Your Financial Life

Posted on November 30, 2009 by venagozar

Money or the lack thereof is one of the biggest frustrations in most people’s lives. Recent studies have shown that besides the frustration we bring upon ourselves using our own money management system, when it comes to relationships and shared moneys we have a tendency to share our money with our opposites.

I wish I had a magic idea that would clear up the money dilemma, but I do not. All I can suggest is each side of a money debate work towards moving more towards the center line for the sake of both parties. The spender needs to adjust to the idea, that having money in the checking account on payday is okay. It is even better if it is moved to savings, but that is another step. For the frugal one, spending a little more saving a little less will not generally lead to financial catastrophe.

money What I can suggest and perhaps it is a new thought for you if you are struggling with your finances, whether your own money, or the family money pool, is to look at what can be done differently. Being willing to look at finances from a different perspective may provide that needed nudge to the center of the spending chart where you are living within your means, but still having fun with your life.

I focus on three different areas of my life that need to be taken care of financially. Finding a proper balance between these three areas does not mean that life suddenly is wonderful and there is money to throw around, but life is easier. Finding a proper balance means that life may not be a spending spree, not having to work forever is somewhere down the road.

First and foremost, I believe the most important financial focus is your retirement age. Determine while you are young at what age do you want to retire at. Be an optimist, but also take into consideration your schooling and your ability to generate money. If you have no education and few prospects, retiring at forty is probably not going to happen. If you have won a mega lottery, you can do whatever you wish within reason.

Secondly, you have to decide on your life style. Determine what type of lifestyle you can be happy with. Some people are happy with very little and some people want it all. All of us find ourselves somewhere in between. No one can have it all, and no one reading this is in much danger of finding themselves with nothing, and no possibility of improving.

Finally, but not least, a decision needs to be made on what you are willing to accept in the way of food and shelter. While most financial advice puts food and shelter as a higher priority, it does not need to be. When one is sleeping, there is little difference between a thousand dollar mattress, and a pile of blankets, as long as you sleep well it does not matter. The same goes for food. You may wish to eat steak and lobster three meals a week, but oatmeal and beans serve the body as well if not better than more expensive eating may.

The reason I choose retirement as the first option is not obvious if you are young and starting out on your life. If you are like most people starting out in life, you do not want to work, but you need to make a living until you can retire. The age you can retire at if you can afford to retire at all in many cases is determined by how you spend your lifetime earning between now and the day you set for retirement.

Having a nice place to live, flashy cars, and spending money on wants instead of needs is fun, it definitely effects your retirement age. If you choose to retire at fifty, and you have an average job, buying a flashy new car and making payments, does not build up the money you need to be able to experience life at fifty and retired. Walking, riding a bicycle, or taking a bus is more in line with making transportation as cheap as you can.

We should choose daily what we want for our life. We can live on the edge now, and risk everything for the moment, or choose to have less now to have more in the future. What is your retirement worth to you when you? What is your life style worth ? What is what you eat and where you live worth?

Thankful On Turkey Day In 09

Posted on November 25, 2009 by venagozar

It is almost the day of thanks in America. Thanksgiving is one of many days when I really look for those things I am thankful for that I may not think about often. It is good to be thankful for health, wealth or sustenance and family though there is so much more to life than that.

In my life, I have a lot of coincidences. How these coincidences come about is another matter, and not my intent here. A most recent example is a book I was looking for that I purchased and read a few years ago. At the time the subject matter was a curiosity for me. Now a few years later life has worked itself around to where the book is worth a re-read for me. I could not find it. I checked my bookshelves, I checked the books that I had placed in a box, put away for some future time and date. The book was nowhere to be found.

I decided I had lent out the book, or it grew feet and walked out the door. I thought I would try the library for a copy when I found time. I came home from work one day last week and there was the book next to my computer desk chair. All I can think of is my two cats for whatever reason were playing or searching for something in the area and pushed it out from its hiding place while on their quest. I am grateful for coincidences.

I mentioned in a previous post(s), but I spent some time in the military over seas. One Holiday in particular stands out in my memory. It was cool damp winter night and I was in a gate shack, the lone one man team on a deserted stretch of flight line. Around the middle of my duty the food panel van arrives. I thought a nice hot turkey dinner was on its way. I could not quite identify what it was I ate, but it was not hot, barely warm, and tasted pretty bland. I was feeling pretty sorry for myself until that spring when I overheard some visiting Army guy talk about his cold canned rations that comprised his Easter dinner a week earlier while he sat in a wet hole that passed for a bunker. Listening to him improved whatever it was I ate that holiday night immensely. I am thankful for having the opportunity for hot meals whenever I am hungry.

When I left the military in the early nineties, I was viewed by some as little better than a pan handler who saw the light and became a responsible citizen.

These days many people taking time from their lives to thank returning soldiers for their sacrifices. I am thankful that todays soldiers are recognized for the sacrifices they make and have made so our life can continues in whatever manner we deem right for us. I am thankful for the reception veterans receive these days. I am thankful for their sacrifices too. Unless you have served and gone over seas, it is hard to understand the price our folks in the service pay why we go on with our lives.

maime I am thankful for those people who have lives filled with struggle and tragedy. They not only show me how to thrive and survive my own struggles, but also show me no matter how bad things are life could always be worse. Some people live their lives with emotional, physical, and other forms of debilitating problems and they learn how to succeed in spite of their handicaps. I am thankful for the depth and quality of their spirits to never give up.

Last, but not least, I am grateful for emergency services. The policemen, firemen, emergency room people, and utility workers. They venture where few mere mortals want to go. If ever I need their help, I am thankful in advance that they will do everything in their control to help me, not knowing anything about me, and not caring because I am a fellow human being. If ever I could feel empathy and passion as they do.

One last thought, if it were not for all the people who donate their time and energy, I would be writing this in a paper journal. I am thankful they have their passion. I am thankful you took the time to read this.

Common Holdem Mistakes

Posted on November 21, 2009 by venagozar

Playing Holdem last evening, I realized, as I do every session, how bad most people play at low limit Holdem. It never ceases to amaze me how people will go without to scrape together enough money to sit down to play a few hours of poker, and almost literally throw their money away.

What is even worse or better depending on your viewpoint is everything they do is mentioned over and over in almost any poker book you pick up off the shelf. Yet many players appear to think they have an immunity, or it does not apply to them.

I thought I would mention three of the major absolutely silly errors I watch Holdem players make hand after hand, session after session, year after year. Even if no one has even read a Holdem book, or played Holdem anywhere but the kitchen table, they have seen others commit these same errors frequently.

First and foremost for throwing your away money department is the weak ace. A weak Ace is an Ace with any other card in your starting hand that does not help your hand such as A, 6 off suit. While the Ace itself is a powerful card in Holdem, one lone Ace is not going to win any pots.

It is almost a given in any round of play, someone is calling a bet with an Ace and any second card. What happens when an Ace shows up on the flop? Everyone who is breathing and does not hold an Ace checks. The person holding that lone naked Ace is feeling pretty tough because they hold the Ace, so they bet out.

In a typical low limit game almost everyone of course calls that bet. On the turn someone will bet out, but the lone Ace player has already been stacking chips in their mind, and they convince themselves the bet or raise is a weak attempt to push them off of ‘their pot’. They usually always call. The river arrives, and the lone Ace is still there only to be shown a two pairs hand or better, or Ace with a bigger second card.

Jackson Five

Blinds are another big chip loser. No matter how you play your blinds, over the long haul they are not a good spot to willingly be throwing more chips into the pot. Holdem players being optimists when it comes to their blinds have invented cute sayings of why it is okay to complete a small blind bet, or call a raise in the big blind.

How many times a session do you hear, “I am calling because of the half in rule”? How about, “I can call a raise because of pot odds.” When your hand is not good enough to call a bet from any other position it certainly is not any better because you are in a blind.

Speaking of pot odds, how many Holdem players are playing absolute junk because they have three players in the pot before them, and they know at least one more will call after them? Playing junk cards even if you are ‘changing gears’ in general, is a terrible idea.

Most of the table has no idea what gear you were in to start with, so changing gears does not matter one iota. I watched a player recently win five out of six hands and never looked at his hand until the river. Hardly no one is paying attention to you and your play.

Fortunately for those few players at the table trying to learn the game and play well, these players making these same plays hand after hand, week after week are the players who keep the game going. While it is easy to look down on their poor play, and become angry enough to make some rude comment when their Q, 2 off suit drags in your pot because your pair of Aces did not get any help, remember they keep the game going.

Truth is, these players are not as stupid as many players like to believe. If they were that stupid they would not have the excess cash to play Holdem in a Card room to start with. Not every on sits down at a poker table to win money. Many players sit down to have fun knowing they are going to lose their buy in. Some want to take one or two pots away from you with terrible cards.

If all Holdem players did come to play good solid poker, your opportunity to sit down almost any hour of the night or day would be gone. One final poker truth for this post: You could print this out and give out copies at the table where you sit down, and all players will try to play correctly for about twenty minutes or so, then it is back to business as usual.

Learning How To Be Grateful

Posted on November 19, 2009 by venagozar

Being grateful is a state of mind and a learned habit. Some people of course are naturally grateful, though the rest of us have to learn how. Once you teach yourself to see the magic in the world, and learn to appreciate what you observe you are well on your way to living a grateful happy life.

I was not raised to be a grateful person. Gratefulness was only mentioned in negatives. “Eat that food, do you know how many children are starving around the world?” “Do you know how long I worked for that?” “Do you know what I had to sacrifice for you…” That was my introduction to being grateful. How can anyone learn how to be grateful for being alive when gratefulness is wrapped in negativity.

Like anyone else I enjoyed some things in my life. For the most part enjoying something in my life was more of an observation, and not any realization of how special those things were in my life. Until they were gone, of course. Then the full weight of how special something was in my life weighed on me. The death of a family member, a pet, or a friend moving away. Only after the fact did I realize how important those people and animals were in my life.

grateful1 Growing up, I saw sunsets, sunrises, thunderheads, snow storms, mountains, and misty lakes in the early morning. All sights that make anyone think how lucky they are to be alive and be present in the moment. But being grateful was not part of my feelings. After all the mountains did not move, the sun rose every day, and snow fell every winter.

It was not until much later I heard someone say something that showed me there was more to life than observing what was important in my life. It was not directly related to being grateful, but started me down the path. I was fortunate to be introduced to a unique person. He was always happy, and he had a magic about him. He was Mason, but I know that was not it, because I knew other Masons and they were not like him.

I overheard him one day after relating a frustrating experience when trying to make a deal on a few cars he was trying to sell. The deal had gone sour, and rather than being bitter or frustrated, after telling the story, he smiled and said, “I sure like people”. Like people, I thought, some guy just took away your income for the month, and you say, “I like people”?

I heard him repeat the same phrase, “I like people”, a number of times while I knew him. One day I asked him why he said that all the time. He told me that he had a choice when things did not go right. He could be bitter and feel like he was not getting his fair share, or he could be grateful for the opportunity to have the experience and learn from it. He said he chose to appreciate the experience and learn from it.

I thought about what he was saying, and decided if he was so happy with his life, and he could be grateful even when plans went awry, there must be something to it. I started to think of one thing each day I was grateful for. At first it was hard to think of anything, as my world seemed so dull. Over time I learned how to be grateful, and allowed gratefulness into my life.

Here was my day of gratefulness thoughts from yesterday. Alarm goes off at 05:00. Not already, I am tired, maybe I should call in sick. My bed is nice and warm. My bed is nice and warm because I have a job that pays me enough to afford a place to live and heat. It’s freezing out here in my truck. At least I am alive and able to feel the cold. Every work day, a cook is in the cafe to make my breakfast. I sure am lucky to be able to afford to eat a hot meal for lunch. It’s late, I am tired, and I want to go home. I am fortunate to have a job I can get tired at.

And so it goes. As you can tell I am not a shining beacon of gratefulness, but I am getting better at it. As you allow yourself to change what and how you think, being grateful becomes easier, and life’s magic shows itself more often. One more short thought for gratefulness. I am grateful you took time to read this when there are other things you could be doing instead!

Excel At Your Job And Love It

Posted on November 15, 2009 by venagozar

In two earlier posts on pride in the workplace, I wrote about some obvious reasons why having pride in your work, not only makes you a more valuable employee, but workplace pride also is a reflection of how one’s personal life is managed. If you are managing your personal life well, keeping everything moving the way you want it to move is reflected in how you perform your job. The opposite is also true.

There are other reasons for having pride in your job which many people do not appreciate because they never thought about from a different perspective. The more pride in your job, the more pay attention to the small things. Huge financially devastating lawsuits have happened over neglect of minor details.

at work Attention to minor details while you are working is noticed by your boss when they compare the quality of your work to that of your peers. It is the little things that get noticed by your boss as the big things take care of themselves. Your boss may see you cleaning up your work area, or taking care of something that needs to be done others have ignored. It is a good idea to make it a point to be seen doing little extras things others ignore.

What about when you are walking to your job. I have observed an untold number of people who think they are too important to bend over and pick up a piece of paper in their path ten feet from a trash can. I have seen heads of business, who make more in a restroom break than many people make an hour, take the time to stoop over and pick up an errant piece of paper on the ground on their way to the building entrance.

I was taught by a dinner chef, that it is the little things that hurt a business. Someone not paying attention to what they are doing with food could result in a correctly unhappy customer. Or worse, a handful of people become sick as a result of improper food handling procedures. A few unhappy customers can easily destroy years of building a good reputation.

One of the noted restaurants in town who enjoyed the major market share in their specialty, were discovered to be reserving food from picked up plates. This happened not once but twice in a short period. The company almost folded because their reputation lost through greed and neglect. Whatever the person who started reserving food thought they were saving in expenses, was not as much as long term customers who never returned to that establishment.

If you are in sales such as sales in a clothing store, a little pride and two simple things you can improve both your image and increase sales more than you have previously managed. All you need to do is look busy and smile. It does not matter if you redo something you did ten minutes earlier. Your customers appreciate the fact that you stopped doing whatever you were doing to help them a lot more than if you were standing frowning in the corner, and then come striding over to see what they want. As a customer, who are you more likely to ask for help, someone who looks like they are doing something who stopped to see if you need assistance, or someone who is standing in a corner looking bored staring at the floor.

These are only a few ideas of many that are available for you to use in your workplace. The sad truth is most of us think we are worth more than we are being paid, and we try to make up the difference by doing less. Reality is different; doing more has a better chance of balancing the scales of work verses pay than loafing will.

If you work with the public doing more has even higher dividends. It is quite possible that each and every day someone who your wait on or help is looking for an employee. While they can read resumes and listen to self promotion pitches all day long, another saying applies, “Actions speak louder than words”. You never know if the next person who sees you doing something extra will be your next employer. If they are who do you want them to see, you working with pride, or you loafing around, doing as little as possible.

Even when it seems that those little extra things you do are not helping you, they really are. Making it a habit to do those little extra things in your present job, is on the job training for your, “Real Job”. Take advantage of every opportunity to learn how to be effective for the future. While you are practicing, you will start taking more pride in your present job too. You boss will notice too, and perhaps you will be stepping out ahead of your coworkers and winning the next opportunity for advancement or more pay.

Taking Pride In Your Work

Your Job Is Your Life

Holdem Bets are Only A Few Dollars

Posted on November 12, 2009 by venagozar

The Education Of A Poker Player by Herbert Yardley, is an old book, now available in pdf format for anyone who wants to search it out and read it. Yardley as I remember, looks at poker for what it really is, a way to part people from their money. Low Limit Holdem poker does this very well to a surprising number of people.

A common mistake in low limit Holdem poker game whether live or online, is confusing the amount of the stakes with the game level. Holdem poker is structured in some form of small bet, big bet structure. When the stakes are low to play, it is easy to think, it is only: fill in whatever level you think of as small here – and either put out our chips or click the bet/call/raise button. Yardley would jumping with joy over your thinking, as that is one of the building blocks of his book as I remember it. Yardley promotes manipulating players to become comfortable losing.

There are differences in levels of poker games. Whether the game is online for pennies, the “Big Game” for $200 $400 blinds, or the World Series Of Poker, parts of the game are consistent across all levels. The cards are the same, and the structure is the same, and the rewards are the same.

poker room Defining the level of acceptable risk is different at different levels. In a small stakes game, it is not uncommon to watch a player burn through one to two hundred dollars a week, week after week, because they are having a great time. As the stakes go higher, money becomes more important, and players care more about their win and loss rate than about enjoyment. Having fun takes place away from the poker table in big money games.

There are bets that can made in the stock market commonly called puts and takes. Newspapers and financial source on the net list them. Puts and Takes are bets on the movement of the stock market as a whole or certain broad categories of the Stock market. It may have changed now, but it used to be possible to bet on the movement of the S & P 500 for as little as sixteen dollars.

In the world of companies and stock, sixteen dollars is a tiny sum. Almost everyone could afford to lose sixteen dollars. Almost everyone does lose some increment of sixteen dollars bets on the stock market each betting period.

One thing I found interesting about options the on the S & P 500 is generally the majority is wrong when they make their decisions about where the stock market is headed. Options are one place where a contrarian investor, ie gambler can make their mark.

The same rules apply to the Holdem poker table. If you treat your bets as bets, and not pocket change, or a few dollars, and you manage your play contrary to the majority of the players at your table, you can not help but be a winner.

Yardley treated his poker games that way in his book. While the people he rounded up to play in his games thought they were only losing a few dollars a session which was more than offset by entertainment and bravado, Yardley was at the poker table to take their money, not give his money away.

Anyone who plays in the stock market, goes to a poker room, or online poker site should know exactly why they are there. Reasons range from entertainment, bragging rights, or gambling, to actually making a profit. Most people do not gamble in the stock market or Holdem poker table to make money. If they did, they would not be throwing their money away on bad bets, and loose calls.

After you have decided why you play Holdem poker and decide the major reason is to make money, think more like contrarian and less like the majority of people sitting at the table with you. As you play, you may pretend you are Herbert Yardley reinvented, and focus on betting structure and profit, and not dollar value.

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