Twitter URL

There was a request from someone to put a link to my Twitter URL on this website. Yes, I have a Twitter URL. It will funnel YouTube comments as well as comments from this site. Also my new blog might be getting tweets too, but I'm not certain about that. I might need to check Twitter when I have time. Oh I will drop that link too.


http://www.twitter.com/#!/needmanshini




You guys can reply or hit me up there. I will answer questions in the order I recieve them.
 
My new blog that I am currently working on is:
 
http://www.incheoncharles.blogspot.com/
 
I have been a little slow updating it because I have been mad busy at my new job. We're talking like 50-60 hours a week. There are even days were I do not even get a chance to study foreign languages. Lately, I have been studying Korean as well as Japanese and Chinese (although I have taken a bit of a hiatus from Chinese).  For anyone that is interested in studying those languages, I can be contacted through the CB e-mail or my Twitter. Again, I take messages and comments on a first come first serve basis. I have to sometimes filter through a lot of spam as well as legitimate comments. So if I do not get back to you right away, that's those are the reasons.

Chuckie's Blurbs Vlog Ep.1

You know how I promised videos for CB last year? I am following up on that promise. There will be more. There will be more. This video is focusing on frugality. I go a little bit into languages, but I want to raise an awareness that used book stores tend to have a variety of knowledge on a shoe string budget. You can find books that are almost new and save 60-80% on its retail price. Enjoy!

Micheal Jackson's Passing: A lesson to be learned in frugality.

Micheal Jackson has touched the hearts of many and with his passing grants us a window into his life. Here was a man who was plunged into the spotlight around the age of 5 and only ascended to higher stardom. However in his passing it calls upon the lessons of money management. Micheal might have earned a high income, but he was overall, bad at managing money. With this said, Chuckie's Blurbs is not going to say that his spending was all bad. Afterall a selfless man who gave to many a charity broke the world record for contributions. No we are going to examine the side of Micheal that lost the Neverland ranch, the side of Micheal that was childish in his manner of holding on to earned income.

Topping Thriller was a part of his obsession which drove him to succeed and while drive is important, pragmatism is perhaps even more. He wanted to surpass Thriller, but that album was a tough one to beat. Eventually he lost focus on his finances and just about lost everything that he so worked for. I am not saying if he wanted to have a Neverland Ranch he should resist. No that was a valuable investment along with the Beatles royalties.

One of the main keys to frugality is to have focus. While he did gain some part of this before his passing, he lost it too little too late. While he might have been the greatest entertainer ever, his status got to him and it caused his own downfall. Never let other people put you on a pedestal about how much money you have. They do it to me all the time and I have to take their complements with a grain of salt. The lesson one should learn from Micheal's passing is that to reach a Thriller-esque goal with your finances you have to focus or you will fail. Giving is good, but one should have money to give money.

One Year Anniversary at Sam's Club

Hello there. Chuckie here with another blog jam packed with pure awesomeness. It has been a cracy year for me down at Sam's Club and I have to say, I am glad I have stuck it out this long after all. Perhaps my earlier entries were a bit pessimistic, but rest assured, I will continue to work there until I reach my goal I set out to reach in New Year's.

So far I have read 65 books and saved up $6,ooo for my re-entry into Japan. I will also take the JPLT level 3 so I can up my own personal stock and credentials. I could take the level 2, but I need more time to study for that one. While level 3, I can take it and pass it without studying. But I will study so I can refresh some of the Japanese that I do not normally use. I am in no way trying to slack off with the test, they are expensive to take because I have to go to either Los Angelos or San Francisco in order to take the test and I do not want to go over there in vain. When I do take the level 2 next year, I will have more time in order to catch up what I know and be able to pass it with no problem. So that is my goal-- to eventually go back to Japan in 2010.

There is also the need to address the issue of having one year at Sam's Club. Since they basically changed the whole structure of the pay scale, all I will get is a marginal raise. Since there might be employees reading this blog, I cannot go into further detail about it. However, I can say that my vacation and personal time has kicked in and I will use every bit of it to better my situation. I am a graduate from UNR and for the past 2 years, I have been working jobs with little chance of vertical movement. When I return to Japan, I will proabably work for someone else for a little while and then build up a marketing list and become self employed.

I have offically started back up my business on E*bay. My ID is marketmediaplus and I will sell certian items on demand. Right now I am just trying to sell all my books and video games so I can move with little problems. For the most part I have been celebrating my raise, so I have been eating out a lot, but that will stop. The glamour is done; my year is in; time to continue amassing wealth.

Food Review: Asian Gardens

I have been a bit busy juggling other side projects, but finally I am back to entertain you with another long awaited food review. Last Wednesday, I went to Asian Gardens to enjoy some Beef Chow Fun. Let's see how they did.

Taste wise. it was really good and the portions was excellent. The meal was filling, dispelling any pre-notions that I needed to eat again afterwards. So if you think that Chinese food is not filling, you need to try their Beef Chow Fun. Oh and for the plant eaters, they do have vegetable Chow Fun as well. +1

Service was excellent. I also tipped excellent in kind. She was eager to please and was willing to bend over hand and foot. She had tea, water and sodas at the ready in a New York minute. +1

Presentation, it felt like a Chinese restaurant and that is a good thing. The food was symmetrical with the atmosphere. I felt at ease when I went there. +1

Value for the money. I have to say that the billing was somewhat steep. Do not order a soda there, it will cost you $2. If you are paying anything more than $1.50 plus tax, then you are paying too much of beverages that cost about 8 cents for the chemicals to fill up your cup. There is no need to be up charged on that. The value on the Chow Fun was generous so I have to give this a certain balance. +5

Menu Variety. Good but I think they should axe the sushi menu. I know they are the same owners as Sushi Boat, but seriously, if I wanted to eat Sushi at a Chinese restaurant, then I probably do not distinguish difference in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean culture. And that would be ignorance on my part. Sure I understand they might get requests for sushi, but it feels awkward in a non-sushi specialty shop. Especially since I can go over next door and order the exact same thing. There is nothing wrong with non Japanese people making sushi, but I just do not picture sushi in a Chinese restaurant especially when it is not a sushi bar or a Japanese style cuisine specialty shop. +5

Overall Asian Gardens get a 4/5. My recommendation is just to order the food and no drinks. They were expensive.

Bike to Work Day

For those of you that are feeling diehard gutsy about saving money, I have came up with a interesting way to do so. I, personally will be joining Reno's Bike to Work day on May 15th just to prove a point that frugality works and people are stating to take notice.

I now have people that often ask me questions about ways to cut their costs on gas. If they live too far to walk, my suggestion to them is to try to bicycle it to work. All it takes is about $100 and the fee is one time. All you really need to do is maintain the bike which is not too bad--a tire here and there. Dare I say it, you also get exercise! I take great pride in the fact that I walk to and from work. I am in such good shape that I can run miles on end, let alone bicycle the trip. For every amount you bicycle, you are supposed to get sponsored and win prizes after awhile. For more details, click here

Boston Tea Party

Apparently there are numerous groups on Facebook protesting the actions of President Barack Obama and his action towards handling our money. If things continue the way they are going, we will see a collapse in the banking and financial system-- if the dollar keeps going at its current rate. There will be stagflation: inflation laced with recession. And unless you want to see $200 loafs of bread, my suggestion would be to form your own groups and start protesting President Obama's haphazard spending policy. I am Chuckie and I endorse this message.

I would like to say that if I was put into a situation where the money has been abused through frivolous spending, then I would honestly be trying to find ways to actually make money. It is painfully obvious that he is failing and failing hard. The American budget is like the average American: spends more than he/she makes and then turns around and covers debt with more debt. We are passing the buck here and we need to actually break the cycle. That is one of the reason's why I started CB. I wanted to help you, help me, help you. Ad libs aside, not everyone is going to wake up and hit a 33 million dollar jackpot so as I like to say, "Go through pain now, feel great later".

I know being frugal is hard. We all have occasional slip ups. I, for one, am not going to say I am better than anyone of you. There could be someone out there using every trick known to man to save 95% of their income, but they are probably making a) 5K per month or b) is living in a place with a low cost of living. And if you are then, buy all means post on this site and give me ways to improve CB. I will say this, being frugal is not impossible; far from it. People say that I could not save over 50% of my wealth per month on what I make and I told them, "watch me."

Frugality is work, save, invest. That is the basic formula for frugality. Everything else is irrelevant. So Barack Obama, I challenge to go one month without spending a billion of our dollars. In stead i challenge you to create jobs by using other people's resources and draw talent into the country. If a man can imagine it, it is probable. Einstein said that "Imagination is more powerful than knowledge." It is time for Obama to use his brain instead of Keynesian philosophy.

Frugality Is Popular On This Blog

I am writing a little early because my days off at Sam's Club was switched. I have been online for a while now. I have had roughly 700 visitors on this site. The traffic has slowed down a bit mainly because I have not been adding content on a daily basis. But I am actually okay with that for now because I mainly wanted to do this as a hobby and to have a fan base where I can educate people on this subject. I never knew that I was going to get such a positive response from my co-workers, friends, and net pals. I have also received positive response from people in Japan and France as well, so this thing is global. Most of my response though is a old hat trick called "word of mouth". I only prosper through you, the viewer. So I would like to thank, you the viewer for making this site into something that can inspire me to go on.

Frugal Shopping

This is mainly inspired by David Bach's new book on how not to get ripped off. I am all for not being taken to the cleaners and think the best way to avoid this is through reading and research. So you want some stuff that you saved your hard earned money for. Why should you really do without? People need certain things in their life that gives them meaning, but it does not mean go in debt over them.

If you are reading this understand one thing: you have to get your finances ship shape before you even think about shopping for yourself. The art of frugality means that you should have your finances a massing themselves like a army. They should be accumulating to the point that whatever you are about to go in on should be covered by your assets and then some. It might not hurt to make investments that give you passive income before you enter this phase of your life. Right now, I am not quite there mentally but honestly if I wanted to I could get any thing on the shelf at the store. A year ago, you could not possibly fathom what kind of pain I had to go through.

Now that pain is over and the lesson learning and mentoring must go on. Why do people have to go through a serious amount of self inflicting torment is beyond me. We have these sayings "Pain retains", but that is just not a wise way to learn. I find the best way is to learn through other people's mistakes. And today's topic, is about me learning from other people's advise and misfortunes.

Like I said before, you do need to be a rocket scientist to be frugal. It just takes good old fashioned W-O-R-K. Now that you have taken the steps to secure your future. It is time to do some living in the present chuckieblurbs style.

Despise What You Cannot Have

This bit of information comes from Robert Greene out of 48 Laws of Power. In other words, if the item you want is out of your price range: do not get it. I have always thought that the best way to take care of one's finances is to take care of YOUR SELF first. But, if you want something just to have it, make sure that is it only a fraction of what you earn or make. Do not fall for any "No Money Down" schemes. They really just accumulate interest while you for bare any costs.

Do not get an extended warranty on any item in the store unless it is at a reasonable price. I cannot believe how many warranties I sell per day. There are a lot of people who fall for this and make some 3rd party rich while they become poorer. It is certainly a shame that many of these people pay for an extra year when the product in the store might still be good until the year is up. People think this is just me being disgruntled with my profession, but in actuality I know the inner workings of the warranty. You are far better off with just getting an upgraded membership, that gives you an extra year in service warranty than to pay for another one. If you think paying 5% -15% to safe guard an item that you can just get back by going through membership or claims then I have sure hope you are balancing all of those bait and switch bills and deals that we salesmen give you. Trust me, I have made Wal-Mart thousands of dollars off of warranties and let me tell you, if you know how the system works then you will least likely be scammed.

What Will Give You The Best "Bang" For Your Buck?

It is by far the way of clearance. Warren Buffett says "You can put all of your eggs in one basket; just watch the basket". Meaning when buying something, you should watch the price like a hawk. If you want a HDTV for example (though I probably prefer a book over a TV), you see that it hits the sales floor at $1,300. Right now we will use the word "Hot" since it is used by different stores and I will not jeopardize my job at Sam's Club for not using another word. At $1,300 it is probably about 25%. You can honestly wait and see what happens with the item. Eventually it will enter a phase known in the retail industry as being cleared. The best deals comes to those who wait. Sure this tactic is not full proof and you might not get what you want every time. But if the item gets bought up, you can move on to a better item that you want and amass more money. Frugal people do NOT spend above their means I do not care how bad you want the item. If you cannot afford it, something in your head should tell you to let it sit on the shelf.

Careful when purchasing clearance items. Eventually they will get reduced to the point where they are no longer being sold at the store's location. I think that is the point you should probably try to get them. Look for red flags as in a drastic drop in price. On TVs and computers it is about $500-600, from the original. It means it is about to be "deleted" or liquidated. If this happens, you should go ahead and try to get the item as soon as possible. If you try to get it at a liquidation supplier, you have to find the company that the retailer uses and no one is going to tell you. Those are considered trade secrets. I will tell you that usually when the items are selling BELOW cost is when they will be sold to a liquidator.

Buyer Beware: The Red Tag Items Are Only As Good As The Last Owner

Take it from me, a professional salesman: Red tag items are usually buys that are worth their weight in gold. More than likely the item cannot be returned, but if you buy it at a good price you do not need to worry about the return policy because usually the prices there are below liquidation. More than likely, the last owner used the item and he thought it was too complicated to get it to work.. Meaning that he/she got fed up and got a refund. Those items are then slotted in the clearance aisle, where they are sold to the lowest bidder.

There are things you should look for when buying from there. The first thing that should trigger is whether or not it actually is a good buy. Second is for damage. Lastly, check for missing parts. Do not be pressured by pushy salesmen who just want to get rid of their junk. Make sure the item you are buying comes with a factory warranty or do not buy it. It is that simple. If it does not come with its paperwork, it stays on the shelf.

Do NOT Fall For Baits and Switches.

People will try to up sale you. It is my job to up sale people in order to get more money out of them. What I do is find out what type of person they are and figure out what warranty or credit card I can sign them up for. Frugal people never fall for any of these schemes and neither should you. More than likely, the cost is around 20-30% more before any of those special no money down deals. With it, it is around to 30-40% extra profit. There are great deals at Sam's Club without ever having to go for a credit card, so you should just avoid it outright. Frugal people do not use crutches such as a credit card to sustain them: they use their own cash in order to buy the item. That's right; it's all or nothing! I am serious when I say this. I do not use some plan in order to gain money off of the deal. That only works in investing, not buying something that loses its value.

While investing smart is good, buying smart is equally important to frugality. You should be doing this rarely. Only when you have earned the right to buy something should you do it. Remember the item loses its value as soon as you take it out of the store. If you do value based shopping, you will be A-OK. The best way to buy is to figure out if you are being up saled and what the actual cost is. You might not be able to get the item for your desired price so you might have to buy it at retail. If it is at a decent price, then there is no problem. Ask the staff what the margin on the item is. If they are good salesmen and not total scum, they will not lie to you about their margins. Honestly, I do not lie about this, but I do not give away the true margin. I just tell them that we (as in Sam's Club) might be selling the item at a gain or a loss. Those are trade secrets after all.

Advanced Frugality For College Students and Full-Timers

This will probably wrap up the frugality special for Chuckie's Blurbs for right now. I might do another special in the future, but it will mainly cover different strategies on finding ways to save money. Last time I talked about saving money to invest. Now I am going to talk about saving money in order to invest in yourself. It is the ultimate investment you can do. While many people will feel that investing in the market or buying precious metals is not for them, fear not! There are tons and tons of ways to make money on the information superhighway. If that is not the route you wish to travel you can still make money at your job while keeping your costs low. Note that you will have to eliminate a few other bills before trying this. I am not going to give you a fish, I will teach you instead.

In the job market there is a hierarchical system that offers you a "since of security", but one should not totally rely on a security blanket for long. Like I mentioned before, events that are beyond your control can and will happen. I do not advocate totally depending on one pay check so here is how to buffer yourself against the impending financial collapse. This is mainly for people that want to stay in school and wish to stay with their employers for whatever reason.

For Blue Collar Workers

This is probably a no-brainer if you are working full time. You need to reduce your bills to the point so you can create a nest egg. If you are happy working for someone else, there is little I can do to convince you that you will not make as much as people that are educated and are white collared workers right? Contrary to popular belief you can perhaps get further ahead than the general public who cannot balance a bank statement for the life of them. If your income is at a set wage, you should be more attuned to saving money than other people. You can join a union if there is benefit to getting a higher wage. Note that the best way to get ahead is to make connections within the workforce. These days it is not what you know, it is who you know. And nothing could be further from the truth. While you will never be the next Buffett working at a 9-5, you do not have to be buckled down with meaningless bills. Most people think that you need a million dollars to retire, but, I would say that most people do not have the willingness to make sacrifice. Honestly, if you want to make this amount of money while working, then blue collar jobs are not for you. You need to enter the white collar or business sector.

While brown bagging your lunch is often a good idea, this is basic frugality and there will be no strategic talk about what you should buy. You should already be targeting the most healthy items for the lowest price. The main focus for you should be eliminating transportation issues. If you work far away, use the principles from Intermediate Frugality to earn real money by following the budget and stick to it.

Barter For Services Instead of Using Money

Out of 7.2 billion people on the face of this planet I find it hard to believe that each person does not have some sort of unique innate talent. And out of those people as William Easterly puts it,"People respond to incentives". If you can make a website and need a ride to work and there is someone that wants one built at work, consider trading skills for resources. In frugality, the main goal is to keep the money you put in the bank, in the bank. The other is to be able to invest whatever you put in the bank. There are some investments that you can do as a blue collar, but you are extremely limited. In you get the courage, build up a client list, save up to roughly 40,000 to 50,000 dollars and start your own small practice. If you can earn money, make sure most of the transactions are cash. You can also barter a little, but I think the main goal is to take what you have earned and make more money. bartering will only get you items you need or want. Frugality is to help you obtain these goals. You can earn a steady paycheck in your practice and having a job as well. I know of many people who own vending services and C-stores that pull down six figures annually.

See you do not have to be an investor per se for this to work. you just have to know the meaning of sacrifice. Want to live comfortably? Take the time to do a all or nothing strategy with payments down the road. People love cash, hate deadbeats, and want more now. True they can make more money by simply collecting all the payments down the road, but that is not feasible at times. In fact, if you pay cash for everything, business owners usually give huge discounts on product that you are purchasing. Take a car for example, you can probably get the money down payment lowered if you negotiate him down with cash. Also credit scores do not matter if you have 6 or 7 figures in the bank. Most people will only ask "do you want to buy it?"

Frugality for Students

When I was going to college, I had the hardest time getting a job mainly because I was going to school for more than full time. There are a lot of young and old people who value college, but college does not guarantee success. True, it will make you a more productive worker ant and greatly reduce your chances of getting laid off and you will carry yourself in a different manner than when you first go in, but unless you want to do some sort of hard science or advance degree, do not expect a 80K per year job when you come out. Those days are long gone. But if you are determined to get a degree and it is truly on your dream list (it was on mine!), then by all means go for it. You do not need a degree to get ahead now thanks to being able to substitute experience for knowledge. Many employers are starting to weigh degrees less and less and now there is a chance that you will be able to earn the same amount as someone without a degree. If you are getting a degree to get a job, you need to make sure that the degree you are trying to get will help you obtain your dream job.

Education is not limited to degrees though. When I say this, I want you to understand that while I am not in my "dream job" I am not starving either. I have a dream list and I have accomplished 99% of them because I put in time and effort. One of my dreams is to speak Japanese on the native level which will lead to translation opportunities. Before I came back from Okinawa, I actually landed a full time job as a interpreter for the Christian church over in Japan but I declined the offer because I wanted to get a double major in International Affairs and History.

These days, certifications will actually lead to more financial opportunities than the Old Boy program. I will probably get some hate mail here. but the more you have in skills that have a high demand, the more likely you will be able to earn more money. Right now programming languages and computer graphics are in demand along with nanotechnology. So a four year degree form those fields will lead to steady money if you are interested in it. If you are not, the quality of your work will be poor and it will only lead to a waste of time because you will not want to do it in the future.

The most important thing to do is plan ahead. If you are young and are reading this, then obviously getting a job while in high school should be your goal. You should also try to get some under the table work and put the money away. When you do this save from freshman year to senior year. More than likely it will be at minimum wage, but you should able to save enough for college for at least the first two years. Afterwards, do not enter college right away unless you have scholarships to cover the other half of your studies. This means that in order to save for college, you might have to work 5 years and not have the luxury of buying stuff that loses value, but investing in yourself will only cause you to flourish and society and live a well balanced life. It will also help you keep an open mind and give you a chance to think about investing and give way to credible research. Frugality is the best way to reach this goal, not mommy and daddy. Frugal people are independent; not self-dependant. If you have a trust fund, then work to build up security while going to school. You will be able to travel leaps and bounds if you have the cash to do so.

When in college, remember that the object is to keep your money in the bank. You will experience losses in earnings while being in college, so you need to prepare for that. Consider going to community college first then transfer to a 4 year afterwards. You will cut costs substantially by following this advise. Also do not buy all of your textbooks from the store. They will rip you off and overcharge you the value of the text book. If you can get a friend's e-book file of the textbook, ask if you can download his/her's copy. And sometimes the book stores put the e-books on file in order to sell them at a cheaper rate than the hard copy text book. Find a apartment (preferably a studio) close to campus so you do not get ripped off on their parking. Remember that the best way top save money is to not waste money. Shed unwanted bills and do not fall for any of the credit card gimmicks that is often regurgitated by Chase or MasterCard: they make their money by keeping you in debt. They did not build their business off of rich people-- they often pay in cash.

I bypassed all the campus scams and came away with little debt, but if I had to do it over again, I might of taken less classes. Other than that, I have no regrets. I did however make the mistake of getting a student loan when I could have broken up the semester payment into 3 chunks. They do not tell you about that. Often you have to inquire about alternative payment options. There is no use in going broke over stuff that does not matter. If there is a option, use it if it will keep you out of debt. Overall, if you are following a budget and the strategies in the Frugality special, you should not be experiencing any difficulties in paying your tutition.

Intermediate Frugality

For those of you that have been able to follow these steps, I wish you success in the future. One person off of Facebook, address "I should be proud of her younger sister and her husband" they saved up and bought their 2BR/1Bath condo outright. I think this is terrific. I am glad to see feed back from this special I am doing. Another person criticized one of the authors of the books I put up on display: "Rich, Dad; Poor Dad". While I am debating him on the author's background history, I think the most important thing he said in relations to frugality is that people should not waste their money on things that devalue as soon as you take them out of the store. I will leave it at that mainly because I want to stick to writing about frugality for the next few months.

Ok, so you formulated a budget and have taken cautious notes. Good, now this section will focus on taking basic bills and making them "more basic." Some of the advice here is mainly to get out out of those expensive phone plans and contracts. You should only enter contracts if you are guaranteed to save money. In other words, if it gives you a fixed bill and not a fluctuating one, then it is permissible. However, this does not mean to go for them every time.

Contracts Equal Servitude

Let me make one thing clear. Contracts are anti-productive to success. Unless you are getting some deal where you are getting "cash flow" from a business or are the issuer, being the issuee is a no-no to frugality.

1. You are basically stuck with an obligation. You have to meet all terms of the agreement in order to opt out. Or you can opt out with cash, but you will pay a hefty fine for getting out early or can suffer a blow to your credit score.

2. You are not mobile. You cannot ever obtain true wealth if you cannot control expenses. You are locked into a agreement, thus, giving someone else cash flow. While cell phone contracts are the exception to the rule, most other agreements are actually detrimental to your success. Rental agreements should be taken with a "grain of salt". If you have reliable roommates and fixed expensive, then this should not really be a problem. If they tie you down with unwanted bills, then it is time to relocate and a replacement for your room.

3. Contracts often take away from your income. You usually have to set aside money in order to pay a certain bill. The more optional your bills become, the better. Except for my lease, (which builds credit) the bills that I have can be cancelled at anytime, at my discretion.

Prepaid Fallacies

There is some misnomers I want to clear up about pre-paid. You want to make sure the offer will not flucuate on you without advance notice.

Cricket has always been a flat rate for me except I have to stay with in Reno to make phone calls. However, while I can switch to Trac Phone and get a cheaper rate, the reason why I have not done this right away is mainly because I have been working on curbing my calls so I can actually do the prepaid cards at my discretion.

Again frugal people find them that work for them, not for deals that they have to work for. This is key to saving money. Will the card be cheaper for you? Not if you make a lot of phone calls. So figure out what works for you before you make a commitment that you will regret in the long run. The idea of being frugal is to not live paycheck to paycheck, but it is also to gear you towards investing. You want to have a service that is profitable for you to have before you commit to it.

Avoid Taxable Items

This will require some research on your part. What I do is try to find deals that you do not get taxed on. Right now, I just found out that my HSA account will tax me $36 in order to keep it open. So I am going to shut it down. Will I miss the $600 that Wal-Mart put in it? No, because I take care of my money and my body. I have only been to the doctor once for sinus infection in ten years so there is no need to pay extra tax for something that is damaging my income and putting me on the radar. I was rather upset that Wal-mart opened this without my consent, but this is easily fixed by closing the account. No problem there. I think this was merely an accounting error; so closing it would free up $36 dollars.

Another thing that could send you to the poor house is eating out everyday. The amount that you will get taxed on every dollar is around 7cents per $1. That is also why eating out is one of the main indicators of why you cannot achieve wealth. If you pay $10 for you meal, you are paying 70cents for that meal. $1.40 for $20, $2.10 for $30 spent and so on. Fortunately, this tax is simply avoided by buying goods from the grocery store that are not "prepared" goods. In lay man's terms, anything that is considered cooked equals prepared goods. Frugal people mainly cook for themselves. While I am not the best cook, can goods, makes sure I do not starve while other people are spending more time preparing the food. To me, time is also valuable, but I do actually make something for myself every now and then. If you want to take this to an extreme you can target food that is considered "Depression Cooking" by Clara, a nice 93 year old lady who is one of the gurus of frugality. If anything you can figure out how she lived to be 93! She has a YouTube special so just go there for the videos.

Shopping in bulk will also help you save money. Those of you that own a Sam's Club or Costco card will be aware of this already, but having one of these cards will allow you to go into Sam's Club or Costco and you can buy items by the unit, which is dramatically cheaper than buying per unit. Usually I pay around 35% less than I do for items that are in regular grocery stores.

Setting Dates to Pay Bills

This takes some commitment on your part, but I have to say this is one of the keys to keeping track of your budget, so I will emphasize it here again in order to drive home a point of responsibility. People do not get out of debt if they pay their bills late! Period. So while this is really a basic skill, it can also be classified under intermediate if you are trying to pay off some dead-beat loan. You have to follow the schedule if you do not have much money, but once you accumulate more than enough money, you can buy your freedom faster by making advance payments.

This is all for now. Join me for Intermediate Frugality II coming from a Wi-Fi station near you!

Frugality 101

There are more and more people becoming homeless these days. It seems that the very words i am using are becoming rather prophetic, but alas poor frivolous spender I knew him well... he is on 4th street currently asking me for a quarter. Do you think this will be you if you continue to live paycheck to paycheck? If so then read on.

Now let it be told that I am no saint, but I am certainly not a prophet either. I am just a small time investor with big dreams. I just know what I need to do in order to save money and reach my goals. For those of you that wish to know more about the current economic crisis, books I recommend are "Getting Started in the Underground Economy" by Adam Cash, "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" by Robert Kiyosaki and "Finance Wars" by Stephen Palmer. This is your reading list for today. I am Prof. Eggleston and Surviving the Neo-Depression is now in session.

Here is some basics you need to figure out:

1. Setting a budget- Before you even start a saving plan you need to figure out how much you pull down every month. People with multiple jobs/investments will obviously have the advantage over the guy with just one job, but that is okay. With a budget you can set aside money to invest every month until something pays off.

The object of setting a budget is to gear you towards thinking like a frugal person and an investor. Let me put it to you this way: right now I do not make a whole lot, but I do not live paycheck to paycheck anymore. There is a reason for this-that is neo feudalism. At some point I decided that life was the pits and I wanted to do something about it. The first thing I did was set a budget and I have not looked back. I continue to reach for the stars even in this failing economy.

Do you think Donald Trump and Warren Buffett got anywhere by being frivolous spenders? No they set budgets on various projects. Trump even said in his book "Why We Want You To Be Rich" that setting a budget is one of the most important things you can do for yourself. It will put you on the path of being rich.

2. Set aside money as an emergency fund:

This is actually one of David Ramsey's suggestions in the total money make over and it makes sense. You got to start somewhere and the best way to do so is to save up $1,000 is quickly as possible. For those of you that are 9-5ers like me, you will find this rather discouraging, but if you have a lot of bobbles or doodads, you can formulate a strategy and turn them into a small profit. While you might have to sale some of your stuff at a loss this might actually be a good thing: the more stuff you have in your life, the more you complicate it. So to counter this and to set aside an emergency fund, have a yard sale, Ebay it or use some other site to sell your stuff on it.

For the most part, I have my emergency fund in precious metals because I am mainly preparing for stage 3, but I also have $1,000 in addition to this set aside. And I am glad I did this because I had a situation to deal with last month and I am glad it is over. And guess what? I did not even break a sweat over the $1,000 being gone--I earned it back. your emergency funds should be for your worse case scenarios--not your checking account.

3. Save $10 week: starting now- Both Dave Ramsey author of "Total Money Makeover" and one of my other friends recommend this. The object of doing this is so you can have something to spend for yourself. You CANNOT use this money until the end of the year or until Christmas.

Want that X-box? Want that LCD TV? With this strategy, you can have it in 1 year without dipping into your savings for it. The secondary objective is to teach you patience and how to manage money. If you just have a part-time job, this might be a bit harder, but taking $10/week aside will motivate you to a) find a better job and b) invest. This money should not be stored into your bank account. Any envelope will do. The reason for this is to curb temptation. If you find yourself diving into this envelope, obviously you suck at managing money and need to rethink your strategy. And if you cannot do this simple task, I'd rather have a trained seal give me financial advise. I have done this already and guess what? I reinvested it. I took the $520 and bought gold, silver, and a foot switch for my guitar (hey it is meant for yourself right)?

4. Calculate Expenses- While I have low expenses (more on this in Frugality and Personal Finance 102), I still have them nonetheless. Everyone has them. We all consume something and have to pay something. Everything has a price and this aspect of finance cannot be avoided. Let us use my expenses as an example.

Food: $90 Which is less than what it was, I could lower this more, but I enjoy eating out every once in a while. I am not a serf, so I eat out whenever I feel like it. Mostly, I target canned goods.

Phone: $45-Cricket Wireless; Per-paid service; no contracts.

Rent: $225

Laundry: $10

Investments: $160

Student Loan: $60

My total expenses is $590 for the whole month. It might hit $600-700 depending on which investment I go into, but for the sake of simplity let just say it is $600. Like I said I do not make a whole lot so we will just calculate my petty "earnings" which would be higher if I was not taxed but that will be reserved for another blog.

$1,400
- 600
_____
$800/month

Note: This is above average: there are month where I pay more or less. This month I actually pulled down $900 because I ate out less and paid in advance on my loan. You might ask, why is there nothing for clothes, video games, hygine supplies, etc.? The reason why is because that expence does not come up all the time. I have a strategy for not spending much on neccesities and luxury items. In fact, I do not bother with luxury items. Instead, I invest my cash in myself and in ideas. That is what the $10/week for 1 year plan is for. LCDs and electronics lose half their value in roughly 2.5 months so I do not buy them.

Notice that my expenses are simple. I did not even have to sit down with a calculator to calculate what I am earning. I can fire off the numbers off the top of my head without breaking a sweat. While I love math, I hate complicating my life with stuff that does not matter. Yes, investments do tend to get complicated, but I have also strategized how much per month I am willing to invest. Usually I buy stocks and precious metals, but I will do other investments once I earn more money. This blog is one of those things. Instead of money, I am investing time. If I see a return on my investment, aka revenue or profit I will invest some money into this site, but for right now, I just do this in my free time.

For right now I will say simplifying your expences is rudimentary to successful frugality. If you cannot do this then you will live a complicated life and it will be more complicated to begin saving money. If you have to sit down with a calculator just to calculate your expences (excluding financial investors/advisors) you have to many expences and need to re-evaluate what is neccessary in your life. Obviously I do mean downgrading your lifestyle. Keeping up with the Jones's will keep you broke. You might have certain things you can't live without, but there are certainly things you CAN live without. Living without those things can keep you from living paycheck to paycheck and can keep you from living in the streets.

5. Releave Yourself of Those Nasty Credit Cards- Cut them up: I used to not understand the difference between good debt and bad debt, but not it is crystal clear. Credit cards are designed to keep you broke. You do not need a credit card to invest. Just get a debit card with a Visa or Mastercard logo. I use to have a credit card while I was in college and I was making the payments on them. They start out small but gradually increase with the more you spend. If you want to be frugal, you have to understand that credit cards will only keep you broke. When I paid mine off I felt a tremendous weight leave my shoulders. Yes, the loan I took worth way more than the credit card, but in the end, the card cost me money while the loan helped me make money.

While I am not in the career of choice, (70% of all college students start in a feild outside their studies) I have earned enough through to make myself free man and debt free. And there is a bonus to this: people who live their lives without using a credit card will find themselves with more cash in the long run than with people who actually gotten credit cards. Imagine that. You want a $1,000 to use? Save it up for a "rainy day" fund. Do not spend it on stuff that goes down in value. Borrowing credit is not part of frugality-eliminate "credit" from your volcabulary. The only type of debt that is good is that which could make you wealthier, but you need to mmake sure that whatever you invest in (i.e. mortage, stocks, assets) brings you a return before you start investing in it.

5. Save: This is the final basic step to follow. You might actually start out paycheck to paycheck, but if you say then you can calculate how many pay check away from the street you are. As a side note: if you start out, you might be this far from the street. It might take you awhile to get out of this, but the more you save the more you can earn. It is like walking a tightrope at first, but saving will be the end all for people. This is the simplieststep of frugality. You put money in the bank, it stays in the bank. You do not let it leave the bank. The more it leaves the bank, the more you will lose. I do not believe in losing as a winning strategy.

Now I know you are thinking, "that's it"? But simple things are rarely simple. This is where saving becomes an art: you have to figure out how to keep the money from leaving the bank. And that is where it becomes a little tricky. If you have bills find ways to reduce them if not eliminate them. If you have investments which are not earning you a profit, get rid of them. If you have people that are asking for hand outs, ignore them--they're losers that want something for nothing.

Your homework is to make a list of things in your life that cost you money and figure out ways to reduce them. If you can reduce them or eliminate them then you will figure out one facet of personal finance-reducing costs. Bills are liabilities, so reduce them as much as possible and you will be on the path of NOT living paycheck to paycheck. If you find anything I mentioned above complicated, then there is a special little white school bus you should be taking.

If you have anything that is in your life that is considered "complicated" excluding stuff that is beyond your control like child support, I will be glad to help you for a nominal fee of $50/consultation visit. I have to charge for the complicated stuff because it is taking away time I could be using for the internet for research or working. I do not do "free". It is another word that I rarely use. Everything has a price, and so do my services.

The dollar might collaspe, due to the mis-management of the economy, but if people in Congress knew how to be frugal, then there would be no problems in the dollar, but we are a nation of spenders and our economy is being managed by spenders. You might want to think outside the box and save. Quit borrowing for expensive stuff that is above your means. Do not fall for anything that is on the ol' idiot box. I wrote a long article on saving because people obviously do not know how. Everyday people come up to me and ask me how do I do it.

Site Will Be Slowly Updated Until Further Notice

My updates will slow down until a) I get my own Internet connection or b) I get another good Wi-Fi signal near my vicinity. My apartments currently do not have Wi-fi, but I am only paying $225/month so I cannot complain. I will probably save about $1,000 more and then I will see what I will do next.

I am worried about the layoffs a little, for Sam's Club is poised to lay off 3,000 Managers. I guess the associates will run the floor. Overall our market is pretty steady so I do not think the layoffs will effect my club that much.

I plan on reading another ten books in February, so the pressure will be on me.

Chuckies Blurbs Reached 500+ Visitors

I have great news for those who have been visiting the site religiously: we have reached over 500 visitors in 2 months! Our records also show that there has been a substantial increase in visitors since December 2008. This means that the way things are going, the site will continue to grow and prosper. I wanted to produce about 25 blogs this month, but was mainly sidetracked with moving. However, I think I have at least reached one of my goals by getting more visitors to the site than last month.

To all of the dedicated fans at CB, thank you for supporting the site and a special thanks goes out to Nightrunner for suggestions and criticisms. With this recession, 2009 is going to be an interesting year at Chuckiesblurbs. That being said, I am going to finish moving and hopefully I will be able to get this site back to a regular schedule.

Chuckies Blurbs Now On Digg.com

I am just writing away today. Thought having people digg my material, would generate more viral traffic. We will see what happens with that. Stay Tuned.

Thousand Dollar Homes

Wow when you thought the housing market was done with surprises, here it comes again with $1,000 homes for sale. I could not believe my eyes when I read that. I was in awe for a brief second. If anyone wanted to make a killing renting, now would be the time to do it.

What is the catch you ask? The homes are in Flint, Michigan, one of the most run down neighborhoods in the United States. However, this is perhaps a once in a lifetime deal; this will not happen again for a very long time. These homes for the most part are what I said earlier: liens. If you want to stop giving you money away on borrowed time, it is a start. The people that are prudent with their money, will see that they could perhaps see a return on their investment should they rent out these homes at $200-300 with in 4-5 months. You will not be able to do that with a home here in Nevada. Like I said before, banks need buyers to get rid of the property. Don't believe me? Look here !!

Chuckie's Blurbs reached 300+ visitors

Yes! I am so happy about this! It has actually taken a lot of hard work to do this because it requires me to constantly update my content. Thank you everyone for the dedicated support and it is good to start the New Year off with a bang. 2008 definitely had its ups and downs, but this year I feel will be epic. There will be new challenges and obstacles to overcome. While I do tend to talk a bit about the economy and finance, it is good that I have people who actually are aware of this house of cards coming undone.

So far Barack Obama, has been doing surprisingly okay considering that the economy is in the dumps. I have to hand it to him, he has been able to quash some of the bailouts that the house was trying to pass. It is a shame that on some counts his hands are tied, mainly by judicial and legislative accounts. Rest assured, if he boo boos, I will gladly ping him on it. His handling of his seat in congress has been rather mature so I think he is off to an okay start. Our fearless leader GWB on the other hand would require me to make a separate blog devoted to his eight year history of failures, speech slips and shoe dodging.

So 300 visitors isn't a bad way to start off the New Year! If you like this blog, then please subscribe to it. I am actually hurting for subscriptions and could use regulars.

This is Spar...!!? Oh wait, that is trademarked. Keep on reading on!

Wal-Mart New Revised No Overtime Policy

Happy late New Year's everyone! While mine was just a marathon of video games, I hope you have found yours more stimulating.

Here I am going to talk about odd quicks that go along in with the retail business. And I am pretty sure it is like this at a lot of places in retail. If you want to futher educate yourself on surviving in retail. I suggest, pretending you care by Norm Feuti.

Today's odd quick is overtime. People who are working paycheck to paycheck love this little word. But at Wal-Mart/Sam's Club, it is like one of George Carlin's 7 dirty words. You know which ones :/. So if you want to engross yourself in toilet humor, Wiki it.

Overtime is considered so dirty associates and managers refer to it by OT. And they no longer used the phrase write up, they call it a coaching. Wow! Like anyone cannot see through the euphemism. Now this actually gets me a bit angry because what a lot of managers do at Sam's Club. And while they do work 50-60 hours (depending on the department), it is not going to kill someone if they have to the finishing touch at the end of someone's shift. That is why they are being paid 30-60K to finish some work that is leftover. Why do I mention this before getting into their system? Because a lot of the Cash Office Supervisors and Managers actually cause people to get more overtime for someone else's extra stuff. In fact I have gotten warned two days ago by the same manager that said he did not care about over time. (At whose expense?) While he did not say it was a verbal coaching, he implied that I could lose my job if I get more. That is not to say he is not a good manager, but I could tell he being led by the operations manager who is bent on getting anyone with a fraction of a second of OT. And there are times when customer or "members" come up to me and ask me questions. So great, if a manager forces me into OT, I could get fired, if a member forces me into OT, I could get fired. I am starting to see why retail has such a high turnover rate.

So members and managers could potentially get me fired, great. Now there is a law that is in California which now applies to Nevada's Sam's Clubs and Wal-Marts as well. For any associate that makes over $10.50, they cannot work more than 40 hrs. However, since I make less than that, I have to abide by additional clauses. For anyone making under $10.50, they cannot work more than a maximum of 8.0 hours in a day. This also means that their corporate Sun Down rules is utterly pointless.

Sun Down means that the associate must finish all tasks assigned by the end of the shift. So if there is a new task that will take thirty minutes and you only have fifteen to go, you might want to start dusting off that resume. In short, do not take on any new tasks that are not part of the job desciptor. Disreguard Sun Down, do whatever you have and just go home. While Sam Walton might frown on you, he is not around to judge you. Corporate, however, is. So for now on, if someone asks me to do something at the end of my shift, I will refuse. If they so much as ask me to do carts and I only have thirty minutes to go, I will refuse or just do some and leave seven mintues in advance (I need time to put away stuff and whatnot). Here at Sam's Club, overtime is a dirty word.

Happy New Year + Contest?

Overall it has not really been a month for me with this site, but in about 3 weeks I have seen rise, falls and rises again with traffic. Right now I am basically running this site on less than five hours a week. I say that is not bad. I will have to do something big if I reach 1,000 hits. Maybe a contest of sorts. I do not know what type of contest I will have or what type of contest it will be, but by golly, I will have one.=) Stay tuned! So at the rate the traffic is...that gives me about 3 to 4 months to prepare.

Post X-Mas Post:What to Look Foward to in 2009

Hopefully everything went well for everyone in the Holidays. Merry Christmashanakuannzaa. Now it is time to prepare for the New Year. It is now the time to awash all of the past years mistakes and start anew. It does not get any easier as we approach the anniversiery of the 1929 Great Depression. It is funny that the combination of the marginalists, cerditors and debtors were a great contribution towards the fabrication of the collaspe of the roaring 20s.

It bring another question that comes to mind. Are you recession proof. I have talked about this eariler: have you taken the steps necessary to weather it. Look at the dollar. Look at how it looks like expensive toilet paper. Now look at the penny. Did you know for every cent of currency used to make a one cent piece, it cost more than one cent to do so? That is because there are too many dollars in the system. And it is not done through the industrialization of money. No, it is fabricated and made as glue for this house of cards. And if you think the credit you take or the debt you take cannot be fabricated, ask a banker at Wells Fargo or Bank of America and they will be glad to further educate you on the values of staying out of debt.

I hate to talk to people like little kids, but considering my old job at Sierra Kids, I have no problem to do so. For every 10-20K you borrow from Chase or Morgan Stanley, makes them richer because one they are collecting adjusted interest aka fabricated money for the purpose of collecting debt. Meaning they make their share out of sharing fake money. It is all digital, it is fallible, it is fiat. Fiat is based upon having a current monetary value based upon trust. If trade and relations go bad in the country with this "system" then you might as well call it toilet paper.

In short mathematics if 1 U.S. Dollar = a unit of fiat and if fiat = 1 unit of toilet paper then it is safe to say that 1 U.S. Dollar = 1 unit of Toilet Paper. Well now we all know we can upgrade from Charmin if we need to. Meaning that if you so wish, you can begin to wipe your bottom with the U.S. Dollar.

So what can we do in order to previal from a failing currency? Nothing.
Let that sink in for awhile. There is nothing that a Obama or a Clinton or a Greenspan can do. America has already hit the iceberg. We need change, or better yet a new currency to falll upon. Wait, why not an old currency? One that will stand the test of time? One that the dollar used to be backed by?

What about the elements Au and Ag. For those of you who find chemistry a bore, I wil put it in historical perpective. America's currency was backed by this, so was Japan's along with Switzerlands, the Romans back it with this along with the Greeks. China was also the main pirate of these elements, these metals. Metal should strike a chord with some of you and I do not mean AC/DC. What I am talking about is Gold and Silver. It has always stood the test of time and it has always been there to back the currency. It made currency current. In Zimbabwe, they have expiration dates on their currency. Would you like to see your dollar have the same or would you like to be protected against spoiled fiat.

The year 2009, will be the greatest time for us as a nation. It will create and break communities. All of this has been done with Richard Nixon, but we usher in not an era of trust but an era of turmoil. The solution is to eliminate fabricated currency and go back to an era of hard currency. It has yet to fail for thousands of years, why change now? While yes I have been blogging about Nintendo Wiis and Acer laptops, everyone needs some form of entertainment. What people do not know though is that entertainment has been in the form of silver and gold laced microchips. So this is another reason to buy gold and silver; they will always have a use.

Since the leaders of today are total creme puffs compared to a Roosevelt or a Jackson, we need to scramble to the life boats or go down with the ship. I have my boat ready. how about you?

Electronic and Jewelery Promo Commencing Tomorrow

Ok, so I got my days off early, that just means I have to work seven consecutive days for a jewelry and electronics promo. There will be a sales promo going on in the electronics department between the 18th to the 24th. Sam's Club is one of the few places I know with a liberal return policy. It is that very policy that costs us to be in the red with electronics. I have to say that this is mainly due to members, abusing the system, but I am going to go ahead and talk about why it is so easily abused.

1. TV's at Sam's club have a 6 month refund policy. Meaning you can literally use and abuse your tv and bring it back with no questions asked. I do not know any other store that can get away with this like Sam's Club. This is only because Sam's Club boasts of having several different memberships, but in order to keep those memberships, they have to cater to abrupt stupidity.

2. Everything gets returned with almost no questions asked. All you have to do is raise your voice at Membership and they will cowtow to you and happilly accept your exchange. Have 160GB I pod that you do not like? No problem, exchange it with no problem. Have a 52" Plama TV that you personally dropped on the way home? No problem! Sam's Club does not really care.

Anyways back to the promo. The details on the promo are sort of hush hush. Meaning you will have to find a Courtesy Clerk to get any of the juice on it. More than likelly the promo items featured will be 19" LCDs, Nintendo DS Promo packs, Nintendo Wii promo packs, Sony PSP promo packs, Laptops (Maybe the Acer will be back) along with rings and corsets. Remember if you do not anything there, it can be exchanged with no questions asked.