Life Hacking.... Cracking the Code Part 1

One of my favorite people in life....

One of the people I respect the most....

One of the people who continuously supports, challenges and inspires me to be better today than I was yesterday and to strive to be even better tomorrow....

My Son Aaron...

Is a Master of....

LIFE HACKING!!!

So what is Life Hacking?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_hacking

In short, it's finding the shortcuts in life that get you ahead....

I have a different term for it....

I call it...

Cracking the Code!

What are some examples of Life Hacking / Cracking the Code that I have experienced or DISCOVERED?

1. Getting an Education... Kind of a No Brainer.... but the Bottom Line is that you have to work backwards from figuring out what kind of Lifestyle you want - i.e. Own your own home, drive a nice car, have good medical insurance, take 1 vacation a year, go out and eat twice per week, etc. - and then figure out how much that costs per year (Hint Hint.... That means doing a Budget) - and then figure out what careers or vocations you are interested in that pay enough to support that lifestyle - and then get an education that fits that vocation. For example, part of the planning I have done with my daughter is to talk to her about how she wants to live.... what she wants out of life aka desired lifestyle.  Her first response was, "I wanna live like you and Momma". Which means nice house, nice vehicle, have an entertainment budget, have medical insurance, wear decent clothes, have cable, decent cell phone and service, etc.  Bottom line is that, if you're on your own - i.e. want the type of lifestyle just described for just yourself - no couple / partner,  you gotta gross at least $60,000 per year.  There's 2080 hours in a 40 hour per week 52 weeks per  year so that's roughly $29 - $30 per hour on the payscale. That eliminates a lot of vocations / careers cause they just don't generate enough income.  The key takeaway is that you have to set yourself up for a lifestyle matching career going forward.  Otherwise, you'll always be frustrated..... or in debt.  So there's kinda 2 Life Hacking elements in 1 in this one..... Figure out what career will support your desired lifestyle and then get an education to support that career.
2. Get an education as cheap as you can.... as mentioned in #1... where possible, take as many prerequisites as you can at a Community College.  They're usually much cheaper than a 4 year university and often offer as good or better an education because the classes are typically smaller and the teachers / staff are more accessible for counseling / tutoring / consultation. Here's an example.... At Brazosport College in Clute / Richwood Tx, the tuition is $65 / semester hour. State Universities like UT, A&M, Southwest Texas State are as high as $320 / semester hour!!!   So why on God's Green Earth would you pay 4 - 6 times as much for an education that you could receive while living at home. A student  can save $8 - $10000 per semester by going to a Community College for the first 2 years of a 4 year degree.
3. Stay out of Debt!  Huh?  Everybody has debt - right?  WRONG!!! This is one of the Greatest Untold Secrets to Life Health and Happiness.... Nearly Everything hinges on this.  That's why the Powers That Be keep this little Gem in their back pocket and out of the public's eye.... They don't want you to know about it.... they want to keep you in debt with 20% per year credit cards and student loans and go ahead and buy that $40000 truck and that $200000 house... because you deserve it.  You work hard.... don't have the money to buy what you think you're entitled to (Entitlement - the Bane of the Modern Day Mindset - a subject for another post).... so here.... let me drown you for the next 30 years of your life in a Sea of Debt....where you have to work for the Man....to pay the Man! Impossible to be Debt Free? Bullshit! Just say NO!! Deny yourself the Instant Gratification of Getting Everything you Want Now!  Let me tell you how I did it.  In 1997, I got divorced from my first wife - one of the main reasons was she would not practice what I'm talking about in this Life Hacking element.... living debt free.  Anyway, I got divorced and after giving her half my retirement (what a fucked up deal Family Law is (another post in the making) and a 14 year commitment of monthly child support payments of  an ungodly amount.... I was basically starting over.  Got married to my 2nd wife, who, thank goodness, had my same attitude about spending and saving - one of the main reasons I married her. Bottom line is we both worked our asses off, lived in a very modest 1000 ft2 duplex in Lake Jackson that I had bought as rental property when I was 22.... lived off 1/2 of 1 of our salaries, paid off debts and saved for the future.... Smartest move I ever made.  So quit your bitching and your consuming and your adolescent obsession with buying shit and save your money and stay out of debt and only buy shit when you have the Greenbacks in the Bank to do it!!!!
4. RENT DON'T BUY!!!  Another of the total Misdirections that the Powers That Be have thrown in the path of America to trip them and cause them to fall in a Life Hole (Life Hole - I like that term - there's another future post in the making)!!  Biggest Bullshit item that Financial America shoves down your throat is that buying a home is a good investment.  Bullshit Bullshit Bullshit.... I have done multiple studies with some pretty complex Excel worksheets to calculate the long term cash flow associated with BUYING A HOME vs RENTING and almost invariably, you would end up better off in the long run if you rented.  I'm not gonna go into the details but there are a lot of variables and assumptions in this calculation but the bottom line is that Real Estate, your home, because of the Games that the Powers that Be, play with Real Estate Valuations, think 1990's Real Estate Crisis.... 2008 Sub Prime Mortgage Crisis (completely financially engineered by the 20 guys that run the world) can vary widely in value from one year to the next - basically your home is like the stock market - so your financial stability can be fundamentally tied to WHEN you BUY your HOME and WHAT YOU PAY FOR IT..... when you buy it. Plus the cost of Insurance and Taxes, especially on the Texas Gulf Coast, not to mention Maintenance and all the other things you buy because you OWN a home vs RENTING one make BUYING a Home much more expensive than renting.  And don't give me the BS about deducting the interest off your taxes, because the first $12200 of deductions (for Married Filing Jointly) don't even count cause the GUMMENT gives you that anyway.... it's called a Standard Allowance Einstein.... http://www.irs.gov/uac/Newsroom/Annual-Inflation-Adjustments-for-2013
5. Educate yourself on the Cost of Things and Negotiate for Everything.... Examples - Texas is a Competitive state for Electricity... Check out www.powertochoose.org  What this means is that you need to shop for the best electricity price all the time.  One of the Life Hacking elements my Genius Son turned me onto.  Basically, I never sign a contract for over 3 months.  Every 3 months I go on the powertochoose website and shop for the best deal.  Haven't paid more than 8 cents / kilowatt hour of electricity for some time now and paid like 5.5 cents last year.  Has cut my electricity bill in HALF!! I'm talking saving like an average of $175 - $200 per month on my electricity bill!!!  Everybody's focused on insulating their house and putting in double paned windows and all that other shit that costs money and then they're paying 14 - 16 cents per kwh to Reliant or Texas New Mexico Power. WTF? Just buy cheap electricity!! It takes less than 15 minutes to sign up for a new electricity provider every 3 months - I'm with Champion Energy for the next 3 months - they email me weekly electrical use reports with monthly projections.... so for about an hour of my time spent a year, I save about $2000 - $2400 / year.... pretty good hourly rate right? Change subjects - buying a car - you gotta know True Dealer Invoice - go to www.kbb.com and punch in the vehicle you want and find out what the dealer invoice is and what a Fair Purchase Price is.... then go show that to the dealer and tell him what you'll pay for the vehicle not the other way around.  Bottom line for me is if it's a purchase of > $200, I'm gonna spend at least 15 minutes doing some research on what a good price is and then shop for the best price.  When I bought my 55" Samsung TV, I compared prices at Frey Electronics at Baybrook Mall - got a price $700 cheaper than the price at the Lake Jackson Best Buy Store - mind you this was on a $2700 TV so a huge % savings - documented the price, the person I talked to at Frey's, put it in a worksheet along with prices on other elements - Bose Cinemate II sound system, Sony Playstation 3, etc. - and took all that to the Electronics Manager at the Lake Jackson Best Buy - he took one look at the Worksheet and matched the price on everything - saved me like $1250 on a $4000 total Entertainment System purchase.... One of the Best Most Enjoyed Purchases I have ever made.... and even sweeter when I realize how good a deal I got on it.

So if you wanna get more out of Life....

Try Cracking Life's Code or Hacking the Shit out of Life by applying one or all of the above suggestions....

Will have another installment of this subject in the future.

I told you we were gonna kick Monday's ass....

How we doing so far?