My wife and I are going through a personal finance program over the next 12 weeks. We meet once a week where we watch a video, have a discussion and go over material in a group. We then have homework during the week. The goal is to get our financial house in good order and be better prepared for emergencies and retirement. As a result I thought it would be fun to do a series on personal finance. I know many of you struggle with money, how to keep it, spend it and use it the way you want. So, let’s investigate shall we?
When do you use a deodorant? Most often you don’t use it when you stink, but before you stink. It’s a preemptive strike against the possibility of stink.
How is money a good deodorant? From the cynical point of view what it really means is that you stink but you have so much money that those around you are willing to suffer through the stink to get close to some of your money. In this case we are not talking about a physical odor. We are talking about a moral, ethical or behavioral failing being the ‘odor’.
Another way of looking at the quote, less cynical – more positive, is that money is a protector. It is a buffer from you being in a situation that might stink, such as an emergency of some sort. After all, if you have an emergency fund then your emergencies (and you WILL have emergencies) won’t be nearly as catastrophic, right? You will be able to pay for them if you have saved knowing they will happen.
What tricks and tips do you have surrounding your personal finances?
I like this quote – it’s about art, it’s funny and it rhymes – what more can I ask?
Creativity is so much about freedom. Letting the dot in your head take it’s walk where it wants to go and not stopping it. Are you able to do that? What stop signs do you have? I tried something a bit different today. I drew the line drawing on the napkin but then did the color work in the computer, just for fun and a change.
Are you ignoring Ms. Creativity? She doesn’t like to be ignored. She dresses to get noticed and if you don’t pay attention she will secretly push hunches on you all day until you do. So, PAY ATTENTION, she is trying to tell you something!
Hello to all my Napkin Kin around the world! I have an unfinished quote for you to finish today.
I left out the final word of this quote. I want you to tell me what you think that word is. I don’t mean what you think the correct word is in the original quote. I mean what do YOU think the word should be. No use cheating since I am not interested in the ‘right answer, just your answer.
Put your answer in the comments so others can see and comment.
An online friend of mine, Debbie Hampton of the blog ‘The Best Brain Possible’, posted this quote this morning. I liked it and since I didn’t have any great week-long series in mind thought I would just start with what was right in front of me, just like the quote says!
Do you miss out on happiness because you only want to reap it, never plant it? You never want to find it, just to search for it? You don’t want to trust it, just judge it?
What does not being happy give to you? How does your unhappiness or your longing for (but not finding) happiness feed you? How does it help define you? What do you like about being not happy yet?
Answer those questions and it just might make you happy.
On Wednesday I had a guest post, ‘Writing Lesson #4’, at Rachelle Gardner’s blog. I have been drawing a series of ‘Writing Lessons’ for her readers, who are mostly writers and publishing industry people. I realized that for some reason I forgot to post Writing Lesson #2 to my own blog when I first drew it a few weeks back so here it is.
It’s day #3 of The Great Quotists – Mr. Samuel Langhorne Clemens if you please.
The words ‘mark twain’ are what the steamboat pilots of the 1800s would call out when the measurement of the water on the river was at least 2 fathoms. It meant that the water was deep enough for the boats to travel safely. Samuel Clemens was a steamboat pilot along the Mississippi River and took those words as his pen name in 1863. It also is the case that an earlier Mississippi steamboat captain, one Captain Sellers, used that as his pen name before Clemens did. Clemens supposedly chose the name in honor of that first writer and as a connection to his roots on the river.
Drawing by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by Mark Twain – NOTE: While this quote has long been attributed to Twain, there is some reason to doubt whether he actually said it. Record going back to early in his life attribute the quote to Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar.
Don’t quote me, but it’s day #2 of ‘The Great Quotists’ series at the NDD Next up is François-Marie Arouet, better known by his pen name, Voltaire.
Voltaire is the wit of France. Born into the enlightenment era he skewered royalty, religion, pretension, society, and politics with a sharpness of tongue that no other could match.
But he was much more than just a sarcastic wit. He was an amateur scientist, working to discover the elements of fire. He was one of the first to write history in a modern way, paying attention to culture and society as much as military and political events. He was a crusader for the separation of church and state and religious freedom. He wrote more than 20,000 letters and 2,000 books and pamphlets.
Another example of a man who had humor until the end, his famous last words were, “Now, now, my good man, this is not the time for making enemies.” in response to a priest asking him to renounce Satan.
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
This week I am going to highlight some of my favorite quotists; the authors, aphorists, journalists and commentators who have contributed the most over the years to The Napkin Dad Daily.
First up, Oscar Wilde
An irish wit if ever there was one, Oscar Wilde lived in the 1800s and ruled the literary world for some time with writings such as ‘The Picture of Dorian Grey’ and ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’.
Unfortunately, the Victorian laws ruled over the land and when it was discovered he had committed ‘the sin that isn’t mentioned’ he was thrown in jail. When he got out he departed for France, never to return.
Nonetheless, he did not lose his wit. The story goes that on his death bed he still had enough left in him to give what has to be the wittiest final words in history, “Either those curtains go, or I do.” The curtains stayed and he went. A variation on the final words is sometimes quoted as, “My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or the other of us has got to go.”
Oscar Wilde holds a dear place in my heart solely because my eldest daughter, Rebekah, loved reading him when she was a teenager. She would always be telling us various quotes and when I was drawing the napkins and putting them in their lunches (read that story here) my most frequent quotist was Mr. Wilde.
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
