David Michael Bruno

Average Americans Aspiring - Sneak Peek at $10,000 Challenge

I don't want to get too idealistic here. It strikes me, though, that these days when a person achieves something like the American Dream (let's just say that's moving solidly into the upper-middle class), his lifestyle changes. He becomes a cigar aficionado and also starts collecting fine wines. He starts driving a sports car or a luxury car, perhaps both. He buys a larger, flatter TV and pays for access to sports cable networks.

Now I don't want to suggest that there was a time in America when financial success was divorced from selfishness. Humans are humans. But wasn't there a time when a person's service to his community and country grew in proportion to his family's success?

Here is something to gnaw on. What if we average Americans put a line item into our budgets: "American Value Creation." Not only do we work hard to see other line items (like retirement and college savings and discretionary spending) increase, but we use our ingenuity and resources to increase the value we bring to the American economy, our communities, our culture.

Let's just say you had $10,000 in that line item right now. How would you use it? Suggestions?

New Year Resoluthemes

For the new year I am resolving to live out some "themes" instead of specific goals.

Theme 1 "Controlled urgency" - I've never been a huge fan of "our times are more awful than other times" thinking. It can create irrational and unfounded panic. That's why I'm committed to controlling my hysteria in 2010. I am just going to calmly point my energy and time toward important life choices amidst twelve trillion dollars of ballooning federal debt, dismal employment numbers, my bankrupt state (CA), crooked financial institutions, and other impending disasters. I might bowl a few games on my buddy's Wii to relax. I'll keep surfing. But for the most part, 2010 is going to be a very very focused year. This is no time to screw around and waste opportunity. My prediction: Responsible living right now is going to pay back on an order of magnitude in a few years.

Theme 2 "Value creation" - I have this financial slogan: "Whenever we use our money and other resources well it is always good for our personal and national economies." I have not always done this. In 2010 pretty much everything I do will be subject to this question, Am I using my money and time well? If I'm not creating more value for my family, community, and the world then I'm not going to do it.

Theme 3 "Include others" - Yeah, I am going to nag you and everyone else I know. They say that "misery loves company," but so does joyfulness and thoughtfulness and responsibility. I've always been amazed at the things friends, family, and strangers will pull me aside to promote. They rant on about how fun Las Vegas is, what a great deal some timeshare is, how smart Sarah Palin is, how cheap Wal-Mart is, and on and on and on. I'm going to be less bashful about speaking up for the things I care about.

Now, regular readers of guynameddave.com may notice no direct social justice themes or religious themes among my three themes for 2010. I'll be working on specifics in those areas, as well as themes specific to family/parenting. And in the "value creation" theme there are several sub-goals related to writing and growing my guynameddave voice on topics like American-style consumerism. So there are specifics within the big-picture themes.

Thanks for reading and encouraging over the last year of the original 100 Thing Challenge. Looking forward to much more this year and down the road.