Pain in the Pump

With gas prices soaring, everyone is feeling the pain of high fuel costs. Because we are spending more on gas than we were before, I need to rework our budget. This is something that brings no joy in my life. Wether I like it or not we are spending more at the pump, so I need to allocate more money for fuel than I had in past months. Another thing we need to look at is our electric bill, which has jacked up over these summer days. This means less spendable cash at hand. So I will start working on a new budget and let you guys know how it came out later.

Where We Are With Our Goals

Here is an update on where we are with our goals and with our debt.

1) Get out of debt. We are still working on this one, but at least we have consolidated all of our credit cards.
2) We are investing for retirement.
3) I am continuing my education college and investing.
4) We've had a baby.
5) We've remodeled our kitchen.

Our five year goals are still to get out of debt, buy a new house, rent or sell the current one, fix up our yard, get fit & lose weight. So we are halfway there and it has only been a year. I guess it's time to rethink or redo our five year plan, so we can stay on track of things.

Motivation and Goal Setting

I was looking over some notes that I have and found this and thought that it would make a good post again. I don't remember what book I got it from or which seminar I heard it from, but I give props out to whoever came up with it.

1) Examine your identity.
2) Define your Values.
3) Establish goals and create sub goals.
4) Create and action plan.
5) Implement various motivations.
6) Establish Discipline.
7) Maintain Flexibility.
8) Reach an outcome.

I feel that it is good to get refocused on your goals so that you stay on track. This is one way to keep on track or to actually get on track. If I remember where I got this from I will list the author so that you can check it out.

Moving the Computer

Well there goes the computer room. I got everything moved into our bedroom making it smaller that it already was. So if anyone has been wondering about why I haven't been posting in a while, it's cause we are in the process of getting the babies room organized and ready to paint, my blue walls will be changing to pink and some other pastel color. I actually like the move with the computer. Now I can watch TV, jam to tunes, surf the net, and work on my blog all at the same time. How is that for multi-tasking. Anyway wanted to let people know what's up and I will get back to posting more personal finance material as soon as I can.

Tags: goals, resolutions, tasks

Time to Get Serious: Goal Setting Time Again

I figured now would be a good time before the Holiday's hit and things get out of hand to refocus on my goals for the year. If I do it now and not at the end of the year as a new year's resolution, I will probably have a better chance of not only reaching these goals, but also not giving up on them like I usually do with my new year's resolution. So here are some short term goals.

1) Finish the website I am having built for work to bring in more leads. Maybe increase some income.

2) Get focused on bringing in some more income to pay debt and invest.

3) Start bird-dogging, not just talking about it.

4) Get our house organized and give up my office space for the babies room. By the way it's a girl, so it looks like I will be painting again.

5) I need to really get going on this REI if I am serious about it.

6) Get in shape, so not only can I keep up with the baby, but they say staying healthy can save you money in medical bills and make you more money. (Less calling in sick).

So this is the short list, but I will come up with some more. What goals do you have and what resolutions are you planning on making?

Tags: Goals

Account Passwords

Since I am the one who takes care of all of our bills, investments, banking, and savings online, I have about 50 million passwords that I have a hard time remembering sometimes. Well actually a lot of times. Well I've been thinking about opening up a safety deposit box at our bank so that we can keep important papers and a list of our accounts and passwords. Well it turns out that this may be a really good idea. Check out Liz Weston's article on Don't take your passwords to the grave. So I will call around a check out the prices. It's not like we will need a very large box. Will keep you updated on my progress and the prices.

Spend Less Than You Earn

It seems that I am seeing and hearing this everywhere now. I guess it's like when you get a new car and all of a sudden you start seeing them everywhere. In my accounting class we were talking about different aspects of business and all of a sudden my professor busts out with the most important thing in business is to make more than you spend. That is the secret. Wow, not only is that the secret for business, but it's the main mantra for personal finance. Spend less than you earn! It's funny how when you start focusing on something it turns up all around you. The best part is that it reinforces my goals. A higher education is really worth something.

Well That's One Goal

Well I got my HSBCdirect savings account set up. Now I just need to wait three days to start funding it. I also need to set up a goal for the amount of money that we are going to need in our emergency fund, plus some extra for investing. I have been reading alot on real estate investments and think I might be interested in rental properties, but I want to get out of credit card debt first. Anyway I figure I can save a little extra for either and emergency or investing and grow some interest on it also.

My Online Savings Choice

Well it looks like we will be going with HSBC direct as our emergency savings fund. The clincher was last night on the way to a birthday party when I saw that we had a local branch, so between that and the ATM card I think I have finally made up my mind. I know you are thinking it is about time, but being new to all this I had to check out all of my options. Anyway I will be taking the plunge today and setting up our online savings account so that I can incorporate our pay ourselves first mentality in to our emergency fund.

Looks Like A Winner

I would like to thank whoever posted the information on HSBC direct having ATM cards for their online savings account. In case of an emergency I would like to be able to get to my money without too much hassle. I know what you are thinking, having easy access will tempt me to spend it, but I am not too worried about that, I am pretty disciplined. At least I think I am. I've heard a lot of good things about both Emigrant Direct and HSBC Direct, but I am leaning towards HSBC right now because of the ATM card. So in the next day or two I will have made my decision and opened and account. Any other comments on either of these two banks would be appreciated.

Online Savings Account

Seeing that I need to get moving on setting up an Emergency Savings Account, I've started researching some of the online savings banks. It seems like there are a lot to choose from and they all offer pretty much the same options. The only difference is the interest rates they are currently paying. Here are some of the interest rates they are currently offering.

Ing Direct 4.40%
Emigrant Direct 5.15%
HSBC Direct 5.05%
Citibank 5.00%
CapitalOne 4.80
Wamu 5.00%

You can pretty much open any of these accounts by funding them with at least $1. There are no membership fees, no minimum balances, and you can transfer back and forth between your checking account. I think a couple of these even pay you for referrals. I am leaning towards Emigrant Direct, but haven't made up my mind yet. Anyone have any suggestions on which has the best customer service, online experience, etc...? I would appreciate any suggestions.

My Investing Progress

So being an Amateur Investor, I really haven't said much about my experiences since I started this blog. I read Rule #1 by Phil Town and have been trying to follow his system. I got in with a good margin of safety and with a company that I feel I know and understand. The stock was on an uptrend and doing pretty well, but with all the craziness in the market it dropped like a stone. Well I can't buck the system because the signals were there to get out, and I second guessed them. So anyway I was looking at the stock bottom out and was thinking, what have I got myself into. Though I was very tempted to get out, I decided to stick. Like Buffet's value investing, I knew that I had a good company, at a good price and that it would eventually rebound. Well the stock reversed and is on an uptrend again and I am about to break even. So I guess the moral is don't second guess, don't be emotional, and don't jump in and out at the wrong times. Even though I haven't made my mind up about the Rule #1 system. I figure I will give it a year to see how I do. I like Phil Town because he is pretty straight forward, he is very active in his blog, and will answer any questions that you have. Being new to investing I plan on continuing to learn all that I can. So one of these days I can graduate from amateur investor to mediocre investor.

Credit Report Update

Well I have finally received some updates on my credit report disputes. It looks as if they have removed all of them except for one, which is for the smallest amount-$92. I am tempted just to pay it to be done with it, but maybe I will try calling the company and seeing if I can resolve it on my own. I am pretty excited because with cleaning up the charges that were not mine, my credit should be a lot better now. Well I will continue working on that one last dispute and see if I can get rid of all of them.

Saving Money For A Rainy Day

I guess one of the goals I have neglected to set for my family is an emergency savings accout. I have recently read an article on Making Your Emergency Savings Automatic by David Bach the author of The Automatic Millionaire. For those of you who aren't sure of what this is, it is an account that you save money in for unforeseeable expenses- car repairs, home repairs, Dr's bills, etc.... The types of expenses that you would usually have to max out your credit cards for.
The article pretty much shows how to set up a cushion of money for these types of emergencies.
There are four basic steps to do this.

1) Make your rainy day fund Automatic. Bach says that if you don't make this process automatic chances are that you won't save. So each payday transfer a certain amount into a money market, savings account, etc....

2) Get your money out of your checking account. Put your money where you don't have easy access to it. Such as high interest savings account, money market, etc....

3) Put it in the right place. Make sure you are earning interest on your money. Don't let the banks make all the money.

4) Decide how big of a cushion you need. I have read all kinds of different amounts. I think the amount to shoot for is one that you are comfortable with and one that keeps you from having to use your credit cards.

I guess there is no time like the present to get started, so I guess my next step will be checking out some of the high interest online savings banks. If anyone has any suggestions I would appreciate any comments.

Credit Report...

So in an effort to continue reaching for our financial freedom, I ordered my credit report to see how bad things were. If anyone is interested you can get a free credit report each year from Transunion, Equifax, and Experian from http://annualcreditreport.com. They charge extra if you want to receive your credit scores, but it's a good way to check out your credit history.

After getting over my fear of knowing I have horrible credit, I pulled up all my reports and it turns out my credit is not so bad after all. I have a couple of things to take care of, but all in all it didn't look as bad as I thought it would. I have some discrepencies that I need to take care of, but nothing that will keep me from reaching our five year goal. My wife by the way does not have to worry about these problems. Anyway I am feeling much better about getting our finances in order and meeting our goals.

Net Worth?

Today I've decided to start keeping track of our net worth. I think it will be a great way to keep us focused on were we are going and motivate us in our journey to financial freedom. I've been checking out a couple of other bloggers who use NetWorth IQ, so I may look into it. It's free anyway so it can't be too bad. Hopefully our net worth is not too depressing.

Our 5 year plan

Hope everyone had a safe and happy July 4th. The wife and I worked on our five year plan over the past couple of days.

Here are some of the goals we came up with:

1) Get out of Debt! Especially credit card debt
2) Have Children
3) Invest for Retirement
4) Remodel Kitchen
5) Landscape our yard
6) Get in Shape/ Lose weight
7) Learn a craft or hobby that will bring in more income
8) Continue my education, College and Investments

We have already started working on paying off our debt and have worked on a 5 yr budget that will allow us to not only pay off our substantial credit card debt, but will allow us to be finacial free, so that we can get into a bigger house and rent our current cozy little house out for some passive income. The other goal we have already started working on is investing for our retirement. I have gone back to college to work on a business degree and am trying to read everything I can on finances and investing. I will continue to post our progress as we meet our goals.