Jeffrey Strain

10 Reasons You Aren’t Rich

December 5, 2016 By Jeffrey Strain 18 Comments

Most people make the assumption that they are not wealthy because they don’t earn enough money, but the real reasons most people don’t build wealth is because of how they use money in their daily life. Here are 10 possible reasons that you aren’t rich:

1. You Care What Your Neighbors Think
2. You Aren’t Patient
3. You Have Bad Habits
4. You Have No Goals
5. You Haven’t Prepared
6. You Try to Make a Quick Buck
7. You Rely on Others to Take Care of Your Money
8. You Invest in Things You Don’t Understand
9. You’re Financially Afraid
10. You Ignore Your Finances

If you recognize some of the things you do on the list, you know what you need to work on if you want to build your wealth. The good news is that salary is not the determining factor on whether or not you will become wealthy, but how you use the money that you do earn.

Strange Stuff Worth More Than You Imagine

December 5, 2016 By Jeffrey Strain 6 Comments

There are some things that animals produce that the average person would never imagine would be worth a lot of money. The first time I heard about all of these, I had to reread to make sure I actually was understanding the information correctly. Here are five things that animals produce that are worth far more money than you would ever imagine:

Ambergris (Whale Vomit): I come across an article in the news about whale vomit every few years. A person is walking along the beach and comes across some disgusting blob and for some unexplainable reason has an irresistible notion to pick it up (while I’m sure hundreds of others have walked by it with absolutely no thought of ever touching it). Later they find out it’s whale vomit (also called ambergris) which is a highly sought after ingredient for perfume. If it is good-quality vomit (I have to laugh writing that), the ambergris can be sold for up to $10 per gram, with the finest grades fetching many times more than this.

Kopi luwak (Civet Crap): The most expensive coffee in the world has a special fermenting process that you probably don’t want to know about if you are going to try it. The civet likes to dine on coffee beans and what goes in one end eventually comes out the other. It seems that as the coffee goes through the civet’s system, the coffee acquires a unique taste (OK I have to ask – who was the first person to see coffee bean civet crap and say, “hey, let’s use that crap and make ourselves a cup of coffee with it. I bet it tastes good”). This unique taste makes it the most expensive coffee in the world and can fetch $300 per pound due to the limited quantities produced each year.

Bird Spit: The white nest cliff swift build their nests high in caves near the sea using their saliva. The swallow secretes a sticky substance from one if its glands which is similar to our salivary gland. This is used as an adhesive to bind twigs, leaves and other nesting material together to make the nest. Not only did someone at some point decide to climb up to get the nest, once seeing that it was made of bird spit they figured it would be good to make a meal out of it. Of course, now it’s a delicacy worth a lot of money — fetching $2,000 to $3,000 per kilogram.

Guano (Bat or Seabird Crap): While it would be safe to assume most people wouldn’t find anything special, let alone valuable, about large piles of seabird and bat crap, there have actually been wars fought to control them in the past. Called guano, it’s highly prized due to its effectiveness as a fertilizer and in the past, as a gunpowder ingredient (due to high levels of phosphorus and nitrogen). So what is this crap worth? Mining guano is a $1.4 billion industry.

Trilobite Fossils: Okay, these ancient sea creatures lived long ago, but trilobites are well-known (at least to collectors) and are probably the second-most famous fossil group after the dinosaurs. They are also relatively easy to locate around the world including places such as U-Dig. While most Trilobites are fairly common and worth only a few dollars, rare trilobite specimens can be worth their weight in gold and museum quality specimens can be worth 6 figures.

So the next time you are wandering around in nature and you come across something that looks disgusting and nobody would imagine it to be worth something, you might want to pick it up. Someday someone might get a crazy idea and you’ll find that it will be worth its weight in gold…

31 Ways to Improve Your Career Today

December 5, 2016 By Jeffrey Strain 13 Comments

While I currently work for myself, there was a time when I actually worked for a large corporation. My time there taught me that corporate life wasn’t the career path that I ultimately wanted to walk down, but that didn’t stop me from learning a lot of solid advice from the mentors I met there that continues to be helpful to me to this day.

When it comes to your career, it is usually small things over a long period of time that add up to the success that you achieve. Getting into the habit of making small improvements on a daily basis will reap huge rewards in the long run. If you find yourself with nothing to do, whether at work or at home, here are 31 actions you can take to help improve your career.

Who Do You Respect?

If you do nothing else on this list the first time you find yourself with some free time, find yourself a mentor. Pick someone (or preferably several people) that you respect and ask them to mentor you. Most people will be more than happy to pass along advice that they have learned over the years which can be invaluable in helping your career. They will also be great people to use as a sounding board with ideas you have and help you figure out the best way to obtain the goals you are seeking to accomplish. A mentor can help you in many other ways during your career including making your advancement much easier. Finding a mentor is actually sound advice for all aspects of your life including finding a financial mentor.

Support The Support

Learn who the support staff are and go out of your way to be helpful to them. They do a lot of the grunt work and don’t get nearly the amount of appreciation that they deserve, so they notice when someone treats them well. When an emergency happens (and they always do) having the support staff on your side can be the difference between failure and pulling out success. From clerks and secretaries to cleaning staff, treat them well and you’ll never regret doing so when crunch time comes.

Get Them To Come To You

This is a little trick that I learned that produced great result for little effort and just a bit of money. Create a candy jar for your co-workers. Don’t get the cheap candy. Get the good stuff that you know everyone loves. It took me some time to perfect my method of deploying the candy jar and you may have to experiment to get your deployment right. I put it out only when I had free time to chat, otherwise I would be interrupted too often. I also learned to lock it away when I went home or it would be empty when I arrived the next morning. What it did do was keep me up to date on all the happenings in the office. When people stop by to grab some candy, they will tell you things that are going on that you may otherwise miss. I found that keeping abreast of this information helped me to better understand the dynamics that were taking place which helped with my career.

Don’t Do It Later

Procrastinating has always been a major problem for me and something that I still work on today. If you can identify how you’re procrastinating and create a system to discourage yourself from doing so, you will dramatically increase your productivity. My big vice was watching TV far too much and I’ve had to ween myself from spending too much time on social networking sites as well. Once I find one place where I procrastinate, I’ve learned that I will eventually replace it with another, so it’s a continual process. I have a whole list of things I have done to improve my productivity. Once you have identified places that you are spending too much time, take steps to reduce the amount of time you spend on them and instead use that time to further your career.

Timing Is Everything

It may not seem like a big deal to be on time when all meetings start 15 minutes late, but it is if you are the person that is causing the meeting to start late. One boss I had would actually lock the door of the meeting room once the meeting began. If you were late, you were out of luck. While this is a great way to quickly learn to be on time, it’s not a method that most people are subjected to and they may not realize that being a few minutes late can get them a bad reputation.

Being on time actually means arriving to meetings a few minutes early. Co-workers that are running the meeting will appreciate your promptness and you will get a reputation of being reliable. The same goes for work that needs to be handed in to your boss. Learn to hand it in before it’s due — this will show your organizational skills and get the reputation of being highly responsible. If you find that you are always a bit late or rushed to get things done, use your free time to get ahead instead of waiting until the last second.

Pinpoint The Essentials

One of the biggest myths in business is that those who work the hardest are the ones that get ahead the most. Working hard is important, but working smart is just as important. Working smart means pinpointing the areas within your job that are essential to your group and to the company. Once these have been identified, focus most of your resources in those areas. This is one of the best pieces of advice I ever received from my mentors. Take some time to look at your job and understand what parts of it are the most essential to others both inside and outside your work group. If you can pinpoint those important areas, you become the person that people come to when things need to get done.

Become A Listmaster

I used to think that making lists was useless, until I started making them myself in a way that was useful for me. I actually have two lists – one is a list of all the things I want to do and one is my daily must-do list. On the daily must-do list, I only place the three most important things I have to do that day and I will work on those three things until they’re done. Once finished, I can go to my general list and choose projects from there. If I don’t finish, then I keep working on that list of three the next day and until it’s done. This ensures that I get done the things that I may not like to do as much so that they don’t constantly get delegated to the end of the longer list. How you develop your own list may be very different, but creating a system will help you to accomplish more at work in less time. Once you complete something, don’t throw the list away. Instead, date and file them in a work completed folder. This will allow you to have a documented list of all the tasks you’ve accomplished which you can take out at your next performance review or when asking for a raise.

Who’s The Boss

I’ve had both bosses I liked, and ones that I could have certainly lived without. Even the ones that I didn’t particularly like, I found that talking with them and discussing their expectations was always a better career move than trying to avoid them. For the bosses I did like, it was a great way to get their support for the career advancements I wanted to make. No matter what the relationship, being able to talk with your boss about work expectations will almost always help your career much more than not talking. If you haven’t talked with your boss lately, set up a time to do so and spend some time writing down the topics you would like to discuss.

Second & Thirds Can Be Good

Even though I was the worst student ever when it came to foreign languages in school, I’m living proof that absolutely anyone can learn a second language. I have no doubt that all of my high school language teachers would roll over in their graves if they knew I was proficient in Japanese. Being proficient in a second language can open up a lot of career opportunities and is well worth pursuing if you have an interest in one. There are plenty of resources online including those developed by the Foreign Service Institute to help you along. Learning a foreign language can give you a huge leg up if you have thoughts of working for your company in a foreign country.

Class Act

There are far too many people who believe that education ends as soon as they walk across the stage and receive their college diploma. In fact, education is a never ending pursuit even if you aren’t taking formal classes. There are a large number of classes that you can take, or skills that you can obtain, that will make it easier for you to advance in your career. Even if you are not sure, take classes that you have always wanted to try. You’d be surprised at how knowledge that doesn’t seem relevant to your career can end up being useful down the road. It’s definitely worthwhile talking with your personnel department to see if they will help pay for you to obtain these skills. Many will. Best of all, it’s easier than ever to take classes while working full time with online education.

Redo Your History

It’s always wise to have an updated resume on hand just in case. If you haven’t done so in awhile, take some time to look over your resume to update it and improve it. Make sure that you have a few copies in your briefcase so that they are always ready to hand out. Having a resume ready is a great way to make a quality first impression and instantly shows your organizational skills to anyone that may be interested in hiring you.

Get Linked

It used to take a lot of effort to network. While you still need to spend time and effort doing so, Web 2.0 has made it a lot easier to make new contacts with people that have similar background and career interests. If you haven’t signed up yet, consider joining Linkedin (and feel free to add me if you get the urge) which can greatly expand your networking resources. If you have already joined, take some time to explore and find some other people you may want to contact.

Email Love

One of the most important things I’ve learned over the years that will help you in any career you choose is to stay in contact with people that you meet. This can be an easy way to improve your career, keep network lines open and create new network contacts. There are probably more than a few professional contacts that you have made that you haven’t touched base with in awhile. There are probably a number of people that you have never met, but that you would like to make contact with. Spend a few minutes sending out emails to some of these people to reestablish contact or create a new contact.

Call To Arms

For the exact same reason that you should send out some emails, you should also make a few phone calls to catch up with peers and others. Calling is a more direct approach that will make sure that your message doesn’t get lost in all the other emails the recipient receives. It’s surprising how many times a contact phone call can lead to a new career opportunity that would have never developed had you chosen not to make the call.

Business Dating

An easy and effective tool which I often used when I was working for a large company was the lunch break. When I first arrived, I found myself in a new city and at a new company where I knew nobody. Inviting people to talk over lunch conveniently solved the problem of me not liking to eat alone. Later I continued to make lunch dates because of all the advantages that came from it. Lunch dates give you an opportunity to talk with people about ideas you have in a more informal setting than in the office. Making a lunch date is also a excellent way to network and catch up with peers and mentors, or to meet someone new you’ve wanted to talk to. If everyone seems to be too busy with their work schedule, lunch (and even breakfast) is an excellent time to set up a get together.

Make Things Eventful

Take some time to research what meetings, presentations, talks or events are taking place in your field of expertise and sign-up to attend. Not only will you likely gather some good information that will be useful in your job, these are excellent places to meet new contacts and expand your contact network.

Don’t Be Afraid To Associate

If your career has an association, go beyond joining it and make an effort to be a regular participant in it. Most local chapters are always looking for people willing to lend a helping hand and doing so can easily put you in the position to meet those higher up in the organization. Again, this will expand and open you up to a wide variety of new contacts. It will also help you keep up with the newest developments in your chosen career, which has many advantages.

Show Some Appreciation

It’s amazing what a sincere, hand written “thank you” note can do for the amount of time it takes to create. With email and the paperless office concept, hand written thank you notes stand out these days and definitely leave a positive impression on the recipient. Furthermore, when you give thank you notes, the recipients know that the time they spend helping you was appreciated and therefore will likely be more than willing to help out in the future. If someone has recently helped you out in any way, take a moment to thank them. This is one thing that is hard to do too much of, so if you have any doubt, always choose to send the note of appreciation.

Reread The Writing On The Wall

This one is a big one for me. I rely on my spell checker far too often when it comes to writing. Sure, it will find misspelled words, but it won’t find those that are spelled correctly that are incorrect or sentences that contain poor grammar. I had a terrible habit of not rereading my writing before showing it to others, but I learned to after a number of embarrassing mistakes that should have never happened. Assuming that your writing is fine if it passes a spell check is a bad assumption to make. Get into the habit of rereading everything that you write whether it be an email, a report or any other work related document, especially after a spell check. You will avoid a lot of amateurish writing mistakes and look a lot more professional in all your work.

The Write Stuff

Along the same lines as rereading your documents, it’s well worthwhile to constantly work on improving your writing skills. Being able to put together reports, letters, proposals and other written information which draws attention to the important points among all the information presented is a great skill to have and will get noticed. Take some time to go over basic writing techniques when you have some free time.

Get Carded

Spend some time thinking about the impression you want your business cards to make and see if there are some changes that you can make to the ones you have to achieve what you want. I’m always looking for new business cards that are creative and will leave a lasting impression on anyone who receives them. Take a bit of time doing this and it may lead to an opportunity that would have never appeared if your business card was lost in the pile with everyone else’s.

Impress From The Start

One of the many reasons I decided the corporate world was not for me was because I hated dressing in a suit everyday to make a good first impression. That being said, there is no doubt that first impressions count. Dressing appropriately and having good hygiene and manners is important. It’s often the little things that will set you apart from the average person. Learn to make eye contact when speaking to people, smile, and know how to introduce yourself confidently. Always arrive to business meetings or appointments on time (or even better, a little ahead of time). Take a few moments to make sure that you are making a good first impression with everyone you meet.

Speak Out Loud

One of the things I used to fear most was to do public speaking. Over the years, I have learned to relax and don’t get quite as nervous, but when I first started teaching, even going in front of a classroom of high school students would have my stomach churning the entire morning before classes began. Being able to make a quality presentation is an important way to get noticed and improve your career prospects. Listen to the way that your favorite speakers deliver their information and make the effort to adopt that style into your own speaking. Join your local Toastmasters group to help you improve these skills.

Know The News

One of my mentors told me that I should read something about current events everyday before coming into work and it’s a habit I’ve kept to this day. I try to read at least an hour a day on a wide variety of topics. Some of the reading is related to my chosen career and issues that pertain to it so that I keep up on the latest news and trends, but I also read a lot of information that is outside my career. Reading helps to spark new ideas, it will challenge your thinking process and expand your knowledge base – all things that can be helpful in your career advancement.

Switch To A Higher Gear

I am one of the slowest readers in the world and struggled in college with all the reading that needed to be done. Being able to consume a lot of information is a skill that will always be a positive for any career, so learning to read and comprehend at a quick rate is a skill worth pursuing. There are a lot of speed reading tutorials on the Internet. I have been using Spreeder for my daily reading that has allowed me to get through a lot more information than I previously was able to do. Whatever method you choose, learning to read faster will ultimately help your career.

Clean Sweep

If your work area looks anything like mine, it needs a good cleaning at least once a week or it will quickly get out of control. I actually mark down on my calendar to clean my desk area every Friday afternoon, and it’s amazing what 15 minutes a week will do to keep your desk organized. Depending on the current shape of your office, it may take a bit more time to get to the point where all you need is 15 minutes to clean everything up. Start today putting aside 10 minutes a day to clean your desk until you have your work area in the condition you want, then you can move to maintenance mode. You will be pleasantly surprised at how much time you save looking for things, and an orderly office leaves a positive impression on co-workers and bosses.

Score Some Goals

This is one of those things that seems obvious, but I think a lot of people don’t spend the amount of time or effort on them that they should. I know I didn’t for the longest time. I thought I could get away with general career goals that I had in my head, but soon realized the power that comes with taking the time to write them down. What really helped me was to give myself a time limit to achieve these goals. While you may not always reach them, writing down specific career goals you want to achieve will get you a lot closer to them than not doing so. Consider setting them for various time periods: 3 months, 1 year , 5 years, etc. and then begin working toward them.

Establish Your Identity

Since I make my living this way, it would make no sense for me to leave it out. Creating a blog or website about your chosen career can be a great way to meet new people and share ideas. It can also be an excellent way to begin that part-time business that may eventually end up being your full time job, which is exactly what happened in my case. I have personally found that creating content helps to crystallize the things that are truly important to me. This, in turn, helps me realize what goals are most most important for me to achieve. Starting any type of blog or journal can help you to do the same. Just be sure that doing so will not get you in trouble with your company.

Give Yourself A Break

Taking breaks is something which took me a long time to realize really does work. It’s not the time you spend doing your work as much as how focused you are when you are working. Taking breaks, stretching and taking short walks can all dramatically improve your energy level so that you work better. Take some time to think about the signals. Mine happen to be going to my email (instead of finishing what I should be doing), closing my eyes to try and refresh them and my shoulders getting sore. Spend some time learning your personal signals that you aren’t performing at your peak. Know when to take a break and you’ll find that your productivity will dramatically increase.

Part-Time It

I’m a firm believer that if you want to have the perfect job, you’re going to have to go out and create it yourself. While I have had many jobs over the years that I have truly enjoyed, it wasn’t until I started building my own sites and blogs that I realized what true passion for something was. Begin part-time and build slowly when you have some free time, but start the process today. Five years from now you will be so thankful that you did and you might even find that it ends up being your full time work.

Fall In Love

Learn to love what you’re doing, or begin looking for something else. Life is far to short to do something that you don’t truly enjoy. There are times when you may have to take a job that you don’t particularly like, but there is no reason that you have to be stuck there. If you don’t thoroughly enjoy what you’re doing, start implementing steps to get a job that you do love. There is nothing better than to get up every morning knowing that even if you weren’t getting payed a dollar to do so, you would still be doing the same thing that you are doing. It’s also much harder not to improve your career opportunities when you love what you do because the energy and enthusiasm you have for what you do tends to be infectious and draw people to you. If for some reason you don’t know what you love, start experimenting. That’s the only way to find out.

There are always plenty of things that you can begin doing that will improve your career as the above list shows. Pick a couple that you know you need to work most upon and keep at it. The more that you try to improve yourself, the more opportunities that will present themselves.

Top 5 Dying Regrets, Why I Won’t Have Them and Neither Should You

December 4, 2016 By Jeffrey Strain 7 Comments

One of the most important life lessons that we can all learn is to seriously listen to and consider the advice from those who have more experience than we do. When it comes to the end of our life, most of us are going to have some regrets. A nurse, Bronnie Ware, who spent years tending to patients that were living the last weeks of their lives recently came out with a book titled The Top Five Regrets of the Dying: A Life Transformed by the Dearly Departing. While not all of these regrets are directly related to finances, they do all have some type of money aspect to them. These are the five most common regrets for people at the end of their life and why I won’t have them (and neither should you) when I do die:

#1 Dying Regret: Not Having The Courage To Live True To Yourself

My first job out of college was working for Hallmark Cards. One of the things that became readily apparent from the beginning was that if you stayed with the company, you were going to leave with well over $1 million at retirement. I also began to see that because of this, there were more than a few people that were stuck doing a job that they didn’t really enjoy, but had convinced themselves they couldn’t afford to leave.

When I decided to leave a couple of years later, it happened to be during a difficult economic time and I had no other job lined up. There were quite a few people that said I was crazy to leave such a secure job. Most couldn’t understand why I was willing to leave just because I didn’t enjoy being there. I ended up quitting, traveling to Alaska with the goal of making my way all the way to the southern most point of South America. I made it to Central America before another adventure interrupted that plan and I found myself in the middle of the countryside of Japan.

It was a difficult decision and there was a lot of pressure not only from acquaintances, but also friends, to stick with the Hallmark job for the security. I have never regretted the decision to leave or to pursue the things that make me happiest no matter what others may say. I know that I have disappointed others with my decisions from time to time, but I can safely say that not having the courage to live true to myself will not be one of my dying regrets.

While this may not seem like something that has much to do with money, for me it certainly has over the years. The reason that I have been able to summon the courage to do many of the things that I have done is because I know I can survive on very little money and still be happy. I know myself well and if I lost all of my possessions tomorrow, I wouldn’t be happy about it, but it wouldn’t be devastating either. Knowing that I can survive happily on very little makes it much easier to take chances that others would be more reluctant to take. Being debt free and confident in your finances (no matter how meager) goes a long way to help gain the courage to be true to yourself.

#2 Dying Regret: Having Worked Too Hard

I think that this regret needs to be qualified. I work hard. Really hard. Some people would say that I work too hard, but I work hard at something that I truly enjoy. I also don’t work to the detriment of other things that I would like to be doing. In fact, I have created it so that my work includes doing some of my favorite things. For example, I enjoy hiking, exploring and being outdoors. So as part of my work, I now visit as many National Parks as I can each year and write about them. If hiking all day in some of the most beautiful places in the U.S. constitutes having worked too hard, then I plead guilty as charged.

It’s not the working hard that I think that most people regret, but it’s spending too much time at work (and other activities) that they didn’t really enjoy to the detriment of relationships and other important things in their lives. This is illustrated by Ware who writes, “All of the men I nursed deeply regretted spending so much of their lives on the treadmill of a work existence.”

Again, this may not seem like it’s money related, but often the excuse for working all those hours is to earn more money (ironically so that you can do the things that you really enjoy). By understanding how much money I need to do the things that I want to do most and not having to try to create any more wealth than that, I feel secure that having worked too hard (at things I didn’t enjoy) will not be on my list of dying regrets.

#3 Dying Regret: The Courage To Better Express Your Feelings

This is probably the closest regret I may have that is on this top five list, but not for the reasons that others do. Ware says that this regret comes from those that ended up settling for mediocrity (with many developing illness from the bitterness and resentment) from not expressing their true feelings to others and failing to become what they believed they could be. I have never felt that I was unable to express my feelings in this way to any of my family or friends.

I’m not sure how financial related this regret is, but I have the feeling that both emotional and financial dependence have a role to play with this regret. I think that those who are financially stable and can remain so on their own are in a position that makes it easier for them to express their true feelings than those that are dependent on others.

Where I think I do fail is letting those close to me know how much I love and care for them. I tend to assume that those around me know that by me choosing to spend my time with them, this means that they are special people in my life. I’m not sure this is always a good assumption to make and I know that I could (and will continue to work on) letting those that I care about know how much I truly do value them. Seeing this regret has been a good reminder that I need work harder on this.

#4 Dying Regret: Stayed In Better Touch With Friends

I don’t think that Ware could have summed it up better than the line “Everyone misses their friends when they are dying.” This is one of the potential regrets that I am actively working on today to make sure that it doesn’t turn into a regret when I am dying.

I spent nearly 15 years in Japan, and although I did make friends there, I lost contact with a lot of my good friends in the US while I was gone. When I returned back to the US, I made the conscious decision to not purchase a home even though I could afford one. Instead, I decided to be a digital nomad and travel full time. One of the many benefits of doing this is that I am able to visit and catch up on old friendships and spend a lot more time with my family than I would have ever been able to if I owned a home. Most people can’t leave their job without a fair amount of planning, but most can welcome someone who happens to be visiting the area where they live. I have chosen to be a person that can easily be the person visiting.

Although I haven’t reached the point where I would feel that this wouldn’t be a regret at all if I were to die in the near future, I do believe I continue to make a great effort in this area to the extent that this will not be on my regret list when my time does come. I also feel that I was able to set this potential regret on the correct path by having my finances in order and knowing how I wanted to spend the money I had versus taking the typical financial advice of buying a home.

#5 Dying Regret: To Let Yourself Be Happier

The author says, “Many did not realise until the end that happiness is a choice.” I don’t think that this can be overstated and the earlier that one learns this, the better. The problem that I often see is that there are still so many people that believe that money will buy them happiness. The truth is (even though it is difficult for many to comprehend) that making $250,000 a year won’t make you any happier than making $75,000 a year. While $75,000 is the mark for most people, it’s actually a lot less for me (but I have always been strange in that way).

I become more and more convinced that many people never take the time to really figure out what makes them happy, and if you don’t know what makes you happy, it is difficult to find that happiness. I learned long ago that things don’t make me nearly as happy as experiences. I spend almost all of my income toward gaining more experiences rather than gathering more things. This is the opposite of most people I know, and while some things may bring some people happiness, I can say with a good amount of confidence that what the advertisers say will bring you happiness and what really will bring you happiness are probably not the same.

Understanding what makes you happy will greatly influence your finances. First, and foremost, you can stop spending your money on things that the advertisers say are supposed to make you happy, but really don’t. Surprisingly to most, it also often shows that you don’t need nearly as much money as you thought to be happy. Above all else, it gives you a solid goal to go after that is what you really should be striving toward.

Final Thoughts

Just because I don’t plan to have any of the top 5 dying regrets when my life comes to an end doesn’t mean that I am anywhere near finished when it comes to making sure that they aren’t regrets. I think that it takes constant vigilance to be true to yourself and to live a life the way that brings happiness and few regrets. One of the best reasons to get your finances in order is that doing so makes these challenges so much easier to accomplish so that you do have fewer regrets during life.

You now know the top 5 regrets for the vast majority of people as they near death. What are you going to do starting today to make sure that none of these are on your list?

(Photo courtesy of NatalieMaynor)

Don’t Hide Money In The Toilet: More Conversation With A Burglar

July 13, 2016 By Jeffrey Strain 92 Comments

With my previous post The Best Place To Hide Money – Conversation With A Burglar being one of my most popular posts ever on this site, there wasn’t any hesitation when I was at another gathering over the weekend and spotted the former burglar that had given me the information. I went straight up to him and asked if I could talk with him for awhile. This is what I learned from the second conversation we had:

Most people don’t understand the motivation of why the burglar is stealing. As he explained:

99% of the burglars on the street aren’t like the ones you see in the movies where stealing is their chosen profession. They are motivated by more sinister reasons. They are part of organized crime, they are part of a gang or, as in my case at the time, they are drug addicts.

When you realize that you are most likely hiding your money away from people described above and not the professional burglars you see in the movies and on TV, it gives a different perspective of where you absolutely shouldn’t be hiding your money.

What he explained was that when people hide their money, they usually think of a place where they would never look themselves instead of where a burglar is unlikely to find the money. Take, for example, the back of the closet in a box where he said he often found valuables. For the person who is hiding the money or valuables, this is an inconvenient place and it takes effort to get to. Since all the boxes in front of it have meaning and therefore need to be carefully placed aside before reaching the box that contains valuables in the back, it seems like an inconvenient place to access. For the burglar, however, the boxes in front have no meaning and he will simply throw them aside without a second thought making it quite easy to access that hiding place.

As the conversation continued, the former burglar mentioned “bonus places” he sometimes found money. These were places that he always looked that an average homeowner might consider a good place to hide money, but it wasn’t money that he was after. If there happened to be money there, however, it was a nice, unexpected bonus.

All burglars have habits and there were certain places I always checked for a specific reason – I was a drug addict. I’m sure that other burglars have their particular search areas beyond the obvious drawers and closets, but I bet that most search these areas, too.

These are the areas he always searched and the reason why you don’t want to hide money there:

Toilets

While this might seem like an unlikely place for a burglar to look, in the toilet bowl tank (as well as all the area round the toilet) is one place that he always took the time to look: “In and around the toilet is where a lot of people hide their drugs. The tank seems an especially popular place, but I will also search boxes of tampons, toilet paper rolls, potpourri… If it is in the vicinity of the toilet and looks like drugs could be hidden there, I would look.”

Cereal Boxes

As with the toilet, “Cereal boxes are another place where a lot of people like to hide drugs. I’m sure that the people who didn’t have drugs in their house wondered why there was cereal spread all over their kitchen after I robbed them.”

Refrigerator & Freezer

The refrigerator may be another place that would seem unlikely for a burglar to investigate, but as he pointed out, “Many drugs last longer when refrigerated so big stashes end up in the refrigerator. Prescription drugs could also be found in the refrigerator.”

Medicine Cabinet

As with the refrigerator, “The medicine cabinet would usually be filled with prescription drugs that could be just as valuable on the street (or for self use) as illegal drugs.”

Bed

“I would toss everything surrounding the bed. I’d check pillows, between the mattresses, under the bed and inside anything close to the bed. This is often where people would hide their guns.”

What this Burglar didn’t tell you is that thieves spend an average of eight minutes in their victims’ homes, according to the Chicago Crime Commission. As mentioned in the previous article, the best place to keep money is at the bank, but if you do decide to stash some extra cash at home in case of an emergency, you now know that these possible hiding places are not where you want to hide your money. Another strategy would be to secure your valuables in a hidden strongbox or diversion safe. Here are a couple of ideas to you started.

1. Ps Concealment Clock – Rectangle

Via Amazon.com $29.99.

The term “hiding in plain sight” comes to mind with this safe. The benefits of this safe are that it looks just like regular clock that you might have on your mantelpiece. It also has that mid-western innocuous middle class feel to it, which means burglars are likely to miss it. This safe comes with a key locking mechanism. While the space inside is modest with only a 3′ depth the it is perfect for hiding cash, important papers or other small valuables.

2. Quick Vent Safe with RFID

Via Amazon.com $219.99.

The QuickVent Safe with RFID locking system is a good place to hide and secure weapons, money, jewelry, and other small valuables. The safe looks just like an HVAC vent so it blends in on any wall, effectively hiding your valuables in plain sight. This safe has an RFID opener, so there are no numbers to memorize. You just wave the RFID across the “vent” and like magic it opens right up. This safe is perfect for home defense weapons – but secured from thieves or children. It’s a bit pricier than several other home safes and it requires more installation hassle, but could be worth if it you keep large amounts of cash or important jewelry at home.

3. Hidden Door Stash Safe

DIY Cost: $0.00.

Lastly if you don’t want to spend any money and you are pretty handy, consider making a hidden door stash safe. What you do is drill a hole in the top of one of your solid core wooden doors big enough for a cigar tube with a screw-on lid. Include a recessed lip to hold a top that’s a bit bigger than the tube — that way, the tube won’t fall inside the door (a washer fixed to the cigar tube top is the perfect lid). This stash spot is pretty small, but its big enough for cash and some kinds of jewelry.

Hope this was helpful information.

For part one of this series: the best place to hide money – conversations with a burglar, click here.

Combination and Supervised Exercise Can Help Improve Health

December 31, 2015 By Jeffrey Strain 1 Comment

Study: aerobic and resistance exercise combination better for type 2 diabetes than only one

When it comes to personal finances, one of the best investments you can make is keeping yourself as healthy as possible. The healthier you are, the less you’ll need to spend on healthcare, and the related expenses which come with it. This can literally be thousands of dollars a year, so any simple steps you can take to improve your health should be a top priority.

For those who exercise regularly to help keep yourself healthy, you might want to make sure you vary your exercise to get the best results. A new review of past studies published in the journal Diabetologia (July 2, 2014 issue) has shown people with diabetes who do a combinations of aerobic and resistance exercise training do better at controlling their blood sugar levels than those who only choose to do only one type of exercise.

Even better, the results weren’t limited to benefiting blood sugar levels. The combined training workout also helped in controlling blood fats, increasing good cholesterol, lowering blood pressure, and controlling weight. The research evidence also showed those who were able to do under supervision ended up getting better results than those who did an exercise program without being supervised.

Researchers reviewed 14 past studies which focused on aerobic or resistance training on people with type II diabetes. The studies included more than 900 participants. They analyzed the data and found that an exercise program which combines both aerobic and resistance training was more effective than one which only focused on either aerobic or resistance exercises.

While the researchers noted more studies need to be done to confirm their findings, they concluded a combination of aerobic and resistance training can be a beneficial part to a lifestyle program seeking to manage type II diabetes. These findings can be important for all people since many people don’t even realize they have diabetes, and 50% of Americans have a chronic disease of some type.

As with most things in life, balance can be important to get the most out of what you do. If you find you’re getting your weekly exercise the exact same way day in and day out, it might be time to consider some ways to change it up to get in a more varied workout each week. The benefits of exercise are well known for a variety of ailments and just making you feel better overall. While any type of exercise is better than none at all, this study indicates that getting in a variety of different types of exercise each week can be even more beneficial than sticking to a single type.

(Photo courtesy of Marko Djukic)