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Poker Is Such a Rush Until You Lose All Your Money

Updated: 02/15/2021 by Financial Samurai 36 Comments

Poker is a great game. I played poker extensively from 2010 – 2015. But I decided to quit because the stakes got too high. Here’s an old story during my poker days.

For the first time in a while, I attended our regular Friday home game last night from 9pm to 2:30am.  I used to love going all the time until I started this site actually. 

Now, the thrill of writing and interacting has taken over. Furthermore, I realize how hard it is to make a decent buck online. To lose a couple hundred in one hand when you play well, yet get runner runnered is a horrible feeling!

No longer are my poker outcomes compared to my normal salary.  They are now compared to my online income which makes things that much more painful when I lose since my online income is so much smaller.  In fact, I use my online income as the barometer whenever I’m thinking of spending frivolously to help keep me in check.

A lot of us poker players like to justify our habits by saying that poker isn’t gambling and that it’s skill. Although I believe poker is 60% skill, that still leaves 40% left to chance.

Would you bet someone $500,000 if you had a 60% chance of winning and a 40% chance of having your hand chopped off?  I wouldn’t, but some would!

Poker Addiction Returns Temporarily

I bought in for $200 among a sea of sharks with average stacks of some $$400 high.  Everybody loves to make fun of me when I play because I’m known as the tight one. 

“Uh oh, Sam is in?  Watch out for those pocket Aces!” they would chide.  “Yes, guys, I only play pocket Aces, so watch out!” is always my retort.  I have an absolute allergic reaction to losing money because I pretend I’m a minimum wage blogger trying to survive in this hard, cruel world.

After being down about $35 bucks for most of the night, I had finally won a couple hands than put me in the black by $90 at 1am.  $90 divided by $200 is a 45% return I reasoned, and it was time for me to go. 

To put things in perspective, I was still the smallest chip stack with $290 as now people averaged $700 as re-buys built the action.  But, my buddies wouldn’t let me leave because the rule of course is that you can only leave early when you go broke, or else you have to stay to the bitter end.  Oh yeah, now I remember the other reason why I’ve stopped playing!

The Last Poker Hand

Up 45% and the second to the last hand of the night I’m dealt pocket Queens.  My heart starts racing, because my goal is to just limp or fold until the clock struck 2am. After someone raised pre-flop to $6 with 3 callers, it was my turn to decide. 

There’s no way I’m playing 4 way with Queens against these degenerates so I pop the bet by 7X to $40.  Call, call, call!  Crap, they really do love to gamble.  The flop comes 10, 7, 3 and everyone checks around to me.  Of course I bet the pot, a crisp $100 bill gets thrown in the middle, leaving me with only half my chips remaining.  Everyone folds except for the animal to my left.

By this time I’m thinking shitake mushroom, I’ve got $140 committed to the pot and there’s no escaping now.  Why didn’t I quit while I was ahead?  I should have just done something Herculean and limped in and not controlled the action by raising pre-flop. 

My pocket queens could be losing to two pair, trips, pocket Kings, or pocket Aces.  When the 4th card hit, a seemingly harmless 5 came out.  I checked.  After a brief moment, where I was hoping my opponent would also check, but he bet another $140!  My heart sank. 

Fine, whatever, I’m pot committed so I shoved the rest of my chips in.  Going from +$90 to down $200 sucks, and I promised myself during the show down that I wouldn’t return for another 6 months.

When I showed him my pocket Queens, he sat stunned.  I think may have begun to cry.  He mucked his cards and stared at the remaining $50 left in chips, cashed out, and walked away. 

I took him for $290 on just one hand to double up to over $600 and that addicting feeling and thrill was back!  “Nobody pushes me around,” I start thinking in my head.  I feel invincible on the inside, like I belong with the sea of sharks dictating the action. 

On the outside, I just tell everybody I got lucky, thanked them for playing, and until we see again.

AFRAID OF THE RUSH

There’s no doubt that in those last tense moments a wave of exhilaration came over me. I was afraid and excited at the same time, longing for every little posturing and eye twitch to reveal itself. 

For that moment, I was a poker junkie again, ready to quit my online endeavors and turn pro.  Of course, that is preposterous thinking, but it was fun while it lasted.

I’m back to reality now, sitting in front of my computer typing away.  I think about how each $200 bet is like working for several hours online trying to get an advertiser. 

The rush of gambling is intensely pleasurable no doubt about it, but it’s not for me. I don’t like the person I become when I lose as I’ve lost plenty of big hands before. No, I probably won’t be returning to the Friday night home game for a while.  I’m too afraid of what the rush will do to me.

Readers, have any of you ever been hooked on poker or gambling in general?  Have you ever come to a moment where you realize you’re at the edge of the cliff, and one more step and you could lose it all?

Money saving tip: Really start comparing gambling to some of your side income endeavors to put things in perspective.  If it takes you 10 hours of work to make $100, you might think thrice before placing a bet.  It’s easy to just think of your money as chips and frivolously bet it all away.  Have a limit of how much you can lose, and once you hit that limit, walk away.  Leave that ATM card at home and don’t borrow money from friends.  Live to fight another day.

Also, instead of playing poker, just buy growth stocks instead. It will likely pay off much better in the end.

Related: Inside The Mind Of A Gambling Addict

Regards,

Sam @ Financial Samurai – “Slicing Through Money’s Mysteries”

Check out my top financial products to help you achieve financial freedom sooner, rather than later. Also check out the best free wealth management tool I use to manage my wealth since 2012.

How To Deal With A Bully And Defend Your Honor

Updated: 04/01/2023 by Financial Samurai 53 Comments

Bullies are terrible. Let’s learn how to deal with a bully and defend your honor.

It’s hard to imagine anyone never getting bullied through grade school. Inevitably, there’s some immature, insecure kid out there looking to pick a fight. 

Do you keep quiet or fight back? You might be surprised to hear, but I’ve ALWAYS fought back until the bullying stopped. I’m described as a very cheerful person who is always smiling, but when provoked, you will feel my wrath.

I remember growing up as a kid being taught to just walk away and ignore a bully. For some reason, I could never listen to that advice. I didn’t care if I got injured fighting back. It was what I had to do to defend my honor. 

What’s even worse than being bullied, is when you see someone you love get taken advantage of. That’s when shit really hits the fan!



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My Fear And My Guilt Drives Me To Succeed

Updated: 08/31/2020 by Financial Samurai 45 Comments

Fear and guilt are powerful emotions to help you succeed. In fact, I think is the #1 ingredient that has enabled me to achieve financial independence at 34 in 2012.

On Sunday, January 16th Yakezie.com received around 6,300 visitors thanks to Little House’s (Yakezie Scholarship Committee Member) efforts to reach out to other organizations online.  That organization was Fastweb.com, a site that helps students find monetary support for education around the web.

Not expecting such a surge in traffic, immediately things started going haywire.  My registration e-mail notifications started flooding in, and then personal e-mails started coming in asking why they didn’t get an e-mail confirmation to register to the allow them to apply.  Frantically, I tried addressing all problems over comments, Twitter, and e-mail myself as Chris was not near a computer.  When Chris returned, he did some testing and things seemed to work, but because of the sheer flood of visitors, things locked up.

Our e-mail system (Google) supposedly has a ~200 limit per day on sending e-mail notifications for new registrants.  After about 1:30pm on Sunday, the 200 limit was quickly hit but the registrants kept coming in.  As a result, any eager student who was looking to register and compete could not.  Oh my, how bad I felt for them.

MY FEAR AND GUILT

The main reason why I started the Yakezie Scholarship vertical was so that Members could rally around a common cause to help support a person financially to further their education.  We all have different personalities and goals, but I strongly believe that the Yakezie Scholarship and our motto of selflessly helping others will hold us together for the long term.  Education is the single most important attribute one can have and develop to get ahead.

I had two fears before launching the scholarship initiative. The first fear was that there wouldn’t be enough interest in writing a 700-1000 word essay to compete to win.  Success takes effort and audacity.  As a result, we made the essay process as meritocratic and transparent as possible.  If you comply with the guidelines, your Scholarship gets posted, readers vote, and the top three vote-getters win.

The second fear was that there would be too much interest.  With this fear, I decided to increase the number of winners from one to three, and work harder to rally support for the Scholarship fund.  For two consecutive months, Members, Challengers, and readers have pledged over $1,000 to help support three essay winners for their educational endeavors.  I’m so proud of everyone who have contributed.

The first Yakezie Scholarship received a total of 14 entrants.  Although I highlighted beforehand that we would only run the top 10 as decided by the committee, I felt bad denying someone who spent the effort a chance to win.  And so, I dealt with my guilt by running all 14 essays.  I was supportive of every single one of them, making sure they submitted all pertinent info while guiding them a long the way.

With the second Yakezie Scholarship, I now fear we will have over 300 applicants with only 3 winners.  I mentioned in a post on Yakezie.com that we would run the top 30 if we had more than 20 entrants.  I never imagined that our little initiative would receive potentially 10X the number just a month later!

HOW TO DEAL WITH FEAR AND GUILT

I now fear more having too many applicants over too little going forward.  With a few applicants (<30), we can personally reach out to everyone.  With many applicants (100+), we can’t accept them all to be published since there is a limit to when each contest will end.  Furthermore, the Yakezie Network is a personal finance and lifestyle blog network where we plan to run our own content.  We’re careful to balance all three verticals of Personal Finance, Lifestyle, and Scholarship.

Thinking Out Loud Solutions:

1) We run our own Member Articles and guest posts on Yakezie.com’s homepage, while concurrently publishing the top 30 Scholarship Applicants on another page on Yakezie.com that can be found via the home page.

2) We rule out all essays which do not follow guidelines (i.e. 700-1000 words, answers one question, provides all pertinent contact info, bio, etc).  We are surprised by how many applicants don’t follow instructions.

3) We expand the Yakezie Scholarship Committee beyond myself, Chris, Jennifer, and a friend of mine so that more of us can evaluate the articles to be published and ensure the ones who follow directions and are the best written go through.

4) We build better systems on Yakezie.com to handle the submissions and sort automatically.  Once we have a great system in place, we should be able to automatically sort by word count, title, etc and make evaluating easier.  We may need to permanently upgrade our servers from VPS to dedicated to handle future spikes.

I STILL WONDER WHY ALL THE TIME

1,000 words later, I’m coming to terms with my guilt because I realize I can’t help everybody.  Perhaps it’s due to my travels abroad that I’m so conflicted and think about poverty and inequality constantly.  Why are some people born with nothing, while others are born with everything? 

How does someone born with less compete effectively against someone born with every advantage?  The answer I believe is through education.  Education is what allows us to make better life choices.  Education opens doors to new opportunities and provides a perpetual gift back to humanity.  Finally, education is what sets us free.

The only thing I can control is making the Yakezie Scholarship as smooth and meritocratic as possible.  I’m trying hard every single day to make this opportunity work.  Inevitably there will be kinks along the way.  Sometimes, I wonder whether it’s easier to just give up.  I could free up 10+ hours a week, reduce my stress and not have to feel so bad about trying to do some good.  But then again, where’s the challenge in that?

Best,

Sam

Readers, do you ever feel guilty about how good you have it?  Does your guilt ever consume you so much that it becomes debilitating?  Do you ever wonder why some are so fortunate and others are not?

Is There Ever A Right Time To Upgrade Your Engagement Ring?

Updated: 11/12/2018 by Financial Samurai 104 Comments

One of my old friends, Peter mentioned the other day that he got engaged.  He’s 37 and she’s 28.  They met about 4 years ago at a bar when he was somewhat inebriated but immediately hit it off.

Peter isn’t exactly the most studly looking guy standing at 5′ 7″ with a belly hanging over his belt, but he’s kind.  They are two months into their engagement and don’t plan to get married until next summer.  All was going well until one night, Peter’s fiance Nancy inquired about when she could upgrade her engagement ring!

YOUNG EXPECTATIONS

Read More…

Getting Busy This Valentine’s Weekend! (Singles Especially)

Updated: 04/01/2021 by Financial Samurai 28 Comments

Well folks, Valentine’s weekend of love has arrived! Some are going to eat by candle light, while others will walk the beach during sunset here in California or Hawaii. For my friends out in Snowmageddonville, perhaps marshmallows in front of the fire place while playing a fun game of Scrabble. Amazingly, there are some who believe their significant other when they say, “don’t get me anything.“ If you actually believe this line, you also mistakenly believe taxes aren’t going up next year!

I’m absolutely sure there are those against the Valentine movement, how it’s one big marketing gimmick for guys to spend more money than they should. Unfortunately, you’re right, but there’s no stopping the movement. If you end up doing nothing this Valentine’s weekend, not even a small gesture like a back massage, you’re screwed, and not in a good way!

The one thing I caution ladies not to do is push. The more you push about what you want or want to do on Sunday, the more your guy won’t want to do anything. If you keep hinting about chocolate covered strawberries, you’re going to get one big fat biscuit of nothing! So shhh, let the man figure something out and get creative. Of course, ladies can always do something for us men too yeah? Nah, it’s always on us men.

Valentine’s Weekend Opportunity For Singles Everywhere!

For all the single folks out there, this Valentine’s weekend is your opportunity to slap Valentine’s Day in the face! Yes, you might feel a little queasy when you see couples holding hands and nuzzling each other’s noses.  You might want to stay inside and read a book or some Financial Samurai so you don’t have to experience mushy love.  But, that queasy feeling is precisely why other than New Year’s Eve, Valentine’s Eve is the best time to find someone!

Today is the day to call your single girlfriends and make plans for Saturday night.  Valentine’s Eve is the one night where wise, love-seeking, men go out and hope to meet like-minded women.   Careful about roaming SMB’s though.  They might be out just looking to have some fun before the big day!

Seek Happiness This Valentine’s Day

I used to be sad during Valentine’s weekend when I was single.  It’s like celebrating Thanksgiving by yourself with no family.  However, like the ambulance story mentions, you can shift the way you think and focus on the positives. 

Before going out this weekend, watch this video by Imogen Heap. It’s a sad song that talks about love’s heartbreak and the search for something or someone new. Get a little depressed, then realize you’re free and you have the power to seek happiness. This weekend could be the first weekend of the rest of your life!

Further Reading

  • Rejecting Expensive Christmas Gifts: Admirable or Insulting?
  • The SFJAZZ Center Opening Is A Celebration Of Diversity
  • How To Do It Right Like Robert Mailer Anderson, SFJazz Trustee
  • Beautiful, Rich And Still Single – I Wonder Why?
  • The Best Places To Meet The Right Women
  • Socioeconomic Affirmative Action Over Racial Affirmative Action Please

Dearest readers, what are your plans for this Valentine’s Day? Do you plan to spend more money than normal on your honey? What’s wrong with having fun during Valentine’s weekend? If you are single, are you going to go tear up the town and put yourself out there, not afraid of rejection?

If you were forwarded this newsletter, you can subscribe by clicking here. 

Regards,

Sam @ Financial Samurai – “Slicing Through Money’s Mysteries”

Book Review And Giveaway: “Secrets Of A Stingy Scoundrel”

Updated: 02/19/2020 by Financial Samurai 24 Comments

Author: Phil Villarreal was a syndicated film critic (one of the best jobs on earth) and is a general reporter for the Arizona Daily Star.  Phil contributes to OK! Magazine and blogs at becauseitoldyouso.com.

Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.  244 pages in soft cover.  $12.95.

Summary: “Secrets of A Stingy Scoundrel” is a hilarious book that has been reviewed by many personal finance sites already.  Hence, I’ll take a slightly different approach.

First of all, Phil is one proud cheapo who is potentially helping millions of Americans (if they buy his book) save thousands of dollars a year.  Second of all, the breadth of stinginess is impressive, with nine chapters: Personal, Eating, Relationships, Household, Finance, Leisure & Entertainment, At The Workplace, Corporate Cataclysm, and Gross, Mean and Just Plain Wrong.

Read More…

Tax Refunds Are Good For Most People Because Most People Can’t Save

Updated: 02/18/2021 by Financial Samurai 57 Comments

Tax refunds are good for most people. The simple reason is that left to our own devices, people don’t save or invest their tax refunds. People tend to go the easiest route and spend.

The average tax refund is $2,950 a year as of 2020. Meanwhile, 74% of Americans get a tax refund. I’ll consider you average for argument’s sake.  At today’s typical savings rate of 1%, you’re missing out on a whopping $12 bucks in interest income!

Why $12, and not $24? It’s because you have to calculate the average balance of the year if you saved every $200/month payment diligently starting January 1st i.e. January $200, February $400, March $600 etc.

I’m definitely not a proponent of giving the government more money than they deserve, but missing out on $12 bucks in interest is something I can live with and so should you.

You have to ask yourself whether you have the discipline of saving that extra $200 a month, or using it to pay down debt. Most people are not disciplined enough to pay down debt and avoid buying junk.

This is why we have such massive debt problems in the first place!  The government is essentially helping you “go broke to win big” by protecting 75% of American tax payers from blowing $2,400 a year without even knowing it.



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Playing Until My Knees Swell And Feet Bleed

Updated: 12/30/2020 by Financial Samurai 27 Comments

knee

I’m a USTA 5.0 level tennis player. It took many years of league tennis battles to climb from 4.0 to 5.0. It’s been a great ride, but my knees swell and feet bleed sometimes! In the end, I’m not sure if all the grinding was worth it.

Playing Tennis Until My Knees Swell And Feet Bleed

2009 was the year I rediscovered tennis. Ironically, I figured I’d better utilize the club as much as possible because I couldn’t afford any other luxuries after the markets imploded! Just last year, I failed miserably at breaking a 10 handicap (got to 10.2 and ricocheted) in golf and decided to quit before I threw my bag into the lake.

For the past 15 years, I forsook the game I played so diligently as a youngster. It was boring running around, hitting a ball back and forth. Now, I’m hooked again because of the camaraderie of the game.

Although tennis is an individual sport, there’s a team aspect to it if you join a league. Meanwhile, my evil plan is to get my wife to get good enough so we can play some competitive mixed doubles my next summer!

Physical Problems Materialize

Despite all the passion, I have a couple swollen knees that makes sitting cross-legged difficult. If I try and extend my legs after sitting in cobbler’s pose, there’s so much pain, it’s hard to walk for the first several minutes. Meanwhile, my feet often blister due to the constant friction caused by unnatural side-to-side movements. The doctor says all I have to do is rest, but I can’t.

How can I rest when I get a daily e-mail from my buddies wanting a rematch after last night’s beat down? How can I rest when it’s just so fun to needle my opponents with smack talk for a couple hours at a time? I’m a tennis junkie. The competition is exhilarating to the point where you often feel like you’re observing yourself play, an out of body experience if you will.

When I’m on the court, all the pain miraculously goes away. It’s the next day when the aches reappear, yet I long to play again. I realize that if I don’t take care of my body and allow it to heal I risk my long term health. But, then I rationalize and say it’s about having fun now, no matter what the cost.

Play For Fun, But Be Safe

Like a consumer addicted to credit, I’m an old fart addicted to tennis.  The costs aren’t just physical but also monetary as well.  I’ve upped my insurance coverage, setting me back $600 in premiums because I’m going to check out both knees, wrists, shoulders, and head!  The head examination was due to an outrageous fight on

All these tennis injuries and the pandemic reminds me about the importance of getting life insurance. As we have all discovered, tomorrow is not guaranteed.

If you have children and liabilities, check out PolicyGenius, an independent insurance broker that is revolutionizing the way we shop for life insurance – for free! Answer a few simple questions on PolicyGenius’s website and instantly receive free, personalized and comprehensive life insurance quotes.

PolicyGenius provides free, unbiased advice on more than 25 A-rated top life insurance companies they have thoroughly researched and vetted.

After eight years of owning life insurance, my wife decided to check on PolicyGenius for free to see if should could do better. Lo and behold, my wife was able to double her life insurance coverage for less money. All this time, she thought she was getting the best deal with her existing carrier.

If you don’t have life insurance, please get life insurance before you need to. Life insurance gets more expensive the older you get. If you get sick, depending on the severity of your sickness, you might not be able to qualify.

If you do have life insurance, I highly recommend checking PolicyGenius to try and get a better deal. Chances are high you’re not getting the best terms. 

Updated for 2021 and beyond.

Why Becoming Debt Free Is Not A Great Idea!

Updated: 08/21/2021 by Financial Samurai 51 Comments

We Don't Need No Medicine!

I’m pleased to bring you a guest post by faithful reader and commenter, Larry Ludwig (bio below).  He writes a thought provoking piece about challenging the norm of becoming debt free.  You’ll be smarter after reading this, guaranteed!  Enjoy, and as always, feel free to debate away!  Rgds, Financial Samurai

You’ve heard the financial gurus like Dave Ramsey perform pasectomies on his show and Suze Orman with her numerous “I have 50k in debt” guests.  The gurus all say, debt is bad, credit is evil, and being debt free is nirvana, yada yada yada.  While I do think as a whole Americans have too much consumer debt, the goal of being completely debt free is actually a terrible idea. Let me be specific: buying things that depreciate with debt is bad, that big screen TV, new clothing or car.  Most of the financial gurus do not make this distinction and make all debt to be “evil”.

I believe Rich Dad/Poor Dad Robert Kiyosaki has said it best, “There is good and bad debt and being debt free is more risky than having good debt.”.  Now before you go off on my recommendation of Robert and his questionable background, I believe his statement is sound and correct.

The primary reasons are:
•    Opportunity Cost
•    Asset Allocation
•    Inflation
•    Tax Deductions
•    Arbitrage
•    Leverage

Why Being Debt Free Is Not A Good Idea



Read More…

Laptop Returned, Money Saved, Old Computer Optimized!

Updated: 02/09/2021 by Financial Samurai 16 Comments

Goodbye my pretty laptop.
Goodbye My Precious!

After much debate, I walked over to the Apple store and returned my oh so sweet Macbook Pro laptop.  Today was the last day until the return policy on the laptop expired.  

I actually felt a little bit sad, because I got to see the laptop when the store clerk cut open the sticker to make sure I wasn’t returning a couple cement blocks instead. I’d resisted opening it myself for so long!

Why I Returned A New MBP Laptop

I really would have enjoyed using that shiny new MacBook Pro laptop. But, I feel I made the right decision to return it.

My reasons to return it were quite simple

  1. No reasonable bids came in for my 8GB, iPod touch for $199 that I got for free. The day after Apple stopped their promotion of a free iPod with every Macbook purchase, they lowered their price from $239 to $199! I didn’t change my pricing on Craigslist fast enough, so it was a little too late to negotiate.
  2. My guest post failed to get published within two weeks at a large personal finance site. I made a submission which was immediately responded to and accepted the very next day. It took me several hours to write 1,350 words, and several more hours to edit. Although they confirmed receipt of my 2nd draft, it’s still in the queue. At least I got a nice $10 gift card at Amazon! :)
  3. My cash flow cannot afford $1,465 for September because a $1,700 bill is coming due for a couple airlines tickets I purchased at the end of August.  I try to only buy stuff through cash flow, and never touch savings. Otherwise how will I ever build a big enough nut for retirement?  Going into revolving credit card debt is NOT an option and never will be!
  4. I made a promise not to buy anything in September and feel guilty breaking a promise.  With only 6 more days left to go for the month, I need…to…stand…strong…and fight the spending addiction! I wonder if this is how a recovering addict feels, where every day of non-use, and in my case non-spend, is a victory? It feels good to go 24 days in a row without buying anything other than food!
  5. Finally, my wife actually fixed my old iBook G4! Its speed is as good as new thanks to several updates and clean ups. Too bad the battery life still only lasts 25 minutes.

Optimize A Laptop Before You Buy A New One

I am one of the biggest computer morons on earth. One time, I think i started panicking when the computer wouldn’t turn on. Then I realized it was out of battery and wasn’t plugged in :)  

I get so frustrated trying to fix things myself. Thus, I’d GLADLY pay some person $100 bucks an hour to fix a bug, or a slow internet connection. It’s just hard to trust every shady ad on Craigslist. Thank goodness for my wife, and her patience!

The Wife’s Simple, Free Tips For Optimizing Mac & Browser:

  • Delete cookies – Safari menu, Security tab, Show cookies, Remove All
  • Close browser windows and tabs when done
  • Empty cache – Safari menu, Empty Cache, Empty
  • Secure empty trash – Finder menu, Secure empty trash
  • Shut down computer 1-2 times week – Apple menu, Shutdown
  • Run software update – Apple menu, Software Update. Adjust the scheduling frequency in System Preferences,Software Update
  • Keep firewall on to restrict incoming access – System Preferences, Security, Firewall
  • Run antivirus and malware / spyware removal software
  • Manually put your computer to sleep from the apple menu instead of just closing your laptop. Helps battery life.
  • Remove the application icons from the dock if no longer in use by dragging icon to trash
  • Run disk utilities once a quarter – Finder, Applications,Utilities, Disk Utility
  • Move any files on the desktop into the documents folder
  • Keep at least 20% of your total hard disk free of space. Once less than 10% hits, everything slows down drastically.
  • Turn airport off whenever you’re not surfing – Airport menu, Turn Airport off

Conclusion

After two weeks of temptation, I had to let the babies go. It’s interesting to note that over this time period, the laptop and iPod got buried under a mountain of clothes, papers, and new shoes. 

The clutter syndrome was in full effect! I’m disappointed not so much by the fact I’m not typing to you on a new computer. Frankly, it feels good to get $1,450 credited back on my card. It’s just disappointing I failed at achieving all my mini-goals to justify the purchase. C’est la vie. Maybe next year!

If you have a big purchase to make that you’re 100% sure about and can afford, make sure you buy it with one of the best rewards credit cards. There are a lot of fantastic offers today from cash back, miles, to travel rewards. Might as well get rewarded if you’re going to spend anyway!

Related Posts:

“Controlling The Urge To Splurge”

“Mea Culpa – I Just Spent $1,450 At The Apple Store”

Keigu,

Financial Samurai

“Slicing Through Money’s Mysteries”

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