The 30 Day Club

Set up a basic site today – April 1st – and started the transfer of the domain to the site. That may take a day or two, but it should be up fairly soon.

We are off and running on this new 30-day project!

Will be starting (or continuing) a new challenge for April 2024. Develop a website. I have tried this challenge several time before, to no avail. But I have learned something every time. I have decide to abandon a CMS and just keep it as simple as possible: hand-coded with HTML and CSS. I am not a web developer, but a hobbyist. Regardless, I am doing it.

Will even disclose the website so you can watch along as I build. It's a real Show You Work kind of moment for me.

The website will be Ibond.info. It's a parked page now, but should be showing some love content soon. In addition to being a tech hobbyist, I also am a financial hobbyist, and have had some success over the years as an individual investor. So I want to out some basic information about an unloved investment that some people may find useful. I bonds are unloved, in my opinion, because they are boring, conservative, and commission-free. Nobody make money selling (as a commission) an I-Bond, which is precisely why you should know what they are and what they do.

The site will be basic, but that is all that is needed. Nothing more, just information. It will be boring, conservative, and commission-free – just like an I-Bond itself.

Yesterday, I finalized the concept for my 30 day website and the domain(s). I might use two – one set to forwarding to the other – still undecided on that point. They are good domains for my subject – short and descriptive.

Now I have to decide what the site will look like and how will I run it. The concept is more of a link or directory-style website. A list of resources with links about a certain topic. That requires a certain type of website or CMS.

Will be examining the options this weekend.

So, while working on my 30 day website project today, I discovered a doppelgänger. I did a brief search for 30 day club in Twitter and … surprise surprise …up came another 30 day club site.

But this one looked suspiciously familiar.

Same philosophy. Same purpose. And – shocker – it started just a few months after this one did. Their domain was registered a few months after this site started too.

There can be only ONE! (Hint: it’s from the best movie ..ever)

And the other one is an imposter.

Well, it doesn’t look like the doppelgänger is going anywhere anytime soon. A few posts then no activity on it since May 2022.

Although I’m not selling anything (she is), I suppose I could use the traffic.

So carry on doppelgänger. Carry on ….

It's been over a year since I last posted. But, as you know, life often gets in the way. The important thing is not to lose motivation. So here I am … back at it.

I am Starting a New 30 Day Project

It's going to be a website. I'm going to put as much effort as I can into developing this website as quick as I can next 30+ days. I will probably go to the end of November since I'm just getting started on this again. I will try to post as frequently as possible with my progress – goal is is daily, but I know that 3-5 times a week is more likely and doable. Quick short updates to keep things going.

I want to work on this at least 15 minutes every day from here on until the end of the 30+ days.

At this point I'm not even sure what CMS platform I will use, if any, although I do have a good idea what the website will be about.

Stay tuned.

It's the start of a new year and a new month. So its also time to start on a new 30 day Project. December’s 30 day Project was just coming up with Project ideas, and, although, the ideas slowed down a bit toward the end of the month, there are still plenty of good ones to choose from . The holidays slowed down posting significantly, and then on the tail ed of the holiday, I got sick (as did most of the county). So now here we are, ready to start doing actual projects instead of talking about what projects to do. Here's my first 30 day Project of 2022:

Comprehensive Financial Recording

I handle almost all the finances in my house. My wife doesn't really know much about them or really care. Finance interests me and doesn't interest her at all. But we are both getting concerned about what will happen if something were to happen to me. Our financial life and investments are . . complicated. And I would not expect her (or most normal people) to be able to figure out a lot of what and why we are doing things. Our first step was to get a financial advisor on Board – someone who isn’t me who knows about our finances and can provide good advice to my wife if I cant for whatever reason. We did that last year.

But I have a lot of investments that I manage myself and she would need tp understand what they are and how to get access. She has been after me for several years to make a physical book with all of this information in it. So that is what I will be doing this month. Creating a book on waterproof paper to keep with our estate and other important records that explains our financial life.

I will not be adding to the blog much this month while I work on this, maybe an occasional update here and there, but you should (if you have not already) for this month and regroup here a the end for some accountability. I will do the same.

See you then.

Social media is the joy and bane of our modern existence. It's wonderful to connect all your friends and family, but it's also terrifying, anxiety-inducing, and highly addictive. And, as everyone knows, it's a giant timesuck. Wall-E may have had it right – we may all degenerate into wheel-chair bound, out of shape, social media zombies.

In that tone, here are some things you can do try with social media for a 30 day challenge.

1. Stop posting. Put a pause on posting and checking social media. A complete cold turkey is hard, but certainly doable, especially for only 30 days. Try it and see if you feel better. I guarantee you that ot will all still be there 30 days later.

2. Post every day. Here s the opposite strategy. Full engagement. Post every day. Shock and awe your friends. At least for 30 days. See what happens and how you feel at the end. My guess is elation initially, then depression. Try It if you are interested.

3. Friend purge. Take a good look at your friends. I will need the ones that aren't really friends and focus on what's important. My guess is that you enjoy social media a little more even if you reach isn't as far. Plan to have your list of friends and criteria for friend selection solid by the end of the 30 days.

4. Friend explosion. Again, the opposite strategy. Friend everybody. It's like the movie “Yes Man.” Say yes to every friend request. Send anyone you know a friend request. Just see what happens. This is actually a good strategy on Twitter to build your following. Not sure how effective it'll be on Facebook or Instagram though. You may enjoy it.

5. Privacy check up. This should be a regular challenge for all social media networks. The social networks constantly change their privacy settings. And you have to constantly stay on top of it. Otherwise, you're broadcasting all your personal details to the world. Some people are fine with that, but many are not. At least be aware of what you're doing. Try to understand all the privacy settings f each network so you will be all adjusted and up to date by the end of 30 days. Then scheduled the challenge again in another year or so.

6. Develop social media estate plan. This is something often overlooked. What happens to your posts after your death? If your friends and family don't have your passwords, it will be difficult to do anything with the posts and profile. Develop a plan upfront on how to deal with these issues and what your wishes are. Our social media profiles have become important parts of our lives, and they should be treated no differently than any other important part of your life. Take 30 days and come up with a plan.

The “No Spend” challenge has become a thing lately. So here are a few ideas for a 30 day “No Spend” challenge:

1. Stop buying books. If you are like me, you have way too many unread books sitting on a bookshelf. Stop buying books. Take a break and read some of the books you have before you buy more. Just for 30 days. Save a little money.

2. Stop buying clothes. Same as with books. You most certainly have enough clothes to make it a month without any new ones. Try it. Save a little cash. Maybe clean out your wardrobe instead.

3. Stop buying lunch. An easy to try “No Spend” challenge. Pack a lunch instead. I wont be doing this one though. Lunch is not only a place to eat for me, but a time to recharge. So I wont be slumming in the work area with my sandwich. I will be out and about.

4. Stop buying takeout food. I know a bunch of people that could save a lot of money by adopting this challenge of for 30 days. A lot . . .

5. Stop going to restaurants. Harder than giving up takeout, but remember it is only for 30 days.

Here are some ideas to reduce the clutter in your life over the next 30 days.

1. Cleanup 15 minutes every day. Is there some part of your life that has been a mess lately. Take 15 minutes every day and work on it for 30 consecutive days. Set a timer for 15 minutes and reduce clutter until the bell rings. A little each day goes a long way. You will be surprised how much progress there has been in 30 days.

2. Sell some stuff. Do you have too much stuff? Sell some of it. Use Facebook marketplace for eBay or whatever you like. Just decide to go on a selling spree over the next 30 days. You get rid of some stuff and make a little coin too.

3. Organize your closets. If you have closets, I would be willing to bet that they are messy or disorganized. Over the next 30 days go through everything in your closet and fix it. Get rod of junk. Make it nice. You don't have to do something every day, maybe mark out an hour or two on the weekend or 15 minutes each night.

4. Clean out your “room/garage/ kitchen”: Same thoughts as before. Just pick a room and work on it you do every day or an hour on the weekend, whatever it tales. Just write it down, make a plan, and do it.

5. Lose you Storage Shed. Storage shed use is growing and growing and growing. And honestly, unless you're moving or are in between homes, you don't need one. It's just sitting there wasting your money. Figure out what to do with it, make a plan, and execute it in the next 30 days.

Here are a few ideas for a 30 day challenge based on or related to your

1. Trade stocks. if you've always thought you wanted to be a “trader”, try it for a month. Set a side a small amount of money for trading stocks as much as much as you want in 30 days. Ttrack it and see how you do. This way you can kill the urge and maybe not take too big off a risk while you learn if you like it and how to do it.

2. Evaluate your insurance. Not sexy, but most of us neglect our insurance needs. So take the next 30 days look at your coverage, make changes as necessary, and sleep better in the future. Make sure you look at your life insurance and long term care insurance needs too.

3. Pay down debt. Take next 30 days and put all your extra money into paying down your debt. I recommend picking and being consistent about your payoff system, but you can do anything you want.

4. Follow a budget. If you don't like budgeting want to try it, you could set up a quick monthly budget and try to follow.

5. Evaluate your estate plan. This is another area that's often neglected. If you don't have an estate plan, take the next 30 days to get one. If you have one, pick the next 30 days to evaluate it and sit down with your spouse or family to see if it's what you want. It's a good idea to look at this every five years or so anyway, especially as your life changes, (marriages, divorces, kids kids leaving home, deaths, etc…)