When my obsession is productive (to you too!)

I was never a metronome kid.

I had one, but I didn’t even know where it was most of the time. It was dusty and sad. I knew I should use it, but until this day I can’t remember what my excuse was for neglecting it. Do I regret it? Probably. Do I try to use it more as an adult? I really do.

As an adult I also learned the beauty of EXCEL. This sleepy spreadsheet software can be so powerful and helpful. I took my knowledge of excel, and tried to use it to track my metronome goals. Yes, everything is a goal these days. The goal here was originally to make it more likely for me to turn my metronome on in the first place. But, what this experiment lead to was a new way of organizing my musical life, and I wanted to share it with you.

I created a spreadsheet with four tabs:

1. Repertoire. This tab is where I track my repertoire for the year. Working on 45-60 minutes of music for a recital can be overwhelming. It helped me decide things like when I record certain pieces, and when I switch over to full run-throughs. I wanted to keep it all in one place and have a written out plan.

2. Scales. Oh Carl Flesch, you created a wonderful scale book for violin, and I hope you would have loved this spreadsheet too. This tab has 7 columns (one for each day), with indications on what style to play the scales and at which metronome speed. I track my scale exercises progress on this tab, and can also note what I focus on every week.

3. Technique. This is probably my favorite tab. It all started when my teacher saw how frustrated I was with spiccato. He suggested that I do an experiment: learn how spiccato works, but from the beginning; AKA speed 50. Every day I increased by 10 clicks on the metronome and tracked it with this sheet. Slowly I built it up to the right speed (in my case, it was for Mendelssohn Scherzo), and it helped me gain great control of my right hand. I finally felt like I knew what’s happening and how it should feel. This sheet can be edited to all sorts of techniques… anything you want to take apart and get nerdy with.

4. Auditions timeline. This tab is pretty simple – it’s just a way for me to track progress in preparation for upcoming auditions. You can be as detailed as you want and plan every hour, or make more of a week to week timeline.

You can get this worksheet (even as a printable version) for FREE if you go here. Super easy. It will land in your inbox immediately! Happy practicing!

What do you actually need?

We live in a consumerist world. We think the more we have, the better we are. Ads everywhere tell us that we will do so much better if we buy their product. Add *this* to our routine, use this spice, start a journal, drink this tea, buy this bag that will CHANGE OUR LIFE.

But let's be real for a moment. Will it?
Moving and living out of a suitcase for 3 months got me thinking: What do I actually need? What are the basic things I need to not only survive, but be happy?

Sometimes we lose the simple sense of simply living. While we all have our priorities and things that bring us joy, we can easily get lost in the variety! We can’t even find the things that bring us joy and get confused with things that bring others joy. We get this idea that we can bring more joy to our life with more stuff.

That is why I think packing is a healthy process. It makes you choose your essentials! Even when it comes to hygiene, we use so many unnecessary products (and plastic, which I will save for a different post). Do they really make a difference in our life?

Living for three months out of a suitcase was challenging, but it was mainly challenging because of the drastic change of weather during those months and the limited clothes selection. Everything else is really adjustable. I found a way to be comfortable even without all of my possessions that were packed away. Now that I have them all back, I am starting to realize that I can be happy with less, if not even happier.

This summer I challenge you to question some of your stuff and ask “what do I actually NEED?”
At the end of the day, even if you don’t feel you can survive with less, you will at least appreciate your stuff even more.

Finance Friday PART II: Personal Balance Sheet

By Margaret Leddy

Last week I mentioned a Personal Balance Sheet and this week I wanted to expand the topic and help you come up with a successful balance sheet for yourself.  

You can download your own personal balance sheet here!

Any business or company's financial statements always include a balance sheet. The balance sheet is considered a snapshot at a point in time of a company that includes company assets and liabilities. The balance sheet reports what a company owns and what a company owes, giving a potential investor the current financial position of the company. A personal balance sheet will not only give you a picture of your financial position, but it will act as a useful tool in measuring your progress toward your financial goals, maintaining information about your financial activities, and provide helpful data that can be used when preparing tax forms or applying for credit or loans.

Once you complete your balance sheet, you can calculate your net worth. Determining your net worth will provide an indication as to how you might prioritize your financial goals. I mentioned in the previous article that there are personal finance apps such as Mint that have a feature which assists in setting up a personal balance sheet. I have included an excel spreadsheet that I like to use, which is based on the balance sheet found in Kapoor, Dlabay, Hughes, and Hart’s 12th edition of Personal Finance.

Step 1 in the process of setting up your balance sheet is determining the value (or estimated value) of your assets/possessions.
Your assets include liquid assets such as cash, and items that can be quickly turned into cash (liquidated). For example, money in a checking and savings account, cash value of insurance, cash in your wallet or under your mattress are all included in your liquid assets.
> Next, list any real estate that you own. The value is the current market value of the home, condo, etc.
> Next, determine the value of your personal possessions (don’t forget your instrument!). Include the market value of your car if you own one. Kelly Blue Book is a great resource for looking up the value of cars: https://www.kbb.com/whats-my-car-worth/?ico=kbbvalue. Also included are electronics such as your laptop, headphones, mobile phone, etc., as well as, jewelry, furniture, and the like. You can value your personal possessions at the purchase cost, but a more accurate method might be to have them appraised, or to check online to see what the items are currently selling for.
> Finally, if you have a retirement account or investments accounts, include those. The sum of your liquid assets, real estate, personal possessions, and investments will be your total assets.

Step 2 is to list all liabilities starting with current liabilities and then adding in long-term liabilities. Current liabilities include: bills, credit card balances, auto loans, etc. Long-term liabilities include: mortgages, student loans, and any other debts owed over a longer period of time. The sum of current liabilities and long-term liabilities is equal to your total liabilities.

Step 3, the final step, is to subtract your total liabilities from your total assets. This will give you your net worth!

This information can be a valuable reference tool when determining financial goals. For instance, if you have a negative net worth, you may want to prioritize paying off your debts before investing money. The process of creating a balance sheet may take some time but, once it is set up, it will be easy to make adjustments each month, quarter, or year, depending on how often you choose to update it. The goal will be to increase your net worth over time.

Having detailed information can help you to decide where to make changes in order to increase net worth. Increase any of your assets (consider investing in a mutual fund to grow your assets that much faster!), or decrease any of your debts (tackle the high interest rate debts first!) and voilà! Good luck and happy saving!

References

Investopedia Staff. “Reading The Balance Sheet.” Investopedia. 20 May 2018. Web. 14 Aug 2018. https://www.investopedia.com/articles/04/031004.asp

Xu, Hannah. “Why you NEED to have a personal balance sheet to become rich.” LinkedIn. 15 Nov 2014. Web. 14 Aug 2018. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141115083211-213321273-why-you-need-to-have-a-personal-balance-sheet-to-become-rich/

Dlabay, Les R., Melissa M. Hart, Robert J. Hughes, and Jack R. Kapoor. Personal Finance. 12th ed., McGraw-Hill Education, 2017.