Frugally Green » goals

Want to Be More Green? Get Your Finances Together

Tyler — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 12:00:01 +0000

As I’ve come to realize, there are lots of ways to support my planet while spending very little from my own wallet. In fact, here at Frugally Green, I usually write about the ways an average person can save money or even make it while incorporating small changes into their lifestyle. The changes themselves may be small, but putting them together can really make a difference. But what do we do when we feel like we’ve already done all the little things we can to save the planet and save some money? What if we feel like all the “low hanging fruit” has been picked?

The simple answer is probably that we actually just need to look a little bit harder to find more opportunities. I know that, although I’ve changed my life dramatically over the last few years, there are still plenty of simple changes I can make that just aren’t on my radar. However, none of this should distract you from making big changes if that’s what you desire to do.

Sometimes, the big changes we want to make cost a lot of money, like installing solar panels, wind turbines, and heat pumps at our homes, upgrading to high efficiency appliances, or buying a hybrid or electric vehicle. I’ve written about ways to save big on buying an efficient car and appliances and renewable energy, but the truth is, even if you maximize your savings, supporting new technology is expensive, and you’re going to pay more up front to do so. This may not seem frugal, but I think it’s important to remember that frugality is all about seeing the long-term savings of a purchase. You’ll pay a premium to outfit your home with solar panels, but the money you save on electricity, when done right, will more than pay for them through their life cycle. This is a tenet of frugality – realizing when paying more now will save more later.

But for adults with so many other financial commitments in their life, it’s hard to find the money to make the best purchases they can. This is why it is so important to get your financial house in order. When you pay off your debt, spend less than you earn, and save for the long term, it becomes substantially easier to find the money you need to make these kinds of long-term purchases. It’s like a snowball rolling down a hill – the more it rolls, the bigger it gets.

When I decided to really change how I handled my money, there were a few basic things I did that yielded the biggest immediate gains for me:

I paid off my debt – Luckily, I didn’t have much at all, but getting rid of it was a huge relief that allowed me focus on more important things, like…

Tracking my spending – This was easy to do by setting up an account at Mint. Once a week or so I would go look at where my money went. Sometimes I felt really good about the things I’d bought, and sometimes I felt awful. After a few months of just seeing what I spent my money on I…

Set up a budget - I picked out the major items that I regularly spent the most of my discretionary money on and slowly started to budget a little bit less for them each month until I felt like I had gotten lean enough. Once I had a good idea of what I was spending my money on and a plan for keeping myself within a few limits, I was able to…

Pay myself first – This is a very recent development that I am still trying to perfect. Now that I know where my money goes each month, I’ve decided to automatically start saving a part of each paycheck that I receive. Before, I would just save whatever was left over at the end of each month but now I am able to declare that I will save “xxx” dollars every month and know that it will be available.

Will following this exact plan work for you? It might or it might not. You may notice that I didn’t ever have much debt. I understand that this is a much bigger problem for many people, but I cannot write effectively on it because I have not experienced it and trying to tell you how to fix a problem when I have no understanding of what it’s like or how it feels to be in that situation would not be helpful to you. If you’re looking to improve your finances and have a lot of debt, start here with JD over at Get Rich Slowly. His story is an inspiration, and if you like what you read, he has years of archives for you to comb through. Trent over at The Simple Dollar has a similar story.

Whether you follow the same path I did or create one for yourself, I think you’ll find that when you take the time to really look at your finances and make a plan that you can live by, you will be a lot more connected to how you are spending your life’s resources. This can lead to very gratifying feelings of security and self awareness.

So to bring the focus back to being frugally green, I’m excited to say that my next big step in connecting my own personal finance with sustainability will be to start a new savings goal for green ventures. I can’t say yet how much I’ll save or even what it will specifically be for, but I want to get started now rather than later. So much about success directly relates to simply starting something. I will begin by adding another sub-account to my ING savings where I am saving towards other financial goals:

What can I say? I like to give my accounts silly nicknames. It makes saving more fun for me. If this is something that interests you, you can read all about how to open multiple accounts at ING. Once you’ve got that figured out, you can watch Ramit Sethi’s video on how to automate your finances.

Big changes take big commitments to make, but as you can see, the “big” financial change I am trying to make is a result of lots of smaller ones. It’s the constant daily focus on small, but important tasks that lead to the big, life-affirming changes. It’s rare that someone with any amount of success wakes up one morning and wonders how they got to where they are. They know exactly how they arrived because they spent years, focused every day, on getting there.

I’m curious to know more about the financial state of my readers. I don’t need to know how much money you have, but I would love to know more about how you approach your finances. What kind of goals do you have for your money and what has driven you to make them happen? Please feel free to discuss in the comments or, if you consider this information personal, but would still like to share with me, you can send me an email. I’ll never share your personal information without your permission.

Lessons From Children’s Tales: The Tortoise and the Hare

Tyler — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 12:00:46 +0000

We all remember the popular children’s fable, The Tortoise and the Hare – a story that teaches us the virtue of setting and maintaining a pace to achieve our goals. In it, a turtle becomes tired of listening to a nearby rabbit brag about how quick he is and challenges him to a race. The rabbit sprints away at the start, taunting the turtle for being so slow. Soon, though, the rabbit becomes tired. Looking back to see that the turtle is so far behind him, he decides to rest under a tree, falling asleep. He is later awakened by the cheers of the other woodland creatures as the turtle crosses the finish line, realizing that he’d slept too long and allowed the turtle to pass him.

It’s a simple and classic tale, the moral being, “slow and steady wins the race.” Such basic and wise words, but many times we find ourselves living as the hare rather than the tortoise. We define goals for ourselves, become excited, pursue them with fervor, and, all too often, quickly become tired and unmotivated, abandoning what we’d started and moving onto the next flash in the pan. On the other hand, it’s just as easy to become disenchanted with our goals when we slow down. We’re excited and we want to see results. When they don’t materialize as soon as we had hoped, it’s easy to think that we just won’t ever get there, and give up trying.

Slow & steady wins the race

Here at Frugally Green, I (and many of you) are on a quest for self-improvement on two fronts, and frugality and sustainability are two really broad targets! I’ve written before about balancing multiple goals and how important it is to find opportunities to achieve them simultaneously, but how do we stay on track? How do we balance the pursuit of our dreams between speeding away and burning out like the hare and plodding along like the tortoise, afraid we won’t ever get there? I think we all know deep down the tortoise is, undoubtedly the winner of the race, but the hare has its place, too. The fundamental task in achieving our goals is breaking them down into many smaller goals and assigning “tortoise” or “hare” characteristics to them.

The role of the Tortoise

In becoming frugal and green, the tortoise represents our overall, long-term goals and the planning that is required to achieve them. We’re all different, so this could be anything from starting an international business or foundation committed to sustainability and becoming a financially independent philanthropist to simply reducing your energy consumption and recycling more than you throw away. Whatever your ultimate goal is, the tortoise represents the careful and deliberate planning that must take place to realize these achievements. These are not goals that can be completed tomorrow. You must set a pace for yourself to reach these landmarks by breaking them down into smaller, more easily attainable goals. It is through this slow and calculated process that you will build the framework that will guide your decisions towards the end goal.

So now you have an outline of how you are going to attain your highest goals. You may still feel like you haven’t actually done anything yet, but you have! You’ve given yourself a reference guide that will tell you when you’re on the right track and when you aren’t. It might be pages long or it might just be a few items, but now that you’ve really thought about it, you’ve got a strong focal point. Einstein once cleverly stated, “If I had only 1 hour to save the world, I would spend the first 55 minutes defining the problem.”

The role of the Hare

We know, certainly, that we can’t sustain ourselves trying to sprint our way to a finish line that could be years away, so where does the hare and his hyperactive tendencies come into play for us? Well, since we took our time when we started off and carefully pieced together an outline that breaks down our goals into bite size pieces, we can now pursue each of them, one by one, with lightning quickness.

Now, don’t get carried away like our rabbit friend did in the story. What I mean to say is, from our example above, maybe a few of the first steps that you lay out for yourself are to remember to turn off your computer every night, change all your light bulbs to CFLs, and only run your dishwasher when it’s full. Pick one of these basic tasks, like turning your computer off every night, and throw yourself at it! Spend every day focusing on it until the action is ingrained into your habits. Don’t worry about the other goals until this happens, then move on to the next. It won’t take a lot of effort because it’s simple and you know how it will contribute to your long-term success. Continue on this path until you’ve satisfied all your base goals. Then, give yourself a pat on the back and move onto the next rung of the ladder. You’ll probably find that your ability to adapt becomes quicker and quicker as you travel down the course you’ve set for yourself.

Putting it all together

The Tortoise and the Hare is a timeless classic that reinforces a lesson that we learn at a young age, but is often forgotten by adults as the demands of life in a modern world bear down upon them. The tortoise teaches us that a slow, methodical pace is what will efficiently take us long distances. The hare teaches us that quickness is useful for short durations.

Whether we vocalize them or not, we all have goals. We all have dreams. Attaining them depends upon the system of support we create that will ensure success. State your dreams without fear and pursue them the same. Be it big or small, make it a point to take one step forward every day.

Are You More Frugal or Green?: Balancing Multiple Goals

Tyler — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 12:00:43 +0000

Here at Frugally Green I am on a mission to connect personal finance with sustainable living, but oftentimes I notice that in my quest to grow in both aspects, I slide back and forth from one extreme to another.

It’s easy to find yourself focusing on one side of the equation and neglecting the other side that is just as important. What good does it do to save and earn as much as you can if you’re not also leaving yourself an environment that you can enjoy once you’ve reached your financial goals?

On the other hand, as noble as it may seem to shirk financial gain in favor of saving the world at all cost (forgive the pun), how many people can really sustain such a life?

I think most people with multiple goals have a natural tendency to create a hierarchy for them. I certainly do it. Even though I strive daily to put my sustainability goals on the same playing field as my personal finance ones, I just seem to have a stronger natural draw towards frugality.

One path to two goals

Maybe you’ve noticed yourself leaning one direction or the other? In the past, when I become aware that I’ve focused too heavily on frugality and begun to neglect my green-oriented goals, I’ve had a tendency to over-correct, sending myself into the ditch on the other side of the equation.

This eventually leads to the same problem with the same, ineffective solution. So how do I get myself back on track and maintaining a healthy, sustainable balance between these goals?

Well, I’ve noticed that simply forcing myself to shift my perception a little has helped quite a bit.

If I’m constantly looking at frugality and sustainability as two mutually exclusive goals, then it’ll be impossible for me to truly succeed in achieving them. Real success will only come when both goals are being met simultaneously.

The most helpful thing I have done to overcome this paradox is to simply be more aware of my decision making process. It takes a little practice to really pay attention to all your passing thoughts, but now I can recognize when I am creating an unnecessary adversarial relationship between goals in my mind.

If you’re committed to multiple causes, achieving success in one should never stifle success in another.

Focus on the big picture

One of the major perception shifts I’ve had to make, but has paid off extraordinarily, has been getting myself to recognize that the least expensive option is often not the best option when it comes to being green or when it comes to being frugal.

Now, this may seem like a pretty simple concept to some, but it has tripped me up for a long time. Subconsciously, I know that buying the cheapest option is almost never the best bet, but there is always something alluring and exciting about the possibility of getting an amazing bargain. Problem is, you have to endure 9 sub-par purchases in order to get the thrill from that single great one.

When you look back on what it took to get that deal, it’s easy to see how much time, money, and resources have been wasted. All of a sudden, that bargain doesn’t provide the same satisfaction it did before. Bummer. Keep the big picture in mind.

But marketing is so good these days. It seems the advertising industry has truly perfected the art selling snake oil. How can you tell the difference between the quality products and the ones that are only pretending? Hard as it may be, it can be done.

Know what you need

Don’t waste time comparing products that don’t have the features you’ll require or the ones with all the bells and whistles that you’ll never use.

Just eliminating those will keep you from 1) paying too much for something you don’t need and 2) buying again when you realize what you picked isn’t up to snuff.

Note: This strategy requires that you do your homework and anticipate features that you don’t need right now, but likely will in the future…but be realistic! This is an easy way to up-sell yourself to something that you won’t utilize.

Hold the items in your hand

Try ‘em out. Feel ‘em up. Most times, the cheapest option will feel the cheapest, too.

Am I really saving any money on that widget if I have to buy it four times to get the same use out of it? Doubtful. And I can be very sure I’m not doing my poor planet any favors.

Now, this isn’t always possible since so much commerce is done on the internet these days so read reviews. It’s hard to find independent reviews that say how great something is since people usually only write them when they’re upset enough to tell the world about it, but take the time to read them and see if anything stands out.

It’s easy to see patterns among reviews that can steer you toward or away from something based on what you need it to do.

For extra green points, if something is available locally, at least give the shop an opportunity to price match for your business.

Borrow it!

This is what friends are for. No need to accumulate things you won’t use often if your friends or family have things that you can borrow.

If we all knew our neighbors better we could save so many valuable resources. There are neighborhoods in my city, Portland, that collect a small fee from willing neighbors to maintain a fully stocked tool shed/wood shop.

If 25 people living within a couple blocks of each other only need to use a chop saw twice a year, why should each of them own one? Leverage your friends and neighbors. Let them leverage you. You’ll come out ahead in the end.

Wrapping Up

Balancing goals can be a tricky juggling act, but with a little thought and planning, you can make great strides in finding the synergies between them rather than fighting to achieve each one on it’s own, and you’ll get there in half the time!

My examples above relate directly to my own problem trying to be both frugal and sustainable at the same time and I’ve shown how shifting my perception has helped me see the opportunities to achieve both, but this concept could apply to any set of goals that you’ve decided are worthy of your time.

Focus on the details when you have to, but make sure you step back once in awhile to get a bird’s-eye-view.

What are some of your goals? How do you balance them? What tips and tricks do you have that could help someone else in the same situation?

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Juggler image by JPhilipson.