Money Blue Book

So you want to be a millionaire? Well you know what? Me too – and I’m determined to get there in the near future. At this very moment, despite the current state of the economy and the deteriorated condition of the credit markets, instead of just sitting on my hands and wishing upon a star, I’m taking active steps right now to make it all possible someday. While having a financial net worth of a million dollars isn’t what it used to be because of the negative effects of inflation, it’s still the measuring stick we use today to delineate the dreamers from the ones who have financially made it.

I know it’s not an unfathomable dream to have because I’ve seen the system work firsthand. The possibility is not just reserved for celebrities or the elite, but is very real and plausible for ordinary people as well. One of my close childhood friends is a multi-millionaire. And he’s only 30 years old. He’s not a self made millionaire as he inherited the vast bulk of his fortune from his parents, but it was his parents who put forth the gears of financial practice many years ago that brought their finances to what it is today. From the time my friend’s parents married, they lived a very frugal life. While they were by no means cheap, they avoided the peer pressures and temptations of living lavishly, opting instead for a humble home they could afford and limiting pricey expenditures like dining out to only rare occasions. They drove affordable American made cars and stayed away from buying expensive electronics and gadgets. However, at the same time, they by no means avoided the use of debt financing. Instead, they embraced its responsible use, viewing credit cards and balance transfer offers as the means to generate free credit card arbitrage income. Through the use of airline credit cards, they were able to finance family vacations and trips with free frequent flyer mile bonuses, and with business credit cards, they took advantage of high credit limit card financing and business spending rewards to earn cash back income. Quite a few years ago, the American Automobile Association (AAA) permitted its AAA credit card holders to enjoy interest and transaction free traveler’s checks charged as purchases to their credit cards. My friend’s parents frequently took advantage of this perk by depositing those checks into high interest money market accounts and high yield savings to earn free money – the early beginnings of what many now today call 0% balance transfer arbitrage (the ability to make money and generate net profit from a temporary price differential between two markets). However, despite their frequent strategic use of credit, they always made sure that they paid off their non-0% balances every month, thus avoiding high interest payments and late fees.

From their humble dual income paycheck beginnings, my friend’s parents loyally and consistently squirreled away the bulk of their wages into their high yield savings accounts, while always making sure they took full advantage of their respective employer’s tax deferred 401K retirement plans and matching programs. Every year, they maxed out their Roth IRA’s and their traditional IRA accounts as needed, while steadily plowing money into their stock market portfolio. Over the years and through the decades, in good times and in bad, they continued to invest, dollar cost averaging down as the markets dipped but continuing to strategically seek attractive investment opportunities as the markets rose. Their stock and bond portfolio consisted primarily of long horizon mutual funds and index funds, but they also purchased large positions in individual stocks as well. Instead of chasing performance or trying to time the volatility of stock prices, they patiently and wisely sought out long term positions in blue chip, value brands like Coca Cola, McDonalds, Disney, and even Berkshire Hathaway.

With their excess money, they purchased real estate. What started out as a single home, eventually blossomed into a housing portfolio comprised of several million dollar houses and a few very valuable condominium properties. As home values ebbed and flowed with the real estate market over the decades, they rented them out to help pay for their multiple mortgages. With the luxury of time and fiscal discipline, all of their multiple home mortgages have now been fully paid off.

While my friend clearly benefited from the wise financial decisions his parents made, he has also learned to embrace their frugal financial practices for himself. Today, despite his tremendous wealth, my long time friend remains one of the most frugal and unassuming people I know. I often joke that he is the “poorest rich person I know” due to his incredible frugality and disdain for excessive spending. He truly is the millionaire next door as one can’t possibly guess simply by looking at him that he has such vast wealth at his disposal. Meanwhile, though he lives a life of comparative comfort today, he continues to actively practice the financial wisdom of his parents – always looking for ways to broaden his income streams and constantly trying to find new and improved ways to invest his savings.

The Process Of Becoming A Millionaire Is Not A Get Rich Quick Scheme, But A Patient and Systematic Approach To Earning, Saving, and Investing Money

The whole point of this long story about my friend and his parents is to show that with some concerted fiscal discipline through personal finance education and a dedication towards building long term investment positions, anyone can truly become a millionaire. Given enough time, and in his parent’s case – several decades, the amazing power of compound interest can grow any small sum of money and turn it into a significant amount. It is a grossly overstated myth and fallacy that only those who inherited their money, won the lottery, or developed a successful small business can acquire wealth and become a millionaire. While having a very high income, striking it big in the stock market, riding the housing boom to the top, or acquiring riches through the passing of wealthy relatives can certainly speed up the process, even for the rest of us white collar or even blue collar workers who collect weekly paychecks have the potential to reach the promised land of financial independence.

Becoming a millionaire is not an overnight process and there are no gimmicks, scams, get rich quick secrets, or infomercial packages you can buy or learn to turn you into an overnight millionaire. Please stay away from those trashy midnight get rich quick TV commercials. With their flashy salesman approaches to convince you to part with your money, all they will do is lead you further into debt as you spend large sums of money buying their pointless tapes and useless DVD’s. While a tiny portion do manage to offer some substance with their flair, the vast majority of these televised get rich quick programs are basically scams and repackaged junk. There are occasional real money making, wealth building secrets out there in the market, but chances are you won’t find much information when these temporary arbitrage opportunities do crop up. Remember the old adage – “those who can, do – and those who can’t, teach.” It is very true. I personally invest and dabble in several very lucrative income generating businesses, both online and through my legal practice. However I would never reveal the secret and crux of my approaches and methods, at least while the going remains good. Only after I have personally tapped out the financial gold mine opportunities would I contemplate sharing those supposed secrets with others. And only then would I start writing and selling how-to guidebooks to supposedly sell my secret method.

The 10 Automatic Steps To Becoming A Millionaire

Below are the basic ten steps to start you down the road to becoming a millionaire. Every journey begins with a series of fundamental steps. If you truly want to become financially liberated one day, it’s time to start making the commitment to educate yourself and start thinking like a millionaire. Remember, there is no gimmick and it’s a long, steady process, but these steps will put you towards reaching that goal someday.

Earn Money and Seek Out Opportunities To Save:

The 10 basic steps to becoming a millionaire are broken down into two primary categories. The first main series of steps (1 thru 5) involve making money and preserving it. The second series of steps (6 thru 10) involve pursuing income producing investment opportunities:

1) Educate Yourself In Personal Finance, and Develop The Drive To Learn - A few common traits that are almost universally found in full fledge billionaires, and bona fide millionaires is that they are all driven to learn and succeed, and are willing to put their ambitions into action to make things happen. Border line cocky and very confident, self made millionaires operate with a plan and are highly motivated. Most are extremely pro-active and driven to constantly improve their financial lives and earning potential, whether it be through the pursuit of advanced degrees or the taking on of a calculated business venture risk. In my case, I graduated from law school and worked as an attorney for numerous years before I eventually made the decision to get out of that profession. The work was terribly unsatisfying and so I made the affirmative decision to become self employed and start my own online business. The decision was  fraught with greater risk, but the move ultimately reaped much greater rewards.

Aspiring millionaires need to take it upon themselves to fully educate themselves on the nuances of personal finance and strategic financial planning. Even those who ultimately deem it more cost and time efficient to outsource their tax preparation and financial planning work to a so-called expert, it’s still very important to develop a personal groundwork in finance and business concepts. Without a fundamental grasp of how compound interest works or an understanding of investment terminology like stocks, bonds, Roth IRA’s, and short selling, aspiring millionaires may never reach their full potential. As an aspiring millionaire myself, while I can currently afford to hire a tax accountant, I still choose to file my own taxes every year. Eventually as my tax situation grows more complex I may choose to hire a tax preparation expert to make better use of my limited time, but at least I will have already developed a good grasp of basic tax law and the the nuances of capital gain taxation and business deductions. When it comes to personal finance, always learn to do it yourself before hiring someone else to do it for you.

2) Invest In Higher Education, and Pursue Jobs and Professions With High Incomes – Certainly when it comes to becoming a millionaire, the most important entry level step is to develop a steady and predictable stream of income. Unless you have a fixed injection of fresh income on a continuous basis for a good period of time, you won’t have any investment capital to work with. While it has been shown on blogs and websites like CNN’s Millionaire in the Making series that reaching the one million dollar networth mark doesn’t require individuals or families to rake in a high 6 figure salary annually, it certainly doesn’t hurt. Clearly, the more money you make and the higher your annual salary, the sooner you are likely to reach your goal of becoming a millionaire.

When it comes to making more money, proper higher education is key. It’s no longer possible to get by in this ultra competitive world on a college degree alone. In almost all cases of professional advancement, a graduate or professional degree is paramount to future financial success. While a small portion strike it rich without the benefit of advanced degrees, the vast majority of successful millionaires have post graduate degrees. But it’s not just any random degree in higher education either. Certain advanced degrees simply have greater potential to lead to higher income jobs than others – professional graduate degrees like MBA’s, JD’s, MD’s, and advanced certifications in engineering just to name a few.

While it’s true that some jobs and professions are overrated with financial rewards that have been greatly exaggerated, on the whole, certain majors and professions simply have it easier than others when it comes to future income prospects. While many teachers, nurses, administrative assistants, and paralegals have the potential to make good money and live a decent life, their road to millionaire status, with all other things being equal, is significantly more difficult than that of big firm lawyers, doctors, financial planners, and successful small business owners. While I’m sure areas of study like English, music, theater, and history are incredibly rewarding in their own personal ways, the reality is that they aren’t the best majors to have when you have your sights set on becoming a millionaire someday. The professions that they lead to simply aren’t as lucrative as those related to business, health sciences, or computers. Probably the most financially lucrative fields of study can be found in finance and business, advanced health care, and engineering. Those who want to vastly jump start their road to millionaire-hood ought to pursue these specific types of study during their college and graduate school years. It’s where all the high income producing jobs ultimately are.

3) Save Money By Making Financial Sacrifices When It Comes To Small Daily Expenses – An important tenant of becoming wealthy is not only the ability to make money, but the ability to save money by cutting expenses as well. Even those with substantial streams of income can quickly waste away their money through shoddy investments and lack of proper saving habits. Just look at all the formerly wealthy celebrities with money troubles. An important step to becoming a millionaire is to simply spend less than you earn. The less you spend, the more you have to save, and the more money you save, the more money you have to invest and make your money work for you. Aspiring millionaires understood fully, that an affordable sacrifice today will ultimately pay off in the future through the power of compound interest and the passage of time. Along with putting your money towards the building of an emergency fund, there has to be a systematic habit of saving and investing. For some, this requires setting up an automated savings plan that automatically transfers money from your primary checking account into a high interest savings account or makes regular contributions to a mutual fund. For others it means learning to save by cutting back on common expenses – swapping that manicure or new video game, for more interest generating money in your bank account.

Of course, this doesn’t mean you ought to sell your beautiful home or car, and start living in a canvas tent or resort to eating just one meal a day to save money, but you should most definitely live within your means and learn to make some sacrifices in your life. It’s important to recognize that the vast majority of your income is probably discretionary and non essential – probably more than 50%. If you are like most people, you enjoy spending your hard earned money by treating yourself to dinners at fancy restaurants, going to the movie theater, enjoying that daily Starbucks coffee, buying the latest expensive designer clothes, or constantly upgrading your cars and electronic gadgets for the latest model. But by choosing to spend and waste your money on such frivolous and fleeting common luxuries, you are taking money away from your future. There is no need to incessantly pinch pennies like a miser, but try cutting some of these non essential perks and you’ll be amazed at the amount of money saved. That $5 cup of premium coffee everyday may not seem like a lot, but multiply that by 365 days a year and multiply that by the frequency of other luxuries in your life and the amount quickly adds up into the thousands of dollars. Remember, because money saved has already been taxed, money saved is worth much more than money earned, which has yet to be taxed.

As a naturally frugal person, I refrain from chasing after the newest gadget releases. While fancy LCD and plasma high definition televisions have already come out for some time and prices have dropped significantly, I’m perfectly happy with my old bulky CRT television set. Unless my television set gets damaged in the near future, I don’t see the pressing need to upgrade to a flat screen anytime soon. Like TV sets, cars also have a tendency to rapidly depreciate in value within a short period of time. While I can easily afford to buy a fancy, expensive sports car or luxury performance vehicle, I’m quite happy with my modest fuel efficient Honda Accord. I just don’t see the need to upgrade. It’s just a frugal, cost savings mentality that I’ve always had, and a positive trait that I believe will one day help turn me into a millionaire.

4) Seek Out Free Money Offers, Sales, Discounts, and the Highest Interest Earning Opportunities – Aspiring millionaires ought to constantly hunger for savings and finding cheaper and more cost efficient ways of doing things. After all, a fundamental trait of becoming rich is the ability to make and save more than you ultimately spend. Even when you spend money, oftentimes there are ways to structure your actions to end up with a significantly lower net loss. For example, why pay full price for a pair of nice jeans or a new pair of shoes when you can order the exact same item online at a discounted price by using promotional discount codes and by shopping through an online cash back shopping site like Ebates or Fatwallet? Why not stop by your local mall or visit the desired store to try out the product you want, but order the item from your home computer to take advantage of online promo codes and Internet discounts when it comes time to buying. Surely you can wait a few days for shipping and handling for such non essential items. One time savings may not seem like much, but multiply that a few hundred times or even a few thousand times over multiple years, and the money rapidly adds up. These days, it’s significantly cheaper to order most things online, especially when it comes to electronics.

For those with good credit and the ability to properly manage debt obligations, I recommend the use of cashback credit cards to make all of your purchases. By using your reward credit cards as you would otherwise use cash to make purchases, you are able to earn free rewards and cashback savings that you would otherwise not enjoy. So long as your credit cards don’t unnecessarily encourage you to shell out more money than you would ordinarily spend, you’ll accrue attractive rewards and free money in the process. By ensuring that you always pay off your credit card balances every month, you’ll avoid any extraneous finance charges as well.

Savings should never be left idling in a low interest checking account. When not invested, excess money should always be placed into a high yield savings account or CD ladder to garner the highest annual percentage yield possible. While you don’t necessarily have to be a rabid bank interest rate chaser like yours truly, it doesn’t hurt to know where to find the best online savings banks and where to find the top high interest rate offers.

5) Become An Entrepreneur and Run Your Own Small Business – Many millionaires are both entrepreneurs and owners of their own small business. These days, small businesses are the primary drivers of wealth in the United States, and not inheritance. Oftentimes, great financial success comes from the effort and financial gamble of starting one’s own business. While the risks are very real and the stresses of managing your own business operations can be daunting, the financial payoff is potentially much greater than that of working for someone else for the rest of your life. When you work for someone else, you are at the whim of another person’s directive, and as such the fruits of your own labor are not truly your own. Your efforts and talents are used to benefit the company, which is owned and controlled by another, and thus the bulk of the financial rewards do not fully trickle down to you. However, when you run your own business, while the risks are fully attributed to you and your partners, the full tally of benefits are delivered as well. In most cases, becoming a self made entrepreneur requires the assumption of a calculated risk or initial upfront financial investment. However, success sometimes graces people who are simply able to find new and improved way of doing things.

Oftentimes, the best way to become a self made entrepreneur is to take whatever you are good at in your current job and turn it into a self run business. For example, I have a friend who used to work at a landscape company as a manual laborer. After receiving significant exposure to the business of landscaping and the administrative aspects of running such an operation, he ultimately chose to start up his own landscaping company, eventually earning decent profits in the process. As the Internet expands and online commerce grows in popularity, many entrepreneurs such as myself are turning to the web to find ways to make money online. Whether it’s making money on eBay, or generating pay per click and affiliate income with my personal finance or health and fitness blog, aspiring millionaires ought to find ways to break the traditional 9-5 cycle of forever working for someone else. The key to expedited financial independence is to someday get out of the perpetual trading hours for dollars cycle – through self employment and the diversification of alternative income streams.

Make Your Money Work For You:

After generating income and making smart financial decisions based on frugality, the second main series of steps to becoming a millionaire is to take your savings and make them work for you:

6) Start Saving and Investing As Early As Possible – When it comes to saving, the best time to start was yesterday. The second best time to start saving is today. For those set on starting down the path of becoming a wealthy millionaire one day, not only must you continuously enhance and refine your money making potential, you must also find better ways to save that money. Those that want to become rich must make saving money an extremely important priority in their lives and not allow the saving mentality to drift into an afterthought.

As is often mentioned in the lingo of personal finance writers, aspiring millionaires must always “pay themselves first”. Instead of paying down the daily and monthly expenses, and then somehow scrounge up whatever income is left to put into savings, savvy savers must approach savings the right way. The designated amount that you plan to save up each month must be thought of as an expense or bill that must be paid off first. If you wish to save $1,00, $1000, or even $10,000 a month, you must shift those amounts from your daily checking account into your high yield savings bank or your CD ladder savings account immediately before you start withdrawing money to pay off bills or use the money on discretionary expenses like trips to the hairstylist, shopping sprees, or family vacations.

If you can afford to purchase material things and spend your money on life’s little luxuries like your daily coffee or after-work trip to the bar, you most certainly can afford to pay yourself first and save a planned chunk of money as soon as you receive that regular pay check. The key to saving is to make it a systematic practice based on your understanding that delayed material gratification today will beget greater riches in the future as your saved income grows through the magic of compound interest. Remember, frugality and the saving spirit are two lifelong traits of a savvy aspiring millionaire and should never be abandoned.

7) Learn To Manage Debt Responsibly, and Don’t Be Afraid Of Credit - If you genuinely aspire to become a millionaire, you must learn to handle debt instruments responsibly, both long term loans like home mortgages and revolving debt like credit cards. Those who are millionaires are almost always proven users of credit cards and home mortgages – with excellent FICO credit scores to match.

It’s very important to adopt good credit usage habits early on before the bad habits set in. Oftentimes, initial exposure to debt for most people occurs during the early college years in the form of student credit card usage or the taking on of student loans. While these early years are often precarious times for most young people as credit card temptations abound, these are also critical times in a young person’s life when the seeds of fiscal responsibility towards credit and debt are sown. Adults and college students alike, especially those that aspire to become millionaires, must learn to habitually pay off their credit cards in full every month and avoid carrying high interest balances.

Only after you have developed the ability to manage your debt obligations and handle basic credit card usage should you engage in more advanced money making strategies – like the arbitrage use of credit card rewards and cashback programs. Those that know how to use credit cards responsibility should learn to use high reward earning credit cards for all of their purchases, like using a designated grocery credit card at the supermarket, a designated dining out credit card for restaurants and coffee shops, and travel reward credit cards for hotel and airline expenses. Those of you who are able to properly manage your use of credit cards and aspire for millionaire status must develop the continuous and active drive to seek out the best deals and highest free money savings in whatever you do. Millionaires are frequently good negotiators and have developed skills for getting the most bang for their buck. Instead of paying cash for everything and not receiving a single cash back reward or discount in the process, why not use credit cards to make your purchases and earn free cashback bonuses, frequent flyer miles, and reward points without any real significant effort? While it may not make you rich, the credit card rewards can be tremendous – in my case, it’s almost $2,000-$3,000 a year.

The added benefit of active credit card usage is the extra boost it can potentially give to your FICO credit score when used properly. With a higher credit score, you’ll be able to qualify for significantly lower interest rates should you ever decide to take on home mortgage loans or apply for additional credit card offers. While I’m an active participant of balance transfer credit card arbitrage, and have applied for a tremendous number of credit cards over the years, my current FICO credit score is absolutely pristine at 802 (the FICO credit score officially ranges from 300 to a high of 850). This was made possible due to my perfect credit card payment history and my strategic understanding of how credit scores are calculated, as well as my knowledge of what it takes to keep my FICO permanently high.

8) Take Full Advantage Of Tax Deferred Retirement Accounts – If your current employer or employment organization offers employees like you a 401K or 403(b) retirement plan with contribution matching up to a certain percentage of your income, you absolutely must take full advantage. Tax deferred retirement plans like the 401K allow employees to make pre-tax contributions to their special retirement accounts by taking portions of their wages and deferring them into their 401K investments. The great benefit of such retirement accounts is that oftentimes contributions are itself tax deferred as the amounts are taken from your wages pre-tax, and the earnings from your 401K account over its long life are completely tax free when held for the proper period of time.

Within the tax deferred retirement account, participants usually have the ability to invest their account money into a variety of designated stocks, bonds, and mutual fund investments until the time of their retirement. Especially if your employer has a matching 401K where your contributions are equally matched to certain levels by your employer, not taking advantage or making regular contributions to your plan is essentially giving up free money. For typical working class folks, the matching 401K plan is how many of them save and invest significant amounts of money for their retirement. Your goal should be to save up and contribute as much as reasonably possible to such accounts. While retirement may seem so far away in the minds of many young people, the earlier that one starts to save and invest, the better.

Those who are self employed or who do not have 401K’s through their employer but who still want to take full advantage of tax deferred retirement plans should invest in a Traditional IRA (Investment Retirement Account) or open a Roth IRA. These plans enjoy very similar tax benefits as 401K accounts but usually with lower annual contribution limits. In certain cases, those who contribute to a traditional IRA can even enjoy special tax breaks and tax deductions for their contributions, thus lowering their overall tax liability. For most people, the Roth IRA is most advantageous as withdraws in retirement along with the decades of compounded earnings are tax free.

9) Invest in The Stock Market – The stock market is how many people generate significant amounts of money by making wise investment picks and holding for the long haul. In the short run, stock market prices can be volatile and totally unpredictable, but over the span of years and decades (with emphasis on decades), the stock market has historically brought about average annual returns of 8%. Of course, there are bound to be significant stock market crashes and unexpected bull and bear markets during the course of many years, but over a significant amount of time, the vast majority of long term investors have made money. During economic recessions, such as the current credit crisis and housing depression we are undergoing right now, stock prices will inevitably face retrenchment and huge dips. But as billionaire Warren Buffet once remarked, success in the stock market over the very long haul requires an understanding of the interplay between investment fear and greed. As such, it’s very important to continuously seek out bargains and investment opportunities even during the worst of times. It’s how many aspiring millionaires make their riches, by being greedy when the whole world is fearful, and making strategic long term bets during the absolute worst of times.

While stock market investors can participate in the purchase of stocks and options through their own low cost brokerage firms (view my list of the best discount online brokers), a great majority of investors get their primary exposure to stocks through their employer sponsored 401K retirement plans. Whatever the method of exposure, it’s important to invest for the long term. For those of you worried about unpredictable dips and spikes in the stock market, automatic investment plans, whether through your employer’s retirement plan or through automated bank to broker deposits into a mutual or index fund, the key is to keep investing continuously. Automatic investment plans have the added advantage of avoiding the mistakes of buying too much when stock market prices are high and not taking advantage of cheap prices when prices are low. Those that don’t want to deal with the hassle and risk of individual stocks should highly consider low cost no-load mutual funds or broadly diversified index funds that track major stock market indexes. As always, one should always adopt a diversified investment approach and never put all of one’s stock market investment eggs into one basket or company stock.

10) Buy A Home and Invest in Real Estate – While the housing market has been volatile lately, valuations have plummeted, and interest in real estate has waned as evidenced by the drop in house flipping shows on TV, in the long run, home prices have great potential to see positive returns. It’s during those gloomy housing depressions when opportunities and discounted bargains abound. Those that have wisely saved up their money will have the great opportunity to take advantage of such investments during down times through cheaper home prices and home foreclosure bargains. In such down times, it’s even more important to exercise your aspiring millionaire negotiation skills and work out real estate deals that provide for maximum gain. In addition to demanding low ball prices from home sellers, savvy buyers ought to demand significant financial concessions as well, so long as housing supply and demand permit. As always, your home will likely serve the dual purpose of shelter and investment, so you should still make sure you buy a home that fits your lifestyle. Buying too much home may result in the danger of payments that ultimately exceed your ability to pay depending on your mortgage plan.

While the financial and tax saving benefits of the home mortgage interest tax deduction have been greatly exaggerated and blown out of proportion over the years, it’s still an important way for high net worth investors and taxpayers to decrease their overall tax liability. You’re unlikely to find a millionaire who does not own his or her own home. Owning a condominium or a house has traditionally been one of the most proven ways for long term investors to increase their net worth. While in the short term of 10 years or so, home prices can rise and fall like the stock market, in the span of decades due to the finite supply nature of land, home prices inevitably will rise. Of course, the specifics of your real estate purchase strategy should depend on the length of your investment horizon and the remaining time you have left until retirement age.

This weekend a good buddy of mine and I decided to meet up and go for a round trip cross country bike ride from suburban Maryland, through the tree lined bike trails of Washington D.C., and into the outskirts of Northern Virginia. Neither of us owned decent bikes (none with suitable seats that wouldn’t give us wedgies anyway), so we decided to rent a pair from a local bike rental shop near my old university stomping grounds. Since I hadn’t been back to visit my old college in some time, we decided that after bike riding we would spend some time looking around and grabbing a bite to eat somewhere in the college town neighborhood.

The bike ride through the shaded forest trails and paved roads was fun and the subsequent pit stop at the National Zoo in D.C. was very relaxing (although, where were all the animals we wondered?), but the biking experience left me utterly exhausted, with aching legs, and a pair of sore butt cheeks. I completely underestimated the painful long distance hill climbs and the sheer distance that we needed to travel. Despite my cross country running background, I’ve been slacking off in the exercise department of late and wasn’t in the best of shape to embark on a long bike ride.

Next time, I would definitely do a better job planning the route. For one thing, I would arrange it so that we faced the long uphill climbs in the beginning first half of our bike ride during early afternoon than during the subsequent half late in the afternoon when our muscles and energy levels were already worn out. It was sort of embarrassing, but my friend and I ended up pushing our bikes uphill near the end because our legs were too drained. Yes, not the most impressive demonstrations of manliness (considering there were little kids biking uphill in their tri-cycles of all things), however, the day was a very enjoyable calorie burning day and we had appetites to match.

Visiting a Local College Town Bar and Grill Restaurant For Dinner, and Gushing Over the Cost Savings

After dropping off our rental bikes at the college town bike store, we looked around the neighboring university town to decide where to eat dinner. I suggested either one of the popular bars or local college town hangouts next to our bike rental place, or perhaps one of the casual dining cafes or restaurants popular among the college students. After reminiscing a little bit about the fond memories I had about sporting event inspired student riots that erupted in the past from these very same local hangouts, we settled on this one sports bar type place. The restaurant was a bar and grill eatery, and was a popular college student hangout when I was a student a few years ago and apparently still was. The interior walls were lined with numerous flat screen TV’s showing various sporting events, and the place proudly displayed its local college team ties with mascot logos and signed football jerseys. Even the menus featured dishes named after the local university football and basketball coaches’ names with ingredients that supposedly reflected their personalities. The place looked like a three way cross between an Applebee’s, an ESPN zone, and a Hooter’s restaurant (the waitresses at least).

After given the dinner menus by the perky waitress, my friend and I looked through the menu and picked out four dinner items – two entrees and two appetizers. I don’t remember the exact name but I ordered some type of special pesto pasta dish and a side order of sweet potato fries, and my friend ordered some type of grilled chicken sandwich with an extra side of onion rings. I remember glancing at the prices briefly, but usually I don’t usually pay much attention to individual prices until I get the bill. After we got our food, finished it, and asked for the bill – I was completely blown away by the final amount. Including sales tax, the bill came out to only $14.23! At first I thought there must have been some mistake – surely the waitress must have only calculated one of our orders and forgotten to include the other person’s dinner entree and appetizer. But after punching some numbers on my cell phone calculator, I realized the final tab was computed correctly – it really was that cheap.

While some of you out there who live in rural or lower cost suburban areas may not think this is all that low for the cost of a dinner for two, in my neck of the woods of Washington D.C. and Maryland, this is exceedingly cheap. I was mentally expecting a total bill to come out at around $35.00-40.00 or more, especially since we also ordered appetizer sides and the fact it was dinner pricing, which is usually substantially higher than discounted prices during lunch time. So when I saw the low cost, I was ecstatic and elated at the tremendous cost savings.

Local Non-Chain Restaurants That Appeal To Cash Strapped Students Feature Much Lower Menu Prices

After pondering about it for a bit, I realized why prices were so comparatively low at this particular restaurant. In fact, it wasn’t just that particular restaurant that offered much lower prices. Most of the other local neighborhood college town area restaurants, bars, and dining cafes offered similar competitive pricing as well. The reason for the cheaper pricing was because these restaurants catered heavily to the local state university campus a few blocks away, and as is understood, college students generally have a very limited financial budget to work with. While working adults and graduates presumably have full time jobs and income, college students tend to be more cash strapped and limited as to how much they can afford to spend. To cater to this category of lower income clientele and offer competitive food pricing, these college town restaurants must offer heavily discounted prices. While to the students, the prices were set just right and accurately priced to fit their market, to working adults like my friend and I, the dining prices were remarkably low. The different perspectives in pricing would be like some city slicker businessman from New York City, accustomed to paying $12-$15 for a single lunch deli sandwich everyday, being instantly transported to the boonies of Nebraska and finding sandwiches prices as low as $3 each. It’s a frugal person’s heaven and jackpot to be able to find such a hidden treasure trove of underpriced goods.

However, based on my view, the tremendous price savings are only available and offered at locally run off-campus hangouts. Brand name chain restaurants like Applebee’s, TGI Fridays, or even coffee shops like Starbucks continue to offer the same high rip off prices they offer elsewhere. If you are looking for college town dining savings, you won’t find them at chain restaurants or national retail shops. You’ll have to go to some popular local bar or grill restaurant to get the great student level pricing.

Also, it seems the arbitrage price savings can usually only be found at community or local state universities and colleges. If you visit a private university or one that imposes notoriously high tuition rates, you are unlikely to find too many deals when it comes to dining or eating out. This is probably due to the richer and wealthier student patrons that enroll in those types of schools. As a result of the deeper pockets that these students come to school with thanks to their wealthier parents, they have a lot more disposable spending money to blow on entertainment and food. As such, even the local mom and pop restaurants located near private college and university campuses can afford to offer expensive items on the menu and still adequately compete for customers. Public state school students tend to be more frugal and more cognizant about prices. I would know – I graduated from a public state university. My friends who attended neighboring private colleges and universities tended to be more wasteful and lavish in their spending – and as a correlation, restaurants and cafes located their private school campuses tended to price themselves high to capture this higher income demographic. Finding exceptional dining deals around their schools was usually quite a challenge if not impossible.

Of course, the one greatest downside (or upside depending on what you’re looking for) is the sheer number of rowdy students that are bound to flood these local college town restaurants when school season starts. We ate there during the summer and despite the presence of a few summer students and local residents, most of the locally owned restaurants and cafes were rather empty and vacant. I’m sure when September rolls around and school starts, the place will be filled with hordes of drunken college students and fraternity pledges from the neighboring fraternity row just a block away from the area restaurants – all looking to party it up.

I have a little secret to share. Well it’s not really a secret so much as it’s a phobia that I’ve held since I was a little kid. Here’s the  secret – I am deathly afraid of household insects, but in particular – cockroaches. There, I’ve said it – the cat’s out of the bag – go ahead and laugh, but it’s not funny (maybe just a little bit). Funny or not, it’s something that makes my heart beat fast, makes my pupils dilate like saucers, and summons forth caveman like instincts to grab the nearest bunny slipper or rolled up U.S. News and World Report magazine for some self-preservation-inspired bug pounding.

The mere sight of the creepy crawly legs and wiggling antennas of the common household cockroach jetting out from dark corners and scampering across bathroom counters and kitchen floors utterly freaks me out. While I don’t instantly jump onto chairs, call my mommy, or scream at the top of my lungs like a little girl, I do become visibly startled and immediately shift into fight mode whenever I encounter a lost spider or resident evil roach in my apartment. I’m sure you PETA fanatics out there may be turned off by my disdain and opposition to the plight of roaches and other household vermin, but I don’t care. Roaches and insects have no place in my home and I’ll do whatever it takes to eradicate the pests. I’ve had too many unfortunate experiences and bad memories of living with roaches during my student years.

Fortunately, I’m currently at a place and time in my life where my financial means now permit me to live in a nicer home far away from roach, rat, and vermin infestation that used to plague the ghetto row houses and low cost apartment rentals where I used to live as a college and graduate student. It’s been a while since I’ve had to deal with the nuisance of roaches or had to arm myself with high caliber anti-roach weaponry to fight off the onslaught of the mighty cockroach horde. But sometimes, scenes on TV and real life will remind me of how things used to be. Right now there’s a really fascinating but disgusting show on the Discovery Channel called the Verminators that I absolutely love to watch. The reality TV show follows a crack team of household pest exterminators as they go from problem home to another, wiping out severe rat, roach, ant, maggot, spider, and even pigeon infestations. The reason I love the show is the gleeful delight and absolute warlike approach the personalities on the show exhibit towards their determination to kill off all resident bugs that infest the homes of their desperate clients. The exterminator pros show no mercy and go full out with their armament of sprays, powders, and oxygen masks to combat the invaders. One time they even brought out an actual gun to take out a mega-rat that was hiding in someone’s attic. The show, while visually horrendous, brings me back to my graduate school days when I faced a massive roach infestation of my own.

My Failed Battle Against The Impressive Roach Army That Resulted In Eventual Retreat and Surrender

Until recently, I’ve always had a roach problem wherever I lived. Even though I consider myself relatively clean when it comes keeping my home tidy, roaches always seemed to invade my home. Probably the biggest reason for that was the fact that much of my early life was spent as a financially frugal student. As I was primarily supported by my overseas-living parents during my early years, I made a conscientious decision to live in apartments and neighborhoods that were affordable, to help lessen the financial burden on my parents who had several tuitions and living expenses to pay for. But as a result of my cost saving measures, every place I’ve lived at was infested with vermin of all types – from rats to roaches. As indicated above, it wasn’t until my recent later years in my late 20’s that I’ve been able to move on up the financial ladder to higher class, vermin-free housing.

Probably the absolute worst out-of-control infestation experience occurred during my post law school years when I was still struggling to settle down with my fledgling law career and build a sustainable living. To keep expenses low and save money, I decided to move into a quiet garden apartment community in a suburb of Maryland. The commute was great, proximity to grocery stores was excellent, and the price seemed too good to be true – it was. Months into my lease, the nightmare began. While I maintained a clean apartment, washing my dishes after every meal and storing away all food products into air tight containers, I kept noticing the appearance of roaches. At first it was just one or two encounters a week. I squished the roaches with my shoe and flushed them down the toilet each time and hoped they would go away, but they never did. They simply started appearing in greater and greater numbers. It got to the point where everytime I turned on my bathroom light, I would see two or three small roaches hanging around the ceiling area or visibly trying to scurry into a wall corner. Each time I got chills and sweated profusely at the sight of the nightmarish invaders. Eventually, their presence spread from the bathroom and into the kitchen, and eventually into the living room. In time I started seeing them during the day as well, a warning sign that I had a serious problem. Roaches are biologically night animals. If you see one during the day, it likely indicates that you have a serious infestation as overcrowding under cabinets and refrigerators probably has forced them out into the open. For each single roach you see in the open, it probably represents hundreds more hiding behind your drywall or between your floorboards.

At the time I was busy with work so I had little time to deal with my apartment management and forcefully compel them to eliminate the pests. But in response to a few calls and complaints, my apartment complex hired an exterminator, but the roach baits they set forth were ineffective. Eventually I simply went full out and took matters into my own hands. I headed to Home Depot to arm myself with all that consumer bug fighting technology had to offer. I purchased every single roach bait, egg stopper, roach gels, boric acid powder, and roach spray brand I could find – everything from MaxForce to Raid. I probably purchased more roach motel traps and roach gel bait devices than I needed, but I was determined to eliminate their presence from my home forever. All in all, I probably had more than 60 individual roach bait traps for a small apartment that was only about 700 square feet in all. I lined all corners and walls with multiple roach baits, and inserted gel bait poisons into all cabinet cracks and wall corners. I also dusted hard to reach areas with a layer of boric acid, a white powder that is not grossly toxic to humans or most pets like cats, dogs, and birds, but is supposedly deadly towards insects as it eats away their hard shell skin thereby dehydrating them to death. However, while I started seeing piles of upside down roaches everywhere, indications that my baits were working, the onslaught kept coming. Everyday I would see dead roaches everywhere, but new live ones seemed to keep taking their places, gnawing on the dead roach carcasses for nourishment.

Even my poor pet parrot was not immune to the onslaught. Even though he was never physically harmed, his cage was also slowly invaded by the swarming roaches. To protect my pet parrot to the best of my ability, I made sure to keep his cage clean at all times and placed his cage on a plastic lawn furniture table in my living room. I lined the bottom of the plastic table with a thick coat of boric acid powder to ensure that the only way that roaches could invade the cage was by walking through the white powder of insect death. However, day in and day out, I would look at my parrot’s bedding liner to find that the roaches had determinedly strolled through the boric acid powder and made their way into the bottom liner of his cage to seek out food products. When I pulled out the cage’s poop tray to clean it one time, I freaked out when more than 15 roaches scurried out from the plate and began crawling the walls, heading to the ceiling to escape like some horror movie. The nightmarish sight sent deathly chills down my back, made me sweat in horror, and even caused me to bleat out a few uncontrollable expletives. Although upon inspection, the bird cage invading roaches were covered with boric acid powder from head to toe, the resilient suckers simply refused to die. While most online commentators generally cheer the beneficial roach killing abilities of boric acid powder, I must point out that the effects are often slow and unpredictable.

Although I was incredibly busy with my job at the time, I eventually found time to storm into my apartment complex manager’s office to demand that they hire a competent exterminator to fix this emergency situation. Eventually the management relented and hired a more expensive crew to come in and flush the roaches out. The professionals came in with their roach pesticide sprays and laid down lines of defensive deadly roach pesticide trails designed to kill roaches on contact that trample onto them. Then they used a special roach flushing agent to spray into floorboard cracks and underneath appliances to flush out the roach colonies into the open so that they would walk onto the pesticide laden floors. It worked for a while – as there was a huge spike in dead roach bodies as the flushed out roach families were annihilated. But even with professional baits laid out to control the outbreak, the efforts were ultimately futile. The roaches continued to crawl around my dishes, hide in my television set, relax in my stove, and even find their way into my fridge of all places. The final straw was when friends came over to visit me and one of them sat down on my sofa only to stand up moments later with a squished roach on her butt.

Eventually, I shifted into lawyer mode and sent a very threatening legal letter to my landlord demanding that I be fully released from my apartment lease obligations, citing the management’s violation and breach of our contract to keep the premises a safe and reasonably livable place. There was simply nothing else I could do. After talking with the exterminator, I learned that I was fighting a losing cause. Because my discount apartment complex was so old and populated by lower income families that had a habit of illegally stuffing multiple families into one apartment meant for only one, sanitation and cleanliness were major problems. Even though I kept my own apartment clean, massive roach infestations in the adjacent apartments were causing them to spill over into my unit. At the end, I was released from my lease and left my ghetto apartment in a hurry. Ultimately, I had to pay substantially more in monthly rent to live at a new, clean, and higher class apartment complex free of roaches and vermin. My rent soared from $800 a month at my old place to more than $1475 for the new place. While it’s a lot more money, I don’t regret a single thing about my decision to pay more in rent. Freedom from roach infestations is definitely worth the heavier financial price. Saving money is great, but having that extra few hundred in my account isn’t worth the sheer torment of living with roaches invading your life completely and taking over your sanity.

Roach Infestations Are Bad For Your Health and Must Be Eliminated Quickly (Easier Said Than Done)

So other than the scare factor, why are cockroaches and the infestation that they bring to our homes so bad for you and I? First of all, it should be noted that not all insects are inherently bad. Some bugs like spiders and millipedes actually serve useful ecological purposes. Without their presence, our human existence would be inundated with out of control growth populations of pesky critters of all sorts. Most of these utilitarian insects help to control general insect population by building webs to trap, eat, and kill off other insects, helping to keep a lid on spiraling population growth. While I’m generally afraid of insects and roaches in particular, there are bugs that I have friendly, harmonious relationships with. When I see insects like lady bugs or even cicadas, I don’t mind picking them up with my bare fingers to inspect them. I see them as friendly insects that help the environment, so I’m not automatically afraid of them. Roaches of all breeds on the other hand are a different story – they are simply vile. While cockroaches live all around the world and come in all shapes and sizes, the breeds I’m most adverse to are the classic American and German cockroach. These two breeds are the most common roach pests found in American homes.

Roaches are the ultimate scavengers and harbingers of disease, germs, and insect fecal wastes. They have no qualms about walking through through poo or other disgusting solids and liquids. Their bodies frequently carry around all sorts of germs and potential infection spreading agents. One huge problem that they cause for inhabitants of homes that they infect is the creation of roach dust that they build up and leave behind. Roach dust is made up of decayed roach body parts and droppings that become airborne, infecting our breathing and embedding itself onto our hairs, clothes, and furniture. Roach dust is a powerful asthmatic agent that has the potential to trigger significant asthma attacks in sensitive people.

Cockroaches will consume almost anything organic and even somethings otherwise inorganic. They’ll chew threw paper, cloth, oils, bodily wastes, and any type of food or liquid product you leave behind. These little evil cannibals will even snack on the dead bodies of their fellow roach comrades they come across. Nothing is off limits when it comes to their diets. In their never ending pursuit for food, roaches often follow the footsteps of humans into homes and stay close to sources of water and food – which is why they are often found in bathrooms, kitchens, and places where food is plentiful (like near your dog or cat’s food bowl).

The one singular thing that makes them so terrible and deserving of a spot in the Bible as an Old Testament plague is the fact they breed insanely fast and are nearly impossible to get rid of. Female roaches can lay up to 40 eggs at a time, laying up to a 400 evil babies in a lifetime. Their lifespan is a year long and adult roaches can go for a month without food, and even up to an hour without oxygen. They can live off of virtually anything. Even the organic glue compound found on the back of stamps or the nourishment of your dead skin flakes can sustain them for weeks.

Cockroaches are also very difficult to kill. Not only do they run like Olympic track stars, their bodies are extremely well adapted to fend off damage. Because their breathing system is made up of tubes on their bodies called trachea, they can continue to live even after their heads or limbs are chopped off – talk about walking zombies. Also, have you tried to chase down a roach with your shoe before? It’s nearly impossible. It’s like playing whack a mole on steroids as they dart around so fast, it’s scary. They are able to quickly scurry into wall corners and flatten their bodies to avoid your newspaper punishment. They are also primarily nocturnal, preferring to come out at night. When they do, they are very stealthy and experts at staying hidden, invading your cabinets, sinks, toothbrushes, and your food stocks right under your nose. At the mere presence of light, they often smartly run for cover, unlike their more stupid cousin bugs that often sit there, succumbing to flattening attacks by humans.

How Do I Get Rid Of A Mild Cockroach Infestation, and Kill Roaches Using Roach Bait and Roach Traps?

The following words of advice are only suitable for those of you who have mild roach outbreaks in your home. If you only see a lone roach wandering around your home once every year, you probably don’t have an infestation as it probably piggybacked into your home via a plastic grocery bag or something like that. However, if you are seeing them every few days, particular during the daytime when they are supposed to be in hiding, you may have a serious problem. If professional treatment and baiting are powerless, your only recourse may be to move out of your home completely like I did and not look back (if that option is available to you). Some things in life are lost causes. In serious infestations, the roaches probably have spread throughout all apartment buildings or all parts of your house. They’ve probably inhabited your base walls and have set up massive colonies of roach eggs and roach nurseries that are nearly impossible to eliminate completely. Remember, a single female roach once impregnated can continue to lay eggs throughout her entire life, spawning hundreds of hatchlings from just a single individual.

If the roach outbreak is not so dire where moving out is demanded, hiring a professional exterminator might due the trick. Professional exterminators have legal access to much more powerful roach flushing agents and pesticides to kill those little critters. For those who have children and pets in the home and are leery about using toxic pesticides, professional exterminators also have access to potent roach baits and gels that are less toxic for humans and pets. They work by slowly poisoning roaches. Laced with attractive smells to entice a roach, the victim eats the bait and ingests the delayed action poison that will ultimately kill it. When it travels back into the wall boards, it brings some of the poisoned food with it to share with others. In time, roach baits can kill off entire roach populations if the problem has not completely spiraled out of control.

In my opinion, cockroach bombs and roach foggers should be avoided. Not only are they extremely toxic to humans and pets, but their limitations are very well documented and observed. The irritants do drive away roaches temporarily, but they are not effective in killing the populations completely. The roaches will simply run for cover and hide until the toxic plumes have faded. As soon as you move back into your home after the roach bomb has done its work, they will come back out to play. Also, don’t waste your money on those pointless electronic pest control repellent scams that you see on TV all the time. Supposedly, simply by plugging the electronic pest control repellent device into your electrical outlet and activating it, the system emits an ultra high frequency wave that irritates and drives away pests like roaches and rodents. These devices are supposed to be safe for both humans and pets. However, they’re pure junk and scams in my opinion. Both rats and roaches are extremely durable and hardy animals, conditioned to survive even nuclear devastations if it ever came down to it, so neither of them is likely going to be stopped by some pointless frequency wave. To get rid of them, you’re going to have to resort to good old fashioned roach food deprivation and chemical warfare. Ditch the expensive electronic pest control repellent devices and don’t waste your money.

For those of you with mild roach infestations, here are some home remedies and homemade solutions to help you kill them, exterminate their colonies, and keep your home free of pesky cockroaches. Much of your efforts will be spent targeting notorious problem areas like the kitchen and bathroom.

Household Solutions To Get Rid Of A Mild To Manageable Roach Problem:

1) Eliminate the Roaches’ Source Of Food, Water, Shelter, and Entry – Unless you live in a shared apartment complex that allows roaches to travel freely from one unit until into another, keeping your home clean is the most effective way to get rid of roaches. Cockroaches invade our homes usually to seek out food and water. Wash your dishes immediately after every meal and wipe down kitchen counters frequently, as roaches like to snack on greases and food oils. Vacuum your carpet and wipe down your hardwood floors and tiles as often as you can to ensure no food or liquid particles remain to feed the roaches. Fix leaky faucets as well as they offer roaches a free tasty source of water to drink from. If you have pets like cats, dogs, or even birds, clean the pet living areas frequently and make sure their food bowls are washed and cleaned after use. Dog food sacks are frequently targets of roaches – always seal them in special airtight containers. Also, make sure there are no open canisters of food or liquids anywhere in your home. Roaches can sniff them out and they will find them. Practice throwing out your trash bags on a daily basis. Trash cans contain all sorts of attractive aromas for roaches. Eliminate this prevalent food source if you can.

Finding out how they are getting into your home is easier said than done. Oftentimes roaches found their way into your home via air vents, front doors, or even cracks outside of your home. Oftentimes, telltale signs like roach droppings – tiny brown pellets of slime, indicate the presence of roaches. Frequently, professional help is needed to help you pinpoint the entry way. Finding out where they are living in your home exactly is also difficult without expert help. But once you locate how they enter your home and where they congregate, a liberal application of roach pesticide spray along the access points will provide long lasting walkways of doom for these roaches.

2) Use Non Toxic Boric Acid Or Diatomaceous Earth - While I’ve personally had limited success with using boric acid or even diatomaceous earth powder to control roach populations, perhaps you’ll have more success than I. Borate powders are generally non toxic to humans, pets, and children although you obviously shouldn’t intentionally ingest them. Despite prolonged exposure, my parrot, my friend’s cat, and myself managed to remain perfectly healthy in the presence of boric dusted rooms. However, these powders are supposedly toxic and deadly against insects. As insects like roaches come into contact with the powder, the powder sticks onto their outer shell, causing gradual roach death. The downside is that boric acid powder kills very slowly and sometimes it may take days before the acid takes effect. But the plus side is that the compound can remain effective for years if the powder remains dry. Boric acid powders also allow you to dust in areas where the roaches are likely to hide and where humans and pets are less likely to come in contact with – such as in the crevices behind your kitchen appliances and spaces underneath your refrigerator.

Boric acid can be purchased at local retail hardware stores and most drug stores. They usually come in a squeeze bottle with a narrow spout that allows easy dusting once cut. Retail boric acid powder is usually white although some brands color the product light blue so you can see the product better. The key is to dust in areas where roaches are likely to walk through. Roach behavior usually dictates that they prefer to walk along edges where their bodies are in constant contact with some type of wall. Thus, remember to dust the boric acid under your stove and refrigerator, along wall edges, around door frames and open spaces inside of cabinets, sinks, and shelves.

Another product that is used by some is a form of illegal insecticide commonly called “Chinese Chalk”, because of their sale in many Chinatown locations. However the sale and purchase of Chinese Chalk is illegal due to the many child related poisonings attributed to the product’s resemblance to common classroom chalk. Supposedly, one can use the chalk to draw lines of kill zones on the ground to poison any roach or ant that walks across it. It probably works the same way as boric acid, but with substantially greater toxicity and health danger to humans. I don’t recommend using it – it’s illegal anyway.

3) Use Roach Traps, Roach Bait, and Roach Gels – Roach baits in all forms contain a combination of poison chemical and attractive food lures to entice roaches to eat them. They are actually quite effective if used in large quantities in strategic indoor locations where it’s dark and moist. Like boric acid powder, they both kill slowly. However, this slow killing power is actually the most effective form of mild roach infestation control because it allows the poison to be ingested and taken by the roach into the roach lair to kill the population at its source.

The baits can come in the form of a little plastic roach bait station (roach motel) or they can come in gel syringe form. The plastic roach baits are easier to set and tend to last longer in duration, but I think they are slightly less effective than roach gel baits. Gel baits are very effective but they tend to dry out quicker, not to mention the gels are messier and harder to clean up. The gels also need to be re-applied every few weeks for maximum effect. Roach gels should be lightly applied in corners, on plumping fixtures, on interior cabinet edge corners, and under appliances where it’s usually dark. Remember not to combine roach bait and roach gels with instant killing pesticide sprays. The objective with baits is not to kill them instantly, but to allow one infected roach to spread the poison love to others. Popular retail roach bait brands include MaxForce, Combat, and Raid. I don’t have any preferences or recommendations because they’re all about the same in terms of effectiveness. Try buying all three and using them all simultaneously if you have the money to do so – their poison chemical compositions differ somewhat.

4) Use Roach Insecticide Sprays – These aerosol powered spray cans contain a lethal dose of bug killing liquids. By spraying the roach insecticide chemicals along hidden baseboard floors and on dark and hidden areas underneath and inside cabinets where roaches frequent, you provide tremendous roach killing power on contact. The insecticide sprays contain a chemical that instantly starts to kill the roaches on contact should one wander across a sprayed area. While it’s great to know that it’s lights out for any roach that crosses its path, the sprays do not provide much residual or long lasting roach control. Only roach baits can target the roach nests and hit the source of the spawning problem. However, back when I had a heavy roach problem, I always kept a few bottles around at the ready. Chasing a fast running roach is much easier with a roach spray. It beats having to swing wildly like a drunkard with a shoe or newspaper.

5) Use Water Jars (Vegas Roach Jars) - Another common household remedy to combat mild roach problems is the use of a so-called Las Vegas roach trap jar. It’s called that because the practice was recently popularized by a Las Vegas news report of its effectiveness in catching roaches. While I’ve never tried it out, the concept sounds rather interesting.  The Vegas  cockroach trap consists of a glass jar filled with coffee grounds (as bait), and a little bit of water that is placed against a wall. It is important that the roach jar trap is placed against a wall because roaches prefer to travel along edges where their bodies can maintain constant contact with a wall. Some people like to place Scotch masking tape on the outside of the jar to give the roach more traction. However, once they fall into the jar, the slippery glass surface prevents them from being able to climb out. Supposedly, cockroaches are attracted to these water jars. This type of homemade anti-roach remedy if effective, is a wonderful alternative to using toxic insecticides and baits. But frankly, I’m not fully convinced the technique actually works.

I’m sure everyone has their own secrets and methods to killing roaches. Feel free to share your ideas.

Cheapskate, Appropriately Frugal, or Brilliantly Simple? You Decide

Well we’ve finally reached the dog days of summer – the hottest stretch of heat sweltering days of July and August. For those of you who live in colder climates, bless your hearts – enjoy the mild temperatures while you can because colder weather will be upon you soon. But for everyone else who lives in a state or region that enjoys four seasons year round with hot and humid summers like I do, it’s time for all of us to get outside and enjoy that nice sunshine warmth.

One of the best ways to get some mild exercise, and enjoy the great outdoors with the family at the same time is to visit an amusement theme park like Six Flags, Busch Gardens, or Disney World. Now you might be thinking to yourself – wait, visiting an amusement isn’t exercise and it sure isn’t the great outdoors. Where is the huffing and puffing, and where are the essential greenery that make up the great outdoors? I guess that’s where you and I differ – I consider the great outdoors to be anywhere that’s not cooped up inside an air conditioned house or apartment on a summer’s day spent watching TV or playing Nintendo Wii. As long as you are out and about, walking around outside, enjoying the sun’s natural Vitamin-D inducing rays, you are immersed in the great outdoors my friend.

In addition, all that walking around, waiting in line, and strolling from roller coaster ride to concession stand is definitely exercise. It’s not exactly running an Olympic marathon, but you’ll likely burn off some needed calories in the process. The last time I went to Six Flags, my poor puppies (my weird slang for feet) ached after walking around all day. I visited the amusement theme park during pre-season so the lines were incredibly short and non existent, prompting me and my travel companion to walk around even faster to ensure we hit every single roller coaster ride and gaming stand by day’s end. It was a fun, but rather tiring and dizzying experience.

You’re Getting Off Track Again – What About The Free Roller Coaster Photos?

Now, anyone who has ever been to one knows that spending a day at the amusement park does not come cheap. In fact, most places are pretty expensive and if you’re not careful about your budget or keep a tight reign on careless spending on snacks and drinks, you mind find yourself blowing more money than expected – just like you do at the movies. At amusement theme parks like Six Flags, you can expect to shell out anywhere from $25 to $50 per person depending on your age and height, and even more on top of that for meals and other gaming experiences. At mega theme parks like Orlando Florida’s Disney World resorts, tickets range anywhere from $70 for young children to more than $160 for adults for multi-park access. Thus, any little thing you can do to cut costs here and there will help you save lots of money in the long run and prevent you from losing your financial mind.

Here’s a little tip I picked up a while back on how to get free roller coaster photographs of yourself and free on-board pictures of your friends at any amusement theme park. After every major roller coaster ride, as you’re walking down the exit ramp rather dizzily from the experience, you’re likely to bump into the ubiquitous roller coaster souvenir photo booth. At the stand you’ll usually find a sales counter along with multiple television monitors mounted high up, cycling through live digital photo shots of roller coaster riders taken in various stages of facial displays ranging from joy and happiness, to sheer terror (but they are usually all funny). The images are all photos automatically taken by strategically mounted on-ride cameras located throughout the track. Oftentimes, the cameras are installed on segments where the riders experience the greatest speed, resulting in a variety of funny displays of wacky and distorted expressions due to excitement, fear, or just plain wind resistance. Sometimes, all occupants of a single roller coaster car are displayed in one photograph, and sometimes only two or four people are displayed at one time. The photos on the display screen are usually numbered and park customers willing to purchase their own can do so. The instant photos are usually available immediately after the ride is over should you choose to buy them – and they frequently come in a variety of specialty trinket forms like T-shirts and key chains. The prices charged however, are frequently expensive rip off prices. A tiny wallet size photo may cost in excess of $15-20 each. Larger photos may be priced as high as $25-$35 each. Keychains and T shirts can easily cost in excess of $25-$45.

For those who want to get their roller coaster photos for free, you’ll have to act fast as soon as the ride is over. Usually the rollercoaster souvenir booth video displays cycle through the most recent ride results from one car to another before moving on to the next set of new vehicle riders. As guests exit the ride, the display screens update the photos with the latest riders, thereby gradually burying the photos of riders that came before. If you want to save some money, take the limited time opportunity to raise up your digital camera, zoom in, and take a direct digital photograph of the display screen when your rollercoaster shot cycles through. You’ll want to act fast as your photo will likely only be flipped through a few times before disappearing for good. If you’re quick, you just might be able to walk away with a high quality, free roller coaster self shot.

The last time I was at Six Flags, I did just that for numerous rides. It sort of baffled me at the time why no one else was doing it though. As soon as I saw the screen display of my friend and I, I raised my Canon Digital Elph sky high to rise above the crowd of riders waiting to buy souvenir photos, and quickly snapped off a few free shots. As soon as I did that, everyone looked at me with eyes widened, and immediately took out their own cameras to do the same – frantically snapping their own self pics as the display screens flipped to images of them. Such frugal tips seem so common-sensical that we oftentimes fail to realize that we can easily get many things for free just by trying.

Financially or Morally Ethical? It’s Up To You – But Remember, You Did Pay The Price Of Your Pricey Admissions Ticket

While I doubt Six Flags, Disney World, Disney Land, Kings Dominion, Busch Gardens, or Cedar Point officials condone this type of free photograph taking, I’ve never noticed any signs or ticket stub fine print restricting this frugal (albeit freeloading) practice. Support the park and pay your $35 roller coaster souvenir photo at Kingda Ka or any other popular ride if you want. However, in my opinion, you’ve already paid for your price of amusement park admission, so you might as well maximize your budget by taking advantage of free photographing opportunities. Once you snap a photo with your digital camera, you can pretty much make as many digital prints as you want.

I suppose the lawyer part of me feels compelled to address one more concern. As for questions about copyright infringement legalities, don’t worry. Copyright laws only protect the rights of actual tangible mediums of expression whether it be an expression of writing, photography, or music. Yes it would be a possible copyright violation if you were to copy the digital photographs off of the souvenir booth computers directly and reproduce them (that might be considered criminal theft as well). But by using your own personal digital camera to take a photograph of the monitor indirectly, you are in the clear. Feel free to snap away. You are now your own paparazzi!