Note: This podcast may be defunct seeing as there have been no new episodes since September.  However, David’s name is well known and there is a good chance people will respect his advice if the show comes back online.

Name:David Bach’s FinishRich Minute
Host(s): David Bach
podcast file type(s): mp3
Average File Size(s): 1MB
Average Length: 1 minute
Format (single concept, multiple concepts, multi-format): single concept
Production Quality (excellent, good, acceptable, bad): excellent
Type of Content (practical content, philosophical content): practical content starting with an advertisement and then giving a short bit
Site URL: http://www.finishrich.com/db_minisite/finishrichminute.php
Feed URL(s): http://www.bigcontact.com/finishrichminute/rss
Subjective Review:
David’s material is well known, but I have somehow never really read his material.  The concept behind these podcasts is to give people a short little tidbit of financial advice so that they can do something quick and hopefully accomplish something in a financially savvy way.  The shortness of this material makes it hard for me to recommend.  Sure, a short podcast is easier to follow than a longer podcast, but I prefer a bit more depth.  Each podcast also pitches another product from David that costs money.  This is more about advertising than it is about your real personal finance well being.

Context:  I listened to four podcasts dated from 9/25/2007, 9/27/2007, another 9/27/2007 and 10/1/2007 on 1/29/2008

Name: American Public Marketplace
Host(s): Kai Ryssdal
Podcast file type(s): MP3
Average File Size(s): 13.3MB
Average Length: 28 minutes
Format (single concept, multiple concepts, multi-format): Multiple concepts: introduction summary, news summary, news segments
Production Quality (excellent, good, acceptable, bad): Excellent
Type of Content (practical content, philosophical content): This is a radio show being re-used as a podcast
Site URL: http://www.marketplace.org
Feed URL(s): http://marketplace.publicradio.org/tools/rss/rundown.php?show_id=14
Subjective Review:

This podcast/radio show is only partially oriented towards personal finance. The subject matter tends to vary between business news, personal finance influencing news, and world market news. Its not a podcast for the person looking for very practical day-to-day information, but instead is good for the person trying to keep a big picture view on world financial news. I don’t really enjoy this sort of news program on a personal level because some of the recorded story bits included audio clips and sound bites with no context. It made the credibility of the assertions a little lower to me.

The audio clips between the different segments had some nice music, but that’s probably not the best reason to listen to a financially oriented podcast. A few of the audio segments carried some political persuasion and I would caution various listeners to be discerning if they subscribe.

Context: I listened to the following dated shows: 01/25/2008, 01/24/2008, 01/23/2008, 01/22/2008 in one day.

Last night, and the night before, and the night before that I was up until past midnight.  Working.  You see I’m attempting to wrap up two side-jobs in an attempt to pay off debt faster.  Faster than I would be able to pay them off if I was just working for my normal big client.  It eats into family time.  It eats into time to do things like blog on the many blogs I have (I’m rather embarrassed to say I have five), it eats into time that I have committed to doing other things like Sunday School preparation.  But I’m focused on doing it because I’ve got to get it done.

Dave Ramsey calls it Gazelle-like intensity, I call it focus, and the reality of things is that if you don’t have the drive to get out of debt, you’ll simply be in it for a lot, lot longer than you would otherwise.  Possibly thousands down the tube in interest payments and weird fees.  My buddy worked 90 hours a week for about six weeks to get the major thrust of his debt paid off.  I can’t manage that due to various limitations on my body, but it was the very same drive to have the debt behind me that pushes me to work extra side-jobs.  There’s no reason not to just dive in and get it done.  Yes, it will cost you time and friend and family time in the short term, but it may gain you that back afterwards and if you add financial liberty to free time… you’ve got something.

I was just exercising.  For the first time in weeks if not months.  It is the first of two ways that I’m failing myself right now.  The second way I’m failing myself right now is by not being robotic about my finances.  By robotic I don’t mean to take the personal out of personal finances, but by cutting corners where I should be consistent every single day.

By not exercising I’m increasing health risks, allowing my heart to be weaker, letting my body potentially gain weight (though I have not ballooned over my holidays), and generally allowing myself to fall into a pattern of laziness.  If I exercise regularly the benefits are myriad and I usually feel better throughout the day.  Its a no-brainer, but I’m also feeling lower emotional motivation.  My wife can workout for two hours a day, seven days a week and enjoy it.  I work out once a day and its a miracle.  This isn’t a late new years resolution, I just need to be disciplined in principle.

Of course my second area of failure also shows a sign of lack of discipline.  I can blog regularly, and I think about my finances regularly, but it is easy for me to let things slide here and there so that my bills are paid on time, just not earlier than they could be.  I need to send finances to charities/individuals/ministries I support (which I will do once this post is published - if you’re reading this, the money has been sent).  I just put it off a little bit here and there, but it adds up.

I’m going to take control today and see what I can’t accomplish over the next week in discipline.

I arrived back from the West coast today at the Denver International Airport around 2:30.   A family trip mixed with a vacation that was all cash based.  We had to sell some stuff online and cash in some frequent flyer miles to get the whole family there, but it cost us what we could afford to go on the trip.  A vacation like this is something I would have scoffed at just a year ago simply because our finances were such a jumbled mess.  We got to spend some time with family and with that family we got to go see some beautiful wildlife - and Mt. St. Helens which erupted the weekend before we visited it.

We ate some stellar food at the Red Rooster Bakery, Mo’s Chowder, and contributed cash into the family’s grocery budget to eat crab [we had a connection that got us the crab at dirt cheap prices like $4.00/pound for huge legs], pork crown roast, and had a fantastic time.  The whole time was fun, low stress, and since it was all with money we had in the bank I had no fears of what the next month’s statements would look like.  This trip was a mix of frugality where needed and some splurging in places to make sure that some coastal events were maximized.  Let’s face it, sea food at restaurants is just expensive (barring Long John Silver’s and such).

To her credit, my wife did a great job of planning out the trip, finding great airline deals,finding a hotel that was low cost, but with great amenities for us in Newport, OR.  What sites do you use to make sure you’re getting the best deal on trips, travel and vacation?  I’d love to be able to add to resources she has [which I'll make sure to get to post here].

There’s a reason why money is taboo: its often very, very, very personal.  This weekend as I was taking a walk down my in-law’s neighbor’s dirt road I saw this sign: Private, Dead End.  I didn’t actually trespass in case anyone was worried that I saw the sign, took a picture and kept walking.  What I was thinking about as I took this picture is that personal finance is private on one level or another.  At some point in time you are more than likely going to draw the line between what is acceptable to communicate to others, and what is not public knowledge.

Where do you draw the line?  I personal don’t speak of my income to various people I work with, but some family members know that information.  I have been timid to share the actual amount of debt we have or how much I pay in taxes on this blog and pretty much everywhere else I’m speaking about personal finances - again, a few family members know.  One thing I’ve been able to perceive about this - private or not - is that as a personal finance blogger I don’t feel comfortable dumping out everything I’m thinking or doing just to be open.  I would much rather present principles that are useful than numbers which may help you gauge where I’m at, but not communicate the concepts which matter.

My personal financial state isn’t where I’d like it to be - and I’m assuming that unless you’re a billionaire, you, too, are working on improving your financial state.  I’m reducing debt, preparing to understand more about investment opportunities and generally trying to be wise with my family’s finances.  I tend to be a very open person, in the past it has gotten me into a discussion with my wife about being too open, but when it comes to personal finance I’m not concerned about your numbers.  I don’t want to know them.  I do want to know what your operating principles are, though, so let me know where you draw the line with sharing personal finance information.

What if you lose everything that makes you financially wealthy? I am going to explore some of this in a video podcast soon, but I wanted to share a story I heard recently that just hit this point home. I know a person who had a tremendous job that promised above average income and a whole list of benefits - but that job came at a cost: it began to affect his relationships.

A time came when the financial pursuits and the relational pursuits had come to a very strong and intense decision making point. The person had to ask himself: what matters most? The way he put it was very powerful: if you lose something and it hurts, you’ve given it priority. The question that he had to ask himself was whether or not his priorities were right.

His story ended well because he was able to continue to earn a solid income, and maintain his relationships as well as strengthen them. This isn’t always the case, but you need to be prepared to let go of what doesn’t matter - and as much as this blog is about personal finance money should not be your number one priority.

Apparently MSN thinks that spending all of your income means you’re middle-class.  Or at least that is the picture painted in this piece of journalism.  My sister sent me that link and she was aghast at the stupidity of the content there.  Watch the video, if you can stomach it.  There is such a prevalent mindset that ‘having’ is middle-class.  Instead lets ditch the class system and go for accountability.  Class is about stuff, but we’re not concerned with stuff.  If you read various books like “Millionaire Mindset” you’ll see that there are plenty of ‘middle-class’ looking folks who are actually very, very wealthy, they’ve just figured out how to be wealthy by spending less than they make and investing the rest wisely.

Don’t spend as much or more than you make, making more later will just be more to spend.  Instead, start early, start often, and start saving.  I don’t watch Oprah regularly, but I do remember an interview of her where she said that her dad told her to save half of her income… and she has.  And now she’s a multi-billionaire.  You don’t get there from spending, you get there from saving.  Save the ‘middle class’ by saving, not spending.

Trent over at the Simple Dollar wrote a great post clarifying the benefits of staying at home with your children.  Its got a comment discussion going on that is useful, too.  Go Read: The Real Value of Stay At Home Parenting.  I would strongly suggest that there are emotional benefits for the kids and parent that are invaluable as well.

This article is being ‘dugg’ right now.  I think it is sane advice for people getting divorced, but the truth of the matter is that I would really hate for anyone to get a divorce outside of some pretty intense problems.  There is, however, one good piece of advice, and that is that if you do get a divorce: sell the house.  Sell it.  Move into two places, split any equity and be done with it.  Doing anything else will more than likely cause greater contention.

Of course the best choice is to not get a divorce and to seek good, sound, balanced and biblical marriage counseling.  By not getting married, as one commenter suggested, you’ll just set yourself up for other legal problems.  I’m aware of at least one person right now who is in a legal case with someone that they lived with - and that person was booted from the house and is now suing for stupid little tiny things amounting to over ten grand.  No marriage, no divorce, but still legal dumbness (and the guy who got booted was surely dumb for a lot of reasons, but I’m not going down that path).

Its unfortunately sane advice on that post, but its got to be a sad state of affairs for things to get to that point.