The Writers Coin

Madison of My Dollar Plan has a great post today on the best personal finance of the decade. Each year features a major event that relates to personal finance, along with a short blurb about how and why it’s important.

I volunteered to take 2006 because, well, we all know what happened in 2006, don’t we? It was the year that Mint.com was launched. They’ve come far since then, recently being bought by Intuit, the makers of Quicken. Quicken used to be Mint’s competition until Mint blew them out of the water.

Anyway, make sure to check out her post and comment on which year had the biggest impact of the decade in terms of personal finance.

Royce (pronounced Hoyce) Gracie is one of the greatest mixed-martial artists and Jiu-jitsu experts in the world. By simply watching his fights and listening to him speak, I’ve managed to reinforce a few important life lessons.

Don’t Judge a Book by its Cover

Watch any of Gracie’s fights against much larger opponents (like the one against Kimo), and you’ll wonder how long it’ll take for the big guy to completely destroy him. It just doesn’t look fair: one guy has huge, rippling muscles while the other guy is skinny and wearing a Ghi. You feel a little concerned for Gracie’s safety.

Until the fight starts. He knows exactly what he’s doing and he usually makes the big guys tap out. He may look harmless, but this man is lethal.

Anything is Possible

How on earth could such a small man force these hulking big men with lethal punching power to tap out? With technique, that’s how. But you wouldn’t believe it unless you saw it yourself.

Gracie proved that, while size and power may matter, technique and patience can trump it. It takes a lot of hard work and you have to be really good, but it can be done.

Stay Humble

Watch Gracie enter the ring and watch him win a fight: the look on his face stays the same. This is one cool cat. Watch some of the other fighters (and boxers especially) and see how long you can stand to listen to their ridiculous predictions.

These guys ooze cockiness and, while it can be entertaining, gets old fast. Gracie is the Barry Sanders of mixed martial arts: and that’s something I try to emulate all the time—act like you’ve been there.

Never Quit

Gracie has never been submitted. Matt Hughes almost broke his arm once, but looking at his face you’d think he was watching An Incovenient Truth: alert but kind of bored. Any other fighter would’ve probably tapped out to save his arm.

Not Gracie. He hung in there and did what he had to do to get out of the hold. He eventually lost that match by decision, but he never tapped out.

Nobody’s Perfect

As awesome as I think Gracie is, he’s not perfect. His career has three losses and three draws (one in which his corner threw in the towel before the fight even started because his leg was broken). You’d love to see the greatest UFC fighter ever with a spotless record, but that’s just not realistic.

Everyone makes mistakes, and when someone you admire this much has lost three fights and gotten his face beaten to a pulp, you realize that perfection isn’t realistic. It’s OK to fail.

Magazine subscriptions are great gifts, especially when they only cost $5 for a whole year. Right now I’m subscribed to The New Yorker and Poets & Writers—both great sources of inspiration and entertainment.

Anyway, Amazon is offering a bunch of magazines for an annual rate of just five bucks. That’s a pretty good deal.

Among the magazines I’m interested in are Smart Money, Popular Mechanics, and Esquire. But they offer other popular rags like Bazaar, Good Housekeeping, and Seventeen.

Hey, to each their own.

Just don’t make the mistake I made a year ago: I gave M four magazine subscriptions as a gift and it was too overwhelming—that’s too many to keep up with. Pick one or two but don’t overdo it.

SmartyPig is a free site that helps people achieve their savings goals.

How it Works

1. You sign up for free
2. You set up a savings goal
3. You publish that goal to your family and friends (if you want)
4. You try to achieve that goal
5. Hit your goal and take your money back

What’s the Catch?

No catch, as far as I can see. SmartyPig has teamed up with a whole bunch of retailers to give users the option to turn their saved money into gift cards. You can always just take your money out or let it sit in and earn interest, but going the gift-card route will give you a boost of up to 12%.

So if you’re saving up for a Kindle, turn your money into an Amazon gift card and get a little something extra for your trouble. Everybody wins.

Details

• Family and friends can help you by depositing money toward your goal
• Your money will earn a very competitive 2.01% APR (as of 12/9) in an FDIC-insured bank
• Track your progress as you go

Why You Should Care

Here’s why I like SmartyPig: by making your goals public, you’re putting a very strong psychological technique to use. Only this time, your brain is helping you along instead of getting in the way.

By sharing your goals with people you know and (presumably) respect, you are more likely to achieve them because you have someone to answer to. If you set up a goal and don’t tell anyone, the only person you’ll disappoint if you fail is yourself.

That’s not much of a motivator for most people.

Besides, it’s free, so why not join SmartyPig today and see if it’s a good fit?

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By the way, I’m linking to SmartyPig as an associate so I get compensated if people sign up. It’s free, so why wouldn’t you? Chop chop people!