Tag Archive - YNAB

Blog-off for Babies Round One

July 6, 2009 in Miscellany with 12 Comments

Please take the time to read through this post and make comments below.

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Here is the topic for this week:

Topic: Oprah has popularized the phrase, “Best Life” with a series of shows centered around so-called “experts” talking about how to have, “the best life”.    What is your definition of a “best life” and how do you think you are — or are not— fulfilling your conception of it?

I honestly don’t think I have ever seen the “Best Life” series with Oprah.  Maybe being one of only two men in this blog-off (and the other one came up with this topic) that might put me at a disadvantage…I don’t know.  But I do think about what an “ideal” life would be, so I will go off of that.

I hate to admit it but the ELCA does have a model of wellness that I would like to achieve one day.  It is called a “Wholeness Wheel.” There are six areas of wholeness that I believe anyone can achieve and if they do; I believe that they will be living a better life if not the “Best Life.”


Everyone wants to be healthy.  People get healthy physically not only to look good but to feel good and live longer.  As we get older we start to see that bright light at the end of the tunnel and we want that tunnel to continually get longer not shorter.

I would give myself a low grade on my Physical well-being at this point.  But I am making strides to get healthier and healthier everyday.  As I mentioned on this blog earlier I have lost over 30 pounds in the last year and I am working hard everyday to staying on track and lose more.  I hope to participate in a triathlon this September with the goal of at least finishing.  I hope by this time next year  I will be able to say that I am in much better physical condition.


From the ELCA website

“Being emotionally well means feeling the full range of emotions and expressing those emotions appropriately.”

I think there are four ways that I maintain emotional well-being

  1. Spend time with my family – I love my family more than anything else in the world.  When I come home from a good or bad day at work my kids come up to me and give me hugs and kisses and it makes even the worst day seem bright.  I love my wife and the more time I get to spend with her the better I feel.  She understands me like no-one else can.  I feel lucky to have a great family.
  2. Working out- I love the feeling after a good work out.  I find that when I am starting to feel stressed and overwhelmed I need to hit the gym and spend a little extra time working out.  It helps me relieve all the built-up stress inside of me.
  3. Music - I am a musician at heart.  I love to turn the radio up in my car and sing along.  I also love to play my guitar for hours on end.  Music gives me that creative release that nothing else can.
  4. Friends — I have the greatest friends in the world.  When something is wrong in my life they are there for me and I can’t ever thank them enough.  One of the reasons why I love facebook so much is because I am able to connect with my friends even more.  I believe that my friends are the smartest people I know and I always seek advice from them.


From the ELCA website

Whether we are introverted or extroverted, regular social contact is essential for health.

This is one area that I feel like my wife and I need to improve on.  I am very extroverted and she is very introverted so the way we view our social contacts is different.  Like I mentioned above I love facebook because I am able to relate to my friends on a daily basis.  One thing that is hard for my wife and myself is that most of our friends do not live in the same area as us – so facebook, email and phone calls are our best form of contact.  My wife and I are also new to the area (we have lived here only a year).  We came to CNY not knowing very many people at all and it is taking more time than I would like on meeting people our age that we are able to hang out with on a regular basis.  We continue to work on this and I know that things will turn around sooner or later.

Intellectual well-being

I can say that I have never been the smartest person in my academic career.  I have never qualified myself as a scholar.  But I do hold a bachelors degree and a Master of Divinity degree.  I am very proud of my accomplishments because I have worked hard for them.  I do like to keep up with my reading and studying, I think it is very important to keep your mind working, otherwise I believe it will start to shut down.  I will always be a student and seek to learn more and more not only professionally but in other ways as well.

Vocational well-being

I never really understood why people are in jobs that they hate.  I have had only one job that I really hated in my life.  I worked there for about 14 days and quit and found something else that I enjoyed much more.  I need to be challenged where I work otherwise I am not satisfied.  I realize that jobs are sometimes hard to come by — however do what you love or you will never be happy.

I do love the job that I have right now. I believe my calling in life is to be a pastor.  I love hearing faith stories from people, I love being there for people during their celebrations and during their more difficult times in life.   I can’t imagine doing anything else in life and being this happy.

I believe that we need to be spiritually healthy as well.  I have friends and family members that do not have a realigous base in their life and I do actually question that decision.  I do not understand what happens when difficulties happen in their life who do they put their trust in that things will turn out okay?  I put my trust in the one who I believe created me and who loves me and who promises me that things will be okay.  When I am having a crappy day I know I can turn to God and pray.

I will never forget when I was at Luther College, I was having a tough time personally.  I prayed with a friend, we prayed for my family we prayed that God would take all my problems and place them on His shoulders and I believe God did.  That night I cried for 45 min.  It was all the pain, hurt, anger and sadness coming out of me. I felt as though that burdens that I had been carrying for so long were lifted off of me and I felt free once again.  It was a good feeling.

I think of that time in my life when I believe that I am not as spiritually well off as I would like to be.  Right now I think I am at a good place because the last few months have been tough in some ways.  It is when times are tough that I start to fall away from my spiritual disciplines and it is then that I realize that I need them the most and I am able to turn back and pick things up again.

Financial well-being

I can honestly say that money is one of the biggest stresses in my life and the lives of the people I come across everyday.  90% of the debt that I carry is in student loans.  I can honestly say that I am disappointed in the way that seminaries are structured in that regard.  Pastors are generally in the top 25% in education but in the bottom 25% in pay (or something like that).  But that is another blog post for another day.

We work hard at becoming more and more financially secure. I know it takes time and that is the hard part.  We are at a point right now in our lives where we want to feel secure financially.  It is important — and I know I have lots to learn when it comes to financial success.  I read blog posts daily and I use the YNAB system to help keep finances straight and I abide by the philosophies of YNAB to help us think differently about our money.

Overall I believe that things are going okay right now in my “Best Life” – I believe that overall I have a pretty good wholeness wheel.  I don’t think it will ever be perfect but I believe that it is a good way to think about your life and how you can have a “Best Life.”

YNAB (You Need a Budget)

November 22, 2008 in Uncategorized with 0 Comments

I do not like to advertise — I do not like to tell people that they should try something unless I REALLY believe in it.  There are some things that I am very open about — for example my faith.  I love telling people about my faith, about how it has made a positive impact in my life.  I don’t mind telling people about Shaklee – the nutritional company that I have been a part of my whole life!  I know that I would be in a different place; health wise – if it was not for Shaklee.

There is something new that I have been a part of recently that I want to share.  I have included a link in my sidebar that you can click on to find out more information.  The program is called You Need a Budget.  It is a budgeting software program for Windows (the Mac version is coming – but there is an excel document for Mac users).  But it is more than just a program……there is a Methodology behind the whole system.  It has changed the way that I view money and budgeting and I know it has worked for many, many people.

The mythology is quite simple – there are “four rules” that you keep in mind when thinking about your money.  If you abide by these four rules then you will be doing well when it comes to finances.  Some of you reading this might already be doing this, but for those of us who have not been doing this it is a real eye opener.

Rule number One: Live on last months income - this is the hardest one to start with but the most important.  If you live on last month’s income then you do not have to worry about what your current month’s income will be!  For those of us who live on a variable income you never know what to budget for because you do not know what your current month’s income will be!  That is a hard way to live.  But if you live off of your lasts month’s income then you know exactly what you have to spend.  The challenging part is to get to a place where you can live like that — this is called the Buffer — and you have to save your buffer until you have that money in the bank.  There is no more timing bills – there is no more worries about having enough money in the bank, because the money is there!!  We are currently saving for our buffer and I will share in later blog posts things we are doing to get to the full buffer point.

Rule number two: Give every dollar a job — For those of you who already live on a budget you might do this — but the difference is that we now only budget the money we have in the bank.  We give those dollars a job.  In the past we have budgeted for the whole month – not knowing what is going to come up and how that is going to change.  When things did change our budget and spirits were out of whack — but now we are taking things one day at a time…..one week at a time. Sure there are things that still come up but we have a better handle on those things and it is easier to adjust when you know what your plan is.

Rule number three: Prepare for a Rainy Day -  On top of the buffer, one needs to think about the future.  With the YNAB program this is easy.  If you know that you can get a discount on your car insurance if you pay the full 6 months at once — you can stick that into your budget and YNAB will calculate that for you!  Recently we had the engine go on our car.  In YNAB we have a car replacement category and a car repair category.  If we had more than $40.00 in either category we would be okay but we are just starting…..so we were not prepared for a rainy day — but soon hope to be!

Rule number Four: Roll with the punches –  Recently we have had some problems that can only be cured by money.  Our car died, my cell phone died and the holiday’s are coming up.  Some stuff we can expect and others we can’t.  Things are not perfect — they may never be perfect– that’s why this rule is so important.  It is easy to give up and just go into things blindly.  But that will help no one and that will make things worse.

That’s YNAB in a nutshell.  I know it has helped us out and I know it will help you out.  Feel free to leave comments if you have questions.  I have to admit I am a newbie at this program but I feel like I have a good handle on the rules and what to do and how to get started.  I make frequent use of the forum for help with questions that I have.  I know that Jesse is always working on improving the program and I am excited to see how things progress.

So please click here and give it a try– you can try it for 60 days for free!!!