The Slacker Method for Building a Nest Egg
Posted by Jacques - January 31, 2009
Saving money for the future can be a tough thing. Especially if most of our energies are focused on the present. If the world stopped tomorrow, would you think to yourself, gee, I wish I had spent more time on my budget?
While I certainly don’t condone forgoing financial planning, it can easily become an obsession. For me, I want to create it once, and then revisit it annually. In between those times, I want nothing to do with it.
Another problem with building nest eggs is that people tend to overdo it. While I agree more people need to save more than save less, we have to be careful to not let it affect our lives. Afterall, money is a symbol of time and power. We want to use it to our advantage, to make our lives and the lives of others meaningful and enjoyable. Too often people become slaves to their 401ks and IRAs without realizing how much of their lives they have sacrificed in order to retire. But what is retirement really? That’s another article.
Here are some easy tips for building your future.
Continue reading The Slacker Method for Building a Nest Egg…
Slacker Method for Getting Ready for Work Faster
Posted by Jacques - January 26, 2009
Ultimately, a good slacker would find a way to go to work in sneakers and a T, or better yet, not go to work at all. However, for the rest of us, how we spend the ten minutes after hitting the snooze for the second time are the most crucial for keeping our jobs.
Here are some tips that have helped me to save more time in the morning, cutting my 30 minute routine into 5 minutes. Anotherwords, here are some tips that will let you sleep in longer.
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Slacker Method for Measuring Without a Ruler
Posted by Jacques - January 22, 2009
Okay so we’ve all been there, needing to measure something without a handy dandy ruler in our pocket. Not to mention that for those of us who have problems estimating size, guessing is not an option. Yeah, you thought those Christmas lights would plug in, didn’t you?
The problem is that we don’t always have the tools for the job on hand. We can’t always carry them around because they may be bulky and we’ll never know when we actually need them. The trick is to work with what you have, and with a little bit of brain power, we can make it go a long way.
Continue reading Slacker Method for Measuring Without a Ruler…
Book Giveaway Winners!
Posted by Jacques - January 19, 2009
First of all, I want to thank everyone who took to the time to explain their inspiration. Some of you went above and beyond the call of duty and I wish I could give you all free books. I’m going to make this short and sweet. I was only going to give away one copy of each book but after reading some of the entries, I wanted to buy one more copy of The Power of Less. Here are the winners of The Power of Less, The Money Book, and The 4 Hour Work Week Giveaway. Also, I want to thank Leo Babauta taking the time to congratulate the winners of his book. You can find his latest post here.
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Brighthouse Roadrunner High Speed Internet Outage
Posted by Jacques - January 19, 2009
Normally I am a very calm guy but today I had to get some things done before I celebrate my first anniversary. I go online to read the comments and prepare the post for tonight’s winners and I find out that I can’t get to my website. In fact, I can’t even get to Google. For some odd reason I could get to Craigslist and the Brighthouse homepage and nothing else.
Again, I’m a fairly technical guy but far from a guru. I pull up my windows command prompt, make sure my router’s okay, I ping all my network devices. Then I run a tracert and see that just a few hops away, the connection is not getting through to my websites. I figure something is wrong with the Brighthouse pipelines.
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Slacker Method for Keeping Air Clean
Posted by Jacques - January 17, 2009
There are three really important things that your body needs to survive. Studies have shown that you can live for 4-6 weeks without food. If it’s water you’re missing, than you might last a week depending on the temperature. But without air, you will not be able to count more than a few minutes before suffering permanent brain death. And it isn’t just any air, it’s good quality air that we need. Ever heard of the Canary in the Coal Mine? Bad air can kill you.
Your body needs quality air to function properly. At worst, poor quality can cause permanent damage to your lungs, make you feel sick, and best, lower your efficiency and energy. Dirty air and smog can cause all sorts of brain damage, cancer, and athsma. Also, contaminants in the air can go directly to your bloodstream as it piggy backs on the oxygen which is exchanged through your alveoli. Don’t forget the many countless battles that people with allergies fight on a daily basis. This is why it is absolutely imperative that you always have clean air. Continue reading Slacker Method for Keeping Air Clean…
Life Changing Authors Meet and Free Book Giveaway
Posted by Jacques - January 16, 2009
1/19/09 The winners have been announced.
This month, two authors that have had the greatest influence on my life met together and discussed their basic philosophies. It is a pleasure and a treat for me to be able to witness them interact with each other as I have learned so much from both of them. Earlier in January, Tim Ferris author of The Four Hour Work Week blog interviewed Leo, and then just yesterday, Leo interviewed Tim Ferris and posted the audio on his blog Zen Habits. Again, this was a treat for me, and I was excited to see them recognize each other for their great contributions. Leo for showing us how wonderful it is to live our lives simply, and Tim for how much we can accomplish if we focus and streamline.
Today, I am offering their books, The Power of Less (Hardcover) by Leo Babauta and The 4 Hour Work Week (Hardcover) by Tim Ferris. Also another author that has inspired me to do more with my money is Suze Orman. I will be giving away her book too, The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous & Broke. These books will absolutely change your life.
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Slacker Method for Completing Your First Triathlon: Part 2
Posted by Jacques - January 15, 2009Slacker Method for Completing Your First Triathlon Series
Continued from Slacker Method for Completing Your First Triathlon: Part 1
Here’s what I think about the excuses.
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I hate training and don’t have enough time to do it.
Then don’t train. Have fun doing some of the physical activities you love! I’m going to be going to the beach to toughen my feet, get used to open water, and karaoke to expand my lung capacity.
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Tri-athlons are too difficult.
The Tri-athlon I’m doing is a sprint distance. It’s 400 yard swim, 9 mile bike, and 2 mile run. 400 yards is about 5 laps in a junior Olympic size pool. The bike portion can be done on a beach cruiser if you really want to, and the running portion can be walked. Difficulty is not an excuse.
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I’m too old or unhealthy.
B.S. Look at the lady from Part 1. Go check out a triathlon in progress and look at the people in the middle of the pack, they’re all shapes, sizes, and age levels. There’s probably senior citizens out there that you will never come close to their time. Continue reading Slacker Method for Completing Your First Triathlon: Part 2…
Slacker Method for Completing Your First Triathlon: Part 1
Posted by Jacques - January 13, 2009
First of all Triathlons are never going to be “easy.” And if you’re an experienced Triathlete then I wouldn’t bother reading this. But for those of you who have thought year after year that you were going to complete one and didn’t then this is something you should read.You can do it. I know you can. I’m going to set out to prove that an average person can complete a Triathlon and wipe away all the excuses that people have through this series. In fact, I’m not going to do any traditional Tri training. I’m going to read, learn some theory, go to the beach, sing some karaoke, and bike to work. That’s my training and people like 88 year old Mary Stroebe to the right are my inspiration.
Last weekend, I ran a test Tri-athlon. Granted, I didn’t go at the same pace that I would in a real race, but I got a feeling for the distance, and boosted my confidence by completing it.
What about the excuses? Well here they are, and I’m going to have a think about it and come back to explain how they be overcome.
- I don’t have enough time to train.
- Tri-athlons are too difficult.
- I’m too old or unhealthy.
- I don’t know anything about them.
- I suck at running/swimming/cycling.
- I can’t afford the equipment.
- I’m going to finish in the back.
The Muse Stops by For a Chat
Posted by Jacques - January 10, 2009
Jill Badonsky of The Muse Is In stopped by for a chat. During her visit, I was able to ask her a few questions and learn more about some of the cool things that she has going on. She was also kind enough to provide a copy of today’s page from her book, The Awe-Manac. I picked this book up at Barnes and Noble, and if you’re a fan of inspiration and creativity, then this is the book to get. If anything, you have to visit her website to take a look at some of her artwork. Below is our discussion which you can find on her blog.Jacques from www.theslackermethod.com is the second stop on The Awe-manac Blog Tour: Take a look at his site… there’s lots of fun, interesting and practical pieces of wisdom there and today’s Awe-manac page is posted there. (It may be up this evening as Jacques is a busy Slacking).
Jacques: The first question I want to ask is, who does all the cool artwork on your website?!
Jill: Hi Jacques. I do the art work at www.themuseisin.com . My friend, Jeff Kahn, animated the illustration on the front page with Flash. Thanks for calling it cool. The Awe-manac has over 400 of my llustrations in it.
Jacques: Let’s address this book you have out in stores, The Awe-manac. Why do we want it, and Where do we get it?
Jill: Well, in Slacker terms, this would be a one-stop read for people who want a convenient place to get a dose of daily humor, a creativity prompt, a glimpse of history for the day, a little inspiration, a view of some art that was sometimes done on the fly, and a book heavy enough to press flowers when you’re not reading it.The reports I’m getting from the people who HAVE bought The Awe-manac is that it is a lot of fun and they are having a hard time reading just one page at a time, but don’t take my word. There are some great testimonials at www.amazon.com
January 10, 2009 | In Interviews and Reviews | 1 Comment
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