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Festivus, The Rockstar Community Fund, and Snow Fun!

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Merry Christmas Eve! It’s a busy time here as we get closer to the end of 2016! And since I actually had school (work) this week, I thought I’d share a couple of interesting projects that helped spread some holiday cheer!

Festivus 2016

In the school district where I work, we have a project each year called Festivus! Some of you might think of the Seinfeld Festivus episode, but for everyone else – here is a description of Festivus from Wikipedia:

Festivus is both a parody and a secular holiday celebrated on December 23 that serves as an alternative to participating in the pressures and commercialism of the Christmas season. It has been described as “the perfect secular theme for an all-inclusive December gathering”.  

Festivus in our school is a project that gives every student in the district (over 3,000 of them) a chance to choose a small “gift” to give to a family member or friend – for free! All gift items are donated by faculty, staff, and parents in the district and volunteers even help the youngest students wrap their gifts.

When I looked at that description, it made me smile that all of the items are donated. This helps students to avoid some of the commercialism of the Christmas season!

And in terms of “all-inclusive” – this is a project for ALL students, not those who just may struggle to buy a gift for someone. The kids are always incredibly excited about “shopping” for something special to bring someone at home for the holidays!

The Rockstar Community Fund

This month I was lucky enough to be a part of an awesome project – the Rockstar Community Fund (RCF)! If you haven’t checked out the new Rockstar Finance forums, there are some great conversations going on there! I’m looking forward to the new projects that they come up with to help people each month!

Here’s a description of the project for this month and what I did to spend one of the fifty $20 RCF gift cards that were given out…  

Every month Rockstar Finance wants to provide a way for each of us to go out and do some good in the world. We’ve dubbed this project the Rockstar Community Fund, and this month we’ll be harnessing the spirit of the holiday season:  We want you to give someone an unexpected gift.

I had a bunch of ideas of who to give it too – but I finally had my “aha” moment about who to surprise with an unexpected gift. I was able to give my gift card to a colleague this week!

I work in a Primary School with over 750 kids. Most kids come to school each day to learn, laugh, and play. Some kids struggle with learning and get help from our amazing teachers and support staff. Other kids come to school and struggle with behaviors. These are the kids who many parents want their kids separated from – those kids in the “special” class.

Well the woman I picked to receive the gift has chosen to work with this group of kids every year. And that takes a very special person. She is not a teacher and doesn’t get the salary of a teacher. She is a paraprofessional. And in our district, paraprofessionals start around $10 an hour. She has been here for many years, so I know she makes more than that now – but she never asks for anything. She comes to work with patience and kindness each day and she will do anything she needs to do to help her students learn and make safe choices.

When she came in today, I was able to chat with her for a minute and give her the gift card. She smiled, thanked me, hugged me and cried. There are a lot of amazing people who work in schools. I feel thankful that I know this person and I appreciate all she does for some of our most challenging and wonderful little ones.

SNOW”HENGE”

Speaking of wonderful little ones – there are 20 or 30 of these huge snow balls outside on the playground at school! It’s too funny to watch the kids outside playing in the snow. I’ve asked them what they were doing before and most say building snowmen!

I’ve never asked them what happened to the rest of the snowman because they really don’t seem to mind that they never finish one! They start rolling snow and keep rolling it until they can’t go any farther. Then they start rolling another ball to put on top – and they can’t lift it up because they get too big! So then they start another one…and another… and that’s how we end up with a whole field full of giant snowballs!

Without good planning, things can fall apart… or not! You can just keep on rolling along and build up that solid foundation of whatever you are working on!

Have you ever heard of or celebrated Festivus? And have you checked out the Rockstar Finance Forums? Take the lead from little kids and get out there and have some fun this week!

We’ll be heading south to visit family and spend a little time at our condo near Siesta Key, Florida! I wish all of you a happy and safe holiday season!

Flexibility, Responsibility, and a Dose of Humility

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I’ve been back to work full-time for three weeks now and I’m certainly finding it a challenge to keep up with everything I want to do! But there are two things I make time for each day – reading and reflecting. This week I found some personal finance connections  between what I read and what I experienced at school.

Connection #1 – Flexibility

The week before school opens is a crazy time. Buildings are still under repair, staffing and schedule changes happen, new students show up to be registered, and the city is still working on road repairs that affect bus routes. And that’s just a few issues…

So this is a time where we ask everyone to be flexible.

This week I read a great post over at the PIE’s (Plan Invest Escape) on being flexible (and on being thankful) about their journey to financial independence. The PIE’s commented that they like to have “plans laid out with as much certainty as possible” but went on to discuss the importance of flexibility too.

And my friend James over at RetirementSavvy discussed the laser focus he has on a retirement date, while also considering the benefits he sees of working longer if needed. He shared both the importance of being focused on a goal, but also having a flexible mindset to deal with matters beyond your control.

In his book, Life Is Simply a Game – Steven Redhead shares a great quote that sums up the connection – “Flexibility is the greatest strength.”

Connection #2 – Responsibility

In our school, we focus on a number of character traits as we help students develop academically, socially, and emotionally. We work hard to try to help kids learn to be responsible for themselves and make good decisions.

There was an easy personal finance connection to kids learning to manage money responsibly and make smart spending decisions. Wouldn’t it be great if every student understood a basic budget and learned the math behind credit cards, interest rates, payday loans, and amortization schedules by the time they left high school?

But who should teach kids about personal finance and money management? Who has that responsibility?

Is it the job of the school? Or the parents/adults at home? And what if the parents/adults had poor role models? Stefan over at The Millennial Budget has a post about the responsibility of teaching financial literacy with many comments and his own thoughts on the subject.

I think personal finance should be a required class at school and I’d ask you to check out this post by Brian over at Debt Discipline if you agree. He has done a lot of work with his local school on the topic of financial literacy and students will benefit from his persistence, patience and efforts. Brian is a great example of modeling responsibility to our kids and to our community as he works to make change!

Connection #3 – Humility

A few weeks ago I was pretty much responsible for myself, my kids and our family, along with our properties and the requirements of a few part-time jobs. But with one “yes” to a temporary job, I have become one of those responsible for over 200 faculty/staff and 1600 students.

This weekend I was preparing a review of our “Emergency Protocols” for opening day. Typing the words “violent intruder” and “fight for your lives” to discuss with faculty next week is something no one should ever have to do. Teachers should be able to teach and kids should be able to learn without things like lockdown drills. But it’s a sad reality we must face.

How does this relate to personal finance?

I also worked with some families this week who face not knowing where they will sleep tonight or where their next meal is coming from. We had to remind teachers that some of our kids are homeless and that others come from struggling families who can’t access the Internet or provide school supplies or field trip money. And that’s a sad reality we must face too.

The Final Connection for the Week

We talk a lot on our blogs about financial independence, early retirement, and side gigs to our full-time jobs, along with investing, dividends, and rental properties. And many bloggers discuss “giving” in their posts and in their budgets. I’ll stick with my school theme this week and connect you with a few of my teacher/blogger friends and how they go about making sure they support others too.

Check out Penny’s post on charitable giving and David’s (aka Finance Superhero) post on how they build giving into their zero-based budget here.

Well that’s my “theme” wrap up for this week. It’s been a busy one but a rewarding one too. I hope you check out some of the great work done by the writer’s I highlighted here today! This is a huge and giving community and it’s where I spend a lot of my time reading. There were dozens of great posts this week and I’m working on a blogroll to highlight even more sites! More on that soon!

Photo Credit: Hans@pixabay.com

8 Thoughts and 8 Goals on 8/8

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Well 8/8 is coming to an end here on the East Coast. As I watched the Olympics tonight and looked to book some spring travel, I thought it would be a smart decision to record some thoughts about our summer and write a few goals for the next 8 months*. I’m not really a “goals” person (only wrote goals for my job as a teacher), but I know that written goals are more powerful than spoken ones.

Here are my thoughts and goals for 8 different areas. And I added in the financial impact of each one as well…

Fitness

Thought – We’ve enjoyed a great summer of long walks, swimming in our pool, and kayaking in the lake.

Goal – Even with all that activity, I should definitely be doing some work with weights. My goal is to get to the YMCA and do at least two hours of strength training each week.

It’s important to change activities and to continue to maintain muscle tone and strength. We belong to a YMCA and it is hard to get motivated to go there when the weather is nice! If I remember the money we already spent to join, I might be more motivated!

Nutrition

Thought – We’re stuck in a rut with meal planning right now. It’s been a much warmer summer than we are used to, so we’ve grilled more than normal. We’ve done well with fruits and veggies, but it’s time to mix up the menu.

Goal – There are thousands of great recipes we can try – for the grill or even for the slow cooker (to avoid heating the house up!) My goal is to try at least two new recipes a week! We have some allergies and intolerances that make planning a challenge – but no more excuses.

When we don’t plan ahead for meals, we tend to make the same thing too often and it gets boring.  Have you ever heard of Brian Wansink (Cornell University consumer behavior professor) and his book, Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think? If we’re bored, we’ll eat things in addition to our meals or do things like go out to eat or order out. This can both hurt your waistline and your budget.

Giving          

Thought – When we give, we make a difference. I had a set of twelve matching glass containers (vases) sitting in a closet. Rather than try to sell them, I put them on Craigslist yesterday for free. A young lady and her fiancée stopped to get them to use them at their reception. As you can see by their note, they were thrilled.

Goal – How many other things are sitting in closets (or the garage, basement) that someone else could put to better use? As we begin to de-clutter our home over the next year, my goal is to try to give away as much of the “extra” as we can.

Is making even a few hundred dollars trying to sell things really worth it? After reading the note the young lady left yesterday – I’d like to just pay it forward and I hope she will later too.

Routines

Thought – One area where we really could use some clear routines is in terms of renting our apartments (paperwork, advertising, criteria for tenant selection). We had three units open up for next month and if we had a better routine, we would definitely save time and some confusion.

Goal – I am currently in a beta-test course with Paula over at AffordAnything.com and even though I have owned rental properties for many years, I can always learn more. My goal by spring is to have all the paperwork revised, criteria set, and pictures of units ready to post.

We get 20-30 responses to each advertisement we post, yet 10-15 of the respondents do not meet at least some of the criteria we require. Making changes could save a lot of time whenever we need to rent an apartment.

Work

Thought – I left my full-time job and have been doing part-time work online and some in-person consulting. But there may be a temporary full-time job offer coming up that I will need to consider. Stay tuned!

Goal – My goal was going to be to continue to work toward location independence while doing limited work in schools this year. Based on a call I received today, my goals may need to change.

It’s always interesting and I’ll share more on this soon. The longer I am away from full-time work, the more positions I have been offered. It’s a nice problem to be able to say no when I choose too!

Reading

Thought – I’ve enjoyed reading blogs for years. But I have also had to read many textbooks and journals as a doctoral student and college professor.

Goal – I have read very little for pleasure in the last 10 years (not that PF blogs aren’t a pleasure to read!) My goal is to try to read at least one book a month and I would like to focus on history. As we get ready to travel in the next few years, understanding more about the history of different regions will be incredibly important.

It’s time to head down to the library and get out some books (or do it online!) No need to spend money on books when the library is only a few blocks away!

Travel

Thought – These beautiful summer days are going to come to a halt within a month or two. It’s time to start planning some winter travel to get out of the snow and cold.

Goal – We have a Southwest Companion pass and we look to maximize travel on Southwest. The goal is to do one trip somewhere other than our normal travel destination this winter.

The Southwest Companion pass saves us hundreds of dollars each flight. We may not earn a Companion pass every two years, so we want to use this benefit to see some places that we have never been. Please feel free to share some ideas in the comments!

Fun

Thought – It’s been a great summer of fun! As the weather turns colder and grayer this fall, we tend to be inside more and that is generally not adding more to the “fun” column. Fun needs to be a fundamental part of our plans!

Goal – Make sure to schedule activities throughout the fall and winter that we know we enjoy doing. We can’t just wait for things to happen. The goal is to do at least two fun things each week – different than our normal routines and activities.

There are hundreds of things to do in our area (free and low-cost ones!) We don’t have to travel far to have good, cheap fun!

Do you really think I picked this random day (8/8) to come up with 8 thoughts and goals to focus on over the next 8 months? (That’s just a lot of 8’s…)  I picked this topic because I looked at the calendar when planning the trips and realized that exactly 8 months* from today, I will be hitting one of those major birthday milestones. Maybe fun, travel, fitness and reading can be combined in a week of vacation!

Any big goal categories that I am missing? Anyone else fly Southwest and have a (warmer) destination to consider next spring? The goals I have listed seem reasonable to accomplish, but what if I go back to work? Will I just fall in to the “old grind” again and ignore my goals? I’d love to hear your thoughts on that too.