For many people, balancing a checkbook is a daunting task. Recall that “balancing” can mean many things, like having enough money for your monthly bills, but we are only concerned with making all the numbers on your bank statement make sense. What should be something that is so simple as to be done in one’s sleep, has turned into something that has to be taught in every monthly statement. How could anyone with a bank account not understand how to balance their monthly statement?

Simply put, a checking account is like an empty bowl. Into this bowl we deposit money so that, at a later time, we can take out money (by writing a check) to buy something. Okay, simple enough. Let’s say that we put a hundred dollars into the bowl. We now can take hundred dollars out of the bowl. If we take out two hundred dollars, we are now overdrawn. If we take only fifty dollars from our hundred, we will have fifty left in the bowl. Anyone who can add and subtract, and who has a basic understanding of how a checking account operates, will have no trouble keeping things in order. Their account will always balance because they, and the bank’s records, will match each month – it’s like “two heads are better than one”. But, there are many people who ignore their checkbook record keeping. When they write a check, they don’t mark it down. Sometimes they don’t record a deposit. Without accurate record keeping, these people have no idea of how much they have in their account. This leads to bounced checks, penalty fees, and  utter confusion. They find out how much trouble they have caused when the bank statement arrives.

It is very easy to balance a checkbook. First, each time you use your checkbook for writing a check  or depositing money, write it down in the check register that is next to the checks. This is an ongoing record that keeps things simple and accurate. Next, when the bank statement comes in, go over it and compare your check register with the bank statement. If they match, the chances are good that all is well with your checking account. If there is a discrepancy, if your records don’t align with the bank’s records, then go over all your additions and subtractions to see if there is an error. If  your records are good, then look at the bank’s records to determine if they made an error. Find the error, and, if it is the bank that is not accurate, contact them right away. They will be happy to get things right, possibly explaining to you how and/or why a record was made so that you will be able to understand it.

Balancing a checkbook is very simple and it is the single most important thing that you can do to preserve your money in these precarious economic times. Make that monthly bank statement and your checking account register reconcile. If the task is still too difficult, look on the back of the bank statement to find an explanation of how to do it. There is a step by step form that should easily lead you to a successful conclusion.

The Worst Hurt Is Competition

Think back to when you were little and you were told that there was a jolly fat man in a red suit who could come down a chimney and leave presents for you under the Christmas tree. This is where some of the lies were started for most people. In order to get the presents you had to be a good little boy or girl, otherwise you would not get the presents. So what did the child learn? He or she learned that they had to pretend to be good (look good in front of their parents) so that Santa would bring them whatever they wanted. The child is told to wish for, and to ask for, anything and the item would magically show up under the tree. Was there any appreciation? No. The child was disappointed if the desired item didn’t appear but, even worse, if the item did appear, the child lost interest in the item within a few hours or days. Another useless piece of junk on which the parents spent money and now is collecting dust. The child was never taught to appreciate (to care) about what it takes to provide the items. The child is just told to wish for something, and if they were “good”, then the item materialized. Thus, the whole concept of work, effort, and caring was circumvented. How is the child to learn to appreciate anything? Further, the child is taught that they can get anything that they want just by demanding it. If they get the item, there was no effort (and no caring) involved, and they attach no value to the item. They don’t care about the item nor do they care about the person who gave it to them. They have learned to be apathetic.

As a child grows he or she discovers that there are other children who are told the same lies. These others become competitors. In school (indoctrination camps) competition is introduced and inculcated. Everyone is told that to get high grades is “good”. Therefore, if you get a low grade, you are bad – and you won’t get the “goodies”. We all learn that we must beat the competition if we are to be successful. Some are intrinsically good at this, and some are not. This is where resentment is born into the developing child’s thinking (or should I say, scheming?). Since no one has been shown that diligent work is the way things are really accomplished, the only other way to get ahead in a society like this one is to beat down those around you so that you “look good” compared to the others. If you look the best, then you must be good, and therefore “entitled” to the rewards. This is, of course, not the way things should work. It is easy to see that a system like this only leads to neurotic (and psychotic) behavior. No one knows good from bad, right from wrong, or care from apathy. All there is is competition.

If competition is bad, and it is, then there is nothing worse than forces acting to tell the participants for what they should be competing. This is where business and government conspire to deliver the death blow to people’s lives. We are told what to desire and to demand at the whim of the retailers. You think that you want a brand new Corvette, but you only want it because of the mystique that has been built up around it through advertising. If you were able to think, you would want a car that is practical, sensible, and affordable. It is this way in all things in our society. Even churches, who say they are aligned with God’s teachings, act in competitive ways. For example, in God’s teachings, there is no place that says that we should seek to acquire money and things for self aggrandizement. However, many churches are rich beyond avarice; the collection plate never stops, does it? What example should we follow? The church or the poor? There is such confusion as to what path to follow if we seek to be “good”. The reason for this confusion is that we have been misled all of our lives by those around us – beginning with our parents. We have only been taught to read so that we can be led by advertisements; we have only been taught to count so that we can be told to accumulate as many things as possible. We have never been taught to care, in fact, caring is a quality that is understood by only a very few people.

Caring (which is synonymous with loving) is an innate feature of a human being. It is something that, if left undisturbed, will develop. Some people have more of this talent than others, some people develop it later than others, but everyone has the ability. Recall events in your life where you were cared about, especially when you didn’t expect it, to rekindle your recollection of how caring feels. Seek to pass on this good feeling to others through honest means. Even if you have been spoiled by this competitive society, you can still put aside the apathy that you feel, and you can go back to caring about life. In point of fact, if you desire to have any meaning in your life, you must develop your ability to care about important things, laudable concepts, other people, and yourself. Be careful though, caring about yourself can easily be confused with the selfish spoiling that has been done to so many of us throughout our lives. Taking the good example of a few truly caring people will give us a place to start. Some people are famous, like Gandhi, other people may be only an arm’s length away. Your desire to correct what this society has stolen from you, and your ability to think for yourself (not listen to the greedy who surround us) will be sufficient to build a more fulfilling life. If you want love in your life, then learn to care.

It would be wonderful if we all had enough money all the time so that we never had to borrow from others. Unfortunately, it is never to be. All of us have to borrow cash from time to time because that is the way our economy is set up. the Founding Fathers of our country, when they drafted the documents that still direct this country’s affairs (we hope!), figured in borrowing money as part of the structure of the economy. From the perspective of what is happening these days, it doesn’t look like the framers were sober when they sat down to write the rules.

Given that we must borrow from time to time, for items that are too expensive for our pocketbook (houses, cars, and such), maybe it is a good idea to limit the amount, or the types of loans that we accept. Not many people can come up with enough money to buy their home with cash. Most times there is a mortgage attached to house purchases. Then there will be the usual monthly payments, principal and interest, for the number of years of the loan. We are renting the money from the bank. We must give the borrowed sum (principal) back to the place that gave it to us and we must pay them a fee (interest) for the privilege of using their money. As everyone knows, this can get very expensive.

When we accept a large amount of money in the form of a loan from a bank, or other lending institution, it carries with it a hefty interest payment. It may sound like a small amount to the unwary borrower, five percent, seven percent, or more, but that small percentage number can triple the amount to be paid back over the life of the contract. In other words, if you borrow $100,000 from the bank, by the time you pay back everything over thirty years, you will have paid them something in the neighborhood of $300,000 in principal and interest. That’s a lot of money to pay for a $100,000 house.

Is it worth borrowing money? Well, yes and no. Yes it is worth it if there is no other way that you can get the money for your necessary purchase. No, if you will have trouble paying the lender $200,000 just to rent his money. That’s money that you could use for other purposes. Think of food for your family, college expenses, or a newer car every few years. Still, you need a house when you need a house. You couldn’t wait to save up the $100,000 before putting a roof over your family’s head. And when someone needs expensive medical attention (is there any other kind?), we think kindly towards that nice banker who will lend us some of his money. Love it or loath it, borrowing is in most people’s financial future. The key is to think carefully before making any purchase with borrowed money. Do you really need the item? Is it worth borrowing money to buy it? Is it something that can be put off until you can save up the money and buy it for cash? It is a good idea to put these questions on a piece of paper and to answer each one honestly before deciding to take on a loan. If any answer looks odd too you, then do not borrow. Even if you can only afford to save one dollar per week, it is better than to take any loan – except for emergencies, of course. Think of saving every penny that you can before taking on any loan. Borrowing should only be for emergency purposes.

If we think of the animals in any community as part of the landscape, of its population, then we need to provide a place for them to live and to be safe. They were doing just fine before we moved in and cleared the land, concreted over much of their living space, and ruined their ability to find something to eat. We owe them. Imagine if we were in their place. It would be like an invading species moved in and disrupted our lives. We would have to hide wherever we could, we would be forced to steal food wherever we could find it, and we would be fearful all the time that we would be killed just for trying to live.

Most people don’t want to get to know animals, but if you take the time to try to understand them, to listen to them, they are quite delightful. Most animals are not harmful; they want what we want; to live peaceably along side everyone else. Cats and dogs are warm, loving companions, and so are deer, raccoons, opossums, squirrels, and many other creatures that have lived with us for centuries. If you treat any of these animals with kindness and understanding, they will respond in kind and you will have friends for life.

Rather than treat these creatures as a nuisance, it is better to regard them as visitors who need shelter, food, and affection. Instead of letting them raid garbage cans for food, it is easier to put some cat food in a dish (or on the ground) where they can get to it. They will appreciate it and they will stop raiding the garbage cans. In addition, most of these animals will visit at night when no one is around. This means that you will not have hundreds of animals running over the lawn and disrupting your day time activities; they like privacy too, it’s safer for them. Just like bird houses and feeders, setting up a small area near the ground will make the nightly visitors feel welcome. If you set up a place that is near a window, you will be able to view them when they arrive. They are fascinating to watch and you will learn much about them from just seeing them eat and drink. Even better, watching them take care of each other will serve as a wonderful lesson on how to treat our fellow humans.

Back in the 1940’s, after the atomic bomb was used and its massive capabilities were realized, people were so awed by its power that they thought that nothing could be stronger. Someone interviewed Albert Einstein and asked him what he thought was the most powerful force on the planet. After a minute of thoughtful deliberation his reply was: compound interest. When you think about it, there really isn’t anything as powerful as interest compounding upon interest compounding upon interest. Another way to look at this concept is to imagine a chess board. In the first corner square you put a single grain of wheat. Then you double that amount in the second square (two grains) and again in the third square (four grains) and so on until you have filled every square with a doubled amount of wheat. The last square will have many bushels of wheat! This is an example of compounding at a rate of one hundred percent per square. This is truly the most awesome force anyone could ever imagine.

In the area of finances, wouldn’t it be fantastic to have dollars to replace the grains of wheat in the example above? We all would be rich in no time. Of course, we would need a hundred percent interest rate to do that. The banks, and other institutions that pay interest on our money would never pay more than a tiny (less than one percent) percentage on our money. We would not become rich with the interest rates that are paid these days, but something is better than nothing, nonetheless. If we put one hundred dollars into an account that paid interest at five percent per year, at the end of the year we would have one hundred five dollars. At the end of the next year, if everything stayed the same, we would earn five percent on one hundred five dollars, or five dollars and twenty-five cents additional, so our total amount would now be one hundred ten dollars and twenty-five cents.It doesn’t sound like much when you use these small numbers, but every year that percentage keeps adding to the total. After many years, the total amount in our account could amount to quite a lot of money.

Save whatever amount of money that you can find. Look for several ways to cut back on daily items and channel the funds into the best savings account that you can find. Bring in the entire family to work on finding ways to save. Make a goal to save a certain amount of money by a certain date and have a prize for the person with the best saving ideas. Make saving money a fun activity for the family and in a short time, you will notice that your savings account will start to grow at an accelerated rate because of the concept of compounding.

Making a family tree is a useful exercise. It tells us who our grandparents were, and how they built their family. If we are lucky, then we can seek out many generations in the past to learn if we had any people in our family who fought in the Revolutionary War, or who came over on the Mayflower. But there is more to heritage study than finding out if George Washington slept in your great grandfather’s house. We usually don’t think that any living relative of ours is very important. It seems to be the case that each generation tends to reject the previous one as having anything valuable to teach us. We are certainly wrong in this regard. We tend to think that anything written in a magazine, or in a history book, is an indisputable fact. This, too, is erroneous. There are many things in textbooks that are just plain wrong, not outdated, just wrong. How can anyone argue with a textbook? Even worse, we tend to use printed materials to win arguments with our elders. "If the book says so, then it must be so".

We could certainly learn a great deal from the American Indians and other tribal cultures that have always used story telling around the campfire to teach history. When we listen to an elder tell the story of his or her experiences we learn, first hand, how it really was "back in the day". For example, to hear a Holocaust survivor speak about the atrocities of the Nazi’s, and to look upon the tattoos from the concentration camps, gives us the best information as to how it was back then. You will hear real emotions and accurate stories of the person’s trials. You can never get that kind of accuracy from a history book. However, once we start to depend upon books or we listen to ignorant people who are misinformed, the stories become distorted to the point of utter confusion. We lose all contact with the facts.

To preserve our individual heritage we need to seek out our family members who are still living and to listen to their stories about the events in their lives. Do we have grandparents who lived through the great depression? Are there relatives who fought in any of the wars this country has waged? Were any of our relatives at Pearl Harbor in 1941? Closer in time are the deeds of our parents. Maybe one of our people was in New York on September eleventh and witnessed the destruction of the Twin Towers. How much better to hear the story from someone who was there, instead of reading a washed out account by some newspaper reporter in another town. And what about your own experiences? They should be written down so that you will remember more clearly the events that have shaped your life. You will be able to pass on your information to your children and grandchildren so that they will be able to appreciate how their relative (you) experienced the important events in your life. "They" say that there is a book inside everyone. Even if you can’t write well, everyone should write down the events that shaped their lives so that the following generations can learn who they are. Or, make it a practice to sit down with your family once a week (or month) to tell the stories of your life. It is great fun to do this and it brings people together who have been driven apart by this cold and apathetic society. The very best way to preserve one’s heritage is to tape record, or videotape, our elders telling the stories of their lives. In a video we can hear, see, and feel the emotions of the story. As time goes on, and the person is no longer with us, we still have the recordings to teach future generations how it really was, back then.

1. Install shelves in large cabinets. Some spaces are very large (you could park a small car in there) and when you put items in there you end up with a lot of space above the items. This is wasted space that could be used for more items. By installing removable shelves you can adjust each shelf at a height that will allow you to store three to four times as many items. You can fill up the space that was previously wasted.

2. Heavy on the bottom, light on the top. Always put the heaviest things on the bottom of cabinets. When you need a large pot, or a large bag of rice, you will find it easier to lift the item up to the countertop than to try to wrestle it down from a high shelf. You will also pay attention to proper lifting techniques, bend your legs, keep your back straight, and lift slowly while controlling the item. Safety first! Light objects, like potato chips or coffee filters, will do best on top shelves. It stands to reason that the items on the top shelves will be smaller and they, therefore, will occupy spaces that are smaller and/or closer together. Divide up your items by size and weight and distribute them high or low depending upon how easy they are to handle when you have to get them out of the cabinet.

3. Group like objects together. For example, put all (or most) of your baking items in the same area of the kitchen. There’s no need to walk all over the room trying to collect the things that you need to bake your bread. Designate areas for specific purposes. All the baking things should be in one area, all your laundry items should be by the washing machine, all cleaning supplies should be in a separate cabinet in the garage or the laundry room. Try never to put poisons anywhere near your food supplies.

4. Store some things on your countertop. If you have machines, like a toaster, microwave oven, convection oven, bread maker, etc., that you normally use on the countertop, see if that item will be okay to leave in the area that it is used. If it can, then that is the place for it. This will save a lot of cabinet area for other items. The top of the refrigerator is also a good place to store some things that are light enough to go up there. Be sure to put only light objects up this high because you must always assume that someone could get hurt if the item falls unexpectedly.

The task of raising responsible children is placed directly on the shoulders of their parents to educate and demonstrate healthy financial habits. The best way to teach your children about the world of money is to be responsible yourself. Let the kids learn be doing, but let your good habits act as the form. Start early by showing kids how you successfully pay bills, how you earn money by working, and how you deal with those emergencies that pop up unexpectedly. If it becomes necessary to supplement your income (who among us has not wanted extra cash?) with a loan, then show the children how to navigate through the forms and procedures, and most importantly, teach them that paying back the loan is of prime importance, no matter what! You do not want them to get these cash advances themselves, but you want to show them that there is a responsible way to accomplish it.

Of course, it would be best if all financial matters in life never involved credit or loans of any type. In this society, however, it is all but impossible to avoid unforeseen expenses when they occur. The important thing is that, in teaching kids about these matters, it is imperative to show them that there is a way to avoid financial ruin by being responsible. Teaching by example is really the only way to get the message across to kids when dealing with life’s myriad complications.  In addition to our own good financial habits, having the kids work hands on with their own financial matters, makes the lessons real for them. Start with small items, like letting them buy something and see to it that they understand that paying for what you get is honest. As the kids grow, let them handle a few simple things in the household, like paying the telephone bill, with your supervision of course. The lessons learned at home will be carried throughout their lives. You will be rewarded with children who will make you proud of their responsible ways, and they will bless you for showing them how to be responsible citizens.

Interest, the tough part of any pay back system, is the least understood part of any loan. It is easy enough to understand. People just choose to ignore this part of the loan until they have to write out the monthly check. Just the excitement of getting the money for your purchase clouds the somewhat hidden aspects of borrowing money on time. You see, interest isn’t a bad thing, it’s how the lending institutions are able to stay in business. The difficult part comes in when people don’t pay the monthly bills as they should and then the interest starts to compound (and other late fees are added). The more this situation continues, the worse it gets, until the person can no longer make any payments, they lose their house (or other item), and their credit score is trashed. None of these bad things has to happen. Let’s look at a few remedies.

1. Understand the loan. What are you signing when you take money from a lender? Ask questions to really get to the bottom of what is happening from both sides of the bargaining table. What are your responsibilities? Are you able to handle the payments every month? How does this loan fit into your budget? If you can’t reasonably pay back the money, then don’t enter into the agreement. Put off the purchase until you can handle the loan responsibly.

2. Get "monthly" out of your head. This single aspect of credit buying represents the biggest problem for most people. This is the tactic most salesman use to rope in a client. They talk only about the "monthly payments" as if this is the only factor. We hear only the monthly amount, it doesn’t sound too expensive, and we sign on the dotted line. Our shortsightedness will lead to disaster. Think long term – to the end of the loan period and think of the total amount of the loan. If these numbers can be handled easily, then you are probably going to be able to pay it back.

3.Never borrow if you don’t really need to borrow. Use cash whenever possible to avoid having to pay interest. Save up for large purchases and hold off whenever you can in buying expensive items that you may not really need. In short, learn to be responsible for your actions and decisions. If you need a place to live, however, then getting a mortgage loan makes sense. In the case of housing yourself, buying is preferable to renting. Renting is throwing away money because you will never get it back later on. Buying a house makes sense because, when you sell it many years later, you are likely to get your money back and something extra. For a large purchase then, using credit is wise.

4. To save money with credit, be responsible in using it. Only use credit when there is no other way to accomplish buying what is absolutely necessary. Never, for example, use credit to buy groceries or other household items. Reserve the credit card for things like emergency medical bills, or to maintain your home in case of breakdown of appliances, or to replace something in the car that wears out. You will save money by not using credit and by using credit judiciously.

1. You’re the boss when it comes to making decisions for your retirement. You really cannot count on anyone else (the company, accountants, lawyers, or your brother-in-law) to give you sound advice on how to live your life in retirement. None of them have your best interests in mind. In point of fact, you should have a plan in place well before you plan to retire, and that plan should be independent of the company who provides your paycheck. The old adage that states that you should never put all your eggs in one basket works well. For example, if your retirement plan is funded by the company that you work for, and that company should go out of business, you are out of luck. There is no way that you will be able to get your retirement package from a defunct company. There are plenty of examples that show that companies look to fire employees when they are approaching retirement so that the company doesn’t have to honor retirement agreements. In cases like that, you are out of a job, and out of whatever benefits that you thought you may have had. It is much better to build a retirement savings that is safe from any job change that might occur.

2. Get a side job. Depending upon how much time you have (weekends, evenings) you could get something to bring in a few extra bucks. In cases where the main job might fall apart, your side income then provides something that can pay the bills. You might even use the side job to fund the retirement account. Make it a rule to save all the second job money in the retirement account. This would give you assurance that your savings account will be funded every week and it will provide peace of mind in an emergency situation.

3. Use age fifty as a sign to revamp your retirement plans. When you reach this age sit down with pencil and paper and look at your situation. Do you have a good plan? Will it last until you retire and give you and your family enough money to live on? What ever your plan looks like, good, bad, or otherwise, make a decision to really save more in the next fifteen years (or at whatever age you want to retire). This is the time to cut back on trivial expenditures and to devote every penny to your retirement fund. If possible, have a few different places in which to save money. For example, you might have a savings account in a bank, an IRA, and a 401K with the company where you are employed. Be sure to keep all of these accounts separate from each other. Never combine them into one location or into one account. You are better off with three or four small amounts of money that come in each month than you are trying to get one big amount coming from a single source. This is your money we are talking about – take care of it so you don’t lose it when the next governmental calamity happens.