It's Thursday evening...

It's Thursday evening and I can't come up with a better title than that.  Wow.  That kind of stinks.

Anyway.  The past few days have been long and tiring.  My counterpart on swing shift has been on vacation and so I've had to cover for him in a few areas.  It's cooking up to be a great week for some good overtime and overtime helps get us closer to financial freedom from unnecessary debt. 

On that note, I'd like to share a couple things that I heard on Dave Ramsey the other night (I don't remember his exact words so I'm paraphrasing).  He was reading some messages from listeners and making comments (as he always does).  Well, one was from a young lady who had recently lost a friend to suicide provoked by a rather desperate financial situation.  He was deeply in debt and apparently saw no other way out.  Dave's comment was that debt really is deadly.  Financial woes are the leading cause of suicide among men (relationship woes are the leading cause of suicide among women).  Deadly as debt is, it's a temporary condition.  There are ways out.  It's extraordinarily sad that people resort to permanent fixes to a temporary dilemma. So, get out of debt.  Stay out of debt and never incur debt whenever it is humanly possible.  Plan ahead.  Build up an emergency fund.  Save for that toy rather than finance.  (I'm saying most of this for my sake, BTW)  Next he read one from a gentleman who had to get new tires (I think it was tires).  He took the full amount needed out of his emergency  fund, no credit card required, paid back the amount he had used from his emergency fund rather than just letting it grow back at the previous rate and was back on track in just a few months.  Talk about an interest free loan.

6Oct10

It's Wednesday morning and it's raining.  I laid out concrete and set rocks in it for a downspout shute last night but this morning it's raining.  So, to prevent the still very green/wet concrete from washing away, I covered it with a tarp.  Yeah.  Don't want my hard work and resources washing away.

With that said.  I would like to move onto the tidbit of the day. 
On KSL.com today they have an article about what to save for first.  Well, before saving for anything really, they said to pay off the high interest debts.  Can't swim upstream with a millstone about ones neck.  Next they said to build a buffer against losing ones job of at least 3 months wages.  Then 6-9 months wages after that.  While that's going on, if possible, start putting away for retirement.  If your employment offers 401(k) savings match, take it.  It's free money.  (I didn't really do much with this until a couple years ago when my supervisor basically laid things out what the 401(k) would do for me and called me stupid, in a gentle way, for not already participating)  After all that start saving for other things.  Even your kids' college funds should come after all that because there are far more options for college funding than retirement funding.  Personally, I've been saving for my kids' college fund since they were babies.  Oh wait.  One still is a baby and the other is a toddler.  Love those two.  :)  Anyway.  Read the article at http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=12711766

Until later. 
Seth Lighthouse
Sheminator

5Oct10

As I sit here contemplating what sort of small tidbit of information I might have to share from my 27 years experience, I only can think of one thing that has really stood out to me in the past couple of weeks. 

In sacrament meeting a couple weeks ago a sister in my ward told a story of a lady that was in the same ward as President Kimball when one day she got a wild idea to make a tie to match a suit that she had seen him wearing.  So, she got busy, made the tie and took it over to the prophet's home.  When she arrived she suddenly felt very silly and even ashamed when sister Kimball opened the door, called her by name and called her back to the door.  The sister explained she had made this tie for Pres. Kimball and had intended to give it to him but felt that it was a silly thing of her to do and was going to just take it back home and give it to somebody else.  To this sister Kimball chided her and explained that she must never suppress a generous thought because generosity comes from the spirit and is a tool for God to bless the lives of others.

This story really hit me.  I don't know how many times I have passed up opportunities or suppressed feelings to be generous, even in small things.  Most the time I end up feeling very guilty and ashamed of myself.  In contrast, those times that I take 5 minutes to help someone out, or stop to help the lady with a flat tire in a bitter cold snow storm (yes I did this, and I was wearing my nice slacks at the time too) I always feel so energized and uplifted.  My day goes better.  I'm less prone to be annoyed.  But the very best part is to see how grateful they are to see that there is somebody in this cold, harsh, selfish world that will take a minute to help them push their dead car out of traffic, give them directions or just pick up a pencil that rolled off their table.

This world is far too small for us to go about trying to think of only ourselves.  God created us to be social creatures and to help those around us.  Let's all do our part to help others in even the simplest ways (or big ways if the occasion requires and we have the means) and let's be willing to accept help. 

Today I decided......

Today I came to the wonderful realization that a blog would be the best way for me to say my peace, let people take it for what it is, and either apply it as they see fit in their own lives or keep to themselves.  It's kind of like what Thumper's mom says in the old tree hugger/anti-hunter movie "Bambi" said:  "If you can't say something nice, don't say nothing at all."  Inspired words, I tell you.  Inspired words.

Thus begins my blog.
Seth Lighthouse
Sheminator