Aaron Task interviewed Willie Jolley recently on the Daily Ticker (Yahoo Finance). Willie Jolley is a Sirius XM Talk show host, motivational speaker, and the author of “Turn Setbacks Into Greenbacks.”

This is the first I have heard of Willie Jolley, but after listening to this interview I love this guy! Let me share briefly two out of the three points he made in the interview (which are from his new book).

First, Stop Commiserating! Yes there is a lot of bad news, and times are tough, but we don’t have to keep repeating the bad news to ourselves, and we don’t have to keep following everyone else. Don’t participate in the gloom and doom. Stop complaining and start focusing! He gave an example of two animals that are successful that are found in the desert: the buzzard looks for death and finds it, the hummingbird looks for life and finds it. His point?—what you look for you will find.

Secondly, Don’t let pride power your prosperity. Sometimes you have to do things that you don’t want to do for a time (like working at Wal-Mart or McDonald’s). His view: “if it is legal and moral then it is honorable work.”  He compares the economy and our efforts to riding a bike. When the economy is good, it is like riding a bike downhill, we can just coast and things will be good. But when the economy is bad, it is like riding a bike uphill, you have to work hard.

I liked his enthusiasm and how upbeat he was. He didn’t sugarcoat things – in the past he lost a job with only a little money in his wallet. So he has been there but didn’t let it keep him down.

If you need a pick me up from all the bad news, or if you need something to help you get things turned around in your life, you might want to check out his book.

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Attended a webinar recently featuring Mark Woods, author of “Attack Your Day Before it Attacks You”.  His focus was on the ruts that we all get into and how to get out of those ruts. His three basic steps were to (1) prioritize your day (2) limit interruptions (3) be disciplined. Obviously these steps are easier said then done! But anything worthwhile takes hard work, commitment, and time. And although he was talking about how to manage your time, these basic principles could also apply to our use of money.

One of his keys to attacking your day is to eliminate procrastination. Mr. Woods focused on four steps to do this:

1. Stop waiting for someone to rescue you
2. Stop feeling sorry for yourself
3. Start with a small goal and work on it daily
4. Change your attitude

Procrastination is a real career and financial killer. I liked what he had to say about it and how to overcome it with these steps. Procrastination is more mental than anything else, so we have to attack it mentally. And in order to help us do that he recommended enlisting the aid of an accountability partner. Someone to encourage us, check on us, tell us the truth. I have used accountability partners in the past on some areas in my life and I agree that having an individual like that in your life is a great asset.

So what ruts do you need to climb out of? Is there anything you are procrastinating over? Maybe it’s time to get serious and do something about it!

 

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This past Friday I received an email and a telephone call from Sears that my order was in. Sears requested that I call ahead of time to set up a time to pick up. So when I called in it was basically come in and pick it up any time you want! So much for having to set up a time.

Once I got to Sears on Saturday everything went smoothly – I think I was in and out of the store in about 10 minutes so that was good. So overall the Sears experience was good. The price was very good, the shipping was free (always good!), the service was good too. The only thing I will complain about was the length of time for delivery to the store for pickup. It should not take two weeks for me to have it delivered to the store for pick-up. If  Sears wants to compete with Amazon and other online retailers, they need to get faster delivery.

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I actually bought something online at Sears the other week. Our family was looking for a good sized horizontal outdoor storage container. I searched around on the web and found several online places that carried the one I liked, and believe it or not Sears came out on top: they had the best price, then they gave a discount when ordering (enough to offset the tax), and they shipped to store for free. Overall their website was pretty good to use.

Now for the downside: after ordering, the confirmation email said it could take up to 34 days for delivery! Now they do let you cancel up to five days after ordering, but shouldn’t they have let me know that when I ordered instead of making me have to cancel an order if I can’t wait that long? In this case it’s no big deal and I can wait.

So in this case I will give sears a “C” grade. Everything was great and they were trending toward an “A” until they sprung that delivery date in an email after ordering. Not cool, so they get bumped down.

Once I get delivery of the product I will let you know how the pickup in store went and when the actually billed my credit card (I hope it’s when it shipped not when I ordered!) and if I will use Sears again.

 

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Best Buy often gets a bad rap, and usually deservedly so.  But I have to admit that our last two visits to the store went smoothly, the products were decently priced, and the associates were actually helpful.

Now, I am probably never going to be a fan of their store, and I will still get most of my stuff online. But for a few odds and ends it might not be such a bad place for a quick trip.

Maybe it’s just our store (it is new), or maybe the chain is trying to improve their image. Or we just got lucky! Who knows, but things worked out the last two visits, so I can’t complain. What’s your recent experience been? Are they changing for the better?

 

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Well, it’s all over the internet. ING Direct has been bought by Capital One. This financial transaction affects me personally since I have a savings account with Capital One and both Checking and Saving (and a Sharebuilder Account) with ING Direct.

By many of the responses I have read on the internet regarding this you would have thought the world has come to an end. Personally, I will wait and see. I have had no problems with my Capital One account – it is my emergency fund and car replacement fund account. The only real negative is that it does take a little longer to transfer funds with Capital One then it does with ING Direct.

My biggest question is will they be separate companies or will they merge everything together? I like having two different financial accounts just in case one of the sites goes down or something weird happens.

I will give Capital One a chance. But I will be watching for new fees, etc.

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I still use Windows XP at home and at work. Never wanted to switch to Vista. Now Microsoft is no longer supporting XP and up until now it hasn’t been a problem, but I just ran into my first speed bump.

I went to log into my ING Direct account using Microsoft explorer and ING said I had to upgrade to the newest explorer version. So I went over to download the latest version but I couldn’t – it’s only for Windows Vista or Windows 7 – it does not work with XP. Ugh!

So I just logged into ING direct using Firefox! Sorry Microsoft, I am just not ready to upgrade my computer yet! I would like to get at least one more year, maybe 18 months before we upgrade. Hopefully we will not hit too many more speed bumps along the way.

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Over at MSN Money, Knight Kiplinger of Kiplinger Magazine has a video where he lists his eight essential lessons of financial security. His list of 8, with my comments, are:

1. Invest in Yourself. This is about education and job skills. You are your greatest asset. Invest in yourself and then you will have the means to invest in other things.
2. Protect Yourself and Your Loved Ones. This is about insurance. I am not one to over insure, but I do believe that some types of insurance are necessary. This is something that needs to be reviewed annually in your life to see if you are covered adequately.
3. Borrow Sparingly. Yes, Yes, and Yes! He believes you should only borrow for things that are of lasting value. He then lists three things which it might be okay to borrow for: houses, education, and maybe a car. I would say that except for the house, you probably should not borrow at all, and then for the house, be careful. You can work while you are getting an education, and you can buy cheap cars and save. But yes, borrow sparingly and only if you have to.
4. Pay Yourself First. If you wait until all the bills are paid, you will never have anything left over to save, so save first then pay the bills. He includes investing (stocks and bonds), but I would not do that until you have completely saved up an emergency fund and have paid off all debt.
5. Don’t Go For the Home Run. His thoughts are to stay away from market timing, taking huge risks. Just be diligent and work for the long haul, not the quick fix. Slow and steady will win the race!
6. Diversify, Diversify, Diversify. Do not put all your eggs in one basket. Your portfolio should have mixed assets in it so that if one tanks, the others can hold you up.
7. Live Simply Today for a more Comfortable Tomorrow. Delayed gratification! Learn to say no now. To many people are spending their future away.
8. Give Generously to Others. When you have applied the first seven, then you can do number 8! We need to share what we have been blessed with.

 Overall I thought it was a good list. Most of it should not surprise regular readers, but it’s good to be reminded.

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I just finished (and enjoyed!) reading a book entitled “Do the Work” by Steven Pressfield. The book in summary is about overcoming resistance. You are the knight—resistance is the dragon. Mr. Pressfield’s goal with the book is to “coach you through a project…seeing it from the point of view of Resistance.”

He starts out the book with listing the enemies to finishing a project—(1) resistance which can take the form of fear, procrastination, distraction, perfectionism, etc. (2) Rational Thought (we can talk ourselves out of doing something (3) Friends and Family (our doing something can make others jealous or nervous). I have found that all three have derailed me from time to time in doing a project.

He goes on to share that resistance is invisible, it is insidious, it is impersonal, and though appearing malevolent, it is indifferent, and it is infallible—we can count on it to try and stop us! Continuing, resistance is also universal, it never sleeps, and its aim is to kill (the project, the effort, etc.). It plays for keeps. The more I want to do something, the more there seems to be resistance trying to stop me! I guess that old physics equation applies to getting things done – for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction!

Now with all this arrayed against us, it could be discouraging to start a project (there is resistance again!). But we do have some unlikely allies:  (1) stupidity (2) Stubbornness (3) Blind Faith (4) Passion (5) Assistance (the opposite of resistance) (6) Friends and Family (yes, they are both allies and enemies!). I am glad that stupidity and stubbornness are allies – it gives me hope!

I really enjoyed the book. It is a very quick read, and if you buy it off of Amazon for a kindle it is free! More than that though, I liked the fact that where most of us fail is in the area of allowing resistance to stop us, or even prevent us from starting. One of his answers—start before you’re ready! That’s right, and I agree with him. For example, I had so many excuses for not blogging – I didn’t know the tools (wordpress, etc.), I didn’t know people in the business, I only had a few articles in my head, when would i find time, etc. The longer I waited, the more obstacles I came up with. One day, I just jumped and started, not thinking about everything I didn’t know, etc. I overcame resistance. And you can too!

What is it that you have not started to do? What is a passion or dream that is not fulfilled yet? Don’t wait! If you need motivational help (and who doesn’t?) – get this book, read it, then do it!

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I just finished doing my taxes with Turbo Tax and I was very impressed with the ease of use of this software. It didn’t make doing taxes fun, but it did make it bearable.  Not counting pulling all my information together which I had already done (that took several hours in and of itself), it took me about two hours to do my taxes, then a little bit longer to print everything out.

I let the program guide me step by step of the way – that takes a little longer but it does make sure that you don’t miss anything. Now that I am a little more comfortable with the program I may not have to use that feature – I can just skip to what I need. I like that it does give you the choice. It handled my parsonage allowance correctly (tax break for ministers), which H&R Block did not do last year (and their software made me file by mail verses electronically).

Next year should be even quicker to do my taxes because Turbo Tax will pre-fill a lot of the information fields for me – that will save time and typing errors! I also used Turbo Tax to do my state Taxes (Pennsylvania), but I did not use the software to file them – Turbo Tax charges $20 (or so) to file them, so I just printed a hard copy and filed my state taxes for free using the state online e-file using the information off of my hard copy. it was a little duplication of effort, but I saved $20, and it was helpful to have the hard copy since the state e-filing program was not always clear (hard to believe that the state could be confusing!).

All it all, I was pleased with Turbo Tax. I like that it lets you do up to 5 returns, so if you want you can do like our family did and just purchase one copy and share it. I will definitely be using Turbo Tax again next year. Any other thoughts or opinions (or questions)?

Hi there - could you help spread the word about A Penny Saved? We rely on word of mouth to get new readers. If you would send someone a link, email, or even mention it to your friends, I would truly appreciate it. Turbo Tax Review is a post from: A Penny Saved, the best darn personal finance blog around.