Small Scale Life Podcast

This is Season 2, Episode 22 of the Small Scale Life Podcast, and today we are going to check back in and provide a healthy lifestyle progress report. I will be summarizing my work and progress, celebrating the wins and adjusting the plan to address the failures. I am not striving for perfection. After all, I am trying to move from a zero to a two, and then from a two to a four….all on my way to becoming an eight out of ten!

Before we begin....

In case you are new to Small Scale Life, we are dedicated to intentional living through learning, doing and growing. We are focused on:

• Gardening,

Focus Areas and the Plan

In Season 2, Episode 20 of the Small Scale Life Podcast, I discussed my four point plan for getting on track with developing a healthy lifestyle. The four main points of the plan are the following:

I thought I would circle back in this episode and give you an update on how things are going. After all, it is all fine and good to talk about these things, but it helps to document the work and progress, celebrate the wins and adjust to address the failures. Let’s get into each point and go through them one-by-one and as part of this healthy lifestyle progress report.

Eating Real Food for Every Meal -> Planning and Preparation

• I am going to achieve this is by planning and preparing breakfast and lunch ahead of time.

This is one area that I need to continue to focus on moving forward. We did a great job planning dinners, but I need to work on breakfast and lunch. I think I was taking on a lot with my goals, so I am going to dial it back a bit. I am going to focus on lunch and reboot that meal. Breakfast at times gets sketchy (meaning sometimes I don’t eat at breakfast), but I do eat lunch most days. I am really going to focus on eating real food at lunch and cutting out any snacks. I am going to reread the Rebooted Body information on eating Real Food, and I am going to focus on lunches for the next week. Once I have that under control, I will work on other meals.

My action item going forward is rereading the Rebooted Body information on eating Real Food, and I focusing on eat real food at lunches for the next week.

Getting Great Sleep Every Night -> Budgeting and Using Time Wisely

I have been keeping track of my sleep during the Rebooted Body Walk Challenge. Looking at the data, I have been getting a little over 7.5 hours of sleep per night. It helps when you have a device monitoring your sleep and the quality of sleep. I need to continue getting over 7 hours of quality sleep each night, and I need to get to bed earlier so I can get workouts completed before work. That is the sweet spot because:

• We are usually too tired after a long day at work to workout

If I can adjust my schedule, I can get the workouts done early and have the evening to complete other tasks or hang out with my family and friends without guilt or regrets.

Getting Mentally Strong ->Journaling and Podcasting

I like listening to podcasts and audio books. I find it is a great way to get a lot of good information while I travel around for my job or do other projects like walking, canning or gardening. That said, there were a couple of podcasts that I was listening to that weren’t that great for various reasons, and I have gone ahead and dropped them. They were just adding to the noise.

Also part of getting mentally strong was journaling. In the past, I found that it helps to write something daily because it helped me focus and write what I am thinking and feeling. Over the past week, I just didn’t start writing, so I need to get going on that this week

Working Out Regularly - >Planning, Developing Stronger Whys and Choosing to do the Work

Over the past 11 days, I have been participating in the Rebooted Body 14-Day Walk Challenge. There were three categories for the Walk Challenge:

• 1-mile per day

I have been having some knee pain, so I decided to choose the 1-mile per day category. I figured if I could get at least a mile done a day, I would be doing better than I was now. Plus, I figured I could get some momentum as the weather is getting colder (winter is coming) and the snow will keep us indoors for six months.

I have tried to walk every day, and I used Map My Walk on my iPhone to track my mileage and my times. If you have been watching the Small Scale Life Instagram account or Small Scale Life Facebook page, you have seen my healthy lifestyle progress report.

Stacking it all up, you can see some real progress:

• Day 1 – 2.6 miles; 50 minutes, 38 seconds (9/15/17)

Total mileage to date: 20.3 miles

Walking over 20 miles in 12 days is a pretty cool stat!

In addition, I was looking at the historical workout information, and I have improved my walk times. On 9/11/17, I logged 2.6 miles in 55 minutes, 17 seconds. So, even though I have been having a lot of knee pain due to arthritis, my time per mile has decreased over the past 12 days.

Going Forward - Healthy Lifestyle Progress Report

In summary, I am going to be completing the following Action Items over the next week and providing another healthy lifestyle progress report:

The bottom line is that I have made some progress on the four parts of the plan, but I am not perfect. In fact, PERFECTION is not the goal.

PERFECTION is actually the enemy.

When we strive to be perfect, we are setting ourselves up for frustration and failure. Kevin Michael Geary talks a lot about perfectionism at Rebooted Body, and this is a topic for a future podcast!

I guess we’ll have to wait for that one. How is that for a podcast tease?

The bottom line is that I want to thank Kevin Michael Geary and Zack Franke at Rebooted Body for organizing and facilitating the 14-Day Walk Challenge. Even though my knee has been pretty sore, this has been a great way to get momentum towards developing the healthy lifestyle. The key now is to keep that momentum going and actually do the work. As Kevin said so eloquently in a livestream to the Walk Challenge Facebook Group:

[tweetthis]“The only thing that will change your life is execution.” – Kevin Michael Geary[/tweetthis]

We can learn and read and think all we want, but it really does come down to execution. We need use that knowledge and do the work. We need to get our offense on the field and execute!

I will do some thinking about where we go from here. Maybe we run a fitness challenge this fall to help keep everyone motivated. Maybe we run micro-challenges. I’ll have to think about it a bit and talk to folks in the Small Scale Life Facebook Group. If you want to provide some input into what comes next, join the conversation there. Remember: you are stronger when you work with a team and a group, so you should join us in the Small Scale Life Facebook Group.

This is where we will end the healthy lifestyle progress report this week. Stay tuned to Small Scale Life for more updates on the Fall Garden, for interesting interviews and more information as we head into Fall. Please share this podcast with others, and feel free to leave a review on iTunes. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to send them to me through the Contact Us form on Smallscalelife.com or leave them as comments to this episode.

Thank you again for tuning into Small Scale Life. We do appreciate each and every one of you. This is Tom from Small Scale Life. Remember to learn, do and grow. See you really soon!

Yaaaarrrrrr! This is Captain Tom from the Small Scale Life! Time to walk the plank, maties! It's National Talk like a Pirate Day this week at Small Scale Life, and it's time to tell ye landlubbers a tale about the garden that will feed me crew. Yes, me maties, this is what ye call...a thing! Tis true that dead men tell no tales, but tis is a good one, eh? So, take a seat on yonder stool and grab a pint of grog as I give ye a fall garden update for the week.

Yes, dear friends, National Talk like a Pirate Day was this week, and in case you missed it (for some reason), you are getting a little dose of fun here on Small Scale Life. I am posting a Fall Garden Update Podcast in addition to a couple of videos showing how the garden is doing this late in the season.

Keep in mind that the first day of Fall is Friday, September 22, and at this point, we are watching the forecast for the first frost. I will have more Fall Garden Updates before the end of the season since there is plenty of gardening left before the snow flies!

Fall Crops

A few weeks ago, I pulled out and dusted off the seedling trays that had been shoved into a lonely corner of the North Minneapolis garage. Considering I am in Zone 4B and that our first frost could be as early as October 10th, I was planting a couple weeks late. There is a good chance that I would not get much from these plants, especially if we get an early frost.

Regardless, I wanted to get some fall plants growing. I purposely selected quick-growing crops that could handle colder temperatures. I focused on lettuce, spinach, sugar snap peas and green beans.

Using my existing seed trays and cells, I added dirt and then planted the seeds. In all, I loaded 144 cells with ProMix Potting Soil (a winner from the Potting Soil Challenge) and seeds. As an experiment, I also planted some sugar snap peas directly into Garden Bed West. I wanted to see how the seed trays germinated vs. direct sowing.

After two weeks of growing, here is how the seeds germinated:

• Lettuce - One of the three cells germinated well. The other two trays had little germination and will be reseeded if needed (late crop of lettuce). I am planning to put these plants in the wicking bed.

These plants need to be planted this week! The next Fall Garden Update will show how these plants are doing and what I used for a trellis system

Square Foot Garden Bed West

In Garden Bed West, I planted the following plants:

• Burpee Hybrid Slicer Tomatoes

I have already harvested tomatoes from both plants, and I thought I might not get much from either plant for the rest of the season. Lo and behold, I was wrong! We have had some tremendous bee activity in this bed due to the flowering chive plants, and the bees also hit both tomato plants. I have a bunch of new tomatoes growing! That makes me really happy!

At one point this season, Julie told me that she felt sad that I wouldn't get any peppers this year. I actually chuckled at her and showed her the small peppers that were growing. In addition to those initial peppers, the Red Bell Pepper plants also benefitted from the bees working on the chive plants. I have a bunch of peppers coming, and I am waiting for them to get to the right size and turn red. One has to be patient with these pepper plants, but fortunately, I am a patient man.

Square Foot Garden Bed East

Garden Bed East has more of a variety of plants (by design and by accident). I have the following plants growing in this bed:

• Cherry Tomatoes

The tomato plants are growing well. The cherry tomato plants are loaded with tomatoes, and the one Hybrid Slicer has a good sized tomato on it. The compost tomatoes are growing, but they will run out of season before they get too tall. I am not worried: they have buds on the plants. Given the bee activity in the garden, my fingers are crossed that we'll see some new tomatoes soon!

The compost "cucumbers" turned out to be the surprise of the garden this year. I salvaged these plants from the compost pile, and I found out recently that these "cucumbers" were actually melons! I guess Julie's dad threw some melons into the pile and they sprouted. I have two melons growing now, and I can't wait to see if more fruit develops and how big they get. Compost plants are like a box of chocolates; you never know what you're gonna get!

The basil plants are doing VERY well. I harvested basil a couple weeks ago, and the new branches have sprouted where I made the cuts. Again, it is a little counter-intuitive, but if you want more basil, harvest some from your plants! The basil plants will sprout more branches and leaves.

Next Steps

I will be harvesting the ripe cherry tomatoes and planting the fall crops this week. It is time to get everything in the ground! There simply is not much time left before the first frost (less than a month), and if this cool weather is any indication, we'll have frost before you know it.

With this many seedlings, I am going to need more space for plants. This means I need to build a planter! I have teased you long enough; I am going to build a wicking bed planter for the fall crops this weekend. More on that in the near future, but I want to use this wicking bed planter as a template for my future gardens. I am pretty excited about it, so stay tuned for the next Fall Garden Update!

In addition, I need to develop a better trellis system for sugar snap peas. I have tried the single wire line system (like I used for tomatoes, cucumbers, melons and peppers), but it doesn't work quite as well for sugar snap peas. I have some ideas, and you will see how that plays out in the next Fall Garden Update.

Your Turn

How is your fall garden doing? I would love to hear a Fall Garden Update from you! Feel free to post a comment here or on the videos!

Better yet, you can join the Small Scale Life Facebook Group and share your Fall Garden Update with us there. I would love to see how your garden and fall crops are doing!

If you want to be on the Small Scale Life Podcast, send me a message on the new Contact Us form on smallscalelife.com, or send me an e-mail at realsmallscalelife@ gmail.com.

Thank you for tuning in to the Small Scale Life Podcast. This is Tom signing off. Remember to learn, do and grow as you develop an intentional, sustainable Small Scale Life.

Now, me hearties, bring me that horizon! Yo Ho!

This is Season 2, Episode 20 of the Small Scale Life Podcast, and today I am fresh out of the pool and dusting off the microphone to record a healthy lifestyle podcast! (EDIT: This should have been posted last night, but the hotel internet was not cooperating with me.  Oh well!  Here we go!)  It has been awhile since the last episode where I talked about my journey towards losing weight, getting fit and developing long lasting, healthy habits.  I have intentionally not talked about this for various reasons, but it is time to lift the cone of silence and reboot, refresh and get things rolling again!

During this episode, I discussed the following topics:

During the podcast, I discussed the following links:

Small Scale Life Facebook Group  – This group will get you a backstage pass and access to other members of the Small Scale Life Community.  We will discuss gardening, healthy lifestyle, frugal living and having adventures along the way! This is also your chance to see what is coming up on Small Scale Life, see some content not shared on the blog, and ask questions of future guests.  Join the Small Scale Life Facebook Group today!

Aaron Clarey's Poor Richard's Retirement: Retirement for Everyday Americans

Special thanks to Austin Quinn from Vlog Vibes for the closing music on the podcast.  If you are looking for music for your video blog or podcast, check out Vlog Vibes on YouTube!

Ways to Listen

We have several options for you to listen to the Small Scale Life Podcast.  You may listen in the following locations:

Please subscribe to the Small Scale Life iTunes Channel!  If you are a subscriber to the Small Scale Life iTunes Channel, please provide a review for the podcast, consider giving a few stars (not going to lie: I want five stars) for the Podcast.  I really appreciate you as a listener and your feedback.

To leave a review, simply follow these simple steps:

You can also write a longer review, though it is not necessary. Again, thank you for listening, subscribing and leaving your review!

Many people are looking for ways to ditch the commutes, stress, grind, cube farm life and endless meetings of the corporate world.  We would rather develop intentional, self-sufficient and sustainable lives.  Even though we want to be more self-sufficient, the reality is that we need to have money to pay the bills and squirrel money away for a rainy day.  Starting your own small business is one way to escape the corporate world.  I recently had Michael Jordan from A Bee Friendly Company on Small Scale Life to discuss the various business opportunities with beekeeping.  As I learned in this conversation, beekeeping is a billion dollar business if done right!

Who is Michael Jordan?  Michael is a husband, father, teacher, bee whisperer and entrepreneur, and he is a MVP of beekeeping and award-winning mead maker.  To find out more about Michael Jordan and how he got into mead and beekeeping, check out the following Small Scale Life episodes:

Michael Jordan's Beekeeping Journey - Small Scale Life Season 2, Episode 16

Billion Dollar Show Topics

In this episode, Michael Jordan and I discuss the following topics:

Remember:

Michael Jordan's Links

Michael Jordan is a bee whisperer, mead-maker extraordinaire and a great teacher.  If you want to learn more about beekeeping and mead-making, check out the following links:

Small Scale Life Facebook Group  – This group will get you a backstage pass and access to other members of the Small Scale Life Community.  We will discuss gardening, healthy lifestyle, frugal living and having adventures along the way! This is also your chance to see what is coming up on Small Scale Life, see some content not shared on the blog, and ask questions of future guests.  Join the Small Scale Life Facebook Community today!

We have several options for you to listen to the Small Scale Life Podcast.  You may listen in the following locations:

Please subscribe to the Small Scale Life iTunes Channel!  If you are a subscriber to the Small Scale Life iTunes Channel, please provide a review for the podcast, consider giving a few stars (not going to lie: I want five stars) for the Podcast.  I really appreciate you as a listener and your feedback.

To leave a review, simply follow these simple steps:

You can also write a quick review or some words of encouragement (optional, but appreciated)

I recently had Michael Jordan from A Bee Friendly Company on the Small Scale Life to discuss bees, beekeeping, small business and mead.  Michael was kind enough to take beekeeping questions from the Small Scale Life audience and followers.

Who is Michael Jordan?  Michael is a husband, father, teacher, bee whisperer and entrepreneur, and he is a MVP of beekeeping and award-winning mead maker.  Find out more about Michael Jordan and how he got into mead and beekeeping in Small Scale Life Season 2, Episode 16.

Beekeeping Questions for Michael Jordan

[caption id="attachment_2092" align="aligncenter" width="960"] Bees hard at work in the yard in St. Louis Park, MN in June 2017[/caption]

Michael Jordan's Links

[caption id="attachment_1984" align="aligncenter" width="754"] Live a little; love a lot! Learn to make meads from the Bee Whisperer. I can't wait to share a drink with this guy at Hogtoberfest 2017[/caption]

Michael Jordan is a bee whisperer, mead-maker extraordinaire and a great teacher.  If you want to learn more about beekeeping and mead-making, check out the following links:

Special thanks to Austin Quinn from Vlog Vibes for the closing music on the podcast.  If you are looking for music for your video blog or podcast, check out Vlog Vibes on YouTube!

Friends of Small Scale Life

Small Scale Life Facebook Group  – This group will get you a backstage pass and access to other members of the Small Scale Life Community.  We will discuss gardening, healthy lifestyle, frugal living and having adventures along the way! This is also your chance to see what is coming up on Small Scale Life, see some content not shared on the blog, and ask questions of future guests.  Join the Small Scale Life Facebook Community today!

We have several options for you to listen to the Small Scale Life Podcast.  You may listen in the following locations:

Please subscribe to the Small Scale Life iTunes Channel!  If you are a subscriber to the Small Scale Life iTunes Channel, please provide a review for the podcast, consider giving a few stars (not going to lie: I want five stars) for the Podcast.  I really appreciate you as a listener and your feedback.

To leave a review, simply follow these simple steps:

Click on this link or the image above.

You can also write a quick review or some words of encouragement (optional, but appreciated)

Gratitude for Small Victories - S2E17

Welcome to August! Today in Season 2 Episode 17 of Small Scale Life, we are going to be talking about small victories, and I am truly grateful to have them. This is the first time since the end of June that I am posting up a new podcast. It was a CRAZY July, and we got a ton of work done. Between Danny’s birthday on the 4th and Julie’s birthday on the 24th, we packed up our house, moved out of the St. Louis Park house and moved in to the Minneapolis house. Since that chaos wasn’t enough, I then moved the podcast to a new hosting site and made big changes to the Small Scale Life Facebook Group. With all that stuff going on, it is time to take a minute, take a breath, take a look back at what happened last month and express my gratitude for the small victories that are indications that we are moving in the right direction!

Rebranding Small Scale Life 

Small Scale Life Facebook Group  – This group will get you a backstage pass and access to other members of the Small Scale Life Community.  We will discuss gardening, healthy lifestyle, frugal living and having adventures along the way! This is also your chance to see what is coming up on Small Scale Life, see some content not shared on the blog, and ask questions of future guests.  Join the Small Scale Life Facebook Group today and become an Insider.

We have several options for you to listen to the Small Scale Life Podcast.  You may listen in the following locations:

iTunes

Subscribe and Rate on iTunes

Please subscribe to the Small Scale Life iTunes Channel!  If you are a subscriber to the Small Scale Life iTunes Channel, please provide a review for the podcast, consider giving a few stars (not going to lie: I want five stars) for the Podcast.  I really appreciate you as a listener and your feedback.

To leave a review, simply follow these simple steps:

Click on this link or the image above.

You can also write a quick review or some words of encouragement (optional, but appreciated)

This is a great interview with Michael Jordan about his journey: from world traveler as part of the Army Corps of Engineers to traveling the world to learn about bees and becoming a beekeeping and mead-making expert while teaching others. It is amazing how life can send you in a new direction!

I think one of the biggest take-aways from our conversation was this:

If you find something you are interested in and really love, go on a journey. Discover and get into the details by learning from the experts. Dig deep. Once you have learned, share your knowledge with others.

That really is the essence of Small Scale Life. We are all about learning new skills, practicing them and growing those skills, particularly as you share those skills with others.

Thank you, Michael Jordan

LIVE FROM MINNEAPOLIS! This is the Small Scale Life Podcast, and I am your host Tom Domres. Since we are Livestreaming on YouTube, I would like to welcome all of our listeners and viewers there. Thank you for tuning in, and welcome to the show!

Today, we are going to discuss one topic that hangs around like a bad skunk smell: debt. We haven’t done a show completely focused on debt before, but it folds right in with our Frugal Living focus here at Small Scale Life.

A lot of us have debt, and you might be wondering how to get rid of it. Well, Julie and I have been working on our debt for a long time, and we took one big step closer to becoming debt free yesterday. It is REALLY exciting, so we are going to discuss that on Season 2, Episode 15 or the Small Scale Life Podcast!

In case you are new to Small Scale Life, this is a blog and podcast dedicated to developing a sustainable life through

• Gardening

At Small Scale Life, we are always dedicated to learning, doing and growing.

This podcast is brought to you by Small Scale Life Facebook Group and the Small Scale Gardening Facebook Group. We’ll hear about both of those groups later in the show.

New Tech and Podcast Hosting

As we start the show today, I wanted to let you all know that we are making some changes to the way the podcast is hosted and delivered to you.

We are leaving the host Blubrry and going to a new host called Fireside. Why does this matter? Well, just to provide a peak behind the curtain, Blubrry and other hosting sites like Libsyn have a limit on the amount of material uploaded on their site per month. I paid a $20 fee, and I was able to upload 250 MB of shows onto their server. That’s a lot of data in a month!

The trouble I was having was that hour-long shows are typically getting into the 100 MB range (using my current processing methods). That equates to two 1 hour shows and maybe a shorter show during the month on Blubrry.

As we grow and improve our systems, I would like to do more interviews and other shows that might take more time. I needed a better solution. Fortunately, my coach Kevin Michael Geary was also bumping into issues with his Rebooted Body Podcast and Bite Sized Wellness Podcast. He decided to transfer everything to Fireside. He liked the service and analytics, so I decided to move over there as well!

The good thing is that those first 6 episodes of the show that were orphaned on Soundcloud have been pulled over, as have the last 10 episodes. I will be pulling the rest over this week.

Hopefully there will be no interruptions and this will be a smooth transition! Please let me know if you experience any problems listening to and downloading the podcast.

On the Road Again

This has been an incredibly busy and chaotic summer (once again)! I am hoping it slows down at some point, and Julie assures me that it will. We have been traveling over the past week again, and we had some really fun trips. I shouldn’t complain!

Lake Mills, Wisconsin

Julie, Ryan and I went down to Lake Mills, Wisconsin, for a graduation party, and it was great seeing the extended family down there. We reconnected with everyone, and I was able to schedule a family guy’s only event in late August. That should be a lot of fun. So, if you are part of our guy’s group, we will be camping on my land on the weekend of August 26-27. That should be a lot of fun.

We stayed in a mom and pop-style resort in Lake Mills, and we had some time on Saturday to enjoy the beach and the lake. Staying at that resort really took me back to the Wa-Chee-Lah Resort my grandparent’s operated in Central Wisconsin near the Dells. There are no tvs; there is sketchy phone service. These places are great for relaxing and getting away from it all. The vintage cabins, the smells, the decoration…it brought me back to my childhood.

The one drawback to the weekend came from swimming in the Lake. I got “The Itch.” I had welts on my skin that itched like crazy, and talking with my sister-in-law about her weekend in northern Wisconsin, my nieces and nephews got a case of that as well. It causes discomfort, and I will have more information on that.

Winona, Minnesota

Last Wednesday, Julie, Ryan and I traveled to Winona, Minnesota. He is going to attend Winona State University in August, so we had to make the journey to get him registered for school. Even with the rain, I have to say that the Winona State is a beautiful campus a few blocks west of the Mississippi River. We had a great, but very short, trip there. We are all excited that Ryan will start a new adventure there, and I know he will like the college.

One of the presentations that really caught our attention was from the Financial Aid Office. They walked through all of the various pages on their website that dealt with costs and paying for school. It is stunning that a state school like Winona State University costs about $18,000 per year. That includes tuition, fees, laptop, and housing (plus a meal plan). Books, supplies and the beer money (ahem) are extra.

That is A LOT of money, and if you haven’t built a war chest of cash to pay for college, you will be taking out a lot of loans. That equates to $72,000 for four years for tuition, fees, the laptop and housing. Let that sink in for a minute……$72,000.

Yikes! So, my message for you other parents and students: get saving OR explore other options like the trades or like Aaron Clarey says, “Become a Reconnaissance Man” and explore the world for a year.

All in all, it was a good trip, and we are excited for Ryan to begin this next phase of his life.

Ok, we are going to take a little break and hear from the sponsors of today’s episode of Small Scale Life, and then we will be right back to get into becoming debt free!

All right, welcome back to the Small Scale Life Podcast. As I mentioned early in the show, having a pile of debt is like a bad skunk smell: it just lingers around and makes you very uncomfortable over time. Having debt is just one of those things that people expect to have in modern America: we wake up in mortgaged homes, drive leased cars or cars with loans, drive on financed roads, put that morning Starbucks or lunch on the credit card, and go back to that mortgaged home to start it all over again. We Americans are FAR too comfortable with having debt.

I figured we would have learned our lesson with the Crash of 2008. According to the New York Times, we have not. According to the linked May 17th article, “Americans have now borrowed more money than they had at the height of the credit bubble in 2008 just as the global financial system began to collapse.” In May, household debt had climbed to 12.7 TRILLION dollars, and while politicians, bankers and other might celebrate because our spending on consumer goods, education and housing have increased, this is a horrible signal that we have learned nothing from the last economic downturn.

Let me correct that: we learned our lesson FOR A BIT. Household debt actually decreased for 19 quarters starting in 2008. However, by 2013, we started to pile on that debt once again. I guess everyone thought we were in the clear!

Our debt consists of the following:

We already talked a little about student loan debt, and we will be coming back to that topic in a separate podcast. It really is a big issue that needs to be addressed because so many people are overwhelmed with student loan debt.

Today, we are focusing on credit card debt. Looking at another source of information about credit cards called Magnify Money, author Hannah Mounds has posted a number of interesting statistics about Credit Card Debt including:

• As of December 2016, households with credit card debt owed an average of $8,448 (actually down 20 percent from the Crash of 2008)

Businesses and Credit Card Companies have invested A LOT of time and money to understand consumers and our buying patterns and habits. Dave Ramsey from Ramsey Solutions talks about this all the time. He tells us that:

• A study of credit card use at McDonald’s found that people spent 47% more when using credit instead of cash.

Why do we borrow money? Beekeeper extraordinaire Michael Jordan and I recently talked about the why in our recent interview. I am going to play that brief conversation for you.

Wages are and have been stagnant. We are taking on too much debt to keep up appearances and buy more worthless stuff. Is it worth it?

Julie and I have been there and done that! Since getting married in college, we have worked hard at surviving and keeping the lights on and food on the table. We borrowed money:

• To buy our first car and our first computer

I also got my first credit card in college. We racked up debt throughout our marriage, and we have been working to eliminate it since the Crash of 2008 (sometimes being more successful at eliminating debt than others).

I have learned that debt limits your freedom. Borrowing money eliminates your options about where you live, what you can buy, and even where you work and what your career options are.

For example, we had a high mortgage for our house in Illinois. We also carried some credit card debt. When the Crash of 2008 happened, I had clients stopping projects and walking away from our company in order to keep their own employees working. Our company management was looking to reduce staff, and I had to lay off employees. There were times when I thought I was going to be laid off.

At the same time, the small company that Julie was working for was struggling. No one was doing construction projects, so there were mass layoffs across the construction industry and trades. The odds for survival were not in this company’s favor.

There was no way that we could pay our bills if we were laid off. The debt we had assumed was WAY too high. We had to make some tough decisions about where we were working, where we were living and how we were spending our money. We had to make changes.

Let me say that again: WE HAD TO MAKE CHANGES. That is the real reason for creating this podcast today. I have some EXCELLENT and exciting news.

Becoming debt free is a process. Like losing weight, it can be hard and take a long time. You need to keep the end in sight. If you want to start changing your life and your family’s financial path, you need to start today. To help you, there are some good resources out there to get you on the right track.

• Julie and I have been HUGE fans of Dave Ramsey. Check out his site at daveramsey.com. He has a radio show, podcast, YouTube channel and all kinds of resources for you to help you. It is REALLY worth it, but like anything, it is on you to do the work and help yourself.

There is a ton to discuss about becoming debt free. There is no better feeling than the freedom of not having any payments. It is possible; you can do it. We will discuss this in more detail in the future, and Julie and I can help you. Stay tuned for more about becoming debt free.

I will be back tomorrow with a GREAT interview with Michael Jordan, so come back for that. We talk small businesses and bees. He was AWESOME!

Thank you for tuning in to this episode! We appreciate you. Get out there and try something new this week. Remember to always learn, do and grow; this is Tom from the Small Scale Life Podcast. See you soon!