2 Things I Read For You, 2 Things For You To Read — Feb 27, 2018
This is TL;DR (Too Long, Didn’t Read) Tuesdays. I summarize and discuss two articles — one from a blogger, and from one a “traditional news” source. I read news voraciously — I have online subscriptions to 3 major newspapers (conservative and liberal — WSJ, NYTimes, WaPo), but will also sneak in articles from other “traditional” news outlets.
I also provide links to two other blog posts you should read on your own, with a goal to feature bloggers that have popped up on here before and/or that I read on my own.
This concept is inspired by my father, who sends everyone in the family articles links by email, by my older brother, who send s articles so long I never read them, and my wife, who became tired of me sending her articles, and has been telling me “TL;DR” for years.
I write these 1-4x/month. Click here to read all of them over time.
2 Things For You To Read:
#1: Rocky at 30-0 discusses why Frugality is Stupid — as someone who is an aspiring Frugalist, I enjoyed this post. He shared an amazing guest post about personal experiences with racial tension a few weeks back as well.
#2: A slight contrast to the article above, Tawcan discusses how he travel hacked his way to Maui and saved $10k in the process.
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2 Things I Read For You
#1
Source: Countdown To Tranquility
Title: Childhood Memories and Financial Decisions
Summary: The author shares childhood experiences (while growing up in India) that taught her about money, ranging from running out of money for school tuition to waiting several weeks to celebrate her birthday when hosting guests for several weeks took up the families available extra income. Great lessons and stories here.
Conclusion: How to teach my kids about money is an ongoing question, not just in my house, but everywhere. I recently wrote a guest post discussing how I used underwear to teach Rogue One about value; but I am not sure that purposeful lessons, even if in the context of daily life, are the answer. Experiences that leave indelible images may be more important, but those are hard to plan.
Read This Also: “Procrastination, Anyone?” Worth it just to read the quote at the top — a classic.
#2
Source:
Title: Are You A Bad Parent If You Rely On Parenting Tech?
Summary: This author was doing a lot of childrearing on her own while her husband was in the military. Some fancy gadgets helped her sleep better and worry less (remote monitoring of activity, temp, etc), and even fancier gadgets have come about that she would gladly have used had they been available earlier. Some people decry the use of these gadgets as avoiding parenting, and that the cost is too high for many of these items.
Conclusion: We bought our first smartphones when Rogue One was ~2 years old. When I worked late and had to be up early with him, just having the ability to turn on Netflix the phone while he lay next to me and get an extra 30 mintues of rest was incredibly helpful. If he was older, I would have just told him to go watch cartoons on the TV for awhile. We’re just substituting one technology for another, and one advancement for another. We shouldn’t guilt trip mothers for using formula instead of breast milk — yes, we should encourage it and facilitate it, but formula is the result of science and product development as well. It’s substituting for something that use to be entirely the purview of the mother (or wet nurse). There ARE many things that are overpriced and which are part marketing gimmick — I do have fairly clear limits. However being frugal and having a budget is far from being a luddite. We’ve used the same baby monitor for all 3 kids — no video — as we’ve gone futher along we’ve used it less. We actually have it on a timer so it DOESN’T turn on until 6am — we don’t want to hear the toddler crying in his crib unless we already know he’s sick, because he usually goes back to bed on his own. Experience has taught us that. Also he has 2 older brothers in rooms next door that will tell us if he cries too much. That’s old-school.
Share your thoughts in the comment section below, and share these posts as well!
Good to know you liked it! Thank you for the mention. And that quite? I love it too…
I read the guest post too. Loved it! I have a 9 year old son. Paying for chores didn’t work. But allowances seen to be doing great. Except when it comes to Pokemon cards. I am now adding a 50% surcharge on it. That seems to be working so far.
My oldest loves pokemon cards and legos — that’s where he spends all his money. The 50% tax is interesting.
We generally try to do 25% to charity, 25% to savings, 50% to whatever you want, but we’re not always consistent since the $ comes in sporadically at holiday time and not regularly, since our attempts at allowance fell by the wayside last year. May need to try that again
Frugality: I do think for many people (sometimes I’m guilty of it) frugality is a “sport”. i.e. the ends are frugality for the sake of “getting a good deal” instead of buying only what you need. For entertainment read the forums on slickdeals where this behavior is common. One other thing I notice especially as a physician is that many savings maneuvers really don’t affect your bottom line. I mean saving a few bucks here and there aren’t going to keep MDs living paycheck to paycheck. It’s the big ticket lifestyle choices.
“the baby industrial complex”: Tech aside it’s amazing how extra stuff people try and sell you to raise a child. We’ve had 3 kids. Before our 3rd my wife and I went to one of these NYC baby showers. We went because it was a good deal since for the price of admission you get a free travel system (see first point on frugality LOL). However, the amount of stuff that’s there that people try to guilt you into buying is ridiculous.
My wife shared a clip from a TV show that discusses ultra cheap indiviudals/families. Among other things, included a family of 4 that fills the bath once then rotates through (sharing the previously used water), a guy that splits his 2-ply toilet paper to double the amount, and couples who share toothbrushses. There’s definitely a line between cheap and frugal, and a line between frugality as the goal vs. frugality to have a better life in other areas.
We’ve spent less and less on kid “stuff” as time has moved on — not only just hand me downs, but also just not caring as much. 🙂 However having 3 kids things still add up, and we swap out buying “stuff” and instead pay for “activities,” which I think is even more expensive.
Thanks for the mention. I like the idea that you summarized two articles that you read for your readers. Very interesting concept.
Thank you — I spend so much time reading news/other stuff online, it seems to only makes sense to share some of that with others. It’s a little bit of a different take than the usual roundup.