Money Monday Tip #20

I’m going to change things up a bit on Money Monday. Instead of money tips, I’ll blog about a finance related matter. The titles will also change and since I like even numbers, this will be the last post ending in a Tip.

Today’s topic: Prenups.

What is a prenup? A prenuptial agreement, antenuptial agreement, or premarital agreement, commonly abbreviated to prenup or prenupt, is a contract entered into by two people prior to marriage or civil union. The content of a prenuptial agreement can vary widely, but commonly includes provisions for the division of property should the couple divorce and any rights to spousal support during or after the dissolution of marriage.~ Wikipedia

I can’t think of a more touchy subject when it comes to planning a marriage. In fact, many people feel that having a prenup is planning for a divorce. I’ll admit if you want to break up an engagement this subject might do it.

I remember an episode on Senifeld when George wanted out of his engagement to Susan so he decided to ask her to sign a prenup, thinking she would be insulted and call off the wedding. Susan, who was worth millions, laughed at the idea and agreed to sign.

Of course, it doesn’t quite play out like this for most people. Feelings are hurt, thoughts of not being trusted arise, doubts about your future as husband and wife are in black in white, just in case. Finances are rarely discussed in depth when entering a marriage, people assume that everything is copacetic forgetting the business aspect of marriage. Love is beautiful, but unfortunately, not too many couples are fighting about how much they love each other, but over finances. Money related issues is still the number one reason for divorce. I’m not suggesting everyone who is planning to get married run out and have a prenup drawn up, not everybody needs one, but I’m thinking Paul McCartney could have benefited from such an agreement.

I wanted to know what then would be some good reasons for having a prenup and according to SmartMoney.com they said you might consider getting one if:

· You have much greater assets or earn far more than your partner — Divorce courts usually award the poorer spouse anywhere from 10% to a full half of the marital property (including household income and possibly inheritances).

· Your partner has substantial debt — You could end up sharing the burden in a divorce settlement.

· You have children from a prior marriage — They need to be protected (and have their college tuition paid) if you die or get divorced for a second time.

· You own part or all of a business — An ex-spouse can claim a share, unleash an army of nosy accountants to perform a valuation or even force a liquidation.

· You’re planning to put your partner through school — If your spouse earns that medical degree and then splits, a prenup will ensure that your contribution is rewarded.

So, what are your thoughts on prenups? Good? Bad? Depends? Only for the super rich? Would you sign one if asked, would you ask your fiance to sign one to protect family property? When is it a good idea to discuss a prenup or is it ever a good idea to bring it up?

Would I sign a prenup? Well first let me read what’s in it and then I’ll tell you if I’m mad or not. I guess it’s like a living will, it’s a document you hope never has to used, but it’s there if you need it. “Hope for the best, prepare for the worse?”

Photo Credits:
Prenuptial Agreement - Awesome Backgrounds
Couple - Woolley & Co.

My Week In Review

I’m not complaining, but these last few days have been challenging, so I thought I would share my week in review….

For starters, I’ve been rather cranky this week…at least four people called me on my attitude, two of them being my boss. I felt awful for showing my second head in public and apologized. I wasn’t feeling well and after getting some rest, the monster subsided. I need more than 7 hours of sleep too.

One morning I was sitting at my computer and the power went out in two rooms, one being the kitchen. I flipped the circuit breaker switch, but nothing I did restored power, so what did I do? I went into the living room and prayed for a “let there be light” miracle. I asked God if he could please turn the power back on because I had to go to work soon and didn’t want to leave my ‘fridge without power. Now I’m not one to pray only when I need something, I pray everyday, and I don’t know what made me think I could call in a favor, but I did…power was not restored, there was no miracle. A few minutes later it hit me… since only two rooms lost power, I could run an extension cord from the kitchen to a live outlet. Bingo, my refrigerator was working. Before I started to pat myself on the back for being so smart, I smiled and realized that could have been his miracle and I remembered to say thank you. A fuse was replaced later that night.

Came home one evening to find Cheeks, our hamster missing from her cage (a glass aquarium). Not only was she missing, but she stole food we had on the floor next to her cage. I’m only impressed because at least she was smart enough to take food with her on her trip, the last hamster we had escape I found him chewing on a plastic bag. We found her in the living room and lured her to another cage with food. Cheeks is available for adoption.

My daughter has been sick off and on for the past three weeks, digestive problems. No sooner than I get to work one day I get a call from the school nurse who says she needs to be picked up. Daddy was out of state this week so that left me. I sat for a few minutes before I thought of what to do and then I called Mom and she was able to pick her up. Later I took her to a friend’s house and she played all afternoon with no problems. Hard to believe she was the same sick child. I sometimes threaten to put my daughter back where she came from, fortunately, she knows her mom is kidding and we don’t expect her to suffer any psychological damage from my musing. However if she does come out with a tell all book, please support her work as I’m sure she will need the money to pay for the nursing home she’s going to put me in.

I put in a little more than a 1/2 tank of gas in my car and almost cried at the pump because it cost me $24.00. It used to only cost $13.00 to fill up my tank. (How much does it cost to fill up your car?) I sometimes take my car out of gear and let it roll down hills to save gas. I don’t know if this works, but it makes me feel better.

This was my week in review and I’m kind of glad it’s over. Now that you’ve peeked inside my week in review, how was your week, did anything exciting happen?

How to Create A Favicon

What is a favicon? A favicon (short for ‘favorites icon’), also known as a website icon, page icon or urlicon, is an icon associated with a particular website or webpage. ~ Wikipedia

I always wanted one for my website and blog but never knew what it was or how to create one. Last month I stumbled upon help and as you can see, my pink lady (my web avatar) has been sitting pretty for weeks.

If you would like to create one for your website or blog, the site below (this is not the one I used for mine, I forgot to bookmark it,) will give you the tool and explain how to do it. Basically you….

1. Upload your picture (to the website below)
2. Generate your favicon
3. Save it to your hard drive, open it
4. Upload the favicon to the root of your site (blog)

That’s it! It’s really easy to do and there are instructions for people who don’t have access to their root directory, (i.e. Blogger). So go ahead and get those favicons up there, come back here and leave a link to your blog so I can see.

Website: FavIcon from Pics

Cool Photos

These trucks are carrying whatever the picture is on the outside, pretty cool, huh. I believe they were taken in Germany, not by me, just sharing. Each picture is a hyperlink to a slightly larger picture of the same kind….Enjoy! I do not own the copyright to these photos.

6 Stress Busters for Bloggers

Are you overwhelmed with all that comes [could come] with being a blogger? Are you spending countless hours “dropping cards” trying to get your blog noticed? I admit being new to regular blogging, it’s very easy to get caught up in all that blogsphere has to offer. There are so many tantalizing websites and tools out there, sometimes I feel like I’m in a bloggers playground trying to touch everything. I love blogging, but just because we write it doesn’t mean they [readers/commentators] will come; you can check your first few posts as evidence. We all recognize that if we want readers, we have to advertise or do something to get our blog noticed, which can be time consuming as well as stressful.

So what do we do? Day after day, we join, we advertise and we might add a chicklet to our blog and wait. This can be stressful when we don’t see the results we hoped for and after a few months of this process many bloggers abandon their blog.

Yesterday I was looking at a magazine cover and I noticed an article that had 50 fast fixes for stress. I thought it would be good to look at this article from a bloggers prospective, so here’s my top 6 stress busters for bloggers.

1. Hakuna Matata. Don’t worry about your stats, blog visitors, subscribers, page rankings and votes everyday. There is absolutely nothing we can do that will change what we see, so why stress over number fluctuation. I’m not saying don’t check, but if it bothers you, limit your page views to once a week.
2. We’re not Omnipresent. We can’t join everything and can’t be everywhere. Even as I Digg through blogsphere, I Stumble Upon a lot of sites that want us to Cre8Buzz about our SpicyPage and put our Post On Fire. While some of these sites are Del.ici.ous, it can be overwhelming trying to keep up. I’m currently limiting MySpace in blogsphere, my plan is to pick a few sites [3 to 5] and be diligent!
3. A post a day. Unless you blog for a living, don’t feel obligated to post to your blog everyday. This immediately raises your stress level when you have nothing substantial to blog about, you start to worry that you missed a deadline that’s not even there. While you may have a lot of subscribers and people who enjoy reading your blog, no one expects you to post everyday, so don’t expect it of yourself, unless you can.
4. Peeping Blog. There is no need to constantly check on your blog, it does not need a blogsitter. I’m not saying never check your blog, it’s necessary to check for problems, but several times an hour is a bit much. If you have a lot of people that comment on your blog, then yes, you may need to check it more often to keep up with replying. If not, set a specific time you devote to blog maintenance.
5. Ignore your blog. Take a break from all blogging activities for one day a week. Go out with a loved one, go for a walk, ride a bike, exercise, read a book or bake a cake. Find another non-blog related activity instead of worrying about your blog ranking and stats. Your blog will be there when you get back, hopefully.
6. Use a RSS Reader. I was a little slow to do this one, but I finally moved all my subscriptions to a RSS Feeder. If you subscribe to a lot of blogs, it can be overwhelming to see you have 100 emails of blog posts to read in addition to all the other email. I can’t log into my personal email at work, but by having everything in an online reader, I can log in and read all of my subscriptions rather quickly without flooding my in-box. Now, all my subscriptions are in one location and when I have time, I sit down to read them as well as leave a comment.

Do you have any stress buster tips for bloggers you can add to the list?

These are just some of the ways I came up with to make blogging less stressful and more enjoyable. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to Digg this post!