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Imagine your wrist is itching right now. It’s the kind of itch that just has to be scratched - it doesn’t matter what you are doing, because the urge to scratch rises up and blocks your ability to concentrate on almost anything else. I am sure you know this feeling - the sudden intensity of the itch narrows your vision to a tunnel. You stop, you scratch, you resume whatever it was you were doing.

Now imagine that keeps happening. Again and again. You itch at random all over. Your nose itches, you stop and scratch and take ten steps before your knee itches. The aggravation becomes unbearable - every few minutes another urge to scratch, another pulsating itch.

But after a while, a funny thing happens - you are so consumed with scratching and itching that you realize that you can ignore some of the milder itches. Your mind blocks them out, because otherwise you’re just in a haze, waiting for the next tickle on your shoulder or your ear. You realize, hey, I can block these itches out.

Before long, you are blocking out more and more of these urges to itch. After a while, you can ignore almost all of them. Your mind learns how to block bigger and bigger urges, until only the most pressing itches needs scratching. One day, you realize that although you still itch all over, you don’t need to scratch anymore. You have conquered the urge and no longer have a knee-jerk reaction when it strikes.

This is more or less the way you need to approach spending if you’re in debt, or eating if you’re trying to lose weight, or getting over a bad habit of any kind. It may seem like an oversimplification but that’s what it is. Your mind is an amazing tool (but also a dangerous one) but you are its master.

photo credit: Sugar Pond

Popularity: 2% [?]

No, not the basketball one - I’ve made the Final Four in Free Money Finance’s March Madness. I’m being killed right now by the (quite worthy) article from I’ve Paid For That Twice Already on snowflaking! I’ve been cruising through the tournament up until this point, but it looks like I’ve got an uphill struggle to win this one. Gimme a hand if you have a sec - just go there and comment “Game 1: Late, Game 2: Lessons” (the second one is my fellow Money Writer, SVB of the Digerati Life).

I want to win the whole thing. The proceeds, should I win, go to a charity, The Russian Children’s Welfare Society (link to my article about it), that I’ve already won some money for this year, and I’d desperately like to do it again. I need some votes so if you have a second and can help me out, I’d be grateful! Head on over and help me help Russian orphans. It’s a nice way to spend your Sunday!

photo credit: *sean

Popularity: 2% [?]

I’ll launch into the roundup by formally announcing (not that it’s a surprise to most readers by this point, although some subscribers who don’t visit the site may not have noticed) that I’ve joined The Money Writers network. The network has been around for a year and included The Sun’s Financial Diary, Money Smart Life, The Digerati Life, and Generation X Finance. They decided to expand and added Million Dollar Journey, My Dollar Plan and Brip Blap. You won’t notice a specific change in the content of Brip Blap or any big changes in general. It’s a great group of blogs, with different focuses and audiences, and keeping up with all of them is going to be a challenge for me. And that’s a good thing! We have a site at The Money Writers where you can see all of our posts consolidated in one location.

This week I also had a post on the Prosper blog, How to Undo Investment Paralysis. If you want some free money to sign up with Prosper, click here.

I also participated in the latest Carnival of Personal Finance: the Baby Education Edition. I enjoyed the baby theme since we are now down to a few weeks before Brip Blappette arrives. My post was an editor’s pick, and as always I am very grateful to have my submission highlighted out of so many. As always there were a lot of great articles to read besides mine, too.

On to the links. First, from the Money Writers:

Is Generation X Responsible for the Real Estate and Mortgage Problems?

• Jeremy has a good question: did Gen X cause any of the current problems in real estate or are we just deer in the headlights? I personally think the Boomers are to blame, but that’s because as an Gen Xer I blame the Boomers for everything. That’s how we roll.

Who Offers the Best Gas Reward Credit Card?

• Sun runs down the best gas reward cards. I know some people don’t like credit, and stay away from credit cards like they were newborn baby diapers, but I think reward cards are great. Pay off your balance in full each month and you’re basically giving yourself a discount all the time.

StickK to Your Goals

• Lazy Man talks about a new goal-setting system called StickK. I won’t steal his thunder - go see what it’s all about - but I’ll just say that if I used it, I’d have to designate the Bill Belichick Genius Fund as my recipient.

Free College Tuition To Soothe the Middle Class Pinch

• “Free college tuition” is the hot new thing for those sassy Ivies (and near-Ivies) to do these days. SVB is talking about it in this piece. If you’ve been reading here you’ll know that I’m a product of public schools from my first day of kindergarten through my last day of graduate school. I think if any of these schools offering free tuition to people coming from families making less than $60K per year want to put their money where their mouths are, let them make tuition payments voluntary. If it’s worth it, people will pay, right? It’s a gimmicky idea and it once again is biased against East Coasters. Someone making $60K in New York City is poor. Someone making $60K in Tennessee is comfortably middle class. And on an unrelated note, I get mad at somebody in the comments on an unrelated topic.

Saving Strategy: Avoid Upgrading Your Housing | Million Dollar Journey

• Frugal Trader talks about a mistake that everyone makes - so maybe it’s not a mistake at the end of the day. I have seen very few young families - with young kids, particularly - who would willingly downsize. At some point it can’t be about saving, saving, saving. You need a comfortable house to come home to after a tough day’s work - one that energizes you to do other things. Not to mention finding good houses in good neighborhoods with good schools so you can save money on private schools, or long drives to “good” areas.

Personal Finance Review - When’s the Next Black Monday? » Money Smart Life

• Over at Money Smart Life you can make yourself a little sick thinking about the next Black Monday. I’m betting it’s coming, and coming soon. When it comes, it’s going to be devastating, but it’s also going to be a real test of the “buy low” philosophy for many investors.

Investment Club Portfolio and Returns

• Madison, though she doesn’t know it, helps me expand a little on my piece. And investment club is a great idea, although for some reason I’ve never really looked into one. I’m in a small one I guess, made up of Bubelah and myself, but developing a master mind means having a LOT of people contributing to things like investing strategies.

And a couple of posts from around the web:

My Final Post: Top 9 Lessons In Awesomeness

• Hunter - who has a really strong site with a lot of good resources - is wrapping up his blog with his final post, so it’s your last chance to see what he’s about. Truth be told it’s not his final post, but you’ll see what he means.

Is your high-powered job setting your kids up to fail?

• Jonathan has an excellent piece here on the needs for parents to just BE there. It doesn’t take much. I’m convinced that watching TV with your kid is better than having them read poetry without you. So much of what makes children comes from their association with role models, particularly their parents. A high-powered, long-hours job may seem important but your work is your work - it will always be there if you want it to be. Your children are only yours for 18 years (and the last 3 of those years they’ll be too busy with friends, activities, etc. to be “yours” anyway).

And - almost done here! - a few baby-related posts I thought were fun (and informative) reads:

• Funds to Form a Family: Adoption process begins. And so does the check writing.
• The Perfect Gift For A Newborn Baby (a must read - please!)
• 25 Ways to Simplify Your Life with Kids

And as a final, final point the good fellows at Smarty Pig have given me a $50 gift certificate that I am going to give away to a random commentator! Don’t know what Smarty Pig is? I’ve seen a lot about it, so you can read here, here, here or here to find out more (I tend to agree with Sun, who complained about fees and got the structure changed). If you made it this far in the post, you deserve it, and if you check out the other articles about it you could win even more to set up your Smarty Pig account. Just leave a comment on this post with “oink” in it, and I’ll randomly select a winner this weekend.

Final thought: ever wonder why I call this blog Brip Blap? You can read the about page, but Seth Godin describes my thought process accurately here. I still think Brip Blap is easier to remember than Personal Finance World.

Whew! Go enjoy the rest of the weekend!

photo credit: _StaR_DusT_ / photo credit: tanakawho

Popularity: 2% [?]

After you have built up your emergency fund, started saving for your children’s college education (if you want to make that choice, which I don’t agree with) and invested in whatever retirement plans are available to you, it is time to build up your “go to hell” fund.

That’s right.

Your “go to hell” fund.

If you are working for a living, you need to start building this fund as soon as possible. With the shifting economic landscape you run a far higher risk of being part of a massive company-wide layoff than ever before. When that happens, it won’t matter who you are, whether it’s a good time for a layoff or a bad time, or whether you have enough money to pay for that new set of brakes you need on the car.

Let’s put this in perspective. When I was working in corporate finance, I participated in a “restructuring” project. This word is a euphemism for “firing lots of people to improve the bottom line and making the remaining people pick up the duties performed by the ones who got fired.” There are a million cute terms for it these days: downsizing, rightsizing, eliminating redundancies, even the old-fashioned “layoff,” which implies that your job will be given right back to you when the company gets over this tough little patch… awww, thanks, Mr. Smithers.

You will be fired at some point, or you will come so close to it that you will be asked to leave or you will fire yourself. The chances are very good - particularly if you work for a big corporation - that the glacial movement of your titanic company will inevitably smash your department into another through mergers or spinoffs or simple cost-cutting. You will be gone.

Alternatively, you may be frustrated. You may not WANT to go from being the Assistant Associate Vice-Manager of Finance at Bank of America to being the Associate Assistant Vice-Manager at Citigroup. You may want to go spend a year starting up that flower shop, or that consulting business or that scheme selling freeze-dried soup over the Internet that you dreamed up over margaritas on vacation last year.

In every case, wouldn’t it be nice, when they call you in to discuss your future with Megacorp with quivering tears in their cold mechanical eyes, to be able to say “go to hell” and walk out the door?

I’m not actually advocating saying “go to hell”. You have no need to burn bridges, but figuratively speaking there is no greater freedom - short of actually having financial freedom - than knowing you have enough money to walk away from a job for a few months and start your job-hopping again at a leisurely pace. That is true freedom in the corporate world.

Most importantly, if you have a “go to hell” fund, it won’t bother you when your company disappears from existence on a Sunday.

photo credit: chatirygirl

Popularity: 3% [?]

Green acres is the place for me.
Farm livin’ is the life for me.
Land spreadin’ out so far and wide
Keep Manhattan, just give me that countryside.

from “Green Acres” by Vic Mizzy

This past weekend I took the Brip Blap crew (myself, Bubelah, Little Buddy and almost-out-and-about baby #2) on a drive over to Queens to a birthday party for the daughter of Bubelah’s friend. This couple recently purchased a nice house in a nice neighborhood with nice schools and near to the epicenter of their ethnic community. The house was a fixer-upper when they bought it, so they had to put in some substantial money to fixing it up. They have not yet finished doing so, and the total cost, to date, is over $1 million. Although that is in the almost-worthless-US-dollar, it is still a substantial amount of moolah.

Switch to a couple of days before that. Out of curiousity, I looked on Ye Olde Internet for real estate in a small town in Pennsylvania outside of Philadelphia that Bubelah and I have visited and really like. A house, finished in grand style similar to our friends’ house but far bigger with a substantially larger yard was listed for about $500,000. Bigger house, bigger yard, all finished (no fixing up really necessary) for half as much - and probably half the property taxes, too.

Switch to years earlier and swoop down South to the ancestral estates of the Brip Blap family, sprawling across 3 acres of land in the Deep South. My parents have vacated their home in the South to move closer to my brother’s family (and closer to mine, as well). Their Deep South house - which I am sure they will not mind me referring to as “stylistically dated” (but a very nice home) - is a little smaller than the Pennsylvania and Queens houses, but on a huge lot with practically no property taxes. It is probably selling for about 15% of the cost of the Queens house.

So where do you draw the line? I know I could move to Kansas (no offense, Kansanians, I pick on Kansas because of the free land being offered there) and build Neverland II for what a decent-sized single family house would cost in Queens OR a 650-sq foot studio in Manhattan. Bubelah and I have often toyed with the idea of moving to Florida, a place we both like a lot, as well, and I am sure real estate on the beach is a lot more affordable today than it was two years ago. I used to joke about moving to Portugal, but I suspect with the dollar’s value where it is that wouldn’t be much of a bargain.

I think it says something about your core values if you choose to spend big on a place to live. I know there is a point at which we all draw the line, because I don’t see huge numbers of bloggers from the Soft Coasts moving to the heartland, nor vice-versa. Our friends in Queens spent big because they feel THAT IS IT. The home is in the midst of their community, near family, good neighborhood, schools, etc. etc. They have planted their flag, and staked their financial future to it; they will not have financial freedom in the next 10 years (or 30). But they are happy with that decision.

My point? I know financial freedom is not my #1 goal when I analyze it in this context. Bubelah and I could move to my parents’ home in the South and neither of us would need to work at a day job, starting tomorrow. With our various side-income producing ventures, given a little growth, we could probably support most of our needs. The schools are fine (I is a product of them, and I can haz edgercation). But we won’t do it: family, climate, etc. enter into it but the kicker is really that neither of us can imagine living in a small town anymore. But this does mean, then, that our number one value is not financial freedom, as I often like to say it is. Our number one value may be family, or a more liberal big-city atmosphere, or the ability to eat Turkish cuisine frequently (best.food.ever) - but whatever our #1 value is, it is not financial freedom. So for now, no green acres!

photo credit: joiseyshowaa

Popularity: 2% [?]

Who knew the Brits had more debt than the Yanks? This article from the Times was disturbing, particularly so since it seems to indicate that although much of the debt incurred in the Colonies is mortgage-related, the Queen’s subjects have been racking up credit card debt to pay for fox hunting gear or Pop Idol CDs (yes, we can also blame the UK for American Idol’s inspiration).

Wikipedia has an article on debt-to-GDP here although it has all of the little “this article may be full of hooey” warnings across the top of the page. It looks like the top 5 countries with the worst debt-to-GDP ratio are (the higher the number, the better):

1 Zimbabwe 189.90 (the worst)
2 Lebanon 188.00
3 Japan 182.40
4 Seychelles 143.30
5 Jamaica 134.30
And the countries with the BEST debt-to-GDP ratio are:

126. Luxembourg 2.60 (the best)
125. Equatorial Guinea 2.70
124. Oman 2.80
123. Chile 3.60
122. Estonia 3.80
The US, Great Britain and Canada came in at #65, #49, and #21, with lower numbers being worse. So Canada’s even more of a mess than the US in terms of debt? Who knew?

If you’re like me, you imagined that places like Zimbabwe and Lebanon were probably the worst because of instability in the economy or the country itself; people borrow because they have to, or interest rates are sky high, or something like that. I didn’t expect to see Japan there. Does that mean that Japanese consumers are going nuts even worse than US consumers? Or is it just the result of the long slow economic malaise that has gripped Japan for the last 15 years?

And turning around to the best, I would have guessed Luxembourg or Switzerland for #1, but the rest? Is it a lack of access to debt, or are Chileans simpler smarter about debt than Americans and Brits (and everyone else in the world who isn’t an Omanian or Equatorial Guinearianan)? It’s possible - other cultures aren’t as consumer-mad as the US. Runners-up for lowest ratio included Libya and Russia. Odd results - to me, at least.

Looking up stats like that just proves that you can’t do much in the way of guessing about economic factors, because I would have been UTTERLY wrong. With the levels of literacy, education and supposedly gung-ho zap pow entrepreneurial/capitalist knowledge in places like the US, you would think we would have collectively figured out debt is stupid, wouldn’t you? It’s amazing that places like Estonia are “frugal” countries, living well below their means, and places like the US, Canada and Britain are apparently busy putting flat-screen TVs on their 18% APR credit cards. And don’t forget - until about 15 years ago, Estonians didn’t even have an economic system where debt existed! Yet they’ve avoided incurring it in post-Soviet “free markets.”

So hats off to you, Luxembourg! I visited Luxembourg many years ago with my brother. We had just finished a disastrous trip to Brussels, and took off for the greener pastures (so to speak) of Switzerland, but detoured through Luxembourg. This was in the era of the strong dollar, and we were sidetracked - first for an afternoon but eventually for (I think) four days by the local brewhouses. Over many beers we made the repeated decision to stay “just one more day and visit just one more pub” so at least in some small part I helped pump up the GDP that year. Through my the staunch efforts of my brother and myself, we put a tiny uptick into the Luxembourgeronian economy, at least in the beer sector. I played some small part in that excellent ratio. Just my little contribution to Luxembourgishnian financial supremacy. You’re welcome, Luxembourg. I miss you and hope I’ll see you again someday.

photo credit: snaiwedu

Popularity: 4% [?]

I like to think of myself as being a step past the normal employee grind, but I still get up most days and schlep to my client’s office. Sure, I take off when I feel like it and work moderately flexible hours, but I do the lunchpail shuffle. I do know that there are changes that I’ve made over the past couple of years that have made a big difference in my daily life, and my Life, capital L. These changes make the day better and make me more productive - and, invevitably, have made me a little bit richer, too. They didn’t cost anything and didn’t take any great effort. Give them a shot:

1. Get up early. If you are an early riser, the early hours of the day are probably your most productive. If you are not an early riser, you should become one. If you wake up 30 minutes before tumbling out the door you will be less likely to exercise, eat well, prepare a lunch or simply become alert before leaving. Set your alarm clock back 5 minutes before you go to sleep tonight, and do that every night for the next month. You will be amazed how much productive time this will add to your day.
2. Stop smoking. I am not sure this needs much explanation, but if you are a smoker you are wasting money with that morning smoke-and-joe. I won’t even touch on the health implications; you’re wasting time and money, all for the sake of a stimulant you don’t need.
3. Stop eating junk food. Eat protein the morning. Forget low-fat/low-carb/vegetarian/slow food etc.; the simple fact is that you will be perkier in the morning if you eat protein rather than carbs. Eating protein in the morning keeps you energized longer, makes you more productive and probably will make you eat less for lunch, too. Eat eggs for breakfast, or egg whites. No bagels, young Jedi.
4. Exercise. Exercising gives you more energy, makes you happier, increases your stamina and if done correctly even makes you more creative. Running is a great way to brainstorm; leave the iPod at home.
5. Groom. Spend some money on hair care products or hair cuts or razors or whatever you use to groom. Some people will tell you spending money on that type of stuff is not frugal. True, it is not; but you will not get ahead in this world if you don’t keep a presentable appearance. Think even rock stars roll out of bed looking appropriately rumpled?
6. Hygiene. Like #2, this one explains itself. Nobody likes to be around people who smell. Wipe when wiping is needed. Spend a little extra on high-quality deodorants.
7. Stand up straight. Confidence projects itself through your posture. If you slump and slouch and avoid eye contact throughout the day, you not only project an insecure, pathetic appearance to others, you feed your own brain an unhealthy diet of intimidated glances at your shoes. I make this mistake myself, sometimes, but try it. When walking in public, keep your shoulders thrown back, your back straight and your chin in the air. Walk like you own the sidewalk, and soon you will.
8. Smile. As in #7, project happiness and you’ll make people happy around you. There is nothing quite as startling as a smile from a stranger these days. Don’t be creepy about it, but stop scowling. Put a smile in your eyes if not on your face, and you’ll see a change in people around you.
9. Read/listen. If you commute to work - and chances are you do - make sure you make good use of that time. I know listening to the wacky Morning Zoo on X-Rock 103.6 may be the highlight of your day, but try to make use of that time. If you commute 40 minutes each way to work (the average US commute time) you spend approximately 9,800 minutes (163 hours commuting) each year. I spend almost 720 hours commuting per year! You can read a lot of books if you take public transportation, or listen to a lot of audio books on any subject (if you drive or take public transportation). Don’t give that time over to phone pranks and Rhianna.
10. Eat lunch with humans. I know the frugal approach is to avoid the office lunch, or the “wasted time” with colleagues in the cafeteria - but even if you have to bring lunch for everyone once in a while to tempt them to stay in the company cafeteria, do it. Don’t spend lunch reading a book or gobbling a PBnJ at your desk. Get up and take a break for a few seconds!
11. Take breaks. I have a terrible habit of “getting in the zone” at work and sitting without moving for hours, IMing and emailing and preparing documents. It’s a bad idea. Stand up once every 10 minutes. Yes, 10 minutes. Stand up when you take a phone call. Get a small cup for your water so you have to walk back and forth to the water cooler constantly. Breath. You are not chained to your desk.
12. Leave early. Trust me. If you are working for an employer and complete what is expected of you for that day. Do not chit chat. Do not check your emails one last time - my guess is that unless the corporate servers are impounded by the FBI, your emails will be there tomorrow. “Forget” your Blackberry on your office desk as you leave for the day. Leave 5 minutes before you normally do each day. Nobody will fire you, I promise. Think anybody at Bear Stearns is keeping their job because they turned out the lights every night? No. Take that time in the evening for YOU, and building YOUR wealth.
13. Do errands on the way home. Don’t wait until the weekend to run by the drugstore for shampoo (although you probably should be buying it from amazon or drugstore unless you’re clipping coupons). Get it on the way home. You’re already out. Save your free days for life - or better yet, for building wealth - not errands.
14. Take off your shoes, wash your hands and shower when you get home. If you are like me and ride the New York subways, you probably have 8,000 different emissions and fluids and various unpleasant emanations on your hands and the bottom of your shoes when you get home. Take them off at the door, then go shower. You reduce the chance of spreading illness throughout the house by staying clean.
15. Go to sleep early. Unless you have a thriving 24 hour business that requires your input at 1 am, chances are good that there is nothing “live” requiring your attention at that time. Go to sleep and get up earlier - you are more productive early in the morning than you are late at night. Let your evenings be for your family and for more positive productive activity - thinking, writing, making phone calls and reading.

photo credit: Saveena (AKA LHDugger)

Popularity: 5% [?]