Walk With Money » Household

Reduce Household Energy Expenses

Robert Wilkinson — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 23:06:22 +0000

Reducing our energy expenses is a current focus for me. With the recent 50% jump in our propane heating expenses I've begun investing significant time in trying to reduce our heating expenses. Our home was built in 1994, and when we bought it 2 years ago I was initially shocked at how much it cost us to heat and cool the house.

Here is a list of energy saving steps that we have done so far on our home, they include:

repaired and improved the weatherstripping on exterior doors and windows
installing programmable thermostats
added outlet sealers and plugs to electrical outlets and light switches throughout the house
I've added a couple rolls of additional insulation and thinking about adding more in the future
built an attic stair cover with weatherstripping and insulation to seal the attic entrance
adding a hot water heater blanket
adding a timer for our hot water heater so that the hot water heater doesn't run from midnight to 6am when we are sleeping

Focusing on Air Sealing our home in the Attic and Crawlspace
The cost of our energy use (electric + propane) ran us a little over $ 3,200 in the past year (avg $ 266/mo). I still think thats too high and the next option to reduce these costs is to further air seal our home.

The nice thing about air sealing is its not actually expensive, its really just time intensive. I've already addressed the interior, its noe time to focus on air sealing in the attic, garage, and crawlspace with several tubes of silicone caulk at $ 2/tube.

I've begun by pulling back insulation around electrical boxes, air ducts, and vent stacks and just sealing around the edges in the attic and crawlspace with a caulk gun. I know there is some air definitely escaping as I have seen light coming through the outlets or soot on the adjacent insulation near ducts once I peel back the insulation before I seal them. I found this to be a good guide for addressing air leaks in the attic.

Once I feel like the house is well sealed I guess my next upgrade project would be to add more insulation.

Meditation, Prayer, and Personal Finance

Robert Wilkinson — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 15:20:02 +0000

Once or twice a day, I go into my bedroom, turn down the lights, lay on the bed, and look up at the ceiling. I start off by reflecting on a small handful of things that have really brought me significant joy in the past few days. After a few minutes of that, I focus entirely on emptying my mind for a while, and once that’s done, I just drift without anything in my mind. Sometimes thoughts drift in and out of my head – sometimes they don’t. Sometimes I doze off for a bit – other times, I don’t.

After about twenty minutes of concentrated mental relaxation, I almost always feel refreshed and much more able to tackle whatever is on the table in front of me, whether it’s a household task, some work to be done, some bills to be paid, or anything else. I get that stuff done faster and better than I ever would have done before the meditation.

Call it meditation or prayer or whatever you wish – it flat-out works.

When I first started doing this, I seemed like it would be an utter waste of a good twenty minutes. I started trying it at the urging of my pastor at the time, who told me to try to take some time every day to pray and to let God speak to me. I didn’t really have any idea what that even meant, so I tried mostly just spending some time reflecting on what was going on in my life in a positive way. I tried to spend fifteen minutes a day just reflecting on the good in my life.

It didn’t really work.

Instead, I started reading books on prayer and meditation to see what others had discovered. What I seemed to find, time and time again, is that people found success in just letting their mind drift and seeing what answers were revealed to them. This pops up over and over again in all sorts of religious and other writings.

What I’ve found is that an empty mind is a real clarifier. Those twenty minutes spent letting my mind be as empty as I can make it do more for my day than anything else I do.

That time seems to fill my mind with a great deal of motivation and, often, with ...

5 Tips for Raising a Financially Savvy Family

Robert Wilkinson — Sat, 01 May 2010 01:20:02 +0000

There are hundreds of questions that pop up on a parent’s or soon-to-be parent’s mind. How should we raise our children? What lessons should we instill in our children’s minds at an early age? Financial literacy — like any other fundamental life lesson — must begin at home.

The concept of money to children can be difficult to understand, but with the right strategies it is possible. Because most schools lack a curriculum that teaches daily life lessons and financial strategy, it is crucial to approach this topic as a family.

Photo by Evil Erin via Flickr

Here are the top tips for raising a financially savvy family:

1. Follow the Leader

First, and foremost, the best way to teach anything is by example. This transcends to money lessons as well. Parents should lead by example by controlling your own personal expenses and budget — and in turn you will teach your child how to properly handle money. Educate yourself on the basic principles of personal finance and implement those lessons in your household. This will not only improve your own situation will also set a foundation for how your family unit views money.

2. Game On

What better way to teach fiscal responsibility than to simulate it through video games. Though many interactive games are mind numbing, there are virtual games available to aid in teaching money matters. Developed for middle school and high school students by the National Council on Economic Education, Gen Revolution teaches children important personal finance skills as they play and compete against each other.

Other great virtual games can be found on the National Council on Economic Education’s Financial Fitness for Life, a new multi-faceted, comprehensive economic and financial literacy program for grades K-12.

3. Allow Allowances

It is important for children to see and understand the difference between “getting” things and “paying” for things. Through age-appropriate discussions, financial experts suggest not shying away from explaining the relationship between working and earning money.

By giving children a weekly allowance, parents can eliminate the chance of your children nagging about wanting money for clothes or entertainment. When children earn their own money by doing simple household chores, they will learn the value of hard work and understand the concept of earning as opposed to getting money out of nowhere. All in all, getting an allowance

An allowance will give children the chance to figure out how to budget their money — even if it is on a small scale.

Another positive aspect of allowances is that they are a starting point for developing money-management skills because ...

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5 Tips for Raising a Financially Savvy Family

Your Most Important Financial Decision: Choosing a Spouse

Robert Wilkinson — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 13:20:09 +0000

I disagree with the common assumption that buying a house will be your biggest financial decision. I believe your choice of a marriage partner will be your single biggest financial decision. Besides, who do you think is going to help you make the house decision? Therefore, make your spouse decision carefully. The reasons go far, far beyond money, but since this is a financial blog, let’s focus on the financial implications for a moment.

Studies have shown that savers tend to be attracted to spenders. Experience confirms that savers get annoyed with spenders and spenders get frustrated with savers. Ahh. The beauty of the male-female relationship.

Photo by Pixel Drip via Flickr.

When couples are dating they believe love will cover a multitude of spending differences. Alas, time will likely tell a different story. Since money is one of the leading causes of divorce you might do well to at least consider if you and your future spouse are financially compatible.

How to know if you and your spouse are financially compatible

Prepare a fictional budget. Decide on an appropriate estimated take home pay for your household. Each of you need to hide in a corner and spend your money on paper (some people call this making a budget — here’s how to create a budget). Then sit down together and share your result. Highlight and discuss any huge differences in your budget categories. For a guide you can compare your results to these recommended budget percentages by category. From there you’ll need to discuss some of the nitty gritty elements of financial management — will you combine your finances?

Participate in premarital counseling. Call your local church or community center and ask if someone on staff does premarital counseling. If they say ‘no’ shake the dust from your feet and call someone else. Keep making calls until you find someone who will help with premarital counseling.

Don’t get a prenuptial agreement (unless you have adult children you wish to financially protect). Yes, I know this is an unpopular thing to say, but hey — it’s what I think. Here’s why — the last thing marriages need is a bright red “Emergency Exit” light. Prenuptials keep divorce on the table. My wife and I have completely removed divorce as a solution to our differences. It forces us to resolve our issues ...

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Teach Your Kids about Money Management

Robert Wilkinson — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 21:20:21 +0000

It is never too early to teach your dren the fundamentals wht comes to good monanagement. Teaching your children good habits is usually smart, and money management is certainly a set of good habits that is better taught sooner rather of later. If you teach your children how to value and handle their money very young, then it will be useful for them in the future. In order to make children discover the value of their money and money management, parents and guardians can practice a few very easy actions, such as the following:

- Parents can include their children when they are speaking about actions relating to money. They can consist of their children when they sit down to discuss household budgets and other similar money associated subjects, so that they can teach their children what actions include money and what elements of the family require money in order to run easily. When children comprehend why money is essential, they can better comprehend its value.

- These days a lot of our money is being used in the form of credit score cards and checkbooks. When you make use of these alternative payment types, you should explain to your children what you are doing and how it works. Tell them about the ease that financial institution accounts and credit score cards can provide, and detail the role that they play in the money management procedure. You should also make an work to teach them the difference between credit score cards and debit cards so that they can make good use of all the money mediums accessible to them in the future.

- As early as possible, it would be advantageous to allow your children to handle, organize and save their own pocket alter. They can be taught more than time to count their money, use financial institution accounts, open a financial savings account, draw money out through checks, and maintain their own distinctive private spending budget and so on. When you first start to teach your children about money management, they will probably be more most likely to mess issues up than to get every thing correct.

-In order to assist them in this regard, you can introduce your children to online money management software and other choices like a checkbook register as quickly as possible. This will display them how to keep track of their financial savings and their spending. This will also assist them set up alerts and reminders so that they can keep track of spending, earning and saving. As children, individuals are simply not very adept when it comes to money management. Teaching them early and impressing them with the ideas of money management frequently will assist them overcome their issues with money management, allowing them to get better control of their finances from day one.

When it comes to money management, the previously you teach your children about taking care of their money, the better off they will be as they start to have their own financial savings, incomes and expenditures.

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Originally posted 2008-12-22 05:25:49. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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PineCone Research Application Link (Paid Online Surveys)

Robert Wilkinson — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 20:20:08 +0000

Here is an updated application link at Pinecone Research, which is again accepting new members. (May expire at any time, so apply now if you’re interested!) Looks open to all, but certain demographics will get more surveys. Only one person per household can sign up.

PineCone Research remains one of the better paying and reliable survey companies, with a payout of $3 (check or PayPal) for each 15-minute online survey. The hardest part is getting accepted, as they only take applications intermittently. I shared my thoughts on Pinecone and paid surveys in general here. I call them Bored Money - not terribly efficient but you can do it at your leisure and occasionally ...