Entries from April 2007
Haven’t posted in a while because there hasn’t been much to post. My investing momentum has sort of stalled, and I haven’t held us to our budget as much as I should have, so I haven’t deprived myself much lately. I really need to figure out just how to get my motivation back.
Been busy too, though, preparing for a Physics II final exam, for which I was not ready, and putting together a wooden swingset for my daughter’s birthday present. I got a lot done the weekend before this last one, but ran into a snag with parts and had to wait for them to send me new parts. Finished it up yesterday.
401-k and Roth are still doing ok….neither are growing exponentially, but at least it’s a start. And after getting a doctor to send some medical records out, my life insurance is confirmed. $500,000 in term life insurance.
Anyway, got to get completely back on the budget wagon and start depriving myself again. And I have GOT to make more money than this! I deserve it, by Jove! 
Categories: Budget · Investing · Personal Finances
They say ignorance is bliss…I think that is definitely the case when it comes to finances. When you choose to not know how much you’re spending or how much you’re not saving for retirement, life is easy. You do whatever you want and whatever you can, with the money you’ve got….and maybe with some money you don’t have (debt).
But then you open your eyes to your financial stupidity, get rid of your credit cards, and are constantly aware of how little you have saved and how many things you need to be saving for. I have two daughters, which eventually will mean two weddings, two college educations, two cars, etc. I’m trying to save every bit I can for retirement but we’re having trouble just saving up for small things, because we have so little to save.
Logically, I know we are much better off now that we have no credit card debt….and if we could get rid of our car debts, that would help. But emotionally, I am much more worried about money now than I was when we were $30,000 in debt. Where in the world am I going to get enough money to save for education, cars, weddings, etc. How am I going to have enough to give my kids what they deserve?
Categories: Personal Finances · Savings
I recently added another blog to my blogroll, and in case you didn’t notice it there, I wanted to bring it to your attention.
According to Zachary, he is “a community college philosophy instructor and graduate student, desperately trying to finish” his Ph.D. His blog lives over at http://www.seemegetrich.com, and although he started his blog March 24 of this year, he has already got great content and a great track record of insightful and interesting posts. I especially like his investment metaphors, where he compares investing to subjects as varied as cane toads and fractals. I hope he adds more of those soon.
So stop by and visit Zachary at http://www.seemegetrich.com and….well….see him get rich!
Categories: Budget · Investing · Personal Finances
Well, I have now put $100 from my ING Direct savings account into my Roth IRA, and changed it to the growth and income fund that had the higher historical rates of return. Hopefully I’ll see the benefits of that soon. It’s probably risky to have it all in an aggressive growth type vehicle, but I am only 32 and don’t have much in it yet, so for now I’m fine. Once it grows more I’ll add a less risky fund to my portfolio for balance and security.
I look at my investments every weekday, which leads my wife to tell me, “Dave Ramsey says you should only look at it once a year or so.” Now, I can understand that reasoning, because some people may look at their IRA or 401-k, see a negative rate of return, and panic and pull their money out of it. Me, I’m looking forward to the occasional dip so I can invest more money in the funds at a lower share price! Buy low and sell high, right? Eventually, anyway.
Currently I am quite happy with my 401-k. My rate of return right now (today) is a little over 9%. So I invested $60 out of my paycheck, the company I work for matched it for a total of $120, so far, and the total value right now is $125. I’d like to contribute more to that 401-k but I am looking for some online calculator out there where I can determine what impact certain 401-k contributions will have on my take home pay every two weeks. Haven’t found it yet.
Well, time to run……time to watch the money grow! 
Categories: Investing
Money sucks, but only because I don’t have enough of it. It seems I stress more about money now then I did when we had almost $30,000 in credit card debt. It doesn’t make sense, does it?
There is always something we need to buy or do, and money just never seems to be there. Really makes me worry and stress. I would simply get a part-time job, but I am working full-time now and going to school part-time to become an engineer, so time is scarce. It’s only been about 4 months now since paying off the credit cards, but I feel like we should be in much better shape financially than we are right now.
I suppose, since we used to overspend by over $1,000 each month, that we are now living as if we’ve taken pay cuts! It’s not easy to not be able to buy things you always bought, because now we’re not buying on credit.
Categories: Budget · Investing · Personal Finances · Savings
