Fitness-Joe Rogan Made Me Do It-Day 3

Joe Rogan is doing me some good or at least the idea that he put in my head.  Day 2 went pretty well much better than Day 1.  I didn't overeat on the nuts, had less of the bean salad from the night before.  I feel good. 

Big challenge today, no coffee!!!  I went with a morning Jamba Juice of Greens and Apples.  Here's what's in it:  Apple-Strawberry Juice, Green Vegetable Juice (Carrots, Spinach, Bell Pepper, Kale, Spirulina, Lettuce), Peaches, Mangos, Bananas, Ice.

Lunch

• Gonna try a Vegan restaurant so who knows
• nuts
• strawberries

Dinner

• Gonna check out the grocery store, nothing planned, but fruits and vegetables are on the menu

Why I think Dave Ramsey's a Genius, But I Want My Own Plan!

I agree with Dave Ramsey, his way works, but why can't others.  I instead of going with his steps I am going with my own priorities.  I think that you need to live and enjoy things while you are young.  I believe that you need to pay for items in cash or have money saved.  For example if I want to go on a trip and it costs $2,000, then I will have $2,000 in the bank before I take that trip.  I will put together a couple of steps showing what I believe and what I am currently doing.

http://www.daveramsey.com/new/baby-steps/

Here's the process:

1. $1,000 to start and Emergency Fund
2. Pay off all debt using to Debt Snowball
3. 3 to 6 months in savings
4. Invest 15% of household income into Roth IRAs and pre-tax retirement
5. College funding for children
6. Pay off home early
7. Build wealth and give!

I have a plan, but Dave Ramsey has a proven plan so he wins.  But here has been my working plan.

Automatic Plan

1. Figure out Where all of your Money is Going
2. Make things Automatic-Debt, Savings, and Investments
3. Make paying off Credit Cards a Priority
4. Add additional payments to the Debt you like the least
5. Pay off home early
6. Make sure you and your loved ones are taken care of
7. Build wealth and give!

I'll go into more details as the blog moves on, but my approach is geared more towards the person who has all there bills online, the person who gets online statements.  Be Young, Have Fund, Drink My Kool-Aid.

Fitness-Joe Rogan Made Me Do It-Day 2

So how am I doing Fruitastic, maybe Vegantacular.  These are not words in the English dictionary, not like I've been paging through the book looking for these words, but my guess not there.

Day 1 went well, no meat, mostly fruit and veggies.  So I stuck to the plan so far unless dairy is a no go(which it sorda is), then I failed.  I had some greek yogurt and milk/cream in my coffee.  I went a little crazy on the nuts(no funny punch line needed), so that was my biggest downfall.  But I ate and felt full, don't feel like I overate at all.  I really wanted a pizza and a soda, but will power held out.

Here's what Day 2 looks like:

Breakfast

• Coffee with cream/milk
• apple

Lunch

• grapes
• salad with veggies and some oil/cilantro dressing
• carrots

Dinner

• Bean salad
• Nuts
• Yogurt

Fitness-Joe Rogan Made Me Do It-Day 1

So i'm starting it out right with my Vegan/Fruitarian Diet.  Here is my diet schedule for the day:

Breakfast

• Bluberries-Carton
• Apple-1
• Coffee with milk

Lunch

• Protein shake-Sears Sucker http://www.nutritionix.com/m/lG2Es2
• Apple-1

Dinner

• Bean Salad-1 pound container
• Rasberry-Carton

Fitness-Joe Rogan Made Me Do It

I have been listening to Podcasts like it's 1994 and I only have one CD.  Also by the way my first CD, Coolio It Takes a Thief.

I listen to lots of genres, sports, business, comedy.  Today and throughout the last 2 weeks I have been listening to Joe Rogan, yes that crazy mofo from Fear Factor(shown below) or for you fighting nuts, he commentates for the MMA.

So he is on some crazy stuff  Just in general, but he's a smart dude who researches everything and has his beliefs.  So although pretty intense he is fun to listen to.  So who does he has on his show but a paleontology diet guy, so I get excited and listen to all this eat like a cavemen diet info.  One word, SOLD. 

Well about 15 Google searches later and I will be going for a week of a combination of Vegan and Fruitarianism, leaning towards the later.  Here are a couple Wikipedia links to give you a general description of the diets.  I will write a blog every day, but I will not publish them all until I get back from Nicaragua.  So Monday-Friday, Vegan/Fruitaranism.  I am not trying to save the world, I love steak, burgers, turkey, I could actually go on an all meat diet, but for another day.  Just doing this because I need a change.  Let's do this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruitarianism 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veganism 

What's Your Priority-Retirement, Travel, Cars, Boats

So recently my wife posted on Facebook about our upcoming trip to Nicaragua(she's there now, I leave in 5 days).  One of our family friends said "Don't you two ever stay at home" and this made me realize something, we have decided to make travel and vacation a priority. Now we didn't put it up on a bulletin board or write on our goal lists(well not entirely true, going to Nicaragua is one of 2012 goals).  But we have eliminated or tried other items as a priority, here's a brief look.

Retirement-Now don't get me wrong we save money in our 401k, have some money in an IRA, but to say we make it a priority would be a far fetch.  To me making retirement a priority is maxing out your IRA, 401K, or buying our home we plan to retire in.  While we are making a conscious effort to save for retirement, I can't say we talk about our retirement or retirement income daily, weekly, or even monthly, although I'm pretty nerdy so I try to talk about this with the wife from time to time.

Boats and Cars-Yes we own a car, no we don't own a boat.  As you can see not a big priority for us.  Let's start with the easy one, boats.  I do not own a boat, do not have a desire to own a boat, don't own a lake house, don't fish.  So this is not a priority pretty simple for me.  Cars on the other hand a little more complicated.  My wife owns and needs a car for work, she owns a 2007 Toyota Sequoia, it is fully paid for and like our previous retirement discussion we make a conscious effort to take care of the vehicle, but we are not planning on owning 2 vehicles or upgrading to the new 2013 model, we are happy with the vehicle and see no immediate need for anything else.

Travel-So without even knowing it, travel and vacation have become a priority.  We like to take trips, whether it is to see family or go some place we have never been before.  When we were dating due to being far away from each other we would basically go on vacations as our dates, we deemed ourselves the "Vacation Couple".  In my 2012 goals I wanted to travel to Nicaragua Hawaii and they are booked and scheduled.  We made travel a Priority!  


The lesson I took from all of this is it's ok to spend money on things you really love to do, if you love driving your 40K BMW that's great, but you have to make that your priority, but don't try do everything.  I didn't mention that we drive a Mercedes, have a nice boat, and travel the world.  We know that to stay within our means we have decided to make travel and vacations a priority.  I hope everyone does the same.

Credit Card-Necessary Evil or Necessary Tool

So as I look back, I see numerous errors I have made with my credit card, here are just a few:

• Purchase my Spring Break Cancun on my C.C.(this doesn't mean Country Club)
• Do balance transfers with the hope to pay off the bill before interest rate goes up, while still buying stuff on my C.C.
• Living off my C.C
• Not keeping track of what I actually spend

Trust me the list could go on, but this hits some pretty major violations on what credit card companies want you to do.  I have since paid off my credit cards, with the help of my wife and have begin using my credit card as a tool.  There are many things I don't like about using a credit card, but I have decided to stick by these 3 major rules:

1. Keep track of what I am spending
2. Make sure I have enough money in my checking/savings to pay the bill by the due date
3. Be very careful, remember how much I dislike Citibank I do not want to give them any money ever

So just recently I went through and put together a spreadsheet on what I spent(We are using the card for Housing expenses only with one exception of our most recent Hawaii Trip).  I noticed that per our savings we are able to cover the entire balance.  So I followed Rule 1 and 2 with paying extra attention to Rule 3.  Now we do need to be very careful because the card was intended to be used for house purchases only, so if there was a Rule #4 I would have violated it.  I did however follow all the rules and know that the balance can be covered. 

The lesson I take out of this is I want to not use my Credit Card ever again and it may be possible in the near future, but as of right now I am treating it like both a Tool and Evil, if I do use a credit card in the future it must be this way!