What Do You Want to Hear? Dumb Decisions

Good Morning, 

I can honestly say I love writing about money and personal finance, it might be my new passion right up there with sports, I think, read, and listen to this stuff every day.  I usually write about many things that involve my every day life for personal finance, but maybe there is something more.  I guess the better question is "What do you want to read about"?   

My personal adventure includes credit cards, student loans, investing, starting my own side business, corporate America, and everything in between.  For many of us we are hard working, who came from a small town.   Some have chosen to stay, some move into a bigger city, and others get as far away as possible.  While I don't know how each and every person is doing that I grew up with, I do know many of you have stable jobs and make a good living.  I know there are outliers on both sides that don't make 30K a year and others that make well over 100K.  Either way whether you make a small amount or a large amount the numbers are the same with personal finance.  Because I think that relating to some of the "Dumb Decisions" I've made over the years, this might get the ball rolling  for "What do you want to read about" and these are just a few of mine: 

1. I took out Student Loans to pay for every cent of college.  
2. I paid for my first spring break with a credit card, once again every cent.
3. My first car that I bought with my own money was a Mercedes Benz.
4. Moved to Florida without a job and minimal savings.
5. Pursue my passion of coaching by taking an unpaid position 80 miles away
6. Pay for my time in Florida with credit cards after my savings ran out

So these are just a few "Dumb Decisions" that I have made over time, I have learned from them which is the most important.  They are also correctable in a short period of time, of course I am paying for many of them today and that's what happens if you notice almost every decision that was made had to deal with debt or was one step away from doing so.  Student Loans, Credit Card, Car Loan,  No job and minimal savings lead to more Credit Card debt.  I cannot blame anyone but myself, I mean what am I going to do, blame my parents for not paying for my college or not buying me a new car for college graduation, come on that's not the way things work.

It's great if you are currently standing debt free it makes many of your decisions much easier, but so many of us have made these not so bright decisions.  The key is stop making these "dumb decisions"  this blog is to point out some of the things that you and I are doing and at the very least think twice before doing them.  I have an example and it can really show the difference in choices and decisions in your life. 

This person does not have a full-time job and when this person does it is often considered low income.  Here are some of the things that I hear that make me believe this person is not going to change or become wealthy or be very far above the poverty level. 

• I need a new car, I saw this vehicle and it's only 10K, I just need someone to loan me the money
• I need a new phone, mine is crap, I saw this new one and it looks amazing, I'll just have to wait till I get paid next
• I'm so glad I don't have to dress up at my job, I'm so glad I get to wear jeans and a t-shirt

This is another list that could go on and on, but when I hear these things I know this person is not going to dig themselves out of this hole, if anything they are going to go further into that hole.  Here's a couple things I wish I heard instead. 

• I want this new vehicle, but the only way I'm getting it is if I pay cash, otherwise I'm just going to drive my car until it dies of old age.
• New phone, no thanks, I was considering cancelling my service or just getting one of those pre-paid phones, because I'm trying to get ahead
• I prefer not to dress up at my job, but I'm working towards a higher position with higher pay so I can have that choice

Do you catch yourself saying things that sound like what a poor person would say?  Or do you find yourself saying some things that the wealthy or this guy  might say? 

Warren Buffett

 I hear it in myself but for me it often relates to food and eating.  Yesterday I heard myself say I'm having a bad week eating, while I ate an Italian Beef sandwich and a soda.  I think the same thing can be said about fat and skinny people, a better word choice of people might be healthy and unhealthy.  These are things that can be controlled, its our decisions.  I make a decision every day to walk up either an escalator or stairs on my way to and from work, I also make that same decision to walk from the train station home.  It was 10 degrees yesterday, but I knew that if I didn't walk home I wouldn't be doing any exercise and that's the decision we have to make to get healthy or wealthy.  People sacrifice for there money, we are not children of the Hilton Family or Kardashian's and were handed money from family.  We need to make sacrifices and better decisions and that's what I'm doing here. 

Please leave comments on decisions you make or made that were good or bad(bad are more fun today), whether it's for health or wealth, It's great to hear them.  Also side note in the upcoming year I'm contemplating taking my blog to Wordpress and getting a little cleaner and more professional looking so be on the look out for that. 

Emergency Fund Why I disagree with Dave Ramsey, Suzie Orman, and Everyone Else

Let's be clear I absolutely think you should have an Emergency Fund, this should be part of the beginning of every road to debt freedom, early retirement, or Murphy's Law that's around the corner.

What I think is dead wrong is where you should place your money.  Dave Ramsey recommends a Money Market account, Suzie Orman says a Checking with Interest account, guess what I totally disagree. There is a few factors that in this,  but I believe the best place to keep your emergency fund is in an individual stock that you know and trust.  Here's how I got here.

When first starting out to build your emergency fund, whether it's the initial $500, $1000, or arbitrary amount that you see fit, this should go to an account that you have limited to no access, whether it's only online at a separate bank or you have to physically step into a branch to get your money, play Hide and Seek with your Emergency Fund.  So you are building up your emergency fund on a weekly, monthly basis congratulations and you have to climb up Mt. Everest to get those funds, not make a transfer from Savings to Checking.

I'm quite sure not everyone is going to read this article and say this guy is brilliant I'm listening to every word this guy's the smartest man alive.  Ok now here's the risk tolerance for your Emergency Fund, Las Vegas Style, see where you are at, since as of right now you have already made the Hide and Seek choice.

• Low-You think going to Las Vegas involves going to see a show and eating  the Buffett(non-seafood)Open a Checking or Savings at a Local Bank/Credit Union that's separate from your main account, you might not even do that your probably just putting it over to your savings you already have, less risky that way.
• Medium-You go to Vegas with ready for a show, some slots, and maybe even a drink at the casino, who knows I might be feeling crazy.  Chances are you are still going to put it a money market of some sort and probably online after you checked out the best online accounts available.
• High-You go to Vegas with cash in your pocket and only the clothes on your back, because you will be buying new ones with the money you will be making.  This is me in a nutshell, I have a little gamble to me, I'd rather double down than and risk it then take a small win.  I suggest and use investing in direct company stock, here's GRS read on How to Invest Using Direct Stock Purchase Plans.  

I started many months ago and found I was able to set aside $50 month towards my emergency fund into a company I felt comfortable with and in this case absolutely love, Nike.  I have since upped my contribution to a little over $100 month.  I find that having money in an online account that is separate from my everyday expenses and automatically drawn monthly from my checking is the best plan for me.  It gives me that little gamble of a my stock purchase going up or down(my money is on up, literally).  This also gives me the liquidity to sell my stock and receive the funds in about 3 business days.  There's a small risk in every aspect of my choice, but if you used to play poker online, enjoy fantasy football or a good survivor pool, or even buy a lottery ticket when it's 350 million dollars you probably agree with every word I'm saying.  I can't be boring, I have to have some risk and if this is the most risk I'm taking, I think I'm going to be just fine.  

Here's something to think about if you think I'm the craziest man alive after reading the last paragraph(also possible).  Here's a quote from Insurance Industry Basics: Float  and Motley Fool "The great thing about premiums is that the insurer collects the money up front but doesn't have to pay out claims until later down the road. In the meantime, the company "floats" these unpaid premiums. This float is invested in stocks, bonds, and other securities, and the insurance company pockets the profit."  

So let me get this straight they use the Insurance Premiums or Emergency Fund equivalent and try to make a profit off of this money until they have to pay it out?  That's exactly what I am suggesting, run your emergency fund like you are an insurance company!!!!

Why I Hate Mr Money Mustache

Why I'm Jealous of Mr Money Mustache and Hate Him at the Same Time Part I of Many. 



Let's keep it simple I think retiring at 30 is amazing and I'm jealous.  Now here's why I think many of the concepts used don't work for the majority. 

Riding a bike to save $10,000 just doesn't happen.  Here's how this scenario works for someone who lives in Chicago.  I like 8 miles from work, I jump on my bike and ride to work sweating like a mad man in the 20 degree weather.  I get to work after my hour long trip, take of my coat and drenched shirt, well I don't want to spend any money so I go to work and smell like I haven't showered in days.  This doesn't work!  What do you expect people to shower in the sink?  Move closer to my place of work.....Great idea I just raised my 
rent/mortgage by about $1000, new article would how I spent $12,000 year but Bike to Work.  I'm not even going to mention people who live in the Suburbs or Rural Area. 

Here's a better article title and one that appeals to the every day person.  How I Saved 1 Million Dollars Riding the Train, Walking to Work, Driving a Beater!!! 


Here's the 3 options you will run into and here's how we can save some money doing it. 

1.  You live far enough away from work and public transportation that you have to drive, not peddle 30 miles to save $10,000 and die of frost bite on your way to work, your not Lance Armstrong, this ain't happening.  


So in my eyes having a car payment is just about one of the worst things you can do to get stuck in a rut for probably the rest of your life, check out my decision and pros and cons of selling my Benzo de Lorenzo).  So I had the luxury of living in the city and selling my vehicle, most people don't.  So if this is you we need to downsize, sell your car and get a beater, like a 1997 Mercury Tracer perhaps, a fine vehicle if you ask me.  In my Blog(http://financeandfitnessdreams.blogspot.com/2013/05/money-mindset-owning-nice-car.html)  which says that if you have a car loan that it should be only 10% of your income, so if you have 1 car and make 50K(average American Income), you are allowed to have a $5000 loan, the rest must be paid for in cash.  If there are 2 members and 2 cars are needed this would still be the same since there are 2 vehicles, assuming the house hold income is 100K, the total car loan allowed would be 10K.  But that's my criteria if you were to buy today.  If you want to really WIN, you can't have a car payment, I don't care if it's 0%, you owe some rich guy at the bank money, period.  Sell your car and get a cheaper one, that's it 1 sentence.(Side note I'm not including Van or Car Pooling but also great ways to save money)

2.  You live in the City, but you can't or won't Ride your Bike or Walk to Work.  That's cool, you are going to save money and be almost as cool as Captain Planet. 



So you are most likely taking Public Transportation, train or bus or fairy for those really cool people you are saving money and the environment.  Using Chicago as an example it costs $100/month for  a pass to ride every in the entire city of Chicago, which is amazing in itself.  But get this my work says we like the environment and want to save you a couple extra dollars we will give you $30 month to get to work.  That's crazy I'm now down to $70 month to get to work, but wait there's more(Insert Realllly Cool Infomercial Here), any money that is taken out is taken out pre-tax which is not only reducing my overall taxed income but lowering the cost of the monthly pass.  Based off the criteria I filled out on rideshare.com( I have no idea what tax bracket I'm in, 25% just felt correct.  So I'm paying $52.50 month to travel in the city and if you live in Chicago this covers pretty much everything.  So what you spend on a tank of gas I spend on getting to work, it's worth hanging out with strangers for 45 minutes while I listen to a podcast or read my book. 

 

3.  You Do Live Close Enough to Work to Bike or Walk, and apparently save $10,000 a year, spend this on Twinkies and Malt Liquor please. 

Being able to walk or ride your bike is pretty exciting, it doesn't work for everyone, but if you have the option to make that choice consider yourself in a good place.  It can certainly save you a few dollars in expenses and get you a little exercise which is what FFD(Finance and Fitness Dreams people, getting the FFD tattoo tomorrow?) is all about.  I would not however pick up where you are living now and move closer to work, but if it's an option to consider in your purchase or rental decision.  For example when I first moved to Chicago I had 2 options, both similar places in nice neighborhoods, 1 was a 10 minute walk and the other was a 20 minute bus ride, made my decision so much easier, but remember that every one's work can change from year to year, which it did for me, less than a year later.   

So in Summary I think Mr Money Mustache is correct that you can save some money by riding your bike to work or wherever, but that's just not a reality for 99% of the population.  Henry Ford and George Stephenson invented cars and trains, whatever mode of transport you are using let's make sure it's paid off or is a low number on the budget.  Comments are appreciated even if you think I'm crazy or agree with me completely.  Thanks for reading. 

Do you spend your savings on Lattes and Lunch?

Daily/Weekly Spending.

So over the past month or so I have noticed my spending to be going up a little bit, I'm usually pretty good with only buying 1 or 2 coffees($2-$4), 1 snack($3-$5), and lunch once or twice($10-$20, so spending $15-$29 a week isn't terrible in my book, but it not only needs to get better, but it needs some more attention.  My goal is to keep my total to $20 for the week, this includes coffee, snacks, and lunch.  I'm going to keep track of my spending during the week and see where I am at.  I encourage you to do the same.

Day 1-Monday-Running Total at the Start of the Day $0.00

$8.50 on some amazing Paleo Granola mix, this should last me throughout the week as a snack, it's a little more than I usually spend, but it's for the whole week.  Strike that I ate the whole bag today, i'm pretty sure I gained 5 pounds doing so and it was delicious.  I also brought my lunch, so while this saved me some cash, the amount of food I ate, Paleo or not was about as much as an Offensive Lineman for the Packers.

Day 2-Tuesday-$8.50

So I lost my fantasy football bet and decided to pay up today and reward myself for losing apparently, 2 medium coffees $4.   Well in terms of losing I apparently lost on this one.  Good news is I am doing an intermittent fast today(http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2013/08/06/a-beginners-guide-to-intermittent-fasting/).  Here's a good website that gives the details good and bad.  I've done it a couple times over the past weeks and I find it great for balancing out my body and practicing hunger control.  Sounds crazy, but many people do it intentionally and unintentionally every day.

Day 3-Wednesday-$12.50

I have decided is going to be No Money Spent Wednesday, I mean I have a goal right, based on the way i'm going I'm going to lose and I don't like to lose unless it's the LB's, that's pounds for all you metric kilogram trackers out there.  I did a great job, brought in my coffee and ate some leftover chicken for lunch, I really feel like I won today.....Winning

Day 4-Thursday-$12.50

Well it certainly helps to have a Chili-Cookoff at work, I am spending $0 today on lunch, I will be doing my best to not spend over the $15 my wife "gave to me" for a Happy Hour, plus a little money coming from my work for the event always helps.  The good news is I was able to use the $15 for the Happy Hour from my wife, I'm going to include that in my total, I'm also going to include the $5 entry fee for entering the cook-off which if I would have won(should have won my Chili is delicious).  So I did spend a total of $20 today on the extra's in life, beer and chili.  When I came home my wife did happen to buy some take out food, which I do not count in my specific budget, but that is something I'm hoping to work together on very shortly:)

Day 5-Friday-Running Total at the Start of the Day $32.50

Today is a good day right, because it's Friday!  I started the day off with a free coffee(I have a coffee betting problem and I'm not afraid to admit, I won today).  I brought some lunch from home, keeping it simple with lunch meat, cheese, and an an orange.  I'm working on keeping this day free of spending, so I plan on wrapping it up with a total of $32.50.

Day 6-Saturday-Running Total $32.50

So once again the good news is I was able to not have any spending on my part, which for a Saturday is semi-amazing.  My wife and I did stop by portagegrounds.com
for a coffee purchased by my wife, while we figured out our spending habits and I am going to help set up an automation system for my wife, starting January 1.  I also ate my Paleo breakfast before I came so even if I would have spend money it would have been $2 or $3 total.

Day 7-Sunday-All-in Total for the Week $32.50

I did not spend a dime on food, actually cooked a couple things on Sunday(key to success for limiting Eating Out).  The most I did was drive the car to go play basketball, so I brought my water, worked up a sweat, and finished up the day right.

So in Summary for the week, this is actually really expensive for me from what I would like my budget to be.  The budget I would like to keep is $50 for the month, so in Chicago that amounts to about 1 coffee and a lunch a week.  I feel like I have been doing a poor job of my eating out budget, so I am sticking strictly to cash for the month of December, taking $50 out of the checking and calling it a month.  Well if anything this has kept me accountable and I learned that I still need to keep a stricter budget with coffee and eating out during the week because it encourages me to eat more healthy and Paleo and also keeps the costs down.

Thanks for reading and make sure to comment on what your budget is?  How you manage bringing in your lunch and eating out?  If I'm crazy for keeping track of this?

I'm a Real Estate Loser

Good Morning World, I'm a Real Estate Loser.

So over the past few months we have been looking at investing into real estate again, we purchased our home, a multi-unit a little over a year ago, we were able to fix up the property using a contractor and have enjoyed having a touch of what we wanted in our unit, while still receiving rent to help with the mortgage.  Because we have had success I was looking for ways to purchase more real estate, most likely buying and flipping the property(the shows on HGTV add to the mix) or even a buy and hold strategy to pay off the mortgage and get a little extra cash on the side each month.

Despite my enthusiasm and reading biggerpockets a real estate website for advice, the fact remained we needed a down payment for these homes and in most cases since the market we are looking in is mostly comprised of all cash investors.  In a stroke of two worlds matching up, a family member was looking to invest and felt comfortable with our decision making, which would include there money expected to be paid back in full and our name being on the loan and ultimately responsible for both the loan and any money used in the transaction.  So you can imagine my excitement, someone was willing to gamble on us in the real estate market.  I was so excited, let's make some money, watch out Donald Trump, Richard Kyosoki ain't got nothing on me, I will own Chicago one house at a time!


REALITY hit just the other day.  We have put multiple offers on properties, some low, some high, some all cash, some loan, most REO, but overall we are batting a big fat 0.  I think the crushing blow came a couple weeks ago.  We had previously submitted an offer on a house, the asking price was 181K and recently dropped to somewhere around 155K.  We felt the right price for us was to get this property at just a touch below 140K, we submitted the offer and this was rejected through Homepath which is where the government sells many of the properties from mortgages that were previously backed by FHA mortgages.  I was a little bummed out but we were on our way to San Francisco and I felt like we gave our best offer.

Then about a month later, I noticed the price had been dropped again to almost exactly what our original offer was, so I contacted our real estate professional to submit our offer again and even increased our bid a couple thousand over asking to make sure we put our highest and best offer to win the property.  After more than a week we were told we did not win the property and later saw the house move to conditional, taking it off the market.  That was the last time I have really been excited for a house and have decided it is best to focus in other areas where I enjoy my time more.

So today I am a Real Estate Loser, lost multiple bids, feels like have seen 50 houses in person to no avail.  It's a little frustrating, but as my wife says if it were mean to be it would have happened.  I think that I need to focus more on other avenues that I enjoy, including writing on the blog, my ebay store http://stores.ebay.com/GQ-Casual and my Shopify store gqcasual.com, which I just started in the past week or so.  We are still on track for the 7 year retirement, paying off debt as we go, I really believe we can make it.  Cheers and enjoy the read.

Don't forget to comment I love reading it.



 

Paleo and the 30 Day Challenge-It's Finance and Fitness

I have been away from writing for awhile and due mostly to focusing on other items in my life.  I found it best to use all of my focus on one item in my life to get the most production.   This is what I refer to as Sprint and Relax.  

So what have I been up to for the last 2 months?  Well the most important thing was I did the 30 day Paleo Challenge.  Paleo might be known better to you as the Caveman diet or the hunter-gatherer diet.  Here is a general outline of what I ate for those 30 days, shown below, you can check out  Robb Wolf's What is the Paleo Diet? for more info.

 Ok to Eat                 Avoid

Fruits	Dairy
Vegetables	Grains
Lean Meats	Processed Food & Sugars
Seafood	Legumes
Nuts & Seeds	Starches
Healthy Fats	Alcohol

I really took this seriously, I ate almost to the tee the outline above, I don't eat that much bread anyways besides sandwiches,which is usually the most difficult item for people to give up, but that was easily replaced with lettuce or cabbage.  Cheese or Dairy was probably the most difficult for me and after the 3rd week I ended up adding it back in.  Like many lifestyle changes, you end up taking what you can't live without and  I added cheese back in but went with a common theme in the paleo way of life to eat everything as natural as possible, just like your grandma used to make.  So I added Kerrygold Swiss Cheese which is made from all natural grass-fed cows, I also did the same thing with butter, using the same brand.  

I was able to lose around 15 pounds in those 30 days, which I am really proud of.   My parents came to visit and I knew immediately I would take a little break from my Paleo lifestyle.  Overall I have stuck with Paleo, many of the principals are easy to follow.  If I am ever in doubt for any of the items I choose to eat or need a recipe, I can always check the Internet to confirm or for the most part if it's Gluten Free then it's good to go.

  

Losing weight and being healthy for me starts with Paleo.  I did not go out of my way to exercise with the exception of walking my dog every day, so I think that's what made me feel great about this, I wasn't running 5 miles a day or lifting 3 days a week, I stuck with Paleo and it worked.

I think finance and fitness have so many of the same principals to winning.  You have to eat healthy or be financially fit, no credit cards or ice cream,  eat less than you need or don't spend more than you earn.  So many of these things are exactly the same and exactly the reason why America is Obese and Broke.  So try something different this week and bring all of your lunches or don't put sugar in your coffee this week, I think we all need to start somewhere and today is a good day.

My 7 Year Plan-Owning the Bucks or Retiring Early

About a year ago I wrote on how I believed Dave Ramsey was a genius, but I wanted my own plan, the Automatic Plan.  I’m happy to report I’m following my own steps pretty well.  I know where my money is going, I have everything set up to savings (I manually pay extra on debt with this amount, not as automatic, but it feels great), and investments. Credit cards are gone, I make payments to my student loans (which I detest), and in a combo deal we are also working towards paying off our home early from rental income.  So as of right now I am on step 4 and I am charging ahead. 

What I mentioned in the notes was “My 7 year Plan” but I never really talked about it.

http://financeandfitnessdreams.blogspot.com/2012/08/why-i-think-dave-ramseys-genius-but-i.html

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 always thought I wanted to be a millionaire, own yachts, the Milwaukee Bucks, and own houses all over the world.  I soon came to realize this takes a lot of hard work throughout your life, plenty of time, and some luck. Do I always want to be grinding it out looking for that next deal; do I want to be 60 or 70 and just now ready to enjoy my retirement?  That just doesn't sound that great to me.   I love to travel, enjoy a morning coffee or evening beer in different places, I love Chicago March-November, but winter gets old pretty quick. So I decided that the best way to truly have the option to do what I want at an early age is to be debt free and have passive income. 

 

So being on our automatic plan and having 2 houses that provide rental income, we have a plan to complete our 7 year plan and well RETIRE!!!  So I have student loan debt, which I am working on.  We have 2 houses, one which we live in, both receive rental income.  I am tackling the student loan debt, while we take the extra rental income and pay off each house as quickly as possible.  I ran some rough numbers  a few months ago and figured out if we took what we made and the rental income we could pay off both of our houses in 7 years!  I got pretty excited, because then we would have $0 debt, 7 years worth of investments in stocks(401K, Roth IRA, Individual  Brokerage Acct), and passive income from 2 houses.  So based on everything we would have $0 debt and 2 passive incomes coming from rental income.  

We could retire/semi-retire/do something we really like to do whether it’s volunteering or making 100K, so I would be 38 and living on a small income with my wife, available to travel freely which we really love to do, Miami could be our base home(happy wife, happy life), I could visit friends and family for weeks at a time(your couch will be my couch, your guest bedroom, my bedroom).  I could travel to Nicaragua(shown on the right) and hang with the wife’s family, maybe see if I can be a beach bum for a week, go to every single college basketball game in a 50 mile radius for a month, play golf with my Dad every day for a month, I don’t know but that sounds EXCITING to me!!!!  My goal is to make it work, little step by little step, sprint by sprint, paycheck by paycheck, I hope you will join me on the ride, because in many ways you already have by reading a blog or two and of course this one.