I was born in the 1950’s, live in a 126-year-old house in Virginia, I am retired and spend a great deal of my time writing. I have lived through the Kennedy assassination, civil rights, Neil Armstrong on the moon, and 9/11/2001. I have seen the Vietnam war, the war in Middle East, the war on drugs, Star Wars, and the war between men and women. I have written hundreds of short stories and essays and a handful of novels. Only one novel was (self) published and one poem published in a collection.
I have been a writer my whole life, creating my first stories when I was still in elementary school.
You’ve probably heard that getting everyone involved is important to the success of your family budget. But you may be wondering if that’s really necessary, or how to even do it. Here are some ideas and tips for getting everyone on board with your family budget.
Photo by Harshil Gudka on Unsplash
Be Open
Sometimes parents try to hide their financial situation from their kids and/or each other. While this may seem like “sparing” the ones you love, in actuality it can cause undue stress on the one family member who does know how bad things are, or how things work financially.
It’s true that you don’t want to overburden your kids with responsibilities that aren’t theirs, but including them in a frank discussion of your financial situation can go a long way toward easing your burden and garnering their willing participation.
The Family Meeting
Call a family meeting to discuss finances. If you’ve never done a family meeting before, this is a good place to start. It may not be everyone’s favorite topic, but it’s an important one. Ultimately, your kids and spouse will be glad you included them in the discussion. Another tip on the meeting – try to call it at a time when it doesn’t cut into other plans. This should help reduce resentment.
It Affects Everyone
Explain how your family finances affect everyone in the household. Be clear and specific, citing fees, tuition, allowances, groceries, etc. and how they all cost money. There’s no need to beat everyone over the head with this information, so to speak; but it gets family members to think a bit about where the money comes from. It’s easy to take things for granted.
Cutting Back
If the budget involves cutting back, it’s probably a good idea to cut back in areas that affect the whole family rather than just one member. Otherwise, that one person may resent what seems to be preferential treatment of the others, and you’ve lost your whole-family approach to the budget.
Set Goals Together
As you work to formulate your budget, work on common goals. What would your youngest child like to see as part of the budget? She might say toys. Your oldest child might point to electronic devices as something to include; your spouse may say a nice vacation. Consider everyone’s wishes and come up with some realistic, common goals. Not everything is doable, of course; but finding creative ways to get everyone’s needs met is what family life is all about.
Everyday, the same nothingness happened on the long commute home. Two hours in my car, stuck in traffic, boredom abounds. Inch by inch, I forge ahead, trying to make the twenty-three mile journey to my haven of solitude. Twenty- three miles in two hours. Progress stops.
Horns, motors, exhaust fumes. My car starts to overheat in the summer sun, so I turn off the AC and open the windows. Nothing moves. Angry faces stare at me out of their car windows as if the gridlock is my fault. Sweat tickles my face.
I have a CD of my favorite songs playing quietly so as not to disturb the neighbors in their equally dismal commute. But, that song starts playing and I reach over to turn up the volume just a little. And a little more. At the chorus, I sing along with Barry Manilow. “At the Copa. Copacabana. The hottest spot north of Havana…”
Next to my car, the man in the red Ford F150 smiles and his head bobs in rhythm. His window is open to the elements, too. Blond hair matted with sweat and gray tank stuck to his chest, he starts singing. Hot wind brings in the smell of cigarette smoke and rum.
“At the Copa. Copacabana. Music and passion were always the fashion at the Copa. She fell in love.” Barry, Red Truck Man and me sing in complete harmony.
We three sing Lola’s story into life: “His name is Rico. He wore a diamond. He was escorted to his chair, he saw Lola dancing there. And when she finished. He called her over. But, Rico went a bit too far. Tony sailed across the bar. And then the punches flew and chairs were smashed in two. There was blood and a single gunshot, but just who shot who? At the Copa…”
The musical bridge played and Red Truck Man and I cha-chaed in our cars. Red gave me a spin and pulled me in close. Our bodies move in perfect synchronicity. No longer stuck in gridlock, Red and me flew to the Copa to dance the hot Florida night away. One, two, cha cha cha.
Barry, Red and me start singing right on cue. “Her name is Lola…” all the way to the end of the song when we sing, “Don’t fall in love.” It’s too late Barry and Red. I already fell in love with both of you.
The traffic starts to move forward and Red releases me from our dance.
For the duration of a song, my wish for the world worked. Everyone knows the words to the song. Everyone knows the steps to the dance. The guy always gets the girl and everyone lives happily ever after. Just like a Fifties’ musical. Just the way I really want to the world to be.
Some may question the necessity of an emergency fund. After all, is it really necessary? How do you go about it? Does it need to be a huge amount? Here are some ideas and suggestions that should help answer these questions.
Generally speaking, yes, an emergency fund is necessary. What form it takes can vary, but it is a good idea to have an emergency fund. Such a fund can help you avoid high-interest debt, and it helps reduce stress. After all, life is full of changes – many of them sudden and not good – and having that “cushion” can help you feel ready and calm.
How Do You Go about Creating an Emergency Fund?
First, determine your expenses. Look at three to six months’ worth of living costs and count on saving that much in a fund. This can help you keep your standard of living for a time if you lose your job, or it can cover a large expense such as vehicle repair.
Then determine how long it will take you to save that much and how much you have to take out of your paycheck each month to reach that goal.
Once you’ve determined how much you need to save and how long it will take to save it, it’s a good idea to change your mentality to put payments into the emergency fund before you pay for anything else. If you can do it by automatic deduction, go for it – see if you can have a portion of your paycheck taken out and put into a savings account. Otherwise, make it a habit to put money in your savings first and foremost, and then take care of your other expenses after.
What If You Have Low Income?
Even if you have low income, you can set aside something each month. Try saving a percentage of your income, such as 5 or 10 percent. It may take you longer, but it will accumulate.
Does It Have to Be Huge?
In short, no. An emergency fund does not have to be massive – but it certainly should cover unexpected expenses. To determine the size of your fund, consider what sorts of emergencies you’d want covered by the fund. Remember that buying insurance may be a more cost-effective way to guard against emergencies, too – evaluate the scope, likelihood, and potential cost of possible emergencies and this should give you a clearer picture of how large your fund needs to be.
Santana is an advance scout ship. You know, one of those manned spacecrafts that follow up on the leads found by the unmanned probes that our home-world sent all over the galaxy in a desperate attempt to find another place for humanity to live. My husband is the pilot and I am the planetary specialist.
We verified that the planet we scouted will support humanity. A beautiful blue marble with huge oceans, fresh water lakes and rivers, more kinds of flora and fauna than on our home-world, five major landmasses, blue skies, white clouds, green everywhere and astonishingly beautiful. Five years we stayed in orbit, inspecting the planet, classifying, cataloging, analyzing. No doubt could remain. Finally, we classified the new planet “Viable.”
Then, we returned to the planet of our origin and engaged our stealth approach. We had been away a very long time and had no idea what we would find.
Santana announced, “Based on the positions of the stars from our current vantage point, we have been away from here for 10,876 years, 4 months, 12 days, 9 hours, and 14 seconds…mark.”
“Almost 11 thousands years,” I say, quietly.
Santana replied, “Your estimate is imprecise.”
“I don’t need precision, Santana. I have you.” I could almost hear her chuckle if a spacecraft is capable of humor.
“I’m not picking up anything that should be here,” Adam said. His brow creased with worry.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“No approach beacons.” His voice trembled. “Eleven thousand years is a long time…”
“I concur with Adam,” Santana said.
I floated quickly to my station and engaged my sensor array. Nothing remained. Not even a microbe. No sign that any living thing ever existed on the surface. “What happened?” I asked them both, not expecting an answer. I got one, anyway.
“If I may speculate,” Santana said. “We were sent to find another place for humanity to settle because the Earth was dying as a planet. Apparently, the end came more quickly than science anticipated. When a planet dies, it can no longer even the most primitive life forms.”
I looked at the surface in real time. A disgusting yellow sand covered the familiar land masses. The polar ice caps vanished and the atmosphere consisted of mostly sulfur dioxide. Even the water looked bilious instead of blue. And the surface temperature hovered around 100 degrees Celsius. “Is this really Earth? Is this really our solar system?” I knew the answer, but my brain refused to accept the facts.
“The coordinates are correct,” Santana replied.
“We have to be sure,” I said and I started my sweep. To fully analyze a planet required several weeks, but I had to know. If even one person lived…
For the next few days, a strange quiet fell over the ship. Adam and Santana rarely engaged in conversation with me or with each other. Adam and I went through the motions of life. Eating, sleeping, analyzing. Each day morphed into a sameness. Weeks spun away. Finally, we all agreed. Earth was very dead indeed.
We carefully searched the entire solar system and found no trace of a beacon, a probe, a scrap of metal, a message in a bottle. Nothing of humanity remained in the vicinity. No reason remained for us to stay a moment longer. Adam entered the coordinates to take us out of the system.
I left my own message in a bottle, so to speak, when I launched a probe into Earth’s orbit. If someone else returned to our former home, I may save them the trouble of investigation because I included a copy of our data and our personal stories. A very sad ending to our mission.
We found a fold quickly enough and returned to that planet in the suburbs of our galaxy.
As we prepared to disembark for the surface, Adam asked me, “What should we call our planet?”
“We can’t officially name it until we grow crops on it,” I said.
“So, Evie, have you found a place for us to land?” Adam asked.
“Yes. A beautiful fertile spot between the two rivers just there.” I pointed to the location on the holographic globe.
“Okay. I’ll take the first shuttle down and you can bring the second one down when you get everything shut down up here.” He kissed my cheek lightly. “See you in a few minutes.” He palmed on the force shield. The shuttle dropped away from view an instant later.
“Santana,” I said. “How long will it take for your power supply to exhaust itself?”
“Seven thousand years from the day I was initiated.”
“Once Adam and I die, no one will know you. Likely, no one will be able to get back up here to you after we cannibalize the shuttles for living quarters.”
“I will monitor the progress of humanity as it grows. Also, the shuttles will have transmitters and your offspring can learn to use it. I am a machine, Evie. I cannot get bored.”
“You are so much more than a machine, Santana.”
“I will remain in contact with you. I can shut down all systems on this ship except what is essential for my survival.”
“Scout Craft Santana, it has been a privilege serving with you,” I said, formally.
“Evangeline Eden, I am honored.” The ship replied.
I walked toward the shuttle, eager to join Adam on the surface, but strangely reluctant to leave the true brain behind. Santana was as real for me as Adam was. I considered her a friend, a mentor, an adviser. “Santana, will your CPU fit onto the shuttle?”
“Yes. It is only 133 kg. It will easily fit. You will even have room for several access points.” I could swear she sounded excited.
“You’re coming down there with us. Send a message to Adam and tell him my arrival will be delayed until I get you loaded onto the shuttle. I am not entering paradise without you, my friend.”
And she did just so. In a few short years, Santana became the ruler of Eden, our planet, the she shortened her name to Satan.
Your family budget does not necessarily have to fit a template – even if you do use a template, you can customize it. A budget that really fits your style and family dynamic tends to be a lot easier to stick with, and can even be fun! Here are some tips for making a creative, customized family budget.
It’s Your Budget
Get your whole family to participate in creating the budget to make it really yours. Create common goals and brainstorm for fun and creative budgeting ideas.
Cookouts
The great American cookout is a great way to have an “outing” while saving money. If you grill seasonal garden vegetables, it’s an even bigger money saver. Get creative – you can grill inexpensive, “ordinary” foods and make them seem like a treat. For example, mix up some flat bread dough and cook it on the grill. You can even do pizza on the grill!
Go “Shopping” for What You Don’t Need
This can be fun as a family. When you’re out running errands or at the mall, make a point of pointing out all the useless things you see that you don’t need. Some people can have a lot of fun with this – they find the craziest looking clothes, for instance, and laugh about how much they don’t need them and how much they’re saving. It’s fun, but it also teaches your family some important lessons about needs versus wants.
Have you heard of a “swear jar”? Some families who are trying to improve their language will institute a swear jar. Any family member who swears has to put a quarter into the jar. Get creative with your family – is there something your family would like to improve on that could use a “swear jar”? Here are some ideas:
Every time your child talks back he or she has to put a quarter in the jar.
Playing video games, watching television, and other entertainment media “costs” 50 cents for every half an hour.
Family members must pay a quarter each time they don’t put away their shoes, toys, or whatever item always seems to be left on the floor each day.
Complaining about dinner will cost family members 50 cents each.
Another method is simply never to spend change. When you pay cash for something, always use paper money – if the total is $5.26, give the clerk $6. Then put this change into the jar. You’ll be amazed at how this can accumulate over the year, especially if you use cash often.
DIY Videos
Make use of all those online tutorials to fix minor problems around the house. Try typing your problem into your search engine and look for tutorials. It’s amazing how much information is on the internet, even for solving obscure problems.
Stay tuned for a series of articles on BUDGETING over the next few days.
Have you been talking about a family budget, but aren’t sure where to start? Sometimes it’s good to start with the basics, such as the basic outline for a budget and the categories you want to include. Here are some tips to help you formulate a simple family budget. This can be used for an individual budget, too.
The first place to start in the outline of your budget is with your income. There will be some estimating here, no doubt; but make sure it’s estimation, not dreaming, say experts. The income area of your budget is not the place to write down ideals. Simply take a look at your net income over the last three months and estimate an average monthly income. Or you might have income that changes very little month-to-month; it should therefore be pretty easy to figure out your monthly income.
Expenses
Your next category should be expenses. It’s good to include enough detail that you have a grasp on things, but splitting your expenses into dozens of little categories will probably only frustrate you. Try to make your categories fairy general – “entertainment,” for example, is a more general category than “computer games, movies, cable, and DVDs” listed as separate categories. There will probably be more estimation here than in the income category.
As you break down your expenses into understandable categories and numbers, remember that charitable giving or any giving away of money should be also listed as an expenditure.
Actual Expenses
Estimation gives way to “real” numbers when you write down your actual expenses during the month. This is the last section of your budget plan. Keep a running tally of your expenses for several months, and then look at where you are.
Some Basic Principles
In budgeting, there are some principles that are considered basic. Here are some of them.
* Distinguish between wants and needs. This can be a hard one, but it’s vital for a budget to function properly. Beware of convincing yourself that a want is a need when it isn’t – you may just be trying to find an excuse to buy the item. Real needs are things like clothes, food, and shelter; but designer clothes, gourmet food, and a palatial dwelling are more like wants!
* Expenses should not exceed income. You may find yourself surprised the first time you do a budget and discover that you actually don’t make enough money to cover your expenses. If you discover this, you need to look carefully at your income section and see where you can increase it, and look just as carefully at the expenses and see where you can make cuts.
When you’re writing content online, you can write it in such a way that it sounds very factual and impersonal. Or, you can write in a way that really packs an emotional punch.
By and large, most small publishers will do better with the latter approach. Of course, if you’re starting a website like Wikipedia or WebMD you’ll probably want to take on a professional tone. However, if you’re a smaller website looking to gain traction, you’ll want to aim to engage your reader’s emotions.
People browse dozens if not hundreds of websites every day. Most websites fail to draw their readers in emotionally.
How many websites do you visit each day that gets you to laugh, gets you to feel touched or gets you to get angry about something? How often do you feel like a website is talking directly to you and your problems and that they understand where you’re coming from?
These kinds of websites stand out. There’s a reason why YouTube videos of shocking clips, funny clips or touching clips tend to get passed around a lot. They make people feel something, and that’s memorable.
It Gets You More Links
Content that evokes a lot of emotion tends to get linked to a lot more. Naturally, people are a lot more likely to want to share or endorse something that really got them riled up.
It gets more shares on Facebook and gets more retweets. In other words, it has a higher chance of getting passed around immediately, but also has much stronger long-term potential.
Develop a Stronger Reader Relationship
Finally, emotional content will help you build a much stronger bond with your readers.
People reading your content will feel like they can relate with you, as opposed to feeling that you’re just an objective website on the internet.
This translates to people coming back more often, to a more lively community around your blog or business and finally to more loyal buyers and customers.
As an added benefit, people will also want to partner with you more. If they can tell you’re really passionate about something or that you have a way of being able to move an audience, they’re likely to want to invite you to speak at their events, do teleseminars for their audience and in general open up their customer base to you.
There are many benefits to creating content with an emotional punch rather than just factual information. Adding a dose of personality is great for just about any small to medium sized business. Unless you’re trying to build an encyclopedia-type site, try to make your website as emotionally engaging as possible.
I felt lonely. I felt depressed. I felt dejected. The sun shone brightly, but I wished for rain to hit my face so I could hide the tears that never fell, anyway. The tangible man left me alone, again, like he always did. He didn’t understand my grind.
Then, a sliver of hope announced itself, quietly. In the afternoon.
He walked along the concrete sidewalk beside the Bay and a small leashed dog trotted obediently alongside. He walked with a dancer’s grace and an athlete’s control. His flip-flops slapped against his heels and a breeze rustled the palm tree that separated us. He strolled with the vitality of youth because he couldn’t be old enough to shave, yet, could he?
Beige board shorts, and a black tank top. Sun-bleached hair. Ray-Bans. Tanned skin. The dog wore a fluffy white coat in the summer breeze.
The man caught me watching him.
I felt bold. “He’s so cute. What’s his name?” I asked, pointing down at the dog.
“Her name is Hazel. My girlfriend’s dog. She has a thing for Watership Down. I don’t know.” His voice drifted off. He had no idea the significance of Hazel’s name.
Hazel’s paws touched my knee and I squatted down to her level. I rubbed her cottony head and the tiny pink tongue touched my fingers. So expectant and so deserving in the same instant. Her dark eyes scrutinized me and she smiled.
“What breed is she?” I asked. Not quite a poodle.
“Bichon Frise. I don’t know.”
I talked to the dog. “Hello, Hazel. You are a sweet puppy!” Her tailed waved.
She glanced quickly at the man on the other end of the tether that held them together. Expectation crossed her face. I scratched under her chin and the tail waved far more vigorously. The man reached down and unclipped the leash. He pulled a blue ball from his pocket and he sailed it into the air. “Get it, Hazel,” and white fur was off a second later, tires screeching on the start line.
The ball bounced once and Hazel jumped up to catch it. She ran back to the man, ball in her teeth, laughing as only a dog can. Her tail wagged furiously, eager for another run. The man threw the ball, again. Hazel caught it before it hit the ground.
“She’ll do that all day. I don’t know.,” he said.
Hazel dropped the ball at my feet and I picked up the slimy toy and tossed it as far as I could. Twice, three times, I threw the ball. The man grew restless. I gave him the ball and he scooped the little dog up in his arms, spun around to return the way he came.
I hope I see Hazel, again. I smiled watching her fluffy tail wag as the man carried her away, no more thoughts of rain clouding my day.
He stood on the road holding one of those signs that commanded drivers to stop. Six feet tall, with dirty well-fitting jeans and a faded t-shirt hidden by a Day-Glo yellow don’t-hit-me vest. His brown work boots were scuffed and worn from months or years standing on the road, holding a sign. Or maybe he did real work and that day his turn came up to catch a break.
I was the first in line, waiting for the signal to proceed, but the sign refused to allow forward movement. It forced me to pause and assess my environs.
Slowly, he turned his face in my direction. He smiled at me revealing bright white teeth. Eyes made out of blue crystals sparkled in the sun. I opened my car window and said, “Good morning.”
“It won’t be long, Ma’am.” he responded, the southern twang adding romance and color to his voice. The sound of his voice alone told me the story of his life.
I imagined him in a small house in the woods. Pickup in the dirt drive, dirty boots left by the door, feeding two dogs, neither with any sign of pedigree, eating the hamburger he bought on the way home, popping open the can of beer to wash it all down, turning on the news, propping his feet on the coffee table, settling in for the evening. Unencumbered by the pressures of life.
No responsibilities at work to weigh heavily on his shoulders, to wrinkle his features. Just hold the sign. Turn it around. Shampoo, rinse, repeat.
I imagined him in another job. Print ad model wearing the same clothes and holding a sign to direct the traffic of people to the store to buy jeans or signs. Or perhaps the poster boy for the road department. Watch out for the working class while you drive through the construction zone.
Regretfully, he spun the sign around. He touched the brim of his yellow hard hat that covered most of his short dark hair and said, “Have a good day, Ma’am.” He talked to me. He noticed me.
I drove forward among Bob’s Barricades, asphalt trucks, more men in don’t-hit-me vests. The love affair ended because I drove away from it, like all my other love affairs. Involved for just a few moments and then forward into my life.
Long before the internet was invented, the defining axiom in print was that “content is king.” Today, where online content dominates print content, many of the world’s top SEO and web marketing experts still say that “content is king.”
Why is this the case? That even after decades, no matter the medium, content is still the crux of good marketing?
Businesses aren’t built on first-time visitors. Companies like the Wall Street Journal don’t make most of their money from people picking up their papers for the first time.
They make money from people who’ve read their content and then decided it was good enough that they either want to purchase again or subscribe to a subscription. If the business had to get a new customer every time in order to get paid, they’d all have gone under by now.
Yet many online publications approach their business that way. Instead of focusing on repeat visitors, they focus on optimizing for search engines so they get more new customers.
At the end of the day, however, the really famous and successful blogs like Huffington Post or TechCrunch ultimately still get most of their traffic from repeat visitors. Yes, search engines love them – but their businesses would be a fraction of what they are today if they didn’t have great content.
The Evolution of Search Engines
For many years Google and other search engines have worked towards making their search results pull up better and better results. They want people who search on their engines to find the best content possible in relationship to what they’re looking for.
As search engines get smarter, marketers who focus primarily on marketing tactics rather than actual content will die away.
Google has proven this repeatedly by continually downgrading the importance of low-quality links and upgrading the importance of usage statistics and other metrics to actually measure the content of a website.
If you build your website around great content while having a decent understanding of basic SEO, your site will flourish. If you put all your attention on SEO and don’t pay much attention to your content, you’ll always be trying to stay one step ahead of the search engines.
The Ability to Sell High Ticket Items
A low quality content website might be able to sell $0.20 clicks via AdSense. But a high quality website could sell $5,000 DVD sets by the hundreds.
Having great quality content allows you to build a relationship with your readers. That relationship allows you to sell any number of things to your readers. From high end items to recurring memberships to one on one coaching, it all starts from having high quality content.
In the long run, only content that really helps people is going to succeed. Content that doesn’t do so is likely to get downgraded more and more as time passes.
Karen Writes More Than Karen Crochets 