What is a Filter
A filter is a set procedure or action that happens when a trigger occurs. In this case emails will be our triggers. Some email clients call these rules (outlook) while other call them filters (gmail). They do the same thing in most cases.

Why you Should use Filters
They will save you time and help you organize your inbox. It can also help reduce spam if that is a problem.

When Filters Fail
If you truly don’t need a message, see if you can unsubscribe first. This is always better than setting up a filter. Stop the message at the source if you really don’t need it. If you still want to receive it but just don’t want to be a robot, filters are perfect.

Where to Start?
First consider what messages you get on a regular basis, and what you do with them. Glaring examples are online purchase receipts, automatic payment notifications and other non-actionable messages.

Sample Scenario 1: Shopaholic  

You order a lot of books on amazon.com and you get a lot of shipping notices and other messages. You could turn these off, but you like getting them so you have a “record”. But you are tired of them bogging down your inbox.

Setup a filter to do the following:

• Flag messages coming from amazon.com’s standard order confirmation address.
• Label/classify them as Amazon Orders or some name that makes sense to you
• Have the filter automatically move them to a folder/label and skip your inbox.

Now if you ever need to check on your orders, head over to your Amazon folder and read your messages. However since you rarely need to do so your inbox will stay clean and clear.

Sample Scenario 2: 9 to 5er

You like to separate work and personal email but like to manage them all in one email central account. (I like to use one account to manage all 6 email accounts). With filters you can color code, organize and classify all mail to keep your accounts separate.

Lets use a filter to keep work and personal separate so you are at home you don’t have to deal with your work email

• Flag messages sent to your work address to be labeled/classified as Work Email or some name that makes sense to you
• Have the filter automatically move them to a folder/label and skip your inbox.

Now you have created a separate work only inbox, so you can enjoy your person time without mingling it with work. But they are still only a click away.

Spam
Filtering can be amazing if you have unwanted emails in your inbox. You can use your providers mark as spam option, but this may not solve your problem. Here are a few tips for making your very own spam filter!

Learn Your Enemy’s Weakness
Each time you receive a spam message take a short glace at it. See what is common with other spam messages. Chances are you can think of several hot words that are used and notice other tricks spammers use.

Setup a filter that automatically puts messages that contain these hot words in your spam folder (and skips your inbox).

Here are a few ideas:

• Unsubscribe. Nearly all spam has a link to unsubscribe, however it’s a fake link…meant to capture and confirm your address. Filter all messages that say unsubscribe!
• Other “hot” words (you know what I mean). Add these choice words to your filter and put dirty messages right in your spam folder.
• Those people that send you chain emails. They can go right into your spam folder and they will never know. Any message from them with the words FW gets spammed.

Every time a unwanted message makes it through your filter, add a “catch” to this filter to prevent future messages from making it. After a while your filter should be bulletproof.

Over time you will have to create conditions on your filters as you catch things that shouldn’t be in your spam folder. Maybe you have a less than professional friend using your hot words, or maybe some of your legitimate email has the word unsubscribe in it. Just make exceptions to your rule. This is why it’s best to have one massive spam rule that you can make changes to, instead of a bunch of individual rules to update.

These are just a few very basic email filter ideas. I am sure you have many more ideas. Here are a few more:

• Set a message to automatically forward to another co-worker or spouse
• Automatically reply to certain messages
• Color code mail accounts
• Automatically add bills to a folder

Do you have any life saving filters to share?

Related posts:

1. Inbox: Defined

• That’s not worth my time
• You are losing money if you factor in your time
• Time is money

So let’s explore this notion of your time and its value. Think of time in two categories, working and non-working time.

Working – At work
Well this is easy. If you are at work or doing work-related duties simply add up your hours and divide by your corresponding compensation. Bingo, the value of your “working time”.

Non-working – Not at work
This is where the debate comes. If you are able and willing to work 24 hours a day then this is easy also. It’s the same equation as above. But for the rest of us that sleep, eat and relax the question is how much is your “non-working” time worth?

For simplicity lets define “your time” as time that you won’t work or can’t work (at your profession).

I would argue that “your time” as defined above should be valued at zero. That’s right your time isn’t even worth a penny. Here is why.

You aren’t “working” so your opportunity cost is nothing. No matter what you do you won’t make any money. If you managed to somehow make money you are either working…or have a lucrative hobby. And if that’s the case, you are in fact “working” per our definition. So if you can’t make any money, how can your non-working time be worth money?

Now we all know our time is valuable…but the clarification here is that time as we defined it isn’t worth money. You can’t transfer it, use it or lose it.

We must all know this on some level right? Is watching TV not worth your time?

If your every moment was worth dollars and cents you’d really think twice about sleeping in, reality tv and shopping. In fact add in the cost of the activity and I’d bet your “hourly wage” would far surpass your positive work related income. For example one hour of shopping could mean 10 hours of work (opportunity cost, travel expense, cost of items purchased, your time finding places, maintaining the items in the future etc etc).

So it’s not really plausible to try and claim that your “time” is money when you are not working.

But what about working more to spend more?
Another common argument involves working more to spend more. It looks like this:

“I’d rather work an extra hour than have to mow my lawn.” The idea is that your hourly wage is higher than the type of person that can do the task in question and you don’t want to do it. Well this holds true in a few cases assuming you are able to work more, and are willing to do so, to an extent.

But is that what you want? You can’t work all 24 hours of each day…and would you even want to? One extra hour at the office means you have even less free time (about 1 hour less). At some point you will have to do a few things…you can’t pay for sleep or for time with the family.

You become more stuck. The more you pay for services the less you do and the less time you have away from work.

And do you like your job that much? Your are essentially becoming specialized in your career. The less you do outside work, the less you learn, and the more dependent you are on work.

Using your time
How many people pay for a gym membership? Nothing is wrong with that. But look at the other less considered options. Maybe instead of paying for treadmill time, you can take an hour off and go for a jog? You may net the same amount.

Or stop your lawn service and get your exercise behind a lawn mower. Sure beats watching TV.

So next time you hear those few words remind yourself about the type of time in question. Is your non-working time far too valuable to make a loaf of bread, mow your lawn, cook dinner or work on your car? Give it a try, fire up youtube watch a few do-it-yourself videos and get ready to learn. Afterall, where else can you find “free” labor?

Related posts:

1. Borrow or Buy?

What an Inbox is not:

A storage spot – Your inbox is not a storage spot. It’s not called a Stay-box. It’s not meant to store things for any longer than absolutely necessary. If you have items in your inbox that are older than a few days, either you are really behind, or you are using your inbox as storage. Shame on you!

A contact database - Your inbox isn’t meant to keep track of all your contacts. Use an address book for this. If you find yourself keeping messages in your inbox because you don’t want to loose someone’s email or phone number, don’t. Save it in an actual contact database and archive the message.

A to do list – Nope, your inbox isn’t a to do list either. There are better ways to make a to do list from your inbox items which we will touch on later. Read how to get your inbox to empty….coming soon.

What an Inbox is
An in-box is a place to temporarily hold unprocessed items. Once an item is viewed, it can no longer remain in the in-box, it must be processed. An inbox should be processed a few times a day or less depending on your position and the time sensitivity of your tasks. An inbox should be empty after you process it.

Don’t worry, it this seems like a scary task, it’s not. As a reformed crazy inbox keeper, I know how to get you from thousands of messages to zero.

Voicemails
Voice messages are just another inbox to check and process. If your office doesn’t already use VOIP (voice over IP) that doesn’t stop you from getting your voice messages emailed to you. Imagine having your voicemails sent to your inbox, just like every other item you need to process. There are many reasons this is a great way to do things, but the main one is consolidation. If you aren’t familiar with VOIP yet, ask your IT department.

Google Voice is a free option that can centralize your voicemail boxes. Just set your phone to forward all no-answer calls to Google Voice and have your voicemails transcribed and emailed to you. You can even setup custom greetings and actions per caller ID, caller groups and much more.

Now that we have that settled, learn how to process your (fewer) inboxes so that they are all empty. Check back for my post on getting your them to empty!

Related posts:

1. Mastering Email Filters

Benefits of Paperless

• More Secure – Files are secured and can be remotely wiped if a machine is compromised. If our house, car and office burnt to the ground, we’d have full versioned copies of all our files.
• Less Money – Bottom line paper gets expensive to buy, print on, and store. Also if you need less square footage to store your file cabinets, you can lease a smaller office.
• Quicker Access – If you want a file the traditional way this means you need to get up, and locate where it is in a file drawer, folder etc. In a paperless office, I (or employees with access) can do a quick search and view all files. Windows Vista and up have a built-in search that makes this a breeze.
• Mobile/Backed Up – Do you work from home? Or on the road? Access your files anywhere, even on your droid or iphone.
• Better for the Environment – Of course, less paper means less resources and less clearcut forests. Read more reducing your footprint.
• Takes up Less Space – I am sure you can think of a few things that would enrich your life more than a file cabinet. Sell your file cabinets and buy a nice chair, pocket the money or add to your replacement fund
• Grant Partial or Limited Access – We have employees and others that need access to documents and files. Using the methods discussed, this is as simple as a few clicks. Of course everything is backed-up and versioned so if they delete something, no problem we still have it.

Read more on the Case for Paperless in this series overview.

Drawbacks

• Needs power to access – Chances are if you don’t have power, you won’t be getting much of anything done anyway. Backup power supplies are not terribly expensive for emergencies.
• Requires internet access for backup and mobility – If you want to reap all the benefits you will need a decent internet connection.

Can you imagine a life without paper? No stacks, no pockets of receipts, no office file cabinets, no stack of unopened mail. Here is the first step towards the goal of paperless.

1. Reduce the Incoming Stream of Paper

Evaluate all the mail you receive (yes all of it). Take a look at your inbox. Are there other ways you can get this information? We check the mail once a week and even that isn’t needed. If you want to stop the flood, you have to find another place for the water to go. This is the first step.

Most all bills you receive can probability be delivered in another format.

• Utilities
• Mortgage
• Bank Statements
• Magazines, Papers, Personal Letters
• Paychecks
• Are you still paying bills with checks?

2. Choose to Save rather than Print

Installing a PDF converter allows you digitally “print” things such as receipts or other documents. I use adobe acrobat professional, but there are free ones also, such as PrimoPDF.

Now that you can save your online receipts, you no longer need to print them! Every time you go to hit that print button, think about it. You may be able to save as PDF, send to a friend, email to your self or just save for future use, rather than printing, storing and organizing.

3. Credit Card Offers/Application

Do you get a dozen credit card offers a month? There are ways to stop this. Next time you get an offer, open it up and read it. Near the bottom of the offer, there should be a opt out phone number. Call this number and you will be prompted to verify you information. This will opt you out for a short time frame. This call also triggers you being sent a opt out questionaire (yes in the mail, ironically). If you fill out this questionaire, you will be officially opted out. I belive the term is 2 years for the mailed document.

There are many other ways to reduce the stream, but start with these and you will be surprised on how much less paper you have. Start looking at every piece of paper in life and ask the question: “How can I avoid this?”

Related posts:

1. The Case For Paperless

Is your desk covered with neat (or messy) stacks of paper? Do you find it frustrating to find documents in a file cabinet? Tired of having stacks of mail and paper clutter your life? Are you interested in simplifying your life and spending more time doing the things you love?

Here are just a few reasons to work towards eliminating the endless stream of paper.


Paperless is Safer
I have heard the argument that things online are unsafe. But we easily forget how unsafe a typical mailbox is. Which is easier to gain access to: a large national bank’s system or a typical mailbox in front of your home? Even a locked mailbox is easy to pick an offers little or no protection.

With paperless statements you won’t have files cabinets full of account numbers and other documents in your home for someone to rifle through. If you choose to save documents locally on your computer, look into password protection or other security in case your computer is compromised.

Paperless is Backup-able
If you are storing your bank statements and other paper mail in a file cabinet and your home robbed, burned or you simply misplace them, you are usually out of luck. However, with paperless documents you can easily setup a system for automatically archiving and backing up your important documents. Dropbox.com is my favorite backup and online storage service. (It’s free under 2gigs)

Paperless is Cheaper
You will spend less on storing and organizing all your paper statements and mail. You will also spend less on stamps mailing back all your payments. You won’t have to worry about running out of desk drawers or room in your office with electronic files either. If your office is paperless, you can even lease less space, or fit more desks furthering the savings.

Paperless Produces Less Waste
Take a close look at all the paper you toss after opening your mail next time. Inserts, junk mail and return envelops are all just extra wasted paper in most cases. If you are paying your bills the easy way, you won’t be sending in a good’ol check anyway.

Paperless Saves Time
I dread opening mail because I know that opening it is only the beginning. After I open it, I will need to file it, respond to it, and review it. If you are getting a lot of mail, you know how fast it can pile up. Try coming back from a vacation to a huge pile of mail. Now imagine coming back from a vacation with no mail at all to open! You may not realize how much time you spend processing mail, unnecessarily.

In addition, you won’t have to walk or drive to your mailbox daily (maybe once a week at the most).  You also won’t have to spend time sorting through old statements to locate one. A quick search on your computer, or online document site and you can find your document quickly.

Paperless is Faster
You get online statements immediately. You don’t have to wait for the post office, and online statements can come 24/7 rather than being restricted to the US Mail hours, holidays and routes. You have the ability to check your statements the day they are created.

Paperless is Mobile
Not only are you not tied to a physical location, you can check your online statements on the go. If you travel for any reason, you know how nice it can be to get some of the day-to-day busy work out of the way as you wait in an airport or hotel room. Use this time to review your statements etc.

Now that we understand the benefits of eliminating paper mail, how do we do it? Please check back for:

1. Paperless: Reducing the Stream
2. Paperless: Getting Started
3. Paperless: Managing the Digital Files
4. Paperless: Organizing/Backup/Sync
5. Paperless: Other Creative Ideas

Related posts:

1. Paperless: Reducing the Stream

This simple question not always has a simple answer.

Are you spending extra time and money purchasing things you could be borrowing instead? Here are a few things to consider before you hit the store next time.

Benefits of Borrowing:

Test Drive Products for Free
Would you dream of buying a car without a test drive? I know I wouldn’t. A major benefit of borrowing is that you get to try before you buy. And if you do end up needing to purchase this item (perhaps rarer than you may think), you will be informed with hands on experiences on what features you like or don’t like.

Spend less
By borrowing you save the money you would have spent buying that “item”. If you only use an item once a year why have it in your life? Instead, spend your cash on something you frequently use or enjoy. Or sock it away in your favorite mutual fund.

Live With Less
By having less you can maintain and enjoy what you do have more. What’s the use of having everything you might need if it takes you 30 minutes to locate it? You may even spend less on housing by having less. You’ll saving time finding (shopping, researching etc) and maintaining excess stuff as well. Less stuff means less storage.

Already have too much? Shed it and fatten your replacement fund.

Build Stronger Relationships
When you borrow you are asking someone else for help in some form. People generally like to help (especially if it involves none of their time or money). I find when I borrow things from friends I end up seeing them more. As an added benefit, I usually get to talking about what I need the item for. You have a chance to hear ideas or suggestions that may save you time or money when you start your project. And sometimes your friends may even want to help you, which of course will make your project go twice as fast.

Spend More on What You Do Buy
If you only buy what you use frequently and absolutely need, you can guiltlessly spend the extra bucks on it. Chances are you have tested and borrowed this item before so you know exactly what you need. For example, would you rather have every cheap tool possible or real nice tools that you use frequently?

Share if Possible
If you are asking to borrow your friend’s power washer every other week perhaps this item may be worth purchasing. But what if your friend lives next door? Why does every home need a lawn mower when two friendly neighbors could split the cost and share? Evaluate your usage and make sure there are no simple and easy ways to borrow. Tell yourself after you borrow x amount of times you will look into buying. We bought a canoe with a family member and it works great to share it. Half the cost, half the storage, half the maintenance and the same enjoyment.

And when you do really need to buy something use your replacement fund.

Talking Point: What types of items have you borrowed instead of purchasing?

Related posts:

1. Funding your Fund
2. What is a Replacement Fund?
3. Cash for Clutter

• Part 1: What is a Replacement Fund?
• Part 2: Funding Your Fund
• Part 3: Cash for Clutter

Pick The Best First
Set yourself up for success and sell your best items first. This means items with the highest profit and that are the easiest to ship or transport. These are usually books, electronics and other consumer goods.

Price to Sell Fast
You have already decided you wouldn’t mind shedding these items, so don’t let price get in the way. It’s easy to get hung up on what a “deal” the buyer is getting. After all, you paid -insert your price here- and it has the -insert some feature here-. The past is the past, so don’t get hung up on the other guy. (Yes, he is probably getting a good deal). Good deals are what drive sales. The fact is, if it wasn’t such a good deal the buyer wouldn’t be knocking at your door. Make your item a great deal and don’t look back.


Advertise a Few Items at a Time
Remember to pace yourself. If you have closets full if items to shed, start with just a few. Less than five is ideal. I know it sounds like a slow start but jumping in head first is a great way to drown. On the other hand if you only start with one item and have no success (it doesn’t sell) you may give up too soon. Start with 3 items or so and test the waters. This way you will not be overwhelmed and will have time to ‘learn the ropes’.

Here are a few methods of selling your stuff:

Amazon.com
Amazon is easy and quick. It is best for consumer electronics, books or other common household items. Amazon requires no technical skills and no customer interaction is necessary. Amazon takes a cut (depends on what you are selling) but also gives you a shipping credit that is typically generous (for books it is usually $4). I have listed books in the evening that all sold before I got up the next morning.

eBay.com
Ebay is best for less common or more unique items. You can set your own price and shipping terms. The downside is that auctions (the traditional way to sell on eBay) take a lot time (a few days). The buyer can also skip out on you forcing you to start the auction all over again. In addition, listing your item takes more technical skill (upload photos, type out specs, formatting etc). You must write your own details and supply your own photos. eBay fees are very reasonable.

Local Craigslist.org
This works great for items that are too expensive or too large to ship (couches, cars, washer/dryers). There are no fees but you will have to post your own photos and description. The downside is that you have to deal with customers. You have to meet them in person to exchange the item for payment. However, I bring smaller items to the office so I don’t have the public coming to my house. You can also meet in your front yard, or at a large parking lot if you really don’t like the idea of someone coming to your home.

Tip: Don’t use the Craig’s list photo upload. Instead, use another service and embed the photos. Craig’s list forces you to upload images that are very small which doesn’t provide the detailed photos most buyers want.

inumbr.com
Are you hesitant about giving your number to strangers? This is a free tool that assigns you a free number that forwards to your cell phone. It’s a anonymous number that you can use for free.

Don’t Negotiate
You may end up lowering your price or accepting a lower price than you want. Swallow your pride and take it. Chances are you aren’t a retail salesperson so don’t pretend you are skilled at it. Take whatever reasonable amount you can bear and say goodbye to one item at a time. By attempting to negotiate you risk getting burnt out and frustrated. And for what? A few extra bucks?

Talking point: What techniques or practices have you found success with when selling your stuff?

Related posts:

1. Funding your Fund
2. What is a Replacement Fund?
3. Borrow or Buy?

No related posts.

1. Use Online banking

Some smaller banks are still catching up but the larger banks have done a great job of giving you all the tools you need online. If you aren’t using online banking then tracking your expenses will be much more difficult and may require far too much time and effort.


2. Use Plastic Exclusively (or as often as you can)

Using your checkcard/credit card is the easiest way to make your purchases trackable. Everytime you pull money out of an ATM or you use cash to purchase something, you lose the ablity to track and account for that money or item. The same generally goes for checks also. There are other ways to keep track of your expenditures but none of them rival plastic. By using plastic you set yourself up for automatic tracking of expenses. Plus there are other benefits of using plastic.

3. Use an Online Account Aggregator

Now that you have all your transactions trackable via online banking, you are ready to process and categorize them. Find a service that will use your online banking credentials to process and cateogorize your transactions automatically. Here are a few:

• Mint.com (Personal Favorite) | Free. Custom Budgeting for all accounts including investment, brokerage and mortgage. Also has Cyberhomes.com integration for real estate valuation. It will give you a pretty accurate net worth in addition to very flexible and easy to use budgeting tools.
• Wells Fargo Spending Report | Free (with certain Wells Fargo accounts). No Hassle Budgeting and Categorization of expenses. Only limited to Wells Fargo accounts, and has no custom bugeting feature. From a trusted source, no other party has your login credentials.
• MoneyStrands.com | Free. Claims to have similar features to Mint.com. I have not used this but it appears to have some neat features.

4. Classify and Demystify

The above sites may not perfectly classify your spending types and accounts. The first few months it may be nesscary to audit your budgeting tools just to make sure Mint.com didn’t classify a few transactions incorrectly. For example your Safeway Gas purchase may default to the groceries category. Make sure to set it up so that future transactions are classified correctly so you won’t have to manually correct any classification more than once.

Mint.com will suggest a few budgets automatically but you will most likly want to tweak them to fit your needs. Check back weekly or as often as you need. You can even setup alerts that warn you as you get close to your budget. You now have a fully automatic way of tracking nearly every expense and income source.

Talking Point: What is your favorite feature of your online bank or budgeting tools?

Related posts:

1. Chuck the Checkbook