Daily Intent

Santa Barbara, CA
While saving the nation’s budget deficit in super hero personal savings plan fashion is noble and civic, as mentioned in last week’s MSR, it is secondary to the power of the affects on you, the individual.

Savings gives you the power to fly figuratively.  Savings awards you the power to see things differently, choose things differently, arrive places sooner, support your health, and fight through tough storms.  Savings offers you freedom.

Consider no savings as Kryptonite.  It is debilitating.  Without savings you are stagnate.  You are unable to make decisions based on a longer-term, most fulfilling future.  You are extremely vulnerable to change.

If you lose your job or get sick, you are helpless.  You cannot take time to find a job that best fits your strengths and interests.  You have to find the nearest job that fills your pocket, puts food on the table.  You, thus, have no negotiating power in taking the job, and you must take whatever income they offer you.

In summation, you are unable to freely live out a life of choice.  Choice equals freedom.

In the United States we are fortunate to have our banking system.  Of late, our confidence in this realm has been tested, but there are still plenty of options in places we can safe guard our money.

The developing world isn’t as fortunate.  They either cannot trust their banks or it costs them twenty to thirty percent to place their money with the bank.  Nor can they trust placing their money in a jar buried in the Earth or money under the mattress, as their homes aren’t locked and protected from theives and weather patterns (hurricanes, earthquakes, etc…) sweep away or bury their fortunes.  As a result, they resort to forming communities where they save together.  This is all together another topic, but the point being, we, in the developed world, have every tool available to encourage savings.

I want you to be able to provide health care to yourself or your family when needed.  I want you to have the means to take your family on a vacation or trip to see the world.  I want you to have the reserves available to confidently quit your job, take time to reflect, interview, and then choose a career path that is most fulfilling and right for you.  It is out there, but you must have the freedom in savings to find it.

For at the end of the day, I’m asking you to be a super hero.  Save your freedom.

I present a couple more tips from your peers to further drive home my passion for you to take savings seriously.
 
A couple of Erin Pearson’s Philosophies on savings:
It is all in managing small choices. One must accurately assess their weaknesses in small purchasing decisions and the times when they are weakest.  (Ex: Shopping while emotional.).  “Don’t look for the ‘deal’ item necessarily but the item that [you'd] like to complete the item [you've] decided [you] want.  Shopping in this case is longer term.”

Scott Lindberg and Lisa Hill are both believers in using Excel to track their success.
“If you’re good at Excel, you can set up a personal financial statement that tracks your total assets, liquid assets, debts, and net worth.  I update the statement every Monday and add the new figures to a data set on another sheet in my workbook.  From that data set, I generate a line chart that shows the growth, or decline of each of the categories.” -Scott Lindberg

“I created a budget in excel that automatically updates the total when I add or cut something, so that’s kind of fun!  Each month I have a certain amount allocated toward rent, bills, student loans, and small amount that I give away, savings, etc…The rest comes out in cash and since I have all those other things taken care of, there is a lot of stress removed from where that cash is spent.  Every week I take out a specific amount of cash and if I have extra at the end of the week, I treat myself, or I put it in an envelope in a drawer to go toward something later  that I wouldn’t normally have the money for.  Usually it’s travel!”  -Lisa Hill

“For each week, create a budget and give yourself envelopes to put CASH into them for things like groceries, entertainment, gas, clothing, etc.. Then when the cash is gone you are done too.” -Nicole Harding

Here’s a creative way to save yourself from spending money on bigger ticket items.
“Buy the basics once a year.  New white shirts, tanks, and other items that get icky from wear so your look is clean and you feel good in what you’re wearing.  This should be a separately budgeted thing…”  -Erin Pearson

Thank you to all the contributors.
___________________________________________________________________
PLAN
Catalyst for Thought - MINDS Lunches.  The next two will be focused on Green Businesses.  Gillian Christie, founder of Christie Communications, March 18th.   David Fortson, founder of LoaTree, April 1st. Mid-April we’ll have Wayne Rosing, early participant in the creation of Google and founder of Las Cumbres Observatories.  Register at www.CatalystSB.org to ensure you receive the registration emails.
___________________________________________________________________
LEARN
Buzzword: Cool Beans
“A slang term used to refer to something favorable that has happened in business.  For example, an employee receiving a raise may reply with the words ‘cool beans,’ upon receiving the news.  Cool beans is synonymous with ’sweet’, ‘that’s great news’, awesome’, etc…  Cool beans is thought to have been popularized in the 1980s.’”  -Investopedia.com

  Six Points to Ponder:

   1. Makers Markets.  The Markets ended on an up note this week as manufacturing and employment numbers posted stronger than expected. - The Dow is up over 200 pts for the week, to 10,566. The S&P 500 up, 1138.  And the Nasdaq up, 2326.  Oil is up too, $82/bbl.
   2. Cautious Beige Book.  The Fed’s book of feelings and economic forecasts came out this week.   Mixed feelings.  Strong Q4 growth, but tempering expected in 2010.
   3. Greek Wedding but No Greek Christmas.  A $4.8Bn savings plan is near passing.  30% of the cuts will originate in Christmas and other holiday bonuses.   
   4. Starbuck’s Being Roasted.  The politics surrounding concealed weapons, has Starbuck’s in the news.  Should they ban guns on their premises?
   5. And the Oscar Goes To… Santa Barbara’s very own Jeff Bridges?  Sunday night, 5pm.  Flowing dresses, black and white contrasts, and trophies that far surpass your 2nd grade soccer trophy.
   6. We Are the Champions.   Though the USA walked away from Vancouver the medal count winner, the Canadians had the last laugh in beating the USA in both the men’s and women’s hockey finals.   

Positives:

    * Strong numbers out of the manufacturing sector coupled with the better than expected employment news, brought sunshine to investors this week.  The Nasdaq is now at an 18 month high.  And $15Bn more toward job creation is on its way.
    * The Greek government taking some very strong steps toward repairing their sick economy is a great sign for the world markets.  Were they to fall, the European Union could see a domino effect through Spain, Ireland and a few others, thus, jeopardizing the entire system.  Their markets and ours are quite inter tangled.  The USA would be negatively affected by this travesty.  Hence, the reason so much attention is on Greece right now.
    * Many people will gather in fellowship this Sunday over the Oscars.  According to a site in which you can monetarily bet on the winners, Jeff Bridges has the best odds of winning “Best Actor”.  Things are looking dapper.  A toast!
    * Millions of young Americans were inspired to build bobsled runs on their downward slopping streets after the USA men’s bobsled walked out Gold Medal wearers for the first time ever.  Long skateboards (aka Long Boards) are the new urban bobsled.  Parents are quickly forming neighborhood watches.

Negatives:

    * We see how fragile the markets continue to be with today’s employment numbers.  Last week the numbers were negative and the markets fell.  This week better news came out and the markets ran forward.  All is to remind us that we should not get caught up in the short-term swings.  Invest with a longer term outlook.  Second, Ben Bernanke and his fellows on Fed remain extremely cautious to proclaim anything positive for the near term.  They for see a slow down from the end of 2009 reports.  The rates will remain low.
    * A coffee company is being pushed to take a political stand on gun control.  “Give me all your beans!”
___________________________________________________________________
GET INVOLVED
Local:

Oscars Fundraiser for Direct Relief Int’l
Where: Blush Lounge
When: Sunday, March 7th.  4-10pm
Cost: $10 for Oscar ballots.  There is no cover charge.
Why:  Raise money for a non-profit doing great work in Haiti and other nations in need.  They are a solid organization with an admirable mission.   And local to Santa Barbara.  http://www.directrelief.org.
How: Dress dapperly.
For other fun ideas, go to www.lovemikana.com

Live and Be Well,

Jeff Bochsler