money leaks

ever *know* you have twenty more bucks in your wallet and go to get it and find that it turned into a five? it happens to me more often than not -- i have to pay to park, so i usually try to carry a little bit of cash with me. well, it turns out that little bit of cash is a really easy for me to loose track of -- a sandwich every now and again here, a coffee there, and *poof* my parking money is gone.

anyone have any tips on plugging these money leaks?

happy new year

hooray, 2008 is upon us! what this means to many is that it's time to make some resolutions -- get fit, quit smoking, get our financial lives in order and all that. i'm not a big believer in resolutions and i don't remember the last time i made one, but i stopped in at costco the other day and knew that people around me were certainly going to be doing some resolutioning -- the first display was for weight loss, the next display was for the same, then protein shakes, powers, and bars, anti-smoking products, and everything you could imagine to build a better you.

well, i'm sure when the smoke clears and the gym quiets down here in 2-3 weeks, everything will be back to normal, but until then, i'd like to embrace this time of year and offer hope and encouragement to those that do really want to make a change for the better. let's get out of debt, start planning for retirement -- or better yet retire, start saving more, start earning more, or do whatever it is that we all need to do to make 2008 and our future better!

living well is the best revenge?

a co-worker of mine pointed me to an interesting article on forbes site on how much it costs to 'live well' in various parts of the country. they define living well as paying on a 30 year mortgage on a 4 bedroom house in an upscale neighborhood and a vacation spot in a likewise upscale place, owns 2 nice cars, travels, sends their kids to private school . . . basically all the trimmings. i was shocked to read the article.

for one, i punched in a pretty nice salary into the calculator -- $200,000 (and, this is a net income figure!) -- and selected what is renown as one of the cheaper big cities in which to live, houston, texas. well, i was floored to find that i was nearly $100,000 shy of being able to live well! absurd!

i think the premise of the site is a bit ridiculous. not only would i be able to live very well on $200,000 after taxes, i could easily have all the things they mention and still be able to put some away for savings. forbes points out, however:

"Our family saves very little (1%) of its income. This may not be the most fiscally prudent way to behave, but it is the norm in this country. In fact, we were even a little generous, as according to the Department of Commerce, American households save less than 1% of their income these days."

well, at that rate, it would take you nearly 30 years to become a millionaire -- and that would only be because you'd be building equity in your million-dollar home.

who can really afford to live like that? anyway, i'd much rather live how i am living now than 'well' by those standards.

how rich are you

i recently came across a site (http://www.globalrichlist.com) where you input your annual income and it ranks you on how 'rich' you are. it's an interesting site that kept my attention for a few minutes as i tried various figures, but it got me thinking. someone making 100k a year could very easily be a lot poorer than someone making half that.

if the 100k guy overspends, it's actually very easy for him to amass debt and be much worse off than the other guy.

it's not how much money you make, but what you do with it that makes you rich.

also, you can be very, very wealthy and not bring in any income at all -- if your holdings are in real estate or the stock market, you could be making unrealized gains and not have any amount of income at all. imagine you are retired, but have a million dollars in the stock market appreciating at 10% per year -- that would give you a million dollars of unrealized income, but $0 of actual income.

doesn't sound too poor to me.

first post

i was stumbling around, looking for something interesting this sunday afternoon, and i came across a decent personal finance site. unfortunately, i can't find it anymore, and after googling for a bit, it looked like most of the existing sites out there on the matter weren't really that great.

so, i figured i'd try my hand at it and maybe could contribute something at least as good.

first, a little about me. i am a thirty-something, dinky, professional. i started my career about 10 years ago making a tight, but livable wage. i have been able to move up professionally and financially, but along the way have had to start over several times. while i have never fell into the credit trap, i have seen my bank account return to single digits, purchased way more home than i've needed, purchased luxury cars, and made a number of fiscal mistakes that i have been able to learn from and hope that others can learn from, too.

in the coming days, weeks, months, i hope to contribute some postings on saving, investing, and spending from what i have learned over the course of my life and over the past 10 years, specifically. i am by no means any type of investment professional, financial adviser, or anyone with any credentials to speak of, but, hopefully what has worked for me will work for you, and what has failed for me will be a warning for you!