I am a huge fan of Instapaper – especially the iPad app. I am adding things to my reading list all day long. I could create a book from all of the articled I have saved and want to read. One way that makes it really easy for me to add articles is with the Instachrome plugin for Google Chrome. I used to click the icon in Chrome and then click “Read Later”. But lately, I’ve been using a keyboard shortcut of Opt + Shift + I which saves the current page to Instapaper … And then I set it to automatically close the page when it saves. Try it out!

That probably got your attention. Actually, what I mean by “naked” is that I ran without my Garmin GPS watch, which will tell me my distance and pace. These watches are a great tool for almost any athlete. I’ve had mine for over a year now and it revolutionized my running because it gave me all sorts of great data that I could use to compare against different training runs.

I charged my watch the night before my run to make sure it was ready to go. But I went to turn it on as I was prepping to make my way out the front door, but nothing. No sign of life on the thing. Well, darn. I grabbed my ‘regular’ watch that would at least give me my overall time as a last resort.

I am thankful that I had the opportunity to do a long run without my Garmin because I had a little epiphany about life and money. As I was on my run, the only data I had was the total time I had run. I didn’t have my GPS to tell me if I had started out too fast or if I was being too conservative with my pace. It was all based on feeling and I “hoped” that I was running at a consistent pace but there was always a question in my mind of whether I would run out of energy too soon, or not push myself enough and finish too slow. Sometimes it can be good to run ‘naked’ and not be tied to a watch but in this case I equate running “naked” with living life without a financial budget.

Think about it. You’re going along and make a few purchases at the beginning of the month. No biggie. Maybe a few more swipes of the debit or credit card a few days later. Go out for lunch. Then go out to dinner the same day. Maybe you only order an entrée instead of a drink to go with it. It still adds up. All the while, you’re running “naked”, not able to track how much is being spent or how much you’re allowed to spend, based on a budget.

I am still learning how to improve and simplify our budgeting process. I definitely made it too complicated in the beginning, and that wasn’t appetizing to Sarah. Oh, and I didn’t include her in the conversation. I just said “this is what we’re doing”. Where’s the teamwork in that? (Nowhere!)

Do you have a budget? What do you like or dislike about it?

Undo Send came in handy for me at least a couple of times today. Have you ever wished that life had an “undo send” button? What would you undo?

Right off the bat, I think that I would undo my decision to attend a private university for 3 years and amass $80,000 of student loans. But, then I wouldn’t have the friends, experiences, or life changes I have met along the way. I wouldn’t have met my amazing wife. We wouldn’t have a great debt-free story and history to share with others to encourage them to also become debt-free. So, even though there might be instances in life that I’d like to undo, those moments define me and shape me into who I am today, and the person I continue to grow into.

I am always logged in to our internal chat throughout the work day (we use Microsoft OCS now). It also has built-in audio chat. Most of the time it’s cool. However, I’m not as keen on it when I get those messages that say “are you available?”, which makes me feel pressured to say “yes”. Where did the days go, when you just called someone’s extension when you needed to talk to them – and if they were available then they’d pick up. If they didn’t answer, then maybe you leave a message or just try again later. I think I would have liked those days.

I’m not opposed to the remarkable technological advances of the past several years. I don’t want to go back to typewriters and carbon paper and yellowing clips from the newspaper morgue. I just think that we should treat technology like any other tool. We should control it, bending it to our human purposes.

via Op-Ed Columnist – Tweet Less, Kiss More – NYTimes.com.

(ɹɐɟ os sʍopuıʍ oʍʇ ɯoʇʇoq ǝɥʇ uo sı ʇuıʇ ǝɥʇ)

I picked up our new car yesterday. When I saw “new”, I mean “new to us”. We scored a deal on a 2005 Toyota Matrix. It is funny because less than a week ago, we started searching for them around town and test drove the first one just 5 days ago. We also drove to Houston with a cashier’s check in hand, truly thinking that we had found the one. Boy were we wrong. But, that’s okay because I’m happy to have spend the money on a tank of gas over buying a nasty car.

We had seen the one we bought listed on Craigslist at the beginning of the week but overlooked it because it had somewhat high mileage. Turns out that it was the one. Very clean, only some minor cosmetic issues, and no major mechanical needs – just some work to plan for in the winter.

Which leads me to how I know what work it needs. That is all thanks to Auto P.I. and Yelp. I searched the web for “used car inspections” and came across Auto P.I. which I was surprised to find was actually here in Austin. They got superb reviews on Yelp, I was only debating on whether to spend the money for the inspection. I realized this would be better than just taking it to a mechanic, because this is what these guys do: inspect used cars and report back on them. They have a checklist and do a 600 point inspection. My money was well spent, because the guy who inspected the car really helped me feel good about the purchase. He said “it would be hard to walk away from a car like that”.

I am glad that this chapter of “automobile life” is coming to a close. There are a couple items still to tend to, but I feel the stress levels subsiding.

Fast forward. Just the other day, we paid off the 2nd loan – 2nd in the order of smallest to largest, à la Dave Ramsey’s baby step #2 (the debt snowball). So now we’re only staring down the barrel of ONE Sallie Mae loan. This is exciting, all things considered.

So, we are looking at one more student loan at a current payoff balance of $30,500. Here’s the kicker: I have paid on this loan since about December 2004. The other day I logged in to my account because I was curious what the payoff balance was: $30,500. Then I looked at the original principal balance. To my dismay, it was $31,200. This means, that after paying 5 1/2 years of minimum payments (approx $350 – $450 over the years), the principal balance has only come down by $700. Bottom line: minimum payments suck! I looked at my payment history and the split between principal and interest, and the principal is finally outweighing the interest. We don’t plan to keep paying the minimum on this loan since it’s our last one. We are ready to attack this one with as much intensity as we can muster up. Here we go…

Do you have school loans? Do you have an estimated payoff date them?

It all started when Sarah replied to an email from Jodi (@tastytouring) and got on the short-list to bring a guest out to Cuvée for a little tour of the place which was organized by Jodi (kudos and thanks to her). Well, as it turned out, Sarah had to work and was not able to make it. She insisted that I (still) go, in honor of her. I am so glad that I did. There ended up being about a dozen of us there which made for a perfectly sized group.

Mike McKim is the owner and answered any and all questions about coffee, his business, his road to where he is now, etc. It is encouraging to hear his story, about how he went from a job in telecom, to roasting his own coffee for himself and friends/family, to selling espresso machines, to finally having his own coffee roasting company. He is “living the dream”, if you will, getting to do what he loves (it’s obvious).

On a business/marketing note, this was an awesome step forward for Cuvée. Mike and his wife spent 2 hours of their Saturday giving a tour of their roasting hub, which will trigger “word of mouth marketing” via the small crew that was there, to people that he may not have been able to reach on his own. I love that. He got me and others excited and educated about coffee and his business. We can’t help but spread that around – especially in a place like Austin.

Thanks for hosting us Mike & family.

• p.s. Check out Eli’s post about the tour

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention, that Cuvée also does 1-day barista training. How awesome is that? So coffee shops will send baristas there to get trained on techniques, etc. The goal is to ultimately use their current house as a sort of B&B for people to come from out of state and be able to get trained in the “skills of coffee-making”.