Simplify My Life

How To Plan a House

2007-03-28T12:55:00.000-04:00

The title of this blog is Simplify my Life, but it seems like life is anything but simple these days. We're in the process of planning and building a house, and hope to get this done by the end of the year. My parents want to give my sisters and I each a house lot on their farm. I'm the first to try and do this, as my younger sisters are not ready to settle in just yet.

There's a whole lot to do here. Here's a very basic outline of the steps we think we'll need to get done:

Choose an area where we want to build (done)
Have that area surveyed and divided
Obtain that lot from my parents (either nominal sale or gift)
Inquire and start the process of bringing electricity and telephone to the lot
Select a house plan (We're going modular)
Get a construction loan
Get the lot ready - foundation, septic, well, driveway, etc
Have the House delivered and move in

We got step two put into action this week, as we've been interviewing surveyors and getting proposals on getting the lot done. One of the engineering firms we talked to was someone that a friend of the family had used several times in the past, was pleased with them, and they also came in a full $1500 less than the next firm's price. We ensured that all the proposals contained the same work and went with this firm. We had to send a 50% deposit to them, which was mailed this Monday and pretty much wiped out one of my savings accounts (ING Direct).

We'll try to keep you posted on the process!

Review: You Call The Shots

2007-02-01T14:31:00.000-05:00

Cameron Johnson started 12 successful businesses before he turned 21. Most of those were Internet ventures, but he also served as General Manager of Sales for his family's Ford Dealership - which is one of the top in the country.

Johnson started in business when he was 10 and got his first computer. He created greeting and business cards and sold them. Then he moved onto wholesale online sales of Beanie Babies, and followed that up with several Internet business that provided services such as spam filtering, surfing for profit and an easy way for businesses to follow up with customers.

During the course of these ventures he learned a lot about how business should be done, and has collected his thoughts and experiences together in his book You Call the Shots: Succeed Your Way-- And Live the Life You Want-- With the 19 Essential Secrets of Entrepreneurship.

Written in a casual, friendly style, Johnson comes across as humble and likable, many of the people he went to school with didn't even know of his other life as a business mogul until they saw him on TV or mentioned in the paper. The book is an easy read, I went through the about 250 pages in just a number of hours.

Perhaps the best part of the book is the resource section in the back, which has a large number of sites that Cameron has found useful, or feels that someone trying to start a business of their own could benefit from.

Farm Expenses

2006-12-28T10:18:00.000-05:00

We were doing some quick calculations off the top of our heads yesterday and realized that we spent almost $4000 this year on my parents farm. Here was our fast breakdown:

$1300 Brown Swiss Cow
$800 Truckload of Hay (My Dad had a bad year weather-wise and didn't make as much as usual.)
$600 Milking Shorthorn Cow
$500 Stall Matting
$400 Equipment (Water bowl replacements, collars, etc)
$200 Feed

That's $3800 right off the top of our heads.

Amazing where your money goes...

Checking In Once More

2006-12-12T13:06:00.000-05:00

I apologize for the silence on this blog. I didn't mean to phase it out, but there's a lot that has been going on.

We've been spending more and more time at the parent's farm, trying to help them keep up with all that needs to be done there. Our cows are doing fine, the Brown Swiss cow that we purchased in August gave birth to a female calf in October, so our own personal herd grew by 1/3. Way to increase the portfolio!

We're also looking at building a house hopefully next year. We're getting a plot of land from my parents and are exploring our options in that area.

There will be much to do in that area, so I'll try to keep this updated a little more often.

Thanks for checking in!

Investing in...Cows???

2006-08-30T10:47:00.000-04:00

Yup, Cows.

Perhaps you never thought of cows as an investment.

Well, since my parents run a dairy farm, buying cows is an investment like any other. Recently we've bought two cows to bring up to the farm and add to the herd. My parents have mostly holstein cows, with a few jerseys and milking shorthorns mixed in.

One of the cows we bought recently was a Brown Swiss. This is a hardy breed with good milk production (high butterfat) and a pretty docile nature. We paid $1300 for this cow. Seems like a lot for an animal?

Well, we think this cow was worth the money. She's four years old, and is due to calve next month. This means that we could be potentially getting two cows for the price of one.

Adding her milk to the herd will bring more money, though not much initially, because of the low prices that farmers are getting these days (Around $12 for hundred lbs of milk - which means farmers get about $1.50 for every gallon of milk they produce.) However, we're looking at the demand for raw milk, and thinking that we could sell that. The person we bought her from was getting $4.50 for each gallon of raw milk she was selling to people who stop in, and she couldn't keep up with the demand.

The second cow we bought for $600. She's a smaller cow, three years old, needs to put on a little weight, but has good potential. She is a white milking shorthorn.

Both of the cows are also registered, which increases their value. A registered cow has a documented pedigree, which means you can trace their background, and know the strengths and weaknesses of the lineage. It also means that they are a purebred animal.

We'll try and keep you posted on our latest adventures in dairying!

Edit: A couple people have raised the issue of whether raw milk can be legally sold. In the state where I live (NH) you can sell up to 5 gallons a day without a permit, and with a permit you can sell more. Since my father already sells milk commercially, the proper facilities are already in place to make sure that the milk is handled safely.

For the laws in your state, visit http://www.realmilk.com/

Jeep Paid Off

2006-07-18T11:53:00.000-04:00

This week I sent off the final payment on my 2000 Jeep Cherokee. I bought it in December of 2003, and have paid it off in just over two and half years. It was originally a six-year loan.

I was able to do this by just adding extra to my payments each month - being sure to specify that that the extra was to go towards the principal due on the loan. (A Bankrate.com article on this topic has more on the importance of telling the lender your intentions.)

I did make one giant payment somewhere in the middle of the loan, but for the most part, I just added $100 or $200 extra to the payment.

Now we can take the money that was going towards the Jeep and put it towards wedding and honeymoon debt.

I also added another item to my Sharebuilder investments, dipping my feet into the International market by added some iShares MSCI Japan Index (EWJ) to my account. This Exchange Traded Fund includes some of Japan's most well-known companies, such as Toyota, Canon, Honda, and Sony.

Over in the right hand sidebar, I added the new Yahoo! Finance module, which I've set to monitor some of the investments I currently have, while not telling you how much I have in them. (It's very small.)

This and That

2006-07-03T13:17:00.000-04:00

I admit, I'm having a hard time coming up with material for the blog here. I'm still very interesting in financial matters and have in fact been working on a few different little things, but nothing that makes me feel worthy of writing a blog post.

We're in the preliminary stages of looking at houses and getting a feel for what and where we can afford. I need to finish up The Automatic Millionaire - Homeowner to make sure I'm pretty well educated for when we head into the process in earnest.

We're attempting to set a household budget and set a goal for eliminating all wedding/honeymoon debt. Right now the initial target is to be in the free and clear by next summer.

I'm trying to put all account, personal and financial information onto a USB jumpdrive, which I will then keep in a fireproof safe or even a safety deposit box to ensure I have that information and documentation in case of an emergency.

We're continuing our savings deposits and investment plans. Currently we're either saving or investing nearly $450 a month.

Trying to decide whether we stick it out in the corporate world for a few more years, or attempt to strike out on our own sometime in the next 5 years. Lots of things to consider there.

Trying to get back into routine

2006-06-09T16:28:00.000-04:00

...And we're back...trying to settle into some sort of financial routine.

We have some short and long-term goals, as well as some consolidation to do.

Short Term:

Move some credit card debt to a 0% APR account so we can pay it off quicker.

Pay off the Wedding and Honeymoon expenses.

Pay off my car.

Save enough to get started on a house.

Longer Term:

Build a house, preferable on my parents farm.

Quit the rat race and find a way to be self-sustaining.

Keep the family close.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

2006-05-01T14:10:00.000-04:00

Man, where does the time go....

The wedding is this weekend. We'll be away for much of the month of May, but got some great deals (read: complimentary nights) on travel and lodging to make this a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Australia.

Once we get back, it will be right back to simplifying our life and planning for the future.

A Good Deal, Eh?

2006-04-03T16:44:00.000-04:00

Just back from Montreal where Darcy had her Lasik surgery over the weekend. Even with the three night hotel stay and gas for driving about 275 miles each way, we still saved around a $1000 doing it there instead of locally in New England.

We sit now about 5 weeks away from the wedding with a crazy month of April still ahead of us. We've got to consolidate two households plus iron out all the last minute details between now and then.

Two Month Goals

2006-03-08T15:44:00.000-05:00

Financial things I'd like to accomplish in the next two months prior to the wedding:

Pay off my last remaining credit card: $610 (0% APR through May)

Pay off my Car: $3415 remaining. (A tall order)

Continue savings programs ($100 a month to ING, $100 a month to VirtualBank and $100 month to Sharebuilder)

Darcy's getting Lasik surgery at the end of this month. We're actually getting the work done in Montreal, Canada, because even with driving up there (about 4 hours from where we are) and spending 3 nights in a hotel, it comes out almost $1000 cheaper to have it done there instead of done here. The setup is kind of neat, they actually have Eye doctors in our area who do the pre and post op checkups, and then the surgery is done in Montreal. Even saving the $1000, it's going to be a rather expensive weekend. We'll try to keep things light.

Another Bad Item Knocked Off

2006-03-06T15:29:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago I mentioned that my ex-wife was having problems making car payments on a vehicle that I had co-signed for when we were married. I was having a hard time figuring out what to do since it seemed impossible for her to get another load, and get me off of the current loan.

She called over the weekend and left a message stating that she was able to get a loan and needed me to sign off my rights on the car. She had the dealer fax me a form that I had to sign and return and apparently just like that, I don't have that worry any longer.

Hopefully it really was that simple and that I'll no longer have this bad loan weighing down my credit on a monthly basis.

2006-02-27T15:27:00.000-05:00

Got my Capital One credit card paid off this month. (Again) My only current CC debt is my interest free (until May) Household bank account, which has a balance of about $600 right now. My car loan is down to about $3500. Haven't touched the savings accounts for the wedding yet.

Right now I'm currently reading The Automatic Millionaire Homeowner

So far it is very simple, but powerful. I haven't read any of David Bach's other books, but have browse through them at the store. Everyone raves about their simplicity and easy to follow prose. This book is also along those lines.

I'll provide a full review once I've finished it.

Time Flies

2006-02-13T12:02:00.000-05:00

I apologize (again) for the lapse in posting. Things like a wedding being held on the opposite coast seem to take a lot of time to arrange.

We're finding the expenses adding up, as we knew they would. We're trying our best to keep the prices low, and to use the credit cards sparingly. However, it's easier said than done. Darcy is keeping a spreadsheet of all wedding related expenses, and it's staggering how quick it adds up.

I've been able to keep up with the savings programs at ING and VirtualBank, $25 goes each week to each account. I'm also doing $100 month to my Sharebuilder account, and spent an extra $100 to pick up some Google shares as they have dropped after the release of Google video. I feel pretty confident that the stock will perform better in the future.

Some of the expenses for the wedding will come this weekend as we fly to the West coast this weekend to get the marriage license, and to confirm our wedding location and interview the photographer. It will be a whirlwind four days.

Review: The 5 Lessons a Millionaire Taught Me

2006-01-16T11:30:00.000-05:00

Thanks to the kind folks at Simon & Schuster I had a chance to receive and review this neat little book. I polished it off in just a couple hours total time, and found it to contain some solid reminders and tools to help me as I move forward with my financial life.

The book is small, and short, coming in at just about 100 pages and is very easy to read. Richard Paul Evans shares with us the five lessons that a multi-millionaire shared with him when he was just a youth. The millionaire is not named in the book, (Though we're told he owned a professional basketball team)he was someone who spent some time with Evans and other youths in the community, trying to impress upon them the importance of handling money right. The book includes lessons from the bible without getting overly 'preachy' or going into doctrine. It's more about certain principles that can help your viewpoint (e.g. "The love of money")

The five lessons are broken out into chapters, and fleshed out a bit, though always remaining simple and easy to understand. Here are the lessons in outline:

1) Decide to Be Wealthy. ("Wealthy" is defined, and may not be what you think.)

2) Take Responsibility for Your Money.

3) Keep a Portion of Everything You Earn.

4) Win in the Margins.

5) Give Back.

That's it. The lessons have sub-points, of course, for instance, there is a bit called "The Millionaire Mentality" taken from J. Paul Getty's 1965 book How to be Rich. In that book, Getty outlined four mind-sets that characterize the wealth builder. They are:

1) The Millionaire Mentality carefully considers each Expenditure.

2) The Millionaire Mentality believes that freedom and power are better than momentary pleasure.

3) The Millionaire Mentality does not equate spending with happiness.

4) The Millionaire Mentality protects the next egg.

Each of those points get a mini-chapter of their own within Lesson Four ("Win in the Margins")

The book also has a number of fine resources at the end, which include a number of ways to actually "Win in the Margins" including ways to increase your income, and ways to save more, including on insurance, travel, utilities and food. There are also two forms included in the book, a Net Worth Sheet and a Cash Flow Sheet. (12 of each in the book, plus access to more online)

As I said, I polished this book off in a couple of hours, and believe I will be referring back to it in the future. It really simplifies what it takes to manage your money and have enough so that you're not in debt and worried about making it from week to week.

Year End Statement

2006-01-04T13:35:00.000-05:00

Here's a look at how my accounts shape up here at the tail end of 2005. You'll see a new bit of CC debt with the CO (Capital One) Credit Card. That was for some repairs to my vehicle.

2006 looks to be an exciting year, both personally and financially.

We're getting married in May. Merging of finances has already begun to a certain extent, but will continue throughout the year.

Much of the savings I have now will likely be eaten up with the wedding and honeymoon.

I hope to have my car paid off by mid-year. That will be almost 3 1/2 years early.

We'll be looking into beginning the process of getting some land from my parents and planning and building a house there.

I hope to see my web ventures continue to grow and make me some side income.

Deposit Put Down, More to ING

2005-12-29T13:26:00.000-05:00

A fairly busy financial week for the last week of the year. Some of the events:

Received my payment for October and November from the Fox Sports Website.
Made a $500 deposit (from checking) for our Wedding location in California.
Transfered $600 to ING Direct for more savings.

We'll have some things coming up soon. We've got to start booking some of the travel for family, and also the honeymoon.

On a totally unrelated note, there was a financial downer this week as well. I received a call from a financial services company which handles my ex-wife's car loan. I was a co-signer on that loan. She's behind, and usually is every month. Now she is about 38 days past due.

Now I realize that my options for getting taking off the loan as a co-signer are slim and none. But it's a period of my life that I want to completely put behind me. She cannot refinance the loan in her own name because her credit is so poor. I'm not sure what my other options might be, but I'd be open to suggestions...

Early Expenses

2005-12-23T15:22:00.000-05:00

The first wedding expenses are trickling in.

We spent about $50 on "Save the day" cards, which were ordered online. We got priority shipping and processing, so they cost a little bit more.

We had bought a couple rolls of stamps in preparation, but then found out that the stamps would be going up in price starting January 8th. We'll have the cards out before then.

We also registered a domain, purchased hosting for a year and a website template for a total of about $95. We plan on using the site to keep people informed, as they will be coming from all over the country to our wedding.

So that's almost $200 already...

We're waiting to hear from the location we've decided upon as to how much of a deposit we'll need to put that down. We'll probably have to put down $500 to a $1000. Edit: It's going to be $500 to put down.

My future mother-in-law is graciously and generously insisting on paying the rest of the reception fees, which means we pay for the dress, flowers, music, cake and honeymoon. A few other things too.

D is a travel agent, so she's got some great deals lined up for the honeymoon...

More ING

2005-12-12T12:34:00.000-05:00

Snuck an extra $300 over to the ING Direct account this week. Hoping to have $6000 or so saved in cash by the time the Wedding/Honeymoon bills start coming in.

Also have $100 more going to Sharebuilder today. For the first time, I'm actually seeing increases and decreases in the balance of the account due to the fluctuations of the stock market. Previously it might go up or down by a matter of cents, now I'm seeing it in dollars. It will be interesting to watch as the account grows to see how the market impacts. This account was created as my first foray into stocks, and is my testing ground.

We're looking at wedding locations, and it's always frustrating when you go to a place, tell them what you want and they verbally give you a figure that sounds reasonable. Then you go and tell them to send a written proposal and it is thousands more than they verbally quoted you. Not cool.

Current Financial Snapshot

2005-12-01T14:42:00.000-05:00

So here is my December 1st, 2005 Financial snapshot. It shows things in pretty good shape since the last one, which I believe was at the end of August. You can also compare this to where I was a year ago.

A few points of clarification on the data:

You might wonder why I'm carrying the credit card debt when I have enough in accounts to pay it off. The debt is on a 0% APR card until May of 2006. I plan on paying the balance off before then.

Something to keep in mind with the figures for the month is they included a large cash purchase...namely, Darcy's engagement ring. I'm not going to say how much it was, but lets just say it was in the thousands.

I'm going to be picking up a nice payment sometime in the next month for my first two months of work on the Fox Sports web page. That's likely to be stashed away into some savings to help with wedding expenses.

I've increased my automatic deposit to Sharebuilder to $100 a month. That should help it grow a bit more, as with my previous $50 a month deposit, that included two purchases of $4 each. Now I'm still making two purchases, but a higher % of my money is going to be desposited. (Before: $50 - $8 = $42 Now: $100 - $8 = $92 So now 92% of my deposit is going towards stocks as opposed to only 84% before.) If I keep the same plan, the more I deposit, the higher % of my money is actually going to start working for me.

I need to see if I can afford to double up my weekly withdrawals to ING and VirtualBank as well. Right now $25 a week is automatically going into each account. To go to $50 to each might make things a bit tight for me. I'll ponder this.

So at the moment, I'm automatically placing $300 a month into either MoneyMarket accounts or Investments. For someone who couldn't save at all a few years ago, this is definite progress.

The planning...

2005-11-28T10:43:00.000-05:00

The next few months are going to be very complicated, the opposite of the "Simple" life we're looking for. We've both talked about how we want to just start our life, fast forward to that point where we've got the house, and are settled in, building for the future. But for now, there is a lot more to plan and get done. For instance:

Wedding in California, where Darcy's family is. We're going back and forth over size. Our initial guest list had a max of 165, including children, if everyone came. We don't expect them to, especially a lot of the East Coast people. We've considered trimming the list down to 75 or so, but still need to work that out.

Finding a location is difficult. Darcy was out there all last week and looked at several places. We're planning on paying for everything ourselves, so we're looking for bargains. We're finding that most places want you to use their catering and so forth if you book their facility. That jumps the price. Places that allow you just to rent the place, mean a whole lot more work.

Food...make our own, (family style) cater, or just serve Hors Doeuvres and drinks.

Transportation for our friends and family. Darcy is in the travel business, so she's looking to get some bargains for those who will be coming out with us.

Honeymoon.

Not mentioned yet, was of course, the dress, the flowers, the tuxes, all that stuff.

How to do all of this and not amass a huge debt is the challenge. We don't want to enter married life with huge debt because of one day....Should be interesting!

My finances at the moment are looking pretty good. I hope to have a snapshot up near the end of the week showing where I'm at.

Its Official!

2005-11-14T11:17:00.000-05:00

OK...so I can break my blogging silence here finally.

My large purchase that I paid cash for was an engagement ring for Darcy. She accepted it yesterday and we're engaged...looking forward to a life together.

With that made official, there is now a whole world of financial planning coming up. We need to consider:

Wedding plans (likely to take place in California - where Darcy's family and friends are.)
Honeymoon
Future Planning (House, etc)

Things should be picking up on this blog in the coming days and weeks. I was a little quiet because I didn't want to give too much information away...

Checking In

2005-10-28T12:11:00.000-04:00

Got a few good payments this month on the web stuff, so I was able to pay an extra $100 towards my car payment and make a $400 payment on the credit card.

I'm left in pretty good position this month because I don't have to rely on mailing my rent check so that it will get there after my next payday. (Wednesday) I have the money right now, in the account.

A unit has opened up in my building for sale. Darcy and I are looking at perhaps buying the unit and building equity for a couple of years instead of paying rent and then either selling or renting it out. We'll see what happens, the realtor hasn't even returned our calls at this point.

Planning Ahead

2005-10-13T09:53:00.000-04:00

One challenge that I seem to come up against is the fact I have a few different accounts out there, and it isn't always easy to access my funds across those accounts. Sure it can done, but it requires some better advanced planning on my part, which isn't always my strength when it comes to financial things.

Example. I just received a couple pretty good sized payments via PayPal. I have the PayPal debit card and sometimes use that for gasoline and groceries. It would take 2-3 days for any amount that I transfer from PayPal to appear in my checking account. Then, if I wanted to make some sort of on-line payment to a credit card, or make a payment via check to my car, it would take a few more days. Since the payment date on those items is coming up rather quickly, it takes some quick decisions on my part to make it happen. Quick decisions are not my forte.

Right now, I think I'm going to transfer a portion of these payments to my checking account, and then make a larger-than-normal payment to my credit card. (Min payment is $50, I was planning $200, now I think I'll do $400) The card is 0% APR for the next 10 months, but I'd still like to get it paid.

On the other hand, I have two savings accounts, one with ING and the other with VirtualBank. Looking through Yodlee, I've got just over $2400 in those accounts, with a purchase of about $2000 coming up. What I think I'll do with this is make the purchase with my other credit card, then transfer the money I need into my checking account, and then pay off the card before there is any payment or interest due.

The bad news will be that my savings will be just about depleted. The good news is that I will have saved up for a major purchase and paid cash for it. Rather painlessly, too.

My other project...with the local FSN station...appears to be coming together. My contact there has said that they are building the page and logo now, and I should be posting there soon. Once that money starts coming in, I'm going to bulk up my savings and investments a little more. I think I'm going to do a minimum of $100 to the Sharebuilder account monthly, (Up from the $50 now) and perhaps double my other savings from $200 a month to $400 month. This should still give me a couple hundred dollars more per month for my bills and expenses, plus allow me to save for some more planned expenses coming up in the spring of next year.

Sounds easier to make decisions when I write them out in this fashion.

I'd like to also thank the two sponsors who have helped out the site and my financials by purchasing a blogad in the right hand column. Give them a visit...

More income?

2005-10-03T11:13:00.000-04:00

It appears that my wish to increase my income another $1000 a month has gotten a boost.

It's not totally passive income, but it is money that I'm not going to have to work really really hard to get.

The local Fox Sports News cable station has approached me about doing updates on their website about the local NBA franchise. I would do updates after each game with links to stories in the local papers, as well as a weekly column. For this, they have proposed $200 per week. That means $800 a month!

I'm hesitant to post about it, as I was supposed to do something similar for them last season and it fell through on me. They were very apologetic this time and have eliminated the "middle man" company they were using for last season.

I would be getting paid monthly, which would make it easy to distribute that income among the different accounts I'll be putting it in.

Let's hope it works out!

Passive Income

2005-09-23T12:46:00.000-04:00

NationalPayday.com offers a free cash advance to all new customers. Get up to $300 quickly with no credit check.

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Let's list sources of passive income.

By that term, I'll loosely define it as ways to earn money by taking an initial action, and then letting the initial capital grow, or develop on its own.

Ways:

Investments
Savings Accounts/Money Markets

I'm reaching a blank...what else?

I've got a website that I make a little money from, but I do have to work at it...a couple hours each day. I'm working on a couple other concepts which might allow me to make money without having to take such an active role.

Let's create a list here in the comments section, and I'll pull them together and make sort of a master list.

What am I doing?

2005-09-15T15:44:00.000-04:00

I need to get back on track.

For the last few months, I've sort of been skating along...not exactly racking up the debt, but probably not being all that frugal either. I have been putting away the $250 month in savings and investments, but otherwise I'm pretty much spending all my income. I'm not behind on any bills, but I'm not making up ground either. My last two car payments have been for the minimum...the first time in the nearly two years I've had the car that that has been the case.

Was it summer? Did the good weather and having things to do put me in the position of not caring about my finances as much as I should have? Could be. In any event, I think I need to outline some goals for the fall:

Create more passive income - $1000 a month would be ambitious. I'm going to try.
Increase my savings plan by $100 a month.
Pay off the credit card, despite having 0% APR for a year.

Month End Update

2005-08-31T19:13:00.000-04:00

Here's something I haven't provided the last couple months, a financial snapshot.

I'm a little disappointed in my progress at this point. The credit card balance is back up there, and so I'm sort of starting from scratch. It went to a good cause, but it's still an blight on the record here.

The car payment has come down a bit since the beginning of the year, and the other positive balances have gone up.

In the coming months, I expect to be investing in a bit of jewelry. That's sort of what the VirtualBank funds are earmarked for at this point.

I may need another big November to put me back into where I'd like to be by the end of the year. I was hoping to actually forego the fund raiser on my other site, but it's looking like I'm going to need to go to that well once more.

I'd like to have the car and credit card debt paid off by the end of the year. Four months to make it happen and go into 2006 with a pretty clean slate!

Overdue Update

2005-08-22T14:40:00.000-04:00

For some reason, I haven't had much to report in this space as of late. That's unfortunate, because I know people are stopping by everyday and I've had nothing for them.

What's been happening in my financial life? Not a whole lot, I did that recent balance transfer, and then last week I made a financial gaffe and realized I hadn't sent out my Jeep payment until the day before it was actually due.

This week I will be spending money, but hopefully not using any credit. Darcy and I are going with another couple out to San Francisco, where Darcy is originally from. We got $99 fares each way from Independence Air from Manchester NH to S.F. so that was quite reasonable. On Friday night we're going to a Giants game and on Saturday we'll be doing some wine tasting in the Napa Valley.

I'm going to be "photoblogging" the trip on one of my other blogs, that blog has a food theme, so the pictures and things I'll be blogging about will involve food and wine for the most part. You should start seeing photoblog entries on that site starting Thursday evening. The site address is at http://parttimegourmet.blogspot.com/ So be sure to check that out if you're interested.

I'm hoping to keep costs relatively low for the trip, but we'll see how that all goes.

I've tried to keep things relatively on-topic for this blog, so much so that I guess recently that I've had bloggers-block for this address. You would think that wouldn't be the case, since we all use money every day.

Balance Transfer Done

2005-08-12T11:10:00.000-04:00

I have successfully engineered my first ever 0% APR balance transfer.

When I received my card from HouseHold Bank, I called to activate the card, and while on the phone with them, the very helpful representative assisted me in making the balance transfer....right over the phone.

This was on Wednesday, and this morning I went and checked my Capital One balance, and it is all paid off once again. So now I have 12 months of 0% APR to pay off that balance, though I plan on paying it off much sooner than that.

I have to say, I was very impressed with the rep from HouseHold Bank. She was extremely friendly and helpful. It was nice to be treated as a real person, rather than the second rate credit risk talkdown that I have been subjected to in the past from other credit companies. Here's hoping it continues.

Trying the balance transfer trick...

2005-08-09T09:34:00.000-04:00

Over the course of the last couple weeks, I've suddenly rung up almost $1800.00 in credit card charges. This is disappointing to me, after having worked hard to pay them off, but none of the purchases were frivolous, and as mentioned in the previous post, most of them were to help my parents out.

I was dreading paying the interest charges again, as there would be no way I'd be able to pay the whole balance off this month.

Then it occurred to me, I have a brand new credit card on its way to me which is offering 0% financing for a full year and free balance transfers. So I'm going to try something that I've only been able to read about others doing; I'm going to transfer that $1800 to the new card and save the interest until I can pay off that balance in the next few months.

I'll keep you posted as to the progress of this transaction, as mentioned, I haven't received the card yet, but I do know it is on the way and I know the credit limit I've been given.

Unexpected (but worth it) Expenses

2005-08-01T10:01:00.000-04:00

This weekend saw my credit card balance go up to $1000 after being paid off a couple months ago.

This weekend there was a family reunion up at my parents farm. About 100 people were in attendance, some of whom I hadn't seen for several years. After everyone left, Darcy and I stuck around to give my parents a gift for their anniversary.

About 8:00 my dad went out to milk the cows, and then came running back in with chilling words: "We've got a fire here!" I looked out the window and could see flames coming out of the barn. I ran to the phone to call 911, but it was dead. My sister grabbed her call phone and dialed for help as I ran down to the barn, my father was there inside spraying down one of the walls with a hose, it hadn't spread too far yet, so he was able to get the flames under control while the fire department was on it's way.

In the meantime I was getting the cows in the area out of the barn. One cow directly in front of the fire was was burned slightly on the ears and hurt herself as she pulled back from the stall and yanked on her chain, her neck rubbed a bit raw. We got her out ok though, along with the other ones.

Once the fire department got there, they tore out some of the walls to make sure there wasn't still fire or embers in there that might ignite again. They figure it was an electrical fire, perhaps from a radio. They were there for a couple hours. Once they left, there were a whole number of problems that were left to figure out.

There was no electricity in the barn - no lights, no power for the vacuum milking system.

The Cows need to be milked - if you don't milk cows on schedule, they might actually start leaking milk, and if they're not milked on time, the milk can actually start to sour inside of them, causing an infection.

Thankfully there was still power to the milkroom, where the milk is kept in a chilled, stainless steel tank.

A neighbor (who is also a farmer) came up and helped get some things sorted out. They figured out that they could get the vacuum pump working for the milking, but still had no lights. It was just about closing time for the local Wal*Mart, so Darcy and I ran down there and bought a small generator, a couple sets of floodlights, some long extension cords, a a fan and a couple other items. Ran close to a $1000 - put it on the credit card, but didn't think twice about it.

Get everything set up about midnight and was able to milk the cows and close up around 2:00 am. A long day.

I'm going back over there today, and if there are more needs, I won't hesitate to put more on the card to help them out.

What is CSA?

2005-07-27T16:36:00.000-04:00

I've gotten a couple questions asking if I have more information on the CSA that I mentioned a few posts ago. This morning's Boston Globe had a piece on Community Supported Agriculture, where the farmer sells shares of "stock" in his land each spring, and all the "shareholders" receive a portion of the produce grown on the land, according to how big their "share" is.

A pretty neat idea.

Farms' investors enjoy the fruits (and veggies) of their labors

This is one of the ideas I'm kicking around for putting the land on my parents farm to better use in the future...part of the "simple life".

I'd like to be able to leave the rat race and support myself on a variety of income sources, this could be one of them. It's a long ways off, but you'll probably see more of this type of stuff and thinking in this space moving forward...

Coming soon...

2005-07-21T16:19:00.000-04:00

I will post something soon...I promise.

Maybe a look at some pretty major expenses I could be looking at in the next 12 months, and how I should handle them.

Some major things that could be on the docket...

Engagement Ring
Wedding
Honeymoon

Further out:

House down payment

Things could be getting interesting, but I need to come up with a plan first!

Should you quit your job?

2005-07-14T13:58:00.000-04:00

Mark Morford in the San Francisco Chronicle has a fascinating article today looking at those who are leaving their "safe" jobs to pursue other things.

Call it "the cafe question." Any given weekday you can stroll by any given coffee shop in the city and see dozens of people milling about, casually sipping and eating and reading and it's freakin' noon on a Tuesday and you're like, wait, don't these people work? Don't they have jobs? They can't all be students and trust-fund babies and cocktail waitresses and drummers in struggling rock bands who live at home with their moms.

Of course, they're not. Not all of them, anyway. Some are creative types. Some are corporate rejects. Some are recovering cube slaves now dedicated full time to working on their paintings. Some are world travelers who left their well-paying gigs months ago to cruise around Vietnam on a motorcycle before returning to start an import-export business in rare hookahs. And we look at them and go, What is wrong with these people?

It's a bitter duality: We scowl at those who decide to chuck it all and who choose to explore something radical and new and independent, something more attuned with their passions, even as we secretly envy them and even as our inner voices scream and applaud and throw confetti.

I'll admit, part of the reason for this site is to Simplify My Life so that I can do just that. It's not something you can enter into on a whim, however, I realized that I needed to get my financial house in order to be able to even consider living a simpler life on reduced income.

I have my ideas. My parents have a farm, and I've kicked around the idea of building a house there (They've said they're setting aside house lots for my sisters and myself) and working from home there...the idea being twofold, my living expenses might be less, and I can be available to help out my parents when they need it.

I could look into growing certain crops, organic even, or doing something called a CSA (Community Shared Agriculture) the opportunities are there, the land is there, and my parents struggle at times to get by.

I've spilled a lot here, and more will come as we go on, but the dream to Simplify My Life lives on...

Checking the mail

2005-07-13T15:09:00.000-04:00

Went to the mailbox and found a couple of items of interest. Well, to me, any way.

The first was a notice from Capital One that they have actually increased the credit limit on one of my cards. Granted, it's only $500, but it's the first increase that I have received since I got the card, probably about four years ago. I don't plan on going out and taking advantage of my higher credit limit, but still it's nice to have them giving to me with having to ask them.

The second was a credit card offer. Yes, I do get plenty of these each week, and most of them are from Capital One. This one however was from Household Bank and is the first time that I am actually considering applying for the card. The offers I get...most of which are from Capital One...mostly consist of six months of 3.7% APR, followed by a 12.99% rate later on. This card would have a full year of ZERO % and an 11.24% rate after that.

Now I realize that that rate is probably still much higher than anything a lot of your would accept. For me, this is actually the best offer I have received in the last few years. I'm considering opening the account, just to have it. I currently have two credit cards, both zero balances, and both with Capital One. Does it make any sense to open an account with another company, but not use the account except in case of emergency?

Now, these are minor items, yes. But to me, in looking at them and thinking about it, it appears to be that I can take the increased credit limit and improved offers to mean that my credit is slowly rebounding. Without going and pulling my credit score to see for sure, I can use indicators like this to assume that my own personal "stock" and credit worthiness is slowly on the rise...

Another Small Step in Investing

2005-07-07T14:49:00.000-04:00

So I looked at my direct deposit paycheck stub today, and realized that my meager cost of living increase has gone through. Before taxes, I will now make about $68 dollars more per month.

Very exciting, I know.

So I decided to take that money and do something with it. It's not much, but maybe I can turn it into more. Give myself a bigger raise, as it were. I already have a Sharebuilder account and decided to go through their "Portfolio Wizard" tool and see what it would recommend. I followed the steps and it recommended a couple of investments to make. Coincidentally these were both investments I had looked at already and was interested in making. So I set up $50 a month to go towards those investments.

It's not much, I realize. But now I have $250 per month that is being taken directly out of my check and placed into some sort of Money Market (Virtual Bank or ING) and Investments (Sharebuilder)

We'll see what happens.

The 11 Best Money Saving Ideas of All Time - Part 4

2005-07-07T09:49:00.000-04:00

The 11 Best Money Saving Ideas of All Time - Part 4

by: Palyn Peterson

At any time in history, no matter what the current state of the economy, no matter what the current trends, no matter what the unemployment rate is or where interest rates lurk, some money-saving ideas stay true.

Some of you may have heard of these ideas before, others may be entirely new to you. But whether you are familiar with these super secrets or not, it will be well worth your while to put them into effect in your own life. The magic they will work on your financial life is guaranteed. I urge you to put them to work - any one of these could change your life! Big changes come from small steps. One plus one does equal two, so if you add one from eleven different places, you will see big results.

This is a four part series giving you advice on saving your hard-earned money in a variety of down-to-earth ways. Nothing here is anything that anyone can't do on a daily basis.

Amazing Money Tip #9

You must set short-term goals and long-term goals. If you don't know where you are going, how do you expect to get there? It's simple but powerful logic. When you have a target sitting out there somewhere in the future, a target which is your goal, it can almost act like a magnet that pulls you toward it.

Setting solid goals which are attainable, yet still a challenge, have proved time and time again to be one of the most powerful methods of achieving wealth and success ever developed. It has been demonstrated in corporate training schemes. It has been used successfully again and again by countless individuals. Setting both short term goals and long-term goals has the effect of focusing your mind like a laser beam. It pulls you along toward higher and better things. It gives solidity to what you are trying to accomplish, and thus makes that which you want more real and likely to come into your life.

As you have probably heard, it is best to write your short- term and long-term goals down on paper and then post them somewhere in your workplace and home. The first thing you should do every morning is look over your goal list, and then put together your Top 10 to do list which will move you toward your goal. The last thing you should do every evening is review your short-term and long-term goals, and tell yourself as you go to sleep that you are going to do everything in your power to make those goals a reality in your life.

Amazing Money Tip #10

Invest your money and make it work at multiplying itself. Saving money in a savings account is important as we said above, but the 2.3 percent interest rates most banks give you is not even enough to keep pace with inflation.

You must do more than save your money -- you must invest it. That means financial vehicles with super-high rates of return, such as mutual funds and stocks, or the more risky commodity markets.

A $5,000 investment in commodities can return you 10 times that amount -- $50,000 --in just a few weeks, although you could easily lose it as well. Invest your savings into a long term certificate (CD). You can often get one with an interest rate up 4.5-5%. They are 100% safe, and still give you a much better return than normal savings accounts.

The bottom line is, you should take a portion of your savings and put it in a high interest or high risk investment plans. That's the way to really get ahead.

Amazing Money Tip #11

Have fun! Yes, this tip easily makes my list because it is so essential to your success. The great writer Ray Bradbury once said in an interview: "If you are not having fun, you might as well forget it. Do everything you do with joy and you'll be successful." You need to be having fun to stay positive, and you need to stay positive to make money. So come on! Get out their: laugh, clap your hands, live! Have a blast and rake in the cash! The world is waiting for you!

I hope you have learned many new ways to save your hard- earned money, and enjoy your day-to-day life more. Remember, nothing discussed in this 4 part series is anything that you can't do. If you put this information to good use, it is guaranteed that you will benefit from it.

mailto:palyn@futureinternetmarketing.com

About The Author

Palyn Peterson publishes the acclaimed Advanced Internet Marketing News. A professional newsletter with a refreshing perspective and a strong focus on no-cost techniques. http://FutureInternetMarketing.com. FREE Tips, Tricks, Tools, Resources, eBooks, and More!

This article is free to publish with resource box. If using this article, please send a brief message to mailto:palyn@futureinternetmarketing.com

Sneaky Capital One?

2005-07-05T18:00:00.000-04:00

Every month like clockwork, Capital One sends me two small books of checks, one for each of my accounts. They're so you can write a check and it will be charged to your credit card account. I actually used a couple of these over the winter because the big selling point on them was that your interest rate for purchases made with the checks would only be 1.9% (I think) Something very low like that as opposed to my regular rate, which is in the mid teens.

So today, I got my two checkbooks and I actually looked at them for a moment instead of shredding them to pieces. Now that my credit cards are all paid off, I actually thought for a moment about the time when the payoff on my car reaches the level of my credit limit on my highest card and that it might be a smart move to use one of these checks to pay off my car at that time, and then only be paying the low 1.9% (or whatever it was) interest rate on the principle.

However, I looked more closely at the checks, and noticed that nowhere did I see wording about a low interest rate, it actually took me a few minutes to find and see that now these checks are charged interest at the same rate as regular purchases, so it really would be no savings at all for me to use a check to pay off the car loan.

It got me thinking about when this change in interest rate for the checks went into effect. Was it months ago and I just didn't notice...know that I had no intention of using the checks?

How easy would it be for someone, who after months of receiving these checks with the low interest rate plastered all over them, to take the checks without looking closely at them and make some major purchase with them, not realizing that they were not gaining any savings whatsoever in terms of interest?

Just a small lesson as to the importance of looking closely at any paperwork you receive from financial institutions, and especially from your credit cards.

The 11 Best Money Saving Ideas of All Time - Part 3

2005-07-05T10:41:00.000-04:00

Need extra cash for emergency bill but payday is too far away? NationalPayday.com can help with a cash advance up to $600!

Editors note: "B" is still swamped in the middle of a project, here is the third in a series of Money Saving Ideas from Palyn Peterson...

The 11 Best Money Saving Ideas of All Time - Part 3

by: Palyn Peterson

This is a four part series giving you advice on saving your hard-earned money in a variety of down-to-earth ways. Nothing here is anything that anyone can't do on a daily basis.

Amazing Money Tip #6

Do what you love and the money will follow. I think there's a book by that title. At any rate, it's true. One of the primary reasons that many people live paycheck to paycheck, and are broke despite working very hard at their jobs, is the fact that they hate what they do.

If you hate your job, you will not have a positive attitude toward money. You will associate money with that dreadful sound of the alarm clock every morning. Once you tie up your source of wealth and income with drudgery, that's exactly what the majority of your life will become: drudgery.

Starting today, you should begin planning your escape. The first thing you should ask yourself is: "If money were no object, what would I be doing? What do I like to do most for fun, and is it possible that I could get paid for it?"

Sound ludicrous? It's not. In fact, if your work is not also your play, you are fighting against yourself. You will eventually burn out and hate the world. On the other hand, if you get up every day being exciting, positive and looking forward to what you are going to be doing - and making money at it - you will automatically move toward doing more and more of what you love, and making more and more money at it. If your dream job means starting your own business, don't let that stop you either! It is much easier than most people think. Look in to it, it could literally change your life.

Amazing Money Tip #7

You must get organized. Being a tidy, efficient person has more influence on how much money you make more than you can ever imagine.

If you want to have a lot of money, you can't afford to be a slob. Think about it. Let's say you are at your desk trying to get some work done. You need to find the stapler, but because your office is such a pit, you spend 15 minutes looking for it. You've just spent 15 unproductive minutes. Next you may need to locate a file, and that takes you 20 minutes of sifting through paper. Another 20 minutes down the tube. By the end of the day, you may easily burn up two or three hours doing something as trivial as looking for things. The same goes for any kind of job you might have. If you are an auto mechanic, how much time do you spend trying to find a nine-sixteenth wrench, when you could have it at your fingertips.

It's disorganized people who are always saying at the end of the day: "I seem to work so hard but get very little done!" Of course! You spent the entire day looking for the Scotch tape!

The fact is, time is money. The more time you spend unproductively, the less time you are earning money. Clean up your office. Organize your tool shed. Get your bookwork organized. Think of every minute saved as a buck in your pocket.

Amazing Money Tip #8

Make your own daily top 10 list. Speaking of getting organized, you should sit down every morning with your cup of coffee and list the top 10 things you would like to get done that day. Then organize them in priority of importance. Start at item #1 and go down the list as fast as you can.

Make no doubt about it - this is a powerful way to get work done. It will put hoards of cash in your pocket. The reason is that making money is all about movement - forward movement. As the famous novelist Ayn Rand told us, in a capitalist society the most important things a person can do is move forward every day!

Having a top ten list will ensure that you accomplish something every day. You may not get through the whole list every day, nor should you necessarily try. Just do your best. At the end of the day, you should be able to look at your list with pride, examine the scratched off items and say: "That's what I got done today! I did something to better my life and create wealth!"

Again, this method has been used by a majority of the most wealthy and successful people in history. Shouldn't you join the club?

The next of the 11 best money saving ideas of all time will be discussed in part 4. Until then, take note of what you have learned so far and put this information to good use. Read and reread this article; I bet you will notice a difference sooner than you think.

mailto:palyn@futureinternetmarketing.com

About The Author

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The Get Rich Slow Scheme

2005-06-30T10:23:00.000-04:00

Saga specializes in over 50's Car Insurance
---------------------------------

By Amey Stone on BusinessWeek Online.

5 Tips - More details on each by clicking on the link above for the whole story.

The truth is it's a lot easier to get rich -- and stay rich -- today by going it slow rather than latching onto a get-rich-quick scheme. Best-seller lists are clogged with books that explain in great detail how to Start Late, Finish Rich, or become The Millionaire Next Door. But much of the advice boils down to some pretty simple rules to live by. Here are five steps to slowly gaining the kind of financial security most people only dream of:

Live below your means
Take calculated risks
Diversify your investments
Keep your nose clean
Keep your eyes on the prize

The 11 Best Money Saving Ideas of All Time - Part 2

2005-06-29T14:47:00.000-04:00

The 11 Best Money Saving Ideas of All Time - Part 2

by: Palyn Peterson

At any time in history, no matter what the current state of the economy, no matter what the current trends, no matter what the unemployment rate is or where interest rates lurk, some money-saving ideas stay true.

Some of you may have heard of these ideas before, others may be entirely new to you. But whether you are familiar with these super secrets or not, it will be well worth your while to put them into effect in your own life. The magic they will work on your financial life is guaranteed. I urge you to put them to work - any one of these could change your life! Big changes come from small steps. One plus one does equal two, so if you add one from eleven different places, you will see big results.

This is a four part series giving you advice on saving your hard-earned money in a variety of down-to-earth ways. Nothing here is anything that anyone can't do on a daily basis.

Amazing Money Tip #4

Ben Franklin said it long ago: "A penny saved is a penny earned." Yes, it's still true, and still one of the most powerful money-making tips in all history.

Implied within Franklin's famous statement is the difficulty of saving. It's tough to save and easy to spend! You know that! That's why every penny saved truly is earned - because it takes so much effort to hold on to that cash! But if you can do it, it will work magic in your life. Having a savings account will de-stress your life. Imagine being ahead of your bills, rather than behind. When you are ahead of your bills, you entire life comes under your control. You sleep better at night. Your mind is freer to come up with new ways to make more money and save more. Saving is contagious - once you let it get started!

Here are some tips to help you save:

Don't settle for interest checking. Have a separate savings account that can't be as easily accessed as a checking account.

Keep your savings in another bank - one that's off your regular route, or perhaps even in another town. That way you won't be tempted to dip into it every time you visit the bank to make a checking deposit. (edit - or an Internet Bank, i.e. ING or VirtualBank)

Buy short-term savings bonds, which have 6-month to one- year maturity dates. That way you will get a higher rate, while at the same time keeping your money close in case of real emergencies.

If you can, open the account under two names and require that both signatures be required to make a withdrawal. Two people can debate each withdrawal and keep each other in line.

When you get your paycheck, immediately put a minimum of 5% in your savings account. After just a year, you'll be surprised by how much you have actually saved and feel great about it.

Amazing Money Tip #5

Visualize wealth and abundance everyday. Am I actually suggesting that you practice some sort of airy-fairy mysticism that will make you into a "money magnet"? Maybe yes, maybe no. Call it what you will - a mind game, mysticism, New Age ga-ga -- but the solid fact is that behind every wealthy man and woman is a positive attitude toward money. Here's a quick demonstration:

(1) Person One with a negative money attitude has daily thoughts which go this way: "Jeez! $20 bucks is hard to come by! I seem to work so hard and get so little for it. Money just slips through my fingers. It's amazing how much money you have to earn to just get by these days. I'm never going to be able to afford that new car on my limited salary, but this job is still the best thing going for me right now. It's easy for some people to make a lot of money, but I'm not one of those people ..." and on and on.

(2) Person Two with a positive money attitude has daily thoughts which go this way: "You know, I bet if I work my butt off I can get a raise next month, and then I'll take half of the extra money I make and toss it in a savings account. There must be a 100 other ways I can bring in some extra cash. Money is not all that hard to earn if you work hard, watch your spending and save a little at a time. There's enough wealth for everybody in this country, and I can easily get my share, and more ..." and on and on.

Okay. Which person do you think will have a better chance of success? You don't need to be a Rhodes Scholar to see how Person One is dragging himself down with his thoughts, and how Person Two is giving himself a fighting chance.

Look at it this way: It costs nothing one way or the other to have either negative or positive thoughts. So why not have positive thoughts?

There have been many studies done on the thought patterns and the frames of mind of some of the richest, most successful people in the world. The one thing they all had in common was a positive attitude toward money and their ability to earn it.

The next of the 11 best money saving ideas of all time will be discussed in part 3. Until then, take note of what you have learned so far and put this information to good use. Read and reread this article; I bet you will notice a difference sooner than you think.

Copyright © by Palyn Peterson

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The 11 Best Money Saving Ideas of All Time - Part 1

2005-06-28T15:08:00.000-04:00

I apologize for the lull in posting there, just a lot going on right now. I hope to have a month-end statement by the end of the week, and for now, here's the first in a series of tips to help you save money...and simplify your life.

B

The 11 Best Money Saving Ideas of All Time - Part 1

by: Palyn Peterson

At any time in history, no matter what the current state of the economy, no matter what the current trends, no matter what the unemployment rate is or where interest rates lurk, some money-saving ideas stay true.

Some of you may have heard of these ideas before, others may be entirely new to you. But whether you are familiar with these super secrets or not, it will be well worth your while to put them into effect in your own life. The magic they will work on your financial life is guaranteed. I urge you to put them to work - any one of these could change your life! Big changes come from small steps. One plus one does equal two, so if you add one from eleven different places, you will see big results.

This is a four part series giving you advice on saving your hard-earned money in a variety of down-to-earth ways. Nothing here is anything that anyone can't do on a daily basis.

Amazing Money Tip #1:

The great scientist Albert Einstein once said, "It takes a genius to see the obvious." What he meant by that is that sometimes the simplest things in life are the most powerful ... but because they are so simple, we tend to ignore them, and not let them work for us.

One of the simplest but most powerful money making ideas is this: keep a daily log of everything you spend. Go to the dollar store and buy a little notebook and carry it with you wherever you go. Write down every penny - every single penny - you spend. It's as simple as that.

If you do this, you will find something magic happening in your financial life in just a few weeks.

There is something incredibly powerful about writing down all your expenditures. It makes the flow of money through your life more real and exact. It shows you simply and clearly just where you are spending your money, on what and why. Once you know that, it becomes much easier to control your spending.

Many people who have taken up this practice have not only learned something about themselves which they never knew before, but they are often astounded.

For example, a person could realized through examining their notebook that they actually spent nearly $2,000 throughout the year on diet soft drinks, snacks and candy bars! Since their job only brings in $25,000 per year, they realized that 8% of their entire income was being frittered away on something entirely frivolous. The person gave up the snacks and drinks, and found they had enough money to go on vacation the following year. If you had the choice between snacks or a much needed vacation, which would you choose?

The point is, it was their daily expense log that helped achieve the insight and clarity they needed to get control of their finances. That's what a simple spending record will do for you - it will give you control over your spending, and thus your financial life. There may be nothing but a 75-cent notebook and a ballpoint pen between your life of financial struggle and financial freedom.

Amazing Money Tip #2:

Stop deficit spending! We all know how much trouble Uncle Sam has been creating spending more money than our country takes in. It's called deficit spending. Well, don't fool yourself. The same rules apply to you. Using those evil little plastic cards may be the "American Way," but it's a darn poor way.

Today, the average credit card holder is carrying $8,000 in plastic debt!

Spending yourself into debt with a credit card is unbelievably easy, as many of you already know. The reason is psychological. When you give that clerk a credit card, it's just not the same as handing over a stack of green dollar bills. Would you as readily hand over a fistful of ten dollar bills as flip a credit card across a counter? Probably not.

Credit cards put you in the hole and keep you there. Even for people with good incomes, paying your credit card debt down to zero is amazingly difficult. And make no bones about it, credit card debt will sap your financial strength just as readily as an open vein will deplete your physical body of its very life force. Using a credit card by choice can quickly turn to using it for need. Once you get to that point, you are already in trouble.

There is no secret to freeing yourself from the credit card game. You must take out a pair of scissors today, cut your cards in half, and begin paying them back, slowly but surely. Be sure to always pay more than the minimum amount due, even if it is just $10 more. Once you stop adding to the debt, even small payments will eventually add up. You can get out of debt if you are patient and disciplined. Once your cards are history, you must adopt a strict pay-as- you go policy. Instead of buying now and paying later, save now and buy when you have the full amount.

Once again, this is not rocket science, but stopping credit- oriented consuming is one of the most powerful financial tools available to anyone today. Why not pick up this tool and use it?

Amazing Money Tip #3:

Sell your junk. That's right, it's high past time for a major yard sale. Search through your house or apartment for every single item you don't need, and could sell at a flea market or yard sale.

Take an inventory. The truth is, most people are astounded by what they own - and how much money they have tied up in useless stuff. Why let it collect dust in your attic while it could collect interest in a savings account.

You could easily be $500, $1,000 ... even $3,000 richer by the end of the week. As an added bonus, you'd have your place cleaned up, and you will have a fresh feeling of starting over. A garage sale is an excellent way to not only clean out your house, but it often gives a psychological boost that helps people get control of their life and money.

The next of the 11 best money saving ideas of all time will be discussed in part 2. Until then, take note of what you have learned so far and put this information to good use. Read and reread this article; I bet you will notice a difference sooner than you think.

Copyright © by Palyn Peterson

palyn@futureinternetmarketing.com

About The Author

Get the very same internet marketing techniques that many "guru's" are asking you $200 for -- FREE. Discover 24 necessary techniques. You'll also receive a free $gift$. http://FutureInternetMarketing.com/guide.htm

palyn@futureinternetmarketing.com

Finding Time to manage your Personal Finances

2005-06-24T12:33:00.000-04:00

Terri Cullen of the WSJ online, who did a piece on Personal Finance blogs a couple of months ago, has an article today on "Finding Time for Personal Finances"

One paragraph in the article discusses a hard part for many...sticking with your program:

Now comes the hard part -- sticking with the program. Again, technology to the rescue. I use the appointment calendar in my office email program to send alerts to remind me which tasks require attention throughout the month. If the chore is critical -- say, paying property taxes or renewing my insurance -- I'll flag the appointment as urgent so I'm not tempted to put it off. For more routine tasks, I choose one day a week and block out the time in my calendar to handle the task. If I simply can't take the time at that moment to get the job done, I make another appointment during the week. If I punt on the task one more time, I reschedule and then flag it as urgent. No urgent task makes it through the end of the week undone. Period.

Microsoft Preps Money 2006

2005-06-22T11:25:00.000-04:00

From Windows IT Pro:

Microsoft Preps Money 2006

On July 5, Microsoft will ship Microsoft Money 2006 to consumers. Microsoft Money 2006 provides new online banking tools and an all-in-one solution for consumers seeking to manage their finances.

"Money 2006 was designed to build on the rising trend of online banking by offering all of the consumer's financial information in one easy-to-use location," says Anne Quaranta, the senior product manager for Microsoft Money. "With the tools and information Money 2006 provides, consumers now have a complete view of where their money is and has been, and understand where it is going."

Money 2006 includes an enhanced spending tracker for managing expenses, the ability to pay bills from multiple accounts, and greatly improved investment tracking features. As with Microsoft Digital Image Suite 2006, consumers can preorder Money 2006 starting today at Amazon.com.

Money 2006 Standard Edition will retail for $29.95, while Money 2006 Deluxe Edition will cost $59.95. A Small Business Edition will cost $89.95. Each of these products will come with various rebate amounts, however.

I haven't decided if I will be an early adopter (might inspire me to get back at it with my Money transaction logging) or if I'll wait for reviews and see if it is worth upgrading.

Car Payment Update

2005-06-19T22:16:00.000-04:00

Just in case anyone was wondering, my situation from earlier in the week involving my car payment appears to have worked out ok. The $200 from PayPal arrived into my checking account on Friday morning. That gives me enough there to more than cover the larger car payment. I'll watch to see when that clears...perhaps tomorrow.

I've been reading "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Personal Finance in your 20's and 30's" and have found confirmation that I am indeed a complete idiot in a lot of the things discussed. Happily, I've gotten on the right track in a many areas and the book has really educated me on the basics of many others. I especially have found the chapters on investing to be helpful. I still have not taken much of a leap in that area yet. (I have a small account with Sharebuilder that I opened only to see how the process worked...my initial $200 is now worth about $140) I know however have a better grasp on what the various investing options are and how they work. I'll probably be re-reading the chapters a few times. I'm now getting into the section on buying a house, something that is still a ways away for me, but definitely in the mix somewhere.

I'd recommend that book to any young person who wants an simple overview of how to manage their personal finances. A more accomplished person will likely find many of the lessons elementary, but I guess that's why this is a "Complete Idiot's" book.

Good news on GBI

2005-06-17T11:12:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago I had done a little review on GBI Home Finance Manager. I'm pleased to pass on the news that thanks to a corporate sponsor, the program is now available to all users for FREE.

Free is always good.

GBI Home Finance Manager

Now you've got no excuse to go and check it out for yourself!

Smart...or not?

2005-06-16T14:46:00.000-04:00

I put myself in a bit of a bind this week. I mailed off my car payment yesterday, and paid an extra $200. Since I have had this car, I have paid extra in every payment except one, the smallest being $100, the most being $2000. Sounds good, you say?

Well, I have a confession...I haven't been keeping up with my entries in Microsoft Money. I've been keeping a rough estimate in my head about where my checking account is at during any given time. I check the on-line banking everyday, making sure what clears and what is still out there. If you've got plenty of money, it's not a problem.

My problem this time was that I forgot an item. So when the check for my car payment clears, I'm going to be right up against it. I also have my two $25 automatic withdrawals coming out tomorrow, (One to VirtualBank, the other to ING Direct). Now having money is not a problem, I've got my Paypal debit card and have been using that for my gasoline and misc expenses. I have enough to get through to next week. When the check goes through, however, I could be going into my overdraft protection, something I haven't done in some time.

For years I funded the Credit Union's annual Holiday parties with the fees paid from my account from going into overdraft. I've gotten out of that habit, and it's been probably close to two years since they've been forced to look elsewhere for their slush fund. But this time it could be close. I'm guessing the check is either going to clear tomorrow, or Monday. It seems to be stretching it that it could clear tomorrow, but with the new laws about electronic check clearing, it seems at least possible.

I put the check into a mailbox yesterday, which stated that the mail from that box was collected at 3:00 PM daily. I would guess it would go to the Post Office that night, be sorted, and be sent on it's way this morning, perhaps arriving in NJ tomorrow. If it arrives tomorrow, it needs to be processed. So I think I might be safe in thinking it will clear my account on Monday.

To try to make up the difference and get enough money into my account to ensure that I'm not paying an overdraft fee, I initiated a transfer of $200 from my PayPal account to my checking account. PayPal states that this usually takes 3-4 business days, which by that estimate means my funds will hit my checking account on Monday or Tuesday. However, my experience with PP has been that a lot of times it only takes 2 days. That means that money could be in my account tomorrow, which means things could work out. I'll be monitoring my checking account closely tomorrow and Monday.

Exciting, huh?

To reward you if you've read this far, here are a couple links you might find interesting. CNN Money has a list of the 50 Best Things to do with your Money. That page also has a link to the 15 Dumbest things you can do with you money as well. A lot of basic stuff, but some good reminders.

Oh yeah, I think probably everyone in the whole world has a Gmail account right now, but if you don't, and are looking for one, post a comment below with your current email address and I'll zip you off an invitation. I've actually had a Gmail account almost from the beginning, but haven't been spreading out the invites that I have. Guess I should be better at sharing.

June = Car Registration and Inspection time

2005-06-14T10:19:00.000-04:00

My date of birth is in June, so this month I need to get my auto registered and inspected.

I live in NH, and this is an annual requirement. I've always dreaded the inspection part, because it seems like a conspiracy to get garages business. You are totally at their mercy. If they deem that a portion of the inspection gets a failing mark, then you are required to get the repairs done within a certain amount of time...I believe 20 days, and you cannot go elsewhere to try to get another inspection...it has to be done at the place you got the original done.

Garages know that you're likely to just have them do any necessary work, so I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility that many places arbitrarily fail some vehicles just to get the extra business. It doesn't quite seem right to me.

I understand and even appreciate the need for an annual inspection. It keeps a much higher percentage of safe cars on the roads. I just wish there could be a system of checks and balances to ensure that consumers are not being taken advantage of. I know that if the mechanic passes your car when it is in fact not safe, and you then get into an accident, or are pulled over and the officer notices something wrong with your car, that the mechanic that issued the passing sticker can be sanctioned. But what do we do about unnecessary repairs which the mechanic may basically force you to have done by withholding a passed inspection?

This has been an issue with me since I was in my late teens and had a vehicle I thought would have no problems with the inspection process. $800 later I knew better. Now each year since then, I've approached each inspection period with a feeling of dread. For a number of years I've gone to a small garage which does check many of the major items, but will let you slide on some of the things perhaps a bigger garage would nail you on. Each year I'm afraid this place will no longer be in business. I have to call them in the next week or so to find out.

A new thing this year is NH is doing emission testing for the first time. This is another cause for my concern over the place I usually go to. I fear they won't have that equipment and won't be able to do the testing.

My car is a 2000 model and in very good shape, I take care of it, I've gotten new tires this year, had the brakes done last year. It should be all set...but still I fear...am I going to have to shell out big bucks in repairs...that I might not need?

Next Mission: Reduce Food Bills

2005-06-07T14:12:00.000-04:00

More confession time.

My biggest shopping weakness is food. Expensive/gourmet food items that sometimes just end up sitting unused on my shelves until they go bad.

I'm pretty good with almost all other areas of shopping and spending money. Clothes aren't a problem, gadgets appeal to me, but I can generally control myself in that area. Books are occasionally something I'll spend a bit on, but I try to justify the purchases I make. Food...now that is a problem.

I'm a sucker for good food, and even though I know it's not always necessary, most of the time, I look for the best ingredients, or go with a "name brand". I know enough not to go food shopping when I'm hungry, so I don't have that excuse for my grocery bills.

I do try to eat healthy, and I know that contributes to the expense. Most high quality foods are going to be more expensive. Whole grain or Organic products just aren't cheap yet. I don't go organic with most of my produce, but with certain items, if they look better than the regular produce, I'll pay the higher price for the Organic.

It's not unusual for me, a single guy, to spent $80 - $100 on groceries in a single week. I do cook in the evenings, so I try not to eat out all that much.

I'll go down the aisles see something that looks "neat" or interesting, and throw it in the cart. Trader Joes is a place where this is extremely easy to do.

What do I do? I make menus and compose grocery lists of only the things I will need for the things I plan to make and eat that week. A few extra things always find their way into the cart.

One theory I have is that grocery items are mostly small ticket items. You don't think of $2.99, $1.79, $2.59, $3.49, 2 for $4.00 as being all that much, until you add them all up. "It's only a couple bucks". It adds up very quick.

If I'm going to really simplify and make the money that I have go further, I need to spend less at the grocery store. I should be able to cut the weekly bill in half. That other half needs to be working for me elsewhere.

GBI Followup

2005-06-06T10:34:00.000-04:00

Just a follow up to the CBI software review that I mentioned last week. I got an email from the make of the product, who says:

We have also realised that the US market is defnitely on of our biggest ones. That's why we have decided to have a US version.

In essence, the US version is the same as the other version but your dates are showed in US format (i.e. mm/dd/yyyy). You have the option to change that if you want. We are using IP addresses and a country-ip lookup table to determine the location of the visitors.

Also, to make it more competitive and to eliminate exchange-rate fluctuations, we have made the US version $20 per year (which I think is quite good). If you login to the site now and your IP address is a US one, you will be redirected to the US edition and the cost will be showed in USD.

We also have a UK version (in pounds) and an international version (in Euro).

June snapshot

2005-06-01T22:07:00.000-04:00

So here is where I stand at the moment.
No credit card debt, still a sizable chunk left on my car. My goal is to have it paid off by the end of the year. Then have a car with some life left and start the savings process towards the goals of living a simplified life. This weekend I found an interesting book on the topic, which I plan to review here soon.

Compare that to this one, which is where I was last October, or eight months ago.

Nice to see some visible progress. While it may not be as dramatic as some that I've seen on other blogs around cyberspace, as a financial newbie, I think I'm doing pretty well...much better than I've ever done in the past. I hope to keep up the progress and avoid any setbacks, but of course those can't all be anticipated.

One area in which I need to write about soon is my spending the area of groceries and food. That is easily an area in which I can cut back, but haven't been able to do so thus far...I love good food!

GBI Home Finance Manager

2005-06-01T11:00:00.000-04:00

I've chronicled on here my adventures in using Microsoft Money and Quicken. I seem to have stuck with Money for the moment, but I should be using the Quicken for the small business side of things. I'll look into that.

There's another option that I've become aware of and that is the GBI Home Finance Manager, which is basically an on-line version of the previously mentioned programs. You can check out the program at the following location:

https://www.globi.co.uk/gbifin/ (Or you can click on the banner in the right hand column)

Right now they're offering a free month to try it out. As with most of these type programs, it takes some time to set up all your accounts, but once you've got them in there, you have the advantage of being able to access them from anywhere. This is a bonus for people like me who like to enter your transactions as soon as possible. (Like filling my gas tank on the way to work and then entering that when get to work.)

The first thing you might notice is that currency is listed in pounds. Don't worry, you can change your preferences. It works with the dollar. While you currently cannot link to accounts and get automatic updates to those accounts, I'm told that this is something that they are currently working on adding to the program.

You can however, import both Money and Quicken files into the program. This is a help. The program seems a bit sluggish at times, but that is probably to be expected with a web based program like this one. You've got a menu bar, which stays with you as you scroll through the program. The menus are as follows: "At a glance" "Manage" "Analyse" "Administrate" "Help" and "Links"

Menu

On the menus you've got a lot of options, which make this more than just a Finance application, it's also a Personal Information Manager. You can add links to websites, add contacts, create documents, do a mail merge, and set up reminders.

All in all, I was quite impressed with the versatility of this on-line application. If they can set up a way to sync with various online accounts, the product will be even better. It's priced at about $28 for the year, so it is competitive with what you're going to pay to upgrade MS Money or Quicken each year.

Sweet...

2005-05-25T22:26:00.000-04:00

Contact Budget for Budget Cheap Travel Insurance in the UK
--------------------------

That's a beautiful thing. It's my last credit card account as it looks now.

No, I'm not gloating.

New Monitor

2005-05-24T13:00:00.000-04:00

The fund drive at my other site was a success. $1500 brought in. That paid off my residual credit card debt, (I had a couple hundred on one of the cards from my vacation last month.) Now my only debt is my car payment. I don't have a cell phone bill, I get unlimited calls from Vonage for $25, I'm paying for my gasoline through the PayPal account, and the only other monthly bills I have are car insurance, electric and cable. (and Rent, of course) The next step is getting my food budget under control.

I got a new 19" flat panel monitor from Dell that I had been looking at...$300...normally it was at $480 or more. I justify this purchase with the fact that my old 15" monitor is now 4 years and I can use it for other things. I plan on doing more and more web stuff and need a good monitor to do it all on. The fact that I got a good deal on it was a bonus. The rest of my money is targeted to boost my checking account and some for savings.

I need to spend some time brainstorming ideas for my other webpages. The goal is still to simplify my life to the point that I can work from home, doing the things I have a passion for.

Why the fuss over PayPal?

2005-05-19T16:08:00.000-04:00

Some of you might have wondered why I made such a fuss over PayPal last week. Sure it's nice, but can't I live without it?

Not this week, I couldn't.

See I used it this week to make money. I have another website - several actually - but one that gets quite a lot of traffic. I've had it up and running for three years now. It's not really something I can sell, so I was stumped as to how I could make money from it. I decided in the end, one of the best ways to make money from the page was to do it the old fashioned way.

I asked for it.

The site provides a niche service that many people take advantage of. I'm hesitant to name the site here as I don't really wish for the two to be connected at this time. I want to keep them separate. There's a lot of research involved in keeping up the other site and people are appreciative of it. In the beginning I would get random donations here and there from people, but I decided to make it a concentrated effort. I used to work at a PBS TV station, so I know a little about running a fund raiser. I decided to use similar principles and run two fund raisers a year for my site. A major one in the fall, and a smaller one in the spring. Two years ago, I had my first fall drive, set a goal of $3500 and made it. Last May I set a goal of $1500 and made it. Last November, the goal was $5000, again it was made, and this week I'm again going for $1500. As of this moment, I'm at about $1100 with a day to go.

My point during the drive is to talk about the time and effort I put into the site. (2-3 hours each day) There are also considerable expenses involved in maintaining it. I recently had to double my bandwidth capacity with my hosting company. People are appreciative, and many drop in $10, $25, $50, some even $100. I have them send it via PayPal. Sure, PP skims a little off the top, but for ease of use it can't be topped. I've got the Debit Card from them, and it's easy to move money into my banking account.

There are other ways I make a little money from the site. Google Adsense, Amazon.com Affiliation and some banner ads, but it's nothing compared to the Fund drives I put together. These are the main source of revenue from the web for me. I use the money to pre-pay hosting and design, upgrade equipment and to justify the time I spend working on the site. I've been able to pay some debt down with it as well.

So there you...if you wondered why I was making the fuss over PayPal...there's your answer.

Degunking your Personal Finances

2005-05-18T09:52:00.000-04:00

I recently received a review copy of Degunking your Personal Finances by Shannon Plate, and after a brief perusal, I am enthusiastically looking forward to reading the whole book. &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; When I do that, I will provide a full review here, but here are a few tidbits to whet your interest. It seems to be laid out similar to the "Dummies" and "Complete Idiot" book series which have proved so popular...however at first glance it appears there is more here than just the basics. This is a pretty big book...334 pages in all.

The book revolves around a 12 Step process that you should follow in order to fully degunk your personal finances. The steps are:

Get your financial life organized and set aside a place in your home to work on your finances.
Create a clear picture of your current financial situation.
Clean up your credit and debit cards.
Get your consumer debt under control by paying it down.
Fine-tune your home mortgage, and put measures in place to lower your household and other living expenses.
Put a program together to boost your savings and investments.
Clean up your credit report and improve your FICO credit score.
Fine-tune and optimize your budget and improve your spending habits for transportation, groceries and other activities.
Get your taxes, employee benefits, and insurance in better shape.
Find hidden money you didn't know you had.
Put your computer to work to help you automate managing and tracking your finances.
Improve your financial security, avoid identity theft, and put a good back-up recordkeeping system in place.

In the book, there are one or two chapters devoted to each of these 12 steps. If you don't have a lot of time, there are also several quick ways in which you can degunk in 15 minute, 30 minute, one hour, three hour and half day segments.

As mentioned, I'm enthusiastic about this book and look forward to reading and bringing you more about it in the weeks to come.

Simplifying your life in 2005

2005-05-13T11:41:00.000-04:00

As seen on Lifehacker this morning.

Lifestyle tips: How to simplify your life in 2005

Tip 1: Direct debit everything.
Tip 2: Cancel call-waiting on your home phone.
Tip 3: Make sure you're not always-on.
Tip 4: Read more books and long magazine articles, less on the Internet.
Tip 5: Cancel your subscription to cable TV, and subscribe to a movie-rental service instead.

Go to the link above for details on each one of these tips.

Or, on the other hand here are Five Habits of Millionaires so you can act like one.

Oh, and by the way, after a phone call from me, my PayPal account is now fully restored. Now I can plan out my fund drive for one of my other sites that will be for next week.

No PayPal Resolution

2005-05-10T13:37:00.000-04:00

I'm still annoyed with PayPal. I was away for a week, (Thus the lack of posts) and when I got back Saturday night, I had finally received my letter from PayPal with my important 6 digit code that I need to enter on the website so that I can get my account out of "limited access".

I go to PayPal, log in, enter my code, figuring I'll finally have access to my funds, and also send out some invoices. Instead I get the message thanking me for confirming my information, and that now a representative will have to personally review my account and that I should have an answer within 3 business days.

This is borderline rediculous. To clarify, I've had this account for 3 plus years, have always done the verifications and have never had a single issue. I just hope to be back on it in the next couple days...

The vacation was a success, and pretty cheap, too. Other than 15+ hours of driving, the week was relaxing, got plenty of sleep, ate good food and got some sun and beach. Total cost for the week was probably under $500. Sometimes you just need to get away.

PayPal Annoyance

2005-04-25T13:10:00.000-04:00

Get a Home Insurance quote from Direct Line in the UK

-----------------------
I'm annoyed with PayPal.

I probably shouldn't be.

I got an email last week informing me that they have "limited access to your account until additional security measures can be completed". Initially, I took this with a grain of salt, as I get these types of emails fairly often, and they're always "phishing" scams. But this email had no link to click on in it, giving me the impression that this might be legit. So I signed into my PayPal account, and sure enough, I'm on limited access. I can receive money and payments, but I cannot transfer money or make any withdrawals until I update my security information.

The reason given is "unusual activity" on my account, which, to me, the only thing I've been doing differently is I've been using my new PayPal debit card to pay for gas in my car and a couple of other purchases. This is unusual, apparently.

So I go through and start completing the security checks. There are three levels you have to complete. I do the first two easily, stuff like changing your password, answering some security questions like mother's maiden name, last 4 digits of SS# and a couple other things. Then the third step. They want your phone number so they can match it to your home address.

There's the problem. I use Vonage as my home phone number and apparently PayPal can't connect a phone # to a physical street address on a Vonage phone as they would be able to on a regular phone. So I fail that test. What they need to do now is mail me, via snail mail, a 6 digit code to my home address, and when I get that, I can go to the PayPal page, enter it, and hopefully complete my security check. They say it should take 5-7 business days to get that code.

Here's my problems. I'm going on vacation next week...leaving this Friday night. If the code doesn't come before then, I won't be able to use my debit card at all while I'm gone. Second, my other website hosting is bill through my PayPal account. If I haven't validated my account before the 1st, the payment will not go through. I will have to make alternative arrangements...perhaps. I'm planning on switching over my hosting the end of the week to a less expensive, but more full-featured plan. That's all part of a busy week here.

I suppose I should be grateful that PayPal is beefing up security in this manner, but I wish my account didn't have to be basically shut down for a week and half and punish me, even though no security was actually broken.

Thanks to all who participated in the guest blog entry with Tripp Friedler, there were some interesting comments posted.

Guestblog Entry from Author Tripp Friedler

2005-04-18T00:02:00.000-04:00

This is a post from Tripp Friedler, author of "Free Gulliver" over the course of the next few days Friedler will respond to comments made by readers. We look forward to a good exchange of ideas here on Simply My Life...

First I would like to thank Bruce for allowing me some air time. I feel right at home here because my book is all about simplifying your life. It is about cutting all those pesky little things that tie us down. It is about getting freed.

I have done many things over my career (restaurateur, record producer, fashion photographer) but for the last 15 years I have been involved in financial consulting. I have worked with numerous clients and I began to notice that they all had the same basic issues. They were focusing so much on accumulating wealth that they were forgetting about having fun. My book is about getting rich but it has very little to do with money.

One issue most relevant to many of my clients is retirement. Somehow in our society retirement has become a good thing. In fact, many people today will stay in jobs they hate just to be able to save for retirement. In some ways this is like getting married, coming back from the honeymoon, and stating that you cannot wait for the divorce.

If we look at really successful people, they do not "retire." In fact, Suze Orman who preaches about retirement is herself not retiring. She has plenty of money yet continues to work. She understands that when you do what you love you never want to stop.

I know many people will say, "Easier said than done. I hate my job but at least it pays well." My question is; what is the appropriate trade off between a job you hate that pays well and one you enjoy doing that pays less?

So I would like to end with the following question: Do you think it is smarter to do work you love and save very little or work you do not like and save a lot?

email: TRIPP FRIEDLER
Author of "Free Gulliver: Six Swift Lessons in Life Planning"

No more credit card debt!

2005-04-14T14:39:00.000-04:00

Alright, so the money was transferred to my bank account and I paid the credit card debt. Actually I will still have a balance of about $100 on there, but I will pay that in the next couple weeks and then stick the credit card in my desk where I won't have it with me.

My plan of using my PayPal debit card to pay for my gas is working out good thus far this month, and it's been needed. Things are very tight this month, and in three weeks I'll be spending a week in the Outer Banks in North Carolina. Some friends of mine rent a house out there once a year or so, and it's a huge house and after we all split the cost, it only comes to about $150 per person for the whole week. We also divide up the making of the meals, so that each couple or pair is responsible for providing food on one day. We drive down there, so all in all, it is a very inexpensive week of vacation.

I'll try to get together a snapshot of my financial picture here sometime like I used to do....

More on "Free Gulliver"

2005-04-14T14:16:00.000-04:00

More on "Free Gulliver", the book by Tripp Friedler, who will be a guest on this blog next Monday, April 18th.

Scheduled to publish April 16, the book acts as a swift kick in the pants to remind those people who have just finished their taxes that now is a good time to plan their lives.

Free Gulliver takes the conventional wisdom of financial planning -- how to get what you need to do what you want -- and turns it upside down: how to start doing what you want, *now*, and how to deal with the financial fallout.

As a nation gets nervous about Social Security, Friedler reminds us that "you never retire from a job you love." He'll show you how to stop saving for retirement and start building a job you never want to leave: one that will provide you with income into your second century.

Parents struggling to save for college might be surprised at Friedler's advice: Try cutting back on work and sharing that time with your kids, even if it means less money for college. "The time you spend with your children pays bigger dividends than any investment you will ever make."

Tripp Friedler is an attorney, estate planner, chartered life underwriter, and Gulliver-gone-wild. He is the father of three children. Free Gulliver helps people rig their finances to achieve life goals. It's a swift trip. Won't you give it a ride?

A listing for the author's blog tour:

The "Never Retire" Blog Tour
Featuring Tripp Friedler, author of "Free Gulliver"
Starting Monday, April 18, 2005, at the following blogs:

* All Things Financial

* Simplify My Life

* The Budgeting Babe

Here's some more from the publisher of the book:

Do the turbulent waters of a troubled economy find you looking for a life jacket? Are you trying to get ahead but feel like you're treading water? Do you come home exhausted at the end of the day, unable to muster the energy to pursue your dreams in your "spare time"? Do you feel tied down by the little things, unable to tend to your life goals because just tending to your life is too taxing?

Maybe you're a Gulliver? You remember: Big guy, gets in a shipwreck, swims to shore, exhausted, falls asleep. Wakes up in the morning to find Lilliputians have tied him down - - little guys with tiny strings -- so he can't move. Ever feel like Gulliver? Sure you have. We all have. The time has come to cut those knots.

Free Gulliver is a little book for big people. It will help you slice through those knotty problems that keep you from doing what you were put here to do. You remember what that is, don't you? That thing you put on the back burner so long ago an hour in the microwave wouldn't thaw it. That gift you have. That natural talent you can't find an outlet for -- can't afford to pursue -- not until you get your debts paid down, not until the kids are in school, not until the kids are through college, not until you retire... Little things. Lilliputians with little strings. Keeping you from the life you love.

Free Gulliver will show you how to cut through those lines, little by little, and get moving again toward the life you love. It's written by Tripp Friedler, an attorney, estate planner, chartered life underwriter, and Gulliver-gone- wild. Tripp has studied the life plans of the rich and famous and found out -- guess what? -- they're just as stuck as the rest of us. Friedler has made a business of helping people get their lives back on track. He can help you, too.

Free Gulliver: Six Swift Lessons in Life Planning will help you:

Remember what you're supposed to be doing here
Take an honest look at where you're life journey is right now
Free up the time and money you need to be you
Find unexpected ways to express your natural talents
Make a life plan that realistically gets you from here to there

Free Gulliver turns financial planning upside down (as if your finances haven't been through enough upsets lately). Instead of helping you have enough money when you retire to do what you really want to do, it helps you start doing what you want today, because you never retire from a life you love. Free Gulliver will help you find meaning and fulfillment while still generating the income you need to get by. It will liberate you from the little things that tie you down. It's a swift trip. Won't you give it a try?

ENDORSEMENTS

"For those who feel that things have gotten too complicated, too tangled up, too damned crazy, this book offers candid, straightforward, and practical advice. There is real help here, and the calm voice of someone who's been there and found a way to make his own life better. It's the kind of help we can all use from time to time."
-- Alan M. Webber, Founding Editor, Fast Company

"For all people who want to simplify their lives and still reach their goals, Tripp Friedler has written a delightful and useful book. It shows how to clarify your vision and focus on what's important. With real case studies and reference to his own journey, Friedler makes his lessons wonderfully readable."
-- Walter Isaacson, CEO, The Aspen Institute

"Tripp Friedler uses straight talk and apt illustrations to teach how to free ourselves and find the meaning that lies waiting in every life. By following his own passion, he helps us realize ours."
-- Peter White, Wealth Advisor

"This book is terrific. Traditional, financial life planning leaves you believing that the proper asset allocation or security selection will bring happiness. This is not the case. In order to live a full life everyone needs to ask the questions that are presented in this book. Friedler challenges the reader to think, discuss and set the groundwork for a balanced and fulfilling life. It is truly a shame that this aspect has been left out for so long."
-- Peter Ricchiuti, Assistant Dean, A. B. Freeman School of Business, Tulane University and Director Of Research, Burkenroad Reports

"Tripp Friedler, using his own life experiences, takes us on a wonderful journey. Along the way, we learn to better understand how our career and retirement can become more meaningful and satisfying to us. We also get to learn the importance of defining the legacy we will leave for future generations. He helps us enjoy the journey and achieve our goals."
-- Frank Helsom, Former CEO, Bessemer Trust

"With an unusually caring and human voice, Tripp Friedler explains how having a better life comes down to making simple choices. Friedler uses plain language and real-world examples to guide readers through a decision-making process that can profoundly improve their lives. For anyone stressed out about the quality of their life and what the future will bring, this warmly written book will help you see-and realize-your own possibilities."
-- Keith Mcallister, Media Consultant, Former Executive Vice President and Managing Editor, CNN

Paying off Credit Card Debt

2005-04-08T13:13:00.000-04:00

I've decided that I'm going to transfer $3000 from my VirtualBank eMM account and go ahead and pay off my credit card debt.

I know some of you are likely saying: "About time!"

Yeah, I guess sometimes I'm a little slow to come to realizations on certain things. It definitely makes more sense for me to do this on several levels.

1) My job is fairly secure, I don't fear losing it and needing to depend on emergency funds anytime soon.

2) If I did happen to have some sort of emergency, I could then use the paid off credit card.

3) Paying off the card means I'm not paying interest on that debt any longer, and also means I have one less monthly bill to pay. (Simplifying my life...)

4) I can then take that monthly payment I would be using to pay the credit card, $100 or more, and split it between the VirtualBank, ING Direct and my car payment.

5) With the savings of that interest, my savings accounts will be worth more, because the interest I'm gaining on those accounts won't be offset by the interest I'm losing on debt.

6) This will leave me essentially just one source of debt to my name...my car payment. My life will be simpler, as noted above. My monthly payments will now be:

Rent
Car Payment
Cable/Internet Service
Vonage Phone Service
Car Insurance
Electric Bill
2 Savings Accounts
Food
Gas (hoping to pay that using PayPal debit card each month)
Recreation

Orange Savings Account Opened

2005-04-06T13:01:00.000-04:00

I took another step in making sure I'm saving money and having it spread around a little bit. Still haven't taken the step of investing yet, but now having $50 a week automatically deducted from my checking account each week, ($25 to two different accounts) should help me put something away.

When I bought the Quicken software last week, I installed it that night and noticed the icon that it put on my desktop plugging an offer to get $50 for opening an ING Direct Orange Savings account. I had thought about creating a second savings account to use for larger ticket items or vacations while still maintaining and not touching my "Emergency Funds" sitting over at VirtualBank. After reading earlier this week that ING Direct had raised the APY in their Orange Savings account to 3.00% I went ahead and decided to open the account.

It took less than 5 minutes to fill out the online forms and link my checking account. I initially funded the new savings account with only $50. Now looking at it this morning, my $50 is in there, as well as my $50 bonus for opening the account. In addition I set it up so that each Thursday $25 will be transfer from my checking account. So now I am sending $25 to this new account and $25 to the VirtualBank account.

In other financial news...I canceled my personal cell phone this week. My contract had run out in January, and I have been provided with a cell phone from my work, which my boss has told me is perfectly fine to use for personal calls, as there are a ton of minutes in the plan. So that will save me approx $80 a month, which is now going towards the Orange Savings account.

I've also been able to make a little money each month on one of my other web ventures, and that money comes to me via PayPal. Last month I got a PayPal debit card which allows me to use the money in my PayPal account anywhere I can pay with a credit card. I've decided that I'm going to use that account as much as I can to pay for the gas in my car. Right now my short term goal is to make enough coming into PayPal each month to pay for my gas. That's going to require me to be making about $300 a month. If I can do that, I will then put that extra $300 towards my credit card debt each month.

So there's a few things I'm doing financially right now...

Book Excerpt: "FREE GULLIVER: Six Swift Lessons in Life Planning"

2005-04-04T16:07:00.000-04:00

Another excerpt from FREE GULLIVER: Six Swift Lessons in Life Planning. On April 18th, the author of the book, Tripp Friedler will be a guest on this web site. He will post an introductory comment, and then check in periodically during the next few days to respond to comments posted in response to his. It should be a great opportunity to share some knowledge and get some good information and advice.

Staying in a job you hate is crazy.

The first question I ask clients who want to talk about retirement is simple: Why? I try to get them to rethink the concept of retirement by defining the word. Most definitions I get are a variation of a simple idea: "Doing what you want, when you want." Under this definition, most people who love their jobs are already retired.

Look at Michael Jordan. Here is a man who so loved what he did that he refused to retire -- in fact, he added two more championships to his name. Many celebrities, athletes, actors and television journalists continue to work well beyond the "pinnacle" of their careers. While they might not have had the success of their youth, they were still productive. Their love of their profession was so strong that they refused to quit. Why should you quit?

Next I ask my clients what part of their work they most enjoy. What would they like to continue doing into retirement? Most of us have in our jobs a few tasks we love, and the luckiest of us have a whole day filled with enjoyable activities. I ask my clients to identify these pleasurable activities, and then try to make those tasks compose a majority of their time at work. I once heard a great line that sums up this philosophy:

Frank Sinatra did not move pianos.

The point is clear: focus on your passions and talents, and try not to get bogged down in the chores you hate. Be a Gulliver -- live large -- and don't let the little things tie you down. If you concentrate on what you love in your work and pursue it fully, your "Golden Years" can begin today.

RETIREMENT PLANNING EXERCISES

1. List the things you love most about what you do for work.

2. Do you love these things enough to continue doing them during your retirement?

3. What percentage of your work time do you spend on these activities?

4. What can you do right now to increase the percentage of time spent working on these activities?

5. What do you think you could get paid to do only those activities you enjoy so much you'd continue to do them after you retire?

6. Do you think you can live on that income, considering the other resources you have (current savings, social security payments, etc.)?

7. What steps can you take to increase the income you earn from doing these activities?

8. List people you think have retired successfully.

9. Explain what you admire about their retirements.

10. How can you emulate what you like about these retirements?

Giving Quicken a whirl...and a Book Tour!

2005-03-29T15:04:00.001-05:00

Last month I chronicled some of the tools I use to keep track of my personal finances. I related that each of the ones I use has some shortcomings. In the comments to that post, Quicken was mentioned as a possible solution. I had also been looking for some sort of simple business software to keep track of income and expenses from another website that I maintain. Get some low-level experience at running a business, if you will. So I bought Quicken 2005 Premier Home & Business . I have never seen a product so severely ravaged by reviewers on Amazon.com. I decided to get it with an open mind and see if it could help me out.

I only had time to quickly set up the software and enter a few things. My first impressions was that this was going to take some time to get used to. Predictably, the things that would not sync up nicely with Money (my Credit Union, my TIAA-Cref retirement account) worked great with Quicken. My credit cards (CapitalOne) and my Money Market account (VirtualBank) did not have online features. I need to figure out the business side of things, though I was able to create an invoice, and even add my logo to it. I will continue to try it out. (While keeping my Money program updated and see where I decide to stay.

Book Tour

On another note, there is a new book on the market entitled Free Gulliver: Six Swift Lessons In Life Planning. Next month on April 18th, the author of the book, Tripp Friedler will be a guest on this web site. He will post an introductory comment, and then check in periodically during the next few days to respond to comments posted in response to his. It should be a great opportunity to share some knowledge and get some good information and advice.

Here's part of the introduction to the book, and I will have some more from it as we get closer to Mr Friedler's appearance.

Never Retire

by Tripp Friedler

According to older dictionaries, the definition of retire is "to put out of service, to withdraw." Anyone who has been lucky enough to retire his debt knows this and hopes it never returns. But when your old car gets retired, it doesn't move to the beach. It ends up in the salvage yard. Given the definition, most people would not like to be retired.

How is it that retirement came to be seen as such a good thing? Everyone you talk to wants to retire by the time they reach 60. This book takes a different view of retirement by starting with a very simple premise:

No one wants to retire from work they love.

Beverly Sills, who enjoyed a long and respected career as a star soprano, retired from singing to become chair of the Lincoln Center. In her early seventies she retired from that position, only to reappear six months later as chair of the Metropolitan Opera. "So I smelled the roses and developed an allergy," she told The New York Times.

Ms Sills, like most of us, did not want to be put out of service. Many people in their eighties lead productive, active lives, whether they're working or not. My grandfather died at 95 and worked until he was 92. He didn't do it for the money; he did it for the love of work.

The average age of retirement has plummeted from 70 in 1930 to 62 today. In the same time, the average American's lifespan has increased from 48 to 72. If we start working at 22, expect to retire at 60 and live to age 82, then our retirement comprises almost 27 percent of our entire lives. The implications of these statistics are serious, both personally and financially -- as well as for the national budget deficit.

We no longer worry about living long enough to enjoy our retirement. Now we worry about living so long that we run out of money. We have put a lot of pressure on ourselves to have a large nest egg ready for retirement. Out of fear, too many of stay in jobs we hate in order to save a little more. It bears repeating:

Staying in a job you hate is crazy.

Stay tuned for more to come...

Still thinking...

2005-03-24T15:43:00.000-05:00

Still haven't decided the best way to handle my investments. What I am doing starting immediately is to start taking $25 each week and putting it into my savings account. This way, once I decide, I'll already have a little bit set aside to start with.

It's slow, but I'm getting going. $25/week automatically going into VirtualBank, (Emergency Fund) and now $25/week going into savings, but earmarked for an investment account. I routinely pay $100 more a month on my Jeep Payment, and around $50 extra on my Credit Card.

The rest is towards bills.

I'm looking forward to the release of the upcoming book "Degunking Your Personal Finances" which will be published next month by Paraglyph Press. I hope to be able to bring you some excerpts from it fairly soon.

Investment Dummies

2005-03-21T12:35:00.000-05:00

Another column for which I obtained the right to re-publish here.

Are You An Investment Dummy Like Me?

by: Jack Humphrey

I am good at a few things. I can certainly market well and I consult with others about how to bring more attention to their products and services on the internet for a living.

I am a fair musician. I love music and play all sorts of percussion instruments and even dabble with the guitar.

I can cook better than most guys. I can survive in the wild with nothing more than a good sharp knife.

But ask me how to best manage my investments and grow and protect my wealth, and I am like a deer staring into the headlights of oncoming traffic. Paralyzed with doubt, fear, and inexperience.

Much like my clients are when they come to me for marketing advice.

It wasn't until a new client came to me with an idea for a new book he had written on active investment strategies called "Scientific Wealth Strategies" that I realized I might not be far from figuring this whole investment and wealth protection thing out for myself.

In fact, just by consulting with him on the marketing of his book I picked up a lot of new information that has taken a grand portion of my doubts and fears away.

As I began to wrap up our contract I found I was looking more and more at the information in his book from a personal interest as a solution to my worries about whether I was doing everything right with my investments.

First thing I learned is that I was following the vast majority of others who think the same way about investing. "Throw it in something we think is safe and leave it there." And I realized that we are all being lulled into low return funds and investments masked as great returns in a bad economy.

Then I learned what I could do to take the same amount of capital I had in low return investments and actively manage it for far greater returns than what most people generally assume are the best returns you can get these days with 401ks, IRAs, and stocks.

In short, I was learning about investing on my terms. I was learning because my client, C.C. Collins, had chosen to write for people like ME instead of a bunch of learned investment "geeks."

Finally someone had written about investing strategies in a language that I could understand and about strategies I could feel comfortable in applying without feeling as though I was being a risk taker or putting my money in jeopardy.

This is no small feat. I feel most people who are like me are conservative with their investing, and don't become active in the management of their investments, because we much prefer the relative piece of mind we get from letting a "professional" handle the decisions.

Now that I feel more comfortable in the knowledge I have gained from this easy to understand yet incredibly powerful source of investment and wealth buidling knowledge, I have no doubt my investment future is much brighter and is going to bear much more fruit than the track I was on before I met C.C.!

So if you are an investment "dummy" like me, I strongly urge you to take the first step in becoming a relative investment "whiz" by checking out Scientific Wealth Strategies for yourself.

It will really empower you to take charge of your investments and push you to get more from your hard earned dollars than you are currently netting!

Scientific Wealth Strategies
eBook and Software with calculators, investment terminology definitions, and many, many more useful tools. http://wealthscientist.com

Copyright 2004 Jack Humphrey

About The Author

Jack Humphrey is the author of a popular website promotion course called Power Linking at http://power-linking-profits.com and CEO of WebFoxMedia.com http://webfoxmedia.com where he consults for companies in online marketing strategies and traffic generation.

Decisions, Decisions

2005-03-19T16:49:00.000-05:00

I appreciate the various bits of advice and encouragement in the comments to my last post. (No Neville, I'm not sending my money to you) I looked around here and there, especially at Vanguard. That site was recommended to me in a couple of comments as well as by a friend of mine last summer. I thought I had checked it out at the time, but decided to double-check. Now I remember why I didn't do it at the time. It seems to me, maybe I'm wrong, but the minimum you can starting investing there in Mutual and Index funds is $3000.00. I don't have that in my checking account to use, and I don't want to take my emergency money and invest it all in that fashion.

I still may use Sharebuilder, if I did that, I would need to find specific stocks I want to invest in...which takes a lot of time to research everything...and I would set up a $25/week transfer to the Sharebuilder MoneyMarket account, and then, perhaps once a month I would take that $100 and invest it. That's about the best I can come up with. I think I really want to do Mutual Funds or even Exchange Traded Funds. I'm still such a dummy at this, that I can't really even tell if I can invest in those through Sharebuilder.

So I guess I'm still trying to figure out where to start.

Investing

2005-03-16T22:25:00.000-05:00

Back in December, I took my first babysteps in the field of investing. A mere $200 in a Sharebuilder account. I think I want to do more. I can't do a whole lot, but I need to be making some of my money work harder for me. I have about $4500 sitting in my VirtualBank EMoneyMarket account, currently earning 2.57% APR. It's not bad, but it's not at the inflation rate either. The reason the money is there, is that it is my emergency fund. I need to to get a reliable return and still be easily accessible.

I'd like to do more with the Sharebuilder. Right now I send $25 a week toward to the eMM account, I'd like to send the same amount to Sharebuilder. It seems the safe thing is an Index Fund. The S&P 500, something along those lines. Would that nominal amount even do anything for me? Would I be better off taking that small amount and going for some stocks?

There are a lot of "beginners" websites out there for investing. They're still all over my head. You're supposed to "research" thoroughly any stock you invest in. How do you do this? Inquiring minds want to know simple answers. I haven't gone out and bought "Investing for complete Idiots" but I'm tempted.

What's the best resource for someone starting completely from scratch? No background. Just the facts, ma'am. Where do I turn to find a simple, easy guide for what I want to do, namely take $25 a week and put it somewhere where it generates more than the current inflation rate, so that I'm actually getting ahead a little bit?

Throw me a fricken' bone people. I'm the blogger...need the info...

Organization

2005-03-15T11:15:00.000-05:00

I came across this article recently and obtained permission to re-print it here. There's nothing really profound contained within it, however I think that it contains some good overall strategy for keeping your financial life organized. (The author is from Australia, thus the usage of "organise" throughout.) It's simply a series of good reminders and and overall strategy for keeping things under control.

Make the Most of Your Money

by: Lorraine Pirihi

I'm always amazed that so many people spend most of their life at work and totally neglect their personal affairs.

Many of the business people I work with want their professional lives to be in order, and admit that their personal affairs are in chaos.

They have no systems for handling this most important area. The household paperwork is disorganised…piled up in a corner of the house…somewhere. They have no idea where they spend their money and often have no plan for their financial future.

If you do not organise your personal life, you won't have much of a future to look forward to.

Avoid the excuses that you are too tired, don't have the time, and don't know how.

Here are several tips to get you started:

Set up a filing system to store your paperwork.

File your papers in categories: Bank, Car, Children, Home, Medical, Insurance, Investment, Tax, Utilities etc.

Organise direct debits for regular bills.

Read, sort and action your snail and e-mail daily. This will avoid a big build-up.

Make a note in your diary when you need to remember to do things.

Check your bank accounts weekly via phone or the Internet to keep tabs on your money.

Allocate a particular day and time each week to review your personal affairs.

Get educated - attend seminars, read books and listen to information on wealth creation. (Our fortnightly Event Update often advertises worthwhile events that will help you). Having knowledge will make it easier to make decisions and take action.

Organising Your Financial Future

This area should be top priority. If you do nothing because it's too much effort well think about this.

What would happen if you lose your job, have an accident and receive no income for 6 months? How would you (and your family) survive financially? Do you have your insurances in order?

Where will you be in the next five years? Maybe retired and on a pension? Or perhaps you have superannuation you hope will be enough to live on? Unfortunately too many people are under false illusions about how superannuation will be the answer for a secure retirement.

Hope is not enough. You have to be pro-active and seek out people who can help you. But be careful who you take advice from and what is the motivation behind them "selling" you their ideas.

Educating yourself on how to make the most of your hard-earned money so you can create wealth should be a high priority. After all, if you're not interested in securing your financial future, who is?

The Final Word

If you take control of your personal affairs you will have peace of mind and know that you are making things happen.

I once heard someone say: Some people make things happen, others watch things happen and others wonder what happened. What do you choose to do?

About The Author

Lorraine Pirihi, principal of The Office Organiser is Australia's Personal Productivity Coach. She specialises in working with businesspeople showing them how to dramatically boost their productivity, reduce the stress and the mess in their lives and have more time for enjoying their life.

lorraine@office-organiser.com.au

Show me the money!

2005-03-02T18:53:00.000-05:00

Multiple streams of income.

That's a phrase that has resonated in my head for a number of years. It's absolutely a solid idea. You have a number of sources of income coming in, and that means that if you happen to unexpectedly lose one, you have other places to turn for income.

Sounds simple in theory. Putting it to practical application in your life may well be another. Time constraints are a factor, the amount of work you have to do to generate that additional revenue may be another. The ideal is something that you set up, have very little maintenance to perform, and just sit back and collect the money. Realistic? I haven't found one yet.

I currently have two sources of income. My day job, and another website that I operate. On that site, which I prefer to keep separate from this, I don't sell anything. Revenue is generating from Google Adsense, occasional advertising from people who approach me, Amazon.com affiliate sales, and a couple PBS-style "fundraisers" that I do during the year to raise funds and reward the work I put into the site. However, this isn't close to a full-time venture, though I'd like it to be. I spend a couple hours on that site each morning, and in total bring in anywhere between $100 and $300 a month on a regular basis, but my last fundraiser brought me a significantly larger sum in one month. I didn't start out with the intention of making money from that site, it's more of a passion, a little money is a nice side benefit.

I'd like to do more. Obviously, if I lose my day job, I'm not going to be able to support myself and pay my bills based on the website. The amounts are unbalanced. I need a couple more sources of income. More websites come to mind, but you've seen my track record in updating this one, so time is a factor.

What are some ways of creating multiple income streams:

Get a second job

Create a side business that generates regular income

If you have some money, you can have income from interest, dividends and investments...

I'm stumped after that. The second one would be the most realistic for someone in my position, but I wouldn't be able to spend a whole lot time on it. Then I have to come up with the idea. If it's something I enjoy doing already, then all the better, because I'm going to keep up with it.

I'll need to think about this more.

Tool Time

2005-02-26T23:42:00.000-05:00

Note: Before I begin, please note that I have changed the email address for this blog. I'm finding that people are actually emailing me, and I'm not getting it for a few days because I don't often check the account that I had set up previously.

As I've begun to take my money more seriously and be as responsible as possible with it while still learning and managing to have a life, I've begun to use a number of tools to assist me in this process.

I've used Microsoft Money off and on for years. However since last August, I have been consistent in entering all my transactions into the software. I have the 2005 Deluxe version. I find it helpful for reporting and doing planning scenarios, however I still find myself frustrated with many aspects of it. Some of my accounts simply will not sync with the program. This is extremely annoying, as the whole point of it has been to be able to see all my accounts at a glance. My bank issued a statement saying that they are now compatible with Money and that you can get updates through the program, but I have yet to find them listed in Money's list of banking institutions.

Because of that, I use the on-line banking services of my bank very heavily. They also have bill-pay, so I've started really taking advantage of that feature. I've used their on-line banking since they introduced it, and it's still rather primitive in my opinion. However, it is nice to be able to look and see what transactions have cleared, and to be able send out payments.

The third item I've been using, and this is my most recent addition, is the website Yodlee.com. They have a service called the Oncenter Suite, which allows you to do the "snapshot" thing that I was hoping Money would do for me. You can enter your account information and passwords for your various accounts and get them all on one screen. It also has a billpay service and you can securely store account information for other things you use as well. You can even view multiple email accounts from one window. Seems to work great so far, you can even track rewards programs such as airlines and rental cars. Of course, my bank isn't listed in their very extension collection of financial institutions, so I'm still reliant on my on-line banking application.

I guess it would be nice to have one thing that does all the above. I want a register of my accounts, a snapshot of all of them, reporting features, bill pay, and all the other bells and whistles. Some of it has to do with my bank. Actually it is a Credit Union, so it isn't a national chain that is going to have the high end, feature laden, online banking service. So changing banks would be an idea, though it's not something I'm eager to do. I've been satisfied with this CU since I was barely out of my teens.

Another service that I've heard about, but haven't checked out yet is Billeo - seems somewhat similar to Yodlee, but claims to have more in the way of bill pay and gizmos. Here is a press release on their product.

If you've got financial tools that you rely heavily upon and find indispensable, feel free to leave a comment about them. I'd be interested to check them out.

A little background...

2005-02-19T18:34:00.000-05:00

OK...so just how badly did I mess up my credit in the past? I can't even get a loan from CAPITAL ONE, even though I got the invitation and have had a great record with them for the last couple years.

It's an ugly story and one I'm still trying to work on. When I was married, I tried to buy my wife's happiness. Well, not exactly, but she had a lot of "issues" stemming back from an ugly childhood. Shopping and spending were some sort of release for her. Her mother was unavailable emotionally and always bought the kids nice things. There's a lot more there obviously, but the human brain is amazing thing, the things that generate certain feelings or sensations don't always seem logical, but usually experts can see right through behavior patterns. In any event, my wife would spend money when she was in a "down cycle" and I, wanting to keep her placated would stretch the budget beyond our means and put us in peril. I would try to make sure I was available emotionally to her, but likely didn't know how to handle those moments. She would refuse counseling so shopping was about the only "therapy" that seemed to life the spirits a bit.

We're no longer married. After a while, the shopping wasn't enough to calm the forces inside her and she started other destructive behavior. Eventually it led to the end of our marriage. She continues her poor use of money to this day, and sadly she was recently diagnosed with terminal cancer at the age of 29. A heartbreaking story all around.

What does this have to do with a financial blog? Well, my weakness in the marriage resulted in late payments, accounts in collection, even a bankruptcy. How could anyone be so stupid and irresponsible with money, you ask? It happens. I take full responsibility for the financial mess I find myself in at this time and I'm trying to make amends. I have only one credit card and a car payment as debt. The interest rates are high. I pay all on time. I pay in advance. I started saving money in the eMM account. It takes time to fix these things. This summer will be two years since the divorce. Emotionally it took me a good year plus to recover. Financially it will likely take a lot longer...

Back Again

2005-02-05T13:36:00.000-05:00

Feb 2005 Snapshot

I just finished what was probably the busiest month of my life. I apologize for the lack of updates. I'll try to do better.

OK, let me try to make a makeshift monthly budget here...this is off the top of my head.

You might notice that the statement atop the masthead of this site has changed. My goals and thinking have changed somewhat as well. Now, I'm just trying to manage what I have in the most sensible way. One of the recent comments on here said I was doing everything wrong. That's entirely possible. However, I believe in balance and trying to have a life. While I have some debt, I also believe it's important to have an "emergency fund" which is why I keep putting money into the eMM. I pay more than the minimums on both my car payment and credit card. The fact that I only have one credit card with a balance is in itself a victory. At this time last year, I had four.

I will try to do better going forward as far as keeping this updating. January 2005 was the busiest month ever.

A New Year...

2005-01-05T23:24:00.000-05:00

Here's the current snapshot:
January

As you see, December was a bit rough. Moving into a new place will do that to you. I'm glad I managed to stay away from using the money stashed away in the eMM account. As mentioned last week, I also set up a recurring deposit of $25 weekly to that account, so I plan to keep that growing.

Ah yes, the move. Here's the rough estimate of what I spent in furnishing the new place. You may have to click on it to enlarge it for viewing.

Move Tally

Some items are exact, others rounded up, as I misplaced a couple of receipts.

What's not counted is the cost for the cable company to hook up cable TV and Internet, as well as the initial food shopping expedition. You'll notice blanks next to some items...I just haven't gotten them yet. So I have no table and chairs in the kitchen, nor a chair and coffee table in the living room.

I also signed up for Vonage to handle my phone service. $25 a month handles all local and long distance...that helps as I've been making a lot of calls across the country the last few months, mostly using my cell phone's free nights and weekends feature. Now I hope to be able to talk on a real phone. As with a couple of things, I have MM at PFBlog.com to thank for not only providing a review of the service, but also a referral that got me a deal.

The next item to get posted here is an exact monthly budget. I've got one worked up for the most part, but to get it here will be progress.

Cost of furnishing...

2004-12-29T20:52:00.000-05:00

Direct Line offer a range of Life Insurance policies in the UK
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Ever wondered what it costs to furnish an apartment?

Well, I've been keeping track. The next couple days I will actually make the move into my new place, and once I get settled I'll post the totals of what I spent to move in and we can tally it all up.

On a side note, it's important to me to be able to keep saving money. I set up an automatic withdrawal to send $25 each week to my eMM account. It's not much, but it's something and hopefully I can continue to add to the account and keep it going so that down the road I can have the down payment for a house or similar long term investment.

I'll work on the tally while I move, post that and also a snapshot of the current financial picture sometime soon...

Moving time

2004-12-22T23:20:00.000-05:00

So next week I'll be moving into my new place. I have very little in the way of furniture, but I do have most of the other essentials. So this week I've been looking for a sofa, a chair, and a table and chair set. Discount furniture stores, classified ads, those have been my main source of looking for items. Nothing yet. A friend of mine keeps suggesting IKEA to me. She is very enthusiastic about what they have and their prices and quality. I don't know too much about their stuff, as there are no stores here. Their stuff can be shipped anywhere as apparently you have to put them together. I'm thinking about it. I don't want to go too cheap, but I want value.

I did buy a computer yesterday. The computer I have here at home is a four year old 600MHz eMachines. I was alerted that Staples has a special on Compaq Desktops, that have one that is $249.99 with a $50 rebate. It's a 2800MHz AMD Processor, with a 40GB harddrive, 256 RAM, CDRW drive, USB 2.0, Firewire, On board Ethernet, Sound and card reader, running on XP Home. A good deal, and something I would've needed sometime in the next year. That's the advantage of having some cash available, you can purchase things when you see an outstanding deal.

Budgeting Smart

2004-12-17T21:12:00.000-05:00

OK...so I signed the lease today.

Now I need to figure a system to best use my money. I get paid weekly,(and weakly)and I've got to figure out the best way to budget the money from week to week so that I have the amount to pay the rent and also that car payment

Does anyone have an easy system for something like this. Breaking down each week's pay and where it goes, how much can be used that week, and how much needs to be saved towards the bigger bills? Ideally, I also need to be able to put something towards savings as well. Is it even worth it to move your money around so that some is in a higher interest account for short periods? As short as a couple weeks?

In the past, I never put too much thought into this, and it cost me dearly. I was paying bank fees all over the place, because my checking account had a $150 "overdraft" protection, but each time you dipped into that, there was a $6.00 fee. I believe I personally paid for the holiday party at the bank one year. I haven't done this in over a year and half, and don't intend to start now, but want to be smart with my budgeting and finances.

Signing on the line...

2004-12-15T22:42:00.000-05:00

So on Friday I will be signing the lease for the apartment. I was actually a little worried that my past credit history was going to come to haunt me even here. Apparently it didn't. They did a credit check, and my hard work of the past year and a half seem to have paid dividends in this case. But now I will have to pay $925 each month for a relatively small apartment, instead of using that money for paying debt and savings. I will say however, that I feel good that I have been able to put some away for an emergency fund and get some things started.

My immediate short term goals will be to learn frugally, and put any extra money I have at the end of the month towards my financial future. I am also exploring ways to make some money on the side, without having much overhead or having to work another job outside the house. One of the comments left on my previous post, suggested an eBook...1000 ways to make money. I spent the $19.90 to download it, and it's pretty interesting thus far...good suggestion. Keep them coming.

I'll try to get you the particulars of my purchases needed to move in, and what my budget is going to look like going forward as the details become known to me.

Moving on...

2004-12-13T19:47:00.000-05:00

It sure looks like my savings plans might slow down considerably starting in January unless I can come up with another source of income. For the last year, I've had a living arrangement in which I have not had to pay rent. This will change as I plan to move at the end of the month. The money with which I had been making additional car payments and putting into my eMM account will now be used for rent.

Why rent? Property prices are out of this world in my area. Also, my credit is still shaky, I need another year or two to get back and stabilized. It's been nearly perfect for a year and half, but I need more time to keep building it.

Some of my decisions are being made right now for lifestyle. I want to live in a certain area, near my family friends. It will be a little less than an hour commute to my job, so my fuel and vehicle maintence costs are going to be pretty high. I'd like to make some additional income without leaving my house. I have another web venture which brings me maybe $150 - $200 on a monthly basis, and perhaps another $6000 in two other months. The next one of those months isn't until May, and will likely only be about $1500. So a more consistant monthly income would be welcome.

Whoops...

2004-12-08T20:01:00.000-05:00

So yeah...it's been awhile, huh? I didn't mean to take the whole month of November off from posting, but it happened. Here's the financial snapshot as of now to try to catch you up to date:

December Financial Snapshot

As you see there was some progress made in the month of November, though not as much as I had hoped. I had wished to pay off the credit card by now. A trip to California, and some work on my car effectively nixed that idea. Now, the money I have in my checking account is likely going to be needed to be used for rent and a security deposit starting January 1st. Going to be tough after that point to keep up the savings rate that I've started. I was supposed to be getting another $2000 from a web project, but that appears to have fallen through for the moment, though it could be revived anyday.

You see a new entry above. Knowing nothing about the stock market really, I decided to take my first baby steps in that area. I opened an account with Sharebuilder.com and put $200.00 into it. I bought $150 worth of Sirius (SIRI) and $50 of the Nasdaq 100. (QQQQ) Normally you would do the opposite, I know that much, putting the majority of your money into an Index type fund. Since it's a small amount, I reversed the roles. This is not serious investing, as I'm just trying to get some experience and work with this arena without getting burned too badly. As you can see, after the fees for purchasing the stocks and a couple days of losses on Sirius, I'm well down in my investment. I don't plan on checking it every single day, but I hope to keep adding to the Nasdaq investment slowly.

I'm not sure yet, but my overall goals may be shifting as well. I'm not sure if the part time by June idea is going to fly, but at the very least I do want to be debt-free by then and have more freedom to do whatever it is I want at that time.

Thanks to those of you who have inquired about the site, and if I'll be keeping it current. I do plan to do better. Keep coming back...

2004-11-05T18:49:00.000-05:00

Financial Snapshot for November 1st 2004

Above is the snapshot for November 1st. I will spend some more time in the next day or so making an update here on what's going on.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

2004-10-23T16:13:00.000-04:00

Endsleigh offer a wide range of Insurance Policies, including Car Insurance
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I was only able to pay $100 towards my Credit Card this week. (The minimum payment was $59) I ended up making plans to visit a friend out in California the first week in December, and the price of the round trip airfare ended up being $250. Not bad, I think. I shopped around, both travel websites and Airline websites, and that was the best fare I came up with. It's through SouthWest, which seems to have many great deals if you can take advantage of them.

The next couple weeks will be saving for another monster $1000 car payment, I hope.

Weekly update

2004-10-16T10:54:00.000-04:00

So what have done this week? The paycheck came in, and I moved $150 to the savings. I have a little bit of shopping to do today, but hopefully I can limit the damage somewhat. My car insurance payment came out this week. Next week I'll be making my credit card payment, and I'm hoping to make it as big as possible. $400 seems to be the biggest I'll be able to swing, but we'll see how it goes.

I got some figures for the extra income that I'll be getting at the end of this month. One source will net me $164.77 and the other $134.73. A total of $302.50. Not huge money, but it will eventually end up in the Virtual Bank eMoney Market account. That means the rest of my regular income can be used towards the Credit Card and Jeep payments.

The extra income comes mostly from another Web project I have going on.

The right strategy...

2004-10-09T11:17:00.000-04:00

My Jeep payment of $1008 cleared earlier this week, and I did get my $100 check in the mail, so I'm laying low for the weekend, trying not to spend too much. I did shell out $30 for a bottle of Scotch for a friend of mine. I think I'll be able to make it to Wednesday without dipping into the savings at all. Check that, I had already transferred $50 over in the middle of the week. I'll return that next Wednesday when I put at least $150 back in the savings.

I've started getting comments on my postings here, all of which are interesting and much appreciated. I'm new to the financial world, having spent many years mis-managing money, so I'm just starting to get into good habits here. In the comments, I've gotten two very different bits of financial advice. One person said:

Better, I think to pay the minimum and save as much as possible. Cash is king not available credit. Factor the minimum on your bills as a fixed recurring expense in your budget then forget it. Do not fixate on the interest charges. Instead focus on the positive: the growing balance in your savings account!

That's an interesting theory. I hadn't really heard it before, most of the advice you hear from everyone is to pay off those credit cards and other debts as soon as possible. Two other people checked in with comments and basically rebutted the above argument, one person saying:

If your interest rates are what I expect, you should immediately use up as much of your assets as would leave you with the least amount you can get by with, putting them towards your debts, highest interest rate first

That person also stated that I should be taking the money I have in savings and Money Market to pay off the credit card and also put as much of it towards my Jeep.

I guess what I'm doing is trying to strike a balance. I need to have cash in savings in case of emergency...don't a lot of "experts" tell us that we need to have an emergency fund? I may also be invited to take part in some schooling, which would take 2 months, and during that time I would still need to pay my bills. In addition, after the first of the year, it's not going to be as easy to save money as it is now. I will be paying rent, utilities and all those things which my current situation allows me to avoid. I want to have some savings already, knowing that my ability to pay ahead and create savings is likely going to do down in 2005.

I'm interested in hearing what people have to say.

The Hunt for (in the) Black October

2004-10-02T13:21:00.000-04:00

Time for the monthly preview of what I hope to accomplish this month financially.

Here's where I stand at the beginning of the month.

On Monday, I'm mailing out a payment of $1008.85 to Arcadia Financial (What does that tell you about my credit history?) for my Jeep Cherokee payment. That should amount to over $800 being put towards the loan principal. That should bring my balance to down around $11, 650. I'm told I'm getting mailed a $100 check on Monday, I'm not counting on it, but if I have it by the end of the week, that will help me out some.

That's going to leave me with very little money available until 10/13. That week, I will be putting $100 into my Credit Union savings. My car insurance payment and cell phone (which is my only phone) total about another $100.00. If I have to dip into savings the week before, I will replace it here, rather than putting more on the credit card. I hope to leave about $200 in the checking account by the time the next week comes along.

The week of 10/20 I'll be making a credit card payment. I would like to make another $400 payment, or even $500. We'll see what happens. Another $100 into the savings will be used as well, so I will use as much as I can towards those priorities and still having enough for food and gasoline.

The week of 10/27, I'm going to try to follow the pattern of September, and save as much as I can towards making another $1000 payment to my car due on 11/6. I get paid on 11/3, so it seems like this might be possible once again. Looking ahead, I'm expecting a large payment in November with which I hope to make a huge dent in the car payment for December. (like possible cut the remaining balance in half.)

I ask the readers...if there are any...if I were to get say $5000 in November, is putting it towards that high interest car loan the wisest place for it? Or would there be a more worthwhile place for it? Keep in mind, my goals here are to be living a very simple lifestyle on a part time income by the middle of next year. Having no car payment and no credit card debt makes that much easier to achieve.

I appreciate the mention from the PFBlog website last week, which was really the inspiration for this somewhat shameless knockoff of the same concept...thanks.

Small Victories

2004-09-30T14:19:00.000-04:00

That's what this Blog is about. A lot of small steps towards getting myself where I want to be in the short term.

I'm still awaiting my $350 check...hopefully it'll be in today. I want to get the eMM stoked with another $500 deposit. Won't make it before the end of the month. Too bad. I've managed to be very frugal as planned the last couple weeks. If that continues through the weekend, I will be mailing that $1008 car payment on Monday. It will feel good, too.

I'm going to try to have a month end/month beginning summary/goals type post here in the next day or two. I'll chart my progress as well.

BSF

Making it through the month

2004-09-22T19:47:00.000-04:00

I'm finding that this blog, though probably not heavily trafficked, is useful to me in jotting down what I do with my finances, but also in being able to look back at the beginning of the month and see what I wanted to do week-by-week and then follow through with it. From my check today, I put $100 in the savings, bringing me to $1200. Apparently I have about $346 in side income on it's way to me, so when I get that, it will be added to the $1200 and then $500 of that will be moved to the eMM account. Good shape there.

I also paid $400 towards my credit card instead of the $300 I had hoped for. This might leave me a little tight going into next week, as now I have just over $200 in my checking account and an almost empty gas tank on my Jeep Cherokee, so it's more like $170 in my account until next Wednesday.

The extra towards the credit card is somewhat negated because I had to use $90 of it last week because a unexpected bill could not be paid using my debit card. That was a little annoying, so I made up the extra in the payment for the month. For the moment, after the payment my balance will dip under $2000 for the first time since probably a month after I opened the account. (Yeah, I racked it up when I got it.) Interest charges will probably bump it up a little over the $2000 mark, but it will be nice to see it under while it lasts.

I want to be extremely frugal the next couple weeks as I'd really like to reel off a $1000 car payment on Oct 6th.

9/16 update

2004-09-16T13:32:00.000-04:00

From the pay this week, I moved $100 over to savings, making my balance there $1100. Ended up paying $148.38 for my phone...so both months are paid. $27.25 for car insurance.

Transactions

2004-09-08T14:12:00.000-04:00

Initiated the transfer of $500 to VirtualBank today. My spending earlier in the week is going to leave me a bit tight for the week. I'm going camping this weekend, so my expenses shouldn't be all that much, but for gas and groceries, I'm going to have $97 available to get me through until this time next week. That includes paying my $75 phone bill. I just may wait a week on that and pay it next week.

So sometime in the next three business days my eMM account should be up to $3025. It's one thing accomplished this week.

Spending Spree

2004-09-07T11:27:00.000-04:00

I may have put myself back a little bit with a trip to WalMart yesterday. I'm going camping this coming weekend, and needed a few things that I currently do not own. I got a sleeping bag, inflatable mattress, camp chair and a few other things. Damage came to $171. Not too bad, actually, as this will probably be stuff I'll have for years. I needed an Air Mattress anyway, as when I go looking for new housing for January, I may not have a bed to move in with. I also purchased my groceries for the week in the same trip.

I mailed the $608.85 for the car and $370 for the charity. I'm still hoping to be able to put the $200 into my savings so I can then transfer $500 to VirtualBank later this week.

In some good news, my car insurance dropped from $102 monthly all the way down to about $25. This is because my ex-wife is no longer on the policy. It took them a number of months to take her off the policy. I suspect the rate will go back up a little bit at renewal time, but the savings in the short term is good. If I'm smart, I'll take that "found" $75 and put it towards savings or the bills.

I should have an update either tomorrow or the next day on what I end up doing with the finances this week.

Goals for September

2004-09-01T22:00:00.000-04:00

Let's try to see what I want to accomplish this month.

Today I sent a payment of $608.84 for my car payment. The amount due each month is $408.85. I have to send off another check for $370 in the next couple days for some charity I commited to. That will pretty much clear out the checking account.

I have $1300 in the brick & mortar savings and may have to use a little of that to get by until next week, though I hope not. I'm expecting a check in the mail for $100 in the next day, so that should help. I want to always have $1000 in this account, and each time I get to $1500...I'm putting $500 into the higher yield eMoneyMarket account at VirtualBank (2.15% APY) They have a promotion going that would give you and I $20 each if you open an account with them. ($100 min) If you're interested in making us both $20 and getting a great rate, email me at the above address and I'll get you a referral.

Next week's check (the 8th) of $592...I'll need to pay my cell phone, which is about $75. I want to hopefully I'll have enough to put into my saving to bring to $1500, triggering the move to the eMoneyMarket. I'll need about $150-$200 for gas and groceries.

The following week (the 15th) I'll want to stash $100 into the savings. Then try to leave the rest in the checking. Again, probably will need $150 to $200 for expenses. Hopefully that will leave at least $200 in the checking and $1100 in savings.

The next week (the 22nd) Another $100 to savings, bringing that to $1200. Another $150-$200 for expenses and the aproximate balance in the checking should be around $400. I'll need to make a payment on my credit card at this time. Hopefully $300. That brings me down to about $100.

The last week (the 29th) Other than the usual expenses, I plan to leave as much in the checking as possible, to couple with the next week and make as big a car payment as I can the first week of October. Hopefully $1008.85. That same week I'm expecting a $350 check in the mail. I plan to put that into savings and make another move to the eMM account.

So at the end of the month, I hope to have done the following:

Paid the Car $608.85
Paid the phone $75.00
Paid the Credit Card $300.00

Keep my savings balance of at least $1000.00
Have a balance in the eMM of $3525.00 plus interest.
Have a good amount towards a $1008.85 payment on the car for October 6.
My Credit Card balance should be around $1950.00
My Car loan balance should be around $11,700 after the October 6th payment.

The Situation

2004-08-31T10:28:00.000-04:00

Some details:

$592 in weekly take home salary.
About $200 to $250 a month in other income

Expecting about $5000 lump sum in November
Possibly another $2500 in lump sum as well, around the same time.

Current Savings:

eMoneyMarket account: $2500
Standard Savings: $1300
(I'm keeping my retirement accounts out of the equation at the moment.)

Debts:
Car payment: $408 a month,(Minimum) amount remaining on loan: $12,500
Credit Card: Balance of $2250

Those are the two things I hope to have paid off by June 2005.

Monthly expenses:
Rent: None for the rest of the year...good deal.
Gasoline: about $300/month
Cell Phone: $75/month
Food/Recreation $600/month (budgeted)
Car Insurance: $102/month
Utilities: N/A

So really, I have less than $1100.00 in monthly expenses outside of my Car and CC.

What I plan to document here is where money is going each week, what I do with "extra" money and how the plan is shaping up. I'll also try to post any tips I get for generating a little extra income and how to make the most of the money that I have.

Again, the goals:

$6000 in savings by the end of 2004.
Pay off the Credit Card by the end of 2004
Pay off the Car by June, 2005.

Wish me luck.

BSF

Where to begin

2004-08-30T20:36:00.000-04:00

This Blog is meant to serve as a diary for my personal finance goals. In short, I hope by the middle of 2005 to be able to support myself on a part time income, and have as little debt and as much savings as possible.

To get there, I have some hurdles to overcome. Not as many as some people, but enough that this project is going to need some creativity and serious budgeting.

I'll lay out the details in coming days and how I hope to proceed. Advice and feedback is always welcome.