Chasing the Bull

In order to get the debt snowball rolling, Dave Ramsey suggests getting a second job. Of all the wonderful suggestions found within his writings, this is the one I have the biggest issue with.

Yes, I have debt. I also have an awesome family, with which, I love to spend my free time. Hanging out with my wife and son each night is truly the highlight of my day. After reading The The Total Money Makeover, I almost feel as if I am letting my family down by not finding a second job. I have also read numerous personal finance blogs that advocate the same thing.

With someone of my credentials, I could easily start a new business and make a decent amount of money rather quickly ($200 an hour would not be out of the question). This would mean I would have to start working on nights and weekends. The problem is that I value my time with my family more than that. This is the reason I took the job that I have now instead of continuing the career path I was on. I traded 100+ hour weeks, for reading Elmo to my son. I traded 200+ nights in a hotel each year, for mowing the grass on a Wednesday night. I traded money for peace and I am sure I made the correct decision.

What would you do if you were me? Would you start a new business, knowing that you could eliminate all of your debt within 12 months, or would you continue to budget and enjoy your rather enjoyable family life?

Please consider subscribing to my feed.

Popularity: 11% [?]

On any given day, I could not care any less about my page rank. I blog simply for the enjoyment of blogging. I love it when people leave comments, suggestions, or even criticism. These things make me happy.

I stumbled across a website today, however, that tells you what your page rank is. I have to admit, I was suddenly interested. I have almost zero technical skills when it comes to the internet. I do not even know how to promote this blog. SEO? Might as well be Japanese! I have had this blog for only 2 months and I have done absolutely nothing to promote it and it receives almost no traffic. With these things in mind, I was pretty happy with a Page Rank of 2.

Now that I actually have a Page Rank, I want a better one, but I really do not know how to increase it. I would appreciate any help you could provide in this matter. I would love to get a few thousand visitors a day. Anyone?

Please consider subscribing to my feed.

We have successfully completed Dave Ramsey’s Baby Step #1 (Save $1,000 in an emergency fund). As such, May marks month #1 of our debt reduction plan. Most people call this snowflaking, with the idea of getting a real good snowball rolling.

Snowflaking sounds terrible when ANY guy says it. Can you imagine me trying to explain to my buddies what I am doing?

“Well, [insert friend’s name], this month I managed to snowflake $50. He would look at me like I was crazy. For this reason, Chasingthebull.info, will henceforward call snowflaking, “Boxing”. I got this idea from Oscar De Lahoya. In his day, he could throw some devastating punches. Now, he is more of a boxer.

Jab, Jab, Punch, Jab, Jab, Punch - Collect another victory.

Each month, I will add jabs (snowflakes) to the enemy (debt) with complete destruction of that debt being the goal.

May 2008 - Boxing Goals
eBay sales - $150
online income - $10

Total goal = $160.

Please consider subscribing to my feed.

Popularity: 20% [?]