Beetle the Bard
- The Traveler’s Gift: Seven Decisions that Determine Personal Success
- Outliers: The Story of Success
A Sampling of Books Thomas Read:
- As A Man Thinketh
(re-read)
- Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant
- Catapulted: How Great Leaders Succeed Beyond Their Experience
- Inspiring Experiences That Build Faith: From the Life and Ministry of Thomas S. Monson
- Outliers: The Story of Success
- Rich Brother Rich Sister
- Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money–That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!
(re-read)
- The Book of Mormon
- The Tales of Beedle the Bard, Standard Edition
- The Tax Lady’s Guide to Beating the IRS and Saving Big Bucks on Your Taxes: Learn How You can Pay Less Money to the IRS by Beating them at their Own Game
- The Traveler’s Gift: Seven Decisions that Determine Personal Success
- The Smart Get Richer: How a Copper Miner’s Daughter Got the Golden Touch–and How You Can, Too
- Web Copy That Sells: The Revolutionary Formula for Creating Killer Copy Every Time
- Winning in Turbulence (Memo to the CEO)
- Your Credit Score, Your Money & What’s at Stake (Updated Edition): How to Improve the 3-Digit Number that Shapes Your Financial Future
- Your Money or Your Life: 9 Steps to Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence
National and World Events:
- The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan continue
- Pop Singer Michael Jackson dies
- Roy E. Disney dies
- Barack Obama sworn in as first African American President of the US
- The Internet makes it possible to see first hand experience of protests in countries such as Iran
- H1N1 flu nicknamed the Swine Flu reached pandemic status
- The US and and much of the world is hit by what is called by some “The Great Recession”
- A plane is forced to land in the Hudson river soon after takeoff, all survive