Welcome to my Blog of Easy Changes

After a long time on livejournal, I thought that it would be time to try some of the other blogging tools out there. Most of all, this being the lead-in to Easter weekend, the beginning of Spring, and the start of warmer weather, it definitely feels like a time of new beginnings.

That is what this blog is all about. It is about my personal work on making myself better and improving my life and the lives of those around me.

And I'd like to provide you with some of the ideas of things that I have and things I am doing so that you can also benefit from this effort. Perhaps, you are even reading this because you have found yourself wanting many of the same things. If you do, read on! This might be a great place to start a new chapter in your life.

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Suze Orman Goes Too Far!

I've been a fan of Suze Orman for years. When I first started working after graduating college and then I started to make some money, my experience with other members of my family, mostly my grandparents, showed me that I needed to figure this money thing out. So, I set out to understand how money works and I found Suze. Many financial gurus are out there and for the most part, much of the advice overlaps, but Suze really seemed to be right along my line of thinking. I bought the books, watched the show, and despite the fact that I feel like I've largely outgrown it so long as I follow the lessons, I really wanted to check up on how things were going. I went to the CNBC website and found an interview where she said this: "I do really live within my means. I have absolutely no debt. If I don't have the money to write a check, then I can't afford it. I never, ever, ever spend old money, so I'm only allowed by my own standards to buy something new with new mone...

Do Better With Your Time

Recently, I've been extremely busy with some work commitments. The interesting thing for me is that this increased work activity has really helped crystallize some of my feelings with regard to time. And these ideas are a critical part about my view on personal finance. I'm curious to know if others feel similarly. Time is money. That is, Time, in some way, contains energy. Money, is also energy. In the act of working, I am able to compound and increase the amount of money that I have. I am exchanging my time and effort and thought which are components of my work, for the productivity that I produce. And this production gets me money from my employer. However, the first dollars that I make each day, week, or month are the most valuable. Then the ones that I make at the end are the most valuable. (Forget about taxes for a minute.) The reason is, the first ones help me have a place to live and food to eat. And the last ones are the ones that I can use to really improve my life lo...

Credit Report Review

So, one of the things that I've started doing is trying to pull my credit reports at regular 4 month intervals so that I get a free one frequently to make sure that things are progressing as I'd like them to and also as a safeguard against identity theft. Of course, the part that I don't like is that these reports don't include a fico score - the key number when it comes to determining if you are going to be extended credit and at what interest rate. This time, I got the report from Equifax - I went to the end of the process and for 8 dollars more I could get my credit score. And the Equifax gave me a credit score of 742. This of course is not even close to the perfect score of 850 when it comes to fico score nirvana, but 742 is still a respectable fico score. Things to improve are basically lowering my balances on my credit cards and loans, which I already have a plan for. And also I noticed that the amount that I paid off on one of my loans is actually still being rep...

Easy Change

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