No Coincidences

Tag: money

  • Book Review: How Money Works – Stop being a Sucker

    Book Review: How Money Works – Stop being a Sucker

    How Money Works – Stop Being a Sucker
    By: Tom Mathews and Steve Siebold
    Copyright 2019

    This book was given to me to help me understand finances. I’m still pretty much hopeless in this category. This book could be described as “a short read that covers financial concepts that should be taught In school, but are not.”  There are so many financial concepts not covered in school that are important. 

    As a known financial sucker, I was grateful for this book. I seriously think everybody could benefit from reading this book. The most important thing it brought to my attention was how poorly I was handing my money and how important time was when setting up for financial stability in the future.

    The book is written in a fun, comic book-like setup. There are pictures throughout. There are characters you’re introduced to in the beginning that the book uses to have conversations with and teach financial concepts without putting you to sleep. I appreciated this structure a lot. As someone who struggles looking into these financial concepts because of all the words I don’t understand, concepts I’m unfamiliar with, and it’s sooo boring, this book helped to easily and quickly give the overview of what important information I needed to know. 

    I found myself relating to two of the characters for various reasons.

    Clark –

    And

    George –

    Clark because I have lots of brilliant ideas (and he’s kind of the dummy character in the book) and George because I think I’m already a grumpy old person facepalming over teenagers.

    I’m lucky to have people in my life who have already started helping me get my finances organized and make money “work for me” better. We’d all like to retire at some point. Moving forward, social security is an uncertainty. It’s up to us to prepare for our retirement.

    As I have a third daughter on the way, life insurance has gone from something I laughed at to something that seems absurd not to have. I couldn’t imagine passing away and leaving my wife and daughters with nothing, let alone with potential debts and financial responsibilities to take care of.

    If you don’t have a life insurance policy – get this book and then get one. It doesn’t matter if you’re 20 years old. In fact, it’s better if you’re 20 years old. The earlier the better. The book did a great job of showing this principle with graphs. The earlier you invest even a small amount of money, the more time it has to grow, with no work on your end. 

    Here’s an interview with the author on Good Morning Texas:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LChhrYkRLuw

    Here’s a sample from the book itself:

    Check it out. It’s an easy and helpful read.

  • Why do we Love our Children?

    Why do we Love our Children?

    I recently heard a quote so good I want to quote it in full:

    “Think about this. When a little baby is born, that baby cries at inopportune times, makes a lot of noise. It soils its diapers; it demands to be fed when it wants to be fed. It costs you a lot of money, a lot of time, a lot of energy, a lot of lost sleep. So why do we keep putting up with these little creatures? It’s because there’s this deep, underlying feeling of love for these children of ours. We love them so much that we don’t look at what it’s costing us. We keep infusing life and we keep teaching, and we keep forgiving, and we keep working with, and we keep nurturing and feeding and helping them to grow to become who they need to become and who they have the capacity to become.”

    I think that’s an awesome quote. Well said.

    I’ve been thinking about this more lately. With a toddler that is so full of joy and happiness, and also, sometimes, not. And a 7-month-old that still isn’t sleeping great. And with plates thrown and irrational frustrations (by the toddler), and crying and no sleep and…

    Ivy “loving” Sage

    *Sigh

    The energy it takes. The life force being sucked out of me.

    And.

    Would I go back if I could?

    Not in a kagillion-billion-zillion-babillion years. I love them so much. It’s all worth it.

    Is it hard? Heck yeah. It’s so hard. Do I feel like I’m dying a slow death sometimes? Uh, yeah, I do.

    And then, Ivy smiles and says, “Dada. I love you.” And Sage sees me and inexplicably giggles. And suddenly, all that sucked out life force flows into my body from my head to my toes in a rush of energy and exhilaration and LOVE. It’s like nothing else in this world: looking at my two daughters. The love.

    As a parent, speaking for myself, there’s a point where you become numb to the sacrifice and all you give up for your children. There was a time when having to get up once in the middle of the night to check on anything would ruin my entire night of sleep. At this moment, the average night has at least 3 middle-of-the-night wake ups. Zero wake ups in the night is a miracle.

    Early on with Ivy, I really struggled with this. I started to wonder how I could survive without getting sleep. And now we’re starting over with Sage who doesn’t sleep nearly as well as Ivy did. I’m probably getting hours less sleep per week than I ever have. And yet I feel alive and invigorated. Somehow, I’m surviving. I think it’s that infusion of love I get from seeing them happy, healthy, and growing each day.

    Ivy the morning after waking me up three times in the middle of the night. She didn’t go to sleep with the crown.

    The time, the noise, the diapers, the feeding, the money, the energy, the sleep put into these “little creatures.” And yet, do I regret it? A resounding NO! I want more. I love them so much, it hurts. Sometimes it physically hurts how much I love them. That quote above came from a video of a guy discussing the Lectures on Faith. I’ll link it HERE.

    He was talking about the attributes of God. That wasn’t where the quote ended.

    “If we as mortal parents can figure that out (the love for our children), how much more do perfect, eternal parents have that figured out? God is a God motivated by love. It’s not just this outward thing, it’s part of the divine characteristic. God is love. Without that, you and I can’t have full faith in God unto life and salvation.”

    We’re here to learn to love like God. God, Christ, and the Holy Ghost love so perfectly that they have become one in mission, intent, and purpose. That is the love I feel for my family. I would give anything for them. My wants and needs have taken three back seats. Beth, Ivy, and Sage’s needs are so much more important than mine. The “world” will try to say this is unhealthy, that I need to “put myself first” or “take care of myself.” Of course, I don’t completely disregard my health and care, but that idea that I come first is extremely wrong. I don’t come first. I know that. And not coming first is what gives me strength each day. That infusion of love that comes from my family makes every sacrifice the sweetest sacrifice there is.

    If I feel this way, as a mortal man who knows how to give good gifts, how much more perfectly does God love me? How much more is He willing and able to give me because He loves me? I know God loves me. I am eternally grateful for His love. Now, He is teaching me how to love.