Queercents

“Follow then the shining ones, the wise, the awakened, the loving, for they know how to work and forbear.” – Buddha

On Sunday, The New York Times pointed readers to Robyn Okrant, a 35 year old writer, performer and artist living in Chicago. She’s living Oprah for a year. What does that mean exactly? She’s spending a year following the advice Oprah dishes out on her television show, in O magazine, on the airwaves and website. Of course, she’s blogging about the experience. The experiment is reminiscent of the Julie/Julia Project so it’s likely she has a book deal coming her way:

But Ms. Okrant says she won’t cash a check from any deal that materializes before the end of year, so as not to skew her year as everywoman with an infusion of money.

After all, it requires cashola to be an Oprah devotee. She estimates she has spent over $2,000 on her Living Oprah project: Read the rest of this entry »

“Appearances are often deceiving.” – Aesop

What types of consumer goods symbolize higher income? Items observed by others: such as clothing, cars, and jewelry. Who spends more on these items? Blacks spend more on visible goods than whites.

Stereotype? Yes. But is it true? Yes! These findings are based on new research by Erik Hurst, an economics professor at The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and Kerwin Charles, a professor in its Harris School of Public Policy. Hurst is white. Charles is black.

But their conclusions are less about bling and more about random, anonymous interactions. Hurst said, “If you’re high income but belong to a poor income group, all else equal, people are going to think you’re poor. The benefit for you is high to distinguish yourself from the poor group.” Read the rest of this entry »

“How pleasant is the day when we give up striving to be young — or slender.” – William James

Last week, as we were watching episode 7 of The L Word, Jeanine tried to convince me that the by-the-book military attorney prosecuting Tasha’s “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” case was played by Kelly McGillis. I wasn’t buying it and indicated that the fiftyish-looking actor on screen could not possibly be the Top Gun incarnate. We missed the beginning credits with its listing of guest stars. Jeanine was so confident that she was right she bet a million bucks. A million bucks!? Her challenge, “I know my 80’s lesbian icons.”

I think the icon part was reference to urban legend and Jodi Foster on the set of The Accused. Wasn’t Whitney Houston part of that love triangle too? Read the rest of this entry »

What’s your brand? Mine is L of GLBT reknown.

Throughout history, minorities have struggled as long and as hard as they had to for one simple reason. They didn’t have as much power. They didn’t have as much power because they didn’t have as much money compared to the majority. Wow…

Which comes first? The chicken or the egg? The money or the power.

The money comes first. Then the power. Just in case anyone was wondering. Read the rest of this entry »

“Whatever you focus on you get more of.” – basic idea of The Secret

Below is a LiveJournal post where the author relays a story about how his friend believes that money is easy to get and we all can be rich if we want it.

The entry is called Scarcity and I should preface my thoughts by saying, I’ve never quite clicked with the LiveJournal crowd. The format seems so oddly personal and predates the more mainstream blogging phenomenon that got me started on Blogger way back in 2005.

For some reason, when I link to a LiveJournal post, I always think I’m inappropriately crashing the party. I guess that’s not the case since a Queercents reader sent me the link and indicated I would find the topic of interest and thus, I figured you would too.

The author writes about knowing people who focus on money and how they’re “continually on the hunt for” and “confident” about money whereby it has become a more “a fluid quantity for them” than it has for him. Here he explains: Read the rest of this entry »

For my inaugural post to Queercents I’d just like to introduce myself. I’m a thirtysomething single guy living in Atlanta. I’m not a native southerner but I’ve lived here long enough to say “y’all” in casual conversation.

My interest in personal finance came as a result of many mistakes and poor discipline. Credit card offers are a rite of passage for college freshmen and it didn’t take me long to begin wracking up debt. I didn’t hold a job and frequently spent any money that I was going to receive before I even got it. My life was a mess and the only thing that made me feel better was shopping.

Although having nice clothes and new stuff did cheer me up—the happiness was not long lasting and eventually went sour. I didn’t even take care of the things I had—my floor was covered in a thick carpet of designer apparel. Eventually I realized that even if I could buy anything I wanted it wouldn’t fix the underlying problem—that I was confusing acquisition with fulfillment. Read the rest of this entry »

I guess I’ve gained a reputation for being some sort of militant expense tracker, which is fine by me because I believe it’s a great way to develop money consciousness and a wealth building mindset. Many people tell me that the idea of expense tracking sounds far too depressing or too obsessive to even try. I always tell them, How would you know unless you try?

I’ve been tracking my expenses for over a year with my own customized spreadsheet. In just a few minutes a day, I stay on top of how, where and what (in terms of cash or credit) I’m spending. I know when to cool spending for a certain category, and where I’ve been awesome about saving money. It’s easy, fast and painless.

Another vital step in wealth building is tracking your progress with financial goals, and I’ll be completely honest here: I need a lot of help in this category, as I’m sure most people do. I’ve tried a couple of techniques for goal tracking that never personally caught on. The problem was that my goal tracking attempts recorded post-spending for other things. Whereas my expense tracking influenced my purchases, my goal tracking didn’t give me real-time feedback to influence my saving, spending, or motivation to change my behavior.

That’s where our new affiliate MoneyPants can help. Read the rest of this entry »

“Going Two Feet In” is a euphemism among entrepreneurs for letting go of the day-job safety net. Going two feet in isn’t something every weekend entrepreneur will be able to do; it isn’t something all weekend entrepreneurs want to do. Also what it means to go two feet in varies from entrepreneur to entrepreneur. The process of successfully making the transition from having to rely on the day-job to not having to rely on the day-job also varies from entrepreneur to entrepreneur.

About every weekend-entrepreneur-turned-full-time-entrepreneur I know describes a transitional process that began with finding ways to cut back on auxiliary life-commitments in order to focus on building a weekend-enterprise. Ryan Healy, a successful entrepreneur recently featured on the news show 60 Minutes, wrote about cutting back at work in order to help manage the transition. Paul Wesselmann, about to wrap up his tenth year of being full-time as an entrepreneur, tells a story about how he found a four-day-a-week job which freed extra time for his business. I started mine almost a year ago when I was a year away from graduating law school — being a student provides the ultimate in flexibility. Maura Cullen, now over twenty years into being full-time as an entrepreneur, did the reverse of me by going full-time in business but then using that freedom to complete a Phd. Another strategy, utilized by a dentist friend of mine Dr. Tamim Sifri of Smart Dental, is to keep a one-day-a-week job even after opening a successful practice where the ‘side-job’ provides access to inexpensive health insurance.

Some weekend entrepreneurs rely on the support of spouses or family members before building a business sufficiently productive to support themselves and their family. Kate Liu, owner of a meeting planning and consulting firm, follows this model. Another outstanding entrepreneur Sam Davidson, founder of CoolPeopleCare.com, speaks about the freedom and flexibility that came with his wife keeping her full-time work as he was getting ready to go two feet in. Read the rest of this entry »

While travelling for a business trip last week, I had the opportunity to read The Little Book That Makes You Rich, by Louis Navellier. It’s one of several books in the Little Books Big Profits series, in which various investment professionals cover different investing strategies. The book claims to contain “a proven market-beating formula for growth investing.” Since I personally lean towards the value side of the investing style scale, I was curious to see if Mr. Navellier’s growth strategy would sway me.

The book is relatively short, as the title implies, and it’s an easy read. Navellier’s writing style is fairly engaging, and novice investors should have no trouble following the investing advice he provides. Read the rest of this entry »

As I read through PostSecret postcards that are sent in, I occasionally come across one or two that I find worthwhile to pass along. The one to the right - and the comment afterwards- were great. It’s not about the money!

The comment below the picture said:
“Once I was driving up Pacific Coast Highway on my way to work on a movie set at a mansion on the beach in Malibu. It was a nice day and there was a clunker of a car driving next to me with all the windows open. It was a ‘poor’ Mexican family. They were all smiling and singing. The father looked kind. The kids looked happy. I saw them and hoped that someday I would have a rich life like that.” Read the rest of this entry »