Myth: “I don’t need health insurance now…I can risk it until I get a job.”

Reality: Get the health insurance. People with health insurance that develop health issues often do better than people without the insurance. People without health insurance will also run into far more trouble at hospitals and clinics than people who do have health insurance.

Think about it: you might be healthy and might stay that way for a long time. But are you willing to bet money on it?

Myth: “Only young people are without health insurance coverage.”

Reality: You’d be surprised. 3/4ths of people without health insurance are over the age of 25, and the amount of middle-aged people and senior citizens without health insurance is climbing. It’s not just the young and careless among us: even the older citizens of the United States are many times without proper coverage.

Myth: “If the government doesn’t provide health insurance, no one will.”

Reality: Even if you think government has its role in providing health insurance, the private market does provide quality health insurance. The government isn’t necessarily a one-stop-shop for all things medical.

Health insurance companies compete with each other to provide you coverage by providing lower costs, better deductibles, and more comprehensive coverage.

Myth: “Medicare or Medicaid will pick up the tab; I’ll be fine.”

Reality: Perhaps Medicare or Medicaid will help you. Perhaps it won’t. There’s no use in remaining ignorant to the topic. Don’t place your long-term hopes in anything that can be taken away from you.

Instead, keep your eyes open and make sure that you have fallback options for the long term. Save money and be sure to stay covered long into the future.

Myth: “Only the wealthy can afford totally comprehensive health insurance.”

Reality: They can, but if you look into it, so can you. Just ask around. Ask a local insurance provider for total umbrella insurance, and how it can be made the most affordable to you. You’d be surprised at the kinds of answers you might get.

Naturally, the more coverage you get, the more you might be expected to pay. But you don’t know how much more that will be until you find out for yourself, and – of course – you never know how worth it it might end up being.

A few weeks ago someone told me about this race here in Chicago (and in New York) called the Urbanathlon. It’s a 10-mile race with an obstacle course mixed in (things like hurdles and wall climbing). Near the end of the run, you run up all the stairs in Soldier Field before coming back down and crossing the finish line. This is after eight-plus miles, mind you. Anyway, if you want to read more about it, check out the official site.

Either way, I’ve never ran a race like this or any other. So right now I’m in full training mode and as I keep extending myself to longer and longer runs (seven miles on Sunday), I have a lot of time to think about running. Eventually, a little personal finance meandered into the fray and I realized that running has a whole bunch it can teach us about how we handle our money.

You Have to Budget

The first time I was going to do a “long” run, I decided to run five miles right off the bat. Why? Cause I’m a tough guy, that’s why. After two miles I got winded and had to pull up short. I forgot to budget my energy for the long haul, and instead I got caught up in the excitement of running five miles.

It’s the same story when it comes to your monthly/weekly budget. You can’t blow it all right away on something exciting (like an iPhone), otherwise you’ll never make it to the end without bailing out and losing your way. It’s not easy being patient, but if you aren’t you won’t even finish the race.

Self Knowledge is a Must

This might be the most important one of all. You can’t accomplish anything unless you know what you can do and what your limits are. Can you run five miles? Can your body physically do it? You may think it’s all about willpower and self discipline, but that’s not quite true.

It’s the same in the world of finances. We all want to make more money, but are you cut out to start your own business? Some people are and some aren’t. Can you stand taking a job you hate because it pays more? Some people can do it. It’s all about knowing what you’re capable of and pushing those limits as much as possible.

It’s nice to think that everything is possible by everyone, but that’s all BS. I’m all for pushing ourselves to be better (whether it’s to make more money or run more miles), but you have to know who you are and what you’re capable of first. Then you can create a plan (much like my current training program) to get you from point A to point B. You can’t just say “I’m going to run five miles tomorrow even though I haven’t run in years.” Only a moron would try that.

Pay Attention to Context

The other day I was out there running and some skinny dude passed me by. I’m a competitive guy, and I don’t like to be passed. Granted, I’m a novice out there among most of these runners (Chicago has TONS of runners and I’m sure a lot of them are prepping for the big Marathon coming up), but I still have an ego. Even I forget the “self knowledge” rule every now and then. So I naturally want to speed up and pass the guy right back — I don’t want anyone passing me. But that’s silly — it’s just like trying to keep up with the Joneses. The guy might be running one mile or sprinting for a minute before settling back down at a slower pace. I might sprint to catch up to him only to see he’s drinking water and done with his run, while I have to find the energy to finish off the last three miles I have left.

Just like I can’t compare myself to this random guy running on the street whom I know nothing about, you can’t compare yourself to neighbors or coworkers or even friends when it comes to money. You don’t know if they’re in debt, how much they make, what they do to get it, what they’re financial goals and priorities are, how much help they’re getting, etc.

You have to remember about context: nothing exists in a vacuum. Comparing yourself to other people’s financial situation (at least what you see) makes as much sense as my huffing and puffing to make sure no one passes me: it’s ridiculous.

Running is enjoyable, but it’s especially rewarding when you realize that you just ran seven miles and weren’t totally dying at the end of it. So it is with personal finance, you just have to realize that it takes temperance (budgeting), self knowledge, and a level of awareness (context) to achieve your goals.

See you on the trail.

The disappointing part of the study is that it didn’t test any specific aspect of being on a diet. It simply tested how people spend money while they were preoccupied with other thoughts. Those other thoughts may or may not be diet related.

How can you do be on a diet and save money at the same time? From the study, the scientists didn’t tell people that how they spent money was part of the test. Thus the result was to test the subconscious effect of spending money. However, you are aware of this connection now. If you think a bit about saving money while on your diet, you may be able to break that subconscious connection.

I don’t think I’m the only one having problems with this. I read posts like the weigh-in that crushed my soul. This is from someone who has conquered tens of thousand of dollars in debt on his other blog, No Credit Needed.

What’s the solution? I’m not sure I have a very good one. I’m toying with the idea of just a weigh-in every two weeks. That is dangerous as well though because if that day is a big water day (for whatever reason), it could mask the gains the I’ve made. Those masked gains could psychologically throw me off track. Instead it may be best to weigh myself at the same time every day and calculate a moving average in Excel. Over time, if I make healthy choices and get exercise in, I should see this trend in the right direction.

1) Plan Meals Around the Sale – I don’t do a lot of planning in this way – it’s far too much work for this Lazy Man. I just purchase what is on sale and get home and see what I can make of what’s around the house. I add a couple of non-sale items of staples, which helps me create a multitude of meals. It helps that I’m not really all that picky about how the foods combine as long I like their tastes separately.

2) Use your Freezer – This is the best tip ever. I never have enough freezer space though. I wish we had a little bit bigger of a home, so I could get a dedicated freezer and use that. My favorite freezer trick? By shredded cheese in bulk and just put it in the freezer. Sure you can break it into smaller bags, but it’s not necessary as it usually breaks apart nicely. You can need it from there into a nice “sprinklable” form.

3) Use a Crockpot – It’s been tried a few times and we’ll try again, but the meat always gets dried out and tastes like rubber. For now, this isn’t a big part of our plan

4) Make Homemade Hamburger Helper Mixes – I love Hamburger Helper, but I stock up when there is a big sale. Occasionally, I’ll buy the store generic brand. I’m sure I could save more by doing it myself though. This is something I should look into.

5) Matching Coupons to Weekly Sales – This is typically done with something like The Grocery Game. I don’t do this and don’t typically use coupons. One reason is that I don’t get a newspaper to acquire the coupons in the first place. Another reason is that I find that most of the time coupons just get you back to the store’s generic price of the same product. I often buy those generic products which typically don’t have coupons for them.

6) Start or Join a Coupon Train – See above, getting and using coupons is just not easy enough for me. If it’s a more expensive purchase like FiberSure, I’ll look on Ebay. I found some coupons there that saved me a few dollars.

I believe people will pay a lot more than 20% to keep themselves healthy if that’s what it comes to. That’s one of the reasons why I’m going to try to be healthy now. It helps my quality of life in the future and my wallet. That’s double duty goodness.

Towards that end, I ran into this forum thread, which has a ton of advice. I personally like Michelina’s Lean Gourmet line. I can usually find them for $1 a piece. They don’t have a lot of calories, so you might find yourself going through one every 3 hours or so. I think that’s a good thing. Eating lots of small meals throughout the day are better than a couple of big meals.

Go back and read that paragraph replacing “debt” with “body fat”, “spend less” with “eat less”, and “earn more” with “exercise more.”

What I need to do is train myself to eat well, just as I train myself to save money. I need to train myself to go to the gym just like how I train myself to try to find new ways to make money.