Archive for January, 2007

Here are some of my favorite blog reads from this week:

• Ricemutt at Experiments in Finance posts her Long List of Financial and Investing To-Dos. Very comprehensive and interesting list.
• Pro Bargain Hunter has a good tip for Discount Shopping at Target. I find myself there way too often browsing the clearance deals.
• David at My Two Dollars posts Learn a Foreign Language for Free on how you can use podcasts to brush up. I’ve always been meaning to practice my Spanish but never seem to follow through.
• The Money Tortoise has an interesting response to Google announcing they are trying to offer real time quotes for free titled When 20 Minutes Feels Like Forever.

Enjoy!

Welcome to the 12th edition of the Festival of Under 30 Finances! We had quite a large and wide range of articles submitted this week so I’m sure there is something here for everybody. I’m happy to be hosting this week and hope you spend some time here at The Finance Journey.

The question for this edition is:

Where do you see yourself financially in 10 years?

Molly’s Brother wrote: Gazing into my crystal ball: I see myself with a home and with all my grad school loans paid off. Of course, I’d like to say I’ll be financially secure, but I’m sure by then I’ll have Molly’s Nieces and Molly’s Nephews running around wanting things (like food and clothes and college educations!).

English Major wrote: Frankly, I have no idea where I’ll be in ten years. I do have a hunch that I won’t always be working in an office with a 401(k), which means it’s really important for me to prioritize my Roth as a tax-advantaged investment vehicle. Ten years from now, I hope to be consistently maxing out my Roth and contributing to a brokerage account in addition. I hope also to have been able to pay for a great deal more travel, and perhaps be looking at putting a down payment on an apartment. Hopefully, by then I’ll know where I want to live!

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Its often difficult to predict the future. How many kids will we have? Will we still be in this area? Will we still be in this house?

Hopefully I am still with the future Mrs. Chuck… and our thought is to have 2 kids. We may or may not buy a camp on a lake somewhere here in Upstate New York in addition to our home. I think we will still be in the same house barring an unforeseen problem or sudden wealth.

Here are some financial highlights I hope to hit:

• $1.5M Net Worth
• $500k Retirement Savings
• $15K College Savings

Perhaps I’m being a little ambitious, but better to set your goals too high than too low I suppose.

According to a new article at BBC news, the much rumored $100 laptop will be available to the public sometime soon. The catch?

The backers of the One Laptop Per Child project plan to release the machine on general sale next year.

But customers will have to buy two laptops at once - with the second going to the developing world.

Sounds like a good way to booster their ability to deliver these to 3rd world countries by getting the public involved.

FULL STORY

This morning I received an email from a recruiter who saw my resume on Monster.com. 99% of the time the emails from there start out with “we have a 3 month contract position as help desk support…” and I just delete them. However this time the job was actually in my area of expertise, and more surprisingly in my area.

But I find myself reluctant to follow up. I love working from home and I’m in a comfort zone right now in my job. I don’t want to wake up early, get showered, commute 20+ minutes to an office, and have to sit there all day. I’m making decent money - I’m sure we could all use more but I guess I’ll say once again I’m in a comfort zone right now.

I’m somewhat embarrassed that I don’t even want to hear what they have to offer. Where is my financial and corporate drive?

While I am probably one of the bigger Vanguard fanboys out there, I know it can be hard to come up with the $3000 required to get into most of the funds (even the $1000 for the Star fund). Luckily, T Rowe Price will waive any minimum or low balance fee if you agree to an automatic savings plan of at least $50 a month which they withdraw from your checking or savings account. I recently helped open one of these in the Target Retirement 2050 fund for my fiance which was a very simple process.

You do take a hit on the expense ratio - 0.21% for Vanguard vs 0.76 at T Rowe - but for those just starting out it can be a great place to start at just $50 a month.

Johnathan at My Money Blog has a huge breakdown of Vanguard vs T Rowe which is a very interesting read.

This is a reminder for anyone who wants to submit an article to this weeks edition of the Festival of Under 30 Finances. It will be hosted here at The Finance Journey on Friday, January 12th so get your articles in ASAP!

Submit Here

Well, I think I skipped some important parts in this series - but I took some time off from blogging and spent a lot of effort on this project so really did not get to document it properly. Well here is an update on my DIY basement finishing project.

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As a follow up to the popular Why You Should Never Buy Your Printer Cable Instore, here is some additional advice for overpriced store accessories. This is especially helpful if you have made the jump to HDTV over the holidays.

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There is an interesting story in the New York Times about how Wal-mart wants to get compact fluorescent light bulbs into 100 million homes this year. Currently CFLs only make up about 6% of the lights in US households. From the article:

A compact fluorescent has clear advantages over the widely used incandescent light — it uses 75 percent less electricity, lasts 10 times longer, produces 450 pounds fewer greenhouse gases from power plants and saves consumers $30 over the life of each bulb. But it is eight times as expensive as a traditional bulb, gives off a harsher light and has a peculiar appearance.

Personally I have switched over the majority of my home’s bulbs to CFLs. The only place where I haven’t is recessed lights because I found the CFL lights would not dim properly and made a loud buzzing sound. Trying to do my part to save the world (and some money while I’m at it).

Taxable Accounts:

$11,601.67 - Liquid Savings - 5.05% APY HSBC Savings Account
$13,842.66 - Stocks - Misc. Direct Investments
$5,422.28 - Stocks - Ameritrade Izone
$654.35 - Stocks - Scottrade
$2,568.17 - Stocks - Zecco
$2,554.00 - Bonds - TreasuryDirect

$36,643.07 TOTAL

Retirement Savings:

$13,700.38 - ROTH IRA - Vanguard
$2,207.45 - ROTH IRA - Scottrade
$36,134.23 - 401K - T. Rowe Price

$52,042.06 TOTAL

Debts

$3,509.70 - Student Loan - AES (3.625%)
$7,830.00 - Credit Card BT - Discover (0%)
$7,781.00 - Credit Card BT - Citi (0%)

Summary

Ah the after holiday financial blues. Credit card bill was about 2x as much as usual, but tis the season. I played a little 0% BT game as well to gain some extra interest on the credit card companies money so my emergency fund is still not really where it needs to be.

Monthly Goals

Property tax bill is due this month so I’m not sure how much savings I will be able to accomplish. Hold steady and hope for no major expenses.