Originally posted on my Facebook account, but some of the lessons are just as relevant here. Made a couple additions here a couple weeks after the original post.

1. Having people close to you is important for happiness and mental health. Even if you’re separated geographically it’s still nice to stay in touch with them. For me personally I’m 1500 miles from my hometown, so it takes a little bit of extra planning. Most of the time I have no regrets about spending a few hours out with a could friends.
2. It’s way too easy to get fat and eat what I call dirty. The chemicals in what we eat is kind of shocking from the bottom of the food chain up. Real food is always better.
3. If all you do is eat, work, and sleep you’re doing it wrong. That’s kind of what I did in college. I have the three degrees to show for it but I could’ve had more fun l if I made some tweaks. I still am working on this. The worst feeling to have is regret, looking back 10, 20, or 30+ years in life and realizing you were a complete slave to the dollar and basic things in life.
4. Material things – Love them, I still buy them. Not to impress other people though. I do it for me. Big ticket items almost always depreciate, so choose wisely.
5. Travel – really helps you put perspective on life and think of possibilities. I moved to Texas 7 years ago with a lot of fear, uncertainly, and doubt. Will I stay here forever? Who knows but I did know it was time for a change. I also love exploring new places with other people.
6. Do real shit – get away from the screen, social media, and live your life. Comparing yourself to others is toxic, and lots of what you see is fake anyway. I keep waiting for the point where society will say enough is enough and start to push back on these things. Sometimes I’m not so sure. The extent to which people focus on what a particular celebrity or politician is kind of insane.
7. Focus on the fundamentals – saving for retirement, doing things that will allow you to live long enough to enjoy it, get out of debt, have insurance so that $50k medical expense is only $7k.
8. Past is the past – living in the past, wishing things were a certain way accomplishes nothing. Close one door and open a new one if the time has come.
9. Don’t burn bridges – it takes a lifetime to build a good reputation and just minutes to destroy it.
10. Be mindful of who you surround yourself with. Sometimes you have no choice but set limits. Feeding constant negativity doesn’t help you or the other person.
11. Defeatism kills dreams – talking yourself out of everything without even considering the upside or how it will make you grow as a person is a recipe for regret lol. Things may not always work out but if you’re not in the game you’ll never win.
12. Pets are awesome. I didn’t get a dog until I was 29. She is amazing and shows unconditional love. Sometimes you need to wake up to that in the morning, after a long day, or after a date that goes horribly wrong.
13. Enjoy the news in small doses. Be aware but don’t let it ruin your day, no matter what happens.
14. Don’t settle – that minimum wage job as a cashier was a step to the next point in my life. Others are following their own path, never look down on them because that’s where they are today.

Last buy not least… Don’t buy shit you’re not going to use.
Take care. Be well.

Not too long ago I wrote what I thought was a pretty freaking amazing blog post. Then unbeknownst to me, as I hit the publish button, the entire thing was gone. You’d think I would have known by now… So this my readers is my second attempt at writing a June posting. Arguably this version will be bigger, better, faster, stronger.

In May I went on a work trip to beautiful Colorado Springs. I stayed at a resort that is known around the country as being one of the top places in the entire state. Drinks were shared, stories of business were told along with some amazing sights. The city was about a mile high and I completely was not ready for it. Next time I will do more research before going someplace with such a huge change in elevation / climate. My nose will thank me.

After settling back in Dallas for another week, I made a trip up to Boston to drop off the cat I’ve had around for months. Its owners owed and promptly paid me $500 for associated expenses including cat food, cat litter, cat litter box, toys, treats, veterinary bills. They also covered my airfare and shuttled me around.

Boston is a beautiful city. Some of the sites I got to experience include Harvard University, Paul Revere’s house & statue, Quincy Market, New England Aquarium, Cambridge and Dedham. It’s a lot more walkable than Dallas, and the parking garages were a bit on the pricey side. The cost of real estate was kind of insane. $500k was the starting point for many pieces of property, with many exceeding that. On the flip side, my odds of finding a partner are higher, it’s more socially progressive, and closer to my aging parents. The $64k  question… 5 years out do I still want to live 1500+ miles away from family..

Upon returning to Dallas, I was blessed with a nail in my rear tire. Got the tire plug patched at a nearby Goodyear service center before work and was good to go. The repair was $25, I opened up a claim and got $12 back. When I bought the tires in April they included Road Hazard Protection. Luckily it was a cheap repair and I didn’t have to file a claim for a completely new tire…

I think my soul yearns to travel more. I made excuses for years about wanting to find the right person to go with. Only to realize I’m not getting any younger. Plus  you can’t bank vacation time, either you use it or you lose it. I’ll end this with a quote by Paula Pant of Afford Anything “You can afford anything, but not everything”.

June 2018 Financial Update

Happened way earlier than expected, I hit a major milestone in my retirement last week. June 2018 less than two months away from my 35^thbirthday I hit a total of $40k. Started with a 401k right before 30, I was also burdened with almost $40k of student loan debt at the time. It’s a great feeling to have things turning around completely in the other direction.

With this major milestone being, I’m shifting gears again. Going to max out my Roth IRA, switch to / max out an HSA-based insurance plan as part of my open enrollment. Once the Roth is maxed out, then I might just stop playing with this 1.9% car loan and pay more principal payments until it’s 0.

Why this change? It boils down to a couple of key points…

1. I would like to have more money liquid. The future is uncertain and I’d like to have money available to cover 3 months worth of an emergency fund.
2. The market may be due for a correction soon. I’m not one to believe in market timing. However…if tomorrow my investments lose 20% of their value, I would be feeling a bit of remorse by having it all wrapped up in something I can’t access penalty free until I’m 59 1/2, or possibly longer if lawmakers decide to start changing the rules.
3. I am tired of having debt. Specifically I’ve written about eliminating debt for over 6 years. I’d rather have the $541/mo in my pocket or other investments rather than lowering my cashflor.
4. Tax free vs taxable investments. I like the concept of having eggs in both baskets. I’m of the opinion that tax-free growth of any investment is a bit of fallacy and Uncle Sam will try to find a way to penalize people or bring it to a halt. Maybe that won’t happen.
5. It’s a bit of a stress relief to be able to move a couple hundred more dollars each month into my emergency fund.

Current Debt:
Car Loan: $16,571.34
Current Investments:
401k: $39,256.41 (it’s dipped a little bit over the past few days)
Roth IRA: $270.81

This is more of a money update type blog, but I needed to get this off by shoulders…

Recent news stories have been a bit of a wakeup call for us to all pay attention to the quality of our mental health. There have been a few moments of me feeling down, nothing too severe. I try to be aware of this and react accordingly. I am happy for people who have found a significant other. In my case like 3 of them got married or found the love of their life just a few months after things didn’t work out with me. One recently changed his relationship status to in a relationship. Another I was interested in dating, but said I was going too quickly because I actually wanted to meet… is dating someone now. Then being told things like to be a good Christian he couldn’t act on his sexuality. Maybe I should just put all this stuff into an excel document with a brief summary of what happened. That should be my homework fo the night..

I can relate to folks who say it’s a new day, and there are other fish in the sea. Just get fed up with the dating scene, guys who say they’ll meet up on a certain day of the week, you message them and then no response. Yet most of the apps show when they were online last. Then 10 days later I get a hey handsome. I honestly think there have been over 150 types of experiences. Maybe it all did happen for a reason though.

In the meantime it’s time to focus on getting buff, increasing the ole Sexual Market Value. Maybe I’ll end up moving if this keeps up a couple more years. Dallas has been great for my career, but my love life sucks. Almost 4 years of being single…

Lowering my automotive expenses has been top of mind lately.
Tires
Hovering around 30k miles, the stock Continental Procontact TX tires that came on the car were ready to be replaced. I rotated them, maintained proper air pressure, never did J turns, burnouts or anything crazy like that. First it was the sidewalls beginning to show cracks, then some really bad hydroplaning even in light rain. I read reviews where people said the sidewalls were weak and started to get bubbles after hitting potholes. So I looked at my options.

The top rated 245/45R18 tire was the Vredestein Quatrac 5. It isn’t a well known company in the US, but seems to be more common around Europe. A set of 4 tires for $582.12 plus $45.28 in shipping, for $627.40. Right off the bat I save $168.92.

The tires shipped to my local Firestone shop, I leave work a little early on a Monday, deal with 45 min of traffic, only to be told by the manager… sorry we only have one guy working and 6 cars to do work on. I ask about doing it the following morning and he nope same problem, come back Saturday. I say screw it and load the cars up in the trunk and backseat of the Maxima.

Drove to a shady looking tire shop in my area that is open a little earlier. With tax they installed all 4 tires for $86. Hopefully they did the job right and I don’t have problems down the road.

Yesterday I found a $59.99 coupon for a wheel alignment at a nearby Nissan dealership. They’re a few miles out of the way but I’d brought my car there before, without any problems. I casually mention to the service advisor I have a $15 off coupon from one of their competitors for synthetic oil, but am still 400 miles from really needing a change. She then says they have a promo for $9.99 for Mobil 1 0W20 synthetic oil with a new filter. That’s like $30-35 cheaper than what I’m used to paying. About ~80 total. Helps to shop around.

For the tirerack purchase I get 5% back since I used PayPal. So $31.37 back, then 3% cashback on the subtotal or $17.46. $664.57 total for the tires. Saved a couple hundred bucks…

Next is insurance, Allstate’s rates are getting out of control. I’m 34, have a FICO score above 800, no accidents, no tickets. They give a slight discount for up front payment. I have priced out policies elsewhere and the price is closer to $600 for 6 months for better coverage. Potentially saving $500/yr in the process. That’s almost an extra car payment, or 10 tanks full of gas. Calling a local insurance agent who can shop around rates this week. The line must be drawn here. Progressive may be in my future. Sup Flo? haha

Back from New York, that’s another post though. I noticed a bit of an alarming trend. One person I know filed for bankruptcy, another is in the process of filing.

Situation 1: Guy now in his 40s lived a life beyond his means for years, buying furniture, going on vacations to tropical places, leased 3 cars, was upside down in one of the car he owned at one point by close to $10k. He was engaged for a while then things went south. He incurred some ~$6k legal fees because his ex-fiancee made some false statements about him, requiring legal counsel. Out of nowhere he dropped a bomb on me that he has $25k in credit card debt and plans to file before he moves to California. He never really asked for my advice about money, instead doing his own thing, was spending money on a pack a day of cigarettes. I don’t think he has a retirement account either, seems to have a bleak viewpoint on the future.

Situation 2: Guy never met a debt he didn’t like. Used to brag about putting everything on his credit cards to earn points. Leased a Hyundai Genesis for $900/mo, was negligent with his previous car, got in multiple accidents, ended up cracking the transmission. He left Texas to move to a place where the rent for a 1br is almost 3x what it was in the Dallas area. Goes to restaurants and orders expensive bottles of wine. Bought a digital camera that was over $3k in the middle of this. Went on cruises, got unlimited drink packages, best seats on the ship. Paid for an expensive trip to Alaska. 10s of $1000s in medical debt over the years. Credit was in poor shape. Had to borrow money from friends to be able to pay his rent each month. Unwilling to take any of my financial advice to heart. I don’t know all the details but do know it was a Chapter 13. The way he phrased it to me, he still owes the money but just isn’t paying interest. He sorta looked down on my for depriving myself of certain things in order to accelerate the debt payoff efforts.

It’s not my place to judge others but still think it could’ve been handled differently. Their debt / life, not mine…

Onto a current snapshot since it’s been a while….
401k – $35,557 – the market has been very volatile the past few months.
Roth IRA – $148
Total Retirement: $35,705
Emergency  Fund: $1,000 – it did take me over a year to even put that money aside.life..

Credit Cards = Still $0.00
NMAC 1.9% Auto Loan: $17,695 – 2 1/2 months ago it was $20,605. Still shooting for double payments each month ($1082/mo).

My car will be needing new tires in the next 3 months or so. I probably could push it until the Fall, but the current Continental ProContact TX set is getting noisy. On a rainy day coming around a corner, they definitely lost their grip. Getting close to 30k miles, which is hard to believe.

My lease is coming up for renewal, the amount is $844/month, $26 more per month than what I currently pay. Some folks would do anything to have rent that cheap. I would like to upgrade to a nicer place, maybe buy a house at some point. However… $500/mo of additional rent is not appealing to me at all. Why rent for $1300/mo unless it’s a really fancy house. Most of these places are 1br or studio apartments.

Noticed condensation in my passenger side headlight this weekend. 2 weeks away from owning it for 2 years old and still under warranty. Guy at the service center said it still looked brand new. Before you think I’m making a big deal out of nothing, it’s possible this problem could get worse. Water + electrical current is not good, especially in the event of major rainfall. We had some heavy rainfall in Dallas two weeks ago and likely will get a few more until it starts getting a lot warmer. Here are two pictures of the headlight assembly.

Priced new, one would run over $600.

A few weeks ago I tried to replace my in-cabin microfilter. The left is the dirty one and the right is the replacement that got stuck.. I spent an hour trying to pull out with a screwdriver, almost cutting up my fingers while on my back before sunset. Thankfully O’Reillys had a replacement for about $20.

It’s official, each of the last 3 cars I’ve owned has been totaled. I found the 2008 Altima, which I owned for 6 years on a salvage site. I owned the car for 6 years and spent $2300 on upgrading the audio system. At the time it seemed like *so* much money. Now I think about other things that could’ve been done with the money. Or how much interest I would have saved putting that toward the student loan instead.

This is what the car looked like in November 2017:

versus when I had it stowed safely away in a garage. On the bright side I got about $9k for it at trade-in.

As much as I love cars, I was skimming through old pictures I had and realized I valued the people and experiences in my life more. It’s been an interesting 6 3/4 years in Dallas. I have pictures of place I travelled to, temp housing, first apartment, first house, my current apartment, cruises, places I’ve travelled. Friends who moved away or went crazy.  I’d like to make new memories with someone. Seems like a dream from where I stand today. Online it’s usually no response, no mutual attraction, or just chatting with no intention of meeting.

Maybe I’m just overly cautious in my years. Don’t want to pick the wrong guy, or take a chance on one who has no interest in dating or getting to know each other. Then again there were quite a few who were and I let them fall through the cracks. I could write a book with all the stories. I’m tired though, chatting with mostly 20 somethings feels like a waste of time.

So I was watching an interview with Carl of 1500days.com and started thinking. At my current rate how much will I have assuming everything stays consistent. Odds are they won’t, the Roth IRA contribution limits will be raised, and ideally I will earn enough to be ineligible at some point. I’ll turn 60 in the year 2043. I don’t foresee myself working that long, it’s 26 years away. On the reverse side, god willing I’d like to live well past 80 and 20 years of retiring in the traditional sense seems like hell.

Looking back to 26 years ago… I was in 2nd grade, lived downstairs in my grandmother’s home, dad was on dialysis / collecting SSI, mom worked at a nursing home, the car she drove was an 97hp 1987 Nissan Stanza. The car would shake over 50mph and kind of scary on the highway, but she did keep it for almost 10 years. We had a Brother Word Processor with a monochrome display and a floppy disk for software / data saves. I thought that was the coolest thing ever. No home computer, I only heard about the information superhighway on TV. George HW Bush was still president, Batman Returns made its debut. I wouldn’t start part time working until 7 years later at the amazing wage of $5.15/hr, my first check was a whopping $80 net.

In what I would consider a comfortable level of saving and taking current 2018 laws into account. I wouldn’t hit 6 figures until 2021, quarter mil 2024, half mil 2029, full mil 2035. That number is *bullshit* though. I’ll go into why after the table.

1. I didn’t include any employer match into account. In most companies that would be 3-5%. That adds at least $2k/year to the total.
2. Inflation – Our dollars are going to be worth way less in the future so more retirement will be needed.
3. I will have investments outside of retirement accounts. Once the car is paid off, conservatively I could save an additional $10k/yr. Let’s assume that loan is completely gone by 2020.
   

   Year	Investments
   1/1/20	$        10,000
   1/1/21	$   20,800.00
   1/1/22	$   32,464.00
   1/1/23	$   45,061.12
   1/1/24	$   58,666.01
   1/1/25	$   73,359.29
   1/1/26	$   89,228.03
   1/1/27	$ 106,366.28
   1/1/28	$ 124,875.58
   1/1/29	$ 144,865.62
   1/1/30	$ 166,454.87
   1/1/31	$ 189,771.26
   1/1/32	$ 214,952.97
   1/1/33	$ 242,149.20
   1/1/34	$ 271,521.14
   1/1/35	$ 303,242.83
   1/1/36	$ 337,502.26
   1/1/37	$ 374,502.44
   1/1/38	$ 414,462.63
   1/1/39	$ 457,619.64
   1/1/40	$ 504,229.21
   1/1/41	$ 554,567.55
   1/1/42	$ 608,932.96
   1/1/43	$ 667,647.59

4. So taking the above chart into account while still being able to live a comfortable life, if I were to stick at the contributions, get the same 8% growth, and be in good enough health to work, that would be me at a combined total of $2.79MM.
5. If I ever pursue the business option, I could potentially contribute to a SEP IRA which could be up to $55k per year. Of course I’d need to have a business, ample sales / profits to justify it… but fun to think about.
6. Passive income. Rental properties, cash flow businesses, online stores. An extra $10k /yr could make a huge difference.

The main point I’m trying to get across…. If you’re in your 20s invest! If you’re in your 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s… invest. The quality of life you have may very well depend on it.

Three words – retirement, retirement, retirement.
Math was never my strongest subject, but it’s been said Albert Einstein referred to compounding as the 8th wonder of the world.

At age 30 I started making a livable wage, where I’d be able to pay all my bills, and operate independently without the need for a roomate, or any outside assistance. I took advantage of my company 401k using a mix of pre-tax and post-tax dollars. Fast forward to today….

Almost 5 years later I have $35k in my retirement. $35k is more than the average American family (https://www.cnbc.com/2016/09/12/heres-how-much-the-average-american-family-has-saved-for-retirement.html) in the 32-37 age range. Considering I’m not a family and it’s just me I’m doing alright. However alright isn’t enough.

It’s 2018. My earnings are the highest they have ever been in my entire life. With income cometh taxes. As a single income person in an apartment, no kids, having graduated college a decade ago, the amount of government services I use is far lower than other groups. Without giving away my salary, if I didn’t contribute anything to retirement I’d have to pay uncle sam the equivalent of *411* hours worth of work. *10* weeks of work just for taxes and I don’t even own a home. Not on my watch.

So after a lot of back and forth between paying my last debt off at 1.9%, vs 20% of my salary in taxes I decided to amp up the retirement, raising my contribution total from 6% to 20%. That lowers my burden to 328 hours or ~8 weeks. Yes I will owe taxes later on in life, but presumably come retirement I will be in a lower tax bracket. Also betting that social insecurity won’t be around.

Will I be taking home less money than before? Absolutely. However without $2k/mo I was paying on credit cards I’ll still have more disposable income vs even 2 months ago. I even might be able to double up on car payments, but taking things one step at a time…

Speaking of car payments I made my first principal only payment this week, $100. That puts me at $19,980.57 as of 2/24/18. 1.9% is only $380/yr in interest. Some folks pay more than that on a credit card in one month.

Last but not least I’m learning to enjoy life more. Money is important but you can’t let it stress you out. Especially after reaching huge milestones…. A few examples of mine:

1999 – Started my first job at $5.15/hr
2001 – Finished HS
2003 – Finished Associates Degree
2005 – Finished Bachelors Degree
2008 – Finished MBA
2011 – Left Long Island for Dallas
2012 – Got job in current industry
2013 – Got a raise, then got better paying job in industry, started a 401k
2016 – Paid off student loans
2017 – Got a promotion, incurred $7k+ in medical debt
2018 – Medical debt gone, new job, maximizing 401k contributions for the first time in my life

Still want to travel and experience life more. The money stuff should just be a footnote. A couple nice things are cool, just don’t get obsessed with them. Don’t do stupid things like being invested solely in bitcoin, or a single stock with no diversification.

Beyond that, I’m working on my environment, overall stress levels and health. My best friend who is also my ex moved away with his husband to Massachusetts. I’m still looking for a relationship after almost 39 months of being single. Seems like folks are getting engaged or married left and right on social media. I’m lucky if I get a second date. Emotionally I’m a bit beat down. Horrible track record dating-wise, but this isn’t really the right venue. Keep fighting the good fight. ❤

Hey guys and gals. I’ve been quiet for a while. Life, new job, and some temporary frustration as my credit card balance went up, not down. It’s time to provide an update. November 2016 I went to the emergency room with insurance, had lots of testing, some surgery, stayed two nights and ended up with roughly $3500 of bills. Then in January I went back to the hospital to have my appendix removed laparoscopically. Instead of dealing with a constant barrage of hospital bills coming in the mail, or risking something going to collections, Put it on a 0% credit card, offer ended January 2018, so it was a race to get everything paid off before then.

$7,128.96 of bills leftover after hitting my insurance deductibles. I was fortunate enough to have a healthy income but still had to make some sacrifices. I also chose to buy some high ticket items like my 15″ MacBook Pro Touch Bar, 4k Samsung TV, a new tailored suit. trip to Puerto Vallarta (one of my cheapest trips ever coincidentally) to see friends who were getting married.

What Didn’t I Do? I chose not to go on a cruise or trip to Europe with friends, didn’t go to any three $$$ sign restaurants on Yelp, kept my iPhone 7+ instead of getting an 8 or X, didn’t upgrade my Asus QHD monitor to 4k, didn’t fly to New York to see family over the holidays.

How do I feel? Pretty darn good. It’s like a weight off my shoulders. I still have the car payment to worry about. I’m also working on my actual weight, bought a bluetooth scale from Target about 2 weeks ago.

NMAC Car Payment Balance February 3, 2018

I still can’t decide how early to pay the car off. I technically could do it in a year, but is it that important to me? Could I downsize and still be happy? Emergency fund and experiences are also important. Plus there is the potential to move. The apartment is quiet and covers my necessities at this point. However a 38 minute commute each way + 10 min walk from the parking garage to the office is a little bit taxing. If I could drop that by 20 minutes I’d get more sleep and stress levels would be a bit lower. Decisions…

Several weeks ago I spent $1,492 at Men’s Warehouse. That is more than I pay for clothes in *two* years. Why? Without giving away too many details, this is a company where apparence matters. In 2013, 30 pounds light I bought a suit, and it doesn’t really fit me properly today. With a gal friend’s assistance I decided to get a new suit, this one in gray vs my standard safe black look.

I’m slowly phasing out the clothes in my closet that have felt kind of frumpy / old mannish. When your guy friends ask you where you bought clothes from and it’s clearance, or at a low priced online only retailer, you start to get a little self conscious…. Plus I’m a Leo (we like to be a little more flashy) and gay (previous point ^2), so those two things make me less willing to stick with older cheaper clothes that are falling apart. Funny story I ripped a pair of old khakis I had last week. Clothes that fit matter….

What did this money get me?
1. 3 Dress Shirts
2. Brown leather belt
3. Dress shoes
4. Overcoat – this was an “extra from the suit purchase”
5. 2 pairs of fancy jeans
6. 3 ties – another extra from the dress shirt purchase
7. Tie clip
8. Pants hemmed for proper length
9. Suit

So yeah, I didn’t just pay for a suit. I think the value for what I was pretty darned high. Was it worth it?

Well I *did* get the job. It was more due to connections and my skills than the clothes I wore. Still, I will get a lot of use out of these clothes down the road.

Haven’t started but I’m super excited. Kinda funny in 2012 I applied at the *same* company for a position paying half as much. Was a bit heartbroken for not getting it but honestly I wasn’t ready. I may end up moving to an apartment closer to work as my commute time will increase to about 40 min from 30 now. Lease isn’t up until June 14th though…

My rent today is about $840/mo and the places more downtown are more like $1200/mo. In some I’d have to give up my washer / dryer both paid for in cash. Is it worth it to be in a more desirable area where my friends are located? The verdict is still out. I also am against paying a ton of money on rent in general. Time is also money though. If I can reduce commute time by 3-4 hours a week it adds up. I’ll be more refreshed / happier overall.

I could also save for a year and put a down payment on a townhouse. I keep waiting for the bubble to burst but it hasn’t happened yet, just as I have with cryptocurrency. Lots of choices… Isn’t that what life is all about though?