Skip to main content

Good Ole’ Country Music

I got converted to country music in the mid-nineties. I still like the sounds of my high school years (the 80s), but most of the time, I have my radio tuned to an “older” country station because Shania Twain, Brooks & Dunn, and Blackhawk are now considered classic. My, has time flown.

Speaking of 90s country, there is a song by Diamond Rio called “Meet in the Middle” that tells a cute story about how to create a healthy relationship. It’s also a fun song with which to sing along.

The word middle is synonymous with the word average. The Google definition of average is this: “a number expressing the central or typical value in a set of data, in particular the mode, median, or (most commonly) the mean, which is calculated by dividing the sum of the values in the set by their number.” And, this is the example using the word in a sentence: "the housing prices there are twice the national average" (and my thoughts on that is houses are WAY overpriced, but there’s nothing I can do about it, so I am moving on).

Okay, I’m getting to the point.

Ever notice how your financial year is rolling along fairly smoothly and then BAM!, you get hit with an annual payment (like property taxes) or a semi-annual payment (like auto insurance if you don’t pay monthly)? You kind of forgot about this sneaky bill and now you have to come up with a few hundred extra dollars if not a grand or more.

“What’s a financially-savvy person to do?”

Thanks for asking. Round up all those pesky, irregular payments and find the average as described above. Yeah, I thought Google was a bit wordy, too, so here it is in layman’s terms. Add up the total of those payment amounts then divide that by the total number of bills. That is the dollar amount that you should budget for each month to cover them. If you follow this simple formula, you will have no more surprises!

I do understand that while the answer to this question is simple, it might not be all that easy to implement. Sorry, but this one is all on you. I can encourage, but only you can change. I’m here if you need me!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Gifts that Matter

When I think about my childhood, there are a few events (some good, some not so good) that really stand out. These specific incidents made big impacts on me, so they really stuck. I bet you can say the same thing. These encounters, good and bad, help shape who we are. As parents, it is our job to teach our children to be honest, upstanding, contributing members of society. This does not happen by accident. Part of this process involves the experiences we give our children–we can orchestrate PEAK moments for our families that will leave lasting impressions on young, impressionable minds. What is a PEAK moment? According to de Jager Meezenbroek, Garssen, van den Berg, van Dierendonck, Visser, and Schaufeli in the Journal of Religion and Health , “Peak experiences are often described as transcendent moments of pure joy and elation. These are moments that stand out from everyday events.” Christmas offers an EXCELLENT opportunity to offer experiences that can become “PEAK moments” in ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Remove the Specs

You have probably heard the phrase, “looking through rose-colored glasses”? If not, allow me to introduce you to this idiom. It basically means seeing things the way you want to see them while putting a positive spin on that. It’s not a bad thing, but sometimes you need to see something for what it really is. How many of us have ever spent impetuously because we were upset or angry? “Gee, my spouse spent $500 on a (insert whatever he might buy to feed his hobby here) without asking, I should be able to spend the same on (insert what you would like to get here)!” I’m sorry/not sorry, but this is NOT a healthy way to look at things. It’s just wrong. And it’s a great example of erroneous thinking when it comes to managing money. According to Kingsford, “Thoughts create the emotions that drive us...” Oh, how true it is! She also points out how events lead to thoughts, which in turn lead to feelings. For purposes of today’s post, I’m going to call this “The Cycle.” If you want to be f...
Post a Comment
Read more

Choose Good

Someone I know recently made a trip to the grocery store. Another shopper thought she was buying too much bread for her family of nine and assaulted her. My friend is shaken but okay. The assailant was escorted from the premises. Unfortunately, emergencies bring out the worst is some. Whenever there is some sort of trauma going on in the world (and when is there NOT these days?) all kinds of crazies are going to come out of the woodwork. Don’t fall prey to one of them. You’re probably going to get phone calls from people claiming to be from different charities that are raising money for this and that. I used to try to tell them “No” politely. Now I just hang up. Or, better yet, don’t answer numbers you do not recognize, even those with the same area code you have. If you can and want to contribute to a charity, use one you have used before. While disasters bring out the scary, they also can bring out the best of us.   Be one of them. We are all spending more time a...
Post a Comment
Read more