If an elevator pitch makes sense for your blog or business, why not for your money?
An elevator pitch is something typically taught to entrepreneur-types for the benefit of having others understand what they do.
Could you simplify your financial goals and values to three or four sentences? It takes a great deal of focus to boil down your ideas; but the results are a rich, thick stew.
Some would call this writing a money mission, but to me it’s a step beyond. It’s the essence of your mission. It is the idea of what your money can be in a single, nutrient-packed seed.
Would you take the opportunity to review it daily? How about before every purchase? It could become your regular money mantra
(Singletary’s book–affiliate link).
My best advice for writing an elevator pitch? Start with a runny soup, a list of goals or a mission, and find governing ideas and redundancy. Boil it down for days (or weeks) until you feel like you can’t anymore, then push it further.
It will not be easy, but it will be worth it.
Photo by A gonzalez
Cell phone bills, or any kind of subscription with options, is very much like being placed in water and slowly having the heat cranked up.
Just 10 short years ago (it seems like forever), my cell phone bills were around $40. Somewhere along the line, “smart” phones, “web” phones, phone games, phone ringers, phone insurance, and many other fun things came by, and suddenly we couldn’t live without them.
We were also forced to get the plan they came with. For us, to the tune of $180+ by the time all was said and done.
The resulting lifestyle, while it seemed more “connected” and “better,” actually wasn’t. We spent our days constantly checking emails and messages simply because the red light was blinking. And we reacted to almost everything instantly…
We felt brainwashed.
So we’ve turned back the clock. We got rid of “smart,” settling for simple. We left the major providers and went with something simpler. (MetroPCS, if you’re curious).
The end result is a bill less than half its previous size, a small vacation fund every year, and a lot more free time not checking emails.
If you’re in boiling water, maybe it’s time to jump out?
Photo by jronaldlee
While Fiscal Fizzle has been mostly static over the last three months, life behind the scenes hasn’t stopped.
This post has little to do with personal finance, but I thought it would be fun (and useful for me, at least) to share with you some of the lessons I’m taking away from the sabbatical experience as I return to blogging “full-time.”
Here’s a brief, not-in-order list of things I’ve learned on my break:
- Taking breaks is a useful thing because it forces you to take a wider perspective on things. That perspective can be helpful in evaluating priorities.
- Things you say you don’t have time to do until you take a break should be done before you take a break. We just have to take the time for them.
- Intentions are one thing, but actually doing something is another. While I’ve accomplished quite a bit on my break, it’s far from what I dreamed about when I started. See #2.
- Too much time to think isn’t always a good thing. I’ve changed the design of the blog more times than I can count, instead of focusing on writing. Structure and deadlines breed discipline and focus.
- In most things, like in money, it pays to be ahead of the game. Being ten posts ahead of your blog writing schedule is equally freeing to being a month ahead on your bills. Both give you more options. This is one of the most important things I got done through this break.
- I’ve made things too complicated for myself. When the site had structure, I longed for the freedom to write at will. When I had the freedom, I longed for structure. All the while, I lost focus on what I really wanted to do—just write about money, and have fun with it.
- I seek change, to push things beyond what they simply are. That’s good for the main objective of this blog. Unfortunately, it also tends to manifest itself in ADD-like tendencies to modify everything—layout, approach, structure, etc. Focus will be key.
- Perfection is highly overrated and incredibly frustrating. Settling for good enough is not settling at all—it’s creating sanity and allowing for more productivity and enjoyment in what you’re doing.
In reflecting on all of this, I’ve realized that I need to come back, and do so quickly. I’m pushing up the official ‘re-launch’ of the site to tomorrow. Yup, tomorrow. It’s going to be as good a day as any other.
It won’t be perfect, but I’m itching to get back and tired of waiting on the sidelines. And if I wait any longer, I’ll go crazy tweaking the pixel width on my sidebars…
Here we go!
Photo by Scarleth White
Regular posting on the blog will resume on September 20th! The date is finally set. 
Be sure to sign up for my new weekly newsletter if you haven’t already done so!
In the meantime, I’m doing a bit of housekeeping and have decided to share with you some of the financial books that I’ve collected over the years. My shelf space thanks you.
So today, you have your choice of three “boxes.” I’ve put the books in related collections, and you have your choice of which to win. Read more…
As I mentioned in my last update, I’m preparing to launch an email-only newsletter for Fiscal Fizzle readers. Thanks to inspiration from Len Penzo, this newsletter now has a title:
The Pecuniary Pepper, Fiscal Fizzle’s Money Magazine
Sound the trumpets and what-not. 
Subscribers to this free newsletter will receive the following every Saturday morning:
- A digest of the posts published on weekdays.
- Saturday’s feature post.
- An email-exclusive post!
- Updates, behind-the-scenes, hot links, quotes, and much more.
In short, it’s a great way to keep up with the blog on a once-a-week basis. If you want, you can even unsubscribe from daily updates! Whatever works for you works for me.
While email delivery won’t start for another few weeks, I’m giving you, my long-time readers, the opportunity to pre-register and get the first newsletters as they roll off the presses!
Read more…
