While there have been plenty of words here (and plugs for) certain things, this is perhaps at least as important. Few of us know don’t know someone who could use some additional Peace in their lives.
Passed on by a good friend, and passing it on as well. Happy New Year, including good advice from a Purpose-Based fellow below.
The Keys To Achieving Your
Goals in 2010
Every year, most of us make a new set of resolutions. And, every year, we’ve forgotten about those resolutions within two months. So how do you make your resolutions stick in 2010? Dave offers five steps to success. [Read Article Here]
Another year and another set of resolutions. If you’re like most Americans, you’ll probably forget your goals by mid-February. So how do you make your resolutions actually happen this year?
First, keep in mind that goals are dreams; but don’t stop at just dreaming. Turn your dreams into bite-sized pieces that will gradually create a big event in your life. If you’re waiting on an outside variable to change your life, you have a long wait. You have to do something. It’s your responsibility to fix your life, not someone else’s. It’s time to sit down, make some goals, and take control.
Goal setting is how you win. Once you’ve made your resolutions, they will drive you forward. The goals will motivate you to seek activities that will help you succeed. It’s not always fun, but those exercises bring you closer to your goal and make you a winner.
If you want to actually achieve your goals this year, then consider the following:
Be specific.
When setting goals, be specific in what you want to achieve. Vagueness will only cause you to feel overwhelmed, and you will just give up.
Make your goals measureable.
In order to know if you achieved the goal, it must be measurable. For example, if you want to lose weight, don’t simply write down “lose weight” as a goal. How much weight do you want to lose? Or don’t just write “spend more time with family.” How much time do you want to spend with your family every night?
Are they your goals?
Only you can set your own goals. If your spouse, co-worker or friend sets a goal for you, you’re not going to achieve it. Taking ownership will give you more incentive to meet your goal.
Set a time limit.
Setting a time frame will help you set realistic goals. For example, if you want to save more money, list how much money a month you want to put into your savings account.
Put them in writing.
Putting your goals in writing will make you much more likely to achieve them. Write down your goals and review them often. This will give you motivation to make them a reality.
This is the process to succeed. Successful people reassess their lives and then start living intentionally, in writing, on paper, on purpose. Make your resolutions a reality in 2010. Back to Top
Where Were You This Time Last Year?
We’re at that point again. Some people will sign up for gym memberships and then stop going by mid-January. Others will promise to clean up their debt—until the first credit card bill from Christmas comes in. Still more will pledge to get a new job and never look past the want ads (where only 15% of new jobs are advertised).
If you made a New Year’s resolution in 2009 and didn’t follow through, think about how you would feel if you had stuck to it. You wouldn’t still be feeling tired from those times you got up early this summer to run. You wouldn’t still be hungry from that time you didn’t order a pizza because you were sticking to a budget. Your health and money situation would be better, you would feel better, and you would have accomplished your goal.
What if we told you that accomplishing a goal wasn’t as hard as you thought? The secret to making a goal into a reality is getting started and taking small, consistent steps. Most people hear “losing 20 pounds” and think it has to happen this week. It doesn’t—it is something that will require a little sacrifice each day over a period of time, not a crash course in pain and discipline.
Getting started on something is always the hardest part. But once you’ve done it a few times, it becomes part of your daily routine. It doesn’t become an extra chore, it becomes something that is already in your schedule.
Making a budget is the same way. When you first make a money plan, it won’t work. It will barely work the second month, but that is because you are getting used to doing it. By the third month, you’ll have a much better feel for it, and your stress level will go way down. It just takes the determination to get through the rough patches that go with getting started.
We are on the cusp of 2010. You can either fall into the same trap as last year, or start making a little effort. The race is about to begin, and you’re at the starting line. Get started, and watch yourself grow!
We’ve got a new and awesome way to help you determine your goals for 2010 and stay motivated. Check out Dave’s new goal tracking software! You can set goals in seven different areas of life, from money, to family, to physical, to spiritual and more. Then you can track your progress in those areas throughout the days, weeks and months to come. It’s a sure way to stay fired up for what you’re going to do in 2010. Check it out here! Back to Top
We Did It: Divorce Couldn’t Drown Me!
Dear Dave, I have looked forward to writing you this message for two years. Thanks to the prodding of my father who listens to your show every day, I read the book Financial Peace. I was 23, newly married, and I am embarrassed to admit that we both had “stuffitis”. After some emotional talks I finally convinced my husband to use the money envelopes and pay down our credit card debt.
After a year of driving old beat up cars and never eating out he decided that married life wasn’t for him. He moved out and left me with 100% of the mortgage to pay on my own, not to mention thousands in credit card debt (both in my name only). Instead of letting the house go and allowing my credit score go into the gutter, I quickly posted internet ads and found two female roommates to help me cover the mortgage.
On Christmas I will send my last $250 Discover Card payment and be completely out of credit card debt ($8,000 in one year on my own). For 2010 I will begin baby step #3 to save 3-6 months of income while also increasing my 401K contributions and sending a little additional cash to my mortgage each month that will equal one extra payment per year.
I want you to know that your advice has really changed my life and I have shared my testimony to many of my friends who are now doing the debt snowball. I am now 25 and divorced but proud to be debt-free! This year I also found Christ and was baptized. It is true what you say that you will never find peace until you walk with the Prince of Peace.
I had a 1995 Saturn that was a great car and it was paid off. I told myself that I would run it into the ground before I bought a new car. Well, that idea didn’t last long.
In 2003 I bought a used Toyota truck for approximately $20,000. I loved it! I could now go 4X4ing in the mountains and have a good reliable vehicle and I would be “cool”. Skip ahead three years and my truck is paid off but I started to think about fuel costs because gas prices were starting to rise. I decided that wanted to get a fuel efficient vehicle and started looking into used hybrid vehicles. I test drove a 2005 Honda Hybrid that got about 47mpg. Better yet, my recently paid-off truck was actually worth more than the Honda so I traded my truck in for the Honda Hybrid and the dealership paid me $2,000. I drove my new 47mpg hybrid car for 4 months until I got homesick for my truck.
Instead of silencing my homesick thoughts I looked at my budget to see if I could “afford” a car payment if I got a new truck. Well, of course I found that I could “afford” it. So what did I do? I went to the Toyota dealership and bought a used 2005 Toyota truck. I also traded my Honda in for $11,000 and got a brand new car loan worth about $15,000. What a deal right! Wrong.
Although I just paid off my truck I’ve wasted about $40,000 over the last 6 years by making poor decisions. I learned not to make a vehicle a symbol of your “status”. Who cares what you drive as long as it gets you where you need to go! Drive your vehicles into the ground and then only buy used cars with cash you have saved up. And every time you get a wild hair, stop, look and think before you end up paying the Stupid Tax.
On a brighter note, I am now 31, debt-free, and starting my Roth IRA in January 2010. My next step is to get a second job to have my house paid off by the time I am 35 or 36 years old. Now that is awesome!
It’s the first question to tackle at tax time—to itemize or not to itemize?
Here’s the Rule
Itemize when the total of your itemized deductions is greater than your standard deduction. In other words, itemize only if you’ll get a bigger refund as a result.
How to Find Out if Itemizing Is Better
A deduction reduces your tax bill by lowering the amount of income you’re taxed on. Nearly everyone who gets a paycheck is eligible for the standard deduction, but the amount of the deduction varies based on how you file. A married couple filing a joint return, for example, will receive a standard deduction of $11,400 this year. Single filers will receive $5,700.
Your other option is to itemize, which means you have to add up your individual deductions, such as:
Medical and dental expenses
Taxes (state and local income taxes, property taxes and state sales tax)
Interest expenses, such as home mortgages
Charitable contributions
Casualty and theft losses
If your expenses in these categories add up to more than your standard deduction, then you should itemize.
Here’s an Example
Mortgage interest is 100% deductible. Let’s say your year-end statement from your mortgage company says you’ve paid $11,500 in mortgage interest this year. You’ve already beaten the standard deduction for a couple filing jointly. Any other deductions are icing on the cake. In this case, you should definitely itemize your tax return.
On the other hand, if you’ve added up your expenses and you’re short of the standard deduction, take the standard deduction. If you go that route, you can still deduct things like moving expenses, or you can take advantage of tax credits for childcare. A tax services Endorsed Local Provider (ELP) can show you all of the deductions you qualify for, help you crunch the numbers, and answer any questions you have.
At our last Total Money Makeover LIVE! event in Portland, we selected a handful of volunteer correspondents to tell us about their Total Money Makeovers and give you the inside scoop on the live event. Read how the McPeek family went from broke to living like no one else on their journey to the Total Money Makeover LIVE!
The McPeek’s Story
I was first introduced to Dave Ramsey through Financial Peace University but I had never been to a live event. What a great weekend! Both EntreLeadership 1-Day and the Total Money Makeover LIVE! events were very inspirational and just what my wife and I needed to renew our gazelle-like intensity. Just looking around the arena at the 8,000 people in attendance was inspiration enough. We were lucky enough to sit in the second row, and it was evident that Dave Ramsey’s team and all the volunteers make sure the experience is great for everyone who attends. Sitting in that arena and watching Dave teach, it was hard for me to believe that less than two years before I was a financial disaster and had no idea who Dave Ramsey was.
My experience with Dave Ramsey and Financial Peace University began in February of 2008 when I took the class with my dad and step-mom. My wife Becky and I were engaged, and I was forced to take a hard look at how I handled money. Over the years I had managed to dig myself a pretty big hole. From irresponsibility with credit cards and checking accounts, to getting caught up in payday lending, getting upside down on a motorcycle loan, and taking out loans to go back to school, it seemed there was no bad financial mistake I hadn’t made. I had lost any semblance of financial hope, and I had absolutely no clue what to do about it. I was 26, and I knew it was time I started acting my age financially.
Going through FPU changed my life! During the course of the class I was able to pay off $7,000 in debt and save $3,000 toward our wedding and first apartment. It was the first time in my life that I truly felt independent, and I haven’t looked back since. I was so excited about the difference FPU was making in my life, I started FPU at our church. The results were unbelievable! We had just over 60 people in our first class, with a financial swing of over $220,000 during the course of the class. We are looking forward to starting another class this coming January.
Using the renewed focus we have as a result of the live events this weekend, Becky and I are looking forward to being 100% debt-free before March 2010, having our emergency fund 100% complete by summer, and going to Hawaii. We are also planning on paying cash for our first house! I am excited about our life together. I owe a lot of gratitude to Dave Ramsey for following God’s leading in his life and the rest of the Dave Ramsey team that makes Financial Peace possible for millions of people around the world!
Do you need to break up with FICO? Make 2010 the year to take control of your money!
Tickets to the Total Money Makeover LIVE! make a great gift! Dave and his team will bring the event to Houston, Grand Rapids, Dallas, Charleston and San Antonio this spring. Plus, the Dallas event will be simulcast live across the country! Don’t miss the Total Money Makeover LIVE! in your city! And if you’re a business leader, check out EntreLeadership 1-Day in Houston, Dallas and Charleston! Back to Top
Taking Financial Peace University to the Next Level
Amie Streater knows that helping others in the area of personal finances is her life calling. That’s why she’s the Financial Stewardship Pastor at New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado. That’s also why she decided to go through Dave’s Counselor Training. “I want to be the very best I can be at helping others achieve financial peace. I believe Dave’s program is the most straightforward and the most effective debt-elimination and wealth-building program in existence,” Amie said.
She believes that the practical information she learned at Counselor Training has helped her become a better and more effective counselor. “Counselor Training gave me a well-rounded education in how things work, what the rules are, and how consumers can use those rules to their advantage,” she said. Amie also became more confident in her abilities to counsel people with money problems.
After witnessing so many people change their lives because of the financial counseling they received, Amie decided to bring Financial Peace University to her church. Soon after, even more people were getting the help they needed and making dramatic transformations in their lives.
Each time the church offered an FPU class, they featured it on their website and bulletins and showed commercials on Sunday mornings. But Amie discovered that FPU graduates are the best advertisement. “Usually half of the class is friends and relatives of previous class members,” she said.
New Life Church has offered numerous FPU classes, and they intend to continue offering them as long as there are people who want to go through the class. Amie recommends FPU to families looking for a starting point in improving their finances. Then, she offers coaching to those who need extra help or are in a higher level of crisis. “I don’t see how you can have one without the other,” she said. “I always try to get people to go through FPU before they sit down with me for coaching, so that they have the educational foundation they need to succeed.”
Amie has seen firsthand the link between FPU and financial counseling. She facilitated four classes before becoming a counselor. The total result of those four classes was $2,390,095 in debt paid and $466,784 saved among 725 participants. Since becoming a counselor, Amie has seen a dramatic improvement in FPU class results. The overall count for the four classes she facilitated after going through Counselor Training was $3,340,497 in debt paid and $861,305 saved between 734 class members.
By watching hundreds of families and individuals fix their money problems thanks to FPU and counseling, Amie has also seen marriages saved, addictions kicked, and parents teaching their kids about money. “I strongly believe that if every church in America would implement FPU and have a counselor available, we could virtually eliminate divorce in Christian marriages, and we could raise up an entire generation of debt-free kids,” she said.
If you’re thinking of offering Financial Peace University at your church this year, why not send a staff or congregation member through Counselor Training first? Then you’ll have someone on hand to help FPU members as they work to gain control of their money and change their lives. The next Counselor Training is January 12–16, so sign up today! Back to Top
Useful Tools
There are plenty of free resources available at the new daveramsey.com to help you with everything from setting up a budget that really works to getting a free annual credit report. Here are a few highlights:
The Seven Baby Steps
Get out of debt the same way you learned to walk—one step at a time. Dave has taught these principles to millions via radio, books, Financial Peace University, live events and online.
Find Dave’s Class In Your Town Financial Peace University classes are beginning all over the country, so get involved with one in your area.
Choose Your Newsletters
Customize which helpful Dave Ramsey newsletters you want. Check out our special deals, investing tips, best of The Dave Ramsey Show and more! Subscribe now.
Pretty useful addon from https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/201/ : it really does help with the larger downloads, and with multiple downloads. Think .iso linux or MS distributions, that can come on anything from CD to Blu-Ray (yes, 24 gigs) in size, hah.
The first and only download manager/accelerator built inside Firefox!
DownThemAll is all you can desire from a download manager: it features an advanced accelerator that increases speed up to 400% and it allows you to pause and resume downloads at any time.
DownThemAll is fast, reliable and easy-to-use! It lets you download all the links or images contained in a webpage and much more: you can refine your downloads by fully customizable criteria to get only what you really want!
DownThemAll is absolutely freeware and open-source. No Adware, no Spyware.
It’s amazing just how many quality applications are out there, that I haven’t discovered yet. Here was one for today.
About
XBMC is an award-winning free and open source (GPL) software media player and entertainment hub for digital media. XBMC is available for Linux, OSX, Windows, and the original Xbox. Created in 2003 by a group of like minded programmers, XBMC is a non-profit project run and developed by volunteers located around the world. More than 50 software developers have contributed to XBMC, and 100-plus translators have worked to expand its reach, making it available in more than 30 languages.
While XBMC functions very well as a standard media player application for your computer, it has been designed to be the perfect companion for your HTPC. Supporting an almost endless range of remote controls, and combined with its beautiful interface and powerful skinning engine, XBMC feels very natural to use from the couch and is the ideal solution for your home theater.
Currently XBMC can be used to play almost all popular audio and video formats around. It was designed for network playback, so you can stream your multimedia from anywhere in the house or directly from the internet using practically any protocol available. Use your media as-is: XBMC can play CDs and DVDs directly from the disk or image file, almost all popular archive formats from your hard drive, and even files inside ZIP and RAR archives. It will even scan all of your media and automatically create a personalized library complete with box covers, descriptions, and fanart. There are playlist and slideshow functions, a weather forecast feature and many audio visualizations. Once installed, your computer will become a fully functional multimedia jukebox.
It is difficult to put into words all that XBMC can do, head to the gallery to see some examples, or take the plunge and Try it Today.
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Now playing: Buckcherry – Lit Up via FoxyTunes
The following list are the Technet Plus Titles I was licensed for as of a few days ago. Just in case you were curious as to what titles were in there You can get into a year of this Microsoft program via
for a bit of a discount, vs. the normal $350, until the end of 2009. Cheers!
For the Betas, there is usually a single key issued (as a MAK, or Multiple Activation Key) that will allow up to ten installs. For Windows 7 Ultimate, for instance, you can generate up to ten individual serial numbers through your account, once you are logged in at https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/securedownloads/default.aspx
There are also a number of files that have their key embedded in your media – no need to enter them, your install .iso is “pre-pidded” . . . there is just no convenient way to grep them, etc. so they are not listed below.
Hey, free eval software if you’re not on the TechNet program
———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Microsoft <Microsoft@newsletters.microsoft.com>
Date: Sat, Dec 26, 2009 at 13:48
Subject: Microsoft Download Notifications: December 25, 2009
Microsoft Download Notifications is a weekly mailing that points you to the latest free downloads and download-related services from Microsoft. The following offerings are now available in your preferred categories. Register now if you are not already receiving this free mailing. To find more downloads, visit the Microsoft Download Center. For support with downloads, visit the Help and Support site.
To cancel your subscription to this newsletter, reply to this message with the word “UNSUBSCRIBE” in the Subject line. You can also unsubscribe to newsletters and manage all your Microsoft.com communication preferences at any time at Microsoft.com.
I’ll admit to being a gadget dude : to some degree, what IT person isn’t ?
Having long used flashlights, from the youth days into Boy Scouts into future careers, and up till this day, I still like them. Flashlights are just, umm, cool. The Insight Technology Extreme Hx 120 flashlight can join the few that are worthy “carry-able” lights, in my daily life.
I’ve carried a SureFire L4 LumaMax LED for the last several years about 99% of the days, just in a slacks or jeans pocket. This new light is smaller, brighter, uses half the batteries, has more functionality, and costs significantly less.
I’ll admit to being biased, but since humans are so good at breaking things, I really prefer only LED lights for daily use, or potentially “life-saving” use. I also have gotten to the point that until another brand proves itself to me under feral, nasty conditions I’ll only trust those two companies mentioned so far. Yes, I’ve broken a lot of others in harsh use, and tons of bulbs before the LED’s became available.
If you are not familiar with the lithium batteries, they are good for years of inactive use, and work well in heat or cold compared to standard batteries. The hold more power, and are lighter, though more expensive than traditional batteries. Were I using the light each day, I’d probably opt for a rechargeable from one of these two companies, but they are generally larger and slightly more expensive (including a charger also, or course).
Since I rarely actually need to use mine anymore, I’ll stick with these. I would sure love to see the trend move away from “scallops” on the front and / or tail of these lights before. This is NOT the Kel light of Smokey and the Bandit eras, and all those do are wear holes in pockets, since lights this this small are typically carried in an inner pocket, yes?
The clip is (luckily) removable, and it also included a separate clip / lanyard version that you can install, as desired. For woods carry, I’d use the “dummy cord” approach, but for my daily life, slick-sided seems best.
HX120™ Proxima Covert Size – The World’s Finest Tactical Flashlight with Smart-Power Technology™ was designed with your protection and safety in mind. Programmability, fit and multiple functions were engineered into this high-powered handheld, bringing you all the illumination you’ll ever need to Dominate the Darkness.™
Easy programmable tailcap switch
Strobe available at your fingertips
Dura-Last™ LED projects 120 blinding lumens out to 300 feet
Built from rugged Aerospace Anodized Aluminum
Smart-Power Technology™ delivers extended run time – up to 100 hrs. at low setting.
The mighty Gulftown will be one of the Core i7 boys.
Along with the revamped Nehalem-based Westmere chips, Intel will be bringing a hexacore variant codenamed Gulftown.
Many figured that this new class of desktop chip with its six cores and twelve threads would put it in a class that Intel would see fit to name Core i9 – but if leaked Intel slides are to be believed, Intel is keeping it within the Core i7 family.
Chinese website PCOnline shows a slide that clearly describes an Intel Core i7-980X Processor Extreme Edition as one built on a 32nm process with 12MB Intel Smart Cache and a 130W TDP.
While this leaves some of us wondering what, if anything, Intel will slot into a possible Core i9 class, the positive side is that Intel won’t have to print up a whole different set of system badge stickers for the new Gulftown CPU.
This is just the latest in a string of Gulftown leaks. Last month, a Polish website got its hands on an engineering sample and put the chip through its (quick) paces.
By now, most enthusiasts are aware of the bold claims concerning the performance potential of USB 3.0 peripherals, but supporting controllers have only recently started dribbling onto the scene. However, fully testing the capabilities of this technology would require some kind of data device that is at least as fast as the fastest controller and such a device does not yet exist (we’d need something capable of pushing more than 500 MB/s).
We probably shouldn’t expect to tickle the upper reaches of what USB 3.0 can do any time soon. After all, it was more than a year after the introduction of “hi-speed” USB 2.0 before devices were able to offer 35 MB/s speeds, which still fell far short of the interface’s rated 480 Mb/s (60 MB/s) specification.
Due to a similar lack of adequately-speedy devices and an even more fantastic-sounding data rate limit, it could be years before we have a chance to push USB 3.0 as far as the interface will go. Yet, the relative scarcity of USB 3.0-enabled peripherals at this point in time doesn’t prevent us from taking a closer look at the way USB 3.0 is being implemented on the latest motherboards. If the results are good, you can be sure we’ll see more and more hardware hitting the scene with support for the interface.
Before we examined the “how” of USB 3.0 implementation, we asked ourselves “why?” Wasn’t eSATA good enough? Casual observers could cite the fact that its 5.0 Gb/s interface is potentially faster than the 3.0 Gb/s supported by eSATA, but insightful readers know that eSATA already outpaces consumer-level storage solutions and is due for an update to 6.0 Gb/s soon. Thus, while USB 3.0 is generally promoted as a performance enhancement, its primary raison d’être might be as a solution to eSATA’s problems.
The first problem USB 3.0 solves is that, unlike SATA, it’s not limited to ATA and ATAPI devices. Designed to function like a PCI Express (PCIe) 2.0 external link, combining it with USB 2.0 on a single jack provides connectivity similar to what ExpressCard slots offer with which so many notebook users are familiar. We look forward to seeing it adapted to a similar variety of devices, such as video capture and graphics cards. Borrowing power from the USB 2.0 interface with which it co-exists, USB 3.0 becomes a more convenient solution for portable drives compared to non-powered eSATA. USB 3.0 also specifies higher amperage capacity for the USB 2.0 power pins it shares, making it a better solution for portable storage than even the combination USB 2.0/eSATA connections present on some motherboards and thumb drives.
But perhaps the most important of USB 3.0’s advantages is that, by being designed for removable devices from the beginning, the standard isn’t likely to meet the engineering abuses that have prevented onboard SATA/eSATA controllers on many motherboards from supporting the “Safely Remove Hardware” function of Windows. Thus, while USB 3.0 might be “just another interface” from the storage perspective, improved flexibility makes it an important step away from the eSATA interface against which it competes.
With the question of USB 3.0’s relevance settled, let’s take a closer look at how manufacturers are implementing it . . .
Thanks Tom’s for helping me out while I’m on vacation
With 30″ monitors still priced at $1,400 and up (in some cases, way up), PC aficionados in need of lots of screen real estate might consider purchasing a couple of quality 24″ monitors instead.
With just about every graphics cards able to handle at least a pair of digital display outputs with ease these days, working with two 24″ screens is just a matter of hooking them up to your graphics card’s single- or dual-link DVI ports, and then extending the desktop from whichever screen takes the primary position to include the secondary. From there, you’re ready to enjoy more room to work than you’d otherwise get from a pricier 30″ model.
And with a list price of $599 (currently on sale for $529) buying a pair of Dell U2410 monitors will set you back at least $100 less than the least-expensive 30″ models, $200 less than the UltraSharp 3007WFP, and $500 less than an UltraSharp 3008WFP (though it’s hard to deny the sexiness of the 3008WFP, too).
There are plenty of free resources available at the new 
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