Queercents

“Debt is the slavery of the free.” – Publilius Syrus

We’ve all heard David Bach’s mantra, “Pay yourself first” and why it’s the reliable path to achieving wealth. But not everyone out there in the personal finance blogosphere is a devotee. Michael at It’s Your Money writes, “I’m not a big fan of David Bach. I could go into details, but for the sake of time, I’ll just sum it up like this: People want easy, and David Bach sells easy.”

“Yes, there are some good things between the Automatic Millionaire covers. The idea of ‘paying yourself first’ does indeed need to be stressed, and Bach does this repeatedly. Retirement planning via automatic paycheck deduction and/or electronic deposit is anther positive step which Bach rightly encourages. His entire ‘Latte Factor’ spiel is built upon the realization that most people fritter away staggering sums of money during their lifetimes. That, too, is an idea worth emphasizing.” Read the rest of this entry »

“A wise man should have money in his head, but not in his heart.” – Jonathan Swift

On Sunday, the Personal Finance blogosphere went into a tizzy over a guest post at Get Rich Slowly, a popular blog written by J.D. The guest blogger, from Free Money Finance (FMF) wrote about why he thinks a person’s religion should impact their finances and readers (132 of them) chimed in with a plethora of views.

Let me set the proper stage by having FMF explain how the topic came up. He writes, “Recently J.D. and I were emailing back and forth discussing a possible guest post on the topic of religion and money. I cover the issue every Sunday on my blog and I tossed out several ideas I thought were worthwhile. Then J.D. said something that decided the issue. He wrote: ‘I’ve intentionally kept my political and religious leanings obscure at Get Rich Slowly — they have no bearing on personal finance.’ ”

“Ahhh, but they do — or at least the religious leanings do. So I’d like to discuss why I think a person’s religion should impact their finances.” Read the rest of this entry »

“We are just statistics, born to consume resources.” – Horace

Here’s one for the consumer file as we all head off to work on Monday morning in our effort to buy and be able to afford more stuff… Have you noticed a lot of things being marketed as “Christian” in the last few years? Case in point: God wants you to buy his new perfume.

The world’s first spiritual perfume — Virtue® — premiered in April and according to the press release is, “An inspired Biblical formula, the perfume is designed to be a reminder of God, Christ, spiritual self and soul.” Read the rest of this entry »

“If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to.” – Dorothy Parker

Yesterday, I made my thrice-yearly pilgrimage to the Temple of the Ever Expanding Consumption of Goods… also known as South Coast Plaza, the mall of the rich and beautiful in Orange County, California.

The occasion was to find the perfect outfit for my 40th birthday party that will take place next weekend. Since I broke my promise to Jeanine and didn’t shed those extra ten pounds, money at least will help me cover up the love handles up and provide the illusion of looking fabulous. I spared no expense and broke all budget rules yesterday. No apologies offered. This was a fashion emergency. Enough said.

Allow me to segue: and note my utter amazement at the number of Americans buying things at the mall. The place was packed. And it was just an innocent Sunday afternoon. No sales. No pending holiday. Just thousands of people spending their money on stuff. Read the rest of this entry »

“I believe in God, only I spell it Nature.” – Frank Lloyd Wright

At church on Sunday, an atheist stood up and talked about what our community (not the LGBT community but the Unitarian community) meant to him. They call this section of the service the pulpit editorial. I love a church that grants an atheist airtime.

At times I struggle with the notion of God, although I’m not quite ready to come out as an atheist. However, I’m comfortable sharing my current beliefs: I think humans should focus on the here and now, because this quite possibly could be the scope of our existence. If there is an afterlife, then lovely… that’s like getting a gift with purchase at the department store. But I’m not counting on it.

The minister then gave her lecture (it would be unfitting to call it a sermon) and the theme was: we are responsible for heaven on earth. What does this mean? Well, the blogger at Plonkee Monkey wrote a post last week called: Atheists Should Tithe that explains this perfectly.

He writes, “Actually I don’t mean that atheists should tithe at all, I mean that humanists should donate a reasonable proportion of their income to charities, but it wasn’t as catchy.” Read the rest of this entry »

The fact is, many spiritual traditions aren’t welcoming of the LGBTQ community. So it is refreshing, and worth talking about, when they are. Even better when they are specifically about us!

While some people find that regular attendance at a church, temple, meditation center and/or mosque suits them, another option is to look into spiritual retreats. They usually happen on weekends, though longer retreats can be a week or more (in which case many people use vacation time, and consider it time well spent).

I myself have attended a number of retreats over the years, some of them silent retreats (no talking, no writing, no reading, no eye contact), some of them more interactive. While I personally attend a weekly practice in NYC, I have found that a retreat can give a deeper, more sustained experience. A retreat gets you completely out of your daily routine (I guess that’s why they call them ‘retreats’), and lets you focus much more than the hour or so of a weekly meeting. Read the rest of this entry »

“God thinks within geniuses, dreams within poets, and sleeps within the rest of us.” – Peter Antenberg

Although Jeanine and I are still not pregnant, we continue to have the “how will we raise our child” conversation when it comes to religion. For the background posts, you can read In Vitro and Baby-Making Business about our pregnancy attempts and for my take on religion, you can read these posts: God and Mammon and Million Dollar Bill. Read the rest of this entry »

“Where there is no imagination there is no horror.” – Arthur Conan Doyle, Sr.

Gays typically love Halloween. Tonight, the largest adult outdoor Halloween event in the world takes place in West Hollywood where the city bills it as “Hot guys, skin, and creative costumes!”

I’ve lived in the LA area for almost a decade and I’ve never driven into WeHo on Halloween night. I have weird issues about this holiday that creep back from childhood. As Pentecostals, my parents did not allow us to celebrate like all the other neighborhood kids. Instead, the church provided an alternative masked as a “Harvest Festival” where we would go and play silly carnival games in the church basement to win candy. I specifically remember bobbing for apples… which is a really bad idea if you’re wearing face paint or princess glitter. Read the rest of this entry »

“The open-minded see the truth in different things: the narrow-minded see only the differences.” – Anonymous

Here’s one to stir the pot on a Monday morning. Rick Casey, a columnist at the Houston Chronicle, recently provided commentary about a landscaping company that refused to perform work for Michael Lord and Gary Lackey, a gay couple building a home in the historic district of Houston Heights. It’s an interesting read and he concludes that it’s a nasty world out there. The original column can be found at We Refuse to Work for Homosexuals and part two at Landscapers Reap Harvest of Anger. Read the rest of this entry »

“Make money your god and it will plague you like the devil.” – Henry Fielding

This weekend as I stood outside Starbucks (waiting for Jeanine to buy an afternoon cup of Joe that would get us through the rest of our errands), I saw a man stoop down and pick up what looked to be a dollar bill. He looked at both sides and then tossed it back on the ground. Thirty seconds later a young woman was about to do the same thing. Before she could fully lean over, she made a realization and with a quiet giggle continued on her path to Starbucks. Read the rest of this entry »