The Addison Cafe

To all who bank with us, another credit union, or some other financial institution who cares about you, thank you. To those who don’t; why not?

Buying a house is a huge decision (at least it should be). Statistically, over the last 50 years houses have gotten bigger and families have gotten smaller. Like so many other things, we now feel that we “need” a huge half-empty house. There can definitely be an upside to owning a ‘big’ house (which is why people do it), such as more space, guest rooms, specialty rooms, long term investment, etc. However, bigger isn’t always better.

I used to always want a ‘big’ house until recently. Thanks to a blog post by Frugal Dad, I realized that with a small house:

There is less to clean
Potentially lower property taxes
Smaller mortgage (and quicker to pay off)
Less furniture is needed to “fill” it
Easier to live off one income
Less isolating from family
Lower utility bills

…and all of that equals LESS stress and MORE freedom; the two things we so often forget to examine in our lives because we can’t see them. What do you think?

I stumbled across a blog the other day where a family said they put themselves through “The no spend month challenge”. Each year during the month of July they try to go the entire time with virtually no spending in addition to their recurring bills (except for $250 for bare essentials such as gas, food, etc). What’s impressive is that they are a family of three. I could see that challenge not being too difficult for a single person, but having a family is a whole different game. 

Do you think you would save more by trying something like that? Knowing myself, I would feel like I did such a good job I would blow any money I had saved in the following month. Still, might be worth a shot…

Sorry to kick the dead horse, but this post is one more reminder that time = money, except this time there is something tangible that is easy, quick, and free that you can do to save yourself a lot of time.  It’s called “RSS” and if you aren’t using it now, you hopefully will be soon.  RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication” (when you see the orange icon like the one to the left on a webpage, it means that page has an RSS feed you can subscribe to). It sounds techy and advanced, but it’s not. In a nutshell, having an RSS feed set up means that instead of checking every single website and blog you follow for new information, you can subscribe to that site and your RSS feed will bring new content on those web pages to YOU as soon as they are published. Some benefits are:

1. You save tons of time from surfing, checking sites for updates, and sorting through information.
2. You can consume WAY more information, in WAY less time.
3. It’s the coolest thing since sliced bread.

It can be hard to explain (even though it’s easy to do) and I won’t dive into how to set it up, but this short video does an excellent job of explaining it.

The worst part of the Holidays is ending in January with New Years Resolutions. Why? Because after celebrating the end of a year and spending time with family and friends we all sit down and make a list reminding us of our atrophying bodies, piles of debt, bad habits, and our need for an improved life. Now that wouldn’t be so bad if we actually fulfilled our resolutions, but that doesn’t happen, otherwise we would only need to make the list once and be done with it.

So you know what my resolution is this year? I resolve not to have any resolutions. I figure I will for sure be able to keep that one, and in return I will finally feel like I accomplished something. I was going to resolve to save more money by eating out less, but I failed at that before I even wrote it down. In fact, I think I was mulling it over while eating a Burger King Original Chicken Sandwich (Nom nom nom…).

Does anyone have any tips for making New Years Resolutions stick? That is one area I have no room to preach about, so I will leave the tips on this one to the readers…and if I get zero comments, I will be comforted that I am not alone.

…but seriously. Help.

It’s hard to lose when doing a community giveback project. The people receiving feel blessed by the concern and actions of their community, and the people giving feel great that they can help those in need. Addison Avenue recently launched our first home makeover project in Loveland, Colorado doing just that. It was definitely a win-win situation. I just received footage of the event and thought I would pass it on…it provides some good encouragement during this tougher Holiday Season. Cheers!

Ok, let’s kick this off with a confession: Banking is boring. There. I said it.  I am not going to pretend otherwise. Nobody’s favorite hobby is balancing their checkbook (if it is, please email me…we need to talk). This Blog is NOT here to scream generic catch phrases like “Free Checking!” and “Save More!” all day long.  No, this Blog is here to hopefully do two things: enlighten and entertain.  That’s right, I am going to attempt to break the banking mold. No gaudy suit and tie and well groomed mustaches here (I can’t grow one anyways…I tried). Rather than talk about lame-O products over and over again like a broken record on finances, I am going to address the more interesting side of banking, and the side that is rarely talked about: life application.  Virtually EVERYTHING we do, need, want, or have requires money. I want to discuss how we can get the things we want and do the things we want to do in a relevant way.  For example, some of my friends go on cruises every year. Others can barely afford to go on a camping trip. The sad part is the ones who can’t even go camping make more money then the ones who go on cruises. Why is that?  What do you want to do? How do you want to live? Are you doing it? At 27, I am finally figuring out what I want and sadly realizing that I can’t do some of the things I want to do because of poor choices (like eating WAY too much Burger King…). In short, it’s time to make some changes and start living the way we want to. No excuses. Oh yeah, I almost forgot to introduce myself. My name is Jonathan Gowins and my whole job is to bring relevance and financial opportunity to our generation. Fun huh? Feel free to email me any thoughts, questions, or suggestions for topics; I am open to anything.  And thanks for reading; more to come soon…