Really, I had enough.  Like most people, I have and love my HDTV.  Honestly, I am not sure how I lived without the HD quality before it was available.  We had TV at our disposal.  With some 250+ channels we could be watching anything at any time.

So I started researching alternatives last fall.  I found that you can mount a HD antenna and pick up all the over the air channels that are within your reach.  Those that broadcast in HD will be received in HD.  Additionally, I was trying to decide if I should invest in a AppleTV box.  My mind was made up last fall, but I delayed the change due to the death of, and subsequent book on, Steve Jobs.  Thinking that Apple may have some alternative to what I was about to do, I delayed my action.  Everything was put back in motion when Apple failed to give a solid alternative in their February announcement.  I did, however, get the AppleTV.  The cost of the AppleTV, since it was not necessarily a part of the solution, is not included in the $150 investment.

Concerned about my investment and change, I made sure I could return the antenna if things did not work out.  My son and I gave it a try.  With him standing on the deck and me scanning the available antenna channels, I could see that there were 65 channels in my area that could be found.  Not every channel was showing up.  Several days later, I mounted the antenna on the house and most, if not all, of those 65 channels came in.  Some were Korean, some Spanish, some shopping, some radio – 65 channels!

The first Monday of this past month I called my satellite provider and canceled.  They were very inquisitive as to why I wold make such a decision and offered to cut my monthly expense.  Since that had not offered to do that over the last four years, I said “no thanks”.  Today we have no satellite or cable TV.

Honestly, my son is going through withdrawal.  I think he is counting the days until he can graduate high school, get a job, move to his own place, and have ESPN reconnected.  My wife misses some of her shows, but she has found many of them on Netflix or the internet.  Additionally, she has found some new shows that she is now hooked on.  For me, the loss of continuous news, weather, and sports have been noticed but far from missed.

Once I found it would work, I bought a splitter to allow the signal to be split to three TV’s.  That may have caused an issue.  It seems that one of the TV’s will not pick up a weak signal after they come through the splitter.  After trying to adjust the antenna, I have lost a few channels on that one TV.  I need to re-adjust the antenna or I may be required to invest in another, separate, antenna for that one TV.  That may cost a little more, but I am still way, way, way under that $1200 annual charge to watch a screen that shoves commercials at me several times an hour.

It does work!  you may want to give it a try.

I have been teasing many of my clients recently about this disqualification that is now apparent in their life.  Because of their financial success, they have disqualified themselves from public office.

What is this disqualification?  The simple fact that they built and execute to a balanced budget!  Yes, a balanced budget!  In many of these clients, not only did they build and execute to the balanced budget  but they successfully lived within their means and came in at or under their plan.  What a victory!

How unfortunate that our politicians, our elected officials, have the inability to balance the budget for our country.  It is hard, I know, and it is even harder when one would have to cut expenses and possibly lose some votes!

Responsibility.  Execution.  Discipline. Key criteria that many are missing in their financial lives, but allows them to run for office!

Are you disqualifying yourself?

There are so many areas to look back on and reflect. Finances, relationships, goals, your relationship with God – whatever you are looking to improve. How did you do last quarter?

From that review, what are you doing different today, this week, this month, this quarter? You have less that nine months before this year is over and you will be reflecting on what you did or what you could have done.

Now is the time for your personal assessment. Where are you off track and what are you doing to get yourself back on track?

What is your game plan?

It seems that one team, and there may be others, has had a bounty system in place that was financially rewarding players who physically injured players of an opposing team. Not good. Not good at all of you are a fan of the New Orleans Saints.

As a result, their head coach and others have been suspended for this conduct. I applaud the NFL for their quick and decisive action to address this issue. It will hopefully teach others that you must play by the rules.

It is what happened next that really got me.

It seems those in the United States Senate have decided that the Senate, if not the whole Congress, needs to look into what is happening in the NFL. Really, the NFL? Well, according to Senator Dick Durbin from Illinois, that is exactly what needs to happen.

Never mind that they economy is struggling to get some stability. Never mind that our nation is some $15,000,000,000 (that’s 15 TRILLION dollars) in debt. Never mind that companies financed with your tax dollars are going bankrupt. Never mind that the US has not had, or even voted on, a budget for the last two fiscal years. Never mind……

According to Senator Durbin, let’s make sure that the NFL plays fair.

Give me a break!

I have to believe that most of those who elected officials in Washington would have extreme problems trying to successfully run any type of business or even a household budget. We need 536 people up there who know how to balance a checkbook, who know how to live within their means, who know how to build and work a plan to get out of debt. We need someone who is truly committed to our country’s finance’s, future, and family.

No, this is not a political blog post. It is a financial blog post highlighting thenfinancial ineptness and unconcern of our elected officials.

Leave the NFL alone. Get about your true purpose – and that is not to get reelected!

We all know that gas prices are increasing.  Unless you have had your head stuck in the sand, you have felt the impact of the increase.  People are beginning to talk about reducing or eliminating vacations due to the cost of travel.  In addition to your fuel budget, there is virtually nothing that is not impacted.  Food, entertainment, heating/cooling, etc – fuel costs really impact your wallet.

Our economy is very fragile right now.  Many see that we are turning the corner and starting to come out of the malaise we have been experiencing for the last 4-5 years.  Rising fuel prices will not help this recovery!

It is estimated that the US uses 19.6 million barrels of oils each day!  At the end of 2008, when oil prices collapsed the last time, a barrel of crude oil was selling for $45/barrel.  Right now a barrel of oil is at $106/barrel.  When you do the math, look at the money that is taken out of our recovering economy due to this increase.  That loss of money hurts anything trying to recover – housing, airlines, retail…..

But what is your impact?  What you losing as a result of the rising fuels costs?  Yes, I know you are losing your patience and your mind, but what financially?  If you are not living by a budget, you may not actually see the impact while you most certainly feel it.  Rising fuels prices rob you in so many ways.  You struggle harder to get your debt paid off.  You lose in trying to keep up with food.  Looking long-term, your ability to save for retirement is even greater while you try to keep up with fuel costs and their rising impact across all segments of our economy.

What do you do?  Live by a plan and with a purpose.  Work to identify where you can cut back as you struggle with the situation.  Cut spending in non essential areas including your driving habits, focus on the short term tighter management of your money, and work hard to stay on your longer term plan of dumping debt and building your financial future.

There is only one who controls your economy – you!

Whether you are or whether you are not, the protection of limited resources is a very good thing to do.  In fact, several years ago, my wife and I realized that our resources were limited and we began our approach to go green.

We found out that we were broke.  Really, it did not surprise us we just became aware of the situation.  Due to our actions, the fact of being broke crept up on us over time and part of the reason was that we had not gone green.

In our period of change, we removed the credit and debit cards and went green.  Yes, we went to cash!  You see, cash kept us on track and kept us from going deeper into debt.  The green kept us from over spending as we normally did and reigned us into what we had both agreed we were going to spend.

Going green has done wonders!!  Honestly, is has liberated my wife and I from worrying if we would have enough to meet our needs.  Going green is something that I encourage everyone to do.

Clients who really go green really begin to feel the freedom and liberty going green brings!

For many it is the truth. Many secure their “ride” to be impressive! Whether it is to please themself, someone they know, or more than likely someone they do not know who may be dring down the road – so many allow their car to project their image!! Is that you?

A vehicle is a tool. Like a hammer, a screw driver, a drill, a blender – it is a tool. This tool that rolls on four tires is to enable us to get from point A to point B and back. Unfortunately, this tool has become a financial drain to so many people who live to impress someone.

Have you ever looked at what that car really costs you? Take a look, but make sure you are sitting down first.

What is your monthly payment? Take that amount and plug it into a simple savings tool you can find on the Internet. Project that monthly payment out over 20 years at 8% interest and what amount do you have if you had saved/invested that amount each month. What would you have in 30 years? 40?

To many running those numbers will get their attention to see what is being given up with each new car purchased.

There is another way…

As I thought of that, it reminded me of people who have lost focus on specific areas of their lives.  Maybe a marriage, a personal relationship, a spiritual walk, finances, career, and maybe life in general.  Like my daughter above, something(s) shows that you have lost focus.

Focus helps you succeed.  In your marriage, focus means you are string to meet the needs of your spouse and that builds a strong, close relationship.  In your spiritual walk, you tend to lose focus on who God is and what He is in your life and you become more self-centered and doomed to experience pain.  In your finances, things begin to spin out of control and you feel there is no hope of turning things around.

Fortunately, there is hope.  You need to get things back in the right focus.  Focus brings intensity and results.  When we focus we see what is important and make the necessary changes to get things back on track,

What is out of focus for you and, more importantly, what are you doing to get things back in focus and on track?

Many will begin getting W2 statements this month along with the 1099’s and all the other documents to begin preparation for our 2011 tax filing window.  With that filing, many of you will get a refund of the taxes you have overpaid through the year.

That overpayment, from each one of your paychecks, is money you could have used to buy food, pay utilities, save for a car, save for a vacation, fund your retirement account, etc.  But no, your money has been held by the US Treasury to make sure you had enough for your tax obligation.

Did you know you can better manage the amount of money that you do have withheld from your paychecks?  You can go online (see below) to the the IRS, fill out all the questions, hit enter and learn what you should be claiming as true exemptions.  By making the changes on your W4 and submitting to your employer, you can begin bringing home more of your money to manage to your plan each month.

Likewise, if you find yourself owing each month you can use the tool to determine how to correctly withhhold to avoid owing the IRS each year.

Two things to keep in mind.  First, an exemption is NOT the same as a deduction.  You should not have the same number of your dependents as your exemptions unless you run the program to suggest that.  Some people decide that since they have five in the house that their exemptions should be five.  That is not necessarily the case.

Second, this tool is not fail proof.  Your have to enter as correct of numbers (projections for this year) as you can and if your numbers change during this year, you may need to re-do the whole task.  The IRS and their programmers are not as perfect as we would like.

The tool is now available for this year.  Want to check it out?  Click here.

According to the article, Americans increased their borrowing by $20.4 BILLION in November 2011.  Along with the story, I heard someone interviewed on radio say that either people are feeling more optimistic about their jobs or that they have very short memories.  I vote for the later.

Why would we, collectively, increase our borrowing more?  I think it is part of the Thanksgiving Day Syndrome where people feel that they have a little more room and then gorge themselves with more.  Instead of turkey and pie, in this case it is debt.  They have lost the feeling of the pain from the last episode and now they can take on more.

Do you remember the definition of the word “insanity”?

One of my clients recently shared with me that in all their years of marriage, this past Christmas was their very first debt-free one.  They indicated how all the gifts were purchased and paid for well before the holiday.  And while they escaped the mad rush and stress of the holiday spending, now they are stress-free knowing that there are no credit card bills on the way to their mailbox.

Why do we go and spend more than we have?  One example to all of us may be our government.  This morning I read that our president is requesting $1.2 TRILLION be added to the debt ceiling.

I guess some of us will never learn…