The Frugal Siblings

Backing up your digital life is very important. Nobody wants to lose their video of baby’s first steps. That being said there is no reason why you need to pay an arm and a leg to make sure you pictures are safe. The general rule of thumb for backing up very important digital items is 3 different backups, 2 different types of backup, and at least 1 offsite backup (and no your phone does not count as a form of backup because phones are lost and break all the time). For example I backup my pictures on a hard drive at work, a hard drive at home, and in Google Photos. This is in essence 3 different backups, 2 offsite backups (including one extra), and 2 different types (hard drive and website). One important question is how much space do I need? A standard smartphone has between 8 and 128GB. If you take a lot of high quality video it is quite possible to collect 1000GB (AKA 1TB). If you mostly take pictures and a short video here and there then you will likely have less than 100GB. ...

To start my response to Bro’s post last week, I simply typed, Optimism into my google search bar. The following definition came up: “Optimism: hopefulness and confidence about the future or the successful outcome of something” I like to think I am an optimistic person. I try to look for the good in situations and stay positive. I mean sure, I have the classic case of mid-life anxiety and an panic attack or two but in general I try to live my life in a optimistic way. This also is true when it comes to my parenting and financial decisions. My response to Bro’s situation is one of optimism. Let’s look at his situation of traveling for work. He must be away from his family and it can be hard on his wife. Those are the simple facts, but if you blow up the bigger picture I think there is more to the story. He is teaching his kids that you have to work hard and commit to your job. He is the perfect example for them. They will grow up knowing that they had a dad who worked hard ...

I was reading a blog post and optimism was mentioned. Optimism is the whole glass half full point of view. The question I asked myself was if being optimistic can lead a better attitude, relationships, and more importantly better outcomes (I still don't know the answer). I would like to think by default I am neutral as to my outlook but in reality I have a propensity to be negative. For me the glass is half full but there is a better than even chance I will get thirsty and a half a glass won't be enough to quench my thirst. A specific example of this is travel for work. I personally enjoy travel for work but I miss my family and it is very hard on my wife and kids. This summer it is possible that I will be quite busy with travel and it got me a bit down. I was not looking forward to the travel or new challenges but instead I was worrying about how my wife would do and if I was hurting my children. An optimist would be excited for the travel, challenge, and possible financ...

I have always loved sports. Let me correct that statement a little, I have always loved to WATCH sports. The fact is, I am short, slow and a little chunky. I tried to play sports growing up and in highschool but the facts were, my body is just not one of an athlete. My favorite sport is hockey. I love everything about the game. I love to follow my team, watch their games, and the wear their logo. Naturally I was watching a game the other day and I was getting really frustrated at my team. I mean it was playoff hockey and we were on the powerplay. They had absolutely no offensive. Shoot the puck, that is how you score and win games. During the next commercial break I pulled out my phone and was reading facebook posts on a financial independence group. I thought, these people are really on the offensive side of their money. They are aggressively shooting pucks at their goals. Then it came to me, life is like a game of hockey. The more shots on goal you take the better chance you hav...