It’s an interesting feeling to have initially signed up for various financial communities seeking advice, and now be the one giving it. Especially when things were so crappy 4 years ago.

Though it’s a constant learning process, much like spirituality.

Courtesy of Lyndonantcliff.com:

1. Do what you love.
Everyone loves to do something, when you indulge yourself in your love you improve the way you feel about yourself. You improve your self esteem.

2. Help others out.
Nothing makes you feel a warm glow than when you unselfishly help others. of course you can argue that this in itself is selfish, but if you take that line of thought you must think that existence is selfish. Forget that. Just do a good deed, help someone out, doesn’t have to be big and it doesn’t have to cost any money.

3. Acknowledge your strengths
There is no one who has no strengths. Everyone is good at something, know what your good at and give yourself a pat on the back. Do things that bring this quality out into the open. Excercise it, make it stronger.

4. Don’t put up with crap.
There is no reason you should tolerate other people being mean to you. Even if they say they are doing it with love. Make sure people know they should be nice to you and if they refuse, walk away from them.

5. Drop your negative friends.
Hang out with people who are positive and support you. It may be fun to bitch and moan but if you hang out with these types of people you will eventually become one of them. You may have noticed that people who bitch and moan are never happy.

6. Do your research
A lof of self help books are a waste of time in the sense that the only person who can change you is you. Reading even this blog post will not change you unless you get emotionally involved with the information. Which is really hard as it’s really dry and boring. Go read biographies of people you respect, people who do positvive things and attain huge success. Learn from the master not the self help guru who is always in debt.

7. Learn to accept compliments.
It’s hard to accept a compliment and not to dismiss it as being ridiculous. Someone has an opinion and it should be respected, even if you do not argree with it. If people think good about you then maybe you should too.

8. Include positivity in your life.
I’m not talking an airy fairy chant in the mirror whilst naked. I mean take a positive slant on everything automatically. The meat pie you just bit in to may contain maggots, but maggots contain a lot of protien. OK that’s a bit extreme but you get the point.

9. Compare yourself against yourself.
If you look at how you were yesterday and how you are today and there is an improvement then that is great. If there is no improvement then you know you need to improve your efforts. Don’t start comparing your self to other people. Saying you are poor compared to D. Trump is just going to make you miserable.

10. There is no need for you to put yourself down.
y seeing yourself in a negative light you are only reinforcing your low self esteem. If you want to improve your self esteem. Ask yourself, how can I improve my self esteem. The answer will always be, find one positive thing about yourself and that will do it.

I had a meeting scheduled today at lunch with the woman who sets up the 401k’s for my employer. When she arrived she was dressed in very calming lavender tones, and I couldn’t help but notice her maroon Prada glasses and carnelian ring that her husband gave her.

She was very soft-spoken, but very nice, and seemed to really enjoy my company, which I found amusing. She commented on the lovely patchouli scent I carried, and said I was one of the easiest clients she had set up. I mainly blame that on the fact that I don’t know what I want, or what I’m doing.

Despite all of my efforts to establish my financial future, the emergency fund, the Roth IRA, the 401k, the frugality, I know crap about mutual funds, stocks, portfolios, etc. I’m “das n00b” and I really have little intention on educating myself beyond the basics. It’s just too much for me to handle right now, and it’s entirely out of my league. I’d prefer to just set up the 401k, the Roth IRA, and let them do their business, occasionally checking in to make sure my boys are where they need to be. In the mean time I save extra money into my savings account.

This woman seemed more than happy to help make decisions for me based on my needs though, and that suits me just fine. I’m just grateful to have the 5% of my salary going -somewhere-, so that I know it is building up little by little for when I’m ready to retire. Even then I will probably still run my small organic grocery/herbal shop, and be the little old medicine lady out in the woods.

What an awesome retirement it shall be.

My uncle gave us 7 ducks the other week. They are all dead now. I told my dad there’s no way we should get anymore ducks (even before this) until we figure out what and how whatever is killing them.

I’d love to set a trap for whatever is doing it, but I don’t even know what size trap to get at this point till I figure out what it is. And the only way to do that is to get a Trailcam. No money for that right now.

My sister had her tonsels out today, had no idea she even had an issue with them.

I’ve engulfed myself in spiritual practices lately. This week, especially Thursday, is a very important day, as a close friend of mine will be in court. I’ve been praying to Athena, Odin, and Tyr for justice, and some friends of mine have also been incorporating him into their thoughts.

I’ve also been messing with a set of tarot cards, though I’ve never had any interest in divination at all. I still don’t, really, but lately I’ve felt the need to inquire and learn. It will most likely only be a temporary interest, as I have other things to bide my time right now. Namely finishing up my DP, and some research on some other spiritual projects of mine.

My 401k and Roth IRA start on Friday. I am meeting with a woman tomorrow during my lunch to go over a few things.

My hair is starting to fade, as henna is expected to do. I have a deep wine-brown color on the tips where the remaining blonde was, and the top portion is remaining the dark brown with very faint wine highlights. I actually kinda like it, and received a lot of compliments on it Sunday at the Grove.

I attempted to try and take some pictures of me shooting my bow, but they didn’t quite turn out. I’m going to need to get my dad or something to hold down the button and see if I can’t get one of those continuous shots things, that would be pretty sweet.

One thing, however, I definitely need a wrist-guard sometime soon.

I’ve followed BPAL for maybe 2 years now, but have yet to make an order, till now. I have ordered samples of some oils to test and see if I like them before investing in the larger portions. So far the IMPs I’ve found for sale are:

Greed (Base and earthy, yet glittering with golden notes: patchouli, heliotrope, copal and oakmoss.)
VooDoo (A midnight scent, evoking images of flickering golden firelight reflecting off the sheen of glistening skin and the jerking shadows of bodies suffused with spiritual ecstasy. A deep, powerful, resonant blend of myrrh, patchouli, vetiver, lime, vanilla, pine, almond and clove.)
Woodland Trail (non BPAL, but it sounded interesting)
Bewitched (Deep, luscious green and berry scents that evoke images of woodland witchcraft and the raw power of nature: blackberry, sage, green tea, wild berries and dark musk.)
Sin (amber, sandalwood, black patchouli and cinnamon)
Gluttony (Thick, sugared and bloated with sweetness. Dark chocolate, vanilla, buttercream, and hops with pralines, hazelnut, toffee and caramel.)
Vice (Voluptuous and indulgent! A deep chocolate scent, with black cherry and orange blossom.)
Intrigue (Black palm, with cocoa, fig and shadowy wooded notes.)
Hamadryad (Seven dry woods with mossy lichen and a gentle breeze of forest flowers.)
Blood Kiss (Lush, creamy vanilla and the honey of the sweetest kiss smeared with the vital throb of husky clove, swollen red cherries, but darkened with the vampiric sensuality of vetiver, soporific poppy and blood red wine, and a skin-light pulse of feral musk.)
Depraved (dirty and dark, slapped with a wet sweetness. Earthy black patchouli swelling with apricot.)
Tweedledum (Green mango, fig, patchouli and green tea.)
Vixen (The innocence of orange blossom tainted by the beguiling scents of ginger and patchouli.)
Tiresias: The Androgyne (black currant, patchouli, tobacco, cinnamon leaf, caramel, muguet, and red sandalwood.)
Hellfire (A swirl of pipe tobacco, hot leather, ambergris, dark musk and the lingering incense smoke from their Black Mass.)
Dragon’s Blood
Trick or Treat
Pumpkin Patch
Al-Shairan (clove, peach and orange with cinnamon, patchouli and dark incense notes.)
Sri Lanka (Indian sandalwood and cedar, and the dry incense smoke of olibanum, gum mastic, patchouli and myrrh.)

However my list of wants is INSANELY long. Perhaps that will be another post.

“Hey there! Just wanted to say that watching your good example via lj has been really inspiring for me. I’ve finally started fixing my own finances since I’ve been able to see how well you’ve done with yours So thank you so much for sharing your journey! ::hugs::”

That’s why I blog, to help anyone who may be thinking about or going through similar things.

I’ve been wanting to get a fireproof safe for years now, and managed to finally do so about a month ago. Then I was faced with the question: “What should you put in a fireproof safe?”

I put obvious items in, automotive titles, diploma, birth certificates, some court documents, external hard drive backup of all digital files. But I wanted to have an idea of anything else I should keep in there. Here’s what I found:

• Papers or records that prove ownership (such as real estate deeds, automobile titles and stock and bond certificates)
• Birth, marriage and death certificates
• Legal papers (such as divorce and property settlement papers)
• Contracts
• Household inventory
• Wills
• Advance Directives such as Living Wills or Durable Powers of Attorney for Health Care
• Anything else that would be expensive or difficult to replace.

Some other notations I found

In general, bank account registers, canceled checks, transcripts, medical histories, employment records, tax returns and insurance policies do not need to be kept in a safe deposit box or fireproof home storage.

Health, accident and auto insurance information, and information on allergies, health problems and blood type should also be carried with you.

Thoughts

I haven’t done a household inventory yet, but it’s on my list of things to do. I may be able to do this with my digital camera as well, since it takes video. I can burn that on a disk and keep it in the safe, as well as a printed inventory.

I will mention that I created a database of my library already and keep it in digital format, should I ever need to replace all of my books. Movies is another story, but will be another task at some point. I also intend to keep some of my major software (Win XP especially) in the safe.

I’ve also been working on creating digital backups of all of our old pictures (this is a pain in the ass though, let me tell you), so that should I ever need to have them reprinted, I can (these are kept on the external hard drive as well).

I have $30k worth of renters insurance on our place here, which has an additional $3k coverage for my computer. I’m starting to wonder if $30k is enough, because I have no way to place a value on our belongings. We don’t really have many items that are worth much money. All of our furniture is hand-me-downs, -all- of it was free, and I’d be fine with replacing with other free stuff later. We have tons of antique oil lamps, but they are more for the memories than anything.

Next is finding out how long I need to keep certain papers. I’ve done a lot of research on this already, it’s a matter of posting it.

When my digital camera broke last weekend, I decided to invest in a new one. Summer time is a keen time for me to take pictures with my fathers flowers and our home here, and I didn’t want to miss out on any if at all possible.

My previous model was a FujiFilm 3800 digital camera that I had bought from my good friend Stacey (whose father just died yesterday, bless her heart), because I prefer to support my friends and my Grove before looking to purchase through other means. It served me very well for about 2 or 3 years, allowing me to take pictures like this, this, and these.

When searching for a new camera, I found one for sale on Overstock.com for $115 that was a lesser model, but looked exactly the same as the one I have now. The Fuji Finepix S3100. I was tempted to buy it because the price was cheap, and I could reuse my current equipment (memory cards mainly). I imagine I could still get decent pictures with it, but I really wanted to try something better. This was going to be an investment that would need to last me for several years, afterall.

Then I ran across the Canon Powershot S3 IS, which was approximately in the range of what I as willing to spend. This camera goes for $499, but on Overstock (and I even checked on ebay) runs for about $380, saving me over $100. There were some cheaper ones for sale on Ebay that stated they were “brand new” and “never opened!” but I liked having the guarantee with Overstock.

I just started playing with it today, but am limited to the 16mb memory card that comes with it. I may lower the resolution to see if I can fit more than 6 pictures onto it, but two 1 gig memory cards are already on their way none the less (also found very cheap for only $5/each). So far I am very happy with it, and am learning all the new gadgets and gizmos that this one has that the other did not. Though I am very simple with my photos, and don’t expect I will need to use much more than the basics.

Some of the differences I’ve noticed so far, is that the Fuji camera maxed out at 1280/960 resolution. Some pictures I took today with the Canon were at 2816×2112 resolution, and I’ve no clue if it can go higher, I haven’t done the research. But that’s more than plenty for me.

The Canon has a rotating LCD monitor that twists and turns in all kinds of directions, whereas the Fuji had an LCD camera embedded on the back of the camera. The Canon allows me to attach memos and sounds to pictures, where as the Fuji did not have any sounds or editing at all.

One of the crazy little additions the Canon also seems to have, is the ability to customize the operating sounds, one of the choices being nature sounds. So every time I take a picture, I hear a dog barking. When I view pictures, birds chirp. And I forget what makes a wolf howl, but all in all it is an amusing feature.

I did feel the “spending guilt” for buying this camera, since I’ve been so focused on being frugal lately. But what it comes down to, is the fact that I do work really hard to save money, and I am still keeping track of my expenses and looking for places I can reduce bills and such. It’s important to be smart with your money, and it’s important to save your money. But it’s also important to enjoy your money.

My first picture with the Canon, and also a look at what I’ll be doing later today (oh yes).