Home Budgeting: Its the Economy Stupid

First thing: if you don’t have a home budget, start one.  If you’ve let it slip lately, get it going again. As the saying goes, "It’s the Economy Stupid" and you probably have a sneaking suspicion that you are falling further behind and in the new economy, you can't afford to hide in the darkness, you need facts and the inspiration to get into right-action. The times of the lone wolf method of struggling on your own and playing the strong silent type are over. It's just not the economy for that-- not individually and not collectively.

The good news is the economy won't be getting any better (as in back to normal), not for a long time. The bad news is that we can start today on keeping a Home Budget.

I say "bad news" because facing facts is often the last thing we want to do. Something in our human nature that makes the hardest things the last things we want to do, if we ever get to them. It may be comforting to realize that home budgets are not technically hard to do, only elementary-level arithmetic is required and you can even cheat and use a calculator. Though most of the time the technical skill is not what holds people back, its the emotions and feelings that get unearthed in the process. Again, it's important to realize that what keeps people from keeping a home budget is not the elementary-level arithmetic, but the emotions and feelings that get unearthed.

I say "good news" because the economy won't let us keep putting this off. We have to sober up. It's time to learn from our mistakes and make better choices. For most of us there just isn't the credit cushion of which we had grown accustomed to and that enabled our worst spending habits and semi-conscious patterns.

This is good news because many of us have been in denial for a long time. 360 degree denial. Everywhere we look, everything we see is chock full of denial. We are told the economy is improving and we believe it. We are told the stock market is a safe gamble, but we aren't given the massive users manual that should come with our 401k. We are told spend like there is no tomorrow and you don't have to tell us twice. 

Good news because we can start today-- as soon as we wipe the sleep from our eyes and smell the coffee brewing in the kitchen.

Good news because we can get on with living. Living not the big house, extravagant lifestyle we see reflected back in our TV, but the living within our means. Balancing our checkbook. Back to basics- whatever that may mean to us. Be it back to nature, back to knowing our neighbors, back to cleaning our house ourselves or just back to reality. With a home budget we can see how far off our spending is in order to make our savings goals and plans. Quick money and quick debt has a long lasting hangover with no easy cure. 

There may be nothing glamorous about putting yourself on a home budget. Though it is basic common sense, it can feel awkward and bewildering at first. But the thing I want to focus in on here the most is developing a shame-free approach to money. A lot of us have picked up feelings of shame around money, not earning enough, spending too much, etc. In our society debt and bankruptcy is comparable to the 7 Deadly Sins and we try to hide this reality at all costs. This secret life that we think we have to live slowly sucks us dry. The secrecy and shame is not only harmful to our health and relationships, but even more it hamstrings our ability to make much needed, positive changes. And in effect deadlocks our own personal recovery. The secret problems often seem too overwhelming to deal with outright. So my primary goal is to maintain this blog a shame-free zone: a home for mutual aid and support. 

It is the self-isolating behaviors that come hand-in-hand with shame, that also needs our care and attention. Creating a home budget is one major tool that can help lead us out of the grip of despair. What can lead us out of the darkness of suffering alone is the other tool of sharing what we are doing with someone we know and trust- someone we can confide in. It is important not to do this work alone because letting down the veil of absolute privacy can be good for your health.

I am going to probably end up repeating it many times on this blog, which is necessary to do because it is so vitally important and so often overlooked--- we are social animals-- we need each other more than we think. To function optimally, we need a healthy robust support network. We do not function well as isolated individuals maximizing our own self-interest. This is the myth of the 1%, if you will, and enough of us have bought into it that it almost seems real, but the shame we feel when we don't cut it is killing us. We need a supportive public life. We need a social support network, that is both deep and wide, to support us when things get strained at home, at work or in our neighborhood. This social safety net, what has been called Social Capital, may be the most important aspect in our health care. And it deeply depends on trust. Trust that we build together one step at a time. Likewise none of it happens if we remain in isolation and secrecy.  This is a larger question to explore, but just for today we can feel moved and inspired to take our first step: start a home budget and tell a friend what we are doing. 

Bookkeeping Can't Wait

Bookkeeping Can't Wait- Oct 15th Tax Returns Due

If you filed for an 6 month extension your time is almost up.

Call or visit our website if you want to set up a system that will increase your clarity on your home budget or local business for greater peace of mind and success.

Now located in the East Bay or thru Remote-Session everywhere.

Tye Kirk

510-982-6433

www.TheGreenBookkeeper.com

Shame-Free Accountability

Shame-free Accountability & Bookkeeping--  Reduce the time crunch & stress of not knowing what is happening in your business or home spending. Know your cash flow and follow your action plans to help sustain your business and maintain prudent reserves. 

You can stay on track with support that isn't shaming. There is no need to pummel yourself or get pummeled by anyone, especially a professional that you trust to be on-top of their responsibilities and helping you follow through on yours. 

What I am getting at is there is no "S" in team. No Shame, No Stress, No Slipping. I find the most effective way to work with my clients is through a teamwork approach that focuses on the fundamentals. Like the basic fundamentals, my high school basketball coach consistently instilled in us. With these fundamentals we need:  clear expectations, clear roles and responsibilities, clear deadlines, persistant follow up on outstanding action items. Its the same in any healthy workplace or in any healthy home. Still it's never perfect. And all the while depends heavily on clear, honest communication and a commitment from both sides of the equation.

If you want the shame or the self-flagellation then that is something else. If you think it sounds too good to be true, but are ready and willing to try something new as the old way is no longer working then let's get going.

Tye Kirk

510-982-6433

www.TheGreenBookkeeper.com

Yelp Review from Oxygen Tango

Here is a Yelp Review Posted on 7/12/12 at Yelp-The-Green-Bookkeeper-Oakland:

"I have been Tye Kirk's client, who runs The Green Bookkeeper, for a few years now (I think 3 at least) and it has been a great positive journey. 

Tye is very diligent. He takes care of details very fast and with great precision. He has always looked after what I needed so that all my bookkeeping is in order. He communicates with, and takes care of whatever my accountant needs to do her work, is self ignited, and has an absolutely heartfelt and honest character. 

He has always been totally willing to help me with many things - setting up reminders and reminding me about deadlines and filing details, brainstorming about finding the best categories for items in my monthly income statement (P+L) he helped create a cash variance report and a budget report that I can use on a monthly basis to monitor and read my business. He delivers also a monthly balance sheet. And many more things - long-term thinking, dealing with my bank etc.

As a human being he is a delight to work with. He is easy going and has good advise. This does not take away my responsibility to make sure I know what I want in order to be able to "read" my business in the way I need it. 

If you decide to work with him (or any bookkeeper that is) you'll have to ignite that part. Tye can do it if you deliver on your part. It is a business relationship and I as a client need to feed in equally.

He recently relocated to the Bay area with this number 510.982.6433.

Remote work works well for me with Tye.

Thanks to skype I can communicate with him at ease and directly and every week and every month I know what the numbers are in my business.

So in other words I can only give him a 5 star rating.

Great work Tye. Thank you."

Stefan F.
Oxygen Tango
http://www.oxygentango.com/

A Workplace You Could Love

What do you hate most about your job?

The pay. The patronizing air among the higher-ups. The powerlessness day in and day out. The bureaucratic red tape. The vacuum into which your creative ideas disappear. The politics, double standards, threats, innuendos and misinformation. The discrimination. Executive bonuses during staff layoffs, reduced time, & pay cuts. No say as the plans, handed down to you, change with the wind. The environmental and social responsibility is tweeted lip service for PR and website hits. The known, harmful side-effects of the new product line. The cooked books. The anonymous absentee owners. Your life, friends, wife/husband, children -- drifting ever further away.

What if it could all be different?

Work like you always dreamed it could be... But you’d have to work hard, take total responsibility, fulfill hundreds of continuing educational credits, train tirelessly in communication, mediation and conflict resolution, step up and see your creative ideas through to completion, open your heart to your coworkers, work as a team, take strong stances on your beliefs, values and morals.

Imagine working in a medium sized firm where staff size is capped at 500 to ensure everyone can know each other personally. Each member owns an equal share in the company. Profits are shared equally. Top managers only make 4 x’s what the lowest paid worker makes. Everyone has an equal voice that is heard on every decision that concerns you, made within a transparent one member-one vote structure. Creative input is actively sought and rewarded. Changes are taken in stride as everyone is consulted when dire economic conditions call for prudent decision making.

What is a Cooperative Enterprise? 

This structure, though pretty atypical for the vast majority of jobs and workplaces in the so-called developed and developing countries of the world, has many successful models often times out competing their top-down corporate counterparts in the global marketplace. Democratic governance is commonly are practiced in Cooperative Enterprises around the world from Italy to Japan to India, from Canada to South America. Arguably the most prominent and successful is the Mondragon Cooperative Model located in the Basque States of Spain.

Cooperatives, co-ops for short, are an organization or group of organizations-- for profit or not, that willingly choose to associate together in the spirit of common cause, as well as self-interest for our immediate needs. They could be service or product based factories, housing, credit unions/public banking, agricultural, you name it.

Idealism meets pragmatic 

This is where the rubber hits the road. Cooperatives walk a tightrope, balancing economic realities with their social mission; product development with community values; and hard work with profound moral principles. Furthermore, they embody these values by building them into their organizational structure and decision making. Practicing their values of democracy, mutual self-help and care, makes it that much more tangible and real. I firmly believe that a true democracy at the national level depends on our daily practicing of democratic decision making and honing the 1000 subtle skills required to make democracy work from workplace to home to town hall. Workplace democracy is one of those places we practice under real life circumstances and daily pressures. 

What I am most curious about is how one modality plays a complementary role to the other. The strengths in one compensates for the weak areas. What the corporate top-down model neglects in relating to people as humans, the humanistic model neglects in building competitive advantage and market penetration. And how both models can suppress entrepreneurial ingenuity. We need both. Neither is better-than, neither will ever become obsolete. We can take the good, leave the bad and learn the lessons each offer. This blending approach can not be quickly dismissed and marginalized, because we are both right and have something greater to discover together.

Vote Often Vote Early- Coop Credit Union

If you are a member of the Cooperative Center Federal Credit Union please consider voting for Tim, Mike and Tye. We are running together to bring a focus on local business creation, especially worker cooperatives, which help create stable jobs that won't outsource and leave the community when we need them most.

Going Green- It's More Than You Think

Going green is so much more than just thinking & doing.

The green movement, most of the time, comes off on a very superficial level that does very little good and actually undermines the well-intentioned goal.

Going Green typically means, adopting a set of practices or lifestyle choices that consider the environmental impact of those actions. This includes making better choices of what products to buy, car pooling, and planting a tree. In a nutshell, Do this and that and you can save the Earth.

But what is this really? A new corporate branding, a clever marketing scheme, a naïve idealism, a momentary reprieve of guilt and gluttony, or an oversimplification to make sense of a daunting reality. Well, it can be a lot of things, but none of it is helping.

These sets of practices pastiche over the old sets of practices to save paper, cut down less trees and pollute less of the environment. Meanwhile, we continue our hurried, over- scheduled and under-appreciated lives. If we have time we add recycling to our to do list of things we should do. ‘Should’ and there is the rub, the well-intentioned act now becomes an obligation, a busied compulsion. And guilt pops up again polluting our dreams and aspirations, as dirty and murky, as our rivers and seas.

Somewhere deep down inside us is a restless soul haunting our own lives, a ghost in the machine, beckoning for deep fulfillment, wanting nothing less than a cup runneth over, vibrant dynamic life out in the world with people and nature. No compensatory purchases, no coping mechanisms, no sell out. No membership fees or fine print legalese. Not separate and equal, but together intermixing our dreams, raw and open, ripe with potential. This to me is the true Green Movement- embodied and alive- singing and dancing, living out our life’s purpose in touch with all life.

And truth is this fully open living and loving is often paralyzingly scary--true freedom is, otherwise we’d all be living it by now.

But as we give and receive the courage to open our hearts, so too shall the people around us. As we heal, so too shall the planet. If we were fully actualized, living the beautiful life we love, we would leave the job we hated, cut all the needless expenses and penchant prideful indulgences and not allow the clear-cutting of a rainforest. There’d be no need, no room for it. We would come home and love our spouse and kids and undoubtedly shine radiantly for them. The showering of limitless love and tenderness would be enough. Each of our own desperate measures to make a quick buck would cease. Gazing deeply into each other’s eyes we would know. We would stand in our mature paternal instincts and stop these 'kids' from running amok in our world and resolutely declare “ENOUGH.”

Don’t get me wrong, the bulldozing of our rainforests, natural gas fracking, deepwater drilling, outsourced overseas smoke stacks, and the contamination of our precious water supplies are devastations, deluging Mother Earth’s ability to heal Herself. These are systemic problems that require systemic solutions-- Systems Thinking approaches. Just as our own immune system becomes overburdened and overstressed, we too must not suppress the planet's symptoms with teaspoon after teaspoon of cold medicine, but rather respond to the root cause before the recurring coughs and colds crescendo into an incurable disease.