Learn to think for yourself

One of the biggest problems facing America today is that not enough people think for themselves. Something is said on social media and too many people accept it as truth. They then share it with their friends and followers, and soon it becomes viral without anyone ever checking to see if it true or not. It then becomes a "truth" simply because so many believe it to be so.

Too many people let the news media think for them as well. A person's favorite news reporter gives a story and people believe that it is true. They don't bother checking the story. They make decisions based on 30-second sound bites that come through their televisions.  Every news story is spun to reflect the bias of the news reporter and/or the ownership of the particular media. This is true whether you watch CNN, MSNBC, Fox, or any of the mainstream media.

Not only do they spin the news to fit their personal biases, they determine which stories you will be allowed to hear. In the 21st century the media doesn't report the news; they make the news. Out of the thousands of things they could report on each day, they select a handful of stories to influence your opinion on matters they consider important. I would encourage anyone to read Breaking The News: How the Media Undermine American Democracy by James Fallows. A the time he wrote this book he was the editor of U. S. News and World Report. As a journalist, he understood how the system worked, and he was convinced today's news reporters do not seek to inform the public as much as they want to influence the public to their point of view. I found the book explained exactly why the public today mistrusts the news media so much. I can tell you that I used to watch a lot of news programs, but today I watch very little, and I question much of what is reported.

Being able to think for yourself is especially important as we continue into this election cycle. We will hear every night from the political pundits who will tell us that one candidate or another is leading in the polls or that one candidate cannot possibly win the election. As they repeat their mantra over and over some people will assume it's true. Don't be so sure. Fallows was especially critical of these political reporters. He said they can be consistently wrong and never held accountable. As an example he pointed to the many political reporters who kept saying that Bill Clinton's campaign was finished and he could not win the election. Of course, he did. The same thing happened in the last election as many of the same pundits who reported the demise of Clinton's campaign kept insisting that Trump could not possibly win the past election. Fallows writes, "For pundits there is no financial or professional penalty for being consistently wrong."

Of course, politics is not the only area in which you need to think for yourself. In many areas of life the majority is often wrong. People go into debt thinking this is the only way they can get the things they want without ever stopping to think that debt will prevent them from financial independence. Just because your broke brother-in-law buys a new car every five years and finances it for seven years doesn't mean that's the smart thing to do.

Many people reject Christianity and biblical teaching without ever studying it themselves. Some professor told them the Bible was full of myths so they go around telling others the Bible is full of myths without ever taking the time to determine if that's true. Someone else tells them there is no God so they believe there is no God without studying the matter for themselves.

I could continue to list other areas in our lives we need to learn to think for ourselves: marriage, the raise we raise our children, career choices, etc. Remember, it's your life. No one else can live it for you nor should you let anyone tell you how to live it or how to think about the things that are most important to a successful life. Learn to think for yourself and you will find your life will become much more rewarding.

Live life to the fullest

 We only get one shot at this thing called life. Early in life we are asked to make major choices that will impact the remainder of our lives. While in our teens or twenties we often choose the person we will marry, choose a career, select a university to attend or choose to not pursue a college education, decide on having children and make many other choices that will determine what much of our life will look like. The critical choices we are forced to make is why I started this blog and wrote The Consequences of our Choices. I'm still trying to find a publisher or agent for this book, but I feel that the message found in the book is so important that I started this blog to help people make better choices in life.

In America we are free to make almost any choice we want to make, but we are not free to avoid the consequences of those choices, and every choice does have consequences. Some have made very poor choices in the past, and those choices have resulted in bad consequences. Sometimes people didn't realize that there were other choices available to them. In other cases, they were doing what they've been taught or seen other people do in similar situations. Whatever the reason for the bad choice, they are now living with the natural results of the decisions they made.

The good news is that we do not have to live with the wrong choices we made in the past. We can take the initiative to reverse those earlier decisions and set a direction for our lives that will be more positive and lead to better results. I am not suggesting this will be easy, but it can be done. In fact, it is being done every day by people who grew tired of the circumstances they were living in. They decided they wanted better for themselves and their loved ones and took the steps necessary to live that better life.

One example that will relate to a lot of people is in the area of personal finances. Many Americans are caught in a cycle of debt and poverty. Even though they may make good money, it all goes to debt repayment. At the end of the month they are as broke as they were when the month began. For many of us, we work too hard and make too much money to live that way. We can change that cycle by attacking our personal finances in a way that will pay off that debt and set us on the road to financial security. Will it be easy? No. Will there be pain involved in doing this? Yes, but it will be short-lived and that's better than spending our entire lives broke.

We could made the same comments about people caught up in difficult marriages, the challenges we have in raising our children, how we relate to failure, how we react during dark times in our lives, and every other aspect of our lives. Did you choose a career as a young person that you can't stand today? You can make a new choice to move into a different career. Again, it won't be easy, but it can be done.

We've been given one life here on earth to live. Let's do everything we can to make it the most positive, happy life we can. The choice is ours. 

Our financial choices

One of the things I learned many years ago in Economics 101 was the importance of knowing the opportunity costs of our choices. The opportunity cost is the price of the next best thing you could have done had you not made your first choice. If you have a thousand dollars and you choose to buy a new cell phone with that money you have also chosen not to spend that thousand dollars to purchase something else. What you could not buy with that thousand dollars is the opportunity cost of your decision. It's an important concept to keep in mind when you are making financial decisions.

Many today seek immediate gratification. They see something they want and they buy it without thinking about the opportunity cost of that decision. There are people who will buy the latest phone as soon as it comes out and then not be able to pay their rent. They want a new car so they finance it for seven years without ever considering what that car will actually cost them when the interest on their car loan is added in and without thinking about the things they won't be able to do because they have to make a car payment.

This desire for immediate gratification is going to be costly. According to one study three out of five Americans have less than $10,000 in retirement savings, and one-third have nothing saved for retirement. Contrary to what some people think, retirement will come one day for most of us, and without adequate savings it will be a difficult time.

Dave Ramsey recommends that people put 15 percent of their income into a retirement savings account. Others recommend 10 percent. I'm no financial expert, but I would think somewhere between those numbers would be pretty good if it was done consistently and invested well. Right now some of you are arguing that it's not possible for you to put 15 percent of your income into a retirement account. Here's where that opportunity cost thinking comes into play. If you choose to spend more than you make each week, you are exactly right. You can't put 15 percent into retirement. In fact, you can't put anything into retirement because you've already spent more than you've made.

However, what if you put 15 percent into retirement before you did anything else with your money? Let's try this formula. Our of each paycheck you pay yourself 15 percent of your income and put it into a retirement account, you take another 10 percent and pay your tithe to your church or synagogue, and you are left with 75 percent of your income to live on.

I realize that many cannot do that because of the debt they carry. You chose to go into debt. Now is the time to choose to get out of debt and get serious about saving for retirement. I can tell you from experience it's a lot easier to get in debt than it is to get out. To go into debt all you have to do is sign on the dotted line. To get out of debt you have to become an adult, sacrifice, be disciplined and follow a process. The best process I found for getting out of debt, and the one I used, is found in Dave Ramsey's book The Total Money Makeover: Classic Edition: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness. It gives you a step-by-step plan for getting out of debt and saving for the future. It works.

The thing to remember is that every financial decision we make has an opportunity cost. If you spend money on this, you cannot spend that same money on that. If you spend more than you make, you can't save for retirement or do other things you might want to do with that money. Make good financial choices and you'll find you can enjoy life much more.

You get to choose your life

One of the most life-giving lessons I've learned in my seven decades is that I have the opportunity to choose many of the things I experience in life. Obviously, there are some things we do not get to choose. There are persons who are born with handicaps who would never have chosen those handicaps, but they still get to choose how they will respond to those limitations. If you doubt that you need to read What's Your Excuse?: Making the Most of What You Have. It's the story of John Foppe, a man born with no arms who refused to let that handicap limit him. It's a powerful book about how each of us can choose how to respond to the challenges life presents to us.

Foppe could have chosen to be a "perpetual victim." You know those people. They are always blaming others for the bad things that have happened to them. They refuse to take any responsibility for themselves. It's the government's responsibility to provide for them, or the church's, or their family's.

There is no doubt that some people have had rough times. They may not have had the best childhood. They may have suffered abuse or neglect. They may have faced more struggles than most people. I would never discount that, but that is in the past. Maybe there was nothing they could do about their circumstances back then, but now they are adults. They can choose to live in the past and blame their problems on the things that happened back then or they can choose to live in the present and prepare themselves for a better future.

It's time that people begin to take responsibility for their lives. That's called maturity. It's being a grown-up. Instead of demanding that the government increase the minimum wage, do something that will entitle you to earn more. All raising the minimum wage does is cost people jobs. If you want to earn more money, be worth more.

During my senior year of high school I worked at a local supermarket. I was in a class that went to school a half-day and worked the other half. I bagged groceries for .75 cents an hour. I worked about 50 hours a week (You can't do that now while going to school!). In a few weeks I was promoted to a stocker and given responsibility for ordering stock for an entire aisle of products. I requested a raise and received it. A few months later I was given responsibility for a second aisle. Now I was ordering product and responsible for stocking two aisles in that store. I got another raise. Some of the other students in the class complained to the teacher because I was making more than they were. When he challenged me about that I explained if they wanted to make more money all they had to do was to be worth more. After that conversation I asked for another raise and got it, too!

No one can hold you back except you. No one can limit what you can achieve but you. People tell me they can't get a better job because they don't have the education and can't get it.  I earned my bachelor's degree at the age of 46 while working full-time in a factory and pastoring a church. I got my master's degree at 58 while working a full-time job and my doctorate at 62 while working that same job. Don't tell me you can't get the education you need. Besides, you can get a good job without a college education. There are employers who will train people who want to work. Why should anyone worry about a minimum wage job when there are good jobs out there for those willing to pursue them?

Your choices are not limited to jobs or salaries. You get to choose the kind of marriage you will have, the way you raise your children, your financial security, your character, your happiness and a host of other aspects of your life. Quit living in the past and begin making choices that will improve your life now and in the future. The choice is yours.

You can learn a lot about people by going through their storage units

According to one site the storage unit business in the United States is about a $39 billion dollar a year business. The wealthiest individuals in Kentucky are the founders of a storage company in the state and his daughter. They are both billionaires. It is estimated that there are between 45,000-60,000 storage units in the country and that nearly 10 percent of Americans rent at least one unit.

Chances are you have watched the TV program Storage Wars at least once. When people rent storage units and do not pay their rent for several months the storage company is allowed to auction off the contents of the unit to recoup their expenses. The program highlights several buyers of those units in California. I find the program interesting even though one of the buyers has claimed the show is rigged. His claim is that some of the expensive items found in the units that are bought by the buyers are put there by the producers to make the show more interesting to the viewers.

I have bought an occasional storage unit in the past myself, and I can tell you I never found a Picasso wrapped in an old blanket nor have I found safes filled with money or gold and silver coins. A good unit produces enough good items to pay for itself and a little profit. Most of them contain a lot of junk that has to be taken to the dump. Much of what is found there is evidence of a lot of bad choices in the person's life that explains why they were not able to pay their rent. For the life of me, I can't understand why people would pay good money to rent space to keep much of what I find in storage units. Sociologists and other social scientists would have a field day exploring what people keep in storage units!

The buyers on Storage Wars often point out that buying these units is a numbers game. Some of them have said that for every 10 units they buy one pays off well enough to make it profitable. That's probably accurate. This article isn't to help you become a good storage unit buyer. I wouldn't know how to write an article like that based on my limited experience buying units! The purpose of this blog is to encourage you to make better choices in life.

The average cost of a storage unit according to the site I referenced earlier is $89 a month. That is over $1,000.00 a year with some units renting for more than twice that amount. To be completely transparent, I do rent a unit for slightly more than that, but my unit is rented to store items I sell at auction and my supplies. It is a legitimate business expense.  Many units are rented by small business owners for the same reason. This is much different than the typical renter who is spending money each month to store junk they don't want to pitch.

What does the typical storage unit renter store for his $89 a month or higher rent? You'll find a lot of dirty mattresses, broken toys, bags of clothes that usually ends up stiff and moldy in their black trash bags after a few months, broken and ripped furniture, broken bicycles, book and magazines, food items (which has attracted mice), personal papers, kitchen items such as plates and silverware, cardboard, bags filled with trash that should have been set out for trash collection and adult items. Based on the cobwebs and dust in some of these units these items have been stored for several years which means that thousands of dollars have been wasted on storing these items.

Before you respond that this was the property of these people and represented the best they may have had, I am not judging them. I am saying that based on how long these items had been in storage they would have been better off financially taking this stuff to the dump rather than storing it. Maybe they had been storing it because they had to move into a smaller place. They could have saved the money they spent on rental fees and bought new items and new clothing when they were able to find a larger place to live. I've talked to people who bought units and tried to wash the molded clothes to resell. They were not salvageable. Pitching these items would have been financially a better choice than spending money each month to store them, and the people would have been able to purchase better items that what they were storing.

Tomorrow we'll look at another lesson about choices learned from studying storage units.

Financial choices

One thing the coronavirus has taught us is that many people didn't learn from the 2008 recession about personal financial management. Before you think I'm being insensitive or critical you need to know that in 2008 I owned a small business that closed. For about a year prior to 2008 we were losing money, but when everything crashed, so did our business. At the time I felt like we would be bankrupt before it was over. Fortunately, that did not happen.

One thing that did happen was that I was determined to never again be in that position. For much of our lives we lived paycheck-to-paycheck. Sometimes we ran out of money before we ran out of month. Living like that usually leads to deeper debt which means you are digging a deeper hole that is even tougher to escape.

I had a job that required a lot of driving so I began to download podcasts to my I-Pod to listen to while on the road. One of the podcasts I listened to was Dave Ramsey's on financial management. I have listened to thousands of hours of his podcasts since that time. After a while I knew what he was going to tell those who called in to his show with their financial questions before he told them. But, knowledge is of no value unless you put it into practice. We decided to do just that.

Ramsey's management plan follows what he calls Baby Steps. I won't go into detail about what each of the steps are due to space limitations. If finances are a problem for you I highly recommend his book The Total Money Makeover: Classic Edition: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness. This book takes the reader through his steps for getting out of debt, building an emergency fund, paying for children's college and saving for retirement. I can tell you it works.

When this pandemic hit, businesses shut down and millions of people were out of work overnight. Immediately, the news was filled with people who didn't know how they were going to pay their bills, put food on the table and meet their basic financial needs. This told me that none of these people had any kind of emergency fund set aside for times like this.  One study earlier this year, before the pandemic hit, found that 70% of the people surveyed couldn't pay their bills if they missed one paycheck, and 44% reported that if they missed one paycheck they could not afford their housing. Again, I am not being critical. I've been there.

We choose how we are going to handle our personal finances. Some of us may have more or less finances to handle, but we still choose how we will handle what we have. When we go into debt to buy something, it is a choice we've made. When we spend all our money to have the latest phone it's because we chose to. When we take out a seven-year loan to buy a car we can't afford it's because we chose to do that. When we spend more than we bring in and have nothing in savings or retirement, again it was a choice we made. Then when something like this pandemic or a market crash happens we panic because we have nothing saved.

I've been writing about the consequences of our choices. This pandemic has shown us once again the consequences of living beyond our means and not saving anything. Many of us really need to look at the financial choices we've been making and decide if we need to start doing something different.