Tag Archives: cars

To the Two Comma Club – Dec 2024 – $383k

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Assuming I stop investing completely and market returns stay at current rates I’ll double my portfolio from the current $373k as of a few days ago to $735k in 8.5 years or 2032. Then double it again and hit ~$1.5M in 2040. I will be 57 years old then and presumably retired or very close to it.

In practice I’m putting about $1,986 of my own money aside monthly in 401k plus let’s say $745/mo of matching. Not including Roth, crypto, or brokerage account. So that’s $2,731. At that rate I will double my portfolio to $756k in 5 years. If I could hold that pace for 5 more years I hit $1.3M 5 years from now or 2035 at 52. That’s independent of money I’m putting into a Roth IRA, high yield savings account, bonuses / the rest of my income, or may go to a potential home.

Not stressing about any of this really. If it happens great, if not I will keep focusing on things and people who matter in my life. 2024 has been a year of uncertainty,. A friend got laid off a few weeks ago, a former coworker was looking for employment for close to a year and took a demotion, another who left voluntarily got laid off elsewhere not only once but twice.

I spend a ton of money this month but mostly for good things.
1. Tire – Got a new set of tires – $1,392.13 – TLDR on this is I drove to Arkansas and my tire started to make a bit of a noise. I had the car aligned several times, along with tires balanced before so this was odd. The Discount Tire rep said 3 of the tires balanced but the one I had issues with wouldn’t balance. He then showed me irregular wear on the tire and what looked like a liter of liquid sloshing around. The car is AWD so it’s recommended to replace all 4 tires at once. So the car I bought October 2023 at Grubbs Acura of Grapevine, TX had tire sealant the time I purchased it. I e-mailed a few people there and got a pretty generic response. I was fuming because it could have resulted in the tire sidewall exploding and I drove 10k miles with the tire in that state. I was able to pay if off that week with money I had saved up. I was pissed though. The car rides much quieter and I get road hazard coverage / free rotations for multiple years.
2. Europe flight and seat upgrades – American Airlines $1,737.23 – I knew the expense was coming. Did I want to make the payment this early? Not really but I’m going to have a blast
3. Dodgeball team membership – $90.50 – Since the kickball season stopped and we’re not doing cornhole I wanted some type of social outlet with people I knew. Missed the early brid pricing by a few days oops.
4. MacBook Pro $2,899 plus tax – Got $2,252 for the old one. Wasn’t going to replace but the big bulky 16″ barely fit on my desk. and discouraged my from going out anywhere with it. The specs are a slight downgrade in terms of amount of memory and GPU cores but the system is faster than my own one so real world it just uses more of its RAM and a tiny bit of swap space.
5. Wicked tickets… j/k on that one but great movie. The acting, special effects, and the music. This film had a huuuge $145M budget.

Inside of old tire wearing abnormally and new tire

The 2024 Edition laptop – M4 Max MacBook Pro

Sharing a couple pictures from my camera roll in November.. Lots of Christmas. experiences. 😀

On the health front I was sick for a few days but my blood pressure also was sky high 152/97. I was drinking lots of water, taking garlique and dandelion root, going for walks whenever possible. It was working for a while until it wasn’t. The other medication I was on just ruined my GI system. High blood pressure is the silent killer so I openly accepted going back on another medication with the hopes of getting back into normal range. Numbers are back to normal again. Since the election I’ve been down about 10 pounds so it’s helping. I also no longer am active on X / Twitter instead favoring Mastodon and Blusky. The X algo would constantly show me performative outrage, political content I never asked for, its owner’s comments non-stop, and videos that go viral for all the wrong reasons. The platform is polarizing, toxic, and quiet honestly a waste of time. Garbage in, garbage out.

My net worth is at an all-time high. I am having doubts about being able to afford a home by August 2025. A common rule of thumb is to not exceed 28% of your take home on housing expenses. That with my aggressive retirement investing would be about $1708 (good luck finding a mortgage payment that cheap) and then a Ramit Sethi video said add 50% to that to account for all kinds of additional expenses. So $2,562…

Up $24k in a month due to a recent surge in the market. Doubtful this momentum will continue but I’m pushing as much as I can. $400k by March? Def a possibility. It doesn’t feel real though. 12/2/23 I was at $233,478 so a +64% or +$149k gain in a year. I’m extremely thankful and vividly remember the -$45k I came from when starting this blog. Still working on stacking cash but it takes time.. Alright it’s after 3am I should be in bed now.

12/1/202411/1/2024Difference% Change
401k319,005297,76421,241+7.1%
Roth IRA51,30847,9773,332+6.9%
Brokerage Accts1,346882465+52.7%
Cash7,6038,686-1,083-12.5%
HSA3,5613,49071+2%
Total382,824358,79924,025+6.7%
Credit Cards166–166
Auto Loan–––
Net Total382,658358,79923,859+6.6%

The Change Starts With You – Aug 2024 – $317k

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In 5 days I turn 41. I stared this blog when I was 29. That’s a long ass time. Despite few people reading, keeping track of things helps with my own internal motivation.

  1. Most recently my employers was offering a 2 for 1 match on charitable donations. I chose to invest a tiny amount in the National Kidney Foundation, in honor of my late father.
  2. Almost a month ago me and my boyfriend went to beautiful Hochatown, Oklahoma which is adjacent to Broken Bow. It was a great balance of tourist town, quiet and serene. I definitely would consider doing another cabin weekend. Maybe in a few months. Also doing some initial planning around a Europe trip next year.
  3. Friends and I saw Missy Elliott in concert a few weeks ago in Fort Worth. Also performing were Busta Rhymes and Ciara. So much energy and strong performances. We planned the trip back in April and the price was really reasonable. $136.50 per person including parking.
  4. I’ve been getting more into biking but definitely taking another hiatus. My body let me ride without major issues once this month but the second time not so good. Considering selling the bike and taking up other hobbies.
  5. Equinox recently increase prices to $221 per month up $10 from what I was paying previously. There are plenty of amenities that I really was not taking advantage of including the unlimited classes, spin classes, the saltwater pool, sauna, showers and locker room area with the big kicker is if I wanted to use a personal trainer that would be $135 per session on the low endso for a “”normal for session per month training regiment I would be paying $540 plus the $221 or $761 per month. To me that amount seems egregious when roughly 70% of fitness results are diet related and not training related. So I instead chose to join a more no-frills type gym that works out too roughly $53 per month and has more convenient hours. I estimate my annual savings at roughly $2000 per year. That’s the equivalent of my annual vehicle fuel expenses, or one to two vacations per year.
  6. At a macro level I’m considering what the next steps would be in my career. One potential area would be to work on or at least consider a masters degree in marketing. Well I do have an MBA, I earned that all the way back in the late 2000s so much has changed in my industry since then, I also selfishly have some slight paranoia about being surpassed by someone younger with either more industry experience or stronger, credentials than myself. Western Governors University offers such a program for roughly $4800 for a six month term and on average or I should say roughly 61% of students complete the program within an 18 months that would make it more likely for me to be eligible for either a senior director or vice president of marketing role. According to salary.com, the average Senior Director of marketing in my state earns between $166,000 and $209,000 per year. At the vice president level, the range is between $214,000 and $288,000. One of the big questions is how much I want to push myself particularly since I’m starting to slow down a bit in my 40s. Would pay for itself, and then some what I think, in terms of the power of compounding. Think defensively especially in this economy. Anything to help me stand out in the event I need to look for a new role seems like it would be a smart decision.
  7. Without going into a ton of details, I do have a tiny windfall over the next year or so. I will gladly take this over the other alternative, which is $0. There are certain stipulations that I must adhere to you, but overall, I think it will help me get to my goals a tiny bit faster.
  8. I have been dealing with an ant infestation earlier in the month. Loyal readers may recall that I originally started encountering this problem all the way back in fall of 2023. The management of the complex has been empathetic toward me and did give me the option of canceling my contract with just a 30 day notice. I have the paperwork sitting on my dining room table but have not yet signed it. The most recent update is the pest control company came drilled some holes in the walls sprayed in some foam along with treating the exterior by sealing some additional cracks that the ants were walking through to enter the building. I don’t wanna make a hasty decision that will cause me to suffer financially. Moving to a two bedroom apartment given the options I’ve seen would be somewhat expensive and cause me to take significantly longer to set aside money for a home if I choose to go down that path.
  9. I’m really starting to think more about how much money goes out versus how much I earn and I would like to keep more money in my pocket instead of having it go to other people. That is one of the fundamental reasons why I’m opposed to buying a Tesla vehicle. Why should I make Elon Musk richer? I’m currently shelling out $1400 a month in car payments, that should go away in December 2024. Then add $170/mo in savings by going to the cheaper gym. That’s the equivalent of a $1500/mo I can set aside for other things like saving for a home. After eight months worth of that $12,560 set aside or at the bare minimum working harder for me. Assuming a home purchase price of 280,000 that’ll be about 4.5% and I should be able to set aside another $7,500 on top of that. Another option would be to rent a home and let those dollars just keep working harder for me.
  10. Also why am I paying $62/mo for a cell phone in perpetuity? There is the Apple One Premiere cloud backup subscription $37.95, then T-Mobile $70/mo. Altogether that too is around $170/mo. 🤔
  11. Despite things not being 100% perfect in my life, I’m super grateful for everything that I do have. I read stories about high salary, individuals getting laid off from popular companies and I really do feel for them. The latest is with Intel, which is laying off roughly 10,000 workers. I see the videos, read the blog posts and I know how rough it is out there. One guy on YouTube was trying to find a corporate job for eight years, and lives with his parents at 48. Totally boggles my mind. A relative of mine who doesn’t really talk to me anymore was going through some stuff too. I see panhandlers on the road daily.
  12. Got my 0w20 oil change, rear differential fluid replaced, and tires rotated all under my certified preowned package. I knew the oil change was covered but not the other 2. Saved about $115 off of that.

Here is an update of my financial numbers. The market took a nosedive on Friday otherwise I would’ve been up quite a bit. Then again you have to look at these things long term. Flat month over month isn’t end end of the world. I do have about $2500/mo going into investments though so technically I’m down. Who knows in a week or two I could be back up again. Paying over 15% on my car monthly is extreme but will keep the repo man away so I stick at it. It feels like I’m moving at a snail’s pace but… YTD I’ve paid my car loan down by over $10,000 or 58%. Most people probably wouldn’t do that.

8/3/20247/1/2024Difference% Change
401k271,447273,612-2,165-.8%
Roth IRA42,54442,536+80%
Brokerage Accts4,1203,079+441+14.3%
Cash2,4993,222+537+16.7%
HSA3,6173,799-182-4.8%
Total324,888326,248-1,360-.4%
Credit0000
Auto Loan7,4978,853-1,356-15.3%
Net Total317,390317,395-50%

August 2024 Net Worth Update

Sharing a few pictures from the month of July. Enjoy life.

Forecasting The Future – May 2024 – $292k

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My Life and Month in pictures.

  1. On a whim we decided to see this Barbie Experience activity at a nearby mall here. It wasn’t crowded when we went and I really enjoyed the level of detail that went into each exhibit.
  2. A CosMc’s (branch of the McDonald’s franchise) recently opened here. I really was impressed at the exterior design and concept. However the execution left me wanting more. So many ultra processed ingredients, high fructose corn syrup, snacks loaded in sugar. My drink tasted bitter and I didn’t finish it all. Can’t say I plan to go back anytime soon.
  3. Visited my family in New York after about a year and a half. My flight credit was due to expire and the timing was about right so I figured why the heck not. I ended up working 4 out of the 5 days there 10-6. I saw one of my friends who got married in 2022. He and his wife are doing great. I don’t know how they have so many pets, I could only handle one maybe 2 small dogs. Not 5, 2 cats, and birds. My parents are getting older, in the back of my mind I need to start making effort to see them more often. Especially since they haven’t been here in about 6 years. This 1 bedroom apartment is tight for any type of company. While there helped do a little bit of decluttering, helped set up a new 2021 M3 MacBook Air, and wiped the 2018 so that my stepdad could use it. The sales guy at Microcenter was a bit on the pushy side and I basically told him no to the warranties, and some anti-virus software that really isn’t needed. Passing down the Mac hw was much more useful than the paltry $160 being offered for it. They still had the 17″ MacBook Pro I used in grad school (2006-2008) now with a swollen battery! The screen wouldn’t turn on, the keyboard was barely functional and the bottom case was a bit bent. I literally try to keep all my computers and cars close to mint and shook my head about it. There was another computer from 2007 I also tried to wipe as much as I could without the system install DVD. I enjoyed the trip but not the constant exhaustion or sleeping in my old XL Twin bed.
  4. Last summer I had a small ant investation in my laundry room light fixture. The pest control company did multiple treatments and the went away for a while. However for the last 2 months they’ve been back. Tonight they came out with a vengence, nearly 100 of them right outside of my door feeling displaced by activity I took days earlier to eliminate them. I bought any baits at home depot right before closing only to read the fine print they aren’t god for Carpenter Ants. It’s got me really thinking about moving though, I’m overdue for an upgrade. Was trying to hold out until my car payments were gone but not so sure anymore. I work from home and my desk is just a few feet away from these annyoing insects. I got a response from maintenance this morning. They are going to treat the mount on Monday. Fingers crossed I don’t have two nights in a row of this stressful experience but I’m not so hopeful.
  5. Prior to the NY trip I called Expedia to try and settle the matter. Was on hold over 2hrs 15 minutes and no one picked up the phone. I had the sense to use the chat with an agent who took an entire hour to resovle my issues. I was tempted to give up but that was $500+ of my hard earned money.
  6. Yesterday I took my car in for an alignment check and tire rotation. The young guy working there really liked my red seats. I asked the service advisor about my rusting lug nuts and he brushed me off just like the other dealership I went to. May just buy some black ones and home they don’t mess them up.
  7. Solar Eclipse – DFW was on a direct trajectory to see it and there won’t be another one like this for approximately 20 years. A dear friend gave me a pair of the glasses as to avoid permanent eye damage. Definitely one of the experiences where pics don’t do it justice.
  8. Not sure how fast I’m going to go on this but I reached out to Fidelity and reclassified my old employer stock purchase plan as a regular brokerage account. Also so glad I only put $20 in because the company went bankrupt not too long after I left. I wonder how my old coworkers who said to invest 100% in it with the belief it’s going to go up is feeling now. I’m adding $50 every week to it in addition to the $25/wk with my M1 acct. So a whopping $75/wk or $300/mo + the $2172/mo in my 401k and $742/mo into the Roth to play catchup for 2024. $3,214 feels like it’s close to the max I’m comfortable with given my income levels. Ideally I think I’ll need a total of $1-$1.5M invested, $2M to feel comfortable.
  9. Cleaning – I’ve had this steamer since moving into my apartment and for the most part it just collected dust. Earlier this week I grabbed it, started sweeping and using it again. How much dust accumulates on a floor and next to my washer / dryer was really an eye opener and kind of nasty to be honest. I will make doing this part of my weekly routine. I also cleaned out a pretty big chunk of my closet.
  10. Bf moves – He’s moving a lot closer to me for work / quality of life reasons. He really works hard between two jobs and I definitely am proud of him. His apartment might actually be nicer than me despite the age / income gap lol. I haven’t seen the specific unit in person but soon.
  11. Sports – Playing kickball and cornhole still. The latter has been a total bust, I haven’t been playing as well as before. We did win today’s kickball game so I’ll take it.
  12. Life and Death – Someone years ago I knew through the dating app scene but didn’t really have that dating connection with… recently passed away at 33 years old. He was funny, sassy, and I knew lots of people. Looking at a few of his pictures he lost a ton of weight and was looking a bit unhealthy to me. Not sure if it was gastric bypass related but what I’ve read on social media indicated it was unexpected. We last chatted in 2021 and I feel for his family and twin brother especially. RIP Justin.
  13. Health – It has been a struggle. The new whey protein isolate shake I bought absolutely destroys my stomach. People say the sugar substitute sucralose is part of the problem. I don’t know that for sure but not worth these crazy side effects. So back to the vegetarian option. I got my bloodwork done from my doctor and I’m going further into prediabetic mode so it’s been time to make changes. I tried to get Wegovy / Ozempic but insurance won’t cover it until I hit the $2,450 annual deductible. I’m only about $900 into it and it resets in August so that’s a no.
  14. iPad Pro – Apparently mine is about 90% battery. Lately with the latest release version of iPad OS the system has been rapidly depleting that just playing Youtube. Apple is offering $400 to trade it in as of today and a 3rd party offered me slightly less. Not sure if I need the latest and greatest for what I essentially use for watching YouTube and doing some light web browsing. Most of that AI stuff can apply to my Mac and iPhone. I say that now at least without having seen the final product.

Specific to my personal finance I know I’m doing better than most people. I was watching this video ‘Something Terring is Happening to Boomers’ and the guy said 50% have no savings and avg savings is $100,000. I’m near 3x that with about 20 years to go until I’m anywhere near that age cohort. For te presenter in that video he talked about income being greater than assets. My bare minimum expenses to live is about $3k/month or $36k. To have that in passive high yield savings acct income I’d need to have $720k with a 5% return rate. Still a long way from that The car debt is still a bit of a thorn in the side but I’m paying $1400/mo to knock it down. I started off financing $21,500 so 46% of the way there at 5.99% in 6 months.

5/4/20243/31/2024Difference% Change
401K254,172257,260(3,088)-1.2%
Roth IRA39,98639,0209662.5%
Brokerage Accts2,4152,367482.0%
Cash3,8463,39245513.4%
HSA3,0562,69336413.5%
Total303,476304,731(1,255)-.4%
Credit Cards065(65)-100%
Auto Loan11,55513,587(2,032)-15%
Net Total291,921291,079842+.3%
May 2024 – $292k Net Worth

So a game I started playing – Star Trek Online has you as the captain of a ship and you get into battle just like the tv shows / movies. April felt like I kept getting hit with phasers and photon torpedoes in the stock market. I just tell myself it’s paper money and being flat net worth wise month over month isn’t that bad. I see the stories of people at Tesla and other companies who lost their jobs and am like okay you’ve got it better than most. Same with homeless people with signs asking for money or sleeping under a bridge. A year ago my net worth was $186k so +57% in a year. I’m going to Vegas in June and need to buy tickets soon and car insurance hits next month. So even though I feel like I have a little bit of extra cash right now, it goes fast.

Anyway I’ve got to squeeze out a gym workout before we see this Challenger movie and do a cuatro de mayo dinner beforehand. Peace =/\=. If you’re still reading this, how are you doing?

A Tale of the $20 Printer and Thoughts On Clown Cars

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December 2013 I purchased a Canon Pixma MX922 printer from Amazon.com for $70. It served me well for the basic scanning and printing functions I threw at it. Never any issues with Drivers or the hardware not working properly. Wireless printing, easy configurability. I’ve owned several Canon products over the years with very few problemns. Last week was a different story…

My Canon All-In-One would not power on suddenly after printing something just minutes earlier. I missed a gym session due to all the time / angst involved in getting the device to work. A few of the items I tried.

1. Tried unplugging and plugging it into multiple outlets. No dice. Power cables almost never go bad so I crossed that off the list pretty quickly.

2. Attempted to do the “hard reset” which involved holding down the on button and pushing the stop button multiple times.

3. Power supply – I did a little research on the cost for one, it was $30 and pretty much a gamble. In an ideal scenario that’s all it is, a task involving unscrewing the defective one and replacing with the working module. However many folks have done this step and the device still wouldn’t work. Then I’d have to deal with the hassle of returning a PSU  back to a vendor, potentially incurring a restocking fee and paying shipping on my own.

4. Looked in Amazon at prices for a newer printer. Canon still makes the MX922 new, available for more than I payed as part of the Black Friday special. However it was $70-90, money I was not interested in spending. The MX 492 runs between $50 and $100 with average reviews. Average is fine, it’s not like I will be using this a bunch.

After weighing my options I decided to check out Facebook Marketplace. There was a lady selling the printer in Grapevine (about a 45 minute drive from where I am) for only $20. She said it was two months old and lightly used. Perfect! I make arrangements, grab money from the ATM on my lunchbreak, and head over there. Dealt with horrible traffic jams but I made it. She was nice, we exchanged money and I went on my way.

The printer works like a charm and you’d never know it was $20. I know No More Harvard Debt and Aaron Clarey both like to shop at Goodwill. I wonder if their experience is pretty similar. Maybe I wouldn’t find top name designer stuff, but something that looks nice for a fraction of what it’d cost new in a store and would look the same after the first wash? Not bad?

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My $20 used wireless printer. How Mustachian…

 

My next purchase may be a Digital SLR again. Back in the 2008-2011, I owned a Canon Digital Rebel XT with the kit lens. It literally took the best quality pictures I’ve ever seen in my life. Even 6 years later the best iPhone simply can’t compare. My father was also into photography growing up. He had some expensive high-end 35mm cameras on borrowed money, but it was fun to just go places and take some shots.

One topic I’ve been thinking a ton about is the relationship between money & happiness. There is a funny video about contentment (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpVqXrvyBYM) and it’s totally true. Many of the things we buy don’t create true happiness. You just end up getting a spike of satisfaction getting something you have been craving. Sure there mey be exceptions to the rule, for folks who know the nuisances of the items they buy and have a genuine need for associated features.

The auto industry is notorious for these practices. They market these $40k+ cars with videos showing no other traffic, on freshly paved mountain roads, as the perfect accessory to your expensive $750k house, or high paying job…  You on the other hand have a reliable car that gets you from point A to point B, with little or no fanfare. Then you see a shiny new RWD Chevy Camaro or Ford Mustang on the TV, or for me an Infiniti Q50 Red Sport or Audi S5. These cars have either power, massive luxuty, a fabulous 10+ speaker studio on wheels, 400+ HP. Your materialistic friends will be in amazement when they see you go down the road in that shiny new machine and view you as highly successful.

The reality of the situation however is a bit different. With that high powered or luxury new car, come a few challenges.

1. Spending a lot mof on gas. Most of these cars aren’t great on gas. The Infiniti gets 20city/26hwy, the 2017 Camaro SS 17/27, Audi S5 18/28. Numbers have gotten a lot better, but if you drive 15000 miles a way you’re looking at $1800+ in gas. Close to $10k in 5 years.

2. More expensive maintenance. I love electronics but things tend to break more frequently than the tried and true mechanical systems that have been perfected over several decades. Plus all these sensors and computers are more likely to go bad.

3. Depreciation. The more you pay for a car the quicker it will depreciate. If a car is worth 50% of its value in 3 years your $50k car becomes worth $25k. The $30k car is worth 15k. A used car cheaper for $15k will lose a lot less value. Even if it’s $7500, that’s still a bunch of money in savings that can be used for debt, or investing.

4. Stress – I’m guilty of this too, you constantly are looking around for where to park to avoid door dings and spend extra trying to keep the car in tip top shape. Then if the car payment, living expenses and other payments are a high proportion to income, a situation emerges where one single repair becames a huge event. Can’t pay for it cash and have to put in on credit cards.

5. Less investment income. Most younger folks who buy these are not maxing out their retirement savings or doing and type of passive investing and some live paycheck to paycheck. They’re missing out on the power of compounding.

6.Sitting in traffic. MMM has written a few times about that how people sit around in these expensive sofas on wheels are just polluting the environment and the bank owns the car not them. What good is 400+ hp if Mon-Friday you are sitting in stop and go traffic most of the time. The luxury part I can kind of understand, if you are spending an hour or more each day.

At the end of the day though if you love a sporty or expensive car and can truly afford it, who cares… I’m paying mine off by 2019, possibly sooner.  I really have learned a lot from my millenial peers who are kicking butt and taking names. Also a lot from the ones who can’t stop buying fancy items that they don’t really need. Higher salaries, high expenses and extreme credit cards don’t equal winning. Savings rates dictate more if you’re going to win in the long term.

Last but not least, I am constantly reminded of the need to go out and have fun. Recent events of late really affirmed that. Feeling alone is a horrible feeling, luckily I get to see my friends later today. I have to constantly work at making new friends and cutting ties with the ones who are always down or make less than a half-hearted attempt to socialize.

One final thought is you can’t take the money with you after this life is over. Push hard for financial independence / early retirement but also don’t have major regrets along the way. The paradox of life is you don’t really know what you regret until life has already gone by. For that I’d say learn from old people. There is wisdom that comes with age.

Staying the Course – A Tale of Money & Things

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When I bought my car, I pulled a Bruce Hornsby, said to myself..There are Gonna Be Some Changes made. For anyone born after 1990, here’s the video.

So some of the changes:

  • Only ate out once this week, lunch and dinner included. Went out with a friend, spent $10.82 for dinner. Feel healthier since I eat salad at least once a day and have a ton less guilt. Do need to go food shopping soon though. Savings: Lunch – $40/wk Dinner – $80/week (some weeks it’s more but being conservative)  = $480/mo combined. Still leaving room to eat out on weekends, or go out occasionally and be frugal. 
  • Using Toll Road sparingly. I use a combination of the George Bush Tollway and Dallas North Tollway to get to work in the morning. It it $1.25 each way, I typically only take it to work in the morning and take the side roads back. Due to less overall traffic I end up losing less than 5 minutes commute time. Savings = 6.25/wk $25/mo
  • Strongly considering getting rid of one of the DVRs. There are 2 of us and 3 tvs. The tv in one of my rooms is only used about once a month. My Chromecast or computer can be used to watch video on it. Savings = $8/mo
  • Spotify – It’s $10/mo and causes me to go over the 5Gb of ‘unlimited’ data usage on my phone every single month without exception. XM Radio subscription in car is good for 3 months. I could sign up online but have read horrible things about SiriusXM’s customer service. It is integrated with my car’s stereo, but not sure I’d rather stream or do FM radio..
  • Cancelled Apple Developer Membership. I’d love to be a developer, but I lack the free time to reach the level of knowledge required to become one. There are also plenty of free courses online that I can use to get familiar with the basics, then reassess. Savings = $99/yr 8.25/mo.

All in all that’s about $530 in savings. Just need to make these changes now, less deliberation, more doing. That’s the Home Depot way. Ok I swear I haven’t lost it..

Talked to my friend who bought a fancy coupe recently. I was literally blown away by what he told me. His car gets 20mpg and his drive to and back from work is 30 miles each way plus an additional 250 miles a week in personal travel. So about 100/wk in gas He pays $100/mo in tolls, car payment is $600/mo. Total overhead (insurance, gas, tolls, car note) for his car is $1600/mo, not including depreciation or maintenance. Already in 3 months he put 10k in mileage on a brand new car.  He tried to trade it in upon realizing what a huge financial mistake he made but would only get half of what it was sold for. I couldn’t offer much words of wisdom and it wasn’t the right time / place for I told you so.

Moral of the story is sometimes people have fancy things but a whole lot of stress to keep those things. I could’ve made a similar decision to get a fancy sports car that wasn’t great on gas and not so practical for carrying passengers. Also my new car purchase didn’t boost my overhead much. Insurance went up $5 for 6 months and my payment is under 10% of my net income.

Suze Orman was right: People First, Then Money, Then Things, Now You Stay Safe. People meaning yourself because at the end of the day you are your biggest supporter or biggest enemy to financial security.

Month 24 Update – $32,140.58

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So here we are…April 5, 2014. Listening to some Fantasia and Aretha Franklin tunes on my Audio-Technica headphones while bf watches Scrubs and our siamese cat sits curled up a foot away completely unphased by both the noise of my typing and the television. I feel beat down by an irregular sleeping schedule, where I passed out around 10:30PM and woke up at 4:45AM. I was going to go the ambitious route and go to the gym / catch up on some reading. Instead I wormed around in bed for an hour before falling asleep again. Then I see the sun rise, check my phone and it’s 7:22. Oh crap, I’m late for work. So I go through the usual shower / iron routine, telling my bf to walk the dog and delaying breakfast until I get to the work cafeteria.

I hit an important milestone, on Month 24 of making straight payments to Sallie Mae. This shit is neither fun nor easy. I certainly see how some people can go for ten years of payments and still not have their loans paid off. Life can certainly get in the way of your plans to become debt-free. I have had some increased anxiety as of late with them. Going to Florida next month for a wedding. Bf reimbursed me most of the none I put down for that trip. $600 and change with airfare / hotel factored in. Then today he’s like you should really go visit your parents. Sure that would be nice but with what money, I have about $350 to my name right now. I currently have I hold myself to higher standards that I can get this paid off as quickly as possible while still enjoying life. Debt to me is slavery. I can’t turn back the hands of time but I can focus on my abilities in the pleasant to create a better life.

Another friend bought us tickets to the NCAA Championship games in Dallas next week. I don’t know any of the teams really, but it should be exciting. Never went to a basketball game before. Don’t lecture me, just because I lived an hour from Madison  Square Garden doesn’t mean I went. Same with the Statue of Liberty… or the World Trade Center back in the day.

I was thinking today maybe sell the car and drive around in an absolute piece of crap car until I am debt-free. Of course maintenance is an issue there and I’d always wondered how many years I could get out of a perfectly reliably running car of which I have full knowledge of all its maintenance records and overall treatment. Then I think about the $3k I put in the audio system that would not be appreciated by a 2nd owner or by the dealer / used car sales guy making me an offer. Last but not least I thought about how people get royally screwed over when trading in a car. Do I really want to put myself through all that again for a shiny piece of equipment that gets me from point A to point B. Even if it’s a hybrid or an electric car that will cut my fuel costs by half or a 3/4. I don’t want to be on the treadmill forever. I want to lose the weight and keep it off. My freedom, my sanity is worth more than material objects.

Also listened through the whole Millionaire Next Door Audiobook and stared going through Secrets of A Millionaire Mind. My goal is to shift my mindset to thinking more in terms of opportunities that exist instead of limiting thoughts in my head to generate wealth. Over the the years I’ve encountered systems of get rich schemes that sound good on the surface but upon closer inspection have either large inconsistencies or have so many negative things written about them why would I want to go down that path. MLM comes to mind, if people are going to buy something from me I want to believe 100% in the product / service and it must genuinely fill some kind of need or want in their lives.

I don’t think I’m a greedy person. I just know where I have fallen short in the past and want to see more of a payoff for my hard work and efforts.  Right now that hasn’t happened yet and it can be frustrating. I see myself farther along than I currently am. I feel beat down, tore down but I can and will get back up and do some amazing things with my life. A positive net worth would be a good first step. Last but not least along with getting more omega-3s, I find keeping a busy schedule is a sure-fire way not to get depressed. Simply put, ain’t nobody got time fo’ dat.

Was about to hit post, then I looked at Haha Money’s How Rich Are You article. Plugged my number in to a calculator and combined we are in the richest 0.4% of the world’s population and our income is 42 times that of the average person. For just me it’s in the richest 6.1% of the world’s population and income more than 14x the typical person. Kinda boggles the mind how I could be richer than so many people in the world yet feel so financially broke.

If anyone is reading this in their 20s, I have one bit of advice. Well two really. Start planning early and don’t let the time pass you by. I’m not old, but the years have taken a toll on me. Losing my dad and grandmother so young, watching them struggle with health issues for years, a decade of being unable to get traction professionally, racking up student loan debt. The most recent one was a former friend going clinically crazy last month & being checked into a mental health institution for self-destructive behaviors. He is out, but after some of the threats and obsessive behavior I no longer choose to associate with him.

So I have this friend…

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More like an acquaintance. A couple years younger than me, has an expensive habit. Automobiles are his addiction of choice.

  1. Dodge Magnum
  2. Nissan Altima
  3. Nissan Armada
  4. Jeep Cherokee SRT8
  5. Dodge Charger Super Bee

all within a 6 year period. I tried to get him to see how the impact of his decisions were affecting him financially but it fell on deaf ears.

He has a full-time job and also does car tinting jobs on the side. I joked with him last year that he’ll be selling his car again. He’s taken a number of financial hits just for the sake of this hobby of his. Both in terms of how the money could be applied to any consumer debt and used to purchase assets that appreciate in value. Last month he did as expected.

“I need to get some financial stuff in order and make some new priorities and have decided to look heavily into a 2014 jgc limited“. I’m not sure if getting a 2014 model year vehicle with an msrp starting at 35k is true to that vision. He put 17k worth of work into it and is looking to sell the car for 38,500.

He’s laid down massive amounts of cash on the current ride:

400 New lock pick with cables and two cameras
250 afe intake
1100 mmp s2 manifold shaved and painted
70 catch can
100 New 2012 front and rear badges
400 Predator and tune from johan
350 mangaflow mid pipes
800 slp lm1 with install
800 oem vented fenders
9000 repaint with all plastics smoothed and blacked out/color matched
1000 grip bumper on the way
1400 sniper hood in my shopping cart ready to go
900 new oem (not replicas) hid headlights
100 hid fogs
200 limo tint”

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$16870 on a depreciating asset, not including the acquisition costs. Ouch!

To his credit, he is working 60 hours a week as manager for a popular retailer presumably earning more than I make now at 40-45 hours a week. Difference is much smaller once cost of living is factored in. I’m pretty much over working in a store or at a bank for a couple years. I’d do the corporate offices of a company with stores across the country, but working in the store each day is not my cup of tea. Unless they want to pay me a handsome increase in salary…

So more variables at play on the job front. Still no offer from the place I did over 5 interviews at 2 weeks ago. No update as people were on vacation. Another company my bf has been interviewing at in PA may possible want to fly me up there to interview for a separate position. My gut says PA isn’t the place to go though. Looking at lots of other states such as Colorado and NJ. As once said in the year 2000… Too soon to tell.

Need to have an intervention with my McDonalds friend with a Bachelors. One of these days… One of the challenges to making a switch when you’ve been in retail so long is companies are reluctant to hire for anything else. Get pigeon-holed into a corner and competing against more qualified candidates is damn near impossible. I still have hope though. $8-9/hr with student loans in deferment and thinking about going back to school is just getting him deeper in the hole.

For your entertainment here is the car being put up for sale. Low mileage and exclusive, but not a practical buy in the slightest. Last but not least thanks all who have been reading my blog and learning about my journey. Up to 6k visits so far since April 2012. Surprised there’s that level of interest to be totally honest.

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