Okay, with a title like that you might have surmised this is a heavy post and you are exactly correct. This is not a post I planned or even want to write. It’s probably the hardest post I’ve written yet. However, I’ve been convicted of something and the only way for me to lie my head on my pillow night and sleep is to come clean. I’ve come clean to Mr. Ramsey and now I must with Y’all.
Archives for December 2018
Sleep and Optimal Brain Health
Hey there! Welcome back to part four of my series on brain health. When I got sober, I really spent time studying the effects of drugs on the brain. There were selfish motives involved as I was depressed, confused, and frankly concerned that I damaged my brain beyond repair. In my studies, I found that the brain has a remarkable ability to heal itself (thank God!). Additionally, I learned that there were some things I could do to aid in the healing process:
- Exercise
- Sleep
- Minimize the stress
Should We Start a Christmas Revolution?
Well, Merry Christmas! Haha, with a title like that you may not be feeling the holiday cheer exuding from this post. However, I challenge you to stay with me on this one and I think you’ll find that I’m full of cheer, just not consumerism.
I wrote an article about enjoying Christmas a minimal consumer. In it, I share some tips on minimizing the consumption and embracing the family time. Maybe questing conventional things is not your shtick but if you’re reading my blog, I suspect it might be. So let’s talk about starting a Christmas revolution…
Christmas Revolution
What do I mean by Christmas revolution? First, let’s define revolution:
Revolution (noun)
- a forcible overthrow of a government or social order in favor of a new system.
Christmas is certainly a social order and/or custom for many of us. I realize that not all people celebrate Christmas but there certainly are a lot of us who do and the marketers sure play it up! I’m putting out the call to those in the financial independence community and, of course, to anyone else reading this who agrees with me.
Let’s overthrow the customs of shopping, spending, excessive decorating, and whatever else you find exhausting about the holiday and get back to the basics.
The power of being wrong; I’m switching to a Traditional IRA
I never liked to be proven wrong in my past. In fact, it still stings when it happens today but the difference is I welcome a challenge! I want to get better at life and that means allowing for corrections. My choice to max out a Roth IRA was under a false assumption on my part. I’ve been challenged and am switching to traditional IRA!
Why I chose a Roth IRA
As I’ve revealed in multiple places on my blog and most recently in my article on 2019 contribution limits, I’m maxing out three tax-advantaged accounts:
- Employer-Sponsored Simple IRA ($12,500 for 2018 ; $13,000 for 2019)
- HSA ($3,450 for 2018; $3,500 for 2019)
- Roth IRA ($5,500 for 2018; $6,000 for 2019)
I made the false assumption that I could not max both a simple IRA and a traditional IRA and deduct the contributions both. Why? Because I failed to verify.