In tough economic times, many people spend less and tighten their belts in order to avoid getting into financial trouble. Others on a macroeconomic level of thinking prefer to spend the same amount of money to keep the economy going in the hopes conditions will improve sooner. I fall between these two camps. Below is a list of what I am doing differently since the beginning of the recession (which happened conveniently around the same time I became an adult).

1. I do not eat out as much.
2. I use coupons.
3. I look for free stuff.
4. I invest every penny I save.
5. I do not drive.
6. I try to only make money from home.
7. I have expanded my interests and possible careers to more than just writing.
8. I have worked on my employability skills faithfully.
9. I have lived at home, or with roommates, the entire time.
10. I have cut back on smoking (and am working on quitting).
11. I seek free forms of therapy, like hobbies and writing, rather than always staying on medications and seeing a therapist weekly.
12. I have tried to create passive income as much as possible.
13. I am more productive, but more stressed.
14. I have made more friends who would prefer to stay home.
15. I cook a lot more.
16. I do not buy name brands unless I have a coupon.
17. I have begun exercising more to work off the extra weight I have put on from the stress.
18. I have begun meditating.
19. I am happier.
20. I am healthier.
21. I am better financially.

I have learned many things about being frugal, both from necessity and from desire to master a new skill. We rarely do things outside of the home because things inside are just as enjoyable and are much cheaper to do. I find myself spending more time talking with family and less time getting into trouble.

I hope some of these are relateable. What have you done since the recession, either directly or indirectly?

Focus.com has a list of 101 rules for leaders. Most of them are a little bit common-sense, but there are a few with interesting logic behind them. Either way, it is a good list to review periodically if you are a manager.

Many people have trouble making the decision as to whether they should rent or buy. If you choose to rent, however, My Life ROI has some suggestions about what to do in order to still be building equity while you rent.

My favorite part?

• Take the amount you would have used for a down payment and put it into an index fund or other investment vehicle depending on your risk tolerance.
• If your mortgage payment would be greater than your rent, take the difference and invest that, too.

If you’re looking for a good summary of the rent vs. buy debate, or if you just want a pretty good personal finance read, check out the full article.

An objective of every employer in every industry is to increase employee productivity and output without shelling out more money. This is accomplished by keeping morale and a sense of efficacy high and clear of any negativity.

How to keep employees motivated, however, can be somewhat of a challenge. Faced with such a task in the movie Office Space, managers could only think of stock options to satiate the need for an improvement in morale. While a viable option, not all businesses have stock to provide to employees.

Another common method is to up a benefits package or wages, or to pay a bonus to those employees who finish extra units. This has limited advantages, though, and commission-based pay is rarely a good way for a business to be structured. It may lead to the most sales at times, but few employees will be happy with their pay structure. Another problem with this is that not all businesses can afford to pay their employees extra money (either up-front or through benefits).

Because of all this, this article is about how to motivate employees without paying them.

Read more about Motivating Employees without Money »

Personal finance blog I Will Teach You To Be Rich has an interesting post about personal investments, with a few good examples of things not normally considered to be investments, but that have paid off thoroughly over time (either monetarily or otherwise). The post sparked an idea for me, and I feel the desire to share my best personal investment here with all of you.

I think my best personal investment was buying the domain name for this blog, and the time I’ve put into researching and writing about the various topics I’ve covered. The last few months, I’ve learned a lot, especially about myself, and I feel like I have a cheap form of therapy and education right here. I don’t mind that this blog has not yet taken off; I’m just happy I get to meet all of you interesting folks who comment here.

What has been your best personal investment? Did you spend time, money, or something else?

If you’re looking for a good reading list, OnlineClasses.org has a list of 100 inspirational books they think everybody should read. I have read a few off the list, and the rest are highly recommended, so I believe there should be some solid finds within it.

A key to motivating oneself during times of hardship is to set tiny rewards for working toward goals. Another wise idea for motivation is to always have something in mind – the positive end result – while making progress toward a goal. One way to do this financially is to budget a savings account.

By budgeting, people normally mean balancing spending so that there is as much or more money coming in than leaving. For this kind of budget, however, we are going to use a familiar denomination: percentages.

Take a moment now to write down any financial outcomes sought. They may include placing a substantial down-payment on a home, funding a semester of college for either oneself or a child, or saving up enough money to retire one year early.

Next, we will assign a value to each ending. My personal long-term savings goals are for my own and my partner’s retirement, buying my first home (with some furniture), and having a child (diapers are expensive, after all). My short-term savings goals are for an emergency fund of $1,000, a new pot and pan set, and a KitchenAid.

Anybody versed in personal finance knows about Dave Ramsey’s snowball method of debt repayment. We will use a similar method to gain momentum in meeting savings goals. Short-term goals will receive a hefty priority – say, 50% for me. The short-term goals are broken up as follows:

• Emergency fund – 50%
• New pots and pans – 30%
• KitchenAid – 20%

That means 25% of my total savings will be dedicated to building an emergency fund.

Long-term goals are broken down similarly:

• First home purchase – 80%
• My retirement – 5%
• Pete’s retirement – 10% (His retirement age is closer than mine)
• Children – 5%

The exact amounts may need to be tweaked if I decide something in particular is more important.

As for keeping track of everything, you may choose to go the difficult route and open up separate savings accounts for each individual budget, or you may choose the easy (and easy to screw up, if you’re not careful) method of using an Excel spreadsheet. I, personally, use the latter choice.

How do you budget your savings? Do you just have one account that you contribute to because you feel you should?

Sometimes, I lose my motivation or decide to take a break from getting things done. In lieu of being productive, I do many things. I have decided to share some of them here, hoping to inspire all to be productive while being recreational.

1. Hit the Stumble button. It’s a great way to expand one’s horizons.
2. Browse Lifehacker.
3. Catch up on The Simple Dollar.
4. Do yoga or pilates.
5. Belly dance.
6. Brainstorm or create something new inspired by music from Pandora or GrooveShark.
7. Make duct tape wallets.
8. Learn something new through MIT’s Open Course Ware.
9. Browse Google for new productivity or organization applications.
10. Review my days, weeks, or months.
11. Catch up on my 101 Things in 1,001 Days list.
12. Daydream about where I want to be in the future.
13. Browse stock photos for inspiration.
14. Work on my scrapbook.
15. Look for a new book to read via reading lists or Amazon user reviews.
16. Search for other blogs in my niche and leave “good job” comments.

What do you do when you are bored, but do not want to actually do work?

Motivation is a major key to success. Whether trying to buy a new house, get a promotion at work, become balanced, or otherwise, being motivated to work toward your goals is an important requisite.

My question for you today is that of where you find your motivation. How do you stay happy when things try to bring you down? How do you take a step toward your goals every day?

I think regardless of how hard we try, in today’s society, addictions and habits are inevitable. For many, breaking habits is a new year’s goal that is rarely kept or completed successfully. So today, I want you to think about your addictions and, if you want, share them here.

Mine are smoking, caffeine, shopping for office supplies and belly dance gear, and planning. I cannot go without these things. If I do, I go crazy. The first two are terrible for me, and I am actively trying to break myself from them. Shopping is not too bad, because I rarely buy anything and it does not consume too much of my life. I consider window shopping and browsing online a recreational activity and treat it as such: I only do it when everything I need to get done is finished.

Finally, planning is a productive activity taken to the extreme. I have to-do list after to-do list and lists to show where my calendars are. I am completely obsessed with staying organized. As such, I am trying to free myself to the point where I can do things productively but not obsessively. I will let you know when that is done.