**The following guest post is from my good buddy, Jeff! Jeff is a local fireman for our federal government, and talks about how finances and football relate. **
Hey O! Guess what time of year it is my fiscally responsible enthusiasts; it’s FOOTBALL season! The time of the year our family gathers around the television and screams our lungs out! I love this time of year; and now our daughter can join in the emotional torment of a lost fumble, or blown pass interference call. For our family football season is a time for having friends over to savor the sweet smell of bacon wrapped jalapenos, burnt hotdogs and the bubbling cheese concoction in the crock pot, yeah! To say we love our football would be like saying “water is wet”, it’s an undeniable truth.
I was hanging out with one of my buddies last week and he said, “I wonder if people spend as much time on their finances as they do their football”? I mulled over that for a while and had to humbly admit, that I am not nearly as passionate about my finances as I am about my beloved football teams. I don’t wear a “Bill Gates” hoodie that’s never been washed because I’m superstitious, talk to random strangers in the store about compounding interest rates, or cheer whenever I see the DOW go up. I ultimately realized that most people like me need to spend more time getting involved in their financial game. So I decided to build a bridge connecting the two subjects:
- Do your homework – Just like football players study film and coaches study other teams everyone should study finances! I googled the word “Finances”, 15 pages of websites popped up. If you go to any bookstore there is typically a massive selection of financial related books. Listen to others around you. Not all advice is good, but there is no shortage of information.
- Plan – Once you have attained all the financial knowledge you can possibly handle, write down a plan of action. Our family is constantly evaluating our finances and things like where we would like to be in a week, to five years. A plan that works requires a lot of communication both written and oral; think of this as your financial white board with X’s and O’s.
- Execute – This is where the rubber meets the road and dreams become reality. Your chance to execute the “plays” you've discussed with your team (likely your family).
I really want to challenge others to get excited about finances, and get in the financial game! I look forward to hearing how others have learned from financial preparation success, or from a lack thereof resulting in unfruitful endeavors. GO TEAM FINANCE!
10 Comments
LOL, I definitely spend more time watching the pigskin than I do on my finances. Everything is fairly automatic in terms of savings, and my SEP IRA. I tend to be compulsive about stuff so my investments are best left alone to grow over the long-haul.
I’m afraid to say I’m probably as obsessed with finances as most guys are with football. :-) BTW, those bacon-wrapped jalapenos sound awesome – sharing the recipe any time soon?
You betcha Laurie!
1 80z box of Philidelphia Cream Cheese
1 cup of graded cheese
1 package of maple bacon
1 lb of Jalapenos’
Start my grill and I use mesquite infused charcoal. We love the rich smokey flavor of this type of charcoal.
First slice open the jalapenos ( I wear latex gloves while doing this). I take out most of the seeds but leave a few in for heat. Then wash like crazy.
Warm up the cream cheese and the graded cheese ( use the kind of cheese you prefer) in the microwave until soft.
Spread the cheese combination on the halved jalapenos.
Cut in half a slice of maple bacon then wrap the jalapeno. To ensure the bacon stays on the jalapeno use tooth picks to hold the bacon in place.
Now they are ready for the grill. We use an aluminum foil to keep the bacon directly off the grill due to grease flaring up or you can do indirect heating. Place the jalapeno poppers on the foil for about five minutes per side or until the cheese is golden brown, the jalapenos’ blister and the bacon is turns crispy.
Finally serve with caution because these are dangerously awesome!
Yes, of course I spend more time watching football than on our finances! And I love all that game day food too! I don’t feel guilty because we’ve gotten into pretty good financial habits. Sometimes we pay bills while watching football, does that count?
I truly need your multi-tasking skill set Maggie. I think our finances would be out of control, because the game can be so exciting and frusturating at times. I really love both though, I guess it’s a clash of two worlds. However in both I am focused and it can be very intense!
I spent a lot more time watching football than on my finances…..but that’s just a statement of how much football I watch. LOL. For instance, tonight I paid bills, balanced the checkbook and reviewed our budget for October with my wife. That took about an hour and 15 minutes. I’m now watching Monday Night Football, which will take well over 3 hours. Football is WAY more entertaining to me. :)
Hey Travis,
I agree football is waaayyyy more entertaining than finances. I like how you did all your finance studing prior to MNF. I need to be complety focused on both my finances and the game in order to give the proper amount off effort they require. Needless to say I cannot do both at the same time.
I spend way more time on our finances than on watching football…but it would be a close call for my husband. As much as he loves money, from late September to early February, I think football reigns supreme…
I find that, like my Steelers, the problems arise at the execution stage. I get the feeling that we’re both researching & planning properly. But when it’s first & goal from the six, down by seven, and time is running out, like Ben Roethlisberger, I hesitate, wait to long, and suffer the consequences.